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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2019 n GOURMET NEWS 9 2 A More Convenient Way to Maple Your Morning By Lorrie Baumann Coombs Family Farms launched its new Maple Stream, 100 percent pure USDA cer- tified organic maple syrup. It's packaged in an eco-friendly can that doesn't need to be refrigerated, as other maple products do, so it's very convenient for a multitude of uses. Coombs Family Farms sources additional maple from small family farms in the U.S. – more than 3,000 of them – that share its com- mitment to quality, environment stewardship and sustainable forestry management. By purchasing their syrup, and bringing it to market, Coombs Family Farms supports other small farmers and builds local, rural economies. In the Maple Stream, the syrup is forced out of the can by air pressure. The syrup streams rather than sprays, so it's not not at- omized into a fine mist. Coombs Family Farms Maple Stream offers the distinct ad- vantage that it's not going to spill all over the table if it gets tipped. Mess-free and portion- controlled, the product helps consumers avoid sticky situations. During consumer testing for the new product, one of the things that the company heard from parents was that they'd use real maple syrup them- selves, but they didn't want to give it to their kids because they didn't want to take the risk that it would be spilled and wasted. This new packaging solves that problem. The Maple Stream doesn't require refrigeration because the syrup is sealed so that no air can get into it, so bacteria can't grow. "From the bulk containers to this package, it's a unique way of packing it," said Arnold Coombs, Director of Sales and Marketing for Coombs Family Farms and a seventh generation sugarmaker. Since it doesn't need refrigeration, the Maple Stream can come warm to the table, so it doesn't cool down the flapjacks or the French toast or the cof- fee or tea to which it's added. "We're spoiled up here in Vermont, and a lot of people put maple in their coffee or tea," Coombs said. "We have a local bar- tender who's experimenting with it for maple mojitos – it's a lot easier just to squirt it in than to go to the refrigerator for a bottle. A lot of uses we hadn't thought of are now coming to light." The 7-ounce can retails for $7.99 – similar in price to an 8-ounce bottle of traditionally packaged pure maple syrup. "It's a little bit more expensive but a lot more convenient," Coombs said. Swerve Introduces Carb-Conscious Dessert Mixes Swerve ® , a sugar replacement brand, is launching five premium, carb-conscious products including Brown Swerve, a zero calorie brown sugar substitute, and the new line of Swerve Sweets™ featuring Chocolate Cake Mix, Vanilla Cake Mix, Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and Pancake & Waffle Mix. Swerve is a New Orleans, Louisiana- based company that has been helping people swerve away from sugar with its natural, zero-calorie sugar replacement. With these new products, Swerve continues to lead the way toward a sweeter, healthier life for those who want their cake and balanced blood sugar too. "We want to enjoy life! That's really at the heart of everything we do here at Swerve," said Andress Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer of Swerve. "Being from New Orleans, we love good food. But we also want to feel good! Our goal is to offer people delicious treats and good health - si- multaneously - with great tasting, easy-to- make goodies. You will never believe there is no sugar!" Swerve products are gluten free, grain free, and non-GMO verified. Each bake mix is sweetened with Swerve, a delicious blend of erythritol (made by fermenting glucose), oligosaccharides (fancy name for prebiotic fibers) and natural flavor. As a result, the Vanilla Cake, Chocolate Cake, and Pancake & Waffle Mixes contain zero added sugar, and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix contains only two grams of added sugar from the or- ganic semi-sweet chocolate chips. Brown Swerve is a delicious natural sweetener that measures cup-for-cup just like brown sugar – without the bitter aftertaste or digestive dis- comfort of other sweeteners. It's perfect for baking, cooking and sweetening your fa- vorite foods and beverages. The Man with the Hat Sells Cookies By Lorrie Baumann Wackym's Kitchen is known for its all natu- ral real butter-based crunchy cookies, with calories lower than many cookies out there – and for the hats that Owner and Baker Paul Wackym wears during his frequent sampling and demonstration visits to grocery stores and trade shows. A clothing designer during his early career and a department store chain's creative director before he turned to baking cookies, Wackym has a collection of 70 different hats decorated with flowers, feathers, paper and butterflies and never makes a road trip without a few of them in his baggage or a cookie-sampling without one on his head. "When I started at the Dal- las Farmers Market in December 2018, I put on a gray Tyrolean hat, stuck some red feath- ers in it and became the cookie man in a hat," Wackym says. "I have them for every sea- son, in every color." The flavors of his