Gourmet News • January 2021

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VOLUME 86, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2021 n $7.00

NEWS & NOTES n

Powering Ethnic Diversity in the CPG Space PAGE 6

SUPPLIER NEWS n

A Spicy Sauce with a Side of History PAGE 14

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Rumiano Cheese Breaks Ground on New Facility PAGE 36

NATURALLY HEALTHY n

Perfect Indulgence from Graeter’s Ice Cream PAGE 20

B U S I N E S S

N E W S P A P E R

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Breakfast is Back PAGE 34

News..............................................6 Ad Index .......................................36

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Serving the Soups, Rethinking Community and Hoping the Salad Bar Returns

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

This time last year, the Shemirani family was planning the April grand opening of its ninth Barons Market store in Otay Ranch, a neighborhood in San Diego, California. The beautiful new 21,000 square-foot store was going to have all the elements of a customer experience on which Barons prided itself in its other stores – a hugely popular salad bar, a wide variety of hot foods and sandwiches and a hot soup bar so popular that Rachel Shemirani

used to joke that the company could change its name to Barons

Market Soups.

She’s a Senior Vice President of Barons Market and daughter of co-Founder Joe Shemirani, who

opened the Barons Market in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood along with his brothers in 1993.

There’s a little less joking about hot soup now, but Barons Market continues to thrive by listening carefully to customers and responding quickly to their needs and concerns. Independent grocers are better equipped than huge grocery chains to exercise that kind of flexibility as the pandemic continues to introduce uncertainties into the business climate, Shemirani said. “The whole key is to stay flexible. I imagine this as stretching us,” she

Numerous consumer studies have found that COVID-19 has changed grocery shopping behavior, and many of these trends are expected to outlast the pandemic. Shoppers have gone back to traditional supermarkets where they feel a loyalty and that can supply a broad range of their needs. They’re not making as many casual trips to grocery stores – gone are the days when they’d visit a grocery store just to

check it out or to buy a singular item that’s on special.

In general, they’ve become more efficient shoppers – they arrive with a list and a plan. They’re shopping less often and buying more on a single trip, so they don’t have to come back to the store more often than necessary.

Acosta, a sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry, found in a July 2020 report that 37 percent of shoppers are spending more on

Consumer Demand Speeds Online Business

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

each grocery trip now than they did pre-pandemic, Shopping once a week or more has declined 20 percent from 67 percent of shoppers to 47 percent. Twenty-seven percent of shoppers reported that they were going to the grocery store only two to three times per month, and 26 percent said they were going once a month or less.

Half of them are spending more on groceries now than they did

March of 2020 might be remembered among grocers, once COVID-19 is just a memory, as the year that e-commerce went from being something that Amazon and big grocery chains did because they could to a must-do for any grocer intending to thrive through the 21st century. Mercato’s Chief Executive Officer, Bobby Brannigan, is congratulating himself and his team for having developed a platform that helped make that rapid transformation a reality.

“Pre-COVID, e-commerce was nice to have, but it became an essential right away. It was amazing for us to be able to be there for them, because our mission is to help independent grocers succeed,” he said. “In March, we had people calling and saying, ‘Hey, can you get me online right away?’ and we were taking people online in 24 hours.”

Brannigan built the Mercato platform in 2015 after searching for a way to help his father, the Proprietor of B & A Pork Store, an Italian grocery in Brooklyn, New York, add an online component to his brick and mortar business. The Mercato platform

Continued on PAGE 10

Continued on PAGE 10

Pandemic-Driven Shopper Behavior Demands Clear Messaging

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

PHOTO FEATURE

F O R

Continued on PAGE 12

Saffron Road Heats up the Freezer Aisle

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

When the COVID-19 pandemic created a wave of panic-buying in the nation’s grocery stores, Saffron Road was ready. Looking ahead to a future after the pandemic has subsided, Saffron Road Chief Executive Officer Adnan Durrani expects to continue building on the growth that the company achieved in 2020 with the same foresight that he brought to 2019. “Freezer sales broke all records this year. A lot of Americans now have an extra freezer in their garage,” he observed. “They’re not going to be selling those freezers on eBay on

January 1. A mega-shift in consumers’ acceptance and affinity for frozen foods as a staple kitchen must-have is the new normal.... Those freezers are there to stay.” Consumers have realized that consumers can get the same 12 to 18 months of shelf life in a frozen product that they can buy in a can, and Durrani thinks that Americans are likely to continue choosing to operate their households with pantries that are more fully stocked than they were before the pandemic forced consumers to learn more about the grocery supply chain than they’d felt the need to know before.

Durrani defines Saffron Road as a meals company that’s based on global cuisines and culinary excellence. “We, serendipitously, benefited from everything going on during COVID,” he said, noting that grocery sales from the center store did well in general during the pandemic, and frozen foods did particularly well.

“That’s one of the reasons that we’ve done so well by continuing our mission of providing healthier entrees for Americans now very discerning about their health during a global pandemic.”

Saffron Road kept what Durrani calls a “die-hard commitment” to

fulfill more than 98 percent of the product volume that the company had promised to deliver even as grocers and their shoppers were faced with huge voids on the shelves during the panic-buying phase of the pandemic. “Back in January 2020, because of what was going on in Wuhan while – we didn’t have any idea what was going to happen in January – we took a calculated risk and doubled or tripled our inventory to ensure supply chains were flush,” he said.

“We put aside a significant amount of cash flow to produce Continued on PAGE 21

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FROM NEWS THE & NOTES EDITOR

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The other day I read a Washington Post story about a man who misses air travel so much that when he saw a pair of Delta Airlines first class seats on eBay, he bought them. His daughter came home from college to find out that her dad hadn’t been kidding when he’d sent her the picture from the eBay listing and the seats were now in the family’s living room. She made a Tik Tok video of her parents in the seats to celebrate what seemed to her to be the insanity of it, and that went viral; Delta’s CEO saw it and responded with a message congratulating the man on his good taste and offering three free roundtrip tickets anywhere he wants to go, as soon as he feels safe to travel again.

I understand how that man feels because I miss travel that much, too. When I bought the house where I’m now imprisoned, I chose it for the empty back yard where I could make a garden. But when I chose the neighborhood to go looking for

a house to buy, I chose it because it was halfway between the office where I still have a desk and a computer that are currently collecting dust and Tucson International Airport.

I deeply want to go back to the way of life where it’s helpful to know that the security checkpoints open at 4:30 and the coffee shop on the concourse opens at 5. I want to fly into LaGuardia and find that the terminal construction has completed to the point where they’ve moved the cab stand back in next to baggage claim instead of making us walk out to the parking garage.

I want to tell the person monitoring the cab line just, “Midtown.” And then the next day to be tasting food and talking food while I’m being jostled from behind by someone else trying to get a bite of that ham or that jam.

Or fly into SFO and drag my bag down to the long tunnel to the BART station, buy a ticket, board the train, pull the suitcase in close and watch the stations go by. I haven’t been there often enough yet – the roll call of stations we’d pass is on the tip

of my tongue, but I can’t quite remember how they go. Why didn’t I write down their names when I had the chance?

And oh heavens, but I miss Chicago and the Eataly counter where I once got a beautiful chunk of Rogue River Blue Owner’s Reserve. On sale!

But for all that, I’m not going to be putting airline seats into my living room any time soon – practically every inch of space that wasn’t occupied by furniture a year ago has now been converted into a pantry, and I do not have the space for them. I’m just going to have to wait and hope that world’s still out there waiting for me when the pandemic has passed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for being the folks who share those memories with me. I look forward to seeing you when it’s safe to board a plane to take me to the places I want to go again to meet the people that I desperately want to see again.

Bless you all and stay safe! GN — Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director

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News & Notes Powering Ethnic Diversity in the CPG Space

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

The Empower Project aims to connect investors in the consumer packaged goods space with investment opportunities that they’ve probably been overlooking. The entrepreneurs who will benefit from that are typically under-capitalized, but they come from a community that has a track record of outperforming the market in the CPG space, according to Steve Gaither, the Chief Marketing Officer at C.A. Fortune, and a co-Founder of The Empower Project, which is designed to pair a few Black entrepreneurs in the CPG space with resources to help their fledgling businesses take flight.

Eligible businesses must be at least 50 percent Black-owned or founded with current annual revenue between $150,000 and $10 million. Additionally, the business must also be able to dedicate time and energy to manage this project and have the ability to cover the hard costs of external expenses for items including packaging, printing and distribution. Applications for the program are open until January 15.

Five applicants will then be selected to participate in a virtual pitch slam scheduled to take place on February 16. From those finalists, one will be selected to receive a package of business services and capital investment valued at $700,000 to help with everything they need to grow their business.

The project is designed to help bridge the wealth gap in this country where Black entrepreneurs don’t often have the same access to start-up capital from family and friends to get their new business off the ground as individuals from more privileged backgrounds, according to Kyle Gardner, the Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Dobson Avenue Capital Partners, which is also a partner in the project. “The bottom line for entrepreneurs is the lack of, due to the wealth gap, an inability just to call up a family friend, which is usually how a lot of people start their fundraising, and get a check for five figures or six figures to get the business up and running. The average Black entrepreneur raises $35,000 for their business,” he said.

Although only one winner will be chosen to receive the investment package this year, the project is designed to help expose many more of the applicants to all of the project’s participants and sponsors. Sponsors currently include C.A. Fortune, the privateheld, full service-consumer brands agency, which is The Empower Project’s title sponsor, along with C.A. Branding, C.A. EComm, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Dobson Avenue Capital Partners, JCon-

nelly, Propeller Industries, SPINS and Whole Brain Consulting. Additional participants in the process will include other potential investors with CPG portfolios.

“We’re going to try and fill that room with investors along the way, so everybody in that room gets access to investors,” Gaither said. “All of these companies presenting should be investable companies and align with smart people in the room that recognize smart people – there should be smart results.”

The project started with an idea that came from one of Gaither’s employees, who was inspired by Black Lives Matter and asked Gaither to think about how their company could lend their marketing and branding expertise to help address underlying issues. Gaither then enlisted Will Madden from Whole Brain Consulting, who has expertise in many of the operational aspects of bringing a CPG product into the marketplace. Madden was enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate, Gaither said. “I definitely want to create a legacy and something for my daughter to be proud of,” he told Gaither, and from there, the project grew from being an opportunity for some free marketing collateral into a chance to give a Black-owned business access to a 360-degree range of all the expertise a new business would need to get started.

The only thing left was capital, and Gaither went straight to his friend Kyle Gardner, who was already in the business of investing in minority- and women-led businesses. “We wanted to bring in investors that understand the [CPG] space and also understand Black-owned businesses,” Gaither said.

As the grandson of an entrepreneur who’d started a hair care products business that he ultimately sold to L’Oreal, Gardner had that understanding bred into him. Before starting his business, Gardner’s grandfather was an assistant principal on the south side of Chicago, where he met his wife. Gardner’s grandmother, who was a librarian, Gardner tells the story: “He started selling hair care products to make extra money to support his four kids. He was trying to find out how to expand his business, and my business partner, Adam Robins, who was fresh out of business school, said, ‘Hey, I really like your business, and I’ll lend you my full lending authority that the bank just gave me fresh out of business school.’”

That friendly arrangement lasted only as long as it took for Robins to present the proposal to his boss, but Gardner’s grandfather, who went on to attain the

funding he needed through the Small Business Administration, never forgot Robins’ willingness to back him. Robins is now Gardner’s business partner at Dobson, and Gardner’s grandfather’s hair care products business eventually provided the funding for Gardner’s father to start his own business, where Gardner himself got his early education in entrepreneurship as one of his father’s warehouse workers. “I’ve literally seen, throughout my life, two generations of how these economics of starting a business in the Black community pays dividends for decades and decades, because not only did my dad start his business, but other people in the company started businesses and then went on to use that money to put their kids in school, to own homes, etc., etc. They called it the ‘Miracle on 87th Street,’” he said.

Gardner worked in his father’s business during high school and college, and what he’s doing now, through Dobson, is investing in minority- and women-led businesses operating in the CPG space. The businesses that Dobson supports tend to skew toward Black-owned enterprises, so, with the Empower Project, Gardner saw an opportunity to focus on that community in particular and to help a Blackowned business leader find the resources to help a fledgling company take flight.

“We know what they can achieve because we’ve seen it before,” he said. “When he called me, it was essentially a no-brainer because we’re already doing this work – it just allowed us to focus on specifically Black entrepreneurs.”

This project, though it’s starting out small, is a blueprint for greater things in the future, according to Gardner. “Access for even the companies that don’t lend – even the application process will give them an opportunity to meet these investors and start to become part of the network that can help them grow their business,” he said. “It really opens the door, not only for those who apply but for the investors who attend, helping to educate them more about some of these discrepancies that they don’t already know, but also help fill their pipeline with some more diverse entrepreneurs in the long run.”

“When we invest in this one company, we want to start a domino effect. The founder that we invest in, we want to be a mentor for other founders. It all starts with one step,” Gaither added. “It’s a strong step forward.”

For more information, visit www .caempowerproject.org, where applications are being accepted until January 15. GN

BRIEFS PLMA Pivots to Virtual Show in February In a move without precedent in 40 years of hosting major industry trade shows internationally, the Private Label Manufacturers Association will launch its first all-digital trade event for the U.S. at the start of 2021. Over the course of five days, February 1-5, PLMALive! presents Private Label Week will introduce a succession of category-focused online exhibitions featuring leading suppliers of store brand food and nonfood products to American retail chains. After PLMA was required to postpone its immensely popular in-person annual event, which was to have taken place last November in Chicago, the association pivoted to offer the event online by accelerating completion of a digital trade show platform that had been in development for years, according to PLMA President Peggy Davies.

Nina Elder Joins Kitchn.com Nina Elder, Executive Food Director at www.Kitchn.com, just started this November.

Before joining Kitchn, Elder served as the executive food editor at Rachael Ray In Season.

