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GOURMET NEWS AUGUST 2014 www.gourmetnews.com SFF WRAP-UP 2 4 Bissinger's Expands Chocolate Bar Collection, Designs New Eye-Catching Packaging Bissinger's is introducing three new fla- vors – and bringing back another due to popular demand – to its all-natural chocolate bar collection. New flavors in- clude Peanut Butter Maple Oat Crunch, Fig Balsamic Truffle and Spicy Catalunya. Coffee Toffee will once again be available as well, and all are scheduled to hit store shelves late this summer. "We had a vision. We wanted to offer a chocolate bar collection made with Rain- forest Alliance Certified™ cocoa," said Chief Chocolatier Dave Owens. "We wanted to develop them to be anything but ordinary." One of the company's top-selling flavors is coconut caramel with red Hawaiian sea salt. In addition to their classic flavors like 75 percent dark chocolate and 60 percent dark chocolate with almonds, Bissinger's other, more inspired flavors include Quinoa Agave Crunch and dulce de leche. At the heart of Bissinger's success is the company's signature European-style chocolate, classically crafted by master chocolatiers with the same technique and skills that have been handed down by gen- eration after genera- tion of chocolatiers. The foundation of the company's chocolate is its proprietary cocoa blend, crafted with beans from Cote D'Ivoire for chocolate that is rich, velvety and never bitter. "We use the same formula for our base so everything tastes cohesive," Owens says. "They taste like they belong in the same family." In addition to the new flavors, Bissinger's has designed new, eye-catch- ing packaging to convey the high-quality, attention to detail and integrity of in- gredients that is going into every bar. Beautiful imagery and the Bissinger's Crest add the final touches to the company's upscale brand strategy. "We want to make sure we take care of our cus- tomer," says Owens. "All components are very important – the taste profile, the right packaging and the all-natural ingredients. We want to make sure we take care of every last detail." For more information, visit www.bissingers.com. Wicked Jack's Tavern True Jamaican Rum Cakes Introduces Gluten-Free Cake The classic butter rum cake just got better for all to enjoy. Wicked Jack's Tavern in- troduces its Gluten Free Butter Rum Cake. Rum lovers and cake lovers alike will fall for the exquisite, rich, full taste of Wicked Jack's Tavern True Jamaican Rum Cakes. Carefully crafted recipes derived from genera- tions of Jamaican tradition have produced a rum cake so flavorful and so powerful that it has quickly gained a repu- tation as the best-tasting rum cake available anywhere. Moist, buttery texture and a rum-soaked glaze add delicious detail that makes all other rum cakes walk the plank. Baked in traditional butter rum flavor, the company's new gluten-free cake is available in a 4-ounce size. The company's classic rum cakes are baked in five distinct and unforgettable flavors, in- cluding red velvet rum, chocolate rum, caramel rum, rum raisin and tradi- tional butter rum – all made with Jamaican rum. The company also offers a line of hand-roasted cof- fees in ground, whole bean and single cup varieties. For more information, call 770.421.9600 or 800.JAVA.123, or visit the company on- line at www.wickedjackstavern.com. MarDona Specialty Foods: Born in Italy, Produced in America MarDona Specialty Foods and Wild Forest Products bring you the finest imported in- gredients in their Truffle products. The companies are all about great taste, great value, convenience and consistency. MarDona Specialty Foods and Wild For- est Products import pure olive oil and truf- fle essence from Italy and combine them to produce their highly regarded, best tast- ing, most sought after truffle products. The companies' truffle products come in all shapes and sizes for use by everyone from the home cook to the gourmet restaurant chef. MarDona Specialty Foods and Wild For- est Products offer great tasting truffle oil in a number of sizes from the smallest ele- gant taste in a 1.75-ounce diamond pack to the companies' largest 5-gallon food service pails. The products also are also available to the retail trade in 8-ounce Dor- ica bottles and 4-ounce sprays, packaged 6 per case. MarDona Specialty Foods and Wild Forest Products have something for everyone. For the foodservice sector, MarDona Specialty Foods and Wild Forest Products provide 1-gallon jugs and 5-gallon food services pails. Many establish- ments from the n e i g h b o r h o o d burger shop to gourmet fine dining restaurants are using the compa- nies' great tasting truffle oils to create dishes such as truffle fries, truffle burgers, truffle pizzas, truffle pastas and so much more. MarDona has become famously known for its inventive presentation in a 4-ounce truffle oil spray, available in both black and white truffle. The sprays were designed not only for convenience but also to dis- pense a pre-determined amount of olive oil that delivers only 2.5 calories per spray. MarDona and Wild Forest Products be- lieve in consistently making a high-quality product with only the highest quality ingre- dients. It is the com- panies' mission to bring to the American people the best in quality truffle products at the most rea- sonable prices possible. You can find the companies' products in some of the finest of gourmet shops and natural shops, including Whole Foods, as well as online at www.truffleoilsmore.com. Call 855.OIL SPRAY (855.645.7772) for more information. Ariston Specialties: My Story with the Company By Tom Doukas Owner, Ariston Specialties LLC Since my arrival to the United States in the late-1970s, I always dreamed of bringing my family's olive oil to the U.S. market from Greece. However, I soon discovered there was no awareness of olive oil in this market. It was not until the mid-1990s when the Food Network and other outlets began to promote the health benefits of olive oil in the Mediterranean diet that I saw an opportunity to do what I had al- ways dreamed. In 1997, I began bringing my farm's olive oil to the United States in small batches. I faced several different challenges, one being how to distinguish my brand of olive oil on a retail rack that already carried 30 olive oil brands. That is when I remem- bered that as a young boy growing up in the olive grove, my mother used to store our olive oil in stainless steel vats in our cellar. This is where I came up with the idea for "Ariston Refill & Save." I learned that if I put my olive oil in a stainless steel vat where customers can refill their bot- tles, I differentiate my brand from the rack, I help protect the olive oil sold from light and other elements, and I am e n v i r o n m e n t a l l y friendly, using less glass to save on en- ergy used to manufacture the glass, sav- ing space in landfills and helping cut food-miles. This is not to mention how the program creates a loyal following for the retailer. What ultimately brings people back, however, is the quality inside the stainless vat (fusti). Today, Ariston has a line of 60 products, and it sells nationwide and in 10 other countries. The company's success could not come at a better time with the economic crisis in Greece. The company employs a valuable team of workers, start- ing with our family members in Greece and many others in our community who have been recently laid off or lost their jobs. High-quality Ariston olive oil is our "thank you" to the American people for their strong support. North America is by far the world's largest consumer of olive oil, and now I hope my story and my dream is evident in the finished product. For more information, visit www.aristonoliveoil.com, or check the company out on Facebook at www .facebook.com/aristonoliveoil.

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