Sulakshan Parameswaran: Building India’s Most Evocative Flavours
A journey formed by memory, precision, and a new way of experiencing taste.
Anyone who has stepped into a kitchen knows how a single scent can change the mood of a space. A warm aroma can fill a room with comfort. This simple idea sits at the heart of Sulakshan Parameswaran’s journey. His story goes back to a small room near his home in the early 90s where bottles of aroma chemicals lined the tables, and quiet trials filled the hours. His father and their chemist explored new blends with steady attention. Sulakshan watched them mix, test, and evaluate each scent. He observed the care in their actions, unaware that these early moments were building the foundation for his future path.
Years passed, and Sulakshan pursued an MBA, later stepping into the corporate world. He grew in his career, yet those childhood scenes stayed close. They resurfaced with more strength when he returned to the family business in 2015. India’s food and beverage space was moving fast, with new ideas appearing every year. Even with that growth, access to high-quality flavours remained limited to large manufacturers. Smaller creators faced a wall. Retail consumers, home bakers, early-stage founders, and small businesses searched for flavour solutions that were consistent and easy to trust, but found fewer options.
This gap stayed with him. It pushed him toward a clear purpose. Sulakshan wanted to democratise flavours and give everyone the chance to work with professional-grade solutions. He aimed to make them accessible, concentrated, and simple to use. The goal was not only to support established brands but to empower the growing community of food innovators across India.
What began as a return to familiar ground soon turned into a wider mission for the company. Sulakshan took the legacy he grew up with and expanded it into a movement that elevates the flavour industry in India. His work carries the spirit of that small room from the 90s, only now it reaches kitchens, bakeries, and young ventures across the country.
Let us learn more about his journey:
Childhood Aromas That Lit the Spark
There is always a moment in a person’s life when the world of flavour stops being background noise and becomes a calling. For Sulakshan, that moment did not arrive as a revelation. It lived in the corners of his childhood.
His fascination with flavours began long before he realised it. As a child, he associated flavours with emotions, festive seasons, family get-togethers, the smell of sweets being prepared, and the warmth of familiar aromas. Over time, this translated into a deeper appreciation for how flavours form experiences and memories.
When he returned to the industry in 2015 after his master’s, he observed a significant gap in the market. India was entering an e-commerce revolution, yet flavours online were either extremely diluted or inconsistent. There was a clear need for professional-grade, high-performance, concentrated flavours that even a home baker or a micro-business could use confidently. That intersection of childhood familiarity and market opportunity sparked his entrepreneurial journey. Launching Ossoro allowed him to bring together creativity, science, nostalgia, and modern consumer needs, transforming a personal passion into a scalable business.
Early Tests of Conviction
Every venture meets a point where belief is stretched thin. In the early days of Ossoro, Sulakshan learned what it meant to stand firm while building something no one had seen before.
When he and his team introduced concentrated flavours in small retail bottles, the concept was new for most consumers. The market was accustomed to inexpensive, diluted essences widely available in supermarkets. Educating people on how their flavours were different, and why a few drops were enough, required consistent communication, sampling, and trust-building. Operationally, scaling small-batch production while maintaining precision and consistency was challenging. They had to build processes from scratch, optimise formulations, and invest heavily in quality systems. Another challenge was establishing credibility online, where customers could not smell or taste the products before purchase.
However, the early adopters who tried their flavours and shared positive feedback became their strongest advocates. Their reviews and repeat purchases reinforced his belief that they were solving a real problem. Over time, these challenges became the foundation, strengthening their conviction and shaping Ossoro’s identity as a quality-first, customer-driven brand.
Where Intuition Meets Science
Anyone who works with flavour learns that it is both intuition and discipline. Sulakshan often navigates that space where imagination sparks ideas, and science holds them steady.
He views the craft of flavour creation as both an art and a science. Intuition, observation, and imagination help him conceptualise a flavour, envisioning not just taste and aroma but also the emotional response it should evoke. But intuition alone is not enough. Each formulation demands scientific precision, from understanding molecular interactions to evaluating stability in various applications like baking, beverages, and dairy.
At Ossoro, creativity merges with rigorous testing, traceable sourcing, and global food safety standards. Every idea undergoes careful calibration, sensory evaluation, and technical validation. This blend of instinct and scientific discipline ensures that the final product is not only aromatic but also consistent, reliable, and high-performing across industries.
Keeping Delight Alive
A flavour must surprise. It must hold a note of wonder. Sulakshan carries that belief forward as he cultivates every new creation for Ossoro.
To ensure their flavours stay relevant and continue to delight users, he and his team constantly analyse global flavour trends, cultural shifts, and emerging preferences. Their library of over 3000 flavours gives them the flexibility to innovate quickly, while customer feedback guides refinements. Every flavour undergoes multilayered sensory evaluation for depth, clarity, and authenticity. They also prioritise sourcing high-purity ingredients, ensuring the cleanest aromatic profiles.
