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GOURMET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2018 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 8 La Panzanella Introduces Gluten-Free Oat Thins BY LORRIE BAUMANN The cheese stands alone. But sometimes it just likes to sit on a cracker. La Panzanella's Mini Croccantini crack- ers are drawing attention from cheese and charcuterie companies that are appealing to consumers looking for quality products in a healthier snack. "A lot of cheese compa- nies and charcuterie companies are figuring out how to meet this growing need for healthier snacking," said Steve Lorenz, Head of Marketing for La Panzanella. Mini Croccantini crackers are the smaller, two-bite version of La Panzanella's full-size Croccantini crackers, and they're offered in a growing range of flavors that pair well with cheeses and charcu- terie. "Our flavors are nuanced in a way that they're a great carrier for meats, cheeses and dips," Lorenz said. "A number of charcuterie produc- ers are pairing the Mini Croccantini crackers with their meat or cheese product to create healthy and convenient snack packs. Our crackers are so central to their packs that many have designed their pack- aging to accommodate the distinctive Mini. Some have even added the La Panzanella logo to the front of the package to under- score the quality of the pairing." Over the past few years, La Panzanella's customers have also been asking if the Croccantini crackers were available in a gluten-free variety, only to be told that, sadly, the answer to that question was a no. Early exploration by La Panzanella's prod- uct development team to find a gluten-free version didn't pan out. At that time, the company determined that the character of the cracker was indivisible from the wheat from which it's made. Still, the consumer demand couldn't be denied. "Industry re- search reports that the gluten-free pack- aged food sector is expected to reach $8.1 billion by 2023, and as the market grows, consumers will demand more variety and tastier options," Lorenz said. "Many people, even if they don't have dietary restric- tions choose to in- clude gluten free as part of a healthy lifestyle." With that in mind, La Panzanella contin- ued its research and has just introduced its Gluten-Free Oat Thins in flavors that pick up on tried and true Croccantini flavors, including Roasted Garlic and Rosemary. An additional flavor, Toasted Oat, was selected to mimic the new cracker's oat core ingre- dient. "Given consumer demand, we didn't give up and after more research and recipe testing, we now have a wonderful gluten-free cracker that meets our high standards. The new Oat Thins are ideal for merchandising in the deli alongside cheeses and meats that the deli man- ager is showcasing," Lorenz said. "Our Oat Thins cracker is crisp and sturdy to carry cheeses and meats – plus, it has great flavor, and doesn't have a dominant rice or potato flavor like many gluten-free crackers on the market today." Since Oat Thins are designed particularly to appeal to health-conscious consumers who read the package carefully to ensure that they're getting a product that meets their dietary needs, the Oat Thins check a lot of boxes in addition to being gluten free: they contain no preservatives, lactose or cholesterol and they're low in fat and sodium, with 70 calories per five-cracker serving. They're also vegan and kosher parve. They carry the Non-GMO Project Verified and Gluten-Free Certified seals on the front and sides of a package that's de- signed to be displayed either vertically or horizontally on the shelf. Clear windows in the box display the crackers to drive ap- petite appeal and let the cus- tomer know what they are purchasing. La Panzanella Oat Thins crackers come in 5-ounce car- tons that retail for $4.99. The company sug- gests that the Toasted Oat fla- vor pairs well with mild blue cheeses or fruit spreads, while the Rosemary Oat Thins are best enjoyed with soft-ripened cheeses and dried fruits. Roasted Garlic Oat Thins pair well with olive hummus and lemon, with goat cheeses or with thinly sliced roast beef. La Panzanella Mini Croccantini crackers come in 6-ounce packages that retail for $4.99. They come in Original, Rosemary, Multigrain, Cracked Pepper, Roasted Gar- lic, Whole Wheat and Toasted Sesame. "Original is the top seller, because it just goes with everything." Lorenz said. GN FINE & RAW Chocolate: Chocolate to Live for BY LORRIE BAUMANN FINE & RAW Chocolate Founder Daniel Sklaar can trace the inspiration that led him to start a company specializing in bean-to- bar chocolate made with sustainably sourced products, unrefined sweeteners and 100 percent organic ingredients, to a picture of a Carnegie Deli pastrami sand- wich that he posted on his inspiration board in his childhood bedroom in Johan- nesburg, South Africa. Today, that inspiration has led him to a a redesign of his signature FINE & RAW