Prior to that, she was on staff at Bon Appétit and Better Homes & Gardens. She’s passionate about baking, snacks, and full-fat yogurt. She believes in the power of a well-written recipe.

She lives in Yonkers, New York, with her husband and equally snack-obsessed son.

Shepherd’s Grain Donates to Help Communities Shepherd’s Grain, the Pacific Northwest-based company dedicated to providing sustainablygrown, tillage-free wheat, announced that its farmers have contributed $50,000 in flour and cash to helping communities struggling with food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The generous donations include contributions to a hand-picked collection of food banks, non-profit organizations, restaurants and chefs giving back to their communities across the Pacific Northwest, with in-kind and monetary donations distributed to recipients across Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Software Triples Efficiency of In-Store Pickers ThryveAI, an Mi9 Retail brand, providing the next generation of digital commerce for grocers, is asserting that grocers using Thryve Fulfillment, an automated, multi-order picking solution, are picking three times more items per hour (~150-160) than with traditional solutions (~50-60). High pick rates are achieved by efficient order fulfillment. ThryveAI’s fulfillment solution includes picking path optimization, item-level mapping that uses a handheld device to identify the exact location of an item, multi-item picking and dashboards that provide real-time visibility into picking performance at the store/sector/employee level to ensure items are picked correctly and efficiently.

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NEWS & NOTES

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

A Delivery Service to Solve the Last-Mile Problem

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Point Pickup is a technology platform that helps solve the “last mile problem” for grocers in secondary markets across the U.S. so that they can offer their customers a delivery service that’s affordable for both shoppers and grocers. This is a problem that resists an easy solution, but Point Pickup solves it by focusing first on drivers and their need to make a living and then matching those drivers up with grocers who need a delivery driver but don’t need, and can’t afford to pay for, a full-time employee to cover that responsibility. “Even the big guys can’t afford that either, because everybody wants dedicated service – they’d like to have their own fleet and their own driver, but they can’t pay for the driver to be there all day and just wait around,” said Tom Fiorita, the Chief Executive Officer of Point Pickup. “Everybody wants a dedicated service model with a variable pricing model.”

The company, founded in 2015, has just completed a $30 million funding round to enhance its platform for last-mile delivery of online orders. The company has also recently hired Allen Arakal as Chief Operating Officer and is planning to use his 28 years of experience in expanding largescale and start-up businesses in industries that include finance and technology.

“Given the immediate surge in consumer demand for online home delivery and Point Pickup’s unique ability to quickly onboard enterprise retailers, it’s imperative that we upscale our services to meet client needs,” Fiorita said in the company’s announcement of the hiring. “Our company was founded on performance excellence, and we look to Allen’s rich marketplace background in operations to ensure that we continue to maintain the highest level of

client support.”

Grocers are facing the reality that many grocery shoppers are reluctant to emerge from the shelter of their homes, and having found their way to grocers who can offer home delivery, may not be eager to give up that convenience even after the pandemic has subsided. Point Pickup’s platform is designed to solve this problem, particularly for grocers in secondary economic markets – the mid-size cities across the country where there are enough grocers and shoppers facing this dilemma to present a logistical problem that requires a scalable solution. “We do not actively pursue San Francisco, New York City and downtown heavy, dense markets,” Fiorita said. “We do really well in the Topeka, Kansases, and the Lafayette, Louisianas, and Charlotte, Virginia.”

The Point Pickup delivery service works by matching drivers and their vehicles to delivery specifications set by the grocers at the other end of the transaction. It operates in more than 2,600 markets in all 50 states of the U.S. with a network of more than 220,000 drivers. “We have a robust system and growing,” Fiorita said. “Grocery is our mainstay, but our system also does general merchandise and non-grocery.” That includes pharmacy and alcohol deliveries, so the company has the ability to offer the service to a grocer whose business includes a pharmacy, general merchandise items and a refrigerator case of craft beers.

It differs from some other delivery companies in that it’s the grocer that takes the orders and processes the credit card transactions. Essentially, the grocer is just hiring Point Pickup to manage the fleet of drivers so they’re available when the store needs them, but they’re not on the grocer’s clock when there aren’t orders waiting to be de-

livered. “We’re an enterprise company. We don’t sign up customers, we don’t take their credit cards, we don’t do any of that,” Fiorita said.

This means that grocers who’ve spent their careers nurturing relationships with their shoppers aren’t turning those shoppers over to a delivery company. As far as the customer is concerned, they’re ordering from their grocer and receiving deliveries from that grocer’s delivery driver – shoppers don’t have to know about Point Pickup’s involvement at all.

“The mission is to be an enterprise-only solution to enable them [grocers] to have the tools and ability to offer last-mile delivery to their customers. I don’t do any business with Amazon – that’s by design,” Fiorita said. “This is a service for the grocer who can’t afford to hire a fleet of full-time delivery drivers but who want to be able to offer that kind of service to their customers.”

The system works because Point Pickup has that network of delivery drivers across the country. It’s not like Uber, which matches passengers that need rides with whatever driver is closest to the passenger’s location. Point Pickup’s platform is designed to preferentially match specific drivers with particular grocers, so that, over time, grocers and the shoppers who are receiving deliveries from them will notice that they’re seeing the same driver consistently. While the platform can’t guarantee that the grocer will always have the same driver available, Fiorita says, “Our model favors fewer drivers doing more work at the same store.”

Over time, that can deepen the relationship between customer and grocer and give the customer more loyalty to the grocer and more confidence in the driver, ac-

cording to Fiorita, particularly since the system also offers the grocer the opportunity to set up operating procedures for these drivers, so that the driver who’s working consistently with a particular grocer and those customers becomes a partner in upholding the grocer’s standards for customer service. For instance, if those standards call for the shopper to receive a greeting with a smile along with the groceries, Point Pickup will train drivers to deliver that.

Quite obviously, this doesn’t come for free, but remember, this whole discussion started with the idea that grocers can’t necessarily afford to pay for a dedicated delivery driver . Point Pickup is used to solving that problem. This is generally accomplished at the grocer’s end of the deal through a combination of funding sources, according to Fiorita. “A little bit of tip [from the customer to the driver], a little bit of margin compression, a little bit of efficiencies – and we can pencil these. They work,” he said.

The specific deal will vary from grocer to grocer and will depend on the grocer’s market and the number of customers who would take advantage of the delivery service and the service level that the grocer must offer to meet the customers’ needs.

That calculation takes into account the average mileage for the delivery, the driver’s time to cover that distance as well as time spent in the store, either to shop the order or simply to pick it up after it’s been prepacked at the store, “plus the very generous tipping that customers like to do,” Fiorita said. “Then we have a winner. And it’s happening across the country. We’re not subsidizing orders.”

For further information, visit www.pointpickup.com. GN

A Snack That’s Something New from Something Old

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Chasin Dreams Farm is a brand devoted to creating snack food products from ancient grains. The brand’s first products on the market are three flavors of Chasin Dreams Farm Popped Sorghum. The brand is named for the family horse farm where Founder Sydney Chasin spent her childhood. “Chasin Dreams was for me just a magical place that always inspired innovation and creativity from simplicity, and that’s what this is about,” she said.

“Ancient grains – people think of them as boring. What we’re doing is putting a modern twist on something old and simple.”

Chasin started developing the product during her final year of study to earn her undergraduate degree in Britain, where she won a product development grant for her popped sorghum project. After intensive business training in the U.K. around her idea, she moved back to the United States and started building a business in 2018.

Her first products, sold as Lil’ Pops, were launched into retail in 2019.

Each minuscule kernel is glazed with a very thin corn syrup-free candy coating that contributes a satisfying crunch to the bite. Flavors include Sweet & Salty Popped Sorghum, Cinnamon Popped Sorghum and Cocoa Popped Sorghum.

The brand is relaunching this year after a name change for the company to Chasin Dreams Farm. The product was inspired both by the farmers who raised sorghum in the fields around her family’s horse farm and by Chasin’s own dietary needs – she was diagnosed with celiac disease as a child and has been living on a gluten-free diet ever since. “It certainly appeals to the gluten-free consumer, but it’s not limited to that,” she said. “It’s a product that can appeal to the masses.”

Consumers who are invested in environmental conservation will appreciate sorghum partly because it’s a popcorn analog that contains no corn, since the

overwhelming majority of the corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. Sorghum also requires less water than corn, so that it’s commonly grown without irrigation. “The product capitalizes on so many food trends,” Chasin said. “It’s for the consumer who’s interested in new ingredients, maybe on a plant-based diet that wants the feel-good factor around the environment. The product at its core kind of ticks that box.”

Chasin Dreams Popped Sorghum is currently distributed in New England and southern California. In early 2021, the product will be launching in Texas, northern California and more widely in southern California. Chasin Dreams Popped Sorghum is packaged in 4-ounce

and 1-ounce bags. Chasin is also planning to expand the product range beyond the popped sorghum in 2022, although she’s planning to stay within the snack space.

“The pops are the beginning, and we really want to create a platform for amazing, innovative, ancient-grain products,” she said. “What I love most about it is crafting something from simplicity and putting my own special twist and charm on it.”

For more information, visit www .chasindreamsfarm.com. GN

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NEWS & NOTES

Online Business Continued from PAGE 1 allows individual grocery stores to offer everything that’s in the store to online shoppers and to offer delivery services to any customer within 16 miles of the brick and mortar store. The company is currently working with more than 1,000 grocery stores in 47 states and a network that includes hundreds of thousands of delivery drivers across the country, but its primary markets are in the country’s 15 largest cities, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. When a grocer joins Mercato, the company builds a web page for the store on the Mercato platform. That’s integrated with the grocer’s existing point of sale equipment. The platform matches the SKUs in the grocer’s inventory with its database of more than 1 million products. Items that are unique to a particular store can be added in easily, so that when a customer places an order through the website, the shopper is choosing from the product assortment that’s curated by the grocer to include all the items that make the customer’s experience an online version of shopping from the same list she’d use if she were able to come into the physical store.

Mercato charges a set-up fee of a few thousand dollars and then a point-of-sale integration fee of a few hundred dollars.

Once a system is up and running, Mercato charges a commission on sales, but there are no ongoing software fees. The fee structure is designed so that Mercato

Shopper Behavior Continued from PAGE 1 before the pandemic, with most of them saying that they were eating more at home, seeing higher prices in the grocery store and were stocking up more.

This tendency to stock up more is a troubling change for stores that have depended heavily on their fresh category sales, since fresh is a category that’s perishable by definition, so it’s not possible for consumers to stock up on fresh items in equal amounts and just store them for weeks at home.

“Not only that, but frequent shoppers are also the grocery store’s best customers,” points out Deloitte Insights in a report on the future of the fresh category that’s based on consumer interviews conducted in July 2020. The report found that consumers were responding by heading to their grocer’s freezer case or to the center store if they couldn’t find the fresh produce they wanted on the shelves in their preferred store, and sometimes they found that they preferred these items to the fresh produce for which they were substituting. What they didn’t do was head to another grocery store to find the fresh items, since their overall goal was to reduce the frequency of their grocery shopping trips.

In this environment of mission-driven grocery shopping, clear communication on packaging labels has become even more important, according to Katie Lundin, a Marketing and Branding Specialist with crowdspring, an online marketplace that

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

makes money only when the system is generating online sales for the grocer.

COVID-19 caused the consumer demand for that kind of service to skyrocket, prompting that rush of calls to Mercato from grocers who hadn’t previously seen any need to rush into online services for their customers.

Grocers who had already seen the need and set themselves up with Mercato saw a sudden spike in the number of orders coming in through their online portal, and they had to figure out quickly how to scale themselves into a world where online ecommerce in essential grocers was as important to Baby Boomers as it was to the early-adopting Millennial generation.

“Prior to COVID, we didn’t have stores getting a thousand orders a day, but then when COVID hit, that was the kind of levels that we saw – some with hundreds and some with thousands of orders in a single day,” Brannigan said.

“The orders went through the roof, not just for new sales but for customer service,” he added. “We had several features that we built early on that really prepared our stores for this.... We spent so much time building out the merchant interface and the merchant tools, and those tools came into play big time.”

Among those tools were a throttling mechanism that allowed grocers to keep the platform from promising more than they were able to deliver – although many grocers found that they were able to cope with the increase in online orders by reassigning associates from live customer service to packing orders for online customers, it was the Mercato throttling capability that

allowed them to match the orders that were accepted to the speed at which associates could pick and pack the orders, spreading out the rush of business into a steady flow that allowed the grocers to make the best use of their capacity. Figuring out how to reassign staff to handle the flow meant setting up a whole new business model for the online business alongside operation of the brick and mortar store. “About 500 or so of our merchants built million-dollar businesses in weeks,” Brannigan said. “Online is very different from in-store in many ways. They had to set up a whole business operation in a few weeks. They really leaned in and figured it all out.... We had merchants that we would bring online, and within a week, they had a million-dollar run rate.”

As the pandemic worsened, some of those grocers just closed their brick-andmortar stores and shifted their customers over to their Mercato platform while they waited for shoppers to get used to the idea of wearing masks when they were outside their homes and the worst spikes of the virus case load to pass, according to Brannigan. “My dad has a grocery store in Brooklyn, and he’s 70 years old. In the early days, the customers weren’t wearing masks,” he said. “It was nice that we were able to keep the grocery store in business and the grocery store customers out of the store, too.”

The grocers who have adopted the Mercato platform have found new efficiencies that have enabled them to handle their online business with a flow that maximizes their capacity. They use the platform to generate lists of all the items needed for a

day’s deliveries, so that all those items can be picked from the departments responsible for them. The items come from all over the store to a packing area where they’re sorted into individual orders ready for the delivery drivers. Then, the grocer has records of the orders to inform the reordering process.

Most of those ideas for how to achieve those efficiencies were contributed by the grocers themselves, and Mercato was able to use its technical expertise to build them into the platform, Brannigan said. “We were able to bring their visions to life. We were real-time having conversations about how to process 900 orders today,” he said.

