Gourmet News • November 2020

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VOLUME 85, NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 2020 n $7.00

NEWS & NOTES n

Goodnow Farms: Ten sofi Awards in Two Years PAGE 6

RETAILER NEWS n

Hampton Coffee Opens in Montauk PAGE 12

SUPPLIER NEWS n

Serious Foodie Sauce Connects with a Culture PAGE 14

NATURALLY HEALTHY n

Beans Beckon in Pandemic Fog PAGE 18

B U S I N E S S

N E W S P A P E R

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Private 2020 PAGE 21

News..............................................6 Featured Products ........................29 Ad Index .......................................38

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I N D U S T R Y

Global Pandemic Reshapes Grocery Retail

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

The COVID-19 pandemic has remapped the routes that shoppers take through their grocery stores.

They are now more focused on the essentials for family meals, with the top four categories – bread, meat, cheese and bottled water – now accounting for half of the market for specialty sales of grocery essentials, but shoppers were also driven back to the center store by fast-rising retail prices for meat, dairy and eggs.

Shoppers are also increasingly likely to turn to online grocery retailers to supply some of those needs, many for their first time, which is likely to cause the market size for specialty e-commerce to double in 2020, from $5.4 bil-

lion in 2019 to a minimum of $10.8 billion in 2020. “Even $13.5 billion is not an unreasonable estimate for what might happen during the rest of this year,” said David Lockwood, Consulting Director for market research firm Mintel. “This is a permanent growth bump, due to the pandemic, for online shopping.”

Lockwood presented the results of market research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the specialty food market during Specialty Food Live!, a virtual market experience hosted by the Specialty Food Association on September 21-24. The maturing specialty retail market got a major lift in 2020, and Mintel is predicting that 2021 is likely to

be higher than average before the market normalizes. Although the specialty food market’s growth rate has been declining over the past few years as the industry matures, specialty food sales saw a 15 to 17 percent increase in growth during the May through August months of 2020, a growth rate that was higher than expected, causing Lockwood to revise his earlier forecast for this year’s growth in the specialty food market up to about 16.5 percent. “In 2021, we’re expecting to see a slower return to normal, so it’ll be a long transition phase, not a super-quick one,” Lockwood said. The shape of the

The recent acquisition of Eliot’s Nut Butters by Verus International will make it possible for the fledgling maker of craft nut butters that feature bold flavors that appeal to adults to spread its wings and fly. Eliot’s currently offers six products, consisting of four peanut butters; Spicy Thai, Honey Chipotle, Classic Salted, and Espresso Nib, an Oregon Hazelnut Chocolate Spread and an Everything Bagel Nut Butter.

The Spicy Thai Peanut Butter won a bronze sofi Award in 2017

and is currently the company’s best seller.

Eliot’s Nut Butters is headed by its Founder, Michael Kanter, and based in Portland, Oregon. Kanter will remain the company’s Chief Executive Officer following the acquisition.

“I continue to be passionate about the business, and by leveraging each other’s strength, we’ll just keep rocking and rolling,” Kanter said. “We’ve been a scrappy, under-capitalized business. Having access to capital will help us grow.... As opportunities

Seizing the Opportunity of Plant-Based Foods

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

come in, we’ll be able to move forward.”

As its first step forward, Kanter is planning to launch a line of Eliot’s Nut Butters packaged in single-serve squeeze packs, starting with its Oregon Hazelnut Chocolate Spread, which may allow the company to penetrate into the convenience channel as well as to expand its profile in the online marketplace. “We want to be places where people are shopping, including online,”

Your strategy for appealing to customers who are interested in decreasing their meat consumption for reasons as various as their concerns about their health, environmental sustainability and animal rights, should start with the basics: Don’t call it vegan. Today’s plant-based foods are designed to appeal to meateaters as well as vegetarians and vegans, and they respond to the term “plant-based” with their purchasing dollars, which helps to explain why we’re suddenly seeing the term “plant-based” pop up everywhere.

U. S. retail sales of plant-based foods amounted to $5 billion in 2019. Counting purchases of a spectrum of foods made directly from plants and intended to substitute for animal-based products, including milk and other dairy products, meat and eggs.

That’s up 11 percent from 2018, according to the Good Food Institute, an advocacy organization that promotes a food system that does not include animal products. “Since 2017, the plantbased food market has grown by over $1 billion, a 29 percent increase in just two years,” said

Continued on PAGE 10

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Verus Paves the Path for Peanut Butter Pioneer

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

SUPPLEMENT

F O R

Cookie Company Wins Two sofi Awards in First Time Out

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

In her first time entering the sofi Awards, the Specialty Food Association’s annual paean to creativity and craft in specialty foods, Susan Palmer, “The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen,” took home two statuettes in the baked goods and bakery desserts category. She won the silver award for her Monster Cookie Pie, a ready-tobake spin on a skillet cookie that’s loaded with peanut butter, chocolate, oats and chocolate candy, while her Elvis Cookie Pie won a bronze sofi Award with its peanut butter, banana and chocolate to evoke Elvis Presley’s ba-

nana and peanut butter sandwiches. “I’d had the intention of entering for the past couple of years,” she said.

Those plans fell apart, but, “This year, when I heard the announcement, I was on it.”

Palmer started her career in the specialty food business with a food blog that she named “The

Girl in the Little Red Kitchen,” where she posted inspiration for home cooks and bakers along with recipes for Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with Almond Butter and Jam; Baked Brie en Croute with Honeyed Almonds, Cherries and Thyme and Honey Walnut Fig Cake around weekly meal plans for home cooks look-

ing to change up their dinner repertoire with healthy options.

“Writing and cooking have always been a passion of mine,” she said. “Everyone cooked in my family. My brother was a professional chef for a while…. My mom made everything from scratch. She worked full-time, and she would always come home and cook a delicious dinner every night. We visited farm stands before farmers markets were a thing.”

In 2011, she won her first local baking competition, Brooklyn, Continued on PAGE 16

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FROM NEWS THE & NOTES EDITOR

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

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FROM THE EDITOR

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Kimberly Oser

My dear friends:

SENIOR ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Let us give thanks.

Jules Denton-Card jules_d@oser.com

We give thanks for those of us who are here.

We give thanks for longer nights ahead with those we love.

We give thanks for those who love us from afar.

We are grateful for their safety and their health.

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We give thanks for the farmer who grows our bread.

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We give thanks for those with whom we can agree.

And thanks for those with whom we have differences.

We give thanks for the vaccine that is on the horizon.

And for those who work to bring it to us.

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We give thanks for what still works.

And for the skills to fix what is broken.

We give thanks for every moment that brings us joy.

We give thanks that this year is nearly over.

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Bless you all for being here with us! I am truly grateful for the very many ways that so many of you have lightened my load this year. GN — Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director

CORRECTION A story in the October issue of Gourmet News used the Caulipower brand name in the context of another brand’s products, and the error slipped through all of our proofreading and into print. We apologize for the error.

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NEWS & NOTES

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News & Notes

Goodnow Farms: Ten sofi Awards in Two Years

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

For the second year in a row, Goodnow Farms has swept the sofi Awards in the dark chocolate category with its single-origin bars. Last year, the company won six sofi Awards that included its sweep in the dark chocolate category – the first time a company had ever won six sofi Awards in a single year. The company has also won multiple Good Food Awards over the past three years as well as International Chocolate Awards and awards from the Academy of Chocolate.

This year’s sofi Awards are a welcome bright spot in a year that COVID-19 has clouded with uncertainties, both for Tom Rogan, co-Founder of Goodnow Farms along with his wife, Monica, and for the cacao growers from whom the fine chocolate-makers source the beans for their exceptional products.

The Vision Begins to Form “Our vision from the beginning was to do single-origin and really highlight the flavors of each individual region and, by doing that, to raise awareness of the skill of the farmers and the fact that we need to pay them fairly for the product they’re producing,” said Tom Rogan. “From the beginning” was back in the early years of the 21st century, when Rogan was in the television production business and already thinking about what he’d do after television. In 2010, he sold his Los Angeles, California-based company on an earn-out agreement that gave him and his wife time to think about what they wanted to do next and where they wanted to do it. They did some traveling in Central America, where Monica, originally from Baltimore, Maryland, had worked for a company that built Central American eco-resorts. “She hated chocolate,” Rogan recalls.

Then, back home in Los Angeles, the couple stopped in at a small craft chocolate shop and had a taste of what Rogan now calls “real chocolate.” “It opened our eyes to the idea that it’s a food instead of a candy – that there’s a farmer who grows it,” Rogan said.

Both Tom and Monica Rogan fell in love with that kind of chocolate, and they started making it for themselves as a hobby, buying their beans online and roasting them in their home kitchen. By the time Tom’s involvement with his production company was history, the couple’s hobby was well established. “The idea of making chocolate grew naturally out of the idea

that we love doing it, and it was something we could do at home, and we really got excited about starting a chocolate company,” Rogan said. It was time to get serious about finding farmers who could supply highquality cacao beans grown and processed to order, something that small chocolate-makers generally do a year in advance. For the care that the farmers take with the beans that go into Goodnow Farms chocolate, Rogan pays the farmers a substantial premium over the regular fair trade price. “The challenge has been that people aren’t paying farmers enough for cacao. Fair trade is 10 percent more than the commodity price, plus a 10 percent premium that goes back to the community,” Rogan said. “We pay anywhere between two and four times the commodity price, which goes a long way toward ensuring the farmers receive a fair and sustainable price for their cacao.”

Monica had lived in Central America long enough to become fluent in the Spanish dialects spoken by farmers who lived in cacao-growing areas, so she was – and remains – the company’s lead for interactions with them. “We always travel together,” Rogan said. “I can get by, but I can’t have a long, detailed conversation with a farmer like Monica can. When she was living in Central America, she was living in remote areas, so she was able to pick up on the dialects.”

Making Chocolate in Massachusetts With an initial supply chain established and the freedom to live where they wanted after Rogan’s involvement with his production company had ended, the Rogans decided to take their family to the East Coast, where they’d already decided that they wanted to raise their two children. They looked for a place where they could live and build a chocolate kitchen right next to the house. They found Goodnow Farms, a historic farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts, that had both the space they needed for their business and a community with the kind of small specialty shops that would support a local artisan.

It took them a little over a year to build out the chocolate kitchen and fine-tune the recipes they’d been using to make chocolate on a cottage scale into the formulas for

making fine chocolate on a scale that would support an actual business. “We started selling our first bars in November, 2016, mostly selling locally to small gourmet and specialty stores. We started selling on our website, too. It was a combination of both,” Rogan said. “There was a lot of cold-calling and sending samples to stores.

Once people tried it, they loved it and usually brought it in.”

A Whole Foods buyer was one of those who loved it and brought it in, and that allowed Goodnow Farms to expand throughout the northeastern U.S., but as more specialty stores across the U.S. adopted Goodnow Farms, Rogan had to tell Whole Foods that they just couldn’t keep up, and they were going to have to let some of his customers go. As a result of that decision, Goodnow Farms chocolate is no longer found in Whole Foods. “We really wanted to focus on the small specialty stores because they were the ones who helped us grow to where we are now,” Rogan said.

Focusing on production for distribution only to the customers who mean the most to their business allows the Rogans to refuse to compromise on the quality standards for their products. Goodnow Farms is still pressing its own cocoa butter to add to the nibs as they’re turned into chocolate, so that the extra fat will enhance the chocolate’s texture and speed the transfer of flavor from the chocolate to the tongue.

That’s a step that some chocolate-makers skip by buying commodity cocoa butter.

And though grinding cocoa butter from the beans to add into chocolate that will eventually be labeled with its specific origin also adds to the ultimate retail price on the bar, compromising with cocoa butter made in someone else’s factory would come at a

BRIEFS Instacart Gains $200 Million in New Funding from Existing Investors Instacart has raised $200 million as part of a new financing round led by existing investors Valiant Peregrine Fund and D1 Capital Partners.

The investment comes as consumer demand for Instacart’s online grocery delivery and pickup services continues to grow and the company expands its marketplace with new and existing retail partners. Instacart has continued to partner with new retailers over the last year, and today the company partners with more than 500 retailers and delivers from nearly 40,000 store locations across the U.S. and Canada. The new funding increases the company’s valuation to $17.7 billion.

Instacart is available to more than 85 percent of U.S. households and more than 70 percent of Canadian households with delivery and pickup services across more than 5,500 cities in North America. The company expects to deploy the new capital in a number of ways, including: product development focused on introducing new features and tools to enhance the customer experience, continued investment in Instacart Enterprise to support retailers’ endto-end ecommerce needs, and further investment in its advertising platform to help connect consumer packaged goods brands of all sizes to customers shopping online from their favorite local retailers.

Frank Lazaran Joins the Board at The Alkaline Water Company The Alkaline Water Company Inc. is a producer of bottled alkaline water, flavor-infused waters, and CBD infused products sold under the brand names Alkaline88 ® , A88 Infused™, and A88CBD™, respectively, and has appointed retail industry veteran Frank Lazaran to its board of directors, effective October 8, 2020.

Simultaneous to Lazaran’s appointment, the company announced that Bruce Leitch has decided to step down from the company’s board of directors and focus on other business endeavors. Lazaran was most recently the chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Marsh Supermarkets, Inc., a multi-format regional food retailer based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

OXIGEN Water Company Closes Funding Round Backed by Celebrities

cost, too. “Commercial cocoa butter either adds an off flavor or dilutes the flavor.

Pressing the cocoa butter from the same beans enhances the flavor,” Rogan said. “It’s Continued on PAGE 8

OXIGEN, which makes pH-balanced water boosted with oxygen, announced the closing of its $15 million Series B funding round backed by a roster of notable celebrities and global business leaders. They join Stephen Curry, who was announced as an OXIGEN investor, partner, and face of the brand in August. The all-star lineup includes Brett Eldredge, multi-platinum recording artist, and Kevin Love, five-time allstar player for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Alongside these celebrity investors, OXIGEN is backed by business leaders that include Bryan Ezralow, CEO of The Ezralow Companies; Jonathan Glaser, Principal of JMG Capital; Michael Meldman, co-Founder of Casamigos Tequila and CEO of Discovery Land Co.