cookies are as bright as his hats. Made with real butter, cane sugar, unbleached and unbromated flour and alu- minum-free baking powder, the cookies that are dropped onto the cookie sheets by Wackym's Kook-E-King Dough Depositor in his Garland, Texas, bakery feature flavors both outrageous – Salted Sour Lemon and Spicy Apple, a mean snicker doodle with cayenne as well as cinnamon and sugar both inside and out – and as traditional as Maple Pecan. Wackym's Halloween-seasonal Gin- ger Pumpkin sounds traditional, but it's a lit- tle twisted with aggressively spicy cayenne pepper bite to it – it's a cookie that begs to be served with a cocktail. "Even though they sound weird, we have a passionate follow- ing," Wackym says. "That has been a huge point in our success – the word of mouth and the engagement of the customers and the store associates." "I've demoed aggressively for years," he adds. "When I demo, I don't sell cookies. I give away lots of cookies, but the result of giving away cookies is that we sell lots and lots and lots of cook- ies." The cookies are made in a new 10,000-square-foot facil- ity and are baked in two Hobart double-rack convection ovens with custom racks that can handle 6,400 cookies at a time. "The shocking thing about what we do is that as we've grown, we've done nothing but make our process smarter," Wackym says. "We haven't really changed anything." The big difference between how Wackym's mak- ing cookies now from the way he made them when he was baking 11 pans of cookies at a time for sale to Central Market, his first big customer, and the way he makes them now is that his equipment is a little better and he no longer has to hand-crank the dough de- positor, which is the commercial-scale ver- sion of the cookie press found in a home kitchen. "It's the same process – we've just figured out how to do it faster and smarter, but the process is the same," he says. He no longer hand- scoops his drop cookies either. "But I still know how," he says. "It's not something you forget easily." Cookies from Wackym's Kitchen are currently sold all over the Southwestern United States in Whole Foods as well as in H-E-B and in spe- cialty stores across the country. A shortbread line introduced two years ago that features Butterscotch, Cornmeal Rosemary, Lemon Lavender and Triple Ginger Shortbreads has a following in California's Wine Country. "They're proving to be very popular with wine drinkers," Wackym says. "The Corn- meal Rosemary is the bomb with a soft blue cheese smeared on it – like a Stilton, or any cheese that you might serve a fruit with. I've had extra-aged Gouda with it, but it's very messy." For more information, visit www.wackyms kitchen.com. The Pickle Juice Company Receives USDA Organic Certification The Pickle Juice Company, developer of the only trademarked and purpose built func- tional Pickle Juice ® sports beverage, an- nounces its federal recognition as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic certified, one of the most widely recognized symbols of organic approval. To consumers, the organic label guarantees that Pickle Juice contains a minimum of 95 percent organic ingredients, and highlights its lack of addi- tives or artificial preservatives, colors or fla- vors. This announcement comes on the heels of the product's recent OU Kosher Certifica- tion, serving as another testament to the company's dedication to consumer health and wellness, as well as its commitment to limiting negative environmental impact dur- ing production. "Receiving USDA organic certification represents another step in our ongoing ef- fort to produce the best, most functional and healthiest products available. We are ex- tremely proud to be working with a bever- age line that offers consumers the only all-natural and proven solution to muscle cramps and dehydration," said Filip Keup- pens, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for The Pickle Juice Company. "It's important to us that consumers know that Pickle Juice is a healthy alternative to the many sugary and synthetic drinks that seem to domi- nate the market. We are proud of our brand's ded- ication to serving a qual- ity sports drink, which contains only pure and natural ingredients, including key elec- trolytes and vitamins." As the demand for organic products con- tinues to increase among American con- sumers, so does the demand for Pickle Juice products. The Pickle Juice Company has ex- perienced rapid growth, expanding interna- tionally to help people suffering from athletic muscle cramps, nocturnal leg cramps, heat illness and more. The effective- ness of the product line is scien- tifically proven to relieve muscle cramps in as fast as 60 seconds, and contains up to 14 times the electrolytes found in the average sports drink. The Pickle Juice Company's entire product line will now dis- play the USDA organic seal, including the 8 ounce and 16 ounce bottles of 100% Natural Pickle Juice Sport, 2.5 ounce shots and 1 liter boxes of its 100% Natural Extra Strength Pickle Juice formula, and 1 liter bottles of Pickle Juice Chaser. For more information, visit www.pickle power.com or follow the company on social media.

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