Gourmet News • December 2020

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Julia’s Pantry Offers Nostalgia Along with Southern Cooking PAGE 16

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A Snack Bar with a Mission to Save Lives

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

This Saves Lives is a snack brand that’s on a mission to help end severe acute malnutrition in children around the world. With every purchase, the company sends food to a child in need through a partnership with Action Against Hunger, a global humanitarian organization that takes action against the causes and effects of hunger in more than 45 countries.

Co-founded by Hollywood celebrities Kristen Bell, Ryan Devlin, Todd Grinnell and Ravi Patel, This Saves Lives offers three product lines: Classic snack bars for adults, snack bars for

children and the newest, Krispy Treats. The line of bars designed for children offers five flavors, each of which contains a full serving of fruits and vegetables in

each bar. They’re non-GMO, gluten free, kosher and safe for school – they’re all free of the most common allergens. “I’m a mom myself, and when we cre-

ated these, we wanted to be sure we were creating a product that kids love, and that parents could feel good about giving them, especially with the full serving of fruits and vegetables,” said Jillian Dilorio, the company’s Chief Sales and Giving Officer. “It’s a healthy and delicious snack bar on a mission to help end severe acute malnutrition. For every single purchase, we send life-saving food to a child in need around the world.”

The Krispy Treats share the same attributes as the classic bars

One thing that Chris Molieri has learned after almost a decade of being the co-Owner and coFounder of Greenstreet Coffee Roasters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is that most of those purchasing premium coffees prefer single-origin coffees to blends. “I think the single-origin is an opportunity to taste nuances from a specific terroir that is the literal soil and the plants and the history of that farm taken care of by the owners, generally the family that lives there and

runs it,” he said. “At the $16 price point or upwards of that number, someone wants a reserve or a family-owned estate. When they’re paying that much for it, that’s what they want.”

Another thing he’s learned is that those customers generally prefer a light roast that allows them to taste flavor notes they wouldn’t get otherwise. “You won’t get that in a coffee that’s sat there for a few weeks or a month,” he said. “A week from now we’ll have gone through all the coffee we have roasted.”

Pickled Pink Foods Rises Above Pandemic

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Molieri now roasts coffee three days a week. He learned those skills from Joel Domreis at Courier Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon, while he was living there doing a job he hated. “I met this guy, Joel from Courier Coffee, and he talked a lot about training. He had all facets of a coffee business down pat,” he said.

“He kind of made it basic enough that I was interested. I was hoping that I wouldn’t mess up his work. He gave me a primer, and I

Garlic Dill Pickles and Honey Cinnamon Beets are the newest products from Pickled Pink Foods, 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. Until the pandemic hit, this was going to be a year when the company, launched in 2013, was going to get some sales traction on the new products that Lawlor had planned to introduce to potential buyers at the Summer Fancy Food Show and the Natural Products Expos.

With those shows canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, business slowed down during the spring, but along with many other specialty brands, Pickled Pink Foods has since been discovered by consumers willing to try brands they might never have heard about before.

According to the Specialty Food Association’s consumer research, 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

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Fresh is Best: Advice on Coffee from Philadelphia

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

NATURALLY HEALTHY

F O R

New Collection from Feve Artisan Chocolatier Evokes Luxurious Comfort

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Lifting the top off a box of Feve Artisan Chocolatier’s chocolates is like opening a jewelry box. An assortment will offer bonbons blazing with the red of a pigeon’s blood ruby or gleaming with gold. Others are iced with pointillist forests or adorned with tessellations traced in gleaming gold. “Our signature style is bold flavors and stunning appearances that create an indulgent confection,” said Bryon Sheets, Owner and President of the company founded in San Francisco, Cali-

fornia 12 years ago by chocolatier Shawn Williams.

Sheets acquired the company in 2017 after retiring from a twodecade career in private equity.

Although Williams had given the company a good start with ideas borrowed from European chocolatiers married to his own creative vision, he’d lacked the capital needed to scale the company beyond its positioning as a local boutique chocolatier and propel it into a future that included greater retail penetration across the country and the exercise of co-packing

and private label capabilities.

“They had this great chocolate. I saw the potential to expand the number of channels and customers,” Sheets said.

“We’ve invested in some new capital equipment, increased production space by almost three times and positioned to serve a wider group of customers across more lines than the company had ever had before.”

Since its inception, Feve Chocolates has won four Good Food Awards along with finalist nods in 2020 for its Cinnamon

Toast Crunch and in 2018 for its Peanut Butter Coconut Chile. The awards include a 2019 win for Cherry Vanilla Single Origin, 2015 for Caramelized Chai Spice Continued on PAGE 17

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Greetings!

Here at Oser Communications Group, we are looking forward to holidays gladdened by recent news of a possible vaccine against the coronavirus and to the next year and all that it may bring. You will notice that, like all of you, we’ve been using some of our time during the pandemic to imagine and re-imagine both Gourmet News and Kitchenware News for the next year.

Kitchenware News will show the most noticeable changes, since we have an exciting new design that we hope will help to showcase the beauty of the products we will be covering. Those of you who notice such things will already have noticed this year that we are making greater efforts to emphasize the visual aspects of what we do, that will certainly continue through the next year as we find new and better ways to communicate better with the visual thinkers among us.

The theme for next year’s Kitchenware News coverage is built around the idea that, despite the likelihood of a vaccine next year, many of us are going to be think-

ing carefully about a balance between travel plans and safety, and so, while we may be able to travel safely next year, we probably won’t be doing that as casually as we’ve done it in the past. There is nothing to stop us, though, from enjoying virtual travel to various regions of our country to learn about local and regional culinary styles and the kitchenware retailers who serve the needs of home cooks practicing the culinary traditions of their local cultures. We start in January with a look at cooking and eating in the great Southwest, since that’s closest to home for the editorial staff that produces the magazine, and from there we’ll tour around the country over the course of the year.

Changes in Gourmet News may be a little less obvious. Here in this issue, you’ll see that we have included a featured story that’s longer and more abundantly illustrated than our usual stories and that highlights an important issue for those of us who are concerned about the future of our food system. You may not see one of those in every issue, but the longer story features will continue to be presented occasionally over the course of the next year, and we hope that you’ll enjoy these deeper dives

into critically important issues and the way that our food producers are already responding to them. You’ll also see that, while Gourmet News will continue to pay close attention to new products coming onto the market and the people who make them, the magazine will continue to present issues-oriented stories in every issue, and in 2021, the editorial focus will continue to be on the environmental and social issues affecting the market in which we all operate.

All of this reflects the reality that, while trade shows are important to the industries we cover, they aren’t a sine qua non for any of us. Whether we can travel as freely as we’d like in 2021 or not, there’s still a future ahead for us. We are so happy to have the prospect of joining all of you in it, and, of course, we look forward to seeing all of you again when we can all agree that it’s safe for us to do so.

In the meantime, happy holidays, everyone, and let’s all try our best to remember that one of the promises of the season is that after the darkness comes the light. GN — Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director

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reachipasng t into

the

for flavor

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

When my father was teaching me to drive up the hills and across the one-lane bridges of Shawnee County, Kansas, he used to tell me, “Make sure you’re right, and then go ahead.” That was his advice for how to get past stop signs, through unmarked intersections and onto busy interstate highways, and it’s worked all these years since then.

Sam Edwards’ father used say something similar to him.

He’s quoted on the Edwards Smokehouse website this way: “Times change and you’ve got to change with it, but once you know what’s right you adhere to it.” The Sam Edwards who runs the Edwards Smokehouse today is the third generation in a business that got started in 1926 when Samuel Wallace Edwards, Sam’s grandfather, was a ferry boat captain shuttling customers across the James River between Surry County and Jamestown Island.

By the 1920s, Jamestown, the site of the original 1607 settlement by the Virginia Company under a charter from King James I of England, was already a tourist attraction. Over the years, Jamestown had ceased to exist as a community, but late in the 19th century, it became the subject of renewed historical interest, and in 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Barney, who owned the land at that time, donated 22.5 acres on Jamestown Island, including the 17th-century tower of the Jamestown Church, to the organization that is now known as Preservation Virginia. In 1926, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. committed himself to the restoration of colonial Williamsburg, about 5.5 miles away, and the area became the Colonial National Monument in 1930. On June 5, 1936, it was redesignated as a national historical park. Jamestown National Historic Site was designated on December 18, 1940.

Ferry boat Captain Edwards boosted the popularity of his ferry service and made a little extra cash by serving sandwiches made with his home-cured ham to his passengers on their way to spend a day touring Jamestown Island and its artifacts. It turned out that there were a good many of those customers who wanted to wrap their lips around a succulent bite of ham more often than they wanted to traipse around the ruins of a colonial settlement, however historic it undoubtedly was, and they created such a demand for Edwards’ hams that he ended up deciding to chuck the ferry boat business and just cure pork for a living.

He eventually passed his smokehouse he’d built in the early 1880s down to his son, S. Wallace Edwards, Jr. It was S. Wallace Edwards, Jr., quoted on the company website, who changed with the times as he presided over the company as U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety regula-

tions and meat inspection practices evolved, and the meat inspector went from being a semi-annual visitor to a plant fixture. “That was an interesting time for him,” Sam says.

“During my time, it’s always been like that – having a meat inspector in the plant every day was normal.”

S. Wallace Edwards, Jr., in turn, passed along the secrets of making those country hams, the family sausage recipe and the smokehouse to his son, who formally has a “III” after his name but mostly calls himself Sam. Sam started out following his father’s advice that times change and he needed to change with them, and he did his best, but as

the times changed, he started noticing that the hams he was making just weren’t as good as the hams that his grandfather and his father had made. He didn’t have to ask himself too much about the why of that – while the way he made his hams might have changed a little bit from his grandfather’s day, what had changed even more was the pork Sam was buying.

Health Concerns Change Pork Over the 1970s, nutrition scientists started piecing together studies that linked diet to cardiovascular disease, and in 1977, after years of debate, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs released “Dietary Goals for the United States.” Loosely summarized, the report sug-

gested that fewer men would drop dead from heart attacks if they started eating more whole grains and fruit and less red meat. Specifically, the guidelines recommended that saturated fat consumption should be reduced to about 10 percent of total calorie intake.

After any number of groups started questioning whether those recommendations were actually backed up by the science, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services went to work on the question of what advice to give Americans about their daily food choices, and in 1980 released “Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”

With all this new advice to limit fats in their diets – advice that more recent research has shown to have been deeply flawed – pork came to be widely regarded as a proximate cause of cardiovascular disease. The nutritional value of pork was being compared to that of chicken and turkey, and pork was losing out.

The National Pork Board sprang into action, fighting back with a rebranding campaign that named pork “the other white meat” in 1987.

Though “Pork. The Other White Meat” wasn’t as successful at driving sales as “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” and didn’t have quite the punch of “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner,” it did its job, holding per capita pork consumption steady at around 50 pounds per person despite all the yammering about dietary fat and the price difference at the supermarket between factory-raised pork and factory-raised chicken. Per capita pork expenditure bumped from $92.66 in 1987 to $112.56 by 1991, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Livestock Marketing Information Center.

Along the way, pork producers started breeding a different kind of pig – a leaner animal with a longer body that could be raised efficiently on an industrial scale and that would produce lighter colored, leaner meat with a nutrition profile that was closer to what fat-fearing Americans who’d been convinced that pork was supposed to be a white meat were willing to consume. Compared with pigs from the 1950s, pigs now have about 75 percent less fat, and most of the females used in modern breeding systems come from the white breeds – Yorkshire (also known as Large White), Landrace and Chester White, docile breeds known for producing large litters.

