Hunting for trends during a food show is a daunting task, if ever possible. Trends are, after all, never 100 percent objective and depend on the particular features of the show attended. After spending three entire days on the floors and aisles of the Winter Fancy Food in San Francisco tasting food from nearly all over the world, here are my five top observations on products or trends that I modestly witnessed. All personal.
"New Age" Bars
We have had protein bars, raw bars and gluten free bars. But here comes the salty bar: I embraced the savory Journey Bar, which, as its subtitle says, is "miles from ordinary." For more savory days, it comes in five distinctive flavors including the parmesan romano, rosemary, hickory barbecue, pizza marinara and coconut curry. I also happily discovered the innovative chickpea bar made with dark chocolate. This is courtesy of The Good Bean, the food company that will place chickpeas in our lives. Other varieties include the Apricot Coconut and the Fruit & Seeds trail mix.
Grown up, high end seasonings
From J & D's bacon rub to the Hawaiian black lava sea salt from the Spice Lab to the new umami 5 powder for seasonings, our palate seems to be a real grown up on the lookout for exclusive taste, flavor and color.
Coconut everywhere
So far we've had coconut water. During the show, I found coconut in the form of coconut oil from Kelapo, coconut jam from Hey Boo and coconut pudding mix from Noh Foods of Hawaii. The coconut tea from Tea Forté is a reality and so coconut has become a part of our kitchen pantry. And don't forget the new coconut water from Harvest Bay!
Chocolate Reinvented
It's no longer a simple chocolate bar, pralines or truffles. You can now try the flax seed chocolate bars from Newtree, dark chocolate blended with gluten free energy bars from NuGo Slim, or with gluten free cookies like the double chocolate chip love cookies from Mary's Gone Crackers. It tastes good, too...
Drink your alcohol
The tequila cake comes in a round can, very cute and tasty. And with Harvest Song's Signature Cocktail series, preserves have gone to a complete new level. Try a Mimosa mixing their peach preserve, cointreau and prosecco. Cheers!
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What I saw...
#1 Gluten free, it was being touted by everyone, even those whose products would normally be gluten free.
#2 New ingredients in cheese, from fennegreek to sunflower seeds stuffing things in cheese seems to be a hot trend.
#3 No Corn syrup. It was nice to see the Corn Syrup not being used in myriads of products that used to contain it.
#4 Tea. Everything is being made into a tea, even yes, a gluten free tea.
#5 Good meat. From Hudson Valley farms to Iberico pork there were a number of cage free natural meats on display. A very good trend.
They're right when they say there's one born every minute.
It's a Fancy (high end) food show. Why would they use corn syrup when they can use high fructose agave and sell the same product for double or triple the price?