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NEWS & NOTES

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Local Hive Honey Enlists Consumers to Save Bees Seeds for Bees is a grass-roots effort to engage members of the American public to support honey bees and the beekeepers who care for them by planting wildflowers in their own back yards, flower pots or window boxes. Local Hive™ Honey and its Chief Executive Officer, Tony Landretti are conducting a campaign to support the effort.

“We’re supporting the local American beekeeper; we’re not buying foreign honey, which unfortunately is included in a lot of items you see on shelf today. We’re giving consumers the opportunity to experience quality American honey,” Landretti said.

“We’re committed to the U.S. beekeeper,

but we can only buy what we can use. The more honey we can buy from these beekeepers, the more they can help within their communities.”

Local Hive buys raw and unfiltered honey from more than 150 beekeepers around the U.S. Each of its 16 varieties of honey has unique floral characteristics that impart different colors and flavors. Local Hive Colorado Honey, for instance, has floral notes from alfalfa, clover and wildflowers, while Local Hive So Cal has notes from citrus, sage and berries as well as alfalfa and clover.

For the past three years, Local Hive has

donated a portion of proceeds from every bottle sold to non-profit PACE (Pollinator Awareness through Conservation and Education) to help protect the safeguarding of all pollinators, including bees. Through its new Seeds for Bees campaign, Local Hive is handing out small packets of wildflower seeds – the packet is the size of a postage stamp – to retailers to pass along to their customers.

“It’s a way to engage those consumers in the process of sustainability of our ecosystem,” Landretti said. “Think about how our topography is changing. You’re seeing open land becoming concrete and homes. What

that does is takes away the opportunity for bees to have places to go forage.... Consumers can become part of the solution by planting flowers.”

Planting the seeds is more than just a way to help bees; it’s also a way for consumers to participate in healing the land after natural disasters such as hurricanes or wildfires, Landretti observed. “It’s an opportunity for us to plant flowers wherever we live in the U.S. and for beekeepers who have hives to have places for their bees to travel to and collect pollen and nectar,” he said.

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

Goodnow Farms

as a Good Food Award.

Similarly, the Goodnow Farms Special Reserve Las Palomas Coffee is the result of a partnership with single-origin coffee expert George Howell. Asochivite chocolate nibs from the small Guatemalan village of San Juan Chivite are soaked in a George Howell brew of Las Palomas coffee from Guatemala until they’re fully infused with the flavor of the coffee. They’re then dried before being stone-ground with added cocoa butter from Asochivite beans to make the chocolate. Las Palomas won a Good Food Award in 2020.

A smaller Inclusions line offers three bars: El Carmen with Coffee, Asochivite with Maple and Almendra with Almonds.

The El Carmen with Coffee combines Nicaraguan cacao with coffee from Recreo Coffee and Roasterie, which imported its beans from Jinotega, Nicaragua. The 69 percent cacao bar was a finalist for a Good Food Award in 2019. For the Asochivite with Maple, Goodnow Farms adds maple syrup from Severance Maple in Northfield, Massachusetts, and for the Almendra with Almonds, Goodnow Farms adds almonds from Burroughs Family Farms. Asochivite with Maple won two bronze awards from the Academy of Chocolate – one in 2018 and one in 2019 – and two silver awards from the International Chocolate Awards in 2018, while Almendra with Almonds was awarded bronze awards by the Academy of Chocolate in 2018 and 2019.

Goodnow Farms’ sweep of the dark chocolate category in 2019 included Ucayali 70% Dark Bar, which won the gold award; Asochivite 77% Dark Bar, which

won the silver; and Coto Brus, 73%, which won the bronze award. In addition to the two sofi Awards for the Putnam Rye Whiskey bar, Goodnow Farms also won a

chain, chocolate makers like Rogan are asking themselves how many Americans will still have the financial resources to indulge themselves with premium-priced

silver sofi Award last year in the coffee and hot cocoa category for its Goodnow Farms Single Origin Hot Cocoa, Almendra Blanca.

This year’s sofi Award winners have all come from Goodnow Farms’ Signature line of bars intended as pure expressions of a specific region of origin, including Goodnow Farms Chocolate Ecuador, Esmeraldas, 70%, which won this year’s gold award; Goodnow Farms Chocolate Colombia, Boyaca, 73%, which won this year’s silver award as well as the award for the best new product in the dark chocolate category; and Goodnow Farms Chocolate Nicaragua, El Carmen, 77%, which won this year’s bronze award.

craft chocolate as this country’s economy recovers from the pandemic. “For now, demand is strong,” Rogan said. “But there are many uncertainties about how the pandemic will ultimately affect consumer behavior.

Goodnow Farms, at least, has seen that, so far, the price of its bars hasn’t deterred American consumers who’ve found the company’s online store. “We’re having trouble keeping up. We ran out of our Colombian beans,” Rogan said. “There’s been a big increase in people consuming craft chocolate – at least, our craft chocolate – since this all started.”

Between the run on its chocolate from the American market and the uncertainties caused by the pandemic, the Rogans are scrambling to source the cacao they need for next year’s bars. While they’d usually be traveling to Central America to meet their farmers, taste samples and verify labor practices, they’re relying instead on longdistance communication from their home in Massachusetts. “For new beans, we have a few that are on the radar, but we’ll probably not be able to visit. We’ll do the best we can, but travel isn’t currently an option,” Rogan said. “It’s a very difficult business. There are endless challenges, and each time they come up, we need to figure out how to get past them. So far, we’ve been able to do that through sheer determination, since we’re so passionate about what we do. People really believe strongly in what we’re doing – the social, moral and passion aspects of it – and that contributes to a drive to figure out how to make it work.”

For more information about Goodnow Farms, visit www.goodnowfarms.com. GN

Continued from PAGE 6 a difficult and expensive process, which is why most chocolate makers don’t do it.”

For Rogan, though, chocolate shouldn’t be just a commodity; it can be a unique expression of a specific place, since cacao grown in different places develops different flavors. It’s also an expression of the skill of the farmer and of the agreement between the Rogans and that farmer to grow a specific quantity and quality of cacao beans for Goodnow Farms, and, in some cases, even to harvest and ferment them according to the Rogans’ instructions.

The Bars and the Beans Today, Goodnow Farms has three lines of craft chocolate bars. Its Special Reserve line combines Goodnow Farms beans with complementary flavors of other craft food products. Goodnow Farms Special Reserve Putnam Rye Whiskey bar combines cacao from Ecuador with Putnam Rye Whiskey from Boston Harbor Distillery. Esmeraldas cacao nibs from beans grown on the Salazar family farm in Ecuador are steeped in the Putnam Rye Whiskey for several days.

When the nibs have absorbed the complex flavors from the whiskey, they’re dried completely before being stone-ground into chocolate. “We’ve tasted a lot of different whiskeys,” Rogan said. “This pairs really well with our Esmeraldas cacao.” The Putnam Rye Whiskey bar won a silver sofi Award and best new product award in 2019 in the sofi chocolate candy category as well

COVID-19 Pandemic Poses Threat It’s those single-origin chocolates that may be most imperiled by this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, which arrived in Latin America on February 26, when Brazil confirmed a case in Sao Paulo. Since then, cases have been confirmed across the region, creating significant uncertainties in the supply chain for the specialty cacao market. “Craft chocolate makers often have to commit to buying cacao beans a year in advance,” Rogan said. “When the next harvest season comes around – January through May, depending on which country you’re in – it’s really difficult; somebody might stop producing. Some of these origins could disappear. It’s challenging.”

Farmers in countries that have been hit hard by the virus have had to think about whether they’re going to have the manpower to harvest and process their beans during the next harvest and whether it’ll be safe to bring those workers onto their farms. At the other end of the supply

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NEWS & NOTES

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Point Pickup Raises $30M to Meet Growing Demand for Delivery Point Pickup Technologies has raised $30M from BBH Capital Partners to enhance its platform for last-mile delivery of online merchandise orders. This Series A investment joins previous seed rounds from private investors and CT Innovations, a venture capital group that supports innovation and startups in the state of Connecticut.

“Point Pickup’s unique market position and impressive growth are exactly what we look for in a company,” said Jeffrey Price, Senior Vice President of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and co-Manager of CP Opportunities Fund. “Point Pickup is well positioned to take advantage of the significant uptick we’re seeing in the final-mile delivery market.”

The $30 million in funding will be used to innovate and enhance the company’s technology platform and highly specialized client services to meet the surging and diversifying demand that has propelled the company’s growth rate to six times in the last six months. At a time when every retailer must transform itself into an online delivery business, Point Pickup offers the only solution with scale.

“While our e-commerce clients were already feeling the competitive pressure to offer same-day, home delivery, the COVID19 crisis has forced them to accelerate their plans,” said Point Pickup Chief Executive Officer Tom Fiorita. “We’ve quickly responded with our tailored solutions to on-

board each new enterprise within a few weeks. Once implemented, our platform and driver networks are designed to easily scale to new product and geographical markets.”

Point Pickup’s delivery solutions are powered by an optimized data-driven platform with proprietary precision matching technology, enabling the company to deliver the unprecedented level of scalability required by today’s e-commerce enterprises. Point Pickup provides a delivery service that naturally scales by matching the appropriate driver, in the correct vehicle, to exact delivery specifications in every major and secondary market in all 50 US states.

“Given our increasing customer de-

mand for store-to-home delivery, and the recent spike due to COVID-19, we needed a partner that could instantly meet the challenges of the grocery marketplace,” said Valery Clarimboli, Vice President, eCommerce Operations, Giant Eagle.

“Point Pickup’s ability to quickly scale our delivery operations across multiple states, including difficult to serve secondary markets, has been critical to our business.”

Point Pickup’s solutions address the needs of the entire e-commerce ecosystem, allowing enterprises, drivers and consumers to benefit from higher levels of predictability and reliability previously lacking in the final-mile delivery market. GN

Plant-Based Foods

growth was 152 percent versus the prior year at the peak of the pantry-stocking period, and then remained strong through the summer, with week-by-week growth ranging from 43 percent to 79 percent, versus the prior year, from April through July, he said.

Retail meat sales were also strong during COVID, but growth in sales of plantbased meats has consistently outpaced growth for conventional meats For the nine-week period ending May 10, sales of conventional meats grew by 45 percent, while sales of plant-based meats grew by 86 percent, according to a report from 210 Analytics LLC that used IRI data.

During the pantry-stocking period in late March, sales of fresh plant-based meats grew by more than 400 percent, while sales of conventional meats grew by 100 percent over the previous year, and sales growth of plant-based meats remained strong through the next several weeks, massively outperforming sales growth for conventional meats.

The Morning Star Farms brand experienced a 66 percent increase in March sales, driven by its frozen products, while Gardein experienced a sales increase of 65 percent from March 13 to April 19, 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

More than a third of Gardein buyers were first-time customers. For Tofurky, sales increased by 40 percent from February through April, while sales of its plantbased ham product grew by 631 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to Forbes magazine.

How to Capitalize on This Opportunity Based on a GFI evaluation of plant-based sales strategies used at 23 banners oper-

ated by the largest U.S. grocery retailers, the organization’s “Good Food Retail Report,” which can be downloaded, for free, from www.gfi.org/retail-report, the organization has some recommendations that include merchandising strategies as well as ideas for making your store a destination for shoppers seeking out plant-based foods in general rather than specific products and, the simplest, just using the term “plant-based” to identify these products as you market to bring customers into your store and as you guide your shoppers to find these products on your shelves.

The organization recommends that you stock a wide assortment of plant-based meat, egg and dairy products. Top retailers in the benchmarking study carried more than 150 plant-based meat SKUs across the refrigerated and frozen cases and more than 380 plant-based dairy and egg SKUs. “If it’s not on the shelf, merchandising and marketing won’t matter,” pointed out Emma Ignaszewski, GFI Corporate Engagement Strategist, who added that shoppers are looking for diversity in product types, formats, flavors and unit sizes. They want to be able to choose between plant-based chicken, beef and seafood products and between grounds, patties, sausages, strips, nuggets and shreds to accommodate their cooking styles and their desires for novelty. “The time for having merely a couple of plantbased burger patties on the shelf is over,” Ignaszewski said.

GFI recommends that you integrate these plant-based products into your conventional sets on the shelves. As an example of the success of this kind of approach, Bushnell points to Silk’s suc-

cess in expanding the market for its product by putting it in gable-topped cartons and asking grocers to merchandise it in their dairy cases, where it would be right in front of consumers’ eyes as they weighed their options. Compared to its previous positioning on shelves in centerstore, Silk’s sales escalated dramatically, Bushnell said.

In the case of meat alternatives, you may either put your plant-based chicken patties right next to your ground chicken in the case, or you may want to segregate all of your plant-based protein products together within your meat case, preferably with a sign or shelf tag that calls your shoppers’ attention to the plant-based options. According to GFI, 76 percent of American shoppers say that they prefer to shop for plant-based meats in the meat or frozen section of the store, compared to 24 percent who prefer to see these products in the produce area. Kroger has released the results of a study it conducted together with GFI that found that with a three-food plant-based meat section in the meat aisle, sales of plant-based meats increased by 23 percent compared to stores that didn’t use this strategy.

Identifying these options as “plantbased” rather than “meatless” or “vegan” may get you 15 to 20 percent more purchases of these products, according to GFI. “Using plant-forward language has the potential to really boost sales,” Ignaszewski said. “The meat department as we know it is transforming into a protein department, serving up conventional protein alongside plant-based protein and, some day soon, cultivated protein, from the butcher counter to the packaged meat section.” GN

peanut butters will be launching in squeeze packs during the first quarter of 2021. “This is a great way to drive trial for new customers,” Kanter said. “Now we can keep our focus on natural specialty areas, but with them [squeeze packs], we now have the opportunity to grow into channels that weren’t our primary focus.... Our broad strategy is to keep growing the success we’re having in e-

commerce and to work with some of the other e-commerce platforms.”