This commitment helps them create flavours that resonate not only on a sensory level but also emotionally. The goal is to help customers, from home bakers to multinational brands, deliver memorable experiences through consistent, high-quality flavour solutions.
Flavours With a Past
Some creations carry technical brilliance. Others carry memories. Sulakshan holds a special affection for the ones that do both.
Some of their earliest dessert-inspired flavours, such as Rasmalai and Espresso Cream, hold special meaning for him. They represent the transition from traditional aroma chemistry to modern flavour craftsmanship. Rasmalai captures nostalgia, festivals, celebrations, and family traditions. Espresso Cream reflects India’s shifting palate and growing love for cafe culture.
These flavours symbolise their evolution as a brand, respectful of cultural roots yet aligned with contemporary tastes. They serve as reminders of why he started, combining emotion, innovation, and craftsmanship to create meaningful sensory experiences.
Understanding Customisation Through Two Worlds
Working with creators at different scales formed Sulakshan’s understanding of what tailoring a flavour truly means.
Working with startups has taught his team agility, speed, and the importance of uniqueness. Startups often look for unconventional profiles, fast iterations, and small-batch support. Corporations, on the other hand, demand precision, regulatory compliance, scalability, and consistency across large production volumes.
These two worlds taught him that customisation is not just about tailoring a flavour, it is about understanding the brand’s purpose, the consumer’s expectation, and the application challenges. This experience has helped them build a flexible, solution-focused approach that caters to companies at every stage of their journey.
Collaboration That Creates Possibility
Some of Ossoro’s most meaningful creations emerged from partnership, not isolation. That is how Sulakshan views collaboration.
He sees meaningful collaboration as something that goes beyond supplying a product. It involves becoming a partner in problem-solving. Whether they are stabilising a beverage flavour, masking bitterness in nutraceuticals, improving bake stability for bakeries, or guiding clients on ingredient interactions, collaboration unlocks innovation.
Some of their most successful flavours were created through deep, iterative partnerships with brands that trusted them with their vision. True collaboration is about listening, co-creating, experimenting, and achieving results together.
Quality Leads the Way to Sustainability
For Sulakshan, sustainability does not start with a marketing agenda. It begins the moment an ingredient is chosen.
For him and his team, sustainability begins with purity and responsibility. They procure ingredients of the highest quality available in the market, even if they come at a higher cost. Their philosophy is simple. Superior inputs lead to superior outputs. Clean, high-purity aroma compounds help them craft flavours that smell natural and authentic without unnecessary additives.
While pricing remains secondary, ethical sourcing, traceability, and long-term supplier partnerships ensure consistency and integrity. He believes that when quality leads, sustainability naturally follows, benefitting both the product and the consumer.
Inspiration Held Steady by Structure
Creativity can wander. Business cannot. Sulakshan finds energy in ideas, but he grounds those ideas with discipline.
His inspiration comes from observing the world, food cultures, global trends, travel, conversations with chefs, and everyday experiences. But inspiration must be balanced with strategic discipline. Strong internal processes, food safety systems, documentation practices, and long-term planning provide the structure needed for scalable innovation.
His team follows a Kaizen mindset, making continuous, incremental improvements rather than chasing rapid, unstable leaps. This balance helps them stay creative without losing operational stability.
Nurturing a Team That Loves to Innovate
Innovation at Ossoro does not belong to one person. Sulakshan focuses on creating a space where curiosity becomes a shared habit.
Innovation at Ossoro is nurtured by giving people clarity, creative freedom, and ownership. They encourage open discussions, experimentation, and cross-functional learning. Automation helps reduce repetitive tasks, enabling their skilled team members to focus on solving complex problems, whether in formulation, production, or customer experience.
Exposure to real customer use-cases keeps the team connected to the impact of their work, fostering pride and motivation. A culture built on transparency, trust, and shared purpose naturally drives innovation.
Creating Flavours That Feel Like Home
A single aroma can carry someone back in time. Sulakshan treasures that moment of recognition more than anything.
Flavour has a unique ability to trigger emotion. The emotion he values most in their creations is nostalgia. When a flavour reminds someone of a familiar sweet, a childhood festival, a loved one’s recipe, or a comforting memory, it becomes meaningful.
Creating flavours that evoke joy, warmth, or a sense of familiarity is deeply rewarding. He views flavour not as an ingredient but as an experience, one that can transport people across time and emotion.
A Future Built on Precision and Emotion
Sulakshan’s next chapter rests on precision, culture, and a deeper emotional connection with taste.
He believes the future of flavour innovation will be about intentionality and depth. As a brand builder, he is committed to making high-quality flavours accessible to creators of all sizes, from home bakers to global brands. As a craftsman, he is focused on precision formulation using rare aroma molecules, advanced extraction techniques, and functional botanicals.
The next era will blend scientific rigour with emotional storytelling, cultural influences, and personalised sensory experiences. He aims to be at the forefront of this shift, shaping how India and the world experience flavour.