Why Fat Equals Flavor What got lost along with the fat was a lot of pork’s flavor.

The ability to taste food is inborn in us, and human beings really can taste the difference between foods that are rich in fats and those that aren’t. Specialized taste cells first

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appear in the human fetus at around the seventh or eighth week of gestation, and mature taste buds have developed by 13 to 15 weeks.

Specialized receptor cells in our mouths are known to respond to sugars, the building blocks of carbohydrates; to amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins; and to lipids, the building blocks of fats. While scientists thought until recently that our appreciation for fats comes from their aromas and their mouthfeel, recent research has found that we actually can taste fatty acids and that both taste and mouthfeel contribute to our enjoyment of fatty foods. Since our taste buds also respond to amino acids, fats aren’t the only contributor to savory flavors, but they’re one reason that the very pale pork that’s billed as a white meat doesn’t have the eating quality of the darker meat of pigs not bred for commercial success.

A Quest for Flavor Sam could taste the difference for himself. If he was going to make better hams, he needed better pork.

To find it, he went looking for pigs that were raised the way they were in his grandfather’s day. He had to leave Virginia to do it, since along the way, American pork production had moved from the American South to the Midwestern Corn Belt, but he found them on the pastures at small farms where the farmers who’d chosen not to invest in large-scale swine production facilities were raising the same kind of yard pigs that their own grandfathers had raised – pigs from breeds with names like Berkshire, Tamworth, Duroc, Gloucester Old Spot and Mulefoot, sturdy breeds known for eating whatever their farm families could spare in the way of table scraps and grubbing for the rest of their food out on the land. “Most of the Midwest farms are raising 500 hogs on a farm or less – usually 200 or 250 at a time. In Virginia, that was kind of common, but it’s not much anymore,” Sam says. “When pigs come running to the farmer, that’s a good sign. It’s a good indication of how the farmer treats the livestock.”

Consumers Catch on to What’s Happened to Food Over the last 30 years, the Slow Food movement has changed the way many people think about food. The movement started in Italy when its founders took deep offense at an announcement that McDonald’s was planning to build a restaurant next to Rome’s Spanish Steps. Their “Slow Food Manifesto” called for a return to gastronomic pleasure and historical food culture freed from the shackles of industrial food production. Since then, that philosophy that food ought to be nourishment for the soul as well as nutrition for the body has spread to the United States under the influence of pioneering chefs, and Slow Food USA has

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

150 chapters in a movement with chapters in more than 160 countries around the world.

The Slow Food philosophy has helped change attitudes about what makes a quality piece of pork, creating the market that helps keep the small farmers who supply the pork for Edwards Smokehouse in business, according to Patrick Martins, Founder of Heritage Foods, which grew out of Martins’ participation in the Slow Food movement.

Creating the Market for Heritage Livestock Breeds As a Slow Food disciple, Martins regards the farming of animals bred for the needs of the commodity market as fundamentally inhumane. “Essentially, a cardinal principle – the number-one or number-two factor in humanely raising animals for consumption is genetics, the healthy genetics of the animal,” he said. “Confinement is not as important as genetics. Organic feed is not as important as the genetics.

Great genetics is the ultimate compliment.”

Offended by turkeys bred for the mass market to have breasts so gigantic that they could no longer breed naturally and their legs could no longer carry their bodies, Martins started Heritage Foods with the intention to save turkeys from that fate. He figured that people who shared the philosophy that fast food isn’t the best food might also agree that the best turkey isn’t one bred for the needs of the mass market, but he also knew that without a market for heritage breeds, farmers couldn’t afford to raise them, and those breeds would die out, in a livestock-related application of Gresham’s Law, an economic principle usually stated as, “Bad money drives out good.”

What that means with respect to turkeys is that if the only thing you value about a turkey is the quantity of its breast meat, then whoever can produce turkeys with the biggest breasts cheaper than anyone else has an edge in the market that farmers raising old-fashioned breeds of turkeys in the old-fashioned way can’t compete with. The way to get past that is to find customers who value a turkey for reasons other than the size of its breast and the cheapness of its price.

Martins set out to create that market for better turkeys.

He bought heritage-breed turkeys from farmers more interested in growing turkeys that ultimately tasted better than in raising birds bred to convert poultry feed into white meat as quickly as possible, and then he sold them to likeminded customers through his annual mail-order catalog and to New York chefs whose customers weren’t looking for the cheapest meal in the city.

That worked, but then he found that the farmers from whom he was buying couldn’t quite make a go of it on one Thanksgiving turkey paycheck a year. So Martins asked the New York chefs who were buying his turkeys what else

they’d be interested in buying from him. Then he went back to his turkey farmers. “They were all raising turkeys, rare breeds of turkeys,” Martins said. “They said they could get access to rare breeds of pigs.”

“The pig was the perfect livestock to produce cash flow,” he added. “We promised that we would buy them….. The restaurants, true to their word, were there for us. They started to buy all the parts. Our challenge was to sell all the pork, nose to tail.”

With Sam Edwards, Martins found a happy customer for the uncured hams, which provided cash flow to help Heritage Foods take off on its new mission to save more than just turkeys. “Everything we sell is heritage. Back in 2004, no one cared at all about that issue,” Martins said.

Sam Edwards did care. “He provided an anchor for about 50 farms that had risked everything to abandon commodity. I find that remarkable,” Martins said. “He was taking thousands of pounds a week from heritage breeds, having no idea if there would be a market for it.”

Since its early days as a once-yearly purveyor of Thanksgiving turkeys, Heritage Foods has grown into a year-round business fueled by the development of e-commerce directly to consumers as well as the restaurant sales that helped Martins get started. The company buys and resells many of the hams that Edwards Smokehouse produces for wholesale and retail trade, and it’s now supporting about 80 families, counting the farmers who raise the livestock as well as those who pack and ship 300 to 800 orders a week.

“Now, if you look at our site, Heritage Foods, we have everything. A family of two can buy just two chops,” Martins said. “It started with the Slow Food members. Then we would get a lot of press, and chefs would spread the word about us, and now we do all the things necessary for mail-order success.”

“Sam started that,” he added. “Sam was the guy who gave us that first nationally recognized product. And it was delicious, and it showed us what heritage breeds could do, which was stand up to 400 days of aging.”

Curing Hams the Old-Fashioned Way Though Sam doesn’t slaughter pigs in the oak trees in the neighbor’s yard or smoke hams and bacon in the same old smokehouse his grandfather used, the hams that are sold under the Edwards Smokehouse label today are still made with his grandfather’s recipes. “The process is the same as when my grandfather was curing meat,” he says. “We put the hams in salt. We leave them in salt the least amount of time we can to be sure they get cured.” The hams are then washed off and hung in a 50-degree room for 21 days before the temperature is raised to 85 degrees and the hams are smoked over hickory. “Everything we do, we use hickory,” Sam says. Hickory logs or chopped hickory goes into

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a smoke generator to burn slowly. “You don’t want a lot of heat; you just want the smoke,” Sam says.

After the hams have smoked to a dark mahogany color, they’re taken to an aging room where they hang until they’re ready to go to market. Hams to be sold with a milder flavor profile are aged for about four or five months.

Hams to be sold under Edwards’ Wigwam brand, Sam’s grandfather’s flagship hams, are aged for about 11 to 14 months to produce the intense flavors that would have been expected of a Virginia country ham in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Sam’s own flagship ham, the Surryano, is aged for a minimum of 400 days. They’re all taken off their hooks to be cooked, deboned or sliced only when they smell just right when an ice pick is stuck into them. “The aroma is solely the nose. That is a trained process. We have a handful of people that we rely on,” Sam says. “I will walk into an aging room and test a lot…. I’ll randomly walk through and stick the ice pick into it…. Another person will then stick every ham before they’re released. Occasionally in a batch of hams, you will get one where something happened. This catches that.”

Edwards Smokehouse’s most recent product introduction is a ham called the Surryano Iberico. It’s made using Sam’s Surryano technique with Texas Iberico™ pork from pigs descended from Spanish Iberico swine and raised by Ashly Martin at Trails End Ranch and the Harris family in Menard, Texas, where they forage for acorns, mesquite beans and prickly pear fruit on a 1,500-acre ranch.

For bacon, the pork is dry-cured for about seven days, washed and then smoked for 24 hours. “We do temper it, or age it, for about a week and then slice it,” Sam says. “Most people would think our bacon has more of that country smoky flavor than most because it’s dry-cured.”

Edwards’ best-selling sausage is a recipe his grandfather developed back in the 1920s when he was grinding the meat in his garage after he’d backed out the family flivver. The meat inspector came around twice a year, and the garage with its well-drained concrete floor was okay with him. “It was a wooden garage,” Sam says. “There was nothing spectacular about this garage, but it had one of the nicest floors in a garage that you’ve ever seen.”

That recipe that’s been passed down through the family is heavy on the sage and includes white pepper, red pepper and black pepper. It’s made from fresh pork that’s about 75 percent lean and stuffed into a natural casing. “When we first started making sausage years ago, we just sold it fresh,” Sam says. “Whatever was left over, we just put it in the smokehouse. We were always running out of smoked.”

Nowadays the company is selling about 10 times as much smoked sausage as fresh, so a good deal of it goes right to the smokehouse without waiting to be left over after the day’s sales.

Flavor Serves a Greater Purpose While the market for heritage livestock breeds is founded on their superior flavors, the strength of that gourmet market also contributes to another important goal – preserving the planet’s biological diversity. If those ancient breeds go

extinct, the flavors encoded in their genes will be extinguished as well, said Jeannette Beranger, Senior Program Manager for the Livestock Conservancy, which keeps a long list of rare farm animals whose breeds are either threatened or endangered. “Not every breed is the same, and everyone’s got their own preferences,” she said. “Mulefoot hogs mature very slowly, but you can be struck senseless from the aroma of a well-cooked, well-aged Mulefoot.

You eat it, and you just want to bathe in it – it’s so good.

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You’re just not going to get that in a commercial pig.”

Those animals’ genetic endowment includes more than the flavors encoded into their meat – it also includes the instructions for the traits that determine the chances that their species will survive changing conditions in their environment. “Long-term survival depends on diversity. Not every breed was meant to live in every kind of environment,” Beranger said. “Commercial pigs live indoors in controlled environments, and that’s what they’re bred to survive in. A pink pig will get sunburned in the Southwest.

All the commercial pigs are white.”

“With livestock, it’s not as simple as putting it in the freezer. These animals need to continue to live in the fields and evolve and be what they are. They need to grow up in the natural environment, which is changing. Lab animals aren’t going to survive in challenging environments. Commercial animals are not going to be able to manage that for very long,” she continued.

“Hardier, rustic breeds – they can handle it. Heritage breeds are meant to be on pasture and roaming along. Yes, they don’t grow as fast as the commercial kinds, but if you put them side by side, there’s a big difference on flavor. The extra time roaming in the fields and eating bugs and grass translates into a flavor profile that’s vastly different from commercial pork.”

This is not just about climate change – just as the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have come out of nowhere to create a change in our thinking about how we might survive the disaster, there could very well be other risks out there that make intense survival demands for an entire species. The key to the survival of a livestock species that we depend on as an essential food source could be encoded into the genes of a breed that’s on the Livestock Conservancy’s endangered list. “There are a number of things we know we will lose, and there are a great many more that we don’t know we’ll lose,” Beranger said. “We have yet to discover things in their biology that could be important, like disease resistance or mothering skills. The risk we run with the commercial work with domestic breeds is that they continue to make them bigger and better – there’s very little diversity within the animals they’re working with.”