Eliot’s will also be adding a couple of new nut butters to the product line – most likely one almond butter and one new peanut butter. The company has offered an almond butter in the past, its Chocolate Chile Almond Butter, and Kanter says that the new introduction is also likely to be a flavored almond but-

ter. “Part of the acquisition was that they love our flavors and what we’re doing,” he said. “Our calling card always has been and will be flavor and clean ingredients – that’s what will always set us apart. There are a lot of other companies that make nut butters, but mostly in plain and simple flavors. We’re trying to elevate it with more interesting and diverse options.” GN

Continued from PAGE 1 Caroline Bushnell, GFI’s Associate Director of Corporate Engagement.

Plant-based milks are the largest segment in this category, accounting for $2 billion in sales in 2019, with other plantbased dairy, including yogurts, cheese and butter. Plant-based meats sales amounted to $939 million in 2019, although Bushnell estimates that 2020 sales have already reached $1 billion.

IRI data from just prior to COVID showed that sales of plant-based foods were growing 14 times faster than total food sales. Over the past two years, sales of plant-based milks have grown by 14 percent compared to a 4 percent decline for dairy milk, while sales of plant-based meats have grown by 38 percent, compared to 5 percent for animal meats, according to SPINS data analyzed by GFI. According to IRI data, about 14 percent of American households had purchased plant-based meat in 2019. Plant-based meat currently has just 1 percent share of total retail meat sales in this country, according to GFI, so there’s a lot of room to grow.

Impact of COVID on Sales of Plant-Based Products Plant-based meat has experienced strong growth in the first half of this year, despite the disruptions caused by COVID19, according to Kyle Gaan, a GFI Research Analyst. Prior to the pantrystocking even in late March, plant-based meat was up by 40 percent, versus the same week in 2019, and dollar sales

Verus Continued from PAGE 1 Kanter said. “The squeeze pack is a big part of that strategy. It’s much easier to ship than glass jars.”

Following the launch of the Hazelnut Chocolate Spread Squeeze Packs in the fourth quarter of this year, all of the

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RETAILER NEWS

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Retailer News Hampton Coffee Opens in Montauk New York-based Hampton Coffee Company opened its fifth location recently. The local family-owned company’s newest espresso bar & café debuted in Montauk, right in the middle of town, at the corner of Montauk Highway and Carl Fisher Plaza.

Hampton Coffee Company in Montauk features a large outdoor patio seating area for guests to enjoy as well as a covered porch for inclement weather. Proceeds from the store’s grand opening and ribbon cutting benefited the Montauk Fire Department. Located on the eastern tip of

Long Island, Montauk is one of the top summer tourism destinations in the country, featuring pristine Atlantic Ocean beaches and some of the best surfing areas in the world.

In addition to authentic Italianstyle hot, iced and blended coffee beverages, the menu features baked-onpremise bakery items like signature scones, muffins, chocolate croissants and cinnamon rolls plus a wide-variety of hot breakfast and lunch items. Everything is made in the store with selections includ-

ing popular vegan Happy Wrap, a Sausage Egg & Cheese Biscuit, Turkey Chipotle BLT wrap and Grilled Chicken Piccata Panino.

A rotating choice of soups and salads round-out the menu. Desserts include a Double Chocolate Chip Brownie and freshly baked cookies.

The Montauk location is managed by locals Juliana Cota of Water Mill and Maria Santos of Southampton. “We have been wanting to open in Montauk for so long,” said company co-Owner Jason Belkin. “We were just waiting for the perfect opportunity to become a part of this community.

Until now, we didn’t have any locations east of our Water Mill café, so we hope this is just the first of several new Hampton Coffee locations we can open in the town of East Hampton.” GN

Kroger Launches On-Premise Ghost Kitchens The Kroger Co. has launched two onpremise kitchens, one at a metro Indianapolis, Indiana store and one at a store in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Developed in partnership with ClusterTruck, a technology start-up that operates delivery-only restaurants, the kitchens will provide a variety of freshly prepared meals on-demand with no service or delivery fees.

Kroger and ClusterTruck’s on-premise kitchens were developed from the momen-

tum and insights of an informative pilot launched in December 2019 in Carmel and Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio.

Different from the off-premise concept, the new concept will repurpose approximately 1,000 square feet at each participating store to create a culinary space for ClusterTruck staff to prepare meals for quick delivery and in-store pickup. Customers can order from a menu of more than 80 meals, spanning a variety of ingredients – and best characterized

as food quality characteristic of a sit-down restaurant with the personality of street food.

The expansion of Kroger’s relationship with ClusterTruck reflects the retailer’s ongoing investments in providing a variety of prepared fresh food options and creating a seamless experience for customers. Kroger experienced a 127 percent digital sales lift in second quarter 2020, as customers continued to use digital ordering options, including pickup, delivery and ship to home. GN

Global Pandemic

mixes, oils and vinegars, sauces, seasonings and soups. In March alone, specialty soup sales increased by 125 percent year over year, according to David Browne, Market Research Retail & Brand Consultant, who noted that soup sales, except for bone broth, haven’t been strong over the past few years, particularly with younger shoppers.

“All the pantry staples were purchased in much higher than normal levels [during March],” Browne said. He noted that specialty items were initially passed over during the pantry-stocking phase of the pandemic, but once the shelves of conventional items had been emptied, consumers started buying, in spite of their higher price points, the specialty foods that were still left on the shelves. “It was a great introductory opportunity for a lot of specialty brands to get some shelf placement, even Amazon placement, when some of the big guys, the legacy brands, were just utterly blown to pieces,” Browne said. “We have seen that some of these specialty brands have surged, have sold better, in the market in the last few months, but, initially, consumers definitely reached for those conventional products.”

“This is really the year of essentials,” Lockwood added. The growth rate of essentials has been much higher this year than in any of the three previous years – “even higher than plant-based, higher than

snacks and higher than beverages,” he said.

“It’s quite dramatic, and calling it the year of the essentials is not an overstatement.”

The market researchers are predicting that the boom in retail grocery sales will continue through the next year, and essentials categories will retain their importance as many consumers continue to shelter at home even without mandatory orders.

“Food at home consumption is going to be growing twice as fast as food out of the home,” Browne said. “Grocery retail is going to continue to boom well into 2021.”

Browne predicts that consumers will express increasing interest in upgraded pantry basics that will allow them to expand their culinary horizons. “They’re going to be reaching for everything from seasonings to soup innovations to entrees and mixes – shortcuts that are convenient.

They’re all looking for something that’s new and exciting,” he said. “That’s not to say that this is going to be the vast majority of specialty food consumers, because we know that, all things considered, there are going to be people that are seeking out value more… but we do think that with these essentials categories, there’s going to be definitely a desire for more upgraded pantry basics, and retailers and manufacturers in the specialty industry can, hopefully, respond.” GN

Continued from PAGE 1 curve on that transition phase will depend on the path that the virus takes, he added: “We settled on what seemed to be the consensus, which was that there would be a big spike in March and April, followed by a bigger spike in the fall of 2020, in terms of the rates of infections, and that turns out to be exactly what’s happening.”

Although epidemiologists are predicting a spike in infections this fall, Lockwood is confident that there won’t be a repeat of the panic buying that was seen last spring, partly because the grocery supply chain has adapted to the situation. Food inflation has also increased during the pandemic period, which is pulling retail prices higher and contributing to the sales growth for specialty foods along with food in general. The unemployment rate is also affecting those sales projections, since although unemployment has declined from its peak, the rate remains high. “Economists seem to think that getting down to where it was in 2019 is going to take quite some time,” Lockwood said. “The easy returns to work have happened.”

The pandemic-related market disruption has boosted sales for baking ingredients, frozen entrees, shelf-stable entrees and

BRIEFS H-E-B Recognizes Bernard’s Gourmet Foods Bernard’s Gourmet Foods has been selected to receive the 2020 H-E-B Supplier Diversity Supplier of the Year Award. The award is given to H-E-B Suppliers who go above and beyond in supporting H-E-B supplier diversity efforts in driving spend with minority business enterprise, women business enterprise and veteran or disabled business owners.

As a recipient of this award, Bernard’s Gourmet Foods is recognized as an active member and contributor to the development of these businesses as well as for Bernard’s Gourmet Foods’ strong advocacy within the small business community.

H-E-B’s Supplier Diversity Champion Awards were presented at the H-E-B Supplier Diversity Opportunity Exchange on Monday, September 28, 2020. Under the theme “Framing Economic Impact: Transformational, Intentional and Pivotal,” this year’s virtual event provided an educational platform for diverse suppliers interested in doing business with H-E-B.

eMeals Expands Online Grocery Integrations to Albertsons, Safeway Digital meal planning service eMeals has expanded its online grocery coverage to include integrations with Albertsons and Safeway, enhancing its position as the largest meal inspiration platform offering integrated online ordering from all major national grocery retailers. With a few clicks, subscribers can now send their weekly eMeals-generated shopping lists directly to Albertsons and Safeway stores as well as to Walmart, Kroger, Amazon and all the retailers served by Instacart and Shipt for curbside pickup or delivery.

The addition of 2,250 Albertsons and Safeway stores to eMeals’ online grocery options coincides with the surge in grocery e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated overall adoption of online grocery by three to five years. The number of eMeals users during their initial trial rose to 46 percent, paralleling the steady growth in the overall market.

Save Mart Companies Launches Contactless Robotic Grocery Delivery The Save Mart Companies has launched an on-demand grocery delivery service to its customers at the Save Mart flagship store in Modesto, California, in partnership with robot delivery company Starship Technologies. The Save Mart Companies is the first grocer in the U.S. to partner with Starship Technologies. The debut of the advanced contactless delivery service embraces the flagship store’s role as an innovation lab and preceded the one-year anniversary of the store’s celebrated opening in October 2019. Based in San Francisco, Starship Technologies recently passed the 500,000 autonomous deliveries milestone.

The robots, each of which can carry up to 20 pounds of groceries – the equivalent of about three shopping bags – and can travel up to four miles roundtrip, provide a safe, low-cost and contactless delivery alternative for Save Mart shoppers, allowing them to order from thousands of items via the Starship app platform for ondemand delivery straight to their homes.

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SUPPLIER NEWS

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Supplier News Serious Foodie Sauce Connects with a Culture

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Serious Foodie, which started out five years ago as a maker of pepper-based sauces, has transformed into a company whose focus is on global, regional, flavorful ingredients.

That peppers are still part of the journey is evidenced by its latest sofi Award-winning product, Serious Foodie Brazilian Grill Sauce.

Brazilian Grill Sauce won a silver award this year in the barbecue and hot sauce category. This was Serious Foodie’s third sofi Award, following awards in 2016 for its Blood Orange & Aji Panca Cooking Sauce and in 2018 for Serious Foodie Tamarillo New Zealand Marinade and Dressing.

The new product that won this year’s sofi Award represented a departure from Serious Food’s usual product development process, in that it started at home in Florida rather than during the international travels of Founder Jim Pachence and his family.

Most of its products, including the Blood Orange & Aji Panca sauce that won the award in the company’s first year of selling products, are born when Pachence travels to a country that has a cuisine he or his family members admire. He tastes the food, talks about the food, learns about the local ingredients and then he comes home to make a product that uses similar ingredients to demonstrate his new understanding of the culture he visited. “Our travels to Peru taught us quite a bit about the diverse culture – and how Peru became a fusion cuisine culture before chefs in the U.S. ever dreamed about combining Asian with European with native foods,” he said as he described how the Blood Orange & Aji Panca sauce came about. As he learned about Peruvian cuisine during a visit to the country, Pachence came across a sauce that depended on local ingredients that were unfamiliar to him: aji panca, a pepper that’s sweet and smoky as well as spicy, and huacatay, a black mint that’s frequently blended into cream sauces to dress a variety of Peruvian dishes. “We came across a sauce in Lima that used both ingredients, in addition to a native sour orange. The sour orange reminded us of blood orange, which is much easier to obtain,” Pachence said. “We now import both aji panca and huacatay from Peru for this sauce.”

“We tend to do things that are a little bit unusual and a little cutting edge,” he added. “We literally have gone around the world looking at what people eat... and, most importantly, how people share meals.

That’s represented in the products, and the recipes. We really try to make this connection of people – that is our mission.”

Development of the Brazilian Grill Sauce that won this year’s sofi Award took a very different path. “We had a bucket of red jalapeños and were trying to figure out what to do with a bucket of jalapeños that’s a little bit different,” he said. “We didn’t want to make chipotle.”

He did what everyone does when they find themselves with a bushel of something they got from a friend or neighbor whose zucchini or tomato – or pepper – plants produce so abundantly that the gardeners can’t consumer it all before it goes south – he asked around for recipes and started thinking about how he could put the peppers up into jars that could sit on a shelf. “A close personal friend of mine is Brazilian, and he said, ‘This reminds me of something from home.

There’s a sauce from Brazil that’s smokysweet and citrusy.’ We came up with a Brazilian smoky jalapeño sauce.

It’s reminiscent of the sauces used in Brazil,” Pachence said.

For Brazilian churrasco, meat is salted but not usually sauced before it’s skewered and placed on the grill, and then it’s served with condiments.

“My friends who are Brazilian live by their grill. There is no meal that doesn’t use the grill,” Pachence said.

“Those Brazilian steakhouses are often very reminiscent of the style of eating that is done – you’re taking a big slab of meat and cut it into pieces and then hand it around. The meat is unadorned; it’s just the meat as the

BRIEFS

star. The sauce is for an extra kick of flavor for those interested.”

The Serious Foodie sauce can be used as a condiment sauce for that style of cooking, but it’s also suitable for use as a marinade or a dipping sauce, Pachence said. “It works with any of those techniques. Sugar and salt are kept as low as possible, so it doesn’t burn; it caramelizes,” he said. “We do get a nice depth of flavor when it’s cooked on the grill.”

Although the Brazilian sauce is intended to use as a condiment with meats, Pachence has found other uses for the sauce in his own home.

“My wife and I slather it on eggs. We love scrambled eggs with that sauce. It’s a substitute for the generic red sauce,” he said. The Brazilian Grill Sauce is also good on meaty fish, he added. “We’ve tried it on swordfish on the grill – we used it as a grill sauce, and that seemed to work.”

The Brazilian Grill Sauce is also finding its way onto the shelves of specialty food retailers through a route that’s different from that taken by its Serious Foodie predecessors, Pachence said. “We are transitioning a bit where some of these special sauces will be spending a lot of time online before they hit the stores,” he said. “One of the things we’ve learned about our products is that we’ve gained a big cult following. The best way we’ve found to connect with these folks is with online stories.... Most of the people who buy it from us are asking about where they can find it in a store near them.

