What’s that missing flavor in the commercial fermented beverages you drink? 

The lack of which leaves you without a fulfilled feeling of gastronomic satisfaction?

It’s the one that’s filtered out of a full-spectrum drink, for sake of commercial shelf-stability.

It’s something called umami.

Why should you care?  Umami is the quality of roundness, of balance.

It works in foods and beverages in minute quantities.  By themselves, the substances in food and beverages that produce the sensation of umami don’t taste like much at all.  But when they combine with other taste and aroma sources, the sum is greater than the parts.