Oser Communications Group

NATURALLY HEALTHY www.gourmetnews.com n MARCH 2015 n GOURMET NEWS N H 4 6 B Be Yourself and Drink Accordingly with ALO It's easier than ever to sip to suit your mood. ALO doesn't skimp on the quality of its in- gredients – what you see is what you taste. Its drinks start with real aloe vera that it hand picks on its farm. You get all of the benefits of real aloe vera because the juice and pulp never come from powder, only the pure, powerful plant. Here's where ALO gets personal. Its crisp, refreshing base of real aloe vera juice and pulp is amplified with unique mixes of real fruit juices to create 20 flavors that match your every mood. From hydrating COCO Exposed to super smooth Pulp-Free, ALO has refreshed how people personalize their aloe experience. Choose your flavor and enjoy ALO Drink! ALO is excited to introduce its newest fla- vors, sizes and lines at Expo West at booth #2872. Be the first to try the newest offerings, including: ALO Pulp-Free – For those who prefer a smoother drinking experience, it has blended its fresh aloe vera pieces right into its juice! Available in five top- selling flavors (ALO Exposed, ALO Allure, ALO Enrich, ALO Awaken and ALO Comfort), ALO Pulp-Free will help in- troduce its drinks to those who love the taste but don't like the texture. ALO Crisp – There's no need to head to an orchard for fresh-picked flavor! The newest addition to the Original line blends fresh Fuji apples and juicy pears with its real aloe vera juice and pulp for a truly re- freshing experience. 950-mL Size – For people whose ALO cravings go beyond the 16-oz. bottle size, it has created a larger 975- L size in two best-selling flavors. ALO Exposed and ALO Allure are currently available in 975-mL bottles, with more flavors on the way! Stop by booth #2872 at the Anaheim Con- vention Center from March 6-8, 2015 and taste for yourself why ALO is still the No. 1 selling aloe vera drink in U.S. grocery stores. For more information, stop by booth #2872. Home Gardening Trend Drives Organic Garden Seed Demand Does your store sell organic garden seeds? If not, you are missing the opportunity to si- multaneously boost supplemental sales and show your customers that you support their lifestyle choices. Forty-two million American households grew their own food at home or in a commu- nity garden last year (2014 NGA Food Gar- dening Report). That's a 17 percent increase in five years. Your customers are buying gar- den seeds, and the trend is thriving. Shouldn't you be their trusted seed source? Lake Valley Seed makes it easy for you to meet the growing demand. Supporting inde- pendent retailers is its specialty. When you partner with Lake Val- ley Seed, you get low-risk terms, free displays and shipping, and un- matched customer service. From top-selling herbs like cilantro to nutrient powerhouse vegetables like swiss chard, its 20- year-old Lake Valley Organics line features USDA certified organic, untreated, non-GMO garden seeds. Most all of them are open-pollinated heirloom varieties. Lake Valley Seed believes in building self-sufficient communities. Its Free to Grow! program donates hundreds of thousands of garden seed packets each year to schools, com- munity gardens and other non-profit organizations to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables in communities around the world. Learn more by emailing brian@lakevalley seed.com or visiting booth #3264. Pickled Planet: Since 2003 The artisan fermented foods category has re- ally been heating up the past few years, and 2015 will be no different. The team at Pick- led Planet is watching many competitors that didn't exist five years ago gain footings be- yond their "regional" range. The category has also been expanding its footprint as es- tablished retailers are expanding their set size to match demand and velocity. Where a single or two shelves were enough two years ago, there are five or six shelves dedicated to the set now, sometimes with as many brands. This is really allowing for the customer to access many of the possible flavors the cat- egory is producing nowadays. At the same time, more conventional retailers are begin- ning to place some of the category in their deli sets alongside the old school, mass pro- duced brands. This wave is going to reach a whole new branch of customers as the news of fermented foods benefit reaches them via news stories and personal connections. Even mainstream media has begun to mention the micro-biome and the benefits of probiotics in food. This next wave of the mass market is really going to ramp up in the next few years and everyone in fermented foods are happy to see its healthy products getting into more homes. It's glad to see fermented foods moving be- yond the regional players and see sets with brands from all