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Special Feature GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2014 www.gourmetnews.com SPECIAL FEATURE 1 8 X X Special Feature S U M M E R E N T E R T A I N I N G Throwing a backyard bash this summer? Chances are that a pack of hot dogs and a bag of chips are not going to cut it. Summertime entertaining today involves grilling up high quality cuts of meat, seasoning them with exotic spices and then serving them up with artisan condiments and sides. Here are a few companies to look toward when seeking out food and drink for your next outdoor get together. 1. Blue Crab Bay Co. The Sting Ray ® Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer from Blue Crab Bay Co. makes the ideal summertime cocktail. Featuring a dash of ocean clam juice, The New York Times featured Sting Ray as the "best in the tasting" in a blind taste test of eight popular Bloody Mary mixers. www.bluecrabbay.com 2. Cousins Maine Lobster Cousins Maine Lobster offers the freshest Maine lobster tails, whole lobsters, lobster meat and more. Whether you grill their tails, boil them, or jazz them up with the butterfly method of cooking, Cousins' tails are an especially nice choice. Bring Cousins' Maine Lobster to your next beachside seafood boil. www.cousinsmainelobster.com 3. Gardein There is no reason that vegetarians cannot enjoy themselves at a summer barbecue. Gardein's veggie burger and black bean burger feature a great tasting combination of veggies making them excellent sources of vitamin A and fiber. Deliciously versatile, these products are perfect as burgers or used in wraps and burritos. www.gardein.com 4. Gourmet du Village The cool, refreshing new lemonades from Gourmet du Village are the perfect beverage to pair with your summertime spread. Available in lemonade, peach, cherry and raspberry, all come in attractive packaging, ready to jump off store shelves this summer. Each package makes three large glasses of thirst quenching lemonade. www.gourmetduvillage.com 5. Hak's BBQ Priding themselves on making "the best barbecue sauce in the world," the team at Hak's BBQ strives to handcraft a truly artisan product in small batches. Hak's BBQ sauces are available in four flavors, chipotle bourbon, Thai chili tamarind, habanero pineapple and smoked maple mustard. www.haksbbq.com 6. Lillie's Q Based in Chicago, and inspired by the timeless barbecue traditions of Greenville, S.C., Lillie's Q has broken new ground in transforming classic barbecue sauce recipes into truly gourmet ingredients. The company offers a number of barbecue sauce and rub varieties, including the popular Smoky and Carolina sauces. www.lilliesq.com 7. Mallow Artisan Marshmallows You've never toasted marshmallows like this. Mallow Artisan Marshmallows has accumulated a quickly growing fan base. Fluff aficionados can now choose from flavors like strawberry balsamic, rose, ginger, chai tea, mint chocolate and toasted coconut when preparing their summertime s'more. www.shopmallow.com 8. Robert Rothschild Farm The winner of eight prizes at the 2014 Scovie Awards, honoring the best in fiery foods, several of Robert Rothschild Farm's barbecue sauces were chosen among the best of the best. Pick up award-winning Anna Mae's Smoky Sweet or Chipotle Sauce or a jar of Cherry Pomegranate Habanero Sauce for your next summer barbecue. www.robertrothschild.com 9. RW Garcia Round out your picnic table with Tortatos from RW Garcia, a unique snack that combines white corn and red potatoes—the first-ever half tortilla chip, half potato chip. Containing 25 percent less fat than potato chips, Tortatos are available in four flavors: original, salt & pepper, salt & vinegar and barbecue. www.rwgarcia.com 10. Stubb's Stubb's Green Chile Marinade is made in small batches with Hatch green chiles, lime juice, pineapple juice, jalapeños and brown sugar. It adds a bold, authentic flavor to everything from chicken, pork and beef to shrimp, fish and vegetables. The marinade is all-natural, gluten-free and contains no high fructose corn syrup. www.stubbsbbq.com 10 Gourmet Companies Hoping to Heat Up Your Next Summertime Bash BY LUCAS WITMAN Few adults are without fond childhood memories of summertime soda pops and icy cold root beer floats. Even all grown up, it is difficult to