“We built a lot of features in the first few months of COVID for the stores to be able to handle that kind of capacity – to masspack orders, to divide the packing of produce from the packing of deli, consolidating orders.... Now they have much more capacity. In the beginning, people were basically starting a new business.

[Now,] if there was another lock-down, another surge of business, they’d be much better able to handle that.”

Market researchers are predicting that consumer demand for curbside pickup and home delivery services is likely to continue even after the threat of the pandemic has receded – and it’s not just the technologically savvy customers who have embraced the convenience, according to Brannigan.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are older on the platform,” he said. “People have been forced to figure it out. They’d want to go to the store, but since it was dangerous, they figured it out. When it comes to eating, people will figure it out.” GN

connects businesses with more than 220,000 graphic designers and namers.

“The importance of clear messaging has never been stronger. People want to know what they’re buying, and they want to know it quickly,” she said. “There shouldn’t be any ambiguity.”

Grocery shoppers want more than ever to be able to find what they want on the shelf so they can get in and out of the store quickly, albeit with more in their baskets than they’d buy at one time before the pandemic, and companies that are thinking about refreshing their brand need to keep that in mind and make sure that any changes they have in mind are consistent with the brand messaging that they used in the past, Lundin said. “People tend to go back to the same brand over and over again when they find one they’re comfortable with. It becomes a kind of shorthand – you know it’s what you want,” she said. “You want people to easily recognize your brand and take it off the shelf as a known, trusted source.... If shoppers are always presented with visually consistent brands, that’s going to make it much easier for them to shop. “ Shoppers are reporting that in addition to visiting their local supermarket, they’re also shopping more often from online portals. One result of that is an increased consciousness about the way their groceries are packaged. “Consumers are keenly aware of the environmental impact of packaging.

After a brief period at the beginning of the pandemic, about 74 percent of consumers are now willing to pay more for sustainable packaging,” Lundin said. “That is a huge

factor for people.”

Lundin advises packaged goods companies rethinking their packaging to take a look at how much plastic they’re using, since many consumers are now aware that the coronavirus has been shown to die more quickly on cardboard than on plastic, so the chance of transmissibility from the surface of a package is lessened with the product is packaged in cardboard rather than in plastic. “Not everyone’s seeking out scientific studies, but one New England Journal of Medicine study has been quoted extensively online,” Lundin said. “So, people have been informed about how long the virus can survive on plastic versus cardboard. And, they’ll also understand that cardboard is more sustainable than plastic.”

Despite the concerns about the environmental sustainability of packaging, consumers still want a physical barrier between them and the food they plan to eat. They’re more likely now to buy pre-packaged produce than to pick up an apple out of a bin of bulk produce. Trader Joe’s, long known for its pre-packaged produce, has been distinguished from Whole Foods in an October 2020 report by Placer Labs, Inc. that analyzed grocery retailer performance from a location analytics perspective. The report noted that Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market were among grocery chains whose sales were hurt the most during the pandemic period, but that Trader Joe’s, a chain known, among other things, for its packaged produce, has stood out in its pandemic recovery. The report notes that after steep sales declines in

March and April, Trader Joe’s began to climb steeply back before May 1, with visits reaching year-over-year growth in the summer.

Trader Joe’s kept its previous 81 percent of loyal customers during the pandemic while Whole Foods lost visits from its previous loyal customers.

“People don’t want to be in the situation of buying an apple that other people have already picked through, because who knows what was on their hands,” Lundin said. “People want to be certain that the food they’re bringing into their homes is safe. The role of packaging has become even more important because packaging forms a safety barrier – a barrier between other people and food you’re eventually going to eat.”

For those who are thinking about updating their packaging to make sure that their products are the ones that shoppers are picking off the shelves, Lundin has a few quick tips. The first consideration needs to be brand consistency – how the brand’s logo will fit into the overall packaging design. Second should be a consideration of the color palette. “There are colors that are more appetizing than others,” she said.

“You want it to be somewhat unique, if possible, because you want it to stand out on the shelf.”

Her third suggestion is to be very careful about choosing your typeface – go with a simple typeface that’s easy to read from a distance, she suggests. “Going with a crazy font that no one can read – now is not the time,” she said. “You want a clean, easy-toread font.” GN

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Retailer News The Salad Bar Continued from PAGE 1 said. “We’re staying present, doing what we need to do and being flexible.... Our sales, thankfully, are the best they’ve ever been.

Customers are still feeling safe shopping inside the store.”

Although many markets have turned to online sales for customers reluctant to face the dangers of close contact with strangers, Barons has concentrated instead on measures to help customers feel safe inside the stores. Along with constant sanitizing and stationing a person outside each store to very visibly sanitize carts, limit customer flow, offer masks and provide a reminder about social distancing, the retailer is re-imagining how to offer shoppers the sense that, inside their Barons Market, the Earth still turns much as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe while also providing the sense of safety that has become a sine qua non for brick-and-mortar grocers.

Keeping the shelves fully stocked is part of that. If a store runs out of something, the shelf is simply refilled with whatever’s still on hand. “When they see empty shelves, customers start panicking,” Shemirani said.

“At Barons, there’s something on that shelf.”

Many of the shoppers who stayed away at the beginning of the lockdown have started to filter back into the stores as government-imposed restrictions have eased, Shemirani said. “They saw what we were doing, taking it very seriously and having employees taking it more seriously,” she said. “There’s still nothing like going in and doing your own grocery shopping and picking out your own avocado.”

Along with listening carefully to customers, Barons is paying more attention to its employees, who are key to delivering the customer experience on which the company prides itself. “Everyone’s kind of having a tough year, so we’re trying to make sure that employees feel safe and comfortable. That kind of energy will relay to the customer,” she said. “This is a big wake-up call for our entire industry – that these are our essential workers, our front-line workers,” she said.

“They’re our world. I think this

will make us better.”

This month, Barons Market is relaunching its Barons Backroom Beer Pairing events, which have been an important source of funding for local non-profit groups, as Barons Backyard Beer Pairing.

The quarterly events once brought crowds together in the store’s stockroom or loading areas to enjoy craft beers and small plates, with all of the funds raised through ticket sales donated to charities that operated in each store’s neighborhood and came to depend on those regular infusions of funds contributed

by Barons and its shoppers.

This year, instead of a single get-together, Barons has transformed the event into a month-long campaign highlighting craft beers and ideas for pairing them with food.

Shoppers were offered the opportunity to participate by signing a pledge card to be taped to a store register and then holding a private event in their own back yards. They were encouraged to post a photo of the event on their social media.

“There’s a hash tag they can use so they’re feeling like they’re making an actual difference,” Shemirani said. “Our customers really do want to be a part of something bigger.”

The huge salad bar has been replaced by a curated menu of eight different grab-and-

go salads. “We have found that customers will buy these pre-packaged salad three or four or five salads at a time,” Shemirani said. “They’re really stocking up on those pre-packaged items.” Likewise, the store’s hot bar has now been replaced by a selection of pre-packaged items, and the hot soup bar is now set up to operate cafeteriastyle.

While some customers are still wistful about the opportunity to choose their own salad ingredients to drop into their bowl, most of them have accepted that the world has changed. “We’re getting much fewer questions about, ‘When are you going to open up the salad bar again?’” Shemirani said. “They see the changes as a bridge into a new normal.” In the Point Loma store that was the first Barons Market opened in 1993, the salad bar and olive bar are being replaced entirely by refrigerated units.

“This is something we’re able to try and see how customers respond,” Shemirani said.

“We’ve really changed.”

“All sampling and demonstrations have stopped, which is very frustrating,” Shemirani said. “Our cheese of the week program used to be really huge.” The Cheese of the Week was replaced during the last holiday season by a sort of do-it-yourself cheese board program in which the store highlighted four star cheeses. Cards were created to pair the cheeses with wines and to suggest other complementary items. “Customers can pick up a post card, grab the brie, the wine, the olive, the jam,” Shemirani said. “We’re making it easy for customers to build their own board to make eating at home exciting again. Whether it’s a pod or just the family, it’s just making sure the customer has kind of a cool experience and giving them new ideas to help with this year, which has been very tough for a lot of people.”

“This year has made us all become very present,” she added.

“We used to plan things way in advance.

[Now,] you really have to brace for what’s coming, and I think we’ve all stretched so that we’ve become more flexible.... We used to do a lot of predictions about what next year is going to look like. We need to let that go a little bit.

It’s hard to constantly react, but right now, we’ve been through the fire. Right now feels a little good about the decisions we’ve made.

We really hope for the best and stay flexible – and really hope for that salad bar to come back.” GN

BRIEFS CartSafe Selling Nationwide An Arizona mompreneur has created CartSafe, the brand-new recyclable shopping cart liner that covers everything, including the handle and cart, to provide an extra layer of protection while shopping. The product is selling nationwide.

Smart Wearables Reduce Injury Risk Giant Eagle, a large U.S. multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer has been working with Soter Analytics, which makes wearable technology, to enhance existing musculoskeletal safety training.

Giant Eagle implemented the Soter Clip&Go solution, a simultaneous charging hub of up to 40 devices, in its retail support centers. A simple process, the worker takes a device at the start of a shift, scans it out and clips it on their shirt. At the end of the shift, the user returns the device, rescanning and placing it back onto the charging hub. Throughout the day the device provides real-time audible and vibration biofeedback alerting workers of any hazardous movements they make. Giant Eagle has seen injury risk decline by 31 percent.

WinCo Foods Reduces Food Waste with Afresh Technologies WinCo Foods is implementing Afresh’s fresh replenishment platform across its entire chain of grocery stores to reduce food waste, optimize produce inventory, place orders, and boost profitability in produce departments. Afresh also helps optimize financials which, as one of the country’s largest employee-owned companies, translates directly to more money earned for each employee shareholder.

Yesway Celebrates Grand Opening of Allsup’s Market Concept Store Convenience store chain Yesway opened its second Allsup’s Market concept store in Vaughn, New Mexico, on December 2. This marked the chain’s first new store opening since Yesway acquired the Allsup’s convenience store chain last November. The new Vaughn store boasts nearly 5,500 square feet of interior merchandising space and has 20 fueling positions, including four new dedicated diesel lanes. It replaces an older 2,400 square-foot Allsup’s store, which had only six fueling positions.

The new Vaughn Allsup’s Market concept store will offer customers a greatly expanded selection of grocery and perishable items, including fresh, never-frozen meat and produce, naturally-produced milk, frozen foods and baby items in addition to the previous store’s assortment of snacks, sodas, private label products and hot foods.

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Supplier News A Spicy Sauce with a Side of History

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

This is a story about Colorado Green Chili, and you will be glad to know about it because it is a product with a story that you can buy in a jar. But we are going to start somewhere else because my daddy was a man who could spin a story about a dump truck and a bird into a 15-minute saga just so he could get to, “It’s a long way to tip a raree.” We’re going to get to Colorado Green Chili by pretty much the same route that dump truck took.

You may be grateful that we are not going to be detouring into the whole history of the Santa Fe Railroad, the Fred Harvey Company and the Harvey Girls, even though they are related, because I know you are busy people, and your patience is limited. Route 66 will not be mentioned again, either.

Instead, we are going to start with John Steinbeck.

In his 1962 “Travels with Charley,” a story credibly alleged to be more fiction than non, John Steinbeck tells about meeting an aging thespian who mistakes him for a fellow member of the profession. In a roadside campsite somewhere outside Fargo, North Dakota, Steinbeck says he woke up to find that he had an unexpected neighbor, and over coffee and a conveniently stationed bottle of whisky, the actor explained that he’s just drifting from town to town putting on an occasional one-man show for an audience that doesn’t recognize him. “You know when show people come into what they call the sticks they have contempt for the yokels,” he tells Steinbeck. “It took me a little time, but when I learned that there aren’t any yokels I began to get on fine.” Then, according to Steinbeck, the itinerant actor pulled an aluminum foil-wrapped letter of encouragement from John Gielgud out of

his wallet, showed it to Steinbeck and made his exit, leaving the writer with more questions than answers. “Keep them asking,” he’d advised, “and exit clean and sharp.”

By the time that Steinbeck was making his way across the country with a green camper truck he’d named Rocinante and a full-sized standard French poodle with a roar like a lion and not much bite to him so he could figure out what America was all about and whether he had another novel

left in him, the King’s Chef Diner had been serving customers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for half a dozen years, although none of them apparently went on to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. The King’s Chef, built in the shape of a castle, was a custom-built Valentine Diner manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, where Arthur Valentine had figured out sometime in the 1920s that, like Fred Harvey, he could make a living with lunchrooms that served hot food fast to working men who needed to eat and be on their way. Following the Great Depression, Valentine teamed up with a succession of manufacturers who built mobile diners designed to be carried onto a lot on a flat-bed truck or on their own wheels, each decorated with the Valentine logo somewhere it couldn’t fail to be noticed.

When Arthur Valentine died in 1954, there were thousands of his prefab diners that were scattered around the country’s heartland dishing up short-order breakfasts and no-nonsense lunches to local working men as well as the travelers who’d hit the highways after World War II gas and rubber shortages had eased and Dwight D. Eisenhower had declared the country’s highway system to be essential in-

frastructure.

Gary Geiser first saw The King’s Chef in 1997. Custom built in the shape of a castle in 1956, it had seen better days, but like that old bum romancing his way across the country with Charley the blue poodle, it still had a story to tell. Geiser wasn’t long out of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and although he’d managed to pick up some work here and there, he didn’t have much in the way of prospects. He’d been thinking about going back to Durango to see what he could scratch up there when a friend suggested that he go and look at the decrepit old purple castle on Costilla Street. “I think what they saw was, and this was something I didn’t understand at the time, was that my attitude would be perfect for the diner culture,” Geiser says.

