The magazine for women.
WINE BEER FOOD THE LOCAL SCENE 5 Praire Moon Winery 11 Alluvial Brewing 17 Torrent Brewing SPECIAL FEATURES 9 Whimsical Wine 19 The King of Craft Beer 21 Octagon Art Festival GOOD EATS
22 Lay’s chips taste-test 23 Is BBQ good for you?
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entertainment
FACETS
September 2018
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The magazine for women. Contributors
RONNA LAWLESS DAN MIKA Design
ALEX FELKER Publisher
SCOTT ANDERSON Tribune Editor
MICHAEL CRUMB
ADVERTISERS To advertise in Facets magazine, contact Tory McKay at (515) 432-6694 PHONE (515) 663-6923 ADDRESS 317 Fifth St. Ames, IA, 50010 EMAIL news@amestrib.com ONLINE www.amestrib.com/sections/ special-sections/facets
Facets is a monthly publication of GateHouse Media Iowa Holdings.
A crowd gathers at Torrent Brewing Company during RAGBRAI in late July. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
ON THE COVER: Prairie Moon Winery and Vineyard offers wood-fired pizzas during its Live at the Crib music events. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
FACETS • Table of contents Wine 5
9
Prairie Moon: First in Iowa to offer kegged wine
In 2000, Steven Nissen planted the first vines of what now has become a 13-acre vineyard, known as Prairie Moon Winery and Vineyards.
Collins woman opens Iowa’s first mobile wine bar
Nikki Schneider wants you to drink wine in her trailer, and she’ll even drive to your town for you to do it.
Beer 11 Alluvial offers ‘free-range’ taproom on 40-acre organic farm
Last summer, Alluvial secured a loan for a new brewing system that can produce more beer and allow more guests in its taphouse.
17 Torrent Brewing going strong after three years
Torrent Brewing Company was founded by home brewer Andy McCormick, a longtime resident of Ames. To say that he is passionate about beer is an understatement — a big one.
19 Anheuser-Busch on its way to becoming king of craft beer too This summer, a torch has quietly been passed: By at least one metric, Anheuser-Busch is now the nation’s largest craft beer company.
Food 22 Deep-dish pizza potato chips, and more
We tried all 8 new Lay’s Tastes of America flavors.
23 With trendy keto diet, is Texas BBQ actually good for you?
Experts say an exclusively barbecue diet might not be the best decision for your health. But with the new keto diet trend, eating lots of barbecue is potentially — can you believe it? — healthy.
Contributors
Design
Publisher
Tribune Editor
RONNA LAWLESS DAN MIKA
ALEX FELKER
SCOTT ANDERSON
MICHAEL CRUMB
FACETS
FACETS | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 3
Wine
In the spring of 2016, Prairie Moon marked its 10th anniversary by beginning the process of kegging wine. The process is a way to reduce waste and prolong the life of its wine, while still providing its customers with the same bottled wine varieties they have grown to love.
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Wine
Prairie Moon:
By GateHouse Iowa Staff
First in Iowa to offer kegged wine
P
rairie Moon Winery and Vineyards, located at 3801 W. 190th St., north of Ames, started with “a passion for fine wine and a need for expansion in Iowa’s agricultural diversity.” In 2000, Steven Nissen planted the first vines of what now has become a 13-acre vineyard known as Prairie Moon Winery and Vineyards. His dream was to grow high quality grapes, in order to create fine estate wines, without having to buy grapes from established growing areas like California. “It has been a slow process, but we believe our products reflect the kinds of wines you can get in new growing regions like the Midwest,” Nissen said on the winery’s website. “We may not be able to grow well-known varieties like Merlot, Chardonnay, or Cabernet, but we have many new hybrid varieties along with native American grapes that provide a lot of new tastes to the palate.” Not only does Prairie Moon offer quality wines made mostly from estate-grown grapes, it now offers various meads (honey wine) and hard apple ciders. Prairie Moon grows varieties that are common to the Midwest, including Edelweiss, Marechal Foch, Marquette, Brianna, LaCresent, Swenson Red, Concord, Prairie Star, Vidal Blanc, Niagara, Swenson White and Catabwa. In the spring of 2016, Prairie Moon marked its 10th anniversary by beginning the process of kegging wine. The process is a way to reduce waste and prolong the life of its wine while still providing its customers with the same bottled wine varieties they have grown to love.