“The only way to get that diversity back is with these rare breeds. If these breeds are gone, there’s no place to go for that diversity. You could be shooting yourself in the foot with getting rid of that diversity,” she continued. “It’s like looking into a crystal ball, but we don’t have that for livestock. You don’t know what you could be losing.” GN

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News & Notes Meijer Store Director Celebrates 50-Year Anniversary When most teenagers were getting ready for Halloween, Larry Levin was putting on a shirt and tie for his first day at work. The busy holiday season was just about to start, so his friend’s dad offered him the chance to give the job a try and find out whether he had what it takes to work in a retail environment. His friend’s Dad was Fred Meijer.

Five decades later, he’s the store director at the Cedar Springs Meijer, celebrating his 50th anniversary of working for the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based retailer. “This is just what I’ve always done, and I am proud of where it has taken me,” Levin says.

“Customers tell me they’re surprised by how much they see me walking through the aisles or in the parking lot pushing carts. I tell them they see me there because ‘that’s where you are.’ I was taught to manage by walking around and being involved.

By sharing what customers and team members are experiencing, it sets you up to do

your best to help.”

A Grand Rapids native who attended kindergarten with Doug Meijer, Levin’s first day working for Meijer was Halloween 1970. It began with him bagging groceries and collecting carts at the Meijer Thrifty Acres store on Plainfield Avenue in Grand Rapids.

Soon he transferred to the Meijer store on Alpine Avenue, also in Grand Rapids, where he continued to gain experience.

In the years to follow, he would oversee the hardware department, general merchandise and apparel, as well as how to open a store, work night shifts, and oversee the bottle return area. He would see the company expand from having stores in 23 locations to more than 250 stores in six states, He would also meet his wife, Kathy Clayson, when she was working at Meijer as a manager in training. He even gave her

the engagement ring at the store on Clyde Park Avenue in Wyoming, Michigan.

As one of an elite group of Meijer team members to celebrate 50 years of service at a company that now employs nearly 65,000 people, Levin is still good friends with Doug Meijer, and says the belief and trust his “friend’s dad” showed in him is the reason why he’s stayed, and it is why he’ll always be grateful for the chances he was given by Fred Meijer.

“My dad believed in helping people follow their ambitions, and he empowered people to be their best,” says Doug Meijer. “He expected anyone who worked in our stores to learn the business and earn the respect of not only your customers, but your co-workers and community as well. Larry has not only been a great friend to me, but he has made the whole company proud by reaching such a milestone.” GN

Mercato Expands Executive Team with New Hires Mercato, the grocery e-commerce platform for independently owned grocery and specialty food stores, has hired three new team members at the vice president level. Jeffrey Bishop-Hill has been named Vice President of Operations, Mike Durand has been named Vice President of Sales and Leo Zhu has been named Vice President of Product.

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome these talented leaders to the Mercato team.

Each of these individuals has a proven track record in their field and deep, wellhoned skill sets that will be a terrific help as we continue on a path of aggressive

growth and expansion of our marketplace,” said Bobby Brannigan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mercato.

Bishop-Hill, 36, will focus on operations and positively impacting the merchant and customer experience. He will continue to advance Mercato’s technology infrastructure to streamline costs and facilitate continued growth. Bishop-Hill joins Mercato from Soothe where he acted as senior vice president of operations and helped the wellness marketplace expand its service area from 12 American cities to more than 70 cities in six countries. Prior to Soothe,

Bishop-Hill held operations, marketing and customer experience roles at a number of early stage companies including RadPad, DogVacay and InMotion Hosting.

Durand, 34, will lead a selection of established teams within Mercato that are focused on mid-market sales, customer success and account management. Prior to Mercato, he was regional vice president of sales at Toast, Inc, the computer software company servicing the restaurant industry.

Durand also spent more than eight years at

This Saves Lives

as well as Crocodile Chocolate Crunch and three others.

The brand’s line intended to appeal more to adults includes 10 flavors, with four launched this summer under new branding that are already selling “extremely well,” according to Dilorio. The four new flavors are Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate Caramel, Dark Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Mocha. Like the six others in the line, they’re gluten free, kosher and non-GMO. “Our snacks are so delicious. It feels really good to be eating a yummy snack that you also know saves a child’s life and is also healthy for you,” Dilorio said.

Each of the new classic bars contains 8 grams of sugar.

Sales of the snack bars contribute to purchases of Plumpy’Nut, a ready to eat therapeutic food. The food is distributed to children and their parents

by Action Against Hunger. “Action

Against Hunger has people on the ground who help us identify the children who need this the most,” Dilorio said. “Action Against Hunger takes the Plumpy’Nut and gives it to the parents who give it to their children just as if we were giving three meals a day to our children here.”

“The choices that we make today, right down to what we snack on, can make a difference in people’s lives tomorrow.

Every single person can make a difference by choosing what products they purchase today,” she continued. “Everybody snacks. Why not choose a snack that is literally going to save a life, that has great macros and is delicious. It makes you feel good to know your purchase is doing good for someone else’s life.”

All of the bars have national distribution and are ready to ship. For more information, email sales@thissaveslives.com or check out the company’s website at www.thissaveslives.com. GN

Continued from PAGE 1 for children, but they’re also a fun take on nostalgic rice cereal treat bars. Varieties include Unicorn Sprinkle Surprise, which includes little candy unicorns and sprinkles,

BRIEFS Hillebrand Opens San Diego Warehouse Hillebrand, a global service provider in the forwarding, transport and logistics of beer, wine, spirits and exceptional products that require special care, recently expanded its North American supply chain network to include a new warehouse at The Campus at San Diego [California] Business Park. This is Hillebrand’s first facility in San Diego and another step in the expansion of its U.S. and worldwide logistics capabilities.

This key logistics hub provides an efficient point of entry for Mexican import products.

This is Hillebrand’s second strategic warehouse location in close proximity to the Mexico border.

Hillebrand also has a facility in Laredo, Texas, that is a key site for the management of beer, spirits and specialty beverages.

TreeHouse Foods to Acquire Majority of Ebro’s Riviana Foods U.S. Branded Pastas TreeHouse Foods has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the majority of the U.S. branded pasta portfolio of Riviana Foods, a subsidiary of Ebro, for $242.5 million in cash.

The acquisition includes well-known regional brands, including Prince (Northeast), Creamette (Midwest) and American Beauty (West) and generated revenue of approximately $200 million for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2020.

The acquisition includes the following regional brands: Skinner, No Yolks, American Beauty, Creamette, San Giorgio, Prince and Light ‘n Fluffy, Mrs. Weiss’, Wacky Mac, P&R Procino-Rossi and New Mill and the St. Louis, Missouri, manufacturing facility, which employs approximately 90 people. The acquisition does not include the Ronzoni national brand, or its Winchester, Virginia, and Fresno, California, plants.

Continued on PAGE 23

Flexitarianism on the Rise in U.S. American consumers are eating more plantbased foods these days, especially adults under age 35 and those actively following a specific diet. This is according to findings published in the new report “Vegan, Vegetarian, and Flexitarian Consumers” by market research firm Packaged Facts.

Rather than presumably indicating an increased adoption of vegan or vegetarian lifestyles, the uptick in plant-based food consumption hints at wider acceptance of flexitarianism. Packaged Facts’ August 2020 National Online Consumer Survey asked consumers which diet or eating philosophy they are currently primarily following. The results show that just 3 percent of consumers follow a vegan diet, 3 percent are pescatarian and 5 percent are vegetarian. The majority (53 percent) of consumers are primarily omnivorous, while 36 percent identify themselves as flexitarian because they eat meat or poultry and regularly mix up their diet with vegan or vegetarian meals.

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RETAILER NEWS

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Retailer News Candy Club Provides Turn-Key Opportunity

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

First launched in 2015 as an on online subscription candy service that delivered monthly boxes of half a dozen assorted cups of candy to its customers, Candy Club has, over the past year or so, expanded its business model to include partnerships with brick-and-mortar stores. The company recently launched a partnership with Kohl’s to add to its existing relationships with Caribou Coffee and Bloomingdale’s in addition to a national range of much smaller specialty retailers. “We scoured the globe, looking for candies you may know and love, delivered conveniently at great value,” said Keith Cohn, the company’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

“About a year ago, we got the notion that our products would do very well at retail as well.... We offer specialty retailers who aren’t in the confectionery business the ability to offer a high-end confectionery store business to their customers turn-key.”

The company’s pivot from online merchant to wholesale merchant with a significant online business unit has accompanied the completion of its initial public offering in February, 2019. The company’s shares are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its operations are headquartered in Culver City, California, and its product inventory is shipped to customers from within the U.S. Within its wholesale business unit, Candy Club has two primary markets – one the national specialty retailers and the other, the larger segment of the business, comprises individual proprietors who are either single brick-and-mortar shop operators or online digital shops with

Fresh is Best Continued from PAGE 1 was good to go.”

“I give advice to a lot of people,” Domreis said. “I’m always glad to help people get started.” After he’d learned what he needed to know, Moliere took the knowledge that Domreis had given him back to his hometown in Philadelphia and started his own business along with his brother Tom, who was fresh off a stint for Americorps Vista.

Although Greenstreet Coffee Roasters operates a small coffee bar in South Philadelphia, where Molieri serves single cups and offers occasional cupping workshops, the majority of his business is in wholesale trade for both single-origin coffees from several regions around the world and blends that he makes himself. “I’ve put together different tasting notes, and I try to put together a blend based on how I think the customer’s going to want it to taste,” he

BRIEFS Weis Markets Reports Third Quarter Results

their own followings.

The opportunity that Candy Club offers to brick-and-mortar store operators is the curation of a selection of some of the company’s proven sellers that are merchandised with the Candy Club brand and its signature bright plastic cups that will be recognized by Candy Club’s online customers.

“We’ve got hundreds of SKUs that we’ve curated from around the globe,” Cohn said.

“We can put together a customized package for a shop that wants to have their own signature offering. We are able to sell items that are exclusive to these customers, that aren’t available to the big stores.... We do have a completely differentiated candy business compared to what the big, big retailers bring to the table.”

The Candy Club display will provide retailers with the opportunity to make incremental sales without any great effort on their part, according to Cohn. “Your store can be a destination for anything, and there’s still room for artisan confectionery to fit into that,” he said. “Anybody can sell confectionery, and it makes sense for them.

It’s really about having the right candies to put in that store.”

The product line offers a range that includes every subcategory within confectionery – a deep range of chocolates along with gummies, sours and nostalgic classic candies. Chocolates are the company’s best sellers, and the company is also particularly well known for its sour belts and gummies.

“We’ve got a pretty long list of top sellers,” Cohn said.

Candy Club pays careful attention to emerging flavor and dietary trends to ensure

that its range includes options that will appeal to a correspondingly wide range of shoppers along with seasonal items for major candy-giving occasions. “There’s also a deluxe line with some premium candy manufacturers, many of which you don’t see carried anywhere in the U.S.,” Cohn said. “It’s also a very accessible line. We work very hard at finding the right mix of unique products and premium executions at accessible price points. It’s probably the most important thing we do, especially in today’s market.”

Retail prices for the candies are uniform across channels, according to Cohn. “The larger retailers who carry our products are also interested in getting good margins as well,” he points out. “We are not an offprice brand. A similar product in a big store will be materially the same price at a smaller store. We don’t offer promotions.

We’re a full-price line.”

Sales at both large and small retailers are supported by the marketing that the company does for its online subscription business, since those sales create brand recognition that carries over to the consumers’ experience when they’re shopping in real-world stores, according to Cohn.

“Because we have the subscription business, we do a lot of consumer marketing to drive consumers to our subscription site,” he said. “When a consumer sees something that they’re familiar with – it allows the retailer to have the third-party endorsed product and allows the retailer to charge a slight premium. That translates into faster turns and higher margins for the retailer.”