A Colorado historical landmark, The King’s Chef stood out on its street like a Gloucester Old Spot in a chorus line.

Geiser had never operated a diner – didn’t even know how to cook – and the building definitely needed work. But when Geiser saw that purple castle, he fell for it fast and he fell hard. Also, he noted, “It was extremely cheap.”

Although Geiser didn’t know the first thing about slinging hash, he had a buddy who’d cooked his way through college and was willing to come to Colorado Springs for a while. “He came in with me and helped me out for the first six months,” Geiser said. “Then he matriculated on his way, and I went on with my path.” One of the first things Geiser did after he’d sunk his future into the diner was to ask his new customers what he had to do about the

BRIEFS Specialty Food Association 2021 Leadership Awards The Specialty Food Association has named Bri Warner of Atlantic Sea Farms and Desmond Tan of Burma, Inc. as the winners of its 2021 Leadership Awards for business leadership.

Bryon White of Yaupon Bros. American Tea and Channy Laux of Angkor Cambodian Food were similarly recognized for citizenship, and Pierre Thiam and Phil Teverow of Yolélé and Linda Appel Lipsius of Teatulia were recognized for their vision.

Hershey Invests $1.5 Million in Thurgood Marshall College Fund The Hershey Company will invest $1.5 million in the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) to establish a scholarship endowment, with the goal to increase that to $3 million over the next 10 years. The endowment will be used for students pursuing degrees in food science in TMCF-member-schools, which include public colleges that provide advanced education for underrepresented populations.

La Tourangelle Introduces Regenerative Sunflower Oil La Tourangelle takes a big step forward in combating climate change from the soil to the bottle with two groundbreaking cooking oil investments: a single-origin Regenerative Sunflower Oil planned for release this month and an everyday Vegetable Oil, the only product in the marketplace produced in a 100 percent post-consumer recycled PET non-BPA bottle, and available nationally. The Regenerative Sunflower Oil is expeller-pressed from GMOfree organic sunflower seeds and contained in the brands’ signature tin can (BPA free and recyclable).

Gotham Greens Raises $87 Million for Indoor Ag

food. “You gotta fix the green chili,” they told him.

“It did have a green chili sauce at the time. It was extremely different from what ours is today,” Geiser says. “I would make a batch, and they would say, ‘Yeah, that’s not it. Try again.’”

Continued on PAGE 16

Gotham Greens, a pioneer in indoor agriculture operating high-tech greenhouses located across the United States, has raised $87 million in new equity and debt capital, bringing the fast-growing company’s total financing to $130 million. The new funding includes Gotham Greens’ recent Series D round led by Manna Tree and joined by The Silverman Group and other existing investors.

Gotham Greens operates one of the largest and most advanced networks of hydroponic leafy greens-producing greenhouses in North America. As a leader in the indoor farming and plant-based fresh food categories, Gotham Greens plans to use the latest funding to accelerate its mission to decentralize food production and bring more fresh foods to people across the United States through channel and geographic market expansion, increased operational capacity and new product development.

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Fiscalini Family Rebrands its Cheeses

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

After 20 years of doing business as Fiscalini Cheese, the Modesto, California, cheesemaker has rebranded both the company and its products as Fiscalini Farmstead. The rebranding is creating buzz in the market and re-inspiring the fourth-generation family members who have taken on complete responsibility for operations at the farm and creamery, according to Laura Genasci, a member of that family. “We’re really excited about the momentum and the feedback,” she said. “Famous chefs had talked about the cheese before, but we haven’t really capitalized on that and shared that. It’s been a lot of fun to get influencers and people who support the brand to come out to the farm and share the story. We’re most excited for what’s to come in the next 20 years.”

Her brother, Brian, has now hired a veterinarian to handle herd management for the 1,500-head dairy farm in California’s Central Valley, to allow him to take on more responsibility for the cheese company. “With Brian being so busy on the dairy side of it, it’s been challenging,” Genasci said. “When you’re in the dairy industry for almost 100 years, that’s what my dad and my brother know are the cows.”

With a new herd manager on the property and Cheesemaker Alex Borgo in the make room, Fiscalini Farmstead is in good position to continue the legacy

Spicy Sauce Continued from PAGE 14 Geiser won their approval with a classic New Mexico-style chile verde with a flour roux, pork and the local Mirasol chile peppers. Although chile verde is frequently eaten throughout the West on its own as a supper or as a breakfast that’ll soothe a hangover and jump-start a Monday, Geiser’s customers also liked it poured over their eggs like gravy so they could sop it up with their Texas toast.

The Food Network came to town for the first season of “Outrageous Food,” and Big Daddy Aaron McCargo, Jr. made The King’s Chef famous for a breakfast called “The Thing,” a six-inch stack that featured a choice of meat along with eggs, hash browns, that Texas toast, and of course, Colorado Green Chili. It entitled those who managed to finish it to a membership in the diner’s Clean Plate Club.

A couple of years in, a posse of Whole Foods associates came in to try the food and told Geiser they’d sell his Colorado Green Chili on a local program if he’d jar it

founded by John Baptiste, who immigrated from Switzerland in 1914 and settled in Modesto. It was his grandson, John, who is Brian and Laura’s father, who built the creamery on the family farm and established the line of award-winning cheeses that includes its Old World Aged Cheddar; Lionza, its Alpine-style cheese named after the Swiss village from which John Baptiste emigrated; and San Joaquin Gold, an American Original cheese that’s unique to Fiscalini Farmstead.

With the herd under the management of Dr. Bryan Welly, the new veterinarian, both Brian Fiscalini and his sister Laura are taking a more active role in selling the cheese, Genasci said. “Even though times are tough, we’re still pushing forward and making new relationships, and we’re able to do it from home,” Genasci said. “The retail side of it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.... People are home and paying attention to the food they’re eating.”

“Brian and I have been enjoying it. We’ve got this speed and momentum with us,” she added. “We’re realizing that we can do this. We’ve got this. We definitely want to be more involved and have these relationships with these buyers.”

Along with the name change for the business has come a new logo, packaging and website that all lend a new glow to the family’s 100-year history on the same California land. Learn more about it by visiting www.fiscalinifarmstead.com. GN up for them. To make that work, Geiser took the meat out of his sauce so it wouldn’t require U.S. Department of Agriculture certification, and then he took it into Whole Foods and demonstrated it for a whole new fan base.

By 2008, Geiser was ready to spin off Colorado Green Chili from The King’s Chef. Geiser is still operating the diner, although now as a take-out only operation

that complies with pandemic-era indoor dining bans, but Colorado Green Chili now operates out of its own Food and Drug Administration- and USDA-certified packing plant in Colorado Springs, where Geiser is also co-packing private label products for other manufacturers.

The sauce is also now gluten free. “As

the customers were talking to us, we made a decision to remove the flour roux out of the sauce. We started taking it from New Mexico-style to Colorado – nothing but great vegetables, a little bit of salt and pepper, and then we get out of the way,” he says.

The Colorado Green Chili sauce is made with local Mirasol peppers, that are a little bit spicier than the poblano peppers often used to make similar sauces and not as hot as the average jalapeño.

They’re grown widely in Colorado, where the hot days and the cool nights give them a little zippier flavor and a thicker skin than the same peppers get when they’re grown farther south in New Mexico, Geiser says.

The Mirasol pepper is also grown throughout Latin America. It’s green when young and ripens into a yellow-red. When dried, it’s known as a guajillo, which is widely used in Central and South American cuisine. Its name translates as “looking at the sun,” because the peppers grow with the pointy end up, all grouped together on their stems like a circle of Rockettes kicking their sparkly red tap shoes up into the air. Both the green and red Mirasol chiles have a very rounded spiciness that doesn’t need any sugar added to the sauce to smooth out the flavor, according to Geiser. “We let the nat-

ural sweet and heat from the plant from those hot summer days and cool nights come through,” he said.

Colorado Green Chili is available in widemouth 16-ounce glass jars that retail for $6.99. The company makes both Hot and Medium versions of the Colorado Green Chili Sauce as well as a Fire Roasted Autumn Salsa that features the Mirasol peppers picked in autumn and blended with fire-roasted tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice and some habañero peppers for what Geiser calls a “nice little creeper burn.” “If you don’t like spicy stuff, our products might not be right for you,” he says.

The entire line is certified by the NonGMO Project and is currently being sold in more than 300 stores in the Rocky Mountain region. Over the next year, Geiser is planning to expand that reach to more than 600 stores throughout the Intermountain West through direct-to-store distribution.

“We work with our partner farms in southern Colorado. We have to be cognizant not to outsell our forecasted growth,” Geiser said. “We are ready to go beyond the Rocky Mountain region in 2021.”

Currently in development are red and green enchilada sauces and salad and sandwich dressings that also feature the Mirasol peppers. The line extensions will be launching into the market in 2021 and 2022.

For more information about Colorado Green Chili, visit www.cogrn.com. GN

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Marrying Flavors and Winning Awards

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Finding Home Farms Rye Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup is one of two products named by the Specialty Food Association as a product of the year in the 2020 sofi Awards competition. The product is a joint project that combines the organic maple syrup produced by Finding Home Farms, located in New York, and Orange County Distillery, a small-batch distillery founded by John Glebocki and Bryan Ensall that had already begun making a maple-flavored rye whisky when Finding Home Farms co-Owner Dana Putnam was wondering about whether he might try aging his maple syrup in a whisky barrel.

The result of that collaboration, Finding Home Farms Rye Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup, won a 2020 Good Food Award and then went on to win the sofi Award in Finding Home Farms’ second year of entering the competition. “It’s just a really great partnership between two farms that have built brands,” Putnam said. “That is maybe the coolest thing about this product winning an award... It’s a farmed product, as much of an art as anything.” With the two national awards in hand, Putnam is ready to scale up production of the syrup without damaging its quality. “We’ve figured out how to make a product that tastes consis-

tently great,” he said. “It’s a great way for two little businesses to grow together. It’s very satisfying.”

Putnam launched the maple syrup brand six years ago after deciding that he needed to leave behind a corporate job that required extensive travel in favor of a life that allowed him to spend more time at home with his children, who were in high school at the time. A fourth-generation maple farmer, he and his wife had enjoyed making maple syrup in their home in rural New York with maple sap from the trees on their property. When he decided to turn that from a hobby into a business, he bought more maple-forested land down the road from his home, which is located about 75 miles from New York City in the area where New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania all come together. “It’s a nice spot if you’re trying to build a brand and get it into the marketplace,” Putnam observed.

He and his wife, Laura Putnam, author of the Finding Home Farms blog she started 14 years ago as a platform for her interior decorating and lifestyle business, started commercial production with sales to a local farmers market in the Hudson Valley and then started driving his Jeep loaded with product around to grocery stores, gift shops – wherever a retailer

was willing to listen to his pitch and taste a sample of the syrup he’d made by evaporating the water from the sap from his trees slowly, so that it develops rich caramel flavors that taste a little less sweet and a little more buttery than most maple syrups, even though they all actually have the same sugar content. “There are some new technologies that we don’t push the envelope on.... All of us have chosen where to draw the line on how far to push the technology,” he said, adding that, “I would literally load product up in my car, and I drove all over the Hudson Valley to New York City. My wife and I would spend the night Googling prospects.”

Finding Home Farms began exhibiting at the Specialty Food Association’s Fancy Food Show in 2016, which proved to be a turning point when the General Manager of Zabar’s gourmet market stopped by the Finding Home Farms booth. “A woman who works with us part-time knew about Zabar’s,” Putnam said. “He tasted our syrup and liked our syrup.”

The Putnams followed up with a visit to Zabar’s, where an associate pointed them to the general manager’s desk in the loft. He wasn’t at that desk at the time, but Putnam noticed that the manager had the samples

he’d been handed at the Fancy Food Show, so he was encouraged to send an email. “He emailed me back, and we got into Zabar’s that year, and the credibility of Zabar’s helped us get into others,” Putnam said.

“These little seeds you plant – you never know how they’ll grow.”

This year’s sofi Award win has been just as helpful in opening doors, and Putnam is looking forward both to expanding the distribution of his syrup and to add more items to the Finding Home Farms range of products for the home pantry. “This is not a hobby. This is a full-time gig. We sell to over 1,200 stores, gift shops and grocers, and we have a growing direct-to-consumer company,” he said. “Our goal is to continue to grow our business. We want to get to the point that we have more presence in the specialty grocery industry.... We like to think of ourselves as small enough to have our hands in everything we do but big enough to scale.”

“We’re super proud of it, to see it have some success,” he added. “You almost have to pinch yourself. It’s been fun to have a few wins to celebrate this year, in a year that hasn’t had a lot to celebrate for people.”

For more information, visit www .findinghomefarms.com/wholesale. GN

Gluten Free and Decadently Delicious Dessert Bars

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Even an accomplished baker has days when the only feasible option for a freshbaked treat is a quick stop at the market. A baker with a family member who has celiac disease doesn’t always have that option, according to Jill Bommarito, who comes from a family with a 40-year long history of celiac disease, an autoimmune disease in which the body responds to gluten by damaging the digestive system.

Bommarito doesn’t have celiac disease herself, but she does follow a gluten-free diet that many others in her family require, and over the years, she’d become a proficient home baker. “I couldn’t walk into a bakery and find something that was of a quality level that I could make at home,” she said. “You could do that with cheese, in every department except bakery…. You can find the meats and the amazing yogurts and the Italian aged vinegars. You just can’t find that in bakery – ridiculous flavor that you can put on a plate and no one would know you didn’t bake it yourself.... I like to bake, but I don’t want to bake every single thing in my life forever.”

That quality concern is even more serious for someone whose health depends on avoiding gluten, since local bakeries often don’t have the ability to offer products that are made in a dedicated gluten-free facility that can guarantee that there’s no cross-contamination by gluten, Bommarito added.

She responded to the conundrum by founding Ethel’s Baking Co., the company she named after the grandmother who taught her to bake and who also gave her the confidence to know she could do whatever she

wanted if she really set her mind to it.