Prairie Moon Winery was the first winery in Iowa to adopt to this trend that has spread across the West Coast. “Kegging seemed like a natural step,” said Prairie Moon winemaker Lyndsay Nissen at the time of the change. “It’s something that can set us apart from other wineries.” Nissen said she first experienced keg wine while visiting Denver and saw it as a great way to cut costs along with energy and labor usage. With bottles, Nissen said there can be a lot of waste because once a bottle is opened, the wine lasts three to five days. However, kegged wine can last up to six months after being tapped. “It’s a huge, huge savings,” she said. “Now we can easily sell to restaurants and bars because they have tap systems, and it’s just way easier for them to deal with a keg than bottles because if you open a bottle, you have to basically PRAIRIE MOON, page 6
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Wine PRAIRIE MOON, continued from page 5
guarantee that that person is going to drink another glass and there is no guarantee anybody is going to order another one of those glasses before the wine goes bad.” Prairie Moon, a family-owned and operated winery at 3801 W. 190th St., is also serving the kegged wine out of its tasting room. “I got a lot of positive (responses), saying well that’s very cool that we have this here in Iowa,” said Holly Nissen, who opened Prairie Moon in August 2006 with her husband, Steve. “People are loving the idea.” With typical bottling, the winery has to use a label, cork, bottle and packaging. The bottles can’t be reused and have to be recycled. However, kegs can be washed and reused, saving the winery money and waste on the approximately 28 bottles of wine that fit into a keg. Lyndsay Nissen said she estimates they have already saved 700 bottles since beginning kegging. “Serving from here in bulk is very advantageous for us,” said events coordinator Janet Nissen. The wine on tap is also available in to-go reusable 32-ounce growler bottles filled
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directly from the tap. Lyndsay Nissen said Prairie Moon’s kegged products are available at the Iowa Taproom and El Bait Shop in Des Moines. “As a winery we can make fruit wine, grape wine, honey wine, which is a mead, and we can also make cider, so apple wine,” said winemaker Matt Nissen. “We have our first batch that is just getting done fermenting right now and then we will be debuting that mid-summer. Cider has become pretty popular now days.” Nissen said cider is a great addition because, unlike beer, it is gluten-free. “It’s opening up this whole new demographic of people that wouldn’t regularly come to a winery,” said sales account manager Amanda Dehne. “The mead and the cider are going to draw people that we would have never seen in the past.” “People want new and exciting products,” said Holly Nissen. During the summer until September, Prairie Moon features a Live at the Crib music series each Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m. The event also includes the sale of woodfired pizzas made from scratch with local ingredients. Prairie Moon offers Thirsty Thursday discounts and charcuterie plates on the fourth weekday from 3 to 8 p.m. It also is available as a venue for weddings and other events. ·
On this June day, Host Country performs music in The Crib at Prairie Moon. During the summer, until September, Prairie Moon features a Live at the Crib music series each Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m. The event also includes the sale of wood-fired pizzas made from scratch with local ingredients. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Wine
WHAT? Praire Moon Winery — a 13-acre vineyard WHERE? 3801 W. 190th St., north of Ames WHAT’S TO DRINK? Local wine, mead, cider WHY GO? Special events, concerts, wood-fired pizza, tastings, bar
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Wine
Nikkie Schneider in her Whimsical Wine Trailer. PHOTO BY DAN MIKA/GATEHOUSE IOWA
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Wine
Whimsical Wine
By Dan Mika Gatehouse Iowa
Collins woman opens up Iowa’s first mobile wine bar
N
