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GOURMET NEWS DECEMBER 2019 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 1 ness]." Her desire to hike cross-country started with knee surgery and a decision that, after a month of healing, she was ready to take a hike. "Back when I was a teenager, I always wanted to hike the country, and I never did it," she said. "I'm 45 years old. If I don't do it now, I never will. And if I'm going to do it, why not do it for a good cause?" McCrea founded Hickey Bottom Barbecue in 2013 with three flavors of the barbecue sauce she'd been making for friends and family for years. "They said that I ought to bot- tle it," she said. "It went well, so I thought, why not give it a shot? I didn't want to dive into it just because my friends like it." She named her new company after a quiet country road in western Pennsylvania, a place that she says reflects a way of life that includes hard work and doing your best for your family and neighbors, keeping their word and standing behind their agreements. She wants her company to reflect that also, she said. The Hickey Bottom Barbecue sauces are gluten free and made without high fructose corn syrup, colors or preservatives. "I've tried to make a better quality product for the consumer," McCrea said. They come from a company that's certified as a women-owned business. They're man- ufactured in North Car- olina and distributed in brick-and-mortar stores on the northern East Coast and nationally through Amazon, re- tailing at prices ranging from $2.99 to $10. The range includes her Sweet BBQ, Honey BBQ and Hot BBQ sauces as well as a Smokey Hot Sauce and a Grillin' Rub. The three barbecue sauces are packaged in 20- ounce PET plastic bottles, while the Grillin' Rub comes in a 6-ounce plastic spice shaker bottle, and the Smokey Hot Sauce is packaged in a 5.25-fluid ounce glass bottle. As for McCrea herself, she was planning to end her cross-country hike by driv- ing back home in the chase van that had been following her along the road with water and baggage and get- ting back to her routine of running her business from its home base. "I miss my family and friends," she said. "I hope to grow na- tionally. It's a small com- pany, so it takes a lot of time, but hopefully, one day it will be national – brick-and-mortar na- tional." For more information, visit www .hickeybottombbq.com. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN Rebecca McCrea has spent most of the last half of this year running her Hickey Bottom Barbecue Company from the road. Starting on May 18 from her home in Butler, Penn- sylvania, she's walked more than 2,600 miles across the country to Los Angeles, California, to raise money for the Best Friends Animal Society. Along the way, she ran Hickey Bottom Barbecue Com- pany from roadside motel rooms and her cell phone with some help from friends back home and a sis- ter who pitched in to pay her household bills and mow her lawn. "I have my cell phone in my hand all the time," she said from a few days' hike from Los Ange- les. "I have people helping me out here and there who know a little bit about [the busi- A Dozen Cousins Continued from PAGE 1 for your family or for your loved ones. You want, in some cases, to share cultural ex- periences with the people that you love. But, at the same time, usually people have, like, 20 minutes to prepare dinner each night," he said. "There's always this tension between wanting to prepare something that's wholesome and high-quality, but to do it really quickly. We feel like, as a brand, that's a spot where we can help out." Another of Basir's visions was to offer healthy natural food products that will ap- peal to those outside the traditional market for natural foods. He notes that people of color have been disproportionately af- fected by a public health epidemic of nutrition-re- lated illnesses that could be mitigated by a diet that includes a wide variety of less processed options. In pursuit of his brand's mis- sion, the company offers an annual grant and volun- teer support to non-profit agencies working to eliminate socio-eco- nomic health disparities in the U.S. The A Dozen Cousins line, named after Basir's daughter and her 11 cousins, cur- rently includes three products: Cuban Black Beans, Mexican Cowboy Beans and Trini Chickpea Curry. "They're ready-to-eat beans, fully cooked and seasoned, according to those traditions from Black and Latino recipes," Basir said. They're all cooked with avocado oil, real veg- etables and spices. They're pack- aged in pouches that tell the story of the ingredients and their fla- vors, and they're designed to stand out on the shelf. Each pouch contains 10 ounces and will serve two. Visit www.adozencousins.com to learn more. GN Hitting the Road from Hickey Bottom The Maine Sea-Salted Caramel is the company's best-seller. It's non-GMO, corn syrup-free caramel enrobed in dark or milk chocolate and sprinkled with Maine coast sea salt made from evaporated ocean water. "I think it has the taste of Maine in that it has the 'mar-oir' of the ocean water," McAleer said. At the 1,900 square foot retail space at- tached to her factory in Rockland, Maine, McAleer often finds herself educating cus- tomers who've stopped in on their tour of Maine's historic fishing villages. "We like to think that we're a treasure hunt of our down- town area to find our tasting room," she said. McAleer has found that her entry into the grocery channel has depended on retail chains with programs for diverse suppliers. She certified as a women-owned business, and through that certification she's been able to get her products into chains that look for those businesses, she said. "We're 100 percent woman-owned," she said. "We're one of three to four certified women-owned candy manufactur- ing companies in the U.S." She's now venturing into more new products, focusing heavily on seasonality with products like her fall and winter collection of lux- ury bonbons, cleaner versions of American classics and white chocolate. "There's been a lot of focus on dark chocolate – really dark chocolate. I think white chocolate and milk chocolate are going to be getting a new look," she said. "I think it's time for a new look at white chocolate with more fla- vorful options and interesting inclusions. We'd be looking at less tainted inclusions and more avant-garde inclusions." All the bonbons in Bixby & Company's new collection are made with non-GMO and gluten-free chocolate. They also incor- porate local Maine ingredients such as blueberries, lavender, roses, honey, straw- berries, maple syrup, sea salt and more. New for fall 2019 are the following bon- bon flavors: Maine Blueberry Jam, Espresso Tahini, Maine Maple Vanilla, Coffee Brandy Truffle, Pecan Pie Truffle, Cranberry Or- ange Smash, Maine Apple Cider Caramel, Fig and Balsamic Truffle, Peppermint Dark Chocolate and also Champagne. Bonbons are available in six-piece collections with a suggested retail price of $16 or 12-piece collections with a $32 suggested retail price. Choose from all of one flavor or as- sorted flavors. For more information, visit www.bixbyco.com or to place a wholesale order, call 207.691.2634 or email info@bixbyco.com. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN When Bixby & Company was founded in 2011, the company was Maine's first bean- to-bar chocolate-maker. This fall, Bixby & Company expanded its product range with a collection of luxury bonbons, and other new products are in development, said Kate McAleer, the company's Owner, Founder and Chief Chocolate-maker. The company's product range now in- cludes Bixby Bars, which are the company's signature craft candy snack bars; Bixby Bites, which are Crunchy Peanut Butter Maine Sea Salt Bites enrobed in either milk chocolate or dark chocolate and offered in a 4.2-ounce pouch; the fall collection of bonbons; a collection of chocolate-covered caramels in milk and dark chocolate with Maine sea salt as well as a Pumpkin Caramel nod to fall; and drinking choco- late. Some of the Bixby Bars are vegan; some are organic; all are made with ethi- cally sourced chocolate in a dedicated gluten-free facility and no corn syrup. Bixby & Company Offers Fine Chocolates with Taste of Maine

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