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Gourmet News April 2017

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BY LORRIE BAUMANN Terry and Paula Homan, husband and wife and Co-Founders of Red Barn Family Farms, think they've found a cheesy solution for foundering Wisconsin family dairy farms. Their solution goes like this: find farms where the cows are treated like members of the family, put both cows and kids to work, and then ask mem- bers of the public to pay a fair price for premium quality dairy products. It's a scheme that has worked around the world for generation upon generation, but it's been faltering recently in the U.S. and in Wisconsin in partic- ular. BY LORRIE BAUMANN Bissinger's debuted two new fla- vors of the company's Gummy Pandas at the Winter Fancy Food Show. Strawberry Mango and Tart Cherry & Lime join a line- up that already included Blue- berry Acai, Pink Grapefruit with Grapeseed, Pomegranate White Tea, Raspberry Yumberry and Blackberry Hibiscus Gummy Pandas. "They're well-liked by children, but they're sophisti- cated enough for adults," said Dave Owens, Bissinger's Chief Chocolatier and Vice President of Taste. "They have a true-to-na- ture taste." New Confection Creations from Bissinger's Continued on PAGE 7 Continued on PAGE 6 Continued on PAGE 11 Like the other flavors in the line, the new Gummy Pandas are gluten free, dairy free and contain no high fructose corn syrup. They're packaged in a 3-ounce pouch that retails for $4.99. Bissinger's also debuted its Caramelized Blood Orange bar, which is 60 percent dark choco- late. Made with a blood orange- rosemary caramel with hazelnuts and cocoa nibs, the 3-ounce bar retails for $4.99. The bar is gluten free, and the early reviews are en- thusiastic. There are 10 bars in the line, including Coconut Caramel and Honey Pepita Caramel, which has roasted salted pepitas on the back of the bar, lots of honey taste and guajillo chili for a whisper of spice. Bissinger's Chocolate-Covered Wine Grapes are made from Mus- cat grapes that have dried into raisins on the vine. They're in- fused with Shiraz wine and then enrobed in 60 percent dark chocolate. This is not a new prod- uct, but the packaging has been updated. They come in a 3.5- ounce pouch that retails for $5.99 as well as an 8-ounce gift box that retails for $14.99. Many of these products origi- nated in the kitchen of Chief Chocolatier Owens, who's been Bissinger's Vice President of Taste for nine years coming to Bissinger's after a 30-year career in the restaurant business. His as- signment at Bissinger's includes new product development, and in that role, it's his responsibility to ensure that the legacy brought by the company's 350 years of his- tory is maintained as the product line also evolves to appeal to changing tastes. Doing that isn't about responding to trends, Owens said: "We try to be in front of our consumers to know what Strategies for Multicultural Shoppers Saving Wisconsin Family Dairy Farms, One Premium Cheese at a Time Terry Homan grew up on a Wisconsin family farm and earned his Doctor of Veteri- nary Medicine de- gree from the University of Wisconsin in 1996. From the vantage point of his veterinary practice at farms across the state, he began notic- ing that Wisconsin's small family farms were disappearing. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Na- tional Agricultural Statistics Serv- ice, there were 9,000 fewer Wisconsin farms with less than a thousand acres in 2012 than there had been just five years ear- lier in 2007. Many of these farmers simply retired as they aged, but many oth- ers left the business be- cause their sweat wasn't diluting enough of the red ink. The total acreage of Wisconsin farm land dropped by about half a million acres between 2007 and 2012. More recently, the number of Wisconsin farms dropped by 100 and 100,000 BY LORRIE BAUMANN Interest in craft cocktails is pro- pelling the development of a wide range of syrups, shrubs and bitters, and these same products are also drawing interest from the consumer who's looking for a healthier alternative to sugary sodas, the cocktail experience without the alcohol or the good- health associations of fermenta- tion. Shrubs are syrups made by blending fruit and spices with vinegar and sweetener, while bit- ters are tinctures of botanicals in Continued on PAGE 11 Americans Puckering Up for Craft Bitters alcohol that are used as flavoring agents or tonics. Bitters are ingre- dients in classic cocktails like the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned and the Sazerac, which is thought by some to be the first cocktail ever invented, but they've be- come increasingly popular with mixologists over the past few years because they add the bitter flavor that's unfamiliar to many Americans. That unfamiliarity is part of what enhances the taste experience, says Marianne Courville, who makes The Hud- son Standard, a line of artisanal- quality shrubs and bitters that re- flect the flavors of the Hudson River Valley. "It puts the body on a kind of alert, because a lot of poisonous plants are bitter," she said. "The idea of a cocktail is that you want to hit all of those taste notes, but in a very cohesive way, in a way that makes sense." The Hudson Standard's Catskill Masala Bitters won a 2017 Good Food Award. Others in the line of bitters include Ginger Bitters, Spruce Shoot and Celery Bitters With the rapid growth of multi- cultural households in America and their unparalleled influence on the marketplace, market re- searchers suggest that there is a strong need for retailers to revise their in-store strategies to include a wider range of fresh food prod- ucts and flavor profiles that cater to the multicultural consumer set. With this in mind, Nielsen has re- leased a comprehensive report to help retailers understand the in- fluence multicultural consumers wield across the meat, produce, seafood, deli and bakery cate- gories. The report entitled, "A Fresh Look at Multicultural Con- sumers," reveals strategic insights for retailers looking to leverage new growth opportunities across the perimeter over the next sev- eral decades. Multicultural consumers are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and the growth engine for fresh food categories within the grocery space. According to this Nielsen report, multicultural house- holds spend a higher share on fresh food as a percentage of their total food spend compared to non-His- panic white households. In fact, multicultural consumer shoppers make 3 percent more trips to the VOLUME 82, NUMBER 4 APRIL 2017 n $7.00 NEWS & NOTES n Grocery Industry Seeks to Reduce Consumer Confusion on Product Date Labels PAGE 3 RETAILER NEWS n Phoenicia Specialty Foods Brings International Flavors to Houston PAGE 9 SUPPLIER NEWS n Emmi Roth USA Adds New Product to U.S. Kaltbach Cheese Line PAGE 10 NATURALLY HEALTHY n Healthy Cooking Oils from Carrington Farms PAGE 12 HOT PRODUCTS n Bertozzi's Spreadable Italian Cheese Starts with Premium Whey PAGE 21 News ..............................................3 Ad Index .......................................23 Calendar.......................................23 www.gourmetnews.com G OURMET N EWS T H E B U S I N E S S N E W S P A P E R F O R T H E G O U R M E T I N D U S T R Y ® SUPPLIER NEWS: Nonni's Foods SEE PAGE 11 SUPPLEMENT: Condiments SEE PAGE 15 HOT PRODUCTS: Frontier Soups SEE PAGE 21

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