Online is making people search it out.”

The online launch is supported by a strong social media effort and a website buttressed with recipe ideas that let customers know what they do with the sauce,” Pachence said. His plan is that a delayed launch into brick and mortar stores will mean that when the product does arrive on grocers’ shelves, it will already have a following: “We’re building an audience,” he said.

Brazilian Grill Sauce is packaged in 6ounce jar that’s sold as a six-pack for retailers. The label features bold imagery on the front of the jar and suggestions for use on the back. The suggested retail price for a jar of the sauce is $5.95. GN

ParmCrisps Launches Plant-Based, Dairy-Free Cheese Crisps ParmCrisps has launched its newest line, PlantBased ParmCrisps to continue its break-out from the cracker category. Plant-Based ParmCrisps are made from 100 percent dairyfree cheese and will come in two flavors: Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper. Whole Foods and its parent company, Amazon, partnered closely with ParmCrisps for the development and launch of this dairy-free crisp, and will have an exclusive on the item in 2020. The product was available in Whole Foods nationwide starting in October and offered for a suggested retail price of $4.79.

Beyond Meat Introduces Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links Beyond Meat, Inc. has added Beyond Breakfast Sausage® Links to its line of plant-based meat offerings. Designed to deliver the same taste and texture as pork-based links, Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links have no GMOs, bioengineered ingredients, synthetic colors, hormones, antibiotics or cholesterol, and have 40 percent less sodium than a leading brand of traditional pork breakfast sausage links.

The brand’s fourth new retail product of 2020 following the launch of Beyond Breakfast Sausage Patties, Cookout Classic™ and most recently, Beyond Meatballs™, Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links rolled out in grocery stores nationwide throughout October. Sold in the meat case with a suggested retail price of $5.99 for eight links, Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links feature a signature blend of savory herbs and spices.

Veggies Made Great Debuts Frittatas with Beyond Meat Veggies Made Great is partnering with Beyond Meat® to create a new Veggies Made Great frittata line made with Beyond Meat. The new line includes Veggies Made Great Sausage & Pepper Frittata made using Beyond Beef Crumbles and Veggies Made Great Sausage, Egg & Cheese Frittata made using Beyond Beef Crumbles. The frittatas will be sold as a sixpack, individually wrapped, with 2-ounces per unit and a suggested retail price of $5.99.

No-Bake Cookie Co. Launches Seasonal Flavor The No-Bake Cookie Company is ready to relaunch its holiday Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookie on November 1. Each No-Bake Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookie is certified nonGMO and gluten free and is made in the USA. Using the same recipe and process since 2011, woman-owned No-Bake Cookie Co. is committed to bringing nostalgia and convenience to today’s shoppers. The Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies can be found in the brand’s signature large 4.3-ounce single cookies at a suggested retail price of $2.49, 8-ounce bakery tubs at a suggested retail price of of $4.99, as well as 7-ounce pouches that retail for $4.99.

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sofi Gets Her Kicks from Globally-Inspired Hot Sauces

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Before COVID-19 and social distancing called a hiatus on casual congregations for sports activities, the U.S. Congress played an annual baseball game for charity since 1909 and Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, got together with friends on the basketball court. Chef Brandon Clark got together with his friends in Richmond, Virginia, to play tennis. “We used to play at night. We’d play three out of five sets, which takes about three hours,” he said. “It was kind of like a club.”

After their games, Clark and his friends would relax with a few beers, and there might be snacks. Sometimes they’d talk about the food that Clark was cooking; sometimes they’d talk about the food that someone had eaten recently at a local restaurant. “All we do is think about food,” Clark said. “It was kind of like a men’s night. It wasn’t just about tennis.”

One night, one of the men dug a bottle of hot sauce he’d just made out of his tennis bag and passed around samples. “One of the other guys brought a barbecue sauce out to the court,” Clark said. “That’s how it started.”

Encouraged by his friends, Clark decided to try his own hand at a hot sauce inspired

by the flavors of Kerala, the Indian state on the Malabar Coast that had been the home of his best friend. “I went home, studied that cuisine and put those ingredients in a bottle,” Clark said. Pepper is a major agricultural product of Kerala, as are other spices as well as tea, coffee and cashews.

When he brought the hot sauce at one of those evening tennis matches, his friend told him that the sauce tasted like home.

Don Hopkins, the Vice President of Sales for a Canadian manufacturer, heard him say that, and the comment started the business wheels in his mind spinning. “Don was like, ‘Let’s look at this and see if we can start a company around it,’ and that’s how it happened,” Clark said. “He’s the business end of the thing. The business plan was super-involved, and that’s just not my forte.”

That was three years ago, and since Clark and Hopkins went into business with a company they called Clark + Hopkins, they’ve turned that hot sauce into a range of eight culinary sauces that bottle the flavors of several cultures from around the world and a pair of Bloody Mary Mixes, and Clark has abandoned the foodservice industry to devote all of his working hours to creating and cooking up sauces. Clark +

Hopkins won a sofi Award for the best new product in the hot sauces category in 2019 for its Assam Pepper Sauce, a Scovie Award in 2019 for Chesapeake Bloody Mary and another sofi Award this year, this time a gold award in the hot sauces and barbecue sauces category, for Laos, a hot sauce based on Laotian flavors that includes bird’s eye peppers and habañeros, together with ginger and lemongrass to add brightness and dried shrimp to add a deep note of seafood umami.

The hot sauces are intended to do more than just add a note of heat to a taco or a dish of scrambled eggs – they’re intended to be used as cooking sauces that add balanced flavor notes to a variety of dishes.

Clark has created a repertoire of recipes for some of those that are posted on the company’s website for home cooks who’d like a little hand-holding as they experiment with the spicy sauces. “They’re all super-duper turn-key. It takes two or three ingredients out of the pantry to create a dish in just a few minutes,” Clark said. “Good or bad – with COVID, people are cooking at home.

A lot of folks can’t afford to order take-out every day. They want something interesting to cook. These recipes take no talent.”

“Our chefs in the industry are some of

our biggest fans,” he added. “We can cater to the real foodies out there and those who just want to try something different.”

The eight sauces in the Clark + Hopkins product range include Virginia, a sauce inspired by traditional Virginia barbecue, with flavors of peaches, peanuts and rye whiskey along with jalapeños and habañeros; Chesapeake, a pepper sauce that combines apple cider vinegar, mustard, bay leaves, ginger and other spices along with jalapeños; and Quintana Roo, a citrusy pepper sauce inspired by Clark’s travels to the Yucatán Peninsula; as well as the original Kerala sauce. Hopkins’ personal favorite among the sauces and Bloody Mary mixes that he’s created is Laos, the sauce that won the gold sofi Award. “It might be the only hot sauce that I know of that’s got dried shrimp in it,” he said. “We are more about flavor than super-duper heat. The Chesapeake is very mild, with jalapeños, and kids can eat that. It’s also a super-versatile sauce – a squeeze of lemon, a little water, the Chesapeake and some oil. It’s a hell of a vinaigrette with just a hint of spice, a little kick. It takes a minute or less, and it goes on a salad.”

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

Giant Food Pursues Transparency for Seafood Giant Food, which operates in and around Washington, D.C., has joined the Ocean Disclosure Project, a global platform where retailers voluntarily share insight into their sourcing methods to ensure sustainable seafood practices.

Giant’s sustainable seafood policy has always ensured that every seafood item sold in stores meets sustainability criteria, but the grocer is now taking it a step further enlisting ODP to make the original

sources of all its own brand, wild-caught seafood transparent and available to the public.

“We want shoppers to be able to trust that when they purchase any seafood product from Giant, that it is coming from a verified source,” said Ira Kress, President of Giant Food. “Participating in the ODP represents our assurance to total transparency and being able to offer products that are in line with our commitment to sustainable

sourcing throughout every department of the store.”

Giant is also a partner of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), which ensures that all seafood that enters stores is vetted against the specific criteria in Giant’s sustainable seafood policy. This announcement marks the latest sustainability commitment for Giant, a long-time industry leader in responsible and environmentally conscious operations.

“Knowing where your seafood comes from is a critical element of any effort to buy sustainable seafood, said Kyle Foley, Sustainable Seafood Senior Program Manager at GMRI. “By joining the ODP, Giant Food is pulling back the curtain and being transparent about the original sources of the seafood sold in stores.”

For more information on Giant’s commitment to sustainability, visit www .giantfood.com/pages/sustainability. GN

Cookie Company

in an incubator kitchen and put them in the mail the next day.

“Anyone’s going to be happy if you cook a meal for them, but baked goods touch that special place in your heart,” she said. “Can you be unhappy if someone’s just handed you a cookie? I’m a happiness maker.”

It took a bit more than a year to develop the recipes for her first product line and get her business off the ground. Two years later, she invented cookie pies, giant cookies made from the best ingredients she could find, with

doughs studded with inclusions and packed into foil pie pans and frozen ready to ship to consumers who’d bake them at home. She made several varieties: the Monster Cookie Pie that won the silver award this year; Chocolate Peanut Butter; Caramel Snickerdoodle and the Elvis Cookie Pie that won the bronze award.

Those varieties are all available for wholesale. She also offers a couple of other varieties for local customers, Rocky Road and Kitchen Sink,

which includes pretzels and potato chips.

Rocky Road and Kitchen Sink don’t freeze well, so they’re not shipped or offered for wholesale.

Once her wholesale business started to take off, Palmer moved out of the incubator kitchen and into a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn. She put her blog on hiatus, and when she got the chance to enter the sofi Awards this year, she took it. Now she’s taking the COVID-19-enforced business slow-down as her opportunity to route a course for her journey chauffeured by sofi. She’s on the hunt for a sales agent who can broker her Cookie Pies along the East Coast, since her products arrive in their best condition when they’re in transit for no more than a day or two from Brooklyn. “I feel like we’re sort of in a holding pattern right now,” she said. “I’m looking for a New Yorkbased broker. Sales has never been my strong point. I’m hoping that the sofi wins will lead me there.”

For more information, email Palmer at hello@littleredkitchenbakeshop.com. GN

Continued from PAGE 1 New York’s Cookie Takedown with a people’s choice award for her Chocolate Salty Cara-Mal-Lard Cookies, a triple chocolate cookie filled with caramel made with duck fat. The next year, she won more awards at the next Cookie Takedown, and she won an Ice Cream Takedown as well. “I took top prizes in a lot of competitions. That was when I decided I was doing something that people really like,” she said. “I was doing an office job that I wasn’t happy with, and I decided it was time to figure this out and move on from there.”

Her blog was earning enough at that point to give her the freedom to chuck the job, and once she’d figured out that what she wanted to do next was to focus on cookies, she booked space in an incubator kitchen and launched a Kickstarter campaign to help her fund her Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop. She planned to take orders for cookies on her website, bake them

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NATURALLY HEALTHY

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Naturally Healthy Beans Beckon in Pandemic Fog

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Bean sales went through the roof this spring as the COVID-19 pandemic sent grocery shoppers to their supermarkets with the same motives that prompted the original Paleolithic hunters and gatherers to stalk herds of meat on the hoof and make their annual visits to the same patches of maguey that their parents had harvested. Specialty items on grocers’ shelves were initially passed over when shoppers began stocking their pantries in mid-March, looking first for the conventional brands that they already knew and then, as grocers’ shelves cleared when supply chains couldn’t keep up with panicbuying, picking up specialty items despite their higher prices, said David Browne, a market research consultant who works with the Specialty Food Association on its tracking of the specialty food market. He noted that specialty brands that had surged during the first panic-buying continued to sell well once the panic had subsided, buoyed by shoppers who’d become introduced to them as they stocked their pantries and continued to buy afterwards.

“It was a good opportunity for a lot of specialty brands to get some shelf placement,” added David Lockwood, Consulting Director for Mintel, the market research firm that compiles the data that goes into the SFA’s annual “State of the Specialty Food Industry” report. “This is the year of essentials,” he said as he noted that sales growth of specialty food items in essential categories like bread, meat and beans, rice and grains has been much higher this year than in either of the past two years, outpacing even the growth of plant-based foods.

A Dozen Cousins is one of those brands that has benefited from consumer interest in shelf-stable essentials, said Ibraheem Basir, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of A Dozen Cousins, which makes prepared bean dishes that reflect the culinary traditions behind the bean dishes that his mother used to serve her family when he was a child growing up in a culturally diverse New York City neighborhood. He launched his company in 2018 and sold his first products in 2019. This year, he’s selling his bean dishes to people who’ve suddenly been inspired by the pandemic to stock up, and beans are on

their shopping lists. “The business has seen explosive growth. There was just a big boom when people were stocking up and looking for nutritious things to eat,” he said. “As things settled into a routine, we’ve maintained our retail velocity.”

He attributes the continued strength of his sales as the pandemic wears on to two things: people are staying at home more, so they’re eating lunch at home instead of going out to eat, and they’re looking for simple, healthy options that will help them do that. Those who are working at home are often still tied to the schedules that suited their employers before the pandemic, and so, when lunch time comes around, they need a meal that’s quick to prepare. And, whether they’re tied to a set lunch break or not, many Americans are looking for meal options that are simple to prepare and provide quality nutrition along with flavor. Their growing interest in avoiding meat has led to a boom in demand for plant-based meat alternatives as well.

“Previously, people might have gone out for lunch. They’re now preparing lunch in the middle of the day. That’s not a totally

new occasion, but it’s something that they’re doing now,” Basir said. “We’ve seen people looking for solid meal options that don’t include meat, and beans are classic options for that. They’re high in protein, they’re very natural, they’re shelf-stable....

People are buying more and taking fewer trips to the supermarket. As a result, products like ours that are shelf-stable have a renewed benefit.”

A Dozen Cousins launched its most recent products in August of this year with Refried Black Beans and Classic Refried Pinto Beans. They join an existing product line comprising Cuban Black Beans, Mexican Cowboy Pinto Beans and Trini Chickpea Curry. Packaged in 10-ounce pouches that provide two servings, they’re all ready in 60 seconds in the microwave oven.

