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GOURMET NEWS MAY 2019 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 4 Zoup! Launches Certified Organic Chicken & Veggie Broth tiate them on the shelves. Zoup! Good, Re- ally Good Certified Organic Chicken and Veggie Broths are currently available to re- tailers nationwide. The suggested retail price is $7.99 per jar. GN Zoup! Good, Really Good™ Broth is in- troducing two U.S. Department of Agri- culture-certified organic broths to its premium lineup. Created by a soup in- dustry veteran of more than 20 years and made using restaurant-quality cooking methods and standards, the new organic broths are kettle-cooked in small batches using the freshest and finest organic in- gredients. Available in chicken and vegetable broth varieties, each possesses a richness not often found in premade broth. The Or- ganic Chicken Broth is complex, yet bal- anced, with a comforting chicken flavor, while the Organic Veggie Broth is 100 per- cent vegan and features savory notes of roasted vegetables. The broths are also low in calories; paleo-friendly, with zero car- bohydrates; and completely free of hor- mones, gluten, GMOs, fat, trans fat and saturated fat. Each serve as a perfect base for hearty soups, casseroles, rice or grain dishes. "When we first created Zoup! Good, Re- ally Good Broth five years ago, our goal was to develop a better-tasting broth that was good enough to drink," said Eric Er- sher, Zoup!'s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "We refined the recipe and proudly brought to market a retail broth that offered the taste and quality we felt people deserved. Adding organic varieties to our current lineup of clean-label offer- ings was a natural next step for us, and the simple ingredients and homemade flavor of these new broths make them unlike anything else you'll find on grocery store shelves." The products are packaged in 31 fluid- ounce glass jars to showcase the broth's rich and full-bodied flavor and to differen- Tom Ruggiero Joins The Forest Farmers The Forest Farmers has named food indus- try veteran Tom Ruggiero as National Sales Director for its recently launched line of USDA Organic tree saps and syrups sourced from a variety of tree species. Ruggiero has responsibility for growing sales of the New Leaf Tree Syrups™ line with food and beverage producers looking for alternative sweeteners, chefs and food- service for kitchen and tabletop use, and at retail, said Mike Farrell, co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Forest Farmers. Ruggiero has more than 30 years of ex- perience across diverse channels in the food industry and also in the maple indus- try. He has worked with large enterprises, including as the brand and private label category manager for A&P and Shoprite, and has managed sales teams across North America for large brands such as Pomi, Beech-Nut, Godiva, Betty Crocker and Par- malat. Ruggiero also has facilitated the suc- cessful launch of three new brands. Most recently, he served as director of national sales for Crown Maple and Madava Sugar Maple since 2015 and as General Manager for Galicia Food & Drink since 2014. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with bachelor degrees in public administra- tion and geology. New Leaf USDA organic tree saps and syrups are sourced from a variety of tree species, some of which will be available commercially for the first time. Maple and birch sap and syrup are available year-round. With this spring's harvest, syrup from beech, basswood and walnut trees will be available for the first time in limited quantities. Syrup blends of maple with birch, walnut, beech or other tree species also will be available as will maple syrups infused with forest- sourced botanicals, mushrooms, berries, and other ingredients. GN Steeped, Inc. Offers Single-Serve Coffee Bags Santa Cruz, California-based startup Steeped, Inc. has launched its revolution- ary Steeped Coffee brewing method to se- rious coffee drinkers across the nation. Brewed similar to tea, Steeped Coffee's nitro sealed Steeped Bags, along with their guilt-free packaging made using re- newable and compostable materials, achieve freshly ground specialty coffee in a single-serving. Steeped Coffee launched when serial en- trepreneur and coffee lover Josh Wilbur de- cided to combine the convenience of a single-serving brew method with the pre- mium quality of ethically sourced coffee. Wilbur wanted to redeem the environmen- tal dilemma created by wasteful coffee pods. Happy to do the math, Wilbur points out over 10 billion unrecyclable pods accu- mulate in landfills each year – enough to wrap around the earth more than 110 times if placed side-by-side. Moreover, each type of pod depends on expensive and often moldy brewing machines, which are also unrecyclable. It took Wilbur seven years to innovate the proprietary Steeped Coffee system that delivers fresh roasted, pre-portioned, precision ground, micro batched coffee in customized Full Immersion Filters. "Pre- mium coffee roasters have shied away from offering their specialty beans in sin- gle-serve packaging because it's been nearly impossible to keep ground coffee fresh, which quickly ruins the taste," said Wilbur. "With our Nitro Sealed bags, oxy- gen is replaced with nitrogen, so the cof- fee stays fresh as if it was ground moments ago." "Steeped Packs are the easiest way to make a delicious cup of coffee," Wilbur said. "You shouldn't need to perform chem- istry before you've made your coffee." Sim- ply steep each Steeped Bag in hot water for about five minutes to allow the coffee to develop its distinctive body and flavor. There is no machine, no noise, no cleanup, no destructive waste. The Steeped Coffee brand is available in five roasts: light, medium, dark, French roast, and a single-origin Swiss Water Process decaf. Steeped Coffee packs are available at www.steepedcoffee.com, vari- ous luxury hotels, top company break rooms and at local stores and partnered specialty roasters. GN Mrs. Renfro's Continued from PAGE 1 be hot enough to close the airways and burn the throat of anyone who eats one. Mrs. Renfro's Carolina Reaper sauce is a limited- time offering that's plenty hot enough to capture the in- terest of pepperheads, but it also offers flavor along with the heat. "That one has a lot of name recognition," Ren- fro says. "It's been a fun item.... There are people who just want it hotter and hotter, and we are happy to oblige." Other offerings in the line include salsas made with peaches, raspberries and pineapple — there's even a Pumpkin Salsa. Mrs. Renfro's Tequila Salsa is a fun twist on cantina tradition, and Craft Beer Salsa is made with Texas Red Amber Ale from Rahr & Sons, another Fort Worth family company. Mrs. Renfro's Craft Beer Salsa started out as another one of those limited-time-only salsas like the Carolina Reaper Salsa, but it proved to be so popular that it got itself promoted into the regular range of 32 SKUs of Mrs. Renfro's products. "Where we succeed is coming in with off-the-wall flavors or things that are ahead of their time — but at a price point where you can put it on your everyday shopping list," Renfro says. While the salsas account for about 80 percent of Mrs. Renfro's sales volume, the company also makes some cheese sauces, including its Chipo- tle Nacho Cheese Dip and Ghost Pepper Nacho Cheese Dip, a few bar- becue sauces, including a Ghost Pepper Barbecue Sauce, and some of the tradi- tional Southern relishes that were the company's specialty before Pace Foods taught pale-complexioned people from New York City what salsa is supposed to taste like. Mrs. Renfro's continues to expand traditional notions about what salsa's supposed to taste like with culinary ideas that are often — well, we just hate to use the word "stolen" — from the fine gour- met restaurants where Doug Renfro seeks his inspiration, so let's just say that when he tastes something he likes, he takes notes. Then he gives some thought to whether those ideas are really ahead of their time. When he thinks that the market has caught up to them, that might be when Mrs. Renfro's launches a new product onto grocery store shelves. "I saw mango habanero relish on a halibut a good five years before we came out with our salsa be- cause it would have been too early," Renfro says. "In order to make a good sauce, we make a bad sauce in the kitchen, and you keep the winners, and then you repeat.... You want to make things that people will sustain over time." For more information about Mrs. Ren- fro's salsas and sauces, including ideas for how to use them as meal extenders and marinades, visit www.renfrofoods.com. GN

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