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www.gourmetnews.com n JUNE 2019 GOURMET NEWS 7 8 Crunchy Granola Goodness in a Portable Snack By Lorrie Baumann Crazy Monkey Baking's Granola Cookie Crunch comes from a mom who had a de- gree in dietetics and an urgent desire to give her own kids a snack that she could feel con- scientious about giving them and that they'd enjoy too. She started with an oatmeal cookie that her kids enjoyed and went to work on the recipe to come up with a product that was a bit more oat and a little less cookie but still delicious. Her kids loved it. Their friends loved it. "My kids really liked it, and that's the beauty of children – that they'll be honest," said Teresa Humrichouser, that Ashland, Ohio, mom. "We are a chocolate family, so I knew that if I put chocolate in it, there was a pretty good chance they would eat it." It was a bonus that she could take it along in her mom-van, and the kids could nibble on it during their rides without leaving behind a mess of crumbs in the car. "Our lives are so busy, so, as a mom, I can have this in my minivan as I pick the kids up from practice," she said. Humrichouser's friends encouraged her to take her Granola Cookie Crunch to the local farmers market, where, every weekend for two years straight, she sold out. Local gro- cery retailers saw what was happening, and a few of them approached her and asked her if they could carry her product in their stores after the farmers market season had ended. Humrichouser started looking for a commer- cial kitchen. She found a 350 square-foot facility that had been vacated by a pizza kitchen. "It was a few minutes from our house, and it was a small kitchen that we could move into and get it licensed because it had been used for food service in the past," she said. Three years later, she moved out of the for- mer pizza shop and into a 1,000 square-foot facility. Then in January, 2017, she moved into a 7,500 square-foot bakery, where eight employees make small batch after small batch of her Granola Cookie Crunch in four year-round flavors as well as occasional sea- sonal flavors. "With this move, it has al- lowed us to be in a lo- cation that suited us for bringing on larger customers," she said. The move has also fa- cilitated supplier audits and food safety plan- ning and documentation to qualify for national distribution to grocers who sell the products in either the granola, healthy snack or cookie sections of their shelves. Crazy Monkey Baking has also just been certified as a woman-owned business, and Humrichouser offers contract manufacturing services to other companies that have a gra- nola formula but not a facility. "Even after all this time, baking is still my greatest pas- sion," she said. "I don't get to do it that often any more, but that's what I love working with most in the business." Crazy Monkey Baking is now offered in Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Dark Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Almond flavors in 1.25-ounce bags that are smart-snack approved for schools. They retail for 99 cents to $1.49. Those four flavors plus White Chocolate Cranberry are also offered in 7.5-ounce bags along with a rotation of seasonal flavors that includes Cin- namon Pecan in the win- ter, Lemon Coconut in summer and Pumpkin Seed & Spice in the fall. Additional special- edition flavors also appear occasionally. "We have a variety of flavors, so there's some va- riety to appeal to the kids and adults alike," Humrichouser said. All of the products are wheat free and made with 100 percent whole grains. Oats are naturally gluten free, and the products are sweetened with honey, molasses and evapo- rated cane sugar. A serving of the Dark Chocolate Chip flavor Granola Cookie Crunch contains 8 grams of added sugars and 6 grams of fat along with 3 grams of protein and 150 calories. "There is fat in oats and in whole grain cornmeal and in flax seeds, but it's all healthy fat," Humrichouser said. "When you have the real ingredients without the fats stripped from them, you're going to get those good, healthy calories in the fat." For more information, visit www.crazy monkeybaking.com. Made By True Finds Success with New Retail Front By Greg Gonzales Retailers know that the best way to prove a product is to let customers try it themselves. The people behind Made By True, the craft jerky brand, decided to try that themselves this year. They opened a storefront in their Bay Area office space this year, where the lobby was, so passersby can get a chance to try the product right there. Last year, Made By True launched its biltong snack, and its getting a lot of love. The idea behind the storefront, explained Partner James Evans, is to let people try the jerky before buying in stores, and to spread the word about their products. Sales are great at the store so far, he said, and it also serves as an education tool. The opening attracted more than 150 people to the store, where they sam- pled the brand's craft jerkies, its unique take on trail mix and its newest product, biltong. "Biltong is ingrained in the culture in South Africa. You can't really compare it to anything here in the States," said Evans. "There's always biltong served – there's a joke that babies teethe on biltong there. It's that important." The air-dried meat snack is still relatively unknown in the U.S. It differs from jerky be- cause it air dries in a big, long strip, a cut from the round of the cow. In South Africa, it's sometimes sold in thicker slices, but Made By True's New Jersey facility shaves it into smaller pieces, which is how most people eat it. The result is a tender meat that's