12 Sweet Discoveries at the 2017 Winter Fancy Food Show

Can’t stop eating. Apparently the West coast (or just I) am late to the party to know about these Brooklyn-made GRUYERE CHEESE CARAMELs. What? Upper case? Yes. While some of my colleagues weren’t that into them, one mentioned “if someone asked what umami was, you could point them to this caramel.” I merely tasted them at the Gruyere cheese booth. The caramels are SO good that Gruyere allowed their logo to appear on the packaging. They’re pretty much my new obsession: an aged Gruyere cheese flavor co-mingled with a dark extremely soft caramel, not too sweet, not too salty. Just heaven. Here’s the full backstory from Culture Cheese magazine.

Sabores Del Sur were early in the dulce de leche-filled alfajores trend that made those delicate caramelly cookies more accessible today. They started the company at the La Cocina incubator and are going strong.

Fans of middle eastern pastries (of which I am one) know how rarely you get a baklava or other sweet that has just the right crunch, that isn’t too sweet, with a buttery flavor and plenty nuts. A company called Deluxe Delights had the vision to package up real Lebanese pastries that are overflowing with nuts, rather than cheaper filo dough, in giftable packaging that you can give to yourself. They hope to sell it in mainstream specialty food stores (vs. only in ethnic stores). Thumbs up!

Blue Planet says these Superfood 72% Chocolate Squares are chock full of probiotics. Chocolate instead of kombucha? Maybe but the good thing is the dark chocolate is very edible as are the other probiotic chocolate-covered superfood snacks Blue Planet is making.

Hannahmax Cookie Chips in flavors like Cinnamon Sugar, Peanut Butter and of course Chocolate Chip were surprisingly heavenly. They’re not brand new — having launched in 2012 — but I hadn’t tasted them in years. Just the right size, with a delicate crunch and clearly high quality ingredients made these my new cookie fetish. The Cinnamon is especially delightful, powdered with spice and sugar…everything nice. Snack size baggy for your munching pleasure. Their Gluten Free cookie is equally as crunchy and satisfying.

Savannah Bee packages its hand-cut honey into small honeycomb packages for people to use as part of a cheese plate or merely as an incredibly natural, raw snack. While the question of whether we should be eating honeycomb is debatable, it’s a really interesting experience for kids especially.

White chocolate was in the house at the 2017 Fancy Food Show, and Tumbador Chocolate’s peanut butter-filled white rectangle was a great example of trends melding (or melting) together. No wonder I loved them. They’re using premium Guittard Chocolate, which is Fair Trade no less. I found the rectangle a fun and interesting twist rather than yet another round peanut butter cup. You will too, if you love biting the chocolate edges off before getting to a filling. In this case the filling seemed to be almost all peanut butter, with very little sweetener, a perfect complement to the yummy shell. Tumbador is yet another great Brooklyn chocolatier.

Oh, that thing next to the white chocolate rectangle? Snackable Smashmallow marshmallows in various flavors, packed in pouches, could be the next thing kids ask for. They’re enough to bring back the fondue pot.

The founders of this vegan, paleo frozen dessert company weren’t especially surprised when I said I might eat this if I had to. That’s who they make this Superfood ice cream alternative for: people who have extreme allergies and like to eat paleo or vegan. Good to know about if that’s you or your customer!

Duck fat caramels. What else did you need to know? These very large high fat caramels from Olive and Sinclair are a mouthful which makes them very long-chewing and very satisfying.

Coffee Thins are going to take over the world. Small tablets of a chocolate-like melt-in-your-mouth treat are based on a “coffee mass” (whereas chocolate is based on cocoa mass) made from ground coffee and cocoa butter. The secret sauce for this company is that they can private label the Edible Coffee Treat for companies like Krispy Kreme (which they have done) and any other number of partners. Krispy Kreme had the company use their signature coffee, to give the thins a familiar flavor that customers love. The pricing on the Coffee Thins is very reasonable too. I don’t know how they do it – but they do. Expect these creamy coffee bites to become mainstream at truckstops, cafes and more.

Chocolate Madagascar is made at the source, in Madagascar, where the beans come from. That means for money stays in the local economy where the growers are. But that’s not the main thrill of this chocolate which wins in global award competitions. The dark milk and white chocolate with vanilla seeds are exceptional – and the 100% cacao bar with no sugar was pleasant and shows off the sweetness of Madagascar cacao.