ikki Schneider wants you to drink wine in her trailer, and she’ll even drive to your town for you to do it. Schneider, a Collins resident, owns the Whimsical Wine Trailer, which she opened earlier this spring after she and her husband moved to the town in southeast Story County. She wanted to start the bar after finding out there were only two other mobile bars licensed in the state, both of which didn’t focus on wine. The trailer debuted in May, when someone rented it out to propose to his girlfriend in, Schneider said. The trailer is black and unmarked on the outside, but the inside is covered in restored barn wood, plants and trinkets that Schneider has found and bought second hand, like the spray-painted shoe rack that holds wine bottles. There are bar stools and seats mounted to the walls where guests can sit, and they can also sit on the seating posted just outside wherever the trailer is parked. Schneider only sources her wine from two wineries in the state: White Oak Winery in Cambridge and Calico Skies Winery in far-northwest Iowa. She’s planning to start carrying beers brewed in-state at a later point. So far, the truck has been rented for a handful of private
events and various town parties around Story County. Schneider said she can take the trailer anywhere in the state, but has to apply for temporary liquor licenses from city or county-level governments for each event, which can be a time drain. “Everyone I knew was a little doubtful with my little venture I was about to go on, but I’m pretty stubborn, so I knew there was a way to make it work and bring something new to the area,” she said. She’s also considering what to do during colder months, when people aren’t going to want to drink wine outside. She said she’s working with Collins officials to have a monthly wine night there, along with private events where she plans to set up the bar inside. ·
Nikki Schneider poses at the entrance of her Whimsical Wine Trailer. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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Beer Bottles of Alluvial Brewing's Fontinalis Berliner Weisse. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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Alluvial
Beer By GateHouse Iowa Staff
‘Free-range’ taproom on 40-acre organic farm
Brewing
T
he folks at Alluvial Brewing Company believe in social drinking. “Our ‘free range’ taproom invites conversation and solace nestled within our 40-acre organic farm,” owner Elliot Thompson said of the business located at 3715 W. 190th St., in Ames. “Take a beer for a stroll amongst vegetables and wetlands or belly up to the bar and enjoy with a friend. Community activities, board games, fire pit and outdoor opportunities are our vision for a relaxing, invigorating drinking experience.” There are no TVs in the taproom, but a 13-inch project in the brewhouse can show games and events if patrons let the staff know they’d like to watch. There’s a long list of board games available to play. Alluvial opened early in 2015. It’s a business Thompson said has a large audience in the Ames area. Located next to Prairie Moon Winery, Alluvial Brewery has “small batch craft beer in a free-range Iowa farm setting,” Thompson said. Thompson opened the brewery in March of 2015, along with co-developers Jason Peterson and Matt Nissen, who is also the manager at Prairie Moon Winery. Thompson said the idea for the brewery had been in the works for at least a year before it opened. Thompson farms organic vegetables on acres near the winery, and Nissen used the building next to the winery as a place to store the vegetables. “We started throwing the idea around to use this building as a brewery,” Thompson said. “It was bigger than what we needed for the vegetables. It’s just a step in the long-term vision of having the space open for people.” While Thompson said he was simply interested in tasting new beers, Nissen has experience with brewing at home and Peterson previously brewed beer with the Granite City restaurant chain. The brewery’s tasting room has at least 10 beers on tap and customers can be served in pints, tulips, growlers and half growlers. “We want it to be for the community,” Thompson said.
Barrel-aged beer at Alluvial Brewing Company. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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Beer
Located next to Prairie Moon Winery, Alluvial Brewery has “small batch craft beer in a free-range Iowa farm setting.”
