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GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2019 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 1 DeBrand Continued from PAGE 1 that she's never obsessed about the prices she was charging in her company's five re- tail stores in Indiana or the prices that her wholesale customers end up charging in their stores. "You can't be the cheapest and the best," she said. "It's quality. It's not cheap, but there's a huge variety of price points, so it works for most retailers." She said that those wholesale customers understand that, just as her experience running DeBrand's own stores gives her in- sight into what other retailers need from her. That's why Brand-Beere is meticulous about providing retailers with the art work and the photography they need to merchandise and market their DeBrand selection to retail customers as well as a wide range of products to meet most every price point, so that the DeBrand products can do well in gift shops, gourmet shops and even floral shops around the U.S. "People fall in love with our brand and come back occasion after occasion," Brand-Beere said. "It's the re- peat business that's really great." DeBrand's selection in- cludes three gift box collec- tions, each with multiple pieces. The Classic Collec- tion, with traditional, clas- sic flavors like Rose Carmella, Gourmet PBJ and Dark Raspberry Cream, is the best-seller, while the Connoisseur Collection includes flavors that will appeal to those who are more trend-for- ward in their tastes: Rose- mary Balsamic, Sesame and Aztec – with its crushed pecan brittle, creamy pecan gianduja and chile dipped in milk chocolate – among them. The Truffle Collection offers flavors like Key Lime Pecan, Caramel and Coconut. "They're almost like eating a mini-dessert, and they're all hand-decorated and filled with various chocolate centers," Brand- Beere said. DeBrand's wide range of snack options includes a couple of bar collections, includ- ing Tasting Bars in flavors like Indiana Pop- corn, Sweet Heat and Mint Cookie Crunch. They're each segmented in three different sizes of bites: nibble, bite and chunk. De- Brand's Chocolate Thoughts collection of bars, small 1.1-ounce bars that retail for $3.50 each, offer greetings like "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations," so they'll work as a holiday card. Each label is slotted so a business card, gift card or hand-written note can be slipped into it. "That's a really popular add-on for retailers," Brand-Beere said. "We have something for everyone at any price range, from impressive chocolate gifts to impulse items to greeting card sub- stitutes." For more information, email whole- sale@debrand.com, call 260.969.8331 or visit debrand.com. GN Petit Pot's Mango Passion Fruit Rice Pudding Petit Pot's latest dessert, Mango Passion Fruit Rice Pudding, made its West Coast debut at this year's Win- ter Fancy Foods Show. The pudding blends fresh mango with coconut milk, passion fruit and a short list of simple, organic in- gredients. It's an exotic rice pudding that brings the creamy texture of classic French cuisine together with vegan ingredients. "I've always been inspired by tropical fla- vors," says Petit Pot Founder Maxime Pou- vreau. "So I'm proud to create such a delightful and creamy French style dessert with a clean list of vegan ingredients." Petit Pot's Mango Passion Fruit Rice Pudding comes in single serve 3.5-ounce jars, retailing for a suggested $2.99 each. It joins Petit Pot's organic vegan line of gourmet French-style puddings, which launched last year with Riz au Lait Coco (Coconut Rice Pudding), as well as Petit Pot's full line of classic French Pots de Crème, which includes Salted Caramel, Lemon Curd, Madagascar Vanilla and Dark Chocolate. Like all Petit Pot products, the Petit Pot Mango Passion Fruit Rice Pudding is clean label, U.S. Department of Agriculture-certi- fied organic and kosher. GN Lillie's Q Adds Zero-Sugar Carolina Barbeque Sauce to Artisan Sauces Lillie's Q, purveyors of authentic Southern barbeque, has launched its popular Car- olina Barbeque Sauce in a zero-sugar variety. Recognizing the increased demand for low or no-sugar eating options, Lillie's Q creator and Chef Charlie Mckenna has eliminated sugar from his tangy Western Carolina style sauce, without sacrificing taste. The new Carolina Zero Sugar Barbeque Sauce is sweetened only with sucralose, combined with the iconic flavors of Western Carolina barbeque traditions like apple, lime and other secret family ingredients. According to Mintel, 33 percent of Amer- ican adults are limiting sugar more than they did last year, citing future health con- cerns and weight loss as key motivators. Additional consumer research by Lillie's Q unveiled that nearly 40 percent of con- sumers are following a carb-restricted diet, and almost one-quarter follow the keto- genic diet, the extremely low-carb and high-fat diet designed to burn fat for en- ergy. Mintel's "Sugar and Alternative Sweet- eners Report" cites that 22 percent of American adults are buying items specifi- cally labeled low/no/reduced sugar more than they did last year, with 19 percent claiming that high levels of sugar have caused them to stop buying a savory food product, such as a cooking sauce. Data by Lillie's Q reinforces these sentiments, with consumers selecting taste, sugar content, protein content and then the presence of carbohydrates as the most important attrib- utes in packaged foods, respectively. "It's simply not true that barbecue can't be healthy," said Lillie's Q Founder and Chef Charlie Mckenna. "Grilling and smoking meat naturally brings out the nat- ural flavors of the protein and fat, while tried-and-true Southern spices and flavors enhance that. We design every product so that it complements and adds to the flavor of the food, rather than covering it up – which is often the culprit of unnecessary calories and sugar in packaged foods." Labeled #40 on the bottle, the flavor was inspired by Charlie's regular pilgrimages on Route 40 from the barbecue havens of Memphis eastward to Shelby, Greensboro and Asheville, North Carolina. Here he learned the nuances of North Carolina's "sauce divide," where a slightly sweeter tomato-based vinegar sauce is favored westward of Raleigh-Durham, which made its way into his Carolina variety. The Zero- Sugar sauce is available online in the Lillie's Q store, in Lillie's Q restaurants as a sauce option and will roll into retailers through- out the year, in addition to making its way into lighter Lillie's Q restaurant side dishes. The brand is the fastest growing pre- mium barbecue sauce in America and is rapidly growing its retail presence to stores, including national roll outs at Sprouts and Whole Foods, and recent regional addi- tions such as Target, Albertson's, Safeway, Kroger, Wegman's and Fresh Thyme. For more information about Lillie's Q and its line of southern classics, visit www.lilliesq.com. GN

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