A bittersweet goodbye: South City’s famous Torani Syrups set to move

The company was founded in 1925 in San Francisco’s North Beach by Rinaldo and Ezilda Torre, who immigrated from Italy. The couple coined the “world’s first flavored latte” and brought popularity to the classic Italian soda. It now has distribution across the United States and into other countries — from the tamarind syrup in Mexico to the longan syrup in Vietnam. Combined with a growing number of employees, Torani is planning to make the move to San Leandro within the next two years.

“Being a certified B corporation we are always looking at how to create opportunity for our employees, meaning a temporary manufacturer has the opportunity to become a supervisor and ensuring that all our employees get full benefits,” said Stacy Cooper-Dent, international business and brand director. “This new location is better suited to fit our growing team.”

Certified B corporations are scored on social and environmental performance and integrate commitments to stakeholders, which typically includes employees.

Torani also announced some big news in their product line this past month, introducing Puremade syrups. Puremade is preservative free, natural color and has received positive feedback from consumers.

“The big difference between the Puremade and our traditional syrup is that we temperature control the syrup to allow for preservation instead of adding preservatives,” said Greg Phillips, director of manufacturing.

Torani syrups are packaged in glass bottles or PET, a plastic that is highly recyclable. Following manufacturing and packaging, a team of quality assurance technicians taste test the batch made for that day ensuring they got the flavor just right.

“We have 16 Puremade flavors so far and people really enjoy them,” said Romina Cimet, senior food scientist. “Sometimes we develop a flavor that is ahead of its time, like the balsamic fig, and it doesn’t do as well in the market until much later,” she said.

One example of this initiative flavoring that was ahead of its time is the Torani Chicken ’n’ Waffles syrup which debuted in 2012. “For the Chicken ’n’ Waffles syrup we visited four or five places in the city that serve chicken and waffles, then we measure which one we thought was the best, how cakey the waffle is, how sugary the maple syrup tastes, and go from there,” Cooper-Dent said, although she admits it was one of her least favorites after the development began.

This process of testing flavors is dubbed the “Gold Standard of Tasting Profiles” where a team of Torani scientists and flavor masters taste a variety of a flavor to master the perfect syrup imitation. This process also explores how one flavor may taste differently based on location.

“What we’ve found is the variety of taste for certain flavors internationally,” said Cooper-Dent. “When we brought mango syrup to Asia, there were complaints that it didn’t taste like mango. We then realized that we had based the flavor off of mangos from Mexico when the mango from the Philippines tastes completely different.”

As if Torani wasn’t already sweet enough, the company is also heavily involved in supporting the community. Torani staff raised $1,449 during their company Pi Day on March 14 when staff members bid on the best staff-made pies and all proceeds go to math supplies for students in the surrounding area. The company also visits the local Boys & Girls Club to teach youth about the science and research involved in food and flavor development. “

We have a lot of awesome opportunities involving the staff and their families where we take them on trips, most recently we took them to our new location in San Leandro so they can be involved every step of the way,” said Cooper-Dent.

Some of the features in the new Torani location includes coffee baristas, redesigned office spaces and even a speakeasy.