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

describes his point of view on the blending.

“If you know how to make hot water and you have a scale, you can make perfect coffee. Eighteen parts water to one part coffee, and you can make a perfect cup of coffee – hopefully with good beans.”

Molieri is happy to take care of the “good beans” part of the perfect cup of coffee for his customers, and he views his personal experience with growers and traceability as part of the product he offers. His last trip out of the country to visit growers and pickers was a couple of years ago, but he’s hoping to pick up his traveling again once the pandemic’s effects have receded. “That kind of relationship is one that can honor the trade,” he said.

“When we’re paying a little bit more for coffee than other roasters, so we know where

our dollars are going and it’s traceable.”

“There are other roasters who have never been to the farm,” he added. “Traceability is a key word. It’s literally just that – getting on a plane and going to a place you’ve never been and asking questions about the coffee. You get more knowledge out of it – it’s a bigger experience.”

His current favorite among the coffees in his warehouse is from Chiapas, Mexico, the southernmost coffee-growing region in Mexico. “It’s got brown sugar notes,” he said. “It’s sweet. It’s nutty. It’s mellow and mild. It’s a good cup of coffee that’s a light roast.”

For more information about Greenstreet Coffee Roasters, visit www.greenstreet coffee.com. GN

Weis Markets, Inc. reported its sales increased 14.4 percent to $1.0 billion during the 13week period ended September 26, 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, while its third quarter comparable store sales increased 14.8 percent.

The company’s third quarter net income increased 118.8 percent to $31.3 million compared to $14.3 million in 2019, while earnings per share totaled $1.16 compared to $0.53 per share for the same period in 2019. Third quarter e-commerce sales increased 160 percent.

Eataly Joins Mercato’s Digital Platform for Delivery in Four U.S. Cities Mercato, the online grocery e-commerce platform for independently owned grocery and specialty food stores, has announced a new partnership with Eataly that will allow sameday delivery of food to consumers living in and around four American cities where the renowned Italian market currently operates. Mercato was started in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015 and the company currently operates in 45 states nationwide. The digital platform connects consumers to more than 1,000 independently owned grocery stores and specialty markets.

Built upon a mission of supporting such stores, Mercato has been actively onboarding grocers during the COVID-19 crisis. The company, which equips independent grocers with a clean and seamless online ordering and delivery function, has added more than 400 specialty food stores, grocery stores and market halls to its platform in 2020. Mercato will now be offering products for delivery from Eataly’s NYC Downtown location as well as its Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles markets. Some of Mercato’s recent platform updates, such as enabling merchants to fulfill alcohol orders, as well as significant updates to the merchant shopper app, will enhance Eataly’s ability to efficiently fulfill orders within its locations and increase digital sales of fine wines and other alcoholic beverages.

Kroger Announces Framework for Action: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion The Kroger Co. has announced its “Framework for Action: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” plan, featuring both immediate and longer-term steps developed in collaboration with associates and leaders to accelerate and promote greater change in the workplace and in the communities the organization serves.

Kroger’s plan features five focus areas: Create More Inclusive Culture, Develop Diverse Talent, Advance Diverse Partnerships, Advance Equitable Communities, and Deeply Listen and Report Progress. As part of its goals to create a more inclusive culture, Kroger has pledged to provide unconscious bias training to every leader in 2020 and every associate by May of 2021. Kroger will improve diverse talent recruiting by partnering with Historically Black Colleges & Universities, Hispanic Association Colleges & Universities and community colleges.

RETAILER NEWS

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Holiday Season Hopes for High-End Confectionery

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

The COVID-19 pandemic has vitiated the strategic advance of André’s Confiserie Suisse chocolates from its home base in Kansas City and into the national market, but René and Nancy Bollier are regrouping to dodge around the roadblocks that the pandemic has set in their path. René is the grandson of Master Konditor-Confiseur André Bollier, the André behind the business’ name, while Nancy is the company’s co-Owner and Director of Marketing and Wholesale.

Beginning with André’s Confiserie’s debut appearance at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show, the couple has been pursuing a strategy to grow the company’s production of fine chocolates to supply more than the two shops that the company operates in the Kansas City metropolitan area and that had become popular places for local residents to stop in for lunch and perhaps a purchase of pastries and chocolates to take home with them. While René was overseeing production in the André’s flagship 25,000 square-foot facility in Kansas City, Nancy had embarked on a complete re-branding of their product line that the couple introduced at the show.

Their presentation attracted the attention of a Whole Foods buyer who offered them a pilot test in three Kansas City stores.

“They really gave us a great opportunity to present ourselves in those stores,” René said. That was followed last year by an expansion into 32 stores in Whole Foods’ Rocky Mountain region. “We got positive feedback from that with a lot of holiday items. All locations showed a lot of positivity to what we do, how we do it, the fact that we focus on quality in both product and on the packaging itself,” René said. “Getting the buyers from the individual stores excited about the brand has encouraged them to talk about the brand, to talk about who we are as a family – a third-generation business – and that has really pro-

moted sales.”

There is much for those local buyers to discuss. André’s Confiserie Suisse was founded by André Bollier and his wife Elspeth, who immigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland along with their five-year-old son Marcel at the urging of André’s brother, who was working in Kansas City as a Swiss watchmaker. André set up shop making Swiss chocolates, but it didn’t take him long to discover that he’d launched himself into a market where there was no understanding or appreciation of Swiss confectionery arts. The couple set up tables and chairs in their shop that attracted luncheon customers in and spent the next 10 years educating, educating, educating.

In 1974, André’s son Marcel and his wife, Connie, joined the business. André’s daughter Brigitte and her husband, Kevin Gravino, opened a satellite shop in Overland Park, Kansas in 2002, and René and Nancy joined the family business that same year.

By the time Whole Foods came into the picture, they’d charted a path to placing their products in retail stores they didn’t own themselves, and when the COVID-19 pandemic made itself felt in the U.S., Nancy was already in talks with other re-

tailers. The pandemic, though, created uncertainties with respect to André’s’ work force and supply chain that put those dis-

cussions on hold.

Nancy has recently resumed those conversations with retailers who are seeing an increased demand for chocolate. “We are

very focused on product, on customer service. Everything we do is what it takes to get a foothold in those markets,” René said.

“Retail stores have become a very important part of our business, although online has been a driver during the pandemic. If you can get the products on the shelves of the stores that are necessary for shoppers to go into on a consistent basis, we have seen great success for that.”

René and Nancy are also thinking about how they might be able to expand their product line to include, not just chocolates, but also some of the other items that the company has been serving in its two Kansas City-area stores. Quiche, for instance, was a great success in Kansas City before the Kansas City stores were subjected to COVID-19 restrictions on their business, and the Bolliers are thinking about developing that for sale through the company’s online store. “This is a long-term pivot, and we need to make sure that we’re positioning ourselves well so that when these situations come around, we have the ability to sustain the business,” René said.

While they’re waiting for the pandemic to ease its grip, they’re also using the time

to expand their relationships with the national market, marketing through social media influencers with a reach beyond the Kansas City area. “We can increase our brand awarenéss so that when we go to retailers they can see that we’ve already had some exposure in their markets,” René said. “That’s really how we’re trying to grow the brand, how we’re trying to position ourselves.”

Product development has also continued, proceeding from plans that had been adopted prior to the advent of the coronavirus. As part of a partnership with Sel des Alpes, the company operating the Bex Salt Mine, the last operating salt mine in Switzerland, André’s Confiserie Suisse recently released its Salt of the Swiss Alps + Dark Chocolate Almonds and Salt of the Swiss Alps + Chocolate Caramels. André’s also recently released its Extra Dark 80% Chocolate Almonds, which feature extra dark chocolate combined with freshroasted almonds and extend the line for André’s Signature Chocolate Almonds, the company’s best-selling product.

Around that, the Bolliers are also preparing for a busy holiday season. “We’re forecasting an exceptional holiday season. We count ourselves very lucky that we have a really loyal following in KC and beyond, and we saw that during Easter, Mothers Day, Valentines Day, and even Fathers Day – usually Fathers Day isn’t that big of a deal for us – we saw exceptional sales, recordbreaking sales during those times, which I was not prepared for. I was concerned that, with the amount of job loss that we’re seeing in the U.S., that people weren’t going to purchase luxury items like chocolate, but we saw that people were looking for ways to celebrate others, celebrate themselves, looking for ways to put joy into their own lives as well as others’, and things like highend chocolate are one way to do that,” René said. “I truly believe that if you produce something that is high-quality, and you have it packaged in a way that makes it look special, people seek that out and are willing to spend a little more on that.”

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

Irfan Badibanga Named Senior Vice President of Operations at Giant Food Giant Food has appointed Irfan Badibanga as Senior Vice President of Operations effective November 1, 2020. Badibanga will be responsible for leading all operational aspects of the Washington, D.C. grocery chain, including regional operations, store support, strategic store planning and execution and asset protection, as well as people, team and culture development.

Badibanga brings a strong track record of transforming corporate objectives into bottom-line growth for supermarket, small and big box retailers, including Walmart, Family Dollar Stores, Winn Dixie Supermarkets, HEB Grocery Stores and Price Chopper Supermarkets.

“Irfan has been a successful, entrepreneurial leader, driving enormous growth at some of the largest retail organizations in this country,” said Ira Kress, President of Giant. “We are confident that his deep management and operations expertise at both the regional and national level will bring tremendous value to our organization at a time when we are implementing a transformational brand strategy and evolving our culture.”

Badibanga began his grocery retail career as a bagger, and by the age of 24 he was appointed to district manager at Winn-Dixie.

He moved through the ranks at a variety of supermarket chains, building his expertise

in store management, merchandising, operations, omni-channel delivery, asset protection, human resources and general management.

Most recently he served as senior vice president of operations at Family Dollar Stores overseeing 8,000 U.S. stores in 44 states. Prior to joining Family Dollar, he was vice president of operations at Walmart, overseeing 33,000 associates across a 110-store region that produced $8 billion in annual revenue.

“I am thrilled to be joining Giant Food, which has over 84 years’ experience serving

the community, and am looking forward to the opportunity to work with Giant associates who are passionate about serving their customers and helping their community,” Badibanga said. “Consumer preferences are shifting, and at Giant, product excellence, convenience and value are key. I believe my work experience has prepared me well, and I am excited to join the Giant team as we continue to implement brand and operational strategies to serve our customers best.” GN

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Supplier News Julia’s Pantry Offers Nostalgia Along with Southern Cooking

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Julia’s Pantry offers a range of products to help consumers satisfy a hankering for the Southern specialties that Richard Washington’s mama made for him, especially those she put on the table at breakfast time. The product range includes biscuit mixes, country ham and red-eye gravy mix, white and yellow grits, cornbread mix, cheese straws and even mixes for fried green tomatoes and fried dill pickles.

During the Great Depression, Julia Kelly Washington was a single mother raising her two daughters in a boarding house where she cooked the meals in exchange for lodging. “She developed her own cooking style for making a complete spread that could be put on the table,” he said. A little later, when Richard came along, she’d moved on from the boarding house, but she was still putting her cooking on the table every morning.

“Even though she had to be at work at 7:30, there was always biscuits and ham or bacon ready to eat,” Richard says. He was a kid, though, and at the time, he didn’t appreciate those breakfasts the way he would when he was an adult looking back at them. “They were putting prizes in cereals, and I would often argue to eat the cereal,” he said. “I have regretted those arguments ever since.”

Those memories came back to him when he and his own daughter, Reta Washington, decided to go into business. He had just re-

tired from his career in information systems, but he wasn’t ready to spend his days sitting in a rocking chair on his front porch.