over the country represented. Each company is unique in what it makes and how it presents it, so really you can't go wrong. That said, Pickled Planet is one of the oldest brands in the cate- gory, since 2003. It has an amaz- ing line of products and continues expanding its territorial distribu- tion. Go to booth #7219 in the third floor pavilion and you'll see why people claim Pickled Planet is the best in its category! For more information, stop by booth #7219. Honey Wine Vinegar a Sweet and Tangy Flavor Journey A sweet and tangy flavor journey, this unique Honey Wine Vinegar is liquid sun- shine. You only have to try Slide Ridge Honey Wine Vinegar once for it to become an obsession. Raw honey is where it all begins. With its raw honey it first creates two handcrafted wines that it ages to perfection. Its first wine is a Mead, created from its very own honey sources. Its second is made from a blended cider made especially for it from five differ- ent Utah apples. It then adds its own Raw Honey creating a wine it calls CaCycir. It then begins a process that can only be de- scribed as "magic" that changes these wines into the most fabulous artisan vinegar you will ever taste. Its Family is Growing Its first Honey Wine Vinegars, Natures Honey and Harvest Apple, were so well received that it couldn't wait to expand its family. This past year it has added two new flavors to the pack. Martins Honey and Green Chile Mari- nade; full of roasted Hatch Chile, this marinade is full of flavor. Marinade your fajita meat or pour it straight on your taco salad. The newest addition to its fam- ily is its Dark Malt Vinegar. It is made from a hand crafted honey beer and has the most amazing full-bodied flavor. Try it with your fish and chips. How to Use Honey Wine Vinegar There are so many ways to use this unique Honey Wine Vinegar; salad dressings, meat marinades, coleslaw, potato salad, BBQ sauce, fish, reduce and drizzle over fresh fruit. Eat it for flavor, drink it for health, and enjoy its liquid sunshine. Slide Ridge Honey Wine Vinegars uses are only lim- ited by your imagination. For more information, visit booth #7107. Himalayan Pink Salt Seasonings Fills A Needed Niche Himalayan pink salt is becoming more and more mainstream. In fact, most retailers carry several brands. WBM, which is the largest supplier of Himalayan salt, is now, for the first time, introducing a line of season- ings that blend Himalayan pink salt with nat- ural spices under the Himalayan Chef ® brand. They include Pink Steak, Pink Pollo, Pink Seafood, Pink Pizza, All Purpose Sea- soning and Pink Lemon Pepper. The retail customers have become more informed about nutrition; they want natural or organic versus conventional, non-GMO and natural versus processed. Pink salt fills the bill. White salt and sea salt are processed. Himalayan Pink Salt is not. It is 250 million years old and hand chipped from a 2,300 year old mine, then ground into coarse or fine crystals and packaged as is, with no heating, bleaching or added chemicals. For that reason, and the fact that it's pink and tastes better, consumers are demanding it. (And blending the pink salt with natural spices is a marriage made in food heaven.) One buyer said, "Himalayan salt is flying off the shelves," which was supported by her re-orders every two weeks. WBM didn't un- derstand it – how much salt can people eat? It's a commodity. But it's happy to report it. The buyer also said that pink salt outsells her sea salt. Given its low prices, it feels that this soon will be the case with all of its customers, and eventually the mar- ket in general. Himalayan Salt, at the right price, will replace sea salt as the number one alternative salt. Because, unlike sea salt, it is pure, unprocessed and nutritious, as it contains 84 trace minerals, the same minerals found in our bodies, which allows the salt to be metabolized properly. WBM supplies pink salt for retail, foodservice, food ingredients and private labeling. Under the Hi- malayan Chef brand, it carries a full line of pink salt items, from grinders and season- ings, to salt shot glasses and salt cooking plates, which season the food while it cooks it. The salt block can be chilled for serving chilled items, and can be heated in the oven, on the stovetop or on a grill for an elegant gourmet presentation. A salt block with ahi tuna recently won an Iron Chef's challenge. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, you want to season it with Hi- malayan Salt. The proof is also in the pricing, and its pricing is competitive. It mines the pink salt, packages it, im- ports it and distributes it. It is the pri- mary source and its prices reflect it. For more information, visit www.wbminter national.com or call 866.802.9366.

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