easy to chew and bite off. It comes in three flavors: Cape Town Clas- sic, Little Bit of Spice and A Savory Adventure. As noted on the back of each package, Made By True biltong contains 16 grams of protein per ounce and a low sodium count at 200 milligrams per serving. That's because it doesn't require as much salt to preserve as jerky, and vinegar helps preserve it as well, though the vinegar doesn't overpower other flavors. These health benefits attract the health-conscious, active crowd that seeks out high-protein snacks. The Center for Generational Kinetics es- timated that 89 percent of Millennials con- sumed one or more better-for-you snacks in the past week, and Nielsen's Vice President of Consumer Insights Jorday Rost said meat snacks are a fast-growing category, in large part because Americans are trying to get more protein in their diets in what they per- ceive as a more natural vehicle than powders and bars. According to Fona International's September report on meat snacks, 20 percent of women reported eating meat snacks, as brands in this category have begun success- fully marketing to women. Made By True is one of those companies. Its six flavors of jerky appeal to a wide audi- ence, said Evans, including women – and older women. "My mom, for instance, this [Blackberry Merlot] is her favorite flavor," said Evans. "She's 70, she plays golf three days a week, and she brings our jerky to her women's golf group and they all love it." In addition to Blackberry Merlot, flavors include The Old Fashioned: Honey Bourbon Brisket, The Sinsa: Korean BBQ, The OG: Original Peppered, The Sweet Heat: Thai Chili Mango and The Mountie: Maple Glazed Pepper. Older audiences are likely to enjoy the biltong and The Mountie, as the meat isn't tough like a lot of jerky. Along with its jerkies, Made By True of- fers a mix snack called Trail Remix. It's a combination of jerky and trail mix, separated by a seal that keeps the meat fresh and peels apart when snackers want to mix them up. It comes in three flavors: All About That Baste turkey jerky mix, Don't Go Bacon My Heart uncured bacon jerky mix and Carne Diem peppered beef jerky mix. Made By True's offerings haven't always been so extensive, though its three partners decided together that they didn't want to be just another jerky company, said Evans. The trio – Evans, who was a mutual fund whole- saler, Jess Thomas, who was a third-genera- tion cattle rancher and Kevin Hix, a former accountant – quit their jobs in 2015 to start selling the jerky they'd been making together as friends. They had friends in the Bay Area's tech in- dustry, and the company got its start selling to companies like Facebook, Twitter and Uber, where employees are provided free snacks – one of those snacks being Made By True jerkies. Evans said the Trail Remix was the brand's first step outside of jerky, but biltong was their pet project. "We had heard about biltong – for like, two, three years, people were telling us about it, they had gone to South Africa," he said. "But we didn't know how to make it; nobody was making it here in the States, so what we did is, we took a trip, all three of us, to South Africa last sum- mer. We spent about three weeks there, in Jo- hannesburg, Kimberly – which is kind of in the middle of the bush, but there were some cattle ranches there we went to – and then fi- nally Cape Town." Introduced by their South African invest- ment partner, 1K1V, they met with 20 differ- ent biltong manufacturers, from small mom-and-pop operations to massive manu- facturing facilities, in addition to spice blend companies and cattle ranches. From those beginnings, Made By True has seen success in the U.S. market, now avail- able in 2,500 stores, and as of late January, Sprouts markets. Through the retail shop, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and word of mouth, Evans said he expects the company to go even further this year. Emmi Roth Acquires Great Lakes Cheese's Seymour Plant Emmi Roth ® is expanding with the acquisi- tion of Great Lakes Cheese's blue cheese plant in Seymour, Wisconsin. Emmi Roth is known for award-winning Wisconsin-made blue cheeses including Roth Buttermilk Blue ® , a creamy raw milk blue cheese, Roth Buttermilk Blue Affinée, an aged version of Buttermilk Blue, and Roth Moody Blue ® , a small-batch smoky blue cheese. With the purchase of the Great Lakes Cheese plant, Emmi Roth will not only be able to expand its blue cheese production, but also increase its capabilities to develop new blue cheese products and packaging so- lutions. "We believe in the blue cheese category and see this as an opportunity to strengthen our position in the market," said Tim Omer, Emmi Roth President and Managing Direc- tor. "This acquisition gives us access to a tal- ented group of cheesemakers and provides us with additional resources to expand our current production and develop new blue cheese products for our customers." "We know Emmi Roth to be as passionate about cheese and as committed to its em- ployees as we are," said John Epprecht, Vice President, Great Lakes Cheese. "They are well positioned to guide Seymour's business and its dedicated workforce into the next stage of growth." Great Lakes Cheese's Seymour plant cur- rently employs 50 people; Emmi Roth will offer continued employment to all employ- ees at the Seymour location. "We look for- ward to welcoming the employees at Great Lakes Cheese into our family of award-win- ning cheesemakers," said Omer. This acquisition will grow Emmi Roth to four locations in Wisconsin, also including Monroe, Platteville and Fitchburg, employ- ing nearly 300 people. For more information, visit www.emmiroth.com.