The country was in the midst of the Great

Recession, and Richard and Reta figured that they could make a business out of purveying the products to make those Southern breakfasts that his mother had put on the table during the Great Depression that weren’t readily available on the market in

2008. “We couldn’t find those southern foods when we would go looking for them.

We discussed that there might be other people who might be looking for them, too, or even those who aren’t familiar with them, but might be willing to try them, if introduced,” Richard said. “We thought food would be a good business to get into because everybody’s got to eat, and if we were mistaken, we could always eat the inventory.”

As they started their business, named Julia’s Southern Foods after both Richard’s mother and Reta’s daughter, Julia Kelly Johnson, they found that, while they could find many of those traditional Southern products if they spent their days searching for them, it was hard even for them to find products that didn’t have obstacles between them and consumers – producers who couldn’t promise consistent availability or who couldn’t offer them at a price that would make sense to consumers – so the father and daughter decided to solve that problem by making their own. “That’s when we started to reminisce about Mother’s biscuits,” Richard said.

He sat down with his daughter and his mother and asked her to teach Reta and Richard how to make her biscuits. “We then discovered that biscuits are more of an art form than a recipe,” he said. “That’s when we began to pursue a mix that would produce Southern-style biscuits with a crunchy top and bottom crust and an extremely fluffy interior. It took us six months to figure out how to do this with dry ingredients and be able to produce a biscuit that was very similar to what my mother made.”

The product line grew from there into a range of other mixes, including a mix for fried green tomatoes and another one for fried pickles. “We found there was a demand for that,” he said.

They didn’t stop there, and now the product range includes most of what’s essential to the breakfasts his mother served: mixes for pancakes as well as biscuits, country ham from the mountains of North Carolina, sourwood honey that’s also from the mountains of North Carolina and a mix for real red-eye gravy that just requires the addition of water and the drippings from the breakfast ham or bacon. There are also new twists on some of the old favorites. “We discovered how we could take basic pork rinds and microwave them so that they’d have 70 percent less fat than the regular kind,” Richard said. “We even have a seafood boil that we pair with a hush puppy mix batter that we make.”

Many of the products are available in gift sets that Richard and Reta are confident will appeal to consumers who have rediscovered breakfast and may be longing for nostalgic comfort during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We feel like our mixes give people the opportunity for a young child to be in the kitchen because these are so easy,” Richard said. “As you look back, these are the flavors you crave in difficult times... We really look at our food products as a little bit more than just nourishment. They’re really about memories and creating memories.”

For more information on Julia’s Southern Foods and its Julia’s Pantry offerings, visit www.juliaspantry.com. GN

BRIEFS Syfel Inc. Announces New Line of Safer Shopping Bags Syfel Inc., producer of reusable bags, has created an extra measure to keep staff and customers safe. Antimicrobial reusable shopping bags and boxes are the next wave in protecting people from health hazards caused by microbes.

Syfel is the first and only North American supplier of reusable shopping bags that have an integrated antimicrobial technology, which inhibits the growth of bacteria, molds and fungi.

The technology is embedded in the bags and boxes during manufacturing and can be used on any fabric. The boxes are foldable and easy to clean. However, the protection remains even if they’re not cleaned.

Morning Star Farms’ Incogmeato Donates to Feeding America Incogmeato™ by MorningStar Farms ® is donating $1 million dollars’ worth of plantbased protein products to Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the country, to help answer the call for goodquality protein, and drive awareness of the reality of the protein gap at food banks. And in true Incogmeato fashion, the brand is bringing back its beloved spokesanimals – @Prissy_Pig, @SammiChicken and @BuckleytheHighlandCow – to help them with their donation.

Incogmeato’s spokesanimals will compete in a friendly, charitable competition on Instagram. These spokesanimals will raise awareness to the cause by rallying their fan bases to see which will get the honor of having the $1 million worth of Incogmeato product donated in their name, marking it the biggest food donation ever made by an animal to Feeding America.

BelGioioso Cheese Introduces New Artigiano Gourmet Snacks and Crumbles In response to growth of snacking and flavored cheeses, BelGioioso Cheese, Inc. introduces new Artigiano® Gourmet Snacks and Crumbles in Balsamic & Cipolline and Vino Rosso flavors.

Artigiano is carefully hand-crafted and aged to achieve its distinct flavor, aroma and fine crystalline texture. The new enrobed gourmet snack cheeses are individually wrapped for a convenient 80-calorie on-the-go snack. The new 8-ounce Crumbled Twist Tie Bags are a gourmet option for flavor enhancements on pastas, salads or soups.

With more than 95 percent of people snacking twice per day, snacking cheese sales are now over 10 percent of specialty cheese sales. Flavored artisan cheeses are also seeing explosive growth, and Artigiano Gourmet Snacks and Crumbles offer unique, first-ofits-kind offerings to the category.

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Flavor-Forward Complements to a Hearty Meal

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Marina Backes is a woman who likes to keep busy. For a while after she and her husband, John, moved to Missouri from their home in New Jersey in 2009, she stayed busy helping John start the pig farm he’d been thinking about.

But once their Circle B Ranch was up and stocked with pigs, there was a lull while the couple waited for their pigs to grow to market weight.

Sitting around the house enjoying the quiet just isn’t her style. “We had a good year before we were able to bring things to market, so I needed something to do,” she said.

Feve Continued from PAGE 1 Almonds, 2014 for Hazelnut Crunch Bar and 2013 for Pistachio Rosemary. The Good Food Awards are judged on multiple criteria that include environmental and social responsibility along with gastronomic quality.

The company makes three lines of chocolates under its Feve Artisan Chocolatier brand of items for retail sale. Those include chocolate truffles, also known as bonbons in nearly 50 different flavors; panned gourmet nuts made using an Old World artisan style of production; and Feve Bars, which is the company’s elevated take on the traditional chocolate bar. The truffles are Feve’s largest line, with the bonbons sold to luxury hotels, restaurants and chocolate shops across the country.

The dragée candies with centers of caramelized almonds, hazelnuts or coffee beans are made by applying 22 or 23 coats of chocolate over the course of about three hours in rotating circular pans that hold about 200 pounds of candy at a time.

“What we’re trying to do is to achieve a really precise flavor and texture combination,” Sheets said. “It’s not something that you can do on an industrial scale.... It’s a signature way of creating a gourmet product, and we ship these all across the country.”

The bars, launched into the retail market in November, are a marriage of fine chocolate with nostalgic flavors. “As we looked at the market for chocolate bars, it’s pretty saturated. We didn’t think the world needed another 70 percent dark chocolate bar,” Sheets said. “We have decided to take nostalgic flavors that hearken back to your childhood and revive them as confection

That’s when her husband reminded her that in their previous life in New Jersey, she’d been a caterer – a caterer who made fresh fruit chutneys that her clients and their guests raved about. “When we moved from New Jersey to Missouri, we started with the pasture-raised pork. Then my husband said to me, ‘Why don’t you make sauces?’” she said.

“We knew we were going to do the pork, and we figured that chutneys went well with pork – and so did the barbecue sauce.”

She looked up her recipes, found a commercial kitchen to work in and started cooking. “I developed the chutneys, the steak sauce, the ketchup, the marinara – basically all of our sauces – to go with the pork,” she said. “The Bloody Mary has been used in different recipes.

The chutneys go great with ham or a pork chop. I’ve used them for desserts.”

She now has a line of Marina’s Natural Fresh Fruit Chutneys, Big John’s grilling sauces and gluten-free Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix and Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, her newest product, that Circle B Ranch offers alongside its pork. For now, the antibioticfree, pasture-raised pork is outselling the sauces, but the sauces have gained a following in spite of pandemic restrictions from consumers who found the products online after they were shut out of the Springfield, Missouri restaurants where they’d been enjoying the Circle B Ranch pork.

The Top Tomato Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, like its milder predecessor, is all natural,

with no additives and no preservatives. Circle B Ranch’s Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix is a multi-award winner holding a gold medal in the mixer category at the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition, a bronze medal winner at the International Drunken Tomato Awards and a bronze medal for Bloody Mary mixes in the International SIP Awards competition, a consumer-judged competition.

This year, Top Tomato was awarded a triple gold medal, the competition’s highest honor, from the MicroLiquor Spirit Awards, and a silver medal from the SIP Awards, among others. Handmade in small batches, low in sugar and low in salt, it’s offered in a 32-ounce bottle that retails for $9.

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

bars.”

The three flavors offered in the launch include Cinnamon Toast Bar, Peanut Butter Crunch Bar and Raspberry Cheesecake Bar. Sheets anticipates that Feve will be launching additional flavors in this line in 2021.

“The team has a whole list of nostalgic flavors in the queue,” he said.

The new bars are crafted with attention to the needs of consumers who are willing to pay $8.99 for a 65-gram chocolate bar but who may need to salve their conscience about indulging in the luxury of a treat by reading the ingredients on the label to assure them that they’re not sacrificing too many of their nutritional goals. Organic puffed quinoa adds the crunch to the Peanut Butter Crunch Bar, for instance.

“Peanut Butter Crunch is a really comforting flavor that’s grounded in our own dulce chocolate, which is the foundation of the bar,” Sheets said. In addition to the chocolate, the bar is made from the organic puffed quinoa, vanilla and salt.

The Cinnamon Toast Bar is flavored with two different cinnamons to add a savory depth to the treat, and the Raspberry Cheesecake Bar rounds out the line with its tart fruity notes that add a brightness to the creamy comfort of a lush cheesecake. It’s made from white chocolate, dried coconut, raspberries, lemon oil, salt and vanilla.

“They each are on a different part of the spectrum between sweet and savory,” Sheets said. “We wanted to keep the ingredient lists very simple for all of them in this collection.... Because what we’re trying to do is bring to the market a product that is reflective of a treat that someone in their family might have made for them, we wanted to be consistent with the way that those homemade products

were made back in the day... We’re really trying to give them a portable sweet take on something that their grandma might have made for them.”

“Given the state of the world, we actually think the timing for this new product is good because we think that people are seeing out comfort foods,” he continued. “We

had no idea we’d be launching into the middle of a pandemic last year when we were doing trials on these, but we actually think it’s going to play well in the current environment.”

For more information, email sales@ fevechocolates.com or visit www.feve chocolates.com. GN

18

NATURALLY HEALTHY

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Naturally Healthy If Most Ice Cream Screams Back – Re:THINK

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

With Re:THINK Ice Cream, company Founder George Haymaker has created a product line to appeal to consumers who have reluctantly conceded that conventional ice creams are no longer on the menu because they don’t conform to dietary and health goals. Haymaker knows how they feel because he’s been there himself, searching through his grocer’s freezer case for an ice cream that would satisfy his craving for decadence without tantalizing his sweet tooth into a craving for sugar. “I couldn’t really find one that tasted very good,” he said.

As a serial entrepreneur with a background that included more than a decade of food and beverage experience, he knew that he couldn’t be alone in his desires, and he sensed a market opportunity. “Our whole concept is to make a great-tasting, indulgent, decadent ice cream that’s healthier,” he said. “That was hard to do. When you take down fat and sugar, which are the

two things ice cream is built on, you take away the decadence and the texture and the taste. So that was our challenge, and we feel like we’ve come up with a recipe that accomplishes that.”

Re:THINK is dairy ice cream with lower sugar and fat than conventional ice creams.

It’s made with lactose-free A2/A2 dairy to avoid digestive sensitivities to conventional dairy milk, and it’s sweetened with agave, which has a lower glycemic index than conventional sugar. “If you’re diabetic, it’s much safer to consume our ice cream than others,” Haymaker said. “Reports are that one out of every three people has some level of dairy intolerance.”