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ALLUVIAL, continued from page 11
“We have a smaller tasting room, but it’s an amazing setting coming out here. We have a porch that overlooks the prairie and the wetlands, so you’re kind of out in the country. This is a unique experience out here.” Last summer Alluvial secured a loan for a new brewing system that can produce more beer and allow more guests in its taphouse. Thompson said he wanted to replace Alluvial’s brewing system because it required cooling down and cleaning every other day. The new system is also a 10-barrel system instead of the 2 1/2-barrel system currently in use, which will allow Alluvial to brew more beer more often. “We could brew five days a week if we wanted to, we could do seven days a week,” he said. “It just gives us more flexibility where we don’t have such a waiting game with when we can brew.” The new system is housed in a separate building about 500 feet from the taproom, freeing up space in the north Ames brewery’s back room for guests. He said the increased production allowed Alluvial to have a larger presence at Foodies and Brew, Oktoberfest and other area beer festivals. The biggest priority, however, remains on customers in the area coming into the taphouse. “One of the positive and kind of shocking parts of this is the community that’s been created around this brewery,” he said. “Yes, the beer is part of that, but who comes out here and what it means for them, that’s the most enjoyable part of this for me and everyone that works here.” ·
Alluvial Brewing Company owner Elliot Thompson prepares kegs for delivery Friday afternoon. GATEHOUSE IOWA FILE PHOTO
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Beer Andy McCornick, owner of the Torrent Brewing Company, works the brewing in February of 2015. GATEHOUSE IOWA FILE PHOTO
Torrent Brewing Going strong after three years
Andy McCormick, owner of the Torrent Brewing Co., adjusts a fermenter capable of holding up to six kegs of beer. GATEHOUSE IOWA
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FILE PHOTO
T
orrent Brewing Company was founded by home brewer Andy McCormick, a longtime resident of Ames. To say that he is passionate about beer is an understatement — a big one. Since the very first batch of beer was brewed on the stove top in his kitchen, things have really taken off. Torrent opened in early 2015, with beers brewed in-house, a spacious taproom, a private gathering space and the works of central Iowa artists. Located at 504 Burnett Ave., kitty-corner from the Fareway grocery store, the warehouse-style building was once home to a Ford dealership but more recently sat empty before the brewery’s construction began last May. Torrent purposely maintains the building’s open, warehouse feel. Its taproom fits up to 157 people, with space at its east end for a pool and foosball table and bookshelf of board games. “We’ve just basically tried to take an old building, energize it, inject some new life into it with some new products,” said McCormick. “A lot of things in here are repurposed.” The transformation was helped by a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $26,000 online. The in-house beers are brewed in a production area behind the bar, separated only by a small fence and in view of the public, and stored in eight fermenters capable of holding six kegs apiece. McCormick said he would offer tours to the back area to patrons who asked. “We really want to make this place a destination brewery eventually, where if someone’s traveling through Ames or coming to Ames they come to Torrent Brewing Co. — you know, they have to make a stop here,” he said. ·
Beer By Ronna Lawless GateHouse Iowa
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Beer By Josh Noel Chicago Tribune
Anheuser-Busch: The king of craft beer? A
Anheuser-Busch's shopping spree of 10 craft breweries, including Goose Island in 2011, the first purchase, has enabled it to claim the top sales spot for beer purchased in grocery, big box, drug and convenience stores. PHOTO BY CHRIS SWEDA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
