The greatest foods and drinks are fermented. From stinky cheese to kimchi, beer to sourdough bread, yogurt to kombucha, miso to sauerkraut, and even fine wine and coffee, the most flavorful foods, drinks, and even my favorite cigars, are all the result of fermentation.
What's fascinating is that it takes something living—like bacteria or yeast—to create these flavors. Inanimate things are bland, but when life is added, flavor is born.
Jesus once said, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough" (Matthew 13:33). Just as Sarah transformed ordinary wheat flour into enough bread to feed her guests and more, the living yeast and her kneading hands brought flavor and life to what would otherwise be ordinary (Genesis 18:6).
Consider the Wuan Chuang Soy Sauce Factory in Taiwan, where traditional yeast strains used in fermentation have been carefully cultivated over generations. These strains are responsible for the rich, complex flavor of their soy sauce, which is still made using traditional methods. The yeast, alive, reproducing and working for decades, continues to create a product cherished by those who value artisanal soy sauce.
So, how is your flavor? Are you alive? Are you animate? Just as fermentation brings life and depth to food, being truly alive brings richness and meaning to our lives.
If we become stagnant or inanimate, we risk losing the flavor that makes life worth living.
Whether through your relationships, passions, or faith, staying alive and engaged is what creates a lasting and flavorful legacy. Take inspiration from the yeast that transforms and brings life to everything it touches.
As we begin the new year, how are you allowing your life to ferment into something truly flavorful?