Collagen is added to the ice cream to appeal to women who value the ingredient in other products they consume. “It’s a protein that’s good for skin, joints, hair and nails. No other ice cream has it,” Haymaker said. “Women are our target customers.

They take the lead in the household on healthier eating. They’re also typically making the buying decisions for their families.

We appeal to them, and we get exposure to men and to children as a result.”

The milk used for the ice cream comes

from a herd of Holstein cows whose milk doesn’t include the A1 protein that has been linked to digestive upsets as well as a contributor to arterial plaque and other health risks. “They’re only asked to give as much milk as they give naturally, with is three to four gallons a day,” Haymaker said.

“These A2 cows are kept separate from the rest of the herd.”

The ice cream is churned without adding a lot of air into the mix, so it has a rich, dense texture. “We leave our ice cream dense with very little air because we want our customers to have that full satisfaction,” Haymaker said. “The one thing – our calling card and what the consumer cares most about – is the taste and texture of the ice cream. If it doesn’t give them the full satisfaction, they don’t care how healthy it is.... We’ve developed a recipe that gives the consumer what they want and still delivers the health benefits. That’s the trick, and that’s where I think we’ve succeeded.”

It comes in 12 flavors – a few with mild healthy twists to the standards and others that take a more adventurous approach.

Re:THINK’s Chocolate Majesty is made with Ghirardelli cocoa and dark chocolate flakes, the Strawberry flavor includes chia seed, which is tasteless but highly regarded for its nutritional benefits, and Coffee Hazelnut, Cardamom Pistachio, Turmeric

Ginger and Coconut Matcha appeal to those who want to try something new. “We looked for ways to add ingredients that are healthier for you and make them flavoring ingredients,” Haymaker said. “It’s all about trying to create the healthiest ice cream we can, but it’s still decadent. We started with the staples, and then tried to be a little bit adventurous.... We try to have a broad range so we hit a number of different flavor palates across the board. Any consumer can find something within our portfolio that they like.”

Re:THINK Ice Cream is made in southern California and is currently distributed along the West Coast of the U.S., primarily in California but also available in northern Nevada, Oregon and Washington. “Our plans are to be national, to expand eastward, but [first] we want to grow the brand, create awareness, create sales velocity in the stores and build momentum in the region,” Haymaker said. “That’s what we’re in the middle of.”

He’s planning to expand next into the southwestern U.S. next year and creep into the Rocky Mountain region from there.

Cartons of Re:THINK ice cream usually retail for $5.99 to $6.99, in line with other premium brands.

For more information, visit www .rethinkicecream.us. GN

Brought to You by Three Wives, a Rabbi and a Bean

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

A Bolivian street vendor introduced Frank Guido to roasted fava beans in 1995. He didn’t know what they were, but he had the munchies, and there was the vendor who had snacks for sale. “These kids sold these in little bags, and I thought it was like a peanut, even though the kids told me it wasn’t a peanut,” he says.

Hunger satisfied, Guido pushed his curiosity about what he’d eaten aside and went on with his day. Then he went on with his days for another 16 years or so without giving the little not-peanuts another thought.

But in 2011 and 2012, he happened to be in Qatar to work on a big project. On the weekends, he played some golf and hung out with other ex-patriots, all the while not giving fava beans any thought at all. Then that changed when his friends’ wives started showing up, one after the other.

“My friends, all three of their wives were coming in for weekends on different weekends,” he says. This is where the story starts to sound a little bit like it ought to involve a priest, a rabbi and a minister, only with wives bearing fava beans, but what I tell you three times is true, and each of these three women brought along fava bean snacks on their visits and offered some of

them to Guido.

The first wife was British, and she had fava beans that had been fried in a tempura batter to set out on her table as an appetizer. The next weekend, it was the Italian friend’s weekend with his wife, and she brought along a little bag of roasted fava beans seasoned with Parmesan cheese. Guido pulled himself together and asked what this was. She explained to him that it wasn’t a nut, even though it tasted like one – it was a bean. “I really did not know it was fava. I still didn’t have that connection. I found it later on Google,” he says. “The next weekend, my Australian friend’s wife comes over with a retail snack called Happy Snack. She brought a pizza variety.”

Well, there it was – three weekends and three times that fava beans had been offered to him as a snack. Some coincidences are not meant to be ignored, and after he’d looked up fava beans on Google, Guido started asking his other friends if they’d ever heard of them. Turns out they had.

It dawned on Guido that maybe Americans were the last to know about the little beans that could be roasted until they had the crunch of a corn chip and the flavor of a roasted Brazil nut. “I just knew that there was a void [in the American market],” he

says. “I studied the market to see what was going on.”

When he got back to the United States after his project in Qatar had ended, he looked up American friends who encouraged him to design a package for what he’d started calling Favalicious snacks and go into production in a small way. “Somebody let me put it into 150 stores to see what happened,” he says. “It sold.”

Guido’s next step was to find a copacker who would work with him on small batches in a facility where the product could be kept uncontaminated by common allergens. Then he went to work to obtain third-party certifications. The co-packer already had a rabbi in his facility to help with the kosher certification – You knew there would be a rabbi somewhere in this story, didn’t you? – and Guido found the Snack Safely organization to help him certify as allergen free.

One in four Americans has some type of food allergy, and allergies to tree nuts and peanuts are common, so Guido’s gut was telling him that he needed that allergenfree certification even though his friends were telling him that he wasn’t going to need that market segment. “We have a perfect snack that’s a plant protein that’s a nut alternative that looks like a nut,

tastes like a nut, but it’s a bean,” he says.

“Fava’s really the future.”

His Favalicious snacks are currently offered in three flavors: Salt & Vinegar, Chili & Lime and Wasabi & Ginger as well as Lightly Salted. They’re free from the top eight allergens, gluten free and have no added sugars, trans fat or cholesterol. Inside their packaging, the beans are about the size of a peanut. They’re roasted in expeller-produced high-oleic sunflower oil, and each bean is belted by a strip of the husk that holds the two halves of the bean together. “The aesthetics we get out of that are unbelievable – a little extra crunch and beautiful appearance,” Guido says.

New flavors are currently in development, and Guido expects to have three of them, including the pizza flavor that he loved so much when his Australian friend’s wife let him taste her snack, and Guido expects to bring those to market in 2022. Single-serve packaging and a variety pack are also in development. “We have a host of things that we’re developing. It’s a fantastic product to work with, and we’re having a lot of fun,” Guido says. “It’s new and it’s different.”

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

NATURALLY HEALTHY

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

19

Nutritionally Dense Cooking Sauces with Global Flavors

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Mesa de Vida is a line of cooking sauces based on fruits and vegetables that are designed to inject flavor and convenience into meals prepared with the intention of catering to those concerned about maintaining their health. “My goal is to make products that make it easier for people to cook, to get to the table more often, and they don’t have to sacrifice flavor or health for a great meal,” said Kirsten Sandoval, the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chef behind Mesa de Vida. The line currently has five sauces: Smoky Latin, Creole, Caribbean, Mediterranean and North African. The next sauce to join the line is likely to be one based on an Asian flavor profile, Sandoval said.

She started making sauces while she was working as a personal chef catering to the performance needs of professional athletes.

“They needed to be eating healthier foods.

My players were like little boys – they didn’t like eating their vegetables,” Sandoval said. But while the athletes didn’t necessarily want to see vegetables on their plates, they still needed the nutrition that vegetables provide, so Sandoval responded by creating flavor bases from fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices that she could add to soups and stews. Her goal was a lowsodium flavor base with no added sugar that she could conveniently add to a wide variety of dishes to create the flavors that clients preferred along with the nutrition

that allowed them to perform at their best.

Each client had a customized flavor base that matched the flavors he preferred. “I began altering the flavor bases with food profiles from around the world that the athletes recognized as the flavors of their homes,” she said. “If I made them a chili, it had the flavor they were looking for....

They were getting the nutrition they needed, and they weren’t looking at a pile of vegetables.”

After a day of cooking for her high-profile clients, she’d come home to her family and cook dinner for them. It didn’t take her long to figure out that she could use at home the same idea that had served her to manage the nutritional needs and personal tastes of her clients, especially since her children had their own nutritional needs and personal tastes. She tried looking for some of those flavor bases in the spice aisles of her local grocers but found that the spice blends she was seeing there often contained the salt or sugar that she didn’t want to include in her food and realized that other home cooks were faced with the same problem for which she already had a solution – a range of global gourmet recipe starters and cooking sauces that are concentrated flavor bases common in professional kitchens, but made for the home cook.

She launched her business in 2017, while she was still working as a personal chef by

selling the sauces online and at small specialty shops. “I would drag my kids around to farmers markets to start getting the word out about them,” she said. “You don’t have to buy every spice under the sun to have a meal with global flavors, and you don’t have to chop a whole basket of fruits and vegetables as well.”

“I really designed these sauces for what I couldn’t find when I went to the store. I love to cook, I have lots of ingredients, but there are days when you’re just busy,” she added. “They also appeal to the health-conscious. I designed the jars to fit into the stores that do a really beautiful job of curating their shelves for the consumers.”

She notes that each of the sauces in the line can be used to flavor a wide variety of soups, stews and slow-cooker recipes, and each represents a region with a culinary tradition of gathering around the table every day. “I really hope that these sauces can have people here have that same inspiration and help them get to the table every

day,” she said.

The Mediterranean sauce is the newest in the line. Its flavor profile is characteristic of Italy and Greece rather than the northern Africa area of the Mediterranean region.

“It’s a fantastic base for a simple beef stew.

Beef, a jar of sauce, some chickpeas and into the slow cooker,” she said. “It’s a really rich jar, so when you open the jar, it’s like cooking from scratch.

It’s like having your personal chef do most of the work for you.”

The next sauce that’s in development is a response to consumer requests for an Asian-inspired sauce that’s free from gluten and is low in sodium, Sandoval said. “From there the sky’s the limit,” she added. “I would love to start developing more obscure regional flavors that people find new and also global hot sauces.

I want it to be something that customers can’t find very easily and that also have the health profile they need. That’s the mission going forward.”

Each of the sauces is packaged in a 9ounce jar that retails for $8.99 on Mesa de Vida’s website at www.mesadevida.com, which also offers additional information. GN

A Plant-Based Alternative to Conventional Queso

BY LORRIE BAUMANN

Core & Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce is a clean-label, vegan alternative to the kinds of shelf-stable cheese sauces in jars that are often sold in the snack aisle next to the tortilla chips. “It’s great for people who are on specific diets, who are plant-based, who are keto, who are vegan, but it’s also for those who are looking for more plants on the plate or just looking to cut out the junk,” said Core & Rind coFounder Rita Childers. “It’s versatile in that way, that it’s not for one specific vegan customer. It fits into a lot of diets.”

The cheesy sauce is made from simple kitchen ingredients by Childers and her coFounder, Candi Haas, who met in college at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Giraradeau, where Childers was studying journalism and Haas was studying business marketing. “We were your typical unhealthy college students,” Childers said.

“It’s hard just having a busy lifestyle – you want to grab something that’s easy.” The two lost touch with each other after college, but they reconnected after Childers had decided to discard the careless eating habits she’d developed as a young adult and return to the vegetarian lifestyle of her childhood.

“I was interested in figuring out different

ways to support my health,” she said.

When she met Haas again, her friend invited her to participate in a presentation that she was preparing as a final requirement for a culinary nutrition program offered by the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. As soon as she saw the kitchen where Haas was recording her presentation, Childers knew she’d found a comrade-inarms in her battle to improve the quality of

her diet. “I’d never seen anyone’s kitchen look like this except for mine,” she said.