“The goal for the next year is just to continue growing the business,” Basir said.

“We have a product line that we’re excited about, and we think there are many more retailers for whom this would be a great addition to the category.”

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

Fresh Meat to Save the Planet from Extinction

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Force of Nature is a start-up meat producer that’s attempting to show that ruminant livestock can be part of the solution to climate change rather than part of the problem. The key to that is in raising bison, beef, elk and venison in ways that contribute to the soil’s ability to sequester carbon – a livestock management process known as regenerative agriculture – and Force of Nature sources its raw meat products only from growers who are practicing that kind of agriculture, according to Robby Sansom, the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Land Steward.

Before becoming involved with the startup last year, Sansom was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Epic Provisions, which is known for its meat-based snacks made from animals raised with regenerative methods. The company was acquired by General Mills in 2016. Sansom left Epic Provisions in 2019 after deciding that he could use the knowledge of regenerative agriculture that he’d gained at Epic Provisions to greater effect by focusing on raw meat rather than on snack foods. “It was that journey [with Epic Provisions] that got us into the regenerative journey,” he said. “It’s the fresh meat market that provides a greater opportunity to drive changes in the way agriculture is practiced and the effects of those practices on the world’s food supply and its climate.... We really see the epiphany.”

Having gained experience with sourcing

bison products while he was at Epic, Sansom started there. He’d already become aware that much of the American meat market’s supply of bison comes from animals that were finished on grain and may have lived their whole lives being confined and fed grain rather than roaming freely on open range. “The sad reality is that the vast majority of bison coming into the food supply is coming through the conventional food system,” he said.

American Grass-Fed Association Executive Director Carrie Balkcom backs him up on that. “A lot of the animals are being brought in from feed yards in Canada and then they’re brought into this country and labeled ‘grass-fed,’” she said. “It is incredible that people think bison are actually out there roaming on the range, but they’re spending time in feed lots – and that can be years.”

“I’m not the bison police,” she added.

“We fight it every year on the label claims, but until the federal government comes in and says you can’t do that, it’ll continue to happen.”

While conventional livestock-raising is frequently blamed for its effects on global warming – the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out that livestock on managed pastures and rangelands were an important contributor to the agriculture industry’s greenhouse gas emissions – it’s also been recognized that “Sustainable land management can contribute to reducing the nega-

tive impacts of multiple stressors, including climate change, on ecosystems and societies,” according to the IPCC’s 2019 report.

There are livestock producers who’ve taken this to heart and are raising livestock in ways that protect soil health and allow the soil to act as a carbon sink that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere while building topsoil that also helps to manage water efficiently and prevent erosion. Sansom says that he’s found those sources for responsibly raised meat, and Force of Nature Meats is able to deliver it to the American market, although currently only on a very limited basis. He’s hopeful that once consumers find their way to the Force of Nature products and have tasted the difference between them and conventionally raised meats, they’ll create a demand for regeneratively raised livestock that will motivate producers to raise more of it. “We’re going to raise the bar every year,” he said. “Producers will produce whatever the heck consumers say they want.... Nobody’s going to make a product they can’t sell.”

Force of Nature Meats currently offers 14- and 16-ounce packages as well as bulk packs of Ground Bison sourced from Texas; Ground Wild Boar, also sourced from

Texas, where feral boars have become a nuisance; Grass-fed Ground Venison and Grass Fed Ground Elk sourced from New Zealand, where Sansom says that he’s found livestock producers raising venison and elk through grass-fed and grass-finished methods that comport with Force of Nature’s standards of regenerative agriculture. The company also offers Ancestral Blend packages of Ground Bison and Ground Beef, which combine meat obtained from the animals’ organs as well as muscles into a product that offers the flavor profiles of conventional meat plus the nutritional benefits associated with organ meats.

The company also offers a very limited selection of bison cuts from the short ribs and tenderloin in a product range that will grow with the company, according to Sansom. The company has launched into the retail market through its website and in limited local distribution from its Austin, Texas, base, and is on the cusp of achieving national distribution, for which Sansom believes he’s going to be able to scale the enterprise.

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

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Saffron Road Challenges Plant-Based Exuberance

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Saffron Road is launching frozen and shelfstable meal entrees designed to appeal to consumers who read the backs of packages before the items go into their baskets. The new frozen products include Shawarma Chicken with Lentil Rice; Thai Red Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice; and Thai Basil Noodles with Grassfed Beef. The two shelf-stable vegetarian options are Chickpea Masala and Delhi Potatoes, known in India as Aloo Mattar.

In addition, Saffron Road has three new varieties of its Crunchy Organic Chickpeas: Toasted Coconut, Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper and Buffalo.

The introductions come as more consumers are looking for plant-based meal options, driving growth of the category by 31 percent over the past two years, so that the retail market for plant-based foods was worth $5 billion in 2019 and has continued to grow rapidly in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research by the Good Food Institute and the Plant-Based Foods Association.

Some of that growth reflects enthusiasm for the plant-based meat alternatives that have come onto the market over the past year or two, and according to Deloitte, a large number of companies are now investing heavily in acquiring and creating new products and brands that will appeal to the surging consumer demand for plant-based

products.

Saffron Road Chief Executive Officer Adnan Durrani says that you can count him and Saffron Road out of the rush to create plant-based products designed to mimic meat and dairy. He points out that although the market for vegan and plantbased products is growing at a fast clip, those products still represent less than 1 percent of the frozen meals segment in the American market overall. Although the plant-based meals category grew by 6 percent last year – “a good number,” Durrani admits, that still represents only $387 million in sales, compared to the $40 billion frozen meat entree market. “So it still is a drop in the bucket, and even if it grows 500 percent, it’s still a drop in the bucket,” he said.

He suspects that the current market enthusiasm for the plant-based meat alternatives that he calls “fake” may run into a ditch once consumers start asking more questions about them.

Durrani points out that the vegetablebased meat substitutes are actually made from protein components isolated from the vegetables in which they originated, and he suspects that human beings will find that their nutrition is better served by eating whole vegetables rather than protein isolates that have been processed with

preservatives, additives and fillers into something that suggests meat-like texture and flavor. “Consumers should not be told that fake foods are any better for you than real whole plant-based foods or the meat products they’re replacing,” he said.

“Our feeling at Saffron Road is that clean foods, plantbased or not – and certainly plant-based – should not contain highly-processed ingredients with complex, alien names.”

While those ingredients are certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe to consume, “safe” doesn’t mean “healthy,” Durrani insists. “The promotion of them being healthy or natural is not yet factually proven.... Everybody’s spidey-sense around transparency should be on alert.”

Instead, Saffron Road is reaching into the culinary traditions of vegetarian cuisine and into frozen entrees that include meat but are made with transparently sourced, clean ingredients and traditional recipes.

“Our vegetarian products at Saffron Road have found a sweet spot for discerning consumers that are looking for a healthier vegetarian diet,” Durrani said. “Our brand promise at Saffron Road is always to go that extra mile in terms of culinary excellence and clean-label foods.”

The new Chickpea Masala is packed in a pouch and sold from the grocer’s shelf. The meal serves two and is prepared by heating it for 60 seconds. “We use very high quality, premium-quality, authentically sourced in-

gredients like non-GMO chickpeas,” Durrani said. “Everything we do is made in small batches, not highly processed.” The Chickpea Masala is so delicious that it has become the Saffron Road staff’s top choice for their own consumption, he said.

The Delhi Potatoes are a traditional Indian vegetarian dish known as Aloo Mattar in India. Like the Chickpea Masala, it’s ready in just 60 seconds and non-GMO verified.

“It’s like a comfort food. It’s wonderful either for lunch or for dinner,” Durrani said. “These are cleanlabel plant-based protein foods that have been sourced from clean whole plant-based protein – and are made using the most traditional, authentic recipes.”

Saffron Road’s new frozen entrees include its recently launched Madras Curry with Meatballs in addition to the Thai Red Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice; and Thai Basil Noodles with Grass-fed Beef.

The company will also soon be introducing a Coconut Curry. “I think that is going to do extremely well,” Durrani said. With the new Shawarma Chicken with Lentil Rice, Saffron Road is venturing into Middle Eastern cuisine, a decision that Durrani said was based on consumer interest in that cuisine. “It’s a shawarma-style chicken with lentil rice. It’s really amazing,” he said. “That’s going to be our debut into the Middle Eastern sector in terms of frozen entrees, so we’re pretty excited about that.” GN

Ice Cream for All: Van Leeuwen Launches New Vegan Line

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream now has seven flavors of oat milk frozen desserts designed to win the dairy avoidant back to the pleasures of ice cream. Van Leeuwen Ice Cream has been making vegan ice creams since 2013, but with its new oat milk ice creams, the company is ready to offer a vegan ice cream that Ben Van Leeuwen, the company’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer says has a texture and taste that wows even dairy lovers. “The mission is to make ice cream for everybody. We’ve got you covered,” he said. “Our dairy customers switch between both, which is really exciting to us. To us, this is the ultimate vote of confidence that the vegan is just as good as the dairy.”

There are seven flavors: Chocolate Oat Milk Cookie Dough Chunk, Oat Milk Brown Sugar Chunk, Brownie Sundae Raspberry Swirl, Dark Chocolate Peanut

Butter Swirl, Oat Milk Mocha Latte, Oat Milk Caramel Cookie, and for the traditionalists, Strawberry. “With ice cream, we want to do flavors that are familiar, but made in our way, sourcing the best chocolate, the best strawberries,” Van Leeuwen said, adding that the familiar flavors add a level of comfort for customers who are un-

certain about trying a non-dairy ice cream.

“Vegan ice cream is new to a lot of people,” he said. “Even the term ‘vegan’ is not fully understood by everybody.”

Pints of the oat milk-based desserts retail for $6.99 to $7.99. The new price is lower than the price for the company’s previous vegan line, which was made with cashew milk, organic coconut milk, extra virgin coconut oil, organic cane sugar, organic carob bean and pure cocoa butter. “We love the cashew-based vegan, but it didn’t allow us to serve people who had nut allergies,” Van Leeuwen said. “This was a way to create a completely nut-free ice cream.”

The ice creams, like all of the Van Leeuwen products, are made in small batches in the company’s Brooklyn, New York, facility, from premium ingredients, so it competes directly in the ultra-premium space, as it has since Van Leeuwen and business partners started making ice cream and selling from their truck on the streets of New York in 2008, Van Leeuwen said. “We added vegan ice cream in 2013,” he said. “Our customers were asking for it, and we obviously wanted to serve them....

We were never trying to make good vegan

ice cream; we were just trying to make more good ice cream that happened to be vegan – just as good as the best dairy ice cream.”

In those early days in business, Van Leeuwen was inspired both by the summer job he’d had in college, when he drove a Good Humor truck, and by his experience traveling around the world after leaving college. “I was going around the world to countries where high-quality food was more widespread, and I was really excited about the accessibility of good food. The ice cream truck seemed like a really good model to launch into because it’s so accessible.... That was before food trucks were cool,” he said.

While he was driving ice cream in those early days, it’s the ice cream that drives him now, he says. “It’s an overall love for food that’s made with a lot of care and intention and with quality as a number-one goal,” he said. “My favorite part of the business is the sourcing and visiting the farms and learning how the food is grown.” GN

PRIVATE 2020 A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT OF GOURMET NEWS

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Vertullo Yuzu Ponzu Say sayonara to soy sauce! Vertullo Ponzu is a yuzu-fruit, citrus-based soy sauce that delivers a balance of lemon and soy flavors. The yuzu fruit is a Japanese fruit that’s small, sour and resembles a grapefruit. This is the perfect sauce for summer vegetables, stir-fry, chicken and seafood.

It easily adds a layer of depth and a pop of citrus to marinades, sauces, dips, dressings and more. Plus, unlike many of its competitors, this Yuzu Ponzu is also

Caputo Crafts Elevated Distinction gluten free, MSG free and contains no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. If that’s not enough, it’s also certified kosher, low in sodium and nonGMO.

Vertullo Imports LLC 516.222.6220 rantonucci@seviroli.com www.vertulloimports.com

Jake’s Nut Roasters: New Roasted Salted Inshell Almonds Jake, a fourth-generation member of the Jasper Family, is proud to continue the farming traditions of his great-grandfather that have been passed down for over 70 years. Since 1948, a commitment to quality and innovation has propelled many fine Jasper Specialty Foods products into the hands of health-conscious almond lovers around the world.

Brand new to the mix of Jake’s Nut Roasters creative line of specialty almond snacks is Jake’s distinctively packaged Roasted Salted Inshell Almonds.

Definitely a twist on today’s typical packaged almond products, these inshell almonds provide an unparalleled snacking experience, and make eating this healthy, plant-based snack both fun and satisfying ... and they are perfect for sharing, too!

Produced in a dedicated peanut-free facility and sourced from Jake’s own orchards, these premium California almonds are dry roasted and seasoned in small batches to deliver exceptional quality.

Health benefits abound with California almonds, which contain a wholesome blend of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats known to help reduce cholesterol levels and support cardiovascular health.

Jake’s Roasted Salted Inshell Almonds are packaged in a unique and reusable 16ounce burlap bag, allowing for easy access and convenient storage. Jake’s rustic burlap bag has a classic, masculine appearance that looks great on a store shelf, kitchen counter or table centerpiece.

Reach in and grab a handful of these tasty almonds ... just twist and crack for a deli-

cious snack!

Be sure to try some of Jake’s other bold and unique seasoned almond products, “Straight from Jake’s Orchard” to you.

Jasper Specialty Foods is a multi-generational, family-run operation headquartered in Newman, California, specializing in the production of unique almond related food snacks, confections and other treats for the specialty food market. “From Farm to Market” is a slogan often used to epitomize the philosophy of the company in that, first and foremost, it is farmers seeking to grow and produce the finest almonds in the world by controlling every aspect of the process, including planting, farming, harvesting, processing, packaging, sales and distribution. Some of its popular brands include Nunes Farms, Jake’s Nut Roasters and Jasper Ranch, to name a few.

The company is actively involved in developing new flavors, custom mixes and smart packaging with an emphasis on small batch process and exceptional quality. California almonds from Jake’s Nut Roasters are the perfect pairing of bold new flavors and traditional, handcrafted production.