The company was born out of a holiday party she hosted for her entire family. At the time, she was pursuing a thriving career in residential real estate, so her time for baking was limited, but for her party, she baked her Pecan Dandy dessert bars so her family members who couldn’t tolerate gluten would have a dessert they could enjoy. “I had a holiday party for my whole family, who liked to gripe about gluten-free food,” she said. “But the conventional eaters were gorging on the Pecan Dandies.”

That observation brought to the surface a feeling she’d been having for some time – that even though she’d just come off a record year in real estate sales, that wasn’t what she was really supposed to be doing.

“I felt deep down that I was supposed to be doing something that brought joy to people.

I knew it was going to be food,” she said.

She started Ethel’s Baking Co. in a church kitchen in Detroit, Michigan, and started selling her gluten-free baked goods at farmers markets and then at Detroit’s Eastern Market. From there, she expanded to the rest of the Midwest through Whole Foods.

In those early days, her product range included cupcakes and cookies as well as the dessert bars that included the original Pecan Dandy, but over time, she refined that down to the dessert bars, although she recently added small batches of chocolate chip cookies back in. The line of dessert bars now includes Cinnamon Crumble, which tastes and smells like an old-fashioned cinnamon roll; Raspberry Crumble, which has a shortbread crust and tastes like a fresh raspberry pastry; Blondie, which has

the indulgence of a brownie along with buttery flavor and chocolate chips; Turtle Dandy, which offers crushed pecans and chocolate layered over toasted pecans and caramel and a shortbread crust; and

Brownie, a fudgy treat made with butter and premium chocolate, along with the original Pecan Dandy, which is reminiscent of a pecan pie, with handmade caramel and whole pecans over a buttery shortbread crust. Raspberry Crumble is the newest of the flavors, while the original Pecan Dandy is still a best seller, along with Turtle Dandy and Brownie. They’re all gluten free, and they’re handmade in small batches with each layer baked separately. Ingredient lists are transparent and clean, so that those who have food sensitivities can be sure that the treats are safe for them to consume.

“We won’t compromise on the flavor to try and hit a price target,” Bommarito said.

“Now more than ever we’re looking for solutions for how to take care of our family.”

Bommarito says she didn’t start her gluten-free bakery because she thought it was a great way to make money, so she’s particularly grateful for the insights she’s gained from her advisory board and from 10,000 Small Businesses Detroit, a Goldman Sachs educational program that provides participants with practical skills to grow their businesses. That support has helped her provide medical benefits for her business’ 18 employees and move her business into a new 20,000 square-foot facility in metro Detroit that will allow her to scale up her business to meet a growing demand. She says the hardest part of all that has been learning to focus every single day on her financials and to figure out how to increase efficiencies and decrease costs while maintaining product quality. “I work every day to stay focused on what our mission is and not anyone else’s…. I learned that regardless of the passion and how great the product is, financials are the backbone of your company,” she said. “I haven’t looked back for one second – this is where I belong.”

A three-pack of Ethel’s Baking Co. Dessert Bars packaged in a plastic cup retails for $9.99, while a single-serve package retails for $2.99. Ethel’s Baking Co. products are distributed nationally by KeHE and UNFI, along with Lipari in the Midwest.

For more information, visit www.ethels.com. GN

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NATURALLY HEALTHY

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

Naturally Healthy Perfect Indulgence from Graeter’s Ice Cream

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Richard Graeter has turned to the makers of plant-based dairy proteins to ensure that his fourth-generation premium ice cream company can survive for another 150 years.

Graeter’s Ice Cream has teamed up with Perfect Day to launch Perfect Indulgence™, Graeter’s new line of animal-free frozen desserts, which is in its initial launch with six flavors: Black Cherry Chocolate Chip, Cookies & Cream, Oregon Strawberry, Mint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate and Chocolate Chip.

Perfect Indulgence is made with the same hand-crafted quality as the rest of Graeter’s premium line and it’s virtually indistinguishable from traditional ice cream, Graeter said. “Graeter’s is about one word – indulgence. We are about treating yourself; it’s a reward,” he said. “We won’t put our family name on a product that doesn’t deliver indulgence.”

Graeter’s has had a lot of experience ignoring passing fads in frozen desserts – the company never made a frozen yogurt – but Perfect Indulgence is both animal free and lactose free, opening up the market for it to people who have avoided dairy in the past.

“Whenever we can remove an obstacle

from somebody enjoying our product, then why wouldn’t we do that?” Graeter asked.

“If you are fine with traditional dairy, then great. But there are people who heretofore couldn’t enjoy it before, and now they can.”

While previous experiments with plantbased desserts couldn’t produce a product with sufficient quality to interest Graeter, his

interest was piqued when he read a trade magazine article about Perfect Day’s fermentation-based method of making actual dairy proteins from microflora. His first reaction was skepticism. “When I first read about Perfect Day’s product, what went through my head was, ‘frankenmilk,’” he said. “We partnered with Perfect Day almost a year ago, and we’re learned that it is quite the opposite.

It’s a modern iteration of a very old process – using fermentation to make and prepare food.... This delivers what you need to make something creamy and indulgent – you need

dairy proteins. You just don’t need the cow.”

Graeter’s gets its Perfect Day proteins in the form of a liquid base from Smith Dairy in Ohio, which has supplied the ice cream base for Graeter’s in the past. “They receive the Perfect Day protein, rehydrate it, add sugar and pasteurize it,” Graeter said. “Once we get the base from Smith, it goes to the flavor vat just like our traditional dairy mix does.” From there, the mix goes to Graeter’s 2.5-gallon French Pots to be made into an ultra-premium dessert with the same process that Graeter’s greatgrandmother used when she took over the business after the death of her husband in the very earliest days of the 20th century.

That process keeps Graeter’s from becoming the next mass-market premium ice cream brand, but it doesn’t keep Richard Graeter from thinking about the future of the planet, the dairy industry and the company, he said.

“If this is the future of dairy, we’d like to take note of it, and I’d like to be in on it from the beginning,” he said. “Perfect Indulgence is vegan, so folks who have made the decision to go vegan for ethical reasons can eat it. It

also has the benefit of being lactose free.

That opens up Graeter’s for a whole segment of the population who previously couldn’t eat ice cream. But it is dairy and does contain milk allergens. Our customers need to understand that it is not dairy free.”

After its initial roll-out with six of Graeter’s traditional flavors, a seventh flavor, Madagascar Vanilla is rolling out in early 2021, and Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip is on the way, too. “The vanilla we have developed now will stand up to our traditional vanilla,” Graeter said.

Perfect Indulgence has a higher retailing at a little higher price point than the traditional ice creams, $7.99 a pint compared to about $5.50 to $6 a pint, but Graeter’s is hoping that economies of scale will bring down the price differential in spite of the additional complexities created by the higher price of the Perfect Indulgence mix as compared to the dairy-based ice cream base and the special sanitation that’s required to prevent cross-contamination of the product with cow milk dairy. “That adds a lot of cost and complexity, but that’s what you have to do,” Graeter said. “Our little plant is chugging along pretty hard.

It’s just a matter of planning it all in and working hard to safely keep up.”

For more information, visit www.graeters.com. GN

Dairy Delicious Yogurts and Desserts from A2 Milk

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

A new line of luxurious creamy desserts is coming into the market from a company better known in the U.S. for yogurts. The St. Benoit Creamery line of Yogurts, Whole Milk and Pot de Crème desserts is made with organic A2 milk from a single herd of pasture-raised Jersey cows belonging to a Petaluma, California, dairy that’s certified for its animal welfare practices. St. Benoit dairy products are crafted in a LEED Goldcertified plant in Sonoma, California, that’s also the home of Laura Chenel.

Both Marin French Cheese and Laura Chenel, as well as St. Benoit Creamery, are owned by French dairy company Rians, which makes similar products in France for sale in Europe. Marin French Cheese operates out of its own creamery in Petaluma, California.

The St. Benoit Creamery product line was created in 2016 by Benoit de Korsak, who arrived in the U.S. with his taste for French yogurt entirely intact. When he went looking for that taste of home in California supermarkets, though, he didn’t like what he found there, and he did what a French dairy expert apparently does when he can’t find the yogurt he likes in his local supermarkets. He set out to make his own.

“He looked for milk and found a single

herd of Jersey cows in Petaluma. It’s how he started the company like that – on the farm, he rented a space to create his own yogurt and sold it at farmers markets in crockery pots,” said Manon Servouse, the Marketing Director for Laura Chenel, Marin French Cheese, and, now, St. Benoit Creamery. “It’s how everyone in the Bay

vouse said. “Their milk is naturally rich in A2, a little smaller protein that looks more like the human milk protein, so that it’s more easily digested. People who can’t digest other milk can often digest Jersey cow milk.... Discerning consumers love the brand because of the milk and the quality of the products.”

Area started to know the brand. It’s a small brand, but it’s a small brand with a lot of conviction.”

Manufacture of the St. Benoit Creamery products has now been transitioned off the farm where de Korsak started making it and into the company’s LEED Gold-certified creamery that’s powered by solar energy, reclaimed and recycled materials.

“What sets St. Benoit apart is that all the milk is coming from organic Jersey cow milk from a single herd. It’s really the highest quality of milk that we can find,” Ser-

The line includes Whole Milk packaged in 1-quart bottles, and five flavors of whole milk Yogurts: Plain, Strawberry, Honey, French Vanilla and Meyer Lemon. All are sold in single-serving glass cups, and the Plain, Honey, French Vanilla and Meyer Lemon are also offered in four-serving 23ounce glass jars. Both the Whole Milk and the Yogurts are gently pasteurized and nonhomogenized, so that a layer of cream forms at the top of the container. “It’s almost like you would do at home with milk directly from the cows – but we do pasteur-

ize it to be safe,” Servouse said. “Meyer Lemon is my personal favorite because it’s such a flavor of California. The lemon comes from a local farmer.”

The Pot de Crème desserts are the most recent addition to the line. Inspired by a French classic, they’re made from cream, milk, eggs and sugar. “For chocolate, we have been very happy to partner with TCHO Chocolate for its quality and that it’s created by a neighboring local artisan, as we are,” Servouse said.

The Pots de Crème are offered in TCHO Chocolate, Vanilla, Salted Caramel and Snickerdoodle. The chocolate flavor is the best seller among the flavors. “We sold way more than expected since its launch in October. In May, we had already sold more than we’d predicted for the whole year,” Servouse said.

“We love that people love them.... These nostalgic flavors are really trending, particularly for a healthy snack made of good ingredients.”

The desserts retail for $2.99 each, while the single-serving yogurts retail from $2.49 each. The four-serving jars of yogurt retail for $6.99. For more information, visit www.stbenoit.com. GN

NATURALLY HEALTHY

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

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BFY Breakfast Cookies from Team Mom

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Kakookies is a brand of better-for-you individually packaged cookies that are kind to those whose dietary needs don’t allow for gluten or animal-based products. The brand was invented by a Minnesota mom who developed the cookies eight years ago as a care-package gift for her daughter, a collegiate cyclist. “Cookies – it just seemed like it was the obvious thing for a mom to do, to send cookies, but it needed to be a healthier option,” said Sue Kakuk, the Owner of Kakookies and a two-time finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off competition. “I started sending her cookies, oatmeal-based with nuts and seeds, something that was packed with healthier ingredients that would satisfy her hunger.”

The baking started when Kakuk became aware that her daughter’s cycling team was breakfasting on competition days with a stop at a convenience store on their way to a race. She didn’t want her hungry daughter competing on the dubious nourishment provided by the products that were generally available in convenience stores at that time, so she started baking oatmeal cookies that she could offer her daughter as a portable breakfast option. “I didn’t want to be sending them boxes of over-processed snack bars,” she said.

Her daughter started sharing them with the other members of her cycling team, and the cookies became popular. “We started hosting athletic teams, primarily cycling teams,” Kakuk said. “I just called them a

Saffron Road Continued from PAGE 1 200 to 300 percent of what we’d normally produce, and we’ve kept that up.”

That increase in production meant that when consumers started stocking up their pantries in March to prepare for the lockdowns that public health authorities were suggesting, Saffron Road was in position to keep grocers’ freezers stocked when its larger competitors weren’t. “There were thousands of consumers who were buying our meals by default – they had never heard of us before, but the other legacy brands were out of stock,” Durrani said. “As a result, we were able to harvest some of those sales, and we have continued to have postCOVID robust sales every month since.”

Saffron Road’s sales have continued to grow even after its legacy brand competitors had fixed their supply chain issues because it turned out that many of the customers who tried the Saffron Road products when they couldn’t get much else from their grocers’ freezers then found that they liked them enough to keep buying them even when other choices became available again, according to Durrani, who believes that’s a result of both the company’s high quality standards and the company’s emphasis on global cuisine, which has meant that Saffron Road offers culinary variety to consumers who became quickly bored with the frozen food options that had sufficed before the pandemic. “How much pizza and lasagna can you eat?” he said. Saffron Road may also have benefited because the company is firmly positioned as a natural foods brand

breakfast cookie at the time.”

Some of those cyclists declined the cookies because they were following diets that didn’t permit them – some were following a gluten-free regimen, and some were vegans. Kakuk did some research into products that she could buy at the supermarket to offer those who couldn’t eat her cookies, but she didn’t like what she found. “A lot of those diet-specific products didn’t have much nutritional value,” she said.

She decided to make use of the recipe development skills that had served her so well during her competition in the Pillsbury Bake-Offs to adapt her cookie recipe to meet the needs of her guests who couldn’t eat the original version. “It was never really intended to be a vegan gluten-free cookie – it just turned out that way,” she said. The result is a cookie based on nuts, seeds and oats and shortened with coconut oil. The recipe is based on simple, whole ingredients instead of the protein powder and other highly processed ingredients that are added to many other products targeted at athletes.