“I’d felt like a weirdo with all the health foods, but then Candi took this program, and it ended up being very similar to what I was doing at the time, too.”

That inspired Childers to enroll in the same program, and when she’d completed it, the two started talking about how they were going to put what they’d learned into action. They decided that what they wanted to do was to develop some of the

tasty vegetarian products they’d been preparing for their own consumption and turn them into packaged products they could sell to others with similar dietary goals. “We came up with 12 items just to test out if people wanted these things the way we wanted these things,” Childers said. Then they took their products to a farmers market in St. Louis, Missouri. “We had a great reaction, but people really went crazy for our cheesy sauce,” she said. “They just loved the flavors and couldn’t believe that it wasn’t cheese.”

After multiple markets produced the same enthusiastic reaction, Childers and Haas decided it was time to think about how to get their vegan cheesy sauce onto supermarket shelves. “It took a year and a half after going to the farmers market to make it shelf-stable,” Childers said. “We launched Cashew Cheesy Sauce in October, 2017.”

Core & Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce is now available in three flavors. The shelfstable original is called Sharp & Tangy Cashew Cheesy Sauce. Bold & Spicy launched in 2018, and the newest flavor is Rich & Smoky. “It’s a unique item because it’s a cheese alternative, but it’s also shelfstable and clean label,” Childers said. “A lot

of our competition is refrigerated, so we definitely wanted to differentiate ourselves in that way. It’s super-versatile, and you can keep it as a pantry staple, as a snack or a sauce on pasta.... Candi and I like to say that we just want to get more real food on people’s plates, and our flavor-packed sauces help people do that.”

The sauces contain no chemical additives, no preservatives, no gums and no fillers. “It’s just ingredients you can pull out of your own pantry and make a sauce at home with,” Childers said. “We’re not your average food entrepreneurs. We don’t have a background in food science. We do have a passion to create these products that people are asking for – that are more transparent and more health-focused, health-building.... I think we were just sick of picking up every sauce on the shelf and seeing ingredients that we didn’t want to put in our bodies, and we knew that other people felt the same way too. That’s been a big driver of ours.”

Core & Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce is packaged in an 11-ounce glass jar for dipping that retails for $9.99. It’s vegan and gluten free. It’s available in the Midwest through Fortune Fish & Gourmet, and will be launching with KeHE in February of 2021. Distribution is also available in Canada.

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

20

FEATURED PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Featured Products ADVERTISING

SUPPLEMENT

Families Look for Easy Fall Dinners

Jake’s Nut Roasters Maple Almonds

It may be cool outside, but it’s cozy around the table with Toufayan Tandoori Flatbreads. Busy families can turn to Toufayan to get a delicious dinner on the table in no time. Tandoori Flatbreads, in Original, Garlic and Whole Wheat, make the perfect base for a quick, fresh pizza. Top with leftover veggies, meats and cheese, or let everyone make their own creation. Bake for 15 minutes and you’ve got dinner on the table. Toufayan Tandoori Flatbreads are all natural and non-GMO and made with only

Maple Almonds, in the line of bold and unique flavors, is a fan favorite from Jake’s Nut Roasters and has the perfect amount of sweet maple with just a hint of sea salt. They are low in sugar, with only 3 grams per serving, making a great option for a light breakfast snack or everyday indulgence. These almonds are in fact “Straight from Jake’s Orchard,” showcasing the company’s vertical integration and commitment to sustainable growing practices. Jake’s almonds provide an unparalleled snacking experience and make eating this healthy snack both fun and satisfying.

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

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

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

to generation by proud artisans who are in tune with the land and the seasons.

Because of the greatness of these foods and their popularity – both at home and abroad – imitations have naturally sprung up around the world. Such products bear none of the history, tradition or quality of the originals. While this may seem inevitable, and consumers are free to buy what they want, it’s important that they actually know what they are buying, how it is made and from what it is made.

Icons of European Taste www.iconsofeuropeantaste.eu

Busha Browne Original Hot Pepper Jelly Busha Browne’s Original Hot Pepper Jelly is the traditional spicy-sweet condiment based on the world-famous hot and flavorful Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper. This Pepper Jelly is the perfect accompaniment for cheeses and meats (hot or cold), and excels when mixed with cream cheese for canapes or used as a spread or a dip. It also makes a superb glaze for

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Source Atlantique 201.947.1000 www.sourceatlantique.com

Odyssey Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip Klondike Cheese Company introduces a healthier alternative to a traditional sour creambased dip with its new Odyssey® brand Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip. This is a gluten-free and rBST-free cow’s milk dip that has crunchy cucumbers and a zest of garlic and dill.

Odyssey Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip has only 30 calories per serving, two times the protein, and five live and

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The Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Dip is an addition to the family of other Odyssey Greek Yogurt Dips available in these delicious flavors: Southwest, French Onion and Bell Pepper.

Klondike Cheese www.odysseybrands.com

cool, classic appearance that looks great on store shelves, kitchen counters or table centerpieces, while also making the perfect holiday gift. 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.

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

Darrell Lea Soft Original Liquorice Made by a company that’s been crafting confectionery for more than 90 years, Darrell Lea Soft Original Liquorice is so good because it’s made using quality ingredients, it has a deliciously soft and chewy texture, and it’s bursting with delicious flavor.

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Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix is produced locally in the heart of the Ozarks, in small batches with the highest-quality ingredients. 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. Unlike many of its competitors, it’s gluten free. It also contains no MSG, no preservatives and no high fructose corn syrup while being low in salt, sugar and calories.

Winning multiple awards every year, Top Tomato Bloody Mary Mix has become a nationally known mixer. While it is primarily

used as an alcoholic beverage, it makes a savory standalone drink and is great to use in recipes.

It’s now available in Original flavor and in a new Spicy mix.

Circle B Ranch 417.683.0271 sales@circlebranchfoods.com www.circlebranchfoods.com

New Lemon Pepper OMG! Pretzels OMG! Pretzels takes snacking to a whole new level with its savory product line of gourmet flavored sourdough pretzel nuggets. As a familyowned and operated small business, OMG! Pretzels has hand-crafted each of its many flavors to perfection.

From kitchen to shelf, these flavorful pretzel nuggets are made with the finest ingredients around.

With its new Lemon Pepper OMG! Pretzels, the company has combined both of these flavor cravings, creating a zesty kick mixed with decadent spices and herbs. Recognized as an award-winning product, high-quality and strong consumer satisfaction always go hand-in-hand at OMG! Pretzels.

OMG! Pretzels www.omgpretzels.com

FEATURED PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

DeBrand’s Truffle Wreath Box DeBrand’s Chocolate Art Boxes are handcrafted, exceptionally unique, edible masterpieces. The Truffle Wreath Box is spectacular as a gift and makes a stunning centerpiece for any holiday event. No matter the occasion, DeBrand’s Truffle Wreath Box is the ultimate holiday treat that your customers are looking for.

This beautiful, handmade wreath box is made from gourmet milk or dark chocolate, and is then generously filled with 20 luxurious Truffles from DeBrand’s Truffle Collection. Your customers won’t be able to resist this fun and festive treat this holiday season.

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Not only does DeBrand carry impressive chocolate gifts, but also provides many options for tempting impulse chocolates such as Caramel Pretzel Bars, Peanut Butter Cups, Mint Cookie Crunch Tasting Bars, Sea Salt Caramels, and much more.

DeBrand Fine Chocolates 260.969.8331 www.debrand.com

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

Since NIWRI is a cascara-based drink, consumers can expect a sweet, fruity taste with notes of rose hip and hibiscus.

The essence is like a superb blend of fruits including raspberry, currant, cranberry and cherry.

Both green tea and cascara are reputed to contain antioxidants; including this product among your SKUs allows the opportunity to offer a great-tasting healthy option in one beverage.

White Coffee 718.204.7900 www.whitecoffee.com

free, MSG free and contains no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. It’s also certified kosher and non-GMO and is low in sodium.

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Honey Stinger PLUS+ Chews Support Exercise Honey Stinger PLUS+ Chews supports higher intensity and longer duration exercise with convenient chews that contain caffeine and electrolytes.

Available in Mango Melon, Lemon Ginger, and Stingerita Lime, there is a deliciously sweet and slightly salty flavor for everyone.

Caffeine supports heart rate during prolonged efforts, increasing blood flow and oxygenation through the body. The electrolyte mixture of sodium, potassium, and calcium replenishes electrolyte reserves to keep you hydrated during epic efforts.

Honey-powered energy is the heart of everything Honey Stinger makes, and

Bone Suckin’ Teriyaki & Ginger Wing Sauce Bone Suckin’ ® Teriyaki & Ginger Wing Sauce is the perfect chicken wing sauce for even the pickiest of crowds.

You will be the hero of the barbecue and finish first in the compliments! This sauce is gluten free, kosher, non-GMO

and contains no high fructose corn syrup.

Ford’s Gourmet www.bonesuckin.com

Bariani Extra Virgin Olive Oil Nestled in the Sacramento Valley, Bariani’s medium density orchards of indigenous Mission and Manzanillo cultivars yield a genuine extra virgin olive oil with organoleptic qualities specific to the region. Bariani estate-produced olive oil is cold pressed, unfiltered, and is certified or-

ganic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and OU kosher.

Bariani Olive Oil 415.864.1917 www.barianioliveoil.com

Gluten Free Pasta, from Farm to Fork Northern Italy is a region prized for its produce, a place where wholesome crops like chickpeas, corn, rice, quinoa, amaranth and teff are organically grown, carefully harvested and gently ground into flours.

Here is where gluten free Montebello pastas begin, with freshly milled blends of legumes and wheat-free grains.

New this year, the Chickpea Fusilli and Ancient Grain Conchiglie are bite-for-bite as delicious as homemade and traditional recipes. Crafted by skilled Italian artisans using Old World techniques, these cuts are shaped with classic bronze dies and left to air-dry gradually for hours. It’s a meticulous process, but one that results in

pasta perfection. Each batch is deliciously nutty in flavor, wonderfully porous in texture and packed with 5 to 8 grams of protein per serving. Imported exclusively by specialty food maker Stonewall Kitchen for your customers to enjoy, these pastas deliver gluten-free excellence to any dish.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Paesana Plant-Based Bolognese Sauces

Vertullo Yuzu Ponzu 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, it’s also gluten

21

PLUS+ Chews are packed with more for when you need more.

Honey Stinger makes great-tasting sports nutrition using honey. Nature’s energy source delivers immediate and sustained energy to help you push harder and go farther. Organic and non-GMO ingredients are used whenever possible. Honey is a key ingredient in all of Honey Stinger’s products because it’s delicious and naturally rich in carbohydrates and antioxidants.

Honey Stinger 866.464.6639 www.honeystinger.com

Paesana’s Plant-Based Bolognese Sauces are made with Beyond Meat.

Available in Hearty or Spicy, this fresh take on an Italian classic satisfies consumers who crave a robust pasta sauce, but who also want to make a positive impact on the environment. With 4 grams of protein per serving and no cholesterol, soy, gluten, hormones or GMOs, it’s a delicious, guilt-free, and eye-catching addition to any retail setting’s red sauce display.

The product also features a newly designed clear/transparent label with a sleek look that still maintains the instantly recognizable Paesana logo.

Gain consumer confidence and be first to market this new and unique product, a premium pasta sauce that, like all Paesana tomatobased sauces, is made with 100 percent imported Italian tomatoes.

