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GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2019 www.gourmetnews.com Naturally Healthy NATURALLY HEALTHY 1 3 Rumiano Celebrates Centenary with Cheese — and More Cheese ganic Raw Medium Cheddar, which is an extension of Rumiano's existing line of or- ganic cheeses. Offered in 8-ounce cuts, the cheddar is made from locally sourced, fresh, raw organic milk from small, gener- ational dairy families on California's Redwood Coast and aged a mini- mum of 90 days. "There's a growing trend in terms of raw milk cheeses, and we'll be expanding that as we can," Baird said. While the milk for the cheese is unpas- teurized, it's gently heated to discourage or kill unwanted bacteria while keeping desirable bacteria alive, and de- mand for raw milk cheeses is growing along with greater knowledge among con- sumers around the role that the beneficial bacteria in their gut could be playing in their own health, Baird said. "They're look- ing for these raw milk cheeses," he said. "There's a recognition now that we were killing off a lot of things that were really good for us." Rumiano's organic cheddars have been the top sellers in the natural foods channel for some time now, with current distribu- tion in 1,500 stores across the country. The milk for them comes from 25 dairies in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties in Cal- ifornia's far northwest corner, and it goes from the cow to the cheese plant within 24 hours, which is a key to keeping any dis- ease-causing bacteria at bay, Baird said. "It needs to be clean at the source and in the plant very quickly," he said. "We have com- plete transparency in our supply chain." Rumiano is also bringing out Ru- miano Organic Grated and Shred- ded Cups in Parmesan and Ro- mano, which will be reaching grocery stores in the natural foods channel across the country in March. They'll be packaged in 6-ounce tubs. Along with these two lines for the na- tional market, Rumiano is also introducing Rumiano Redwood Coast Cheeses, a line of small-batch flavored cheeses intended for distribution along the West Coast, where they'll appeal to locavores with bold flavors that align with California culinary trends. "First and foremost, we want to be a Cali- fornia favorite," Baird said. The first in the line-up is a Sriracha Jack. Two other flavors, one featuring Ko- rean spice and another with a tropical pepper twist, will also be launched this spring. These cheeses are being offered in 8-ounce cuts, and the Sriracha Jack is shipping now. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN Rumiano Cheese Company is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year with a medieval-style progress tour that honors the company's origins and the communities in which it operates. The of- ficial birthday is August 25 of this year, but before that, Rumiano will be celebrating with its dairies around Cres- cent City, California, then again at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, California, and then in Chico, California, near where the company got its start and still has a facility. Then the celebration will cul- minate with a party in the San Francisco Bay Area with other California cheesemak- ers, to remember the company's founders, three immigrant brothers who arrived in California in 1911 and, after trying a cou- ple of other ways to get their start in Cali- fornia's land of milk and honey, decided that they could do that best by helping to supply dairy products to San Francisco. "They caught wind that the city needed cheese and butter," said Rumiano Cheese Chief Executive Officer Joe Baird. "They struck up just north of Sacramento in 1919, and the rest is history." Rumiano Cheese is also extending the celebration to consumers with the launch of new products, including Rumiano Or- Bare Snacks Offers New Fruit Chip Medleys multiple-fruit appeal but that would also be uniquely different from the Starbucks offer- ing, Padki said. Pairing up two Bare Snacks favorites was an easy first answer to that question. "There's a lot of consumer love that's been going into the apple and coconut chips over the years," Padki said. Apples for the chips, which are baked to a crunch with no added sugar or fat, come from farmers in Washington and Oregon, while the strawberries are grown in North America. "It's not a freeze-dried straw- berry," Padki said. "It's a real baked straw- berry that preserves the color and the flavor notes of a real strawberry." For the bare Medley Pineapple Chips & Coconut Chips, Bare Snacks went farther abroad to source both pineapples and mid- maturity coconuts in Asia. Using coconuts at their mid-maturity stage makes for a co- conut chip with a smooth and silky mouthfeel that still has the crunch that Ameri- can consumers want in a chip, Padki said. Younger coconuts are more water than co- conut meat, but as the coconut matures, it de- velops more meat. As it ages beyond the mid- maturity point, there's even more coconut meat, but it can become dry and fibrous, according to Padki. "The consumer says it's just too dry and unpleas- ant too eat," he said. Bare Snacks then infuses the toasted co- conut with natural flavor from a little bit of cane sugar and some sea salt to make chips that are then mixed with baked pineapple chips to create a snack that's a good source of fiber as well as the fun crunch. "Every- thing we do is done with a unique baked process. We absolutely focus on simple in- gredients, simple processes," Padki said. "We package them the right way in different sizes to bring them into the retail channels." Like all Bare Snacks products, the bare Medley Pineapple Chips & Coconut Chips and bare Medley Apple Chips & Straw- berry Chips are certified by Non-GMO Project and have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. They're offered in 1.6- ounce to 1.8-ounce single-serving stand-up pouches, which are resealable so they can also be enjoyed over a couple of snack oc- casions. They'll retail for $4.29, in line with the rest of the company's product line, and they'll be available nationwide this sum- mer. For more information, visit www.baresnacks.com. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN Bare Snacks ® , which makes a line of baked fruit chip snacks that the company calls Snacks Gone Simple ® , launched a pair of new products driven by customer demand this year at Natural Products Expo West. Bare Medley Pineapple Chips & Coconut Chips and bare Medley Apple Chips & Strawberry Chips are spin-offs from a simi- lar snack chip medley that has sold well over several months in a Starbucks stores market test, prompting requests from cus- tomers who wanted to know where they could buy the product elsewhere, said Bare Snacks Chief Executive Officer Santosh Padki. "After the test launch, everybody in the office knew we were onto something," he said. "We used to get phone calls in ad- dition to inbound inquiries on the website." After the success of the Starbucks market test, which involved a medley of banana, pineapple and strawberry chips, the com- pany began thinking about how they could create a product that would offer the same

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