Oser Communications Group

24 The Cheese Guide BY LORRIE BAUMANN Blackberry Patch is launching 10 new products this year that are targeted to meet fast-growing trends in favor of simple, organic ingredients, concern for quality and for products that consumers will be proud to serve guests in their homes. The new products include organic fruit syrups and new fruit preserves especially for pairing with cheeses. Blackberry Patch is perhaps best known for high-quality fruit syrups with just a few ingredients. The company is owned by Harry T. Jones, whose team calls him the Mortar of Blackberry Patch, and his business partner and company President, Randy Harvey, who's known as the Brick. "Most of our products that are in the growth phase are fruit-first and include just three ingredients," he said. "Three ingredients started in 2006, and it really took off in 2016 and 2017. Last June, the company became Non-GMO Project verified for 10 items." This year, Blackberry Patch is bringing Organic Blueberry, Organic Strawberry and Organic Raspberry syrups to the market. "They're mostly berries with a little cane sugar and lemon juice. It's something that we're really excited about," Jones said. These introductions appeal on two counts – their short ingredient deck and their organic certification. "The fruit-first trend is snowballing. We were 12 years early. About a year ago, it passed the tipping point. People used to talk about discriminating tastes. Now they are living it," he said. "This year, organic. ... It is becoming more than just a narrow niche." A couple of years ago, Blackberry Patch ventured into fruit toppings for yogurt, then relabeled them for use with ice cream after grocers said their customers were more interested in toppings for ice cream than for yogurt. The first four ice cream toppings came out in 2016 with Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry and Raspberry. Peach was added in 2017. Jones and Harvey continued their exploration of fruit preserves paired with dairy products with the development of fruit preserves designed to pair with cheeses. Strawberry Fig, Raspberry Pepper and Peach Pepper Fruit Preserves for Cheese debuted in 2016. The company partnered with Sweet Grass Dairy, located just down the road in the small southwest Georgia city of Thomasville, to follow those with Blueberry Lemon Thyme and Peach Bourbon Cardamom Fruit Preserves for Cheese. This year, Blackberry Patch and Sweet Grass Dairy have partnered up again to develop a suite of products that feature the flavor of Satsuma, a zipper-skinned citrus fruit that's native to Japan but that has also been grown in southern Georgia for almost 100 years, Jones said. "It's making a huge comeback," he said. "Our neighbors are growing them, and we're able to take that juice, or fruit, and make it into a range of products." At this year's Summer Fancy Food Show, Blackberry Patch introduced two syrups, a jelly and two cheese pairings made from Satsuma. Those are Satsuma Pepper and Satsuma Cane Vanilla, each with flavors that pair particularly well with Sweet Grass Dairy's farmstead cheeses, according to Jones. Sweet Grass Dairy makes six traditional European-style cheeses from pasture-raised cow milk. Sweet Grass Dairy's Thomasville Tomme won a gold sofi Award and a Good Food Award in 2018; Asher Blue won a bronze medal in the 2015 and 2009 World Cheese Awards; Green Hill, a double-cream cow milk cheese with a bloomy rind in the style of a Camembert and the dairy's best seller, is an eight-time winner at the American Cheese Society's annual Judging and Competition; and the dairy's Pimento Cheese won a first place award from the American Cheese Society in 2015. All of Blackberry Patch's products are handmade in small batches. "We use premium quality ingredients that are recognizable, that you might have in your own kitchen. Never any foods fruit-first

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