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decade ago, Anheuser-Busch made no beer that could legitimately be called “craft.” The nation’s largest beer company dabbled at the edges of the burgeoning craft beer movement, but its backbone remained the brands to which craft beer was largely a reaction — Bud and Bud Light, Natural Light and Michelob Ultra, and whatever odd innovations might tempt a new generation of consumers, be it Lime-a-Rita (a hit) or Tequiza (a miss). But this summer, a torch has quietly been passed: By at least one metric, Anheuser-Busch — the same Anheuser-Busch that made no authentic craft beer a decade ago — is now the nation’s largest craft beer company. How did a company that made no craft beer a decade ago become the nation’s top manufacturer within a mere seven years? It opened its wallet. Between 2011 and 2017, Anheuser-Busch bought 10 breweries from coast to coast, beginning with Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. and ending (for now) with Wicked Weed Brewing of Asheville, N.C. In between, it picked up breweries in Oregon (10 Barrel), Virginia (Devils Backbone), Seattle (Elysian), Los Angeles (Golden Road), Houston (Karbach) and the metro areas of Phoenix (Four Peaks), Denver (Breckenridge) and New York City (Blue Point). Anheuser-Busch’s shopping spree appears to have paid off. Last month, industry newsletter Beer Marketer’s Insights reported that the beer giant has surged past Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada in 2018 to become the nation’s top craft beer company in terms of dollar sales. The numbers were crunched from data provided by BUSCH, page 19
Beer BUSCH, continued from page 18
Chicago-based market research firm IRI Worldwide. In year-to-date sales through June 3, Beer Marketer’s Insights reported, Anheuser-Busch’s acquired craft brands grew 20 percent to $107.3 million of sales. Sierra Nevada was up 2 percent to $100.7 million, and Boston Beer was down 6.5 percent to $94.4 million. While Boston Beer clings to a tenuous lead in terms of the amount of craft beer sold, it likely won’t for long. Anheuser-Busch’s portfolio of acquired breweries is poised for years of growth. Boston Beer, meanwhile, has declined in recent years as the overall beer industry struggles against wine, spirits and legal marijuana. In other words, the company behind the King of Beers is also on its way to becoming the King of Craft Beers. “It is a bit of a moment that this is the year it’s happening,” said David Steinman, senior editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights’ Craft Brew News, which calculated the data and first reported the findings. “It seems like they’re positioned to hold this spot for the foreseeable future.” An Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. To be clear, Anheuser-Busch’s craft beer supremacy exists in one very specific metric at the moment; IRI tracks sales in grocery, big box, drug and convenience stores. When factoring in draft and liquor store sales, Beer Marketer’s Insights
estimates that Boston Beer remains ahead of Anheuser-Busch in terms of both volume and dollar sales. But the passing of that torch is all but an inevitability during the next year or so. “It’s still a little bit of shock to the system for most craft brewers — everyone’s getting used to it,” Steinman said. “It’s definitely a new way to think about the business.” Indeed, 10 years ago, craft brewers could largely sell themselves as the antidote to Big Beer. Now they’re battling Big Beer. MillerCoors, Constellation Brands and Heineken have all bought American craft breweries, too, but no large beer company has made a more forceful entry into the business than Anheuser-Busch. Its 10 acquisitions allow it to compete as a local, regional and national player from coast to coast, sending beer into the market though a loyal and powerful distribution network. “It’s brought a new challenge that’s not that different than what even Boston Beer presents because they’re a very sophisticated company with a lot of resources,” said Scott Metzger, founder of Freetail Brewing in San Antonio. “But with Anheuser-Busch, it’s magnified.” It became particularly magnified for Metzger when Anheuser-Busch bought its ninth craft brewery: Houston’s Karbach Brewing, in 2016. The strategy had crept into his backyard. He acknowledges that Anheuser-Busch has undertaken a BUSCH, page 20
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Beer
BUSCH, continued from page 19
Golden Road, a fast-growing brewery in Los Angeles, is one of 10 craft beer makers that Anheuser-Busch purchased in recent years in an effort to grab a share of the craft market. PHOTO BY JOSH B. NOEL/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
smart, aggressive strategy. He said he doesn’t begrudge the brewery founders who have sold. But Karbach’s presence in San Antonio has intensified since its sale — a reflection of what Anheuser-Busch is doing with its craft brands across the country. In a blog post, Metzger called Anheuser-Busch’s approach a “scorched earth acquisition strategy.” “If they’re gaining, then somebody’s got to be losing,” Metzger said. Before its shopping spree, Anheuser-Busch did attempt various versions of craft beer, most notably under its Michelob banner: Michelob HefeWeizen, Michelob Pale Ale, Michelob Hop Hound, Michelob Ginger Wheat and Michelob Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale, among them. It also used craft beer to attempt to confuse the marketplace, such as introducing Pacific Ridge Pale Ale in 1996 