Jasper Specialty Foods 800.255.1641 www.jasperspecialtyfoods.com

J&M Foods Offers Family Tradition of Quality J&M Foods proudly continues its family tradition and passion for good food by providing its customers with the best-tasting cheese straws and cookies in the market. J&M currently offers 21 products as well as additional seasonal offerings. In addition, new products to tickle the taste buds and provide something new for customers’ enjoyment are always being tested in the kitchen.

Like its other products, J&M Foods’ Original Cheese Straws are made from the finest ingredients available and are free of trans fats and baked with care.

J&M Foods enjoys being flexible

enough to handle all its customers’ needs.

Located in a 32,000-square foot facility residing on 21 acres, the company has room to grow along its customers.

Centrally located and nationally recognized, J&M Foods is an award-winning market leader within the specialty foods industry.

Call for more information about J&M Foods, the Janis & Melanie line of treats or to discuss a private label need.

J&M Foods 800.264.2278 www.janis-melanie.com

Founded in 1978 by René and Pasquale Caputo, Caputo Cheese in Melrose Park, Illinois, crafts awardwinning fresh Mozzarella and Ricotta cheeses using Old World tradition and recipes.

While some things stay constant, Natale Caputo, President of Caputo Cheese, is always looking for new and innovative ideas and has created a new line under the Caputo Cheese umbrella: Elevated Cow. Made with the same high-quality milk, and with the same attention to detail as Caputo’s other cheeses, the Elevated Cow

line of fresh cheeses is infused with independently tested and verified CBD. Each batch of Elevated Cow is then sent out to be tested at an independent lab to ensure accuracy in product and to provide accurate labeling for you and your customers. Use the Elevated Cow line of cheeses on pizza, caprese salads, or any dish that highlights fresh Mozzarella.

Caputo Cheese 708.450.0074 www.elevatedcow.com

Expertise for Your New Snack Foods In the snack food universe, The Whole Earth® brand stands for clean, natural and organic snacks that consumers appreciate. The Whole Earth team scours the world for only the finest ingredients made with handcrafted care and expertise. Depending on the product, these may include fresh organic corn harvested at its peak, gently cooked and ground to perfection, organic brown rice to produce a light, crisp result as well as golden and brown flax seeds for a unique nuttiness. Organic Garden Medley Tortilla Chips, for example, is a medley of tri-colored goodness flavored with spinach, tomato, carrot, beets and flax seeds.

From product development to packaging and logistics, expertly staffed research and development and sales teams are ready to serve your needs. The Whole Earth is able to bring your natural and organic opportunities to reality, whether it’s with any of a wide range of tortilla chip styles, extruded snacks, pellet snacks (veggie-flavored

chips), popcorn, popped crisps, kettle corn, caramel corn or nut clusters.

The Whole Earth and its parent company, Snak King, which can handle any need for snack foods intended for conventional and convenience market channels as well as the natural and organic market served by The Whole Earth, have the capability to source new ingredients, create samples, perform sensory evaluations and run diligent plant trials.

Snak King also understands the importance of quality and food safety systems, including: HACCP-based food safety system, FSMA/USDA compliance, GMP training and formalized verification, computerized recall and traceability system, microbiological testing, allergen control system and others. Third-party certifications include: SQF level 3, gluten free, USDA organic, Non-GMO Project, kosher and Whole Wheat Council.

Snak King www.snakking.com

Country Fresh Fudge Offers Products for Retail Needs In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, retailers are finding that it’s even more important to fill their customers’ needs for comfort foods while maintaining profit margins to get back on track. Country Fresh Food & Confections, Inc. offers products that can do just that.

Bulk Fudge – For retailers who still want to offer their customers fresh, premium fudge, Country Fresh Fudge™ is available in pre-cut 2-ounce pieces. This minimizes the amount of labor needed, as it’s not necessary to cut and weigh fudge. Country Fresh Fudge is available in more than 100 flavors of traditional fudge as well as many keto-friendly, sugar-free choices.

Pre-packaged fudge from Country Fresh Food & Confections offers the opportunity to provide shoppers with an outstanding selection of premium fudge in a variety of packages that masked shoppers will appreciate for their grab-and-go portability. One of the most popular sizes is the 12-ounce trays containing six 2-ounce pieces of fudge. Besides traditional fudge

flavors, spirit flavors such as Kentucky Bourbon (nonalcoholic), as well as keto-friendly, sugarfree fudge are available. To help retailers keep their cash flow in check, the 12ounce trays are packed just eight per case and have a six-month shelf life. For a very minimal purchase, retailers are able to carry several flavors to create a wow effect for their customers. Six-ounce and 2ounce sizes are also available.

Country Fresh also offers a very lowcost, low-minimum private labeling program with a small one-time charge.

Country Fresh produces the customer’s labels in-house on commercial printing equipment in order to offer a high-quality look. This allows retailers to try various flavors at no additional costs.

Country Fresh Food & Confections Inc. info@countryfreshfood.com www.countryfreshfood.com

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Caputo: Crafting Customized Distinction

Respectfully Raised Turkey Products

In addition to plate appeal and exceptional taste profiles, operators are also looking for multiple formats, innovative formulations and customized distinction in their ingredients. To fulfill their needs, operators are looking for manufacturers with the experience and passion to create authentic products that best fit their culinary visions.

Founded in 1978 by René and Pasquale Caputo, many industry-savvy clients are choosing Caputo Cheese in Melrose Park, Illinois, as their manufacturer of choice. Caputo offers countless and diverse types of cheese from all over the world. Caputo offers customers authentic Italian cheeses, from the award-winning Mozzarella, Ricotta and Burrata made at its Melrose Park facility, to customized blends of imported and domestic Parmesan, Pecorino Romano, Asiago and other Italian and Italian-style

For the mindful consumer, a bite of a turkey dog or turkey meat loaf is a taste of how the bird was raised. The flavor of turkey from Diestel Family Ranch reflects both the care with which the birds were raised as well as the time they had to grow to maturity.

Diestel Family Ranch is located in Sonora, California, just outside California’s Central Valley. The company also works with partner farms in the Midwest that are owned by farmers that raise their turkeys according to the Diestel family’s standards. All of Diestel’s turkeys are certified by the Global Animal Partnership (GAP), ensuring their animal treatment practices are of the highest standard.

Diestel Family Ranch’s latest introductions include Naturally Pecan Smoked Turkey. Intended primarily for the holiday shopper, these 10-13-pound birds are fully cooked, requiring only one to 1.5 hours of reheating to come to the table juicy, tender and with a light pecan smoked flavor that brings Southern flavor to the feast. The Naturally Pecan Smoked Turkey is raised on 100 percent vegetarian feed with no

cheeses.

Caputo is an expert in formulating the perfect cheese blend for any application.

With its onsite laboratory, and microbiologist on staff, the company can create blends and formulas specific to your needs.

With years of experience and knowledgeable staff, Caputo offers consistent results.

In addition to being one of the most respected manufacturers and processors of hard Italian and Italian style cheeses, Caputo is also known for its award-winning fresh Mozzarella line, most recently winning awards at the 2019 American Cheese Society Conference for Hand Dipped Ricotta, Burratatini and Nodini.

Caputo Cheese 708.450.0074 www.caputocheese.com

Healthy Snack Made from Lentils Seapoint Farms has just introduced four varieties of Mighty Lil’ Lentils snacks: Pink Himalayan Salt, Barbeque, Falafel and Cinnamon Sugar. The new snacks have launched online and are ready to ship to retailers from several warehouses around the country.

Mighty Lil’ Lentils are, as the name suggests, crunchy little lentils designed to be eaten by the handful straight out of the stand-up pouch.

They’re the result of 18 months of product development.

Packaged in the 5-ounce bag, the lentils are vegetarian, gluten free and certified by the non-GMO Project. They’re rich in nutrients, vitamins and fiber, free of trans fats and cholesterol and naturally sustainable.

The Falafel and Pink Himalayan flavors are vegan.

They’re offered by a company that’s

most famous for edamame, pioneering the green soybeans as a frozen food in 1996. That’s still a large part of Seapoint Farms’ business, but within several years of the frozen edamame introduction, the company expanded its horizons by dry roasting the beans to sell them as a snack, mixing them with other ingredients to make trail mixes, and grinding them into flour to make gluten-free pastas.

The suggested retail price on the 5ounce package is $3.99. It offers 4.5 servings, with 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber per serving. Other types of packaging are part of the plan for the future.

Seapoint Farms www.seapointfarms.com

Private Label from Pickled Pink Pickled Pink is a line of Southern-style pickles made according to old family recipes of friends and business partners Jim Lawlor and Charlie Stephenson, who both spent many years in the restaurant business. They launched their company in 2013 and the pickles have been successful because they sell yearround and are popular for grilling and tailgating season as well as for the winter holidays. They work well as part of a charcuterie platter, as an accompaniment for a pork tender-

loin or over vanilla ice cream.

The line includes Sweet Heat Jalapenos, Spiced Watermelon Pickle, Gourmet Jalapeño Pickle, Smokin’ Okra, Perfectly Pickled Peaches and Vidalia Onion & Peach Relish. Private label services are also available.

Pickled Pink Foods 770.998.1500 www.pickledpinkfoods.com

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antibiotics ever. It’s also completely free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, added nitrates or nitrites, growth stimulants and hormones, gluten, casein, carrageenan, phosphates and MSG. While the average consumer is likely to think of the Naturally Pecan Smoked Turkey as a special occasion item, Diestel’s other new introduction is an everyday staple for the shopper who’s looking for a new option to introduce to a meal rotation that may have gotten stuck into a COVID-inspired routine. Its new Sous-Vide Turkey Meatloaves are offered in 1-pound retail-ready packaging. They’re fully cooked and offered in two flavors: Florentine and Traditional. They can be sold either fresh or in the freezer case and retail for around $8.99.

Diestel is also offering the turkey meatloaves in 2-pound packages to slice in the deli department. The company also offers a full range of deli meats, so Diestel Family Ranch can be a one-stop shop for turkey offerings.

Diestel Family Ranch www.diestelturkey.com

Sweet Black Garlic Miso Mayo Slow, low heat for up to 90 days produces garlic cloves that are exotic black in color with a uniquely sweet, caramelized flavor and that are rich in antioxidants for Sweet Black Garlic Miso Mayo, which won a Good Food Award this year in the pantry category. Subtly sweet and savory, Sweet Black Garlic Miso Mayo is a premium condiment made with artisanal black garlic, and the newest addition to the So Good Food line of plant-based, vegan and Non-GMO Project verified condiments.

All Miso Mayo is Non-GMO Project verified and has been made in small batches since 1990, when So Good Food Owner Janet Smith and her So Good gourmet food truck first served the vegan condiments in Los Angeles.

So Good Food info@misomayo.com www.misomayo.com

Annabelle Candy Company: Sweet Nostalgia, Delicious New Innovation This year marks the 70th anniversary for Annabelle Candy Company, which is home to legendary candy bars, including Abba-Zaba®, Rocky Road®, Big Hunk®, UNO® and Look!®.

Annabelle’s is a third-generation family owned and operated candy manufacturer whose heritage candy bars deliver sweet nostalgia to longtime customers while unique flavor innovations attract new generations of candy lovers.

Throughout the years, the original Rocky Road handmade marshmallow bar has expanded into a flavor family that includes Mint, Sea Salt and S’Mores flavors.

Annabelle’s recently launched a scrumptious new S’Mores recipe that delivers a spot-on taste profile.

Annabelle Candy Company President Victor Moreno described the new S’Mores recipe as being “even ‘S’Morsier’ thanks to a more prominent graham cracker layer and a burnt sugar flavor that perfectly mimics campfire goodness.”

Anabelle Candy Company 510.783.2900 www.annabellecandy.com

Pasilla Chili Pork Rinds from Southern Recipe Small Batch Southern Recipe Small Batch’s new Pasilla Chili Cheese pork rinds deliver the rich taste of Pasilla chiles paired with the indulgent and comforting flavor of chili cheese. Keto-friendly, low carb, high protein and low sugar, new Pasilla Chili Cheese pork rinds are elevating

the perception of the humble pork rind.

Rudolph Foods 419.648.3611 msingleton@rudolphfoods.com www.rudolphfoods.com

SUPPLEMENT TO

NOVEMBER 2020

GOURMET NEWS

®

T H E

B U S I N E S S

N E W S P A P E R

F O R

featured products

T H E

G O U R M E T

I N D U S T R Y

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The New MarDona Stuffed Olive Collection MarDona has produced a gourmet olive snack to meet anyone’s palate. Quality fresh olives are stuffed with the finest gourmet treats. The Savory Blue cheese is a perfect balance of the olive and cheese.

The Turkish Red Hot Pepper is just what the label says, very hot! The Garlic Stuffed Olive is offered in two styles: Natural Garlic and Italian-Style, which has spices in the brine to enhance the garlic’s flavor. The line also includes the Jalapeño Stuffed Olive, which combines heat and olive for balanced flavor.

Smart Pockets: Smart Choice for Fall These five items join the other MarDona products, which include Mild or Hot Muffuletta, Olive Antipasto, the Mild or Hot Giardiniera, Sweet and Spicy Garlic Cloves and Spicy Brussels Sprouts.

MarDona Specialty Foods 855-Oil Spray (645.7772) info@mardonaspecialtyfoods.com www.truffleoilsandmore.com

Ayala’s Herbal Water 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 ingredient conscious customers looking for new refreshment without compromise. Enjoy all five flavors, from soothing Lavender Mint to subtly zesty Ginger Lemon Peel. Every flavor is a delicious refreshment and a re-

ward for the spirit during a hectic day.

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

BRC. This year, Spicin will be expanding on its distribution with partnerships across the country, introducing Tradición, a line of salsas, taco sauces and jams. The Pain is Good brand consists of hot sauce, hot nuts, Bloody Mary mixers and barbecue sauces. Like all of Spicin Foods’ products, these items are 100 percent all-natural and non-GMO. In addition to its own brands, Spicin Foods’ offers co-packing and private label capabilities that allow the company to serve hundreds of business partners from around the world who choose Spicin as their partner for its dedication to creating high-quality, delicious products.