“It still has that cookie texture, but it’s that

nice clean label, better-for-you grab-and-go snack,” Kakuk said. “You’re really getting the nutrition of an energy bar, but you get the deliciousness and the comfort of eating a cookie.... It really does satisfy your hunger and sustain your energy.”

Kakookies are now offered in five flavors. Each individually wrapped cookie offers about 200 calories, and the first ingredient in the label list is gluten-free oats.

Boundary Waters Blueberry is nut free – sunflower seeds substitute in that flavor for the nuts that are used in the other recipes – and is a best seller in coffee shops.

The flavor was inspired by the trail mixes that Kakuk had prepared to take along on outdoor adventures, starting from the days that she was a summer camp counselor during her teen years and then a student at Western Washington University, which she chose partly because its location offered her the chance to canoe on Puget Sound and hike in the Cascade Mountains.

She now satisfies that urge for adventures in the outdoors by canoeing in the Boundary Waters. “I think anybody that travels as an athlete or a busy family – you just want

to have a variety of snacks. To be able to eat a cookie and enjoy it and feel good about eating it and having it satisfy your hunger – it just feels good to eat it,” she said.”A lot of families, for whatever reason, need something quick to run out the door – our cookies are basically a bowl of oatmeal, but it’s in a cookie form.”

Each Cashew Blondie cookie offers 5 grams of plant-based protein from oats, cashews and chia seeds. Dark Chocolate Cranberry is the flavor most appropriate to enjoy at the end of the day with a glass of red wine. The newest flavor is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip – a little bit of a departure for the brand, since Kakuk usually prefers working with slightly less traditional flavors. “But on the other hand, it’s an awesome-tasting cookie,” she said.

None of the varieties contains any flour, eggs or dairy. They’re all certified gluten free and soy free. “Even though it’s allergyfriendly, you’d be surprised,” Kakuk said.

“They just taste like an oatmeal cookie that’s full of flavor. When you take out all the processed fillers, you’re able to taste the wonderful, wholesome, all-natural ingredients.”

Kakookies is available nationwide through the company’s website and through regional and national distributors for the foodservice channel. It’s widely sold in college campus stores and dining rooms and in resorts and other hospitality venues. For more information, visit www.kakookies.com. GN

that offers a range of vegetarian dishes as well as its meat-focused entrees, so its nutrition labels checked boxes for Americans who’d become even more conscious of the link between their nutrition and their health or who were alarmed by well-publicized virus outbreaks at a few of the nation’s meat plants.

Durrani believes that the forces that have buoyed Saffron Road during the pandemic will continue to support it through a postpandemic recession. Before the pandemic, consumers were eating most of their meals outside their homes. COVID forced them to eat at home, but Durrani believes the analysts who are suggesting that the restaurant industry has a very long and difficult recovery in front of it, in large part due to a recessionary economy that will force consumers to look for value wherever they can find it. “I think this trend is sustainable. I think it’s going to continue, and I think that we’re doing well as a challenger brand because we have high-quality products and because even if we go into a recession, the cost of a Saffron Road meal versus dining in a restaurant offers a real value. I like to say we sell values for a value,” he said.

His recipe for success in the post-pandemic world is to continue offering consumers a healthier product along with culinary variety, but he suspects that his legacy brand competitors will instead find ways to cut costs on ingredients and decrease package size so they can compete on price for the dollars of value-conscious consumers. That’s likely to backfire, Durrani thinks. “The consumer today, whether they’re a Millennial or whether they’re a Baby Boomer, they want the real deal, and

you’ve got to be bullet-proof,” he said.

“They’re gonna go viral; they’re going to go on the Internet, on social media, and they’re going to tweet out what’s in the ingredients and how the package size has changed, and so I really hope the legacy brands instead rise to this occasion.”

What Durrani and Saffron Road are planning to do instead of finding cheaper ways to make an inferior product is to build on the strengths of the company by reaching out to consumers who’ve learned to buy their groceries online during the pandemic through vigorous digital marketing. “While other brands may be cutting their budgets, and decreasing those efforts, we’re looking to increase our digital marketing budget, and deeply connect and harvest Saffron Road’s consumers that have newly come into the brand as well as to increase the depth and frequency of our loyal consumers,” he said.

Part of the company’s message in that digital marketing will be around social responsibility, since market research data has shown that consumers are increasingly eager to align themselves with companies that practice values with which they identify. Saffron Road has a long history of participation in charitable efforts to feed the hungry that has continued throughout the pandemic, most recently by joining with KIND in its Frontline Impact Project, through which Saffron Road and KIND supplied over 10,000 meals at the height of pandemic to front-line responders. “When COVID happened, I said to my team that we’re very lucky. We’re blessed to be in an essential business – we’re privileged – where we’re supplying food to America, but

that’s not enough. What have we done for the most vulnerable during this crippling epidemic?” Durrani said. “It’s a sacred privilege, really. In fact the best way we could serve our communities was to, at the height of the pandemic, dedicate part of our meals supply chain to the front-line responders: the doctors, nurses, and hospital workers sacrificing themselves to saves lives – our ‘capeless heroes.’”

Durrani is also looking at continued product innovation as another avenue for growth. “I think that next year we’ll bring more innovation into the market, in terms of meal kits, meal occasions, at-home meals, shelf-stable sauces that you can cook with,” he said. In addition, the company is exploring cuisines beyond the foods from India and Mexico that form the backbone of Saffron Road’s current product range.

While some of that innovation is likely to result in sauces for the pantry, Saffron Road will continue to emphasize products for the freezer case. “It just sounds like a lot of Americans now have an extra freezer where they’re storing entrees as well as other frozen products – probably mostly pizza and ice cream, but there’s still a lot of opportunity there,” Durrani said. “And so we understand that there’s going to be increased consumption of frozen products in those households, and I think the supermarkets need to wake up and say, ‘Hey, maybe we need to add a few more doors or an extra aisle of frozen in our store, because that’s really what consumers are demanding now.’”

For more information on Saffron Road, visit www.saffronroad.com. For more information about the Frontline Impact Project, visit www.frontlineimpact.org. GN

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FEATURED PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

White Coffee Introduces NIWRI

Ayala’s Herbal Water

White Coffee Corporation, a Long Island City coffee importer and roaster, is proud to introduce the latest addition to its coffee portfolio: the NIWRI Cold Brew.

NIWRI is a unique beverage cold brewed from green tea and coffee cherries, also known as cascara. Cascara, which means “husk” or “skin” in Spanish, is the dried skins of the coffee cherries. These pulped skins are collected after the seeds (i.e. coffee beans) have been removed from the cherries. While it can’t be defined as strictly coffee or tea but rather something in the middle, NIWRI does derive from the coffee plant. Specifically,

cascara is a product of the fruit of the coffee tree. Since NIWRI is a cascara-based drink, you can expect a sweet, fruity taste with notes of rose hip and hibiscus. The essence is like a superb blend of fruits including raspberry, currant, cranberry and cherry. Both green tea and cascara are reputed to contain antioxidants; including this product among your SKUs allows the opportunity to offer a great-tasting healthy option in one beverage.

Ayala’s Herbal Water is the perfect match between healthy hydration and unique flavor – a great way to draw the healthminded consumer to your store. Each bottle contains pure water and organic herbs, with zero calories, sugar or sweeteners. It’s a great option for ingredientconscious customers looking for a new refreshment without compromise. Enjoy all five flavors, like soothing Lavender Mint to subtly zesty Ginger Lemon Peel. Every

White Coffee 718.204.7900 www.whitecoffee.com

Experts in both specialty foods and goods, Stonewall Kitchen recently had the opportunity to combine these two passions when creating its new Sweet Tea & Honey Fine Home Keeping Collection. Inspired by the regional iced beverage of the same name, this summery line is scented with light notes of tea and honey as well as lemongrass essential oil to perfectly capture the refreshing nature of porch-sippin’ on a cool drink after a long, hot day.

As is the case with all of Stonewall Kitchen’s seasonal Fine Home Keeping collections, this one features three core products that are each crafted in the United States with only the best ingredients. The Hand Soap is made from a special plant-based formula, it produces a luxurious lather that delivers a gentle yet invigorating clean. Infused with vitamin E, this soap leaves skin feeling nourished and soft with every use.

For an extra dose of moisture, customers can look to this collection’s rich Hand Lotion. Featuring a trifecta of shea

Tortuga Premium Rum Cake Tortuga is a world-renowned brand that continues to lead the gourmet and cakes category by heavily focusing on innovation and ensuring that its consumers are presented with fresh, innovative and new options.

Tortuga has been on a relentless pursuit of expanding its presence across travel retail markets, and collaborating with another highly acclaimed brand was natural. Flor de Caña is renowned as one of the best rums from Latin America, so it was only fitting that Tortuga and Flor de Caña partner to create a co-branded premium product: Tortuga’s Premium Rum

Cake made with Flor de Caña Aged Rum. This luscious cake perfectly blends the globally recognized secretrecipe rum cake from Tortuga, enjoyed for more than three decades, and Flor de Caña’s sustainably sourced seven-year rum, enriched by an active volcano, naturally aged without sugar and distilled 100 percent with renewable energy.

This product is available in 4-ounce and 16-ounce premium giftable boxes.

Tortuga Rum Cake Company 786.817.6880 ext. 7311 www.tortugarumcakes.com

out in November in Price Chopper, Hen House and Sun Fresh stores in the Kansas City metropolitan area with a nationwide push in 2021.

They are available 24/7 at www.spicin foods.com.

Spicin Foods also offers co-packing, private label, wholesale, food service, distributors and international opportunities.

Spicin Foods 800.568.8468 www.spicinfoods.com

Nine Flavors of Mel’s Toffee Mel’s Toffee offers something most other companies don’t: flavors – many flavors. All told, throughout the year, Mel’s Toffee offers nine different flavors of deliciousness. Flavors range from Plain Jane to Mexican Hot Chocolate, from Sea Salt Pretzel to Ballpark Crunch and from Maple Bourbon Pecan to CEO Stout, a beer-infused chocolate toffee.

The toffee fits in a corporate gift basket, can be used for wedding and shower fa-

Ayala’s Herbal Water www.herbalwater.com

Stonewall Kitchen: Steeped in Southern Hospitality butter, coconut oil and olive oil as well as several essential vitamins, it’s perfect for repairing and replenishing even the worst winter-worn skin. The never-greasy formula absorbs quickly and easily into hands, while the addition of aloe soothes and revives.

Rounding out the line is an attractive Candle sustainably made from 100 percent soy wax. Packaged in a cute glass jar with a convenient screw-top lid to help keep dust at bay, it emits little to no soot while burning brightly for up to 40 hours.

Best of all, this long-lasting candle fills any space with the delicate, honeyed scent of freshly brewed sweet tea.

Whether enjoyed individually or as a set, the products in this collection bring a touch of Southern charm to your customers’ homes the world over.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Kuta Black Truffle Slices

Tradición Tapas Collection Sauces & Jams Spicin Foods has been in the sauce business for more than two decades, and produces over 900 different barbecue sauces and 750 hot sauces. Its Tradición Tapas Collection of Salsas includes Garden Vegetable, Sweet Jalapeño, Spanish Olive, Taco Salsa Verde and Blackberry Chipotle Jam, to name a few. The newest flavor is Artichoke Spinach, which has become a consumer favorite overnight. Bold, flavorful, and made with natural ingredients – it is a celebration of Old World recipes unsurpassed for the modern table. It packs a zesty punch to serve with chips, mix into taco dips or create delicious entrees to share.

Spicin Foods sauces and jams rolled

flavor is a delicious refreshment and a reward for the spirit during a hectic day.

vors, as a snack and is great as a hostess gift. The toffee sells well in gift shops or specialty food stores, grocery stores or boutiques.

Mel’s Toffee michelle@melstoffee.com www.melstoffee.com

Kuta Tartufi is your premier source for truffle-based specialty food products.

Black Truffle Slices are non-GMO, organic with 100 percent summer truffle sliced in olive oil, and they come in 90g, 160g, and 450g. This product is unique and delicious, and can add real pizazz to your meals.

Kuta Tartufi truffles come from the Piemonte region, which is well known as the source of the highest-quality truffles found in Italy.

There are three categories of flavors, which are Savory, Sweet and Kosher. Even though truffles are luxurious products, Kuta Tartufi believes that its prices are competitive with any market.

Kuta is family-owned and each genera-

tion carries on the tradition while creating new products.

Using both classic cultivation methods along with new innovations in preservation technology, the company can offer more options for culinary aficionados.

Products are widely available across the U.S. market in specialty shops and at retailers.

Darsana Specialty Food 646.251.8320 www.kutatartufi.com

Shipper for Crispy Fruit Crispy Fruit snacks are 100 percent pure fruit, freeze-dried to the perfect crisp. Apples, mangos, strawberries and five other delicious fruits in convenient grab-and-go bags.

Consider Crispy Green’s latest innovation, the case stack shipper. This gorgeous, eye-popping, functional and affordable turnkey merchandising solution will attract not only moms searching for back to school snacks, but anyone who walks by and could even draw in some new customers who aren’t familiar with the

product. Crispy Green’s research proves how merchandising Crispy Fruit can drive more traffic and higher profitability. This display (with virtually no assembly required) is now available to order.

Crispy Green Inc. www.crispygreen.com

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GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

Imported Fiorucci Prosciutto di Parma Fiorucci is the brand of specialty meats that delivers the true taste of Italy. For nearly 170 years, the company has used Old World recipes to produce a full line of authentic Italian charcuterie meats, cheeses and premium snacking products using only hand-trimmed cuts of premium pork and the finest ingredients, then slowly aging them to perfection.

Now available for this holiday season, Fiorucci has imported specialty cuts of Prosciutto di Parma to indulge with. These premium imported cuts of ham are made from individually selected breeds of heritage pork raised in the Parma region of Italy. They are hand-

Fall River Wild Rice: New Ways with America’s Native Grain salted and cured between 12-18 months, giving each slice a unique salty, sweet and slightly nutty flavor that is exclusive to Prosciutto di Parma.