line with new wrapper artwork, thinner bars that improve mouth feel and two new fla- vors: Cashew Nut Butter and 70% Cacao. The new line perches on the market inter- section between wellness and specialty gourmet and was introduced at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. Sklaar grew up knowing that it was his destiny to come to the United States, so when he won a green card through the American lottery process after studying fi- nance in college in Capetown and a year of backpacking in Asia, he packed up and came straight to New York, where one of the first things he did was head to Carnegie Deli to taste that pastrami sandwich for himself. "It was life-changing. Everything I'd hoped for and more," he says. "To die for." His early days in New York were spent working in restaurants to pay the rent while he searched for a job in finance. "You kind of like crash-land in New York. I don't think anyone has a soft landing in New York," he says. Eventually, around 2003, with the American economy already suffer- ing and Sklaar coming to grips with the re- alization that he was competing for jobs with graduates of Ivy League universities, Sklaar started to think about exploring other options. "I left that world in 2006, ahead of the real recession. I didn't leave for any recession reasons at all," he says. "I left for my own personal explorations and ideas of life." His restaurant experience and the sav- ings he'd accumulated gave him the free- dom to travel and free-lance as a chef. "Living on a shoe- string and getting desperate makes you very creative," he says. "I discovered the fascination and joy and intrigue of working in the kitchen and working with my hands." His travels led him to Patagonia, Arizona, and the Tree of Life holistic medicine center operated by Gabriel Cousens, where he joined the raw food movement and learned about raw chocolate. "It was such a phenomenal time to be involved with that movement, with the discovery of raw chocolate," he says. "It was just super fun – exploring with choco- late, living off salads and then eating cacao. You are truly bouncing off the wall. It's like caffeine but merciful. It gives the same kind of energy boost but without a drop. It was a really cool time to be in that little niche of the world." When he returned to New York, he saw two options for himself: he could either look for another conventional job, or he could roll the dice and start a chocolate company – he decided to take his chances and started making his chocolate in an artists' loft in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. "It was such a good thing when you're out there on the periphery, and people don't quite get what you're doing, but they're still supporting you," he says. "All my friends came over and started mak- ing chocolate, and I would pay them in chocolate and beer." In that sup- portive com- munity, word about Sklaar's chocolate got around, and buyers for the neighborhood's specialty stores started car- rying his bars. "People really got into the chocolate, and one thing led to the next," he says. "I legitimized the production and moved to a kitchen." Today's product range encompasses Sklaar's Brooklyn Bonnies line of bars, which feature artwork reminiscent of tat- too designed based on mid-20th-century pinup girls; Chunkys, which are a cross between a bar and a truffle; truffles; but- ters and spreads as well as the newly re- designed signature line of bars, which are now 40 percent slimmer at 4 mm thick but still weigh either 1 or 2 ounces. "The ex- perience of chocolate is largely about the mouth feel and the melt. Having a thinner chocolate allows the melt to happen quicker." Sklaar says. "You get a more rapid release of flavor, and the experience is heightened." New artwork for the signature line's packaging incorporates floral imagery and vivid colors, and the line boasts the brand's richest and most complex flavor profiles to date, with two new flavors: Cashew Nut Butter, which blends house-made raw cashew butter into dark chocolate for a creamy bar with notes of caramel cookie, and 70% Cacao, which blends cacao with coconut sugar and cacao butter. The entire range is sweetened with co- conut sugar, and the chocolate is never heated to temperatures higher than 150 de- grees, which is accepted as the limit for nuts and seeds to be considered raw, since at temperatures below 150 degrees, nuts and seeds will still sprout. Retail prices for the bars are about $4.99 for a 1-ounce bar and $8.99 for a 2-ounce bar. The truffles are available in 4-piece, 8- piece and 24-piece boxes in eight classic standards and about 12 seasonal rotating flavors. Boxes are available in either assort- ments or individual flavors. The FINE & RAW Chunky in Almond Chunky, Coconut Chunky and Truffle Chunky are 1.5 ounces and retail for about $7.99. The Hazelnut Chunky weighs 1 ounce and retails for $4.99. GN

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