unsoured

Unsoured is an adjective used to describe something that lacks sourness or acidity in flavor or character. In culinary and beverage contexts, it is often employed as a contrast to sour or tart flavors, and may appear in informal descriptions or marketing language to signal a milder, less acidic product.

In food and drink, unsoured can refer to items that have not undergone fermentation or processing that increases acidity, such as certain non-sour beer styles or less tangy dairy or fruit preparations. It can also describe products that are intended to be neutral or sweet rather than tangy. However, unsoured is not a standardized term in professional gastronomy or sensory science, where flavor is typically described using specific descriptors and measured in terms of pH or titratable acidity.

Etymology-wise, unsoured is formed by the prefix un- attached to sour, following common English patterns for negation. Its usage has grown in modern marketing and casual writing, but it remains informal and context-dependent.

Usage and interpretation can vary by culture and product category. In some contexts, “unsoured” might imply a milder profile, lower acidity, or a lack of fermentation flavors; in others, it may simply indicate a non-tart baseline description. Because sourness is a perceptual attribute tied to acidity, precise characterization is often better achieved with quantitative measures alongside descriptive terms.

See also: sour, tartness, acidity, fermentation, pH.