Silky prosciutto makes every dish feel like a special occasion. It’s a delicious accompaniment to cheese, melons, dates, olives and breads.

This ham variety can also be served at the start of a meal as an antipasto, wrapped around steamed asparagus spears or as an ingredient in specialty sandwiches or pizzas.

Fiorucci Foods cfa.marketing@campofriofg.com www.fioruccifoods.com

DeBrand Truffles: Effortless, Profitable, Enticing DeBrand Truffles are the luxurious sweet conclusion that will entice each and every customer. These 12 incredible variations seem almost too beautiful to eat. Each oversized piece is individually and artistically designed, but their true beauty lies within.

These irresistible silky, rich Truffles are petite, gourmet chocolate desserts. DeBrand Truffles boast a minimum shelf life of two months at room temperature, with no need for refrigeration or preparation by your staff. All varieties are guaranteed in stock and are available to ship within one to two business days, all year round. DeBrand packaging is also available for purchase, and its Truffle wholesale prices are currently set for resellers to earn a margin over 62 percent. DeBrand makes it easy to offer a gourmet chocolate experience year round.

Simply set on a plate and serve.

Featuring these beautiful Truffles in a display case is the perfect way to entice your customers. As they arrive, they will be greeted by the promise of a high-quality, gourmet chocolate experience. This is

an easy add-on sale and has no need for any preparation; just bag or box and go.

DeBrand is also happy to provide artwork and product descriptions for menus, displays and social media advertising.

DeBrand recommends carrying an ongoing selection of at least four to six different Truffles to provide a wide selection and an eye-catching display.

Its four most popular Truffles are Dark Chocolate, Caramel, Peanut Butter and Raspberry. In addition to selling Truffles by the piece, they are also available in prepackaged assortments, ideal for holidays, events and when guests are in a hurry. These highquality, gourmet chocolates are perfect for gift shops, restaurants and other gourmet shops. DeBrand Truffles deliver a high-quality, gourmet chocolate experience that your guests are sure to remember and come back for more.

DeBrand Fine Chocolates 260.969.8331 www.debrand.com

Ayala’s Herbal Water Ayala’s Herbal Water® was founded by Dr. Ayala Laufer Cahana, a concerned pediatrician and mom exploring healthy, delicious ways of eating.

Seeking an alternative to sugar-laden and artificially flavored beverages, Cahana created her own blends of herbinfused waters that refresh body and spirit. Her creation, Herbal Water, is the first nationally available certified-organic flavored water. Each bottle contains a unique blend of organic herbs and pure water, with zero calories, sugar or sweeteners. Five herbal flavors are available, each a subtle and refreshing delight to the senses and a great alternative to typical fruit-flavored waters. Flavors range from soothing Lavender Mint, to the bright and invigorating notes of Ginger

Lemon Peel. Product appearance is refreshingly clear, so the items are right at home on shelf with other water items, as well as the store’s cold case.

Ayala’s Herbal Water is a perfect choice for healthy consumers looking for something new in their refreshment. In particular, it’s attracted a strong following of women interested in exercise and healthy lifestyles.

Offering Ayala’s Herbal Water is a great way for a retail store to create incremental sales, through appealing to these healthy consumers.

Ayala’s Herbal Water info@herbalwater.com www.herbalwater.com

Interest in plants and grains is soaring, as shoppers look for new ways to eat healthy.

High in protein and fiber, nutty and with a striking visual appeal, wild rice is one of the healthiest grains available. It was a staple food of several Native American tribes, who called it “manoomin” or “precious grain.”

Fall River Wild Rice brings this culinary gem to your store shelf. This naturally cultivated wild rice is great in salads, soups and stirfries. However, it also works well in mixes for pancakes and muffins and even in chocolate and desserts. Fall River’s Fully Cooked Wild Rice is high-protein goodness in seconds.

The only cereal grain native to North America, wild rice is not even a rice at all.

It is the seed of Zizania plustris, a tall, blooming water grass that prospers in the Great Lakes region, as well as in the fruitful valley in the shadows of the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies. Fall River Wild Rice is a small grower-owned cooperative in the Fall River Valley, a rural mountain valley nestled between the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges.

Fall River Wild Rice 800.626.4366 www.fallriverwildrice.com

Enjoy the Icons of European Taste The producers of Prosciutto di San Daniele PDO, Grana Padano PDO and Prosciutto di Parma PDO are the focus of an exciting joint promotional campaign that seeks not only to raise awareness about these unique foods among American and Canadian retailers and consumers, but also to emphasize the importance of quality, authenticity and tradition.

Although these products are from Italy, they are indicative of the many traditional foods from Europe that are unique to their respective areas, as well as the production methods which have been handed down from generation to generation by proud artisans who are in

tune with the land and the seasons.

Because of the greatness of these foods and their popularity – both at home and abroad – imitations have naturally sprung up around the world.

Such products bear none of the history, tradition or quality of the originals. While this may seem inevitable, and consumers are free to buy what they want, it’s important that they actually know what they are buying, how it is made and from what it is made.

Icons of European Taste www.iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

Honey Stinger’s New Protein-Packed Cracker Bar Honey Stinger is known for making great-tasting and portable energy foods using honey. Newest to the Honey Stinger line is the delicious, proteinpacked Cracker Bar, formulated specifically to help the body recover post-workout. With peanut butter sandwiched between two salty, crunchy crackers, and dipped in either milk or dark chocolate, it’s a mouth-watering way to transform recovery fuel into a tasty reward. Ten grams of plant protein helps to repair muscles while being easy

on the stomach, a n d honeypowered carbohydrates help to restock the body’s energy reserves.

Honey Stinger sales@honeystinger.com www.honeystinger.com

Micro Broccoli Create healthy meals at home with broccoli, in microgreen form. Micro Broccoli is delicious, bright, fresh and nutritious. Add this to any type of entrée like baked salmon, chicken and turkey, as you would with mature broccoli. Make a creamy squash soup fancy with microgreens. Micro Broccoli can also be easily blended into a green smoothie. Microgreens take the prep time out of preparing adult veggies and are a perfect and easy addition to salads and small appetizers. Micro

Broccoli has the s a m e g r e a t taste of mature broccoli with a sweeter bite.

Fresh Origins www.freshorigins.com

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FEATURED PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

BrightFresh Microgreens Microgreens are no longer just for top chefs and fancy restaurants. BrightFresh ® Microgreens offer healthy and nutritious microgreens available for foodies and home cooks. These microgreens are Honestly Grown™ in sunny San Diego, California, an ideal climate for producing microgreens that are robust, highly flavored and longlasting. Combining the of great benefits weather and a deep passion for quality and innovation, BrightFresh has become the top source of microgreens and edible flowers for consumers today.

Microgreens are small, young edible greens produced from herbs, vegetables and other plants. BrightFresh carefully hand-harvests them at the peak of flavor and their delicate, fresh appearance adds beauty, dimension and a range of distinct flavor profiles to sweet and savory dishes and even beverages. They can be used to customize any dish and brighten up culinary creations.

BrightFresh Microgreens are the gold standard of quality. Location and growing conditions are very important factors with growing microgreens. BrightFresh Microgreens are grown in bright, natural sunshine and are not factory farmed with artificial lighting methods that other growers use to produce microgreens.

Spread the Joy with New Stonewall Kitchen Aiolis Microgreens should have short stems and fully-expanded leaves with deep vibrant color, and this simply cannot be achieved by producing them in energyintensive factory farms. Even when grown inside a greenhouse, if the outdoor climate is less than ideal, the result

is similar to factory farmed: soft, stretched and stemmy with tiny leaves.

Microgreen nutrition and flavor are in the leaves, not the stems. BrightFresh Microgreens are top quality and have the best taste and appearance.

BrightFresh offers several microgreens varieties, including Micro Arugula, Micro Broccoli, Micro Cilantro, Micro Kale Mix, Micro Radish Mix and the most popular, Micro Rainbow Mix. BrightFresh also offers more unique items, such as Gold Pea Shoots, Squash Blossoms and an Herb Flowers Mix. BrightFresh is currently available in select retail stores across the U.S.

Fresh Origins www.freshorigins.com

Give your customers a condiment that pulls double duty and then some. We’re talking about aioli, the mayo-like emulsion that combines a creamy base of oil, vinegar, garlic and egg yolks with other robust ingredients to create an endlessly versatile spread.

New this month from the specialty food makers at Stonewall Kitchen come three unique varieties. First up is the Everything Aioli – a condiment that’s quite literally everything your customers could want.

Fashioned after the popular bagel seasoning, it features a crunchy mix of black sesame seeds, dried onions, dried garlic and sea salt, which adds a delightful texture and delicious bite to BLTs, salmon burgers and more.

For a wholesome twist, the Garlic & Avocado Oil Aioli couples the smooth taste of garlic with light and buttery avocado oil, a favorite among health-conscious customers.

Wonderful on all types of sandwiches, from veggie wraps to California clubs, this spread can also be served atop baked fish or used as a base for sauces and dips.

Finally, customers will certainly love the savory quality of the Rosemary Aioli.

Blended with the fragrant herb of the same name, it boasts aromatic notes and a bright, almost citrusy finish that brings balance to this rich and tangy condiment. A natural pairing for red meats and poultry, it’s a guaranteed winner when added to roast beef sandwiches or grilled chicken wraps.

Vegetarians will also enjoy it as a dip for frites or tossed with boiled potatoes for a fun picnic side.

Of course, these are just the latest additions to Stonewall Kitchen’s already extensive array of aiolis. Flavored with premium ingredients that range from ultrahot ghost peppers to smoky bacon to earthy truffles, these spectacular spreads promise to tantalize taste buds at every turn. As your customers are sure to attest, sandwiches are just the start of what these aiolis can do.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Summerhill Goat Dairy Summerhill Goat Dairy thinks simple is better – simple ingredients and simple processes – so the company is delighted to add simply delicious Chocolate Goat Milk to its lineup. It contains all the benefits of goat milk with a sweet twist. Summerhill adds a rich cocoa powder and organic cane sugar to its whole goat milk for a delightful chocolate taste. Then it pasteurizes and bottles it, and ships it to your store.

Simple.

Summerhill Goat Dairy has been familyowned for more than 20 years. It is committed to providing customers with high quality goat milk. The goats live only a short walk from Summerhill’s state-of-theart milking parlor and creamery. They produce milk, and Summerhill pasteurizes

and packages it so it’s retail ready. All under one roof.

Summerhill Goat Dairy is powered by clean, renewable energy, because the company cares about being good stewards. Summerhill Goat Dairy is Certified Humane® – because it thinks that milk from happy goats just tastes better. Take a sip, and Summerhill thinks you’ll agree.

Summerhill Dairy 559.804.8148 hannah@summerhilldairy.com www.summerhilldairy.com

Champignon North America Presents New Communication Concept Champignon North America has a new communication concept: “This is fine cheese.”

Being able to align the communication towards both target groups – the consumer and the retailer – was the main target for this concept. The concept will be rolled out at several touch-points like social media, website or printed advertisements but also at point-of-sale with a Fine Cheese Sample Event and printed marketing materials.

The consumer related communication tools will focus on recipes and inspiration as well as on #cheesefacts or cheese handling tips. The concept acts as an umbrella for all brands but still gives every brand the opportunity to stand out on its own in competition with other cheeses.

The focus for the point of sale is on ac-

tivities to drive sales. In stores where demonstrations were once popular, Champignon has shifted to partnering with retailers for “Fine Cheese Sample Events,” where cheese managers can offer shoppers a take-home sample of one of Champignon’s featured fine cheeses.

Champignon is supporting with signage to increase customer engagements.

The focus items for the Fine Cheese Sample Event are CAMBOZOLA and CAMBOZOLA Black Label, CHAMPIGNON Mushroom and Grand Noir.

Champignon USA 201.871.7211 www.thisisfinecheese.com

EDITOR’S PICKS

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

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Editor’s Picks Jambon de Paris

Fabrique Délices’ Jambon de Paris is made according to traditional recipes to ensure a rich, delicate taste. Lean, lowfat whole-muscle pork is slowly cooked sous-vide, carefully seasoned and perfect for slicing. Enjoy one of the best Parisian style hams available in your favorite sandwiches, croque monsieur, quiches, party trays, antipasto platters, appetizers and breakfast dishes. The large Jambon de Paris is a 10-pound ham that’s perfect for slicing in the deli. Jambon de Paris is also sold as three units with 3.3 pounds each.

Fabrique Delices www.fabriquedelices.com

Feve Bars

Feve Bars represent a unique take on the traditional chocolate bar. Skillful chocolatiers have taken nostalgic flavors that harken back to happy childhood memories: comforting memories of Grandma’s cinnamon toast, Mom’s raspberry cheesecake, and old-fashioned peanut butter bars, and revived them as tasty confection bars unlike anything else on the market. Combined with healthful ingredients such as crunchy puffed quinoa, Feve Bars are a retro treat, handcrafted in San Francisco in a reimagined way, appealing to both younger and older customers alike. Brand new for fall 2020, Feve Bars are available in three nostalgic flavors: Cinnamon Toast, Peanut Butter Crunch and Raspberry Cheesecake.

Perfectly Cordial Cocktail Mixers

Created with handpicked fresh fruits and a blend of spices, Perfectly Cordial brings no-nonsense cocktail mixers to the home bar, making craft cocktails and mocktails accessible for both the novice and enthusiast bartender. Each Perfectly Cordial premium craft mixer is made from a variety of fresh squeezed juices, a unique global spice blend and pure cane sugar, and do not contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Simply mix with your favorite spirit for the perfect cocktail, or combine with sparkling water or tonic for a refreshing mocktail. Seasonal flavors and holiday gift packs are available.