Paesana Products 631.845.1717 www.paesana.com

Gluten Free Pizzelle from Bella Lucia Pumpkin Pie Spice is the newest flavor for Bella Lucia Gluten Free Pizzelle Waffle Cookies. The new flavor joins a line that already includes Anise, Vanilla, Chocolate, Saigon Cinnamon and its seasonal Chocolate Drizzle variety.

The brand has attracted a wide range of followers with a handmade process of baking two at a time to keep the integrity of the original Italian favorite.

Bella Lucia is a women-owned business offering products that are verified non-

GMO as well as gluten free and promoting its products by expanding its reach to online markets to enhance name recognition for Bella Lucia as a brand.

Bella Lucia 814.201.2222 www.glutenfreepizzelles.com

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HOT PRODUCTS

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

Hot Products Ancient Harvest Veggie Pasta

A blend of green lentils, kale, spinach and cauliflower bound together with natural tapioca starch, Ancient Harvest Veggie Pasta has an al dente-like bite that gets a big thumbs up even from traditional pasta lovers. Each 2-ounce serving offers a full serving of vegetables, while an equivalent helping of wheat-based vegetable pasta contains only one-half serving of vegetables, 8 grams of protein and various additives.

The new gluten-free pasta line comes in penne, rotini and spaghetti options and is certified by the Non-GMO Project. Suggested retail price is $4.49 per 8-ounce box.

Ancient Harvest www.ancientharvest.com

Ekoa Fruit Bars

Ekoa Fruit Bars are pure, natural, and full of flavor.

Each fruit bar has a maximum of three ingredients, and all are gluten free, vegan and kosher. They have no added sugar and no artificial flavors. Ekoa Fruit Bars are available in four flavors, including Mango, Coconut, Banana and Pineapple.

Ekoa Brands www.ekoabrands.com

Otamot Vegetable Sauce a Pantry Staple

Offered in Organic Essential Sauce and Spicy Organic Sauce varieties, Otamot is the nutritious and delicious choice for elevating any sauce-based dish. From pizza and pasta to even Bloody Marys, simply swap in Otamot for a tasty twist. Packed with 10 to 12 vegetables including butternut squash, red beet, sweet onion and more, each sauce is also Whole30-Approved, certified nonGMO, certified organic, certified vegan and gluten free. The retail price is $12.99 per jar.

Otamot Foods www.otamotfoods.com

Perfectly Cordial Cocktail Mixers

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

Perfectly Cordial www.perfectlycordial.com

Kakookies

Kakookies offers the comfort and deliciousness of a cookie combined with functional nutrition and plant-based protein. It’s a better-for-you treat, grab-and-go breakfast or an energy snack anytime, anywhere. Kakookies come in five flavors: Almond Cranberry, Boundary Waters Blueberry, Cashew Blondie, Dark Chocolate Cranberry and Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip.

Kakookies www.kakookies.com

New Vegan Soups from Upton’s Naturals

Upton’s Naturals has debuted three vegan soups: Chick & Noodle Soup, Chick Tortilla Soup and Italian Wedding Soup. The Chick & Noodle soup is a comfort food creation made with thyme, rosemary and hearty pieces of Chick Seitan along with rotini, generous cuts of carrots, celery and onion. The Chick Tortilla Soup is made from simple ingredients such as black beans, white corn, tomato, cilantro and Chick Seitan. The addition of lime juice, chili pepper and paprika provide this soup a zesty kick. The Italian Wedding Soup is made with Italian Seitan, loads of pasta and delicious speckles of spinach.

Made in the USA, Upton’s Naturals soups will be available for retailers nationwide to carry this winter or spring 2021 with a suggested retail price of $3.99 per 14.5-ounce can.

Upton’s Naturals www.uptonsnaturals.com

Turkey Gravy from Kevin’s Natural Foods

Kevin’s Natural Foods, which produces a line of healthy sous-vide entrées and signature paleo, keto and gluten-free certified sauces and seasoning blends, is launching seasonal items for the holiday season. The seasonal line includes Turkey Gravy, a roasted turkey broth simmered with garlic, sage and thyme, as well as a paleo-certified Cranberry Sauce, a Butternut Squash Soup and a Cauliflower Cheddar Soup.

Kevin’s Natural Foods www.kevinsnaturalfoods.com

Mushroom Jerky with Meaty Texture

Vegky is a new vegan mushroom jerky with flavor and texture both designed to satisfy a craving for meat. Vegky is minimally processed, comes in five flavors and offers the nutritional benefits of the shiitake mushrooms from which it’s made. Flavors include Original, Spicy, Pepper, Wasabi and Curry.

Vegky www.vegky.com

SMORGASBORD

GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2020 www.gourmetnews.com

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SMORGASBORD ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER

PAGE WEBSITE

PHONE

Bariani Olive Oil

5

www.barianioliveoil.com

Butchy’s BBQ

11

www.butchysbbq.com

Circle B Ranch

3

www.circlebranchpork.com

Darrell Lea

2

www.darrelllea.com

Gourmet International

17

www.gourmetint.com

800.875.5557

Seviroli

14,15

www.seviroli.com

516.222.6220

Stonewall Kitchen

4

www.stonewallkitchen.com

888.326.5678

Wild Forest Products

24

www.truffleoilsandmore.com

855.645.7772

Pickled Pink Foods Continued from PAGE 1 increase in growth during the May through August months of 2020, a growth rate that was higher than expected.

Pickled Pink Foods has seen the same phenomenon in its own sales records, according to Lawlor’s. “When March hit, we weren’t sure what was going on. We knew immediately that our mom-and-pop business was going to go away, which it did,” he said. “That certainly took a hit in March, April and May. By the end of June, we started to see a comeback.”

Pickled Pink’s sales in conventional grocery stores also started rising along with higher sales at specialty stores as spring rolled into summer and shoppers who’d discovered specialty products during the early pantry-stocking phase of the pandemic continued to appreciate the qualities of the new products they’d tried when their usual choices weren’t available. “The surprise is that the premium line is selling so well.... I thought that the premium line might see a slowdown, but it’s doing well,” Lawlor said. “A lot of people are finding themselves cooking at home five or six nights a week, when before it was maybe two to four. I know my dishwasher at home runs a heck of a lot more than it used to.”

The company’s Perfectly Pickled Peaches has become the company’s top seller during the pandemic. Along with Vidalia Onion & Peach Relish, Spiced Watermelon Pickles and the new Honey Cinnamon Beets, it’s part of what Lawlor considers the company’s premium line, but its higher price point hasn’t been a deterrent for consumers. “It kind of started before the pandemic, but it’s kept on going, which is surprising because of its price point,” Lawlor said. “Our Spiced Watermelon

845.233.5198

Pickles continue to be strong.”

But while Pickled Pink’s sales have grown despite the lack of trade shows where new buyers could discover the brand, the company’s product development process has been delayed by the pandemic, according to Lawlor. “We use the shows to introduce new products. Due to the cancellation of the Fancy Food Show and Natural Products Expo West, we’ve put that on hold for now,” he said.

Pickled Pink Foods, like many other specialty food companies uses shows like the Fancy Food Show to let potential customers try new products while they’re in development. Lawlor likes to listen to what hundreds of people have to say and watch their faces when they taste the products, so he can gauge market acceptance before the company puts its new ideas into full production. “We use those shows as external test kitchens. We use the shows to see if it’s a product that we’re going to go forward with, and that’s been put on the back burner now,” Lawlor said. “You can think it’s really good, but what matters is what the general public thinks.... Business has been good, but we’ve been handcuffed a bit for product development and expanding to some of the larger markets that we’ve been trying to reach.”

Pickled Pink currently has nine SKUs on the market and a goal of expanding the range to 12, so Lawlor, like other food producers, is really looking forward to the end of the pandemic and the opportunity to present new products to the market.

“It’s been a stressful time, but it’s been an exciting time for something that just hit us out of left field on March first. It was wide open, and nothing was going on on February 19. Then on March 3, Expo West was canceled.... Within 25 days, it all went south,” he said. “It’s mentally and physically exhausting.... Living life mostly different is challenging.” GN

Acid League Living Vinegars Acid League offers a variety of living vinegars that will add delicious flavor and depth to marinades, dressings, cocktails and more. They’re offered in a variety of unique flavors such as Strawberry Rosé, Garden Heat and Meyer Lemon Honey.

Acid League was founded in 2019 by food scientists who were interested in reinventing vinegar with new and interesting

flavor profiles. Experiments with methods and with more than 500 flavors resulted in a proprietary process that produces raw, unfiltered vinegars fermented with premium fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices.

Acid League Vinegars retail for $15 per 12.7 fluid ounce bottle.

For more information about Acid League, visit www.acidleague.com. GN

Perdue Farms Helps Put Food on the Road Perdue Farms and Feed More of Richmond, Virginia, have rolled out a new refrigerated tractor-trailer to support the organization’s distribution of food within the 34 cities and counties the food bank serves in central Virginia. The tractor-trailer was funded through a $100,000 grant by the Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Perdue Farms, in conjunction with the company’s 100th anniversary.

“Perdue has been an outstanding partner for two decades,” said Tim McDermott, Chief Campaign Officer for Feed More.

“Their commitment to fight hunger in central Virginia has been constant throughout this time. The protein they donate each year provides vital nutrition for those we serve. Their associates volunteer their time with several of our programs, and this most recent very generous grant comes at a time when many more people do not know when or how their next meal will arrive.”

Perdue’s gift of a refrigerated trailer has enabled Feed More to expand its delivery of fresh produce and nutritious protein throughout central Virginia. Fully loaded, the Perdue trailer holds 40,000 pounds of healthy food, providing more than 35,000 meals to hungry neighbors. This trailer also enables Feed More to pick up large quantities of perishable food from Perdue and other producers, wholesalers, and grocery

partners, saving valuable time and reducing spoilage when provider transportation is not immediately available.

The Perdue Foundation gift aligns with the company’s “Delivering Hope To Our Neighbors” hunger relief initiative focused on providing access to nutritious protein for people struggling with hunger and making meaningful progress toward ending hunger. In January, the Perdue Foundation announced a $1 million donation to support 10 of its Feeding America[R]-affiliated food bank partners in celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary.

“At Perdue Farms, we’re committed to doing all that we can to support the communities we call home, and value our ability to help address the issue of food insecurity,” said Kim Nechay, Executive Director of the Perdue Foundation. “We’re proud that we can expand our partnership with Feed More through this gift and improve their ability to help meet the needs of our neighbors in central Virginia, especially during this uncertain time.”

Over the course of the partnership, Perdue has delivered more than 20 million pounds of nutritious chicken, freezer and refrigeration equipment, Perdue associate volunteer support and additional funds to enable Feed More and its agency network to purchase fresh produce. GN

Mercato

tion. Most recently, Zhu founded and built Lewis, an online travel planning service that combines data with expert human judgement to provide personalized weekend trips.

Mercato was started in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015 and the company currently operates in 45 states nationwide. The digital platform connects consumers to more than 1,000 independently owned grocery stores and specialty markets. Built upon a mission of supporting such stores, Mercato has been actively onboarding grocers during the COVID-19 crisis. The company, which equips independent grocers with a clean and seamless online ordering and delivery function, has added more than 400 specialty food stores, grocery stores and market halls to its platform in 2020. GN

Continued from PAGE 10 Groupon where he filled a number of sales leadership roles, including director of enterprise sales in the company’s Chicago headquarters. He is known for his ability to scale highly efficient sales organizations.

Zhu, 30, will head up the product organization at Mercato. He will manage the overall product strategy, roadmap and execution. Zhu joins Mercato from Walmart.com, where he was director of product. He also acted as director of product at Jet.com, which was acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion. An early employee at Jet.com, Zhu helped scale the e-commerce startup from pre-launch to post-acquisi-