as a thinly veiled copy of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Its biggest success was Spring Heat Spiced Wheat, later rebranded Shock Top. But such brands have never been considered actual craft beer by Beer Marketer’s Insights (or many beer drinkers) because they largely competed as Big Beer brands — made in larger batches and distributed far more widely and aggressively — than most craft beers. As classic macro brands lost share and craft beer continued to grow, Anheuser-Busch eschewed its half-baked efforts and started buying the brands it could never create, starting with Goose Island (a story recounted in my book, “Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out,” released earlier this summer). It also launched a division to manage its craft portfolio, The High End, and declared a goal of building the nation’s top-selling craft portfolio. Beer Marketer’s Insights has continued to analyze sales from Anheuser-Busch’s 10 acquisitions as part of the craft industry, and it is those sales that have collectively claimed the top spot based on the IRI data. However, it’s not all good news for Anheuser-Busch’s craft effort. Its lead horse, Goose Island, had a rough 2017, and 2018 is proving just as difficult. In early August, the Goose Island portfolio was down double digits across the previous three
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months, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Sales were down for several of Goose Island’s major brands — IPA (down 0.3 percent), 312 Urban Wheat Ale (down 11 percent), Green Line (down 35 percent) and Four Star Pils (down 41 percent). Sales for Blue Point and Devils Backbone have also been down from a year ago, Steinman said. But here’s where the power of Anheuser-Busch’s aggressive strategy pays off: When some brands suffer, others soar. Elysian’s Space Dust IPA continues to be a rocket and even surpassed sales of Goose Island’s IPA as Anheuser-Busch’s top-selling IPA, according to IRI data. (Goose Island IPA continues to enjoy nationwide dominance on draft, however, due to the powerful Anheuser-Busch distribution network.) Karbach is also growing rapidly. The Brewers Association, a Colorado-based trade organization, has spent recent years drawing attention to Anheuser-Busch’s entry into craft beer, including “Take Craft Back,” a mock effort to crowd-source $213 billion to buy Anheuser-Busch’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev. Julia Herz, director of the Brewers Association’s craft beer program, called the IRI data “a very telling and timely snapshot.” “It definitely gets at the question, ‘Is the marketplace fair?’” Herz said. “We think if there was more transparency, it would be easier for beer lovers to discern when they’re purchasing beer from a Big Beer conglomerate or not.” Craft brands owned by Anheuser-Busch feature little-to-no acknowledgement of their corporate roots. Herz said Anheuser-Busch likely wouldn’t have had such an easy march to the top of IRI sales data if consumers had more awareness of who owned the brands. Last summer, the Brewers Association unveiled a seal — an upside-down beer bottle to signify craft’s upending of the beer industry — that affirms a brewery’s “independence” and whether the brewery meets the Brewers Association’s definition of “craft.” The logo has been adopted by more than 3,600 craft beer companies, Herz said, including on packaging and in brewery taprooms. Among the breweries unable to use the logo are the 10 bought by Anheuser-Busch; they’re ineligible due to their ownership. ·
EVENT PREVIEW
Octagon Art Festival will feature 100 artists
T
he 48th Annual Octagon Art Festival is just around the corner. There will be plenty for art enthusiasts of all ages to experience in downtown Ames on Sunday, Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. One hundred juried artists from 15 states will fill the Main Street Cultural District with a sea of artistic creations. A wide variety of functional, wearable and decorative artwork is available within any budget. Come experience the many wonders of art at the Octagon Art Festival and support artisans with your purchase of functional and beautiful art. The festival is the perfect place to get an early start on shopping for holiday gifts. For more information regarding the Octagon Art Festival including a festival map, live entertainment acts and list of participating artists, visit www. octagonarts.org. A variety of free entertainment including live bands and performing arts will be presented throughout the day. Stop by the festival and enjoy entertainment from Orchesis I (contemporary dance), Fat Sky (jazz-funk), The DM Project (alternative rock), Chris Meyer (acoustic) and Ace Jones (singer/songwriter). Be ready for good music and high-energy at this year’s Octagon Art Festival.