Perfectly Cordial www.perfectlycordial.com

Rub with Love Ancho & Molasses Barbecue Sauce

A 2019 sofi Award winner, Rub with Love’s Ancho & Molasses Barbecue Sauce combines the husky sweetness of molasses, the smoky heat of ancho and chipotle chilies and the roasted malt and hop flavors of porter beer. Rub with Love spice, rubs and sauces were created by James Beard Awardwinning chef, author and restaurateur Tom Douglas in Seattle, Washington.

Rub with Love 206.448.1193 www.tomdouglas.com

Feve Chocolates www.fevechocolates.com

Laura’s Gourmet Granola Blueberry Bliss Crunch

Laura’s Gourmet Granola has added Blueberry Bliss Crunch to its collection of eight flavors. Laura’s Gourmet Granola, owned

by Chef Laura Briscoe, is a certified woman-owned business based in Tempe, Arizona. Each granola flavor is made from premium ingredients and is baked the artisan way, one batch at a time, making this brand truly gourmet granola.

Laura’s Gourmet Granola www.laurasgourmet.com

Once Again Nut Butter Cashew Butter with Sea Salt Caramel

Decadently rich and beautifully buttery, the premium product is crafted from carefully selected, organically grown cashews that are dry roasted for color and flavor and milled creamy with natural caramel flavor, high-quality sea salt and organic sunflower oil. The U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified organic product features 5 grams of plant-based protein per serving and is free of sodium, preservatives, cholesterol and trans-fat. It’s also Non-GMO Project Verified, gluten-free certified, vegan, paleo-friendly, keto, kosher, and part of the brand’s Honest in Trade program. Made in a dedicated, peanutfree facility with no sugar added (so it’s just the right amount of sweet!), this flavored cashew butter is so delicious, it’ll make you do a double dip.

Once Again Nut Butter 888.800.8075 www.onceagainnutbutter.com

Thai-Style Frozen Entrees from Saffron Road

Thai Basil Noodles and Thai Red Curry Chicken are the newest frozen entrees from Saffron Road. Thai Basil Noodles combines pasture-raised, grass-fed beef with bok choy and red bell peppers in a delicious tamarind and Thai Basil sauce, while Thai Red Chicken Curry is filled with an entire marketplace of wholesome ingredients from coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime and red chili pepper with antibiotic-free chicken. The result is a complex, authentic and delicious flavor combination. Both meals are made with premium authentic and responsibly-sourced ingredients like chicken raised without antibiotics or grass-fed beef and are free from anything artificial. They are both halal and gluten free-certified.

Saffron Road www.saffronroad.com

New Hard Seltzer from Sparkling Ice

Sparkling Ice has launched Sparkling Ice SPIKED™. The new full-flavored spiked seltzer is offered in four flavors: Cherry Lime Cooler, Lemonade Refresher, Ruby Fizz and Strawberry Citrus Smash, each with 4 percent alcohol, zero sugar and only 80 calories. It’s offered in slim 12-ounce cans in a 12-can variety pack.

Sparkling Ice www.sparklingicespiked.com

breakfast is back!

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PHOTO SPECIAL FEATURE FEATURE

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

Goodnow Farms Cocoa Mixes

Goodnow Farms Single Origin Hot Cocoa, Almendra Blanca won a silver sofi Award in the hot beverages category in 2019. To make its cocoas, Goodnow Farms roasts, grinds and presses premium cacao beans to create 100 percent pure cacao powder which is then blended with organic sugar to create a delicious mix. There are no additives and Goodnow Farms doesn’t alkalize, so the pure flavors of the cacao are in each sip. Visit www.goodnowfarms.com for more information.

Edwards Smokehouse Bacon

Nature’s Path Pumpkin Seed + Flax Granola

To make its bacon, Edwards Smokehouse dry-cures the pork for about seven days, washes it and then smokes it over hickory for 24 hours. The bacon is then tempered for a week and then sliced. Edwards Smokehouse bacon is often said to have more of a country, smoky flavor than most, and that’s due to the dry curing. For more information, visit www.edwardsvaham.com.

Nature’s Path Pumpkin Seed + Flax Granola is the company’s best-selling organic granola for a reason – small clusters of crunchy whole grains are blended with pumpkin seeds, flax, a hint of cinnamon and a dash of salt to enhance all the flavors. Great as a healthful breakfast addition or on-the-go snack, the omega-3 heart-healthy flax seeds and protein packed pumpkin seeds provide a nutritious boost.

The 11.5-ounce box retails for $4.99. Visit www.naturespath.com for more information.

Happiness Comes in Waves

DEMDACO sets the table for breakfast with the Happiness Comes in Waves Plate with Spreader Set. Matching stainless steel spreaders complete the set with the stoneware plate. The new plate and spreader sets are also offered in other patterns at this winter’s shows in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Dallas. Retailing for a suggested price of $23, they’re a nice gift item, too. If you can’t visit DEMDACO at this winter’s shows, call 913.402.6800, email jenifer.regnier@demdaco.com or visit www.demdacoretailers.com.

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

PHOTO FEATURE

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Functional Teas from Republic of Tea

SuperAdapt™ Burnout Blocker® and Beautifying Botanicals® Daily Beauty teas from Republic of Tea each won gold sofi Awards from the Specialty Food Association earlier this year. SuperAdapt Burnout Blocker was awarded the gold in the tea category, while Beautifying Botanicals Daily Beauty won in the functional beverage category.

The great taste of the SuperAdapt Burnout Blocker is attributed to aromatic cinnamon, sweet dates and zesty ginger. The SuperAdapt collection of teas feature adaptogens, a category of healing herbs to help handle stress. The air-tight tin contains 36 round, unbleached paper tea bags and retails for $13.75 per tin, which is just 38 cents per cup. This herbal blend is caffeine-free.

Beautifying Botanicals Daily Beauty, winner of the functional beverage category, is a collagen-promoting blend of nourishing ingredients including the exotic blue butterfly pea flower, hibiscus, rose hips, bamboo and schizandra berries. This caffeinefree herbal tea is a beauty ritual, hot or over ice, with juicy blueberries and calming lavender. Daily Beauty is a great value, retailing for $13.75 per tin, 38 cents per cup.

Visit www.republicoftea.com for more information.

Luscious Organic Yogurts from St. Benoit Creamery

Urby Modern Creamer

Urby Modern Creamer is a new keto-friendly coffee creamer with functional benefits from plant protein and no added sugar.

Urby Modern Creamer is made with organic pea protein and organic sunflower seed protein, so that each serving provides 5 grams of plant protein. The product is sweetened with monkfruit extract, so it contributes 40 calories and zero grams of sugar. Urby Modern Creamer is packaged in a polyethylene jar that contains 26 servings and retails for $25.99. It includes a scoop that measures out an individual serving. For each jar that’s sold, Urby donates a meal through a partnership with Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. For more information, visit www.liveurby.com.

NIWRI from White Coffee

NIWRI Cold Brew from White Coffee Corporation is a unique beverage cold brewed from green tea and coffee cherries, also known as cascara. “Cascara,” which means “husk” or “skin” in Spanish, is the dried skins of the coffee cherries.

These pulped skins are collected after the seeds (i.e. coffee beans) have been removed from the cherries. While it can’t be defined as strictly coffee or tea but rather something in the middle, NIWRI does derive from the coffee plant.

Specifically, cascara is a product of the fruit of the coffee tree.

Since NIWRI is a cascara-based drink, consumers can expect a sweet, fruity taste with notes of rose hip and hibiscus. The essence is like a superb blend of fruits including raspberry, currant, cranberry and cherry. Call White Coffee at 718.204.7900 or visit www.whitecoffee.com.

St. Benoit Creamery organic yogurts feature full-fat, pasture-raised Jersey cow’s milk and gut-friendly live active cultures. Not only are they minimally-processed (without fillers and excessive sweeteners), but they’re also so creamy and light with a smooth, mild flavor.

Breakfast, post-workout snack or a healthy dessert – these yogurts offer something true and new. They’re available in Plain, French Vanilla, Strawberry, Meyer Lemon and Honey flavors in 4.75-ounce glass cups.

The Plain, French Vanilla, Meyer Lemon and Honey varieties are also offered in 23-ounce jars. St. Benoit Creamery is part of a family of companies that includes Laura Chenel and Marin French Cheese.

For more information, visit www.stbenoit.com.

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SMORGASBORD

GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2021 www.gourmetnews.com

SMORGASBORD ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER

PAGE

WEBSITE

Ariston Specialties

7

www.aristonspecialties.com

Be BOLD Bars

11

www.beboldbars.com

Champignon North America Inc.

27

www.thisisfinecheese.com

Crispy Green

37

www.crispygreen.com

DeBrand Fine Chocolates

5

www.debrand.com

Edward & Sons Trading Co.

29

www.edwardandsons.com

EU3

2

www.iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

Fresh Origins

31

www.freshorigins.com

GLASS — North America

39

www.ardaghgroup.com

Honey Stinger

13

www.honeystinger.com

Howard Products Inc.

19

www.howardproducts.com

Jasper Specialty Foods

15

www.jakesnutroasters.com

Lycored Corporation

22

www.lycored.com

Olivia’s Croutons

30

www.oliviascroutons.com

Parmacotto LLC

9

www.parmacotto.com

Renfro Foods Inc.

26

www.renfrofoods.com

Spicin Foods

38

www.spicinfoods.com

Stonewall Kitchen

3,4,32

www.stonewallkitchen.com

Summerhill Dairy

25

www.summerhilldairy.com

Sunsweet

17

www.herbalwater.com

The French Farm

7

www.thefrenchfarm.com

Tortuga Rum Cake Company

40

www.tortugarumcakes.com

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars

19

www.widmerscheese.com

Wild Forest Products

7

www.mardonaspecialtyfoods.com

Meijer Signs on with Instacart Online grocery delivery company Instacart has entered into a new national partnership with Meijer to offer same-day delivery in as fast as an hour from nearly all Meijer stores. Together, Instacart and Meijer are delivering thousands of items including groceries and household essentials, as well as a broad selection of general merchandise across a number of categories including home decor, toys and crafts, garden, sports and outdoor, office, electronics and more.

“Instacart’s mission is to give customers access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. In 2020, this commitment has taken on an entirely new meaning as we continue to serve as an essential, same-day delivery service for millions of people across North America.

Customers rely on Instacart to get the groceries and goods they need from the retailers they love, and today we’re proud to welcome Meijer to our marketplace so they can further connect with their customers online,” said Nilam Ganenthiran, President of Instacart. “Meijer is an iconic, family-owned grocer that has served families across the Midwest for

more than 85 years. Through our new partnership, we’re bringing Meijer’s incredible selection online for customers, giving Meijer customers access to everything they need from the comfort and safety of their home.”

Instacart has continued to partner with new retailers over the last year, and today the company partners with more than 500 local, regional and national retailers, including unique brand names, and delivers from nearly 40,000 store locations across the U.S. and Canada. Instacart is available to 85 percent of U.S. households and 70 percent of Canadian households with delivery and pickup services offered across more than 5,500 cities in North America.

Meijer customers across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Wisconsin are now able to shop for sameday delivery in as fast as an hour via Instacart. For all orders placed through the Instacart platform, an Instacart personal shopper will pick and deliver the order within the customer’s designated time frame – whether they choose to receive it same-day or schedule their delivery in advance. GN

Rumiano Cheese Breaks Ground on New Facility Rumiano Cheese Company, California’s oldest family-owned cheese company and a pioneer in organic and artisanal cheese, has announced that construction has begun on its new 46,766-square-foot cheese processing and packaging plant one hour north of Sacramento in Willows, California.

The new state-of-the-art facility will enable Rumiano to expand its current headquarter operations in Willows and to double its current packaging volume by the end of 2025 as retail demand continues to accelerate. The company will be able to increase its processing and distribution capacity and will introduce additional product lines and capabilities for new retail package types, including shreds and snacks. The expansion also bolsters Rumiano’s ability to scale its cutting and packaging business for other West Coast cheesemakers and its Board at Home program which supports California’s artisanal community.

Located a short distance from the existing plant, the new site will occupy four acres of a new 38-acre commercial industrial park being developed by the city of Willows. The facility is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2021.

“The city’s assistance with this industrial development site made it possible for us to remain here in Willows where we’ve been successfully operating for 101 years,” said John Rumiano, Vice President and thirdgeneration co-Owner at Rumiano Cheese Company. “We are eager to deepen our long-standing contribution to this wonderful community, and we remain committed to our dedicated employees, many of whom have been with us for 30 to 40 years.”

Construction of the new facility is supported by a $1.8 million economic development grant from the city of Willows along

with private funding. Rumiano will retain all 150 current employees and is actively recruiting for additional employees to support the new growth plans. Rumiano currently employs more than 200 people between its production plant in Crescent City, California, where the cheese is made, and its facility in Willows, where all products are processed and packaged for distribution.

The company will move most of its packaging operations to the new facility, and the existing Willows plant will be renovated for cheese aging and storage as well as a range of small-batch value-added processing. A new research and development space will be created for ongoing innovation in new products and packaging.

“Our new facility, along with equipment upgrades and cutting-edge technology, is going to provide a footprint for growth for years to come,” said Joe Baird, Rumiano Cheese Company’s Chief Executive Officer.

“As we push the boundaries of our product innovations and significantly increase our efficiencies, we’re also going to be able to give our employees more opportunities for advancement and career development.”

In line with Rumiano’s ongoing commitment to reducing energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions through sustainable and eco-friendly practices that mitigate the effects of climate change, the new Willows plant, like the company’s existing facilities, will run on 100 percent renewable solar energy generated on-site. The new plant will also be Safe Quality Food standards (SQF) certified.

“The city of Willows is proud to work with a family-run and community-oriented business,” said Willows city manager Wayne Peabody. “We look forward to the continued growth of the business and the opportunities that will arise from Rumiano Cheese being in the city of Willows.” GN

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