imagine enjoying a plate of barbecue without a frosty soft drink on the side. And when hosting a group of adults, it is likely that soda is finding its way into some of your favorite summertime cock- tails. Yet, despite the ubiquity of bubbly beverages, soft drinks are undoubtedly a guilty pleasure—something to be splurged on and per- haps regretted later. Craft soda companies are at- tempting to change this, however, introducing gourmet sparkling bever- ages to U.S. consumers that offer tastier, more wholesome alternatives to the grocery store 12- pack staples. When it comes to today's soda marketplace, more and more compa- nies are reaching out to adult consumers with products and flavors specifically designed to appeal to their unique grown-up palates. "I think palates are changing, and people want better solutions," said Carleton John- son, founder of Joia All Natural Soda. "I think all of us have been trained now by Starbucks and these premium coffee houses to expect something better with more taste and more complexity." "We're not diet. We're not positioned as 'zero' in any way," said Steve Hersh, Presi- dent of GuS Grown-Up Soda. "We're really more about taste. The less sweet taste is de- signed to appeal to a grown-up who's out- grown Nehi or Hawaiian Punch." There are a number of ways that companies like Joia and GuS are designing sodas that appeal especially to adults. Perhaps the most significant change that gourmet soda companies are introducing to their products to make them more attractive to this demographic is making them slightly less sweet. GuS' recipes involve 40 per- cent less sugar and calories than what goes into a tradi- tional soda, and Joia sodas contain as little as 15 grams of sugar per serving, com- pared to 40 or more in main- stream sodas. In addition to creating slightly drier bev- erages, gourmet soda companies are also endeavoring to make their products with more natural ingredients. "High-fructose corn syrup, high sugar and full-calorie bev- erages and even diet sodas are on the downslide, but people still like bubbles, es- pecially during dining occasions," said Hersh. "I don't think people are saying that carbonation is bad. It's just the ingredients in mainstream sodas that are the no-no." For this reason, GuS chooses to eschew ar- tificial ingredients in its products, flavoring its sodas with real juice, natural ex- tracts and pure cane sugar. One craft soda company that has broken new ground in producing a bev- erage made entirely from the natural ingredients so popular among 21st cen- tury American consumers is Spindrift. All Spindrift sodas and seltzers are made with fresh, raw, un- pasteurized juice com- bined with sparkling water and cane sugar. "There's a lot of natural sodas out there, but what we learned is that nobody has done anything with fresh juice," said Shelly Haygood, Vice President of Sales and Business De- velopment for Spindrift. "By using a fresh juice, the taste is just so much brighter, and just the idea of fresh comes through. Really, everyone who tries it is excited, because it's something different." By focusing on making a product with juice, squeezed from freshly harvested, re- gionally grown produce, Spindrift is able to capitalize on another consumer trend, popular among modern consumers: the push for seasonality. Perhaps a first in the industry, Spindrift recently debuted a sea- sonal pomegranate flavor, produced from fruit harvested on a small California farm. The soda was available on the West Coast only for a short time while the pomegranates were in season. Joia All Natural Soda has found its own unique way to appeal to modern bubbly beverage enthusiasts, creating a product line that cre- atively combines fruit, herb and spice flavors in ways not erstwhile seen in the soda aisle. "Our point of difference is we are a fruit, herb, spice company, so it's grapefruit- chamomile-cardamom, blackberry-pome- granate-ginger, lime-hibiscus-clove," said Johnson. "Because of the fruit and herb/spice combinations, they're less sweet. It's all natural, so they've just got a nice, much fresher, cleaner taste. They're a little Growing Craft Soda Market Giving Adults a Nostalgic New Way to Treat Themselves this Summer Continued on PAGE 20

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