Spicin Foods Inc. 800.568.8468 contact@spicinfoods.com www.spicinfoods.com

ERIKA’S PANTRY Medium Hot Mustard Mug Introducing ERIKA’S PANTRY Medium Hot Mustard Mug. Raised in Munich and having cooked for her family for the past 52 years, ERIKA now lends her name to this classic German mustard packaged in a collectible glass beer mug container.

With clean, wonderful ingredients that work well with meat and cheese platters, as a condiment, barbecue rubs or as an enticing ingredient for stir fry creations, this mustard can add dimension and depth to the home cook’s favorite dishes.

With its collectible glass beer mug con-

including Original, Whole Wheat, Smart Carb, Organic Sprouted and Everything, there’s a fit for every healthy lifestyle. Toufayan Smart Pockets are available in an eight-count package.

They’re sold 12 packages per case and can be ordered along with dozens of other Toufayan products.

Toufayan Bakeries 800.EAT.PITA karen@toufayan.com www.toufayan.com

The Cherry on Top of Great Drinks

Spicin Foods Introduces Tradición and Pain is Good Spicin Foods is a specialty food manufacturer founded in 1999 and based in Kansas City, Kansas. Formerly known as Original Juan Specialty Foods, Spicin Foods is carrying on the Original Juan tradition of making highquality sauces, salsas and drink mixes. For more than 20 years, Spicin Foods has been a leading producer of micro-batch sauces, and the company’s award-winning sauces can be found in grocery stores and restaurants.

Operating from a 60,000 square-foot facility with organic and kosher-certified capabilities that’s certified by the Food and Drug Administration, top people in the sauce-making business, including Chefs Tommy Carter and Edwin Fluevog and Food Scientist A. J. Smith, craft more than 1,500 unique products using HACCP-approved processes certified for safety by

There’s a new “lunch lady” in town, and guess who it is? Every parent with a kid heading to school – remotely, in the next room. Get ready for another surge of demand for the simple things: great-tasting, quick lunch solutions from brands consumers trust.

Toufayan Smart Pockets are the only square pita bread on the market. They’re pre-sliced and pre-split, so easy for parents to grab and fill with their favorite ingredients, like meats, cheeses or even last night’s leftovers. The square shape is easy for kids to handle, and the pocket holds the ingredients inside, so no mess.

At only 100 calories or less with options

t a i n e r, E R I K A’ S PANTRY is ideal for your deli counter or condiment section or for a “Pickup and Go Picnic” display. It’s packed six to the case and priced to sell off your shelves.

Gourmet International Ltd. 800.875.5557 sales@gourmetint.com www.gourmetint.com

Anyone who appreciates a finely crafted cocktail will be sweet on the new Tillen Farms Pearl Cherries from specialty food maker Stonewall Kitchen. Soaked in a rich syrup, these stemless and pitless Amarena-style cherries are bursting with flavor, bringing a satisfying finish to Manhattans, decadent desserts and more. They’re also free from artificial dyes and are colored with only fruit and vegetable juices. Slightly larger than what’s usually found in the market, Stonewall Kitchen’s Northwest-grown Pearl Cherries are cultivated in some of the nation’s richest farmland.

This product joins a range of other fine cocktail garnishes in the Tillen Farms line, including tasty Merry Maraschino Cherries and Bada Bing Cherries®. All are picked at the peak of ripeness and bring great taste and texture to beverages, charcuterie boards and beyond.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Paesana’s New Champagne Pasta Sauce Introducing Paesana’s new Champagne Pasta Sauce. Marrying the fizzy, bursting bubbles and acidity of champagne to classic Italian flavors gives consumers a sense of celebration and fun with every bite. Like all Paesana tomato-based sauces, this new flavor is made with 100 percent imported Italian tomatoes. To complement this original taste, the sauce also includes rich heavy cream, champagne and decadent white truffle-infused extra virgin olive oil.

The product also features a newly designed label that maintains the instantly recognizable Paesana logo.

L&S Packing Company Inc. 631.845.1717 www.paesana.com

Big Country Organic Hard Seltzer Big Country™ Organic Hard Seltzer is the first hard seltzer to hit the shelves with various certifications such as organic, non-GMO, fair trade and Go Texan. This hard seltzer is thoughtfully crafted by a skilled brewmaster and artisan mixologist who have used their combined 25 years of experience to create the most delicious and unique flavors on the market.

The company sources and use high-quality ingredients. Big Country Organic Cane Sugar is sourced from Paraguay and used to produce organic alcohol, then combined with purified water and organic flavors to create a crisp and clean hard seltzer. The Big Country Organic Hard Seltzer variety pack includes these four distinctive flavors: Honeydew Yuzu, Black Raspberry Grapefruit, Strawberry Tangerine and Coconut Papaya.

Big Country Organic Hard Seltzer is perfect for today’s health-conscious consumer, with each can containing only 90 calories, zero grams of sugar, 1 gram of carbohydrates and 4.5 percent alcohol by volume. In addition, by purchasing Big Country Organic Hard Seltzer, consumers are giving back through the Fair Trade USA® program, which supports safe working conditions of farmers, protects the environment, builds sustainable livelihoods and allows farmers to earn additional money.

Suggested retail price for the variety pack of 12 12-ounce cans is $16.99.

Big Country Hard Seltzer www.bigcountryhardseltzer.com

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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

LPZ Pizza Rack for Your Kitchen

Le Gruyère AOP Has the True Taste of Switzerland

The LPZ Pizza Rack from Prairie View Industries would be a great addition in any pizza kitchen. It features a unique design with solid sheet aluminum uprights, stamped and bent shelves that are open for easy cleaning and air flow. Offered in different sizes, single- and double-capacity racks can hold a variety of pan sizes to meet your needs. The space-saving footprint of the LPZ rack is perfect for utilizing your space, especially in kitchens with limited room.

Optional translucent covers are a great accessory to keep your product moist and fresh. Mobility is easy with four 5-inch swivel stem casters that come standard

Gruyère has been produced in western Switzerland for more than 900 years. Rich in flavor and packed with nutrients from the milk of cows grazing in pristine pastures, Le Gruyère AOP is delicious on its own, and its complex nuttiness elevates any recipe that calls for melted cheese. Try it with dry white wines, malty beers and full-bodied ciders.

Today, anyone can label a cheese “Gruyère,” but Le Gruyère AOP is the real deal, tightly upholding the tradition of the cheesemaking process, the regions where it is produced and the strict guidelines followed by the dairy farmers, cheesemakers and affineurs. Pure, unpasteurized milk is gathered from 170 farms

with each rack. LPZ racks ship knocked down to help minimize shipping cost and arrive with instructions for easy assembly.

The fine workmanship in these highquality racks stands apart from the rest with the durability to last a lifetime.

Prairie View Industries 800.554.7267 www.pvifs.com

26oz. Glass Mason Jar Ardagh Group’s versatile 26oz Mason jar is perfect for craft food producers and home canners alike. Proudly made in the U.S., the jar is made using high quality flint (clear) glass with a 70-450 canning finish.

This 100 percent and endlessly recyclable glass Mason jar is environmentally friendly and boasts an excellent shelf life. For home canners, the jar can be washed and reused for many years of preserving foods and sauces.

This Mason jar is offered in 12-pack cases available for purchase on Ardagh Group’s BOB™ site with convenient online ordering and payment via credit card or PayPal. Or you can purchase the jar in sixpack cases by contacting Ardagh Group directly.

Ardagh Group is dedicated to the craft food market with capabilities and resources to grow with you every stage of the way.

By the pallet or truckload, BOB and Ardagh Group have the ideal shapes and styles for craft food producers like you.

Ardagh Group 856.455.2137 marketing.glass.na@ardaghgroup.com food.buyourbottles.com

Lemon & Vine Fillo Triangles Lemon & Vine’s Fillo Triangles are offered in four distinct flavors, including Spakanopita, Tiropita, Eggplant Artichoke and Lemon Chicken, all meant for enjoying with family and friends. They exemplify Mediterranean flavors, especially Greek, that are gaining popularity at a rapid rate as discriminating consumers seek out authentic products they can feel good about eating and sharing with friends.

Every Lemon & Vine product is handmade to ensure that the food is as beautiful to see as the flavors are to taste. Only the best ingredients, including fresh fillo,

and time-honored techniques are used.

Lemon & Vine is a family-owned and certified womanowned company dedicated to the art of food with true quality, taste and visual appeal that is made with the best, premium ingredients.

Lemon & Vine www.lemonandvine.com

Pumpkin Spice Honey Cream Spread Bumbleberry Farms introduces its newest seasonal Honey Cream Spread offering and sofi Award winner for a new product, Pumpkin Spice, just in time for holiday hoopla. These delectable spreads can be stirred into coffee, spread on toast or pancakes, drizzled over popcorn or ice cream, spooned into oatmeal or yogurt or used to glaze poultry, fish or roasted vegetables. More options for your customers means more movement on your shelves.

The company bottles delicious honeys and crafts its innovative honey cream spreads in small artisan batches using whole, natural ingredients primarily found locally. All honey bottled by Bumbleberry Farms is True Source-certified,

ensuring that the honey is ethically sourced in a transparent and traceable m a n n e r from known beekeepers to your shop.

Bumbleberry Farms is a womanowned operation located in the foothills of Pennsylvania’s Laurel Mountains.

Bumbleberry Farms 814.279.8083 orders@bumbleberryfarms.com www.bumbleberryfarms.faire.com

and brought to expert cheesemakers to produce 80-pound wheels of Le Gruyère AOP, which are then carefully matured in local cellars. Only the wheels that pass the highest standards set by professional cheese graders are allowed to be sold as Le Gruyère AOP. Travel back to 1115 AD with Le Gruyère AOP. You’ll experience one of great mountain the cheeses of Switzerland – 100 percent natural, 100 percent additive free and naturally gluten free – just as it has always been.

Le Gruyère www.gruyere.com

Jasper Ranch Rosemary Garlic Almonds with Cranberries Jasper Ranch provides a spin on classic fall and holiday flavors with Rosemary Garlic Almonds with Cranberries. This is a unique creation generated from almonds straight from the Jasper family farms in California’s Central Valley. They are gently dry roasted and seasoned in small batches to ensure the highest quality possible. This combination creates a sophisticated and aromatic seasoning blend of fragrant rosemary and robust garlic paired with sweet, tart, dried cranberries. Conveniently packaged in a re-sealable 5-ounce bag, this product is one to share at holiday parties, to use as an ingredient for recipes or to make an easy snack on the go. This is one flavor blend you will not want to miss.

Jasper Ranch is a proud brand of Jasper Specialty Foods, a multi-generational, family-run operation headquartered in Newman,

California, specializing in the production of unique almondrelated food snacks, confections and other treats for the specialty food market. The company is actively involved in developing new flavors, custom mixes and smart packaging with an emphasis on small-batch process and exceptional quality. California almonds from Jasper Ranch are the perfect pairing of handcrafted production along with new and traditional flavors.

Jasper Specialty Foods 800.255.1641 www.jasperspecialtyfoods.com www.jasperranch.com

DeBrand Fine Chocolates Truffles in 12 Flavors With 12 incredible variations, DeBrand Fine Chocolates Truffles seem almost too beautiful to eat. Each over-sized piece is individually and artistically designed, but its true beauty lies within. Each silky, rich, Truffle is like a petite, luxurious chocolate dessert. Your customers will not be able to resist these decadent chocolates, each bursting with its own unique flavor.

The Caramel Truffle is one of DeBrand’s most popular. This Truffle contains milk chocolate with a soft, liquid caramel inside, covered in a creamy milk chocolate shell.

DeBrand offers several varieties of

chocolates so that there is always the perfect size and price-point for any occasion.

It’s included in DeBrand’s Classic Collection, the ideal gift for people who appreciate quality and tradition. Timeless favorites make up DeBrand’s most popular collection, including luscious caramel variations, pure fruit creams bursting with wonderfully intense flavors, as well as re-inspired traditional selections such as Gourmet PB&J, Toffee Crush and Orange Cream.

DeBrand Fine Chocolates 260.969.8331 www.debrand.com

Bone Suckin’ Sweet Spicy Mustard Bone Suckin’® Sweet Spicy Mustard is the perfect blend of brown sugar, molasses and subtle heat from jalapeño. This medium heat mustard is perfect for grilling, dipping and can even be eaten right out of the jar with a spoon. It’s fantastic on ham biscuits, grilled cheese or dogs, and it can be mixed with cream cheese and diced onions for bagel spread.

Bone Suckin’ Sweet Spicy Mustard was

a first place winner in Kansas City’s Great American Barbecue Contest. It’s also gluten free, non-GMO, kosher and contains no high fructose corn syrup.

Ford’s Gourmet Foods www.bonesuckin.com

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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.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, Ayala created her own blends of herb-infused 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 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

Stonewall Kitchen’s Chocolate Peppermint Waffle Cookie This new holiday offering from specialty food maker Stonewall Kitchen features two thin waffle cookies sandwiched together with a gooey peppermint filling, dipped in dark chocolate and covered in candy cane pieces. Inspired by the classic Dutch confection known as the stroopwafel, this version brings extra chocolatey cheer to the company’s popular line of waffle cookies, which also includes the Caramel Apple Pie Waffle Cookie, another

seasonal flavor that’s made with a comforting caramel filling flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg and a hint of apple.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Monti Trentini Truffle Caciotta The Truffle Caciotta from Monti Trentini is the perfect balance between the strong and earthy flavor of the black summer truffle and the buttery yet sweet taste of the fresh caciotta that makes many American cheese lovers fall in love with this imported cheese.

Truffle Caciotta is great for snacking, and on a cheese board, it adds some intrigue. It has the meltability to be great on a grilled cheese sandwich, and it adds

exquisite flavor over eggs or grilled meats.

It’s offered in 8ounce wedges or in 1.25-pound wheels perfect as the centerpiece for a magnificent cheese board.

Monti Trentini USA LLC www.montitrentini.com

Darrell Lea Soft Strawberry Licorice Darrell Lea’s Soft Strawberry Licorice comes from a company that’s been crafting confectionery from quality ingredients for more than 90 years. It has a deliciously soft and chewy texture, it contains no artificial flavors, no genetically modified ingredients or high fructose corn syrup and it’s bursting with flavor.