By Heather Johnson Octagon Center for the Arts
A wide selection of cuisine and food trucks will be at the festival, so bring your appetite. Children’s art activities will be available in front of the Octagon Center for the Arts along the 400 block of Douglas for youngsters wanting to create their own works of art. Special thanks to the festival sponsors and community supporters who make this event possible: Ames Commission on the Arts; Ames Convention & Visitors Bureau Community Grant Program; Ames Tribune; Cross Wealth Management; Danfoss; Fareway; First National Bank; Iowa Public Radio; Main Street Cultural District; Mediacom; NextHome Journey and Wilson Toyota. The Octagon Art Festival is organized by the Octagon Center the Arts, a non-profit community art organization located in downtown Ames Main Street Cultural District. The Octagon has been a cornerstone of the cultural scene in Ames since 1966. The Octagon serves more than 30,000 people annually through education classes and outreach programs, rotating exhibits, retail gallery shop, and special events such as the annual Octagon Art Festival. Come experience the arts at the Octagon located at 427 Douglas Ave. in downtown Ames. For info on art classes and exhibits visit the website at www.octagonarts.org. ·
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Food By Louisa Chu Chicago Tribune
Deep-dish pizza potato chips? We tried all 8 new Lay’s Tastes of America flavors
L
ay’s launched a Tastes of America line of potato chips last week with eight new regional flavors, but only one will be available in Chicagoland stores: Deep Dish Pizza. The Chicago-style chip, inspired by Giordano’s stuffed pizza, specifically, represents the “Heartland” and “Mid-America,” according to Lay’s. The remaining seven, sold in stores only in their respective regions and online, include Fried Pickles with Ranch for the Midwest (which evidently does not include Chicago); New England Lobster Roll for the Northeast; Chesapeake Bay Crab Spice for the Mid-Atlantic; Pimento Cheese for the Southeast; Cajun Spice for the Central Gulf; Chile Con Queso for “Texoma” (the Texas and Oklahoma borderlands), mountains and “SoCal” (Southern California); and Thai Sweet Chili for the Pacific Northwest. Here are our tasting notes. (All parenthetical quotes below are Lay’s product descriptions.)
DEEP DISH PIZZA (“A taste of the iconic stuffed deep-dish pizza inspired by the famous Giordano’s pizza recipe.”) Surprisingly cheesy, notably capturing the monstrous mozzarella magma of Giordano’s stuffed pies. The chips smelled more like pizza than tasted of it. One taster thought this flavor was the weirdest, “each component of pizza washed over my palate in succession. Tomato! Cheese! And then, bizarrely, CRUST!”
FRIED PICKLES WITH RANCH PHOTO BY JOSEPH HERNANDEZ/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
(“A deep-fried favorite at Midwest state fairs, you can’t pass up the opportunity to try this fair food fave.”) Vinegarand dill-forward with a faint creaminess. “I would buy this one,” a taster wrote. “Flavor is sharp but accessible.”
NEW ENGLAND LOBSTER ROLL (“Inspired by the lobster shacks of the Northeast, fans can now get the taste of fresh lobster served on a buttery grilled roll.”) No, you can’t. Perhaps a whisper of butter and toast, but no crustacean whatsoever. “This one is all roll, no lobster,” wrote a taster.
CHESAPEAKE BAY CRAB SPICE (“Inspired by crab shacks along the Atlantic, this flavor is a taste of the Bay with custom-blended spices ready to savor.”) Overwhelming celery salted Old Bay Seasoning. Do note that this chip was not actually inspired by a regional dish.
PIMENTO CHEESE (“Inspired by Sunday socials and Southern charm, this flavor is a taste of creamy sharp cheddar with a hint of cayenne pepper.”) Promising, but as one self-described cheese lover noted, the common problem with all the new chips was the cheese flavors are rather bland. This might be good with a real pimento cheese dip.
CAJUN SPICE (“Prominently featured across beloved dishes like Jambalaya and Blackened Cajun Chicken, this Gulf Coast iconic flavor includes a mix of garlic, paprika, onion and oregano.”) Again, not inspired by a regional dish and “nothing but a chip slathered with Cajun flavoring,” wrote one taster.
CHILE CON QUESO (“Inspired by a Southwest favorite, this flavor infuses the legendary Tex-Mex taste of velvety cheddar queso with a dash of spice.”) Redeemed by a bare hit of heat. “Good but nothing that cannot be achieved by a classic cheddar and sour cream,” wrote one taster.
THAI SWEET CHILI (“The food truck scene of the Pacific Northwest inspired this flavor, boasting the delicious blend of sweet chili sauce with a hint of heat.”) The best texture of all we tasted, with slightly thicker and crunchier chips. One taster wrote, “With their hint of tangy sweetness, I was reminded of the Orion O!karto fries I grew up on from the Korean market down the street from my house.” · 22 | FACETS | SEPTEMBER 2018
Food
With trendy keto diet, is Texas barbecue actually good for you?
By Charles Scudder The Dallas Morning News
PHOTO BY TOM FOX/THE
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DALLAS MORNING NEWS
t’s a Texas meat-head’s dream. Eat lots of barbecue, all while losing weight and keeping fit. Experts say an exclusively barbecue diet might not be the best decision for your overall health. But with the new keto diet trend, which emphasizes fats and protein, eating lots of barbecue is potentially — can you believe it? — healthy. According to the tenets of a ketogenic or keto diet, increasing fat intake while excluding carbohydrates causes the body to go into ketosis, a state of burning more fat than sugar. “With keto, it eliminates those sugar cravings,” said Mary Alexander, a keto enthusiast from Rockwall. Barbecue “is totally keto. There is no better style and no better cut.” Alexander said she takes the keto lifestyle a step further and has gone “carnivore.” She only eats animal products including meat, eggs and butter. Now, she says, Texas barbecue joints are one of her best bets for the fatty meats that help her stay in shape. “There’s no better place to be a carnivore than Texas,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been healthier.” Pitmaster Todd David said his offerings at Addison’s Cattleack Barbecue could be downright good for you, if consumed properly. “A barbecue protein diet under paleo or one of the others would be better than another meat diet,” David said. “I don’t eat barbecue three times a day, but I could see someone doing it.”
WHAT IS KETO? The ketogenic diet emphasizes fats and proteins while trying to eliminate carbs and sugars. The ancestral food community — think paleo — points to indigenous cultures like the Inuits who lived on a diet primarily of fatty whale blubber. The idea behind keto is that the body loses weight better when burning fat rather than burning sugar or glucose. Eliminate the glucose, and you’ll just burn fat. The diet isn’t safe for everyone, and involves a total diet overhaul to really work. Many experts agree that the way many people attempt keto doesn’t fit the necessary framework for a true ketogenic diet. To work, a ketogenic diet consists of 75 percent of calories from fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbohydrates. Compare that to an average American diet that consists of about 50 percent carbs, says Dallas nutritionist Megan Lyons. With that fatty, meaty diet, then, doesn’t barbecue fit the bill? Texas-style barbecue in particular has a leg up on some Northern and Eastern varieties. A proper Texas brisket is served with a simple salt and pepper rub and, most importantly, no sugary sauce. Sauce-free meat is definitely keto. The traditional serving of white bread is also no-go, as are sugar and carb-heavy sides like potato salad, beans and coleslaw. But despite the theoretical health benefits of a radically fatand protein-heavy diet, eating only barbecue might be a stretch. · FACETS | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 23