Darrell Lea Soft Strawberry Licorice is packaged in a peggable 7-ounce stand-up pouch.

Darrell Lea www.darrelllea.com

Honey Candies from Famille Perronneau Famille Perronneau is nothing but a family affair. Beekeepers and honey producers for five generations, the Perronneau family has honey flowing through their veins. Founded in 1890, the Dijon-based company has continued to develop and improve its honey. Widely present in France and around the world, the company is establishing itself as a high-end brand. With more than 4,000 hives and between 30,000 to 60,000 per hive, the company is one of France’s biggest employers.

Famille Perronneau is innovating by creating a new range of honey-based sweets.

The pastilles and flavored hard candies are

a big hit so far. The combination of honey and subtle flavors like acacia, berries and even violet make the Famille Perronneau candies one of a kind. Always made with natural flavors and colors, and with no preservatives, these candies are sure to delight both the young and the old, and everyone in between. Famille Perronneau candies are packed six units in a case and imported directly from France.

The French Farm 713.660.0577 www.frenchfarm.com

Hero Nectars Please Consumers Newly certified as non-GMO, Hero Nectars brings you a superb fruit nectar for your customers. It’s made with simple, pure ingredients: fruit puree, water and a splash of lemon juice to act as citric acid.

Both freshness and flavor are guaranteed in the 33.8-ounce recyclable glass bottle, conveniently packed six to the case.

Hero Nectars are made with fruit puree and never from concentrate. There’s no high fructose corn syrup. Mango, Peach, Apricot, Guava or Pear will delight consumers either on their own, as an ingredient for a smoothie or for creating a fun cocktail.

They are also shelf stable for up to 15 months.

Upgrade your juice selection with these sureto-please additions. The product is made in Spain and imported by Gourmet International, which has seen high doubledigit increases in sales every year.

Gourmet International 800.875.5557 www.gourmetint.com

Mauna Loa’s New Line of Dairy-Free Frozen Desserts The macadamia nut is now available in the frozen dessert section with Mauna Loa frozen desserts made with macadamia milk. Mauna Loa’s premiere line of macadamiabased frozen dessert comes in six island-inspired flavors.

All flavors are fashioned from simple ingredients, vegan, dairy-, gluten-, soy-, and GMOfree, which make Mauna Loa’s new frozen treats tip-top for the health-and-wellnessconscious consumer. The first ingredient is macadamia nut milk, which delivers the creaminess and indulgence that consumers are looking for in dairy-free frozen desserts.

They include Rocky Road to Hana, a recipe named for Maui’s storied, winding road that blends creamy chocolate, vegan marshmallows and macadamia nuts.

Vanilla Orchid is a traditional favorite, while Mango Liliko’r is a tart yet sweet blend of mango and passionfruit. Kona Coffee is for

coffee lovers and is made with Hawai’i’s coveted Kona coffee. Chocolate is made extra creamy and decadent, and Vanilla Chocolate Chip is smooth, silky and chock-full of chocolate chips for the best of both worlds.

This launch will coincide with a brand relaunch that includes new packaging design, paying homage to its provenance, and reformulation, converting into non-GMO ingredients. With its core lineup of dry-roasted, flavored macadamias, Mauna Loa is already a favorite for those who follow keto and Paleo diets, since macadamias have healthy fats, are low in carbohydrates and have the best omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of any tree nut.

Hawaiian Host Group www.maunaloa.com www.hawaiianhostgroup.com

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HOT PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Hot Products Guacamoles from Chosen Foods

Made with Hass avocados, ripened by the sun and perfected with a touch of cilantro and onion, Chosen Foods guacamole transports you to the Baja California coast with its wholesome flavors. The guacamoles come in four varieties: Classic, Spicy, Avocado Tomatillo Salsa and Avocado Mash, perfect for any dipping or topping, and are non-GMO-certified, kosher, cold pressure-processed, preservative free and gluten free.

The Classic Guacamole features tomato, onion, jalapeño pepper, salt, lime juice, cilantro and garlic and is packaged in an 8-ounce cup that retails for $3.99 and in a four-pack of 2-ounce cups that retails for $4.99. Spicy Guacamole is spiced with serrano and habañero pepper, and it also retails for $3.99 for the 8-ounce cup and $4.99 for the four-pack of 2-ounce cups. Avocado Mash retails for $4.99 for a four-pack of 2-ounce cups.

The new Avocado Tomatillo Salsa is made with fresh tomatillos and jalapeño pepper for a creamy, balanced side dish. It retails for $5.99 for 12 ounces.

Chosen Foods www.chosenfoods.com

Endangered Species Oat Milk Chocolate Chips

Endangered Species Chocolate is bringing plantbased dairy to the baking aisle with Oat Milk Chocolate Chips. With no dairy ingredients and no excess sugar, the chocolate chips are made with 55 percent cocoa and no mystery additives. The baking chips are certified vegan and gluten free.

Every purchase of an Endangered Species Chocolate product contributes to the support of wildlife conservation, since 10 percent of the company’s annual net profits are donated to support conservation of endangered species and habitats.

Endangered Species Chocolate www.chocolatebar.com

Fava Bean Fusilli

Fava Bean Fusilli from Explore Cuisine is the first and only organic, gluten-free pasta-alternative made from fava beans. The Fava Bean Pasta is Explore Cuisine’s closest pasta yet to traditional pasta in terms of taste, texture and appearance.

With three times the fiber and two times the protein than traditional wheat-based pasta, Fava Bean Fusilli provides up to 25 grams of protein and 8.75 grams of fiber per 3.5-ounce serving and contains less than half of the total carbohydrates. Mild and creamy in flavor, fava beans are also known as broad beans.

The Fava Bean Fusilli is also naturally vegan, 100 percent organic and cooks in just five to seven minutes. There are no additives such as potato starch, binders or gums. The Fava Bean pasta line will also be launched in different shapes in the coming months.

Explore Cuisine www.explorecuisine.com

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 10pound 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 info@fabriquedelices.com 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.

Feve Chocolates sales@fevechocolates.com www.fevechocolates.com

Gindo’s Spice of Life Hot Sauce

Award-winning Gindo’s Spice of Life Hot Sauce is one of the few truly handcrafted, artisanal hot sauces available in today’s marketplace.

Created by a husband and wife team, all-natural Gindo’s Spice of Life Hot Sauce is made in small batches with fresh whole peppers and ingredients that are sourced locally from Illinois farms whenever possible.

Gindo’s Year-Round Hot Sauces are gluten free and include three yearround pepper sauces: Original Fresh & Spicy, a medium heat, everyday Louisiana-style red sauce; Jalapeño Poblano, a milder green sauce; and Honey Habañero, a Caribbean-inspired sauce. Gindo’s Spice of Life Hot Sauce only uses peppers that are picked at the peak of freshness.

Gindo’s Spice of Life 855.444.6367 www.gindos.com

Plant-Based Toona Relaunches

Sophie’s Kitchen has launched a new and improved version of its canned Plant-Based Toona. With a pea protein base, the brand’s new Plant-Based Toona formula is completely vegan and replicates the taste, shred-able texture, smell, look and color of its animal counterpart. Debuting in its two classic flavors, Sea Salt and Black Pepper, the Plant-Based Toona is soy free, gluten free and non-GMO, which sets it apart from competitors. The new 6-ounce cans will be rolling out at specialty retailers nationwide. Suggested retail price is $5.49 per 6-ounce can.

Sophie’s Kitchen www.sophieskitchen.com

Top Tomato Gluten-Free Bloody Mary Mix

A multiple award-winner in national and international competitions, Circle B Ranch’s Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix is well known for its superior taste and fresh high quality ingredients. The Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix is produced in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, in small batches with the highest quality ingredients. Filled with bits of real garden tomatoes, chopped onion and garlic, this mix brings a bit of a kick that pairs perfectly with anyone’s favorite spirit and unlike many of its competitors, it’s gluten free. It’s also low in salt and sugar and contains no MSG, no preservatives and no high fructose corn syrup. While it primarily is used as an alcoholic beverage, it is very versatile and can be added to chili or soup or used to dress meatballs.

Circle B Ranch www.circlebranchpork.com

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SMORGASBORD

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

SMORGASBORD ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER

PAGE WEBSITE

PHONE

New California Local Beef Directory Links Consumers with Beef Producers It’s no secret that in the months since the current global pandemic began, many people have changed the way they think about, purchase, prepare and consume food.

Questions about where food comes from that were part of the conversation before COVID-19 have now assumed new importance in the minds of many consumers, particularly in California. And when it comes to beef, the idea of knowing your steak’s path from pasture to plate has become more and more top-of-mind for some.

Those California shoppers looking to find a local resource for purchasing beef now have an online tool to navigate the process with the launch of the California Local Beef Directory. Created by the Cali-

fornia Beef Council (CBC), the directory is available at CalBeef.org and provides an easy-to-use resource for those interested in purchasing beef directly from California’s ranchers.

“Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting all of us for several months now, many of the ranchers and beef producers we work with have indicated they are continuing to see increased demand for their direct-to-consumer sales,” notes CBC Executive Director Bill Dale.

“With this renewed interest in purchasing food locally, it made sense for the California Beef Council to provide a tool that helps shoppers navigate the buying process and build a connection with beef ranchers in their area.” GN

Ariston Specialties

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www.aristonspecialties.com

860.224.7184

Bumbleberry Farms

35

www.bumbleberryfarm.com

814.279.8083

Caputo Cheese

27

www.elevatedcow.com

708.450.0074

Charles Chocolates

31

www.charleschocolates.com

415.659.8770

Daddy Sam’s

17

www.daddysams.com

512.827.1958

Darrell Lea

13

www.darrelllea.com

DeBrand Fine Chocolates

40

www.debrand.com

Erotas Enterprises

37

www.lemonandvine.com

EU3

2

www.iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

Fall River Wild Rice

35

www.frwr.com

800.626.4366

Ford’s Gourmet

7

www.bonesuckin.com

800.446.0947

Garmon Corp

28

www.garmoncorp.com

562.400.8406

Glass North America

5

www.ardaghgroup.com

856.455.2137

Howard Products

34

www.howardproducts.com

800.266.9545

Le Gruyère

11

www.gruyere.com

Paesana Products

9

www.paesana.com

631.845.1717

PLMA

39

www.plma.com

212.972.3131

PVI Food Service

33

www.pvifs.com

800.554.7267

Seneca Food Corp

23

www.senecafoods.com

Southeastern Mills Becomes Summit Hill Foods

Seviroli

3,24,25 www.seviroli.com

516.222.6220

Spicin Foods

15

www.spicinfoods.com

800.568.8468

Stonewall Kitchen

4

www.stonewallkitchen.com

888.326.5678

Sunsweet

19

www.herbalwater.com

Southeastern Mills, makers of Better Than Bouillon® and Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce™, and a major supplier to the food service industry, has announced a complete rebrand to Summit Hill Foods, effective immediately.

The extensive rebranding initiative is the result of a year-long effort that includes the new

Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation

Publication Title: Gourmet News Publication Number: 544-070 Filing Date: October 13, 2020 Issue Frequency: Monthly Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 Annual Subscription Price: Free Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 1877 N. Kolb Rd., Tucson, Pima Co., AZ 85715 Contact Person: Jamie Green, Telephone: 520-721-1300 Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 1877 N. Kolb Rd., Tucson, Pima Co., AZ 85715 Publisher: Kimberly Oser, 1877 N. Kolb Rd., Tucson, Pima Co., AZ 85715 Editor: Lorrie Baumann, 1877 N. Kolb Rd., Tucson, Pima Co., AZ 85715 Owner: Oser Communications Group, LLC, Kimberly Oser, P. O. Box 30520, Tucson, AZ 85751 Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 percent or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None

260.969.8331

Toufayan Helps Aspiring Chefs Reach Their Dreams Toufayan Bakeries, one of the largest family owned and operated bakeries in the U.S., has awarded two $5,000 scholarships to students attending The Culinary Institute of America.

Chosen by anonymous essay submissions from students studying baking and pastry arts, recipients Lexy Slone, Leesburg, Virginia, class of 2021, and Soohyun Park, Prattville, Alabama, class of 2020, re-

Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September, 2020

Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months

Total Number of Copies (Net Press run) 24,941 Paid and/or requested distribution Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions 14,066 In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions 0 Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS 12 Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS 0 Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 14,078 Nonrequested Distribution Outside County Nonrequested Copies 10,764 In-County Nonrequested Copies 0 Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail 0 Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail 100 Total Nonrequested Distribution 10,864 Total Distribution 24,941 Copies Not Distributed 0 Total 24,941 Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 56.4% Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the November 2020 issue of this publication.

I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. /s/Kimberly Oser, Publisher 10-13-2020

No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date 24,792

14,092 0 13

0 14,105 10,587 0

0 100 10,687 24,792 0 24,792 56.9%

ceived the Toufayan Bakeries Scholarship for the upcoming fall 2020 semester.

In addition to the scholarships, when social distancing guidelines permit, the recipients will be invited to Toufayan’s main bakery for a guided tour and success secrets from Toufayan’s lead bakers about the company’s almost 100-year-old pita bread recipe. GN

company name, brand manifesto, company logo and corporate and foodservice websites.

Peter Hjort, President of the newly branded Summit Hill Foods, cited the need for a name that more closely aligns with the company’s ambitious goals and global reach as the primary reasoning behind the rebranding effort.

“Throughout the rebranding process, we were reminded of who we are at our core and what our ambitions and goals are for the future,” said Hjort. “Our goal was to land on an identity that encapsulated our principles and global positioning, and we firmly believe that Summit Hill Foods captures that sentiment.”

The new brand identity for the fourth-generation family company is the result of a highly collaborative process and pays homage to the company’s heritage and historic roots while highlighting a commitment to serving customers on global scale, without the limiting geographic perception of the former name.

“For us, Summit Hill Foods is friendly and approachable and references our commitment to superior quality,” Hjort continued.

“At the same time, Summit Hill Foods alludes to a pastoral sense of place and our enduring commitment to offering our global customer base the best in all that we do.” GN