The second day of the Fancy Food Show brought some amazing products and oh my gosh some bad products too. I will not talk about the omg products because I am confident they won’t be picked up anywhere. Yes they were that bad.

Here are the products that stood out today.

Beverages

Hint, whose motto is “drink water not suguar”  showed off its cucumber water which pleased my palate.  I can imagine using this in a salad dressing or just drinking it.  The difference between this and just putting cucumbers in water is that it is instant and sometimes the cucumbers after a while get a little soggy.  This keeps it free of soggy cucumbers.

Hint flavored waters

Vin Jus is a refreshing non-alcoholic aperitif that really is crisp and tart.  Lately many of my friends are looking for non-alcoholic drinks that aren’t too sweet and that are refreshing. I would say this hits the spot.

Fizzy Lizzy also makes refreshing non-alcoholic beverages but would go in the category of a pop.

My favorite was grapefruit. I also had the grape.  I don’t usually like grape because it is too sweet but my nose first detected the grape and then my taste buds.  The grape wasn’t too sweet like the normal grape drinks.

Spices, gelato and best of show

Yesterday, as I was looking at a colleague’s press kit there was a strong smell of fennel.  It turned out that he stopped at the Pollen Ranch booth so, I went there on Monday.   The Fennel Pollen is so good. I also had the fennel pollen spice blend called Divine Desserts. This would be excellent on top of a salted dark chocolate caramel.  What I also liked about this booth was the enthusiasm of the staff.  I was curious where they got their fennel.  They pick it wild but make sure that it hasn’t been sprayed.

Gelateria Naia makes gelato but they use some of my favorite products.  The Numi (Tea company) Earl Grey gelato is their new product.  It was not over brewed or overpowering.  Naia actually went to Numi and checked out their teas and then came back with gelatos for the Numi staff to taste using their teas.

Naia gelato

Naia’s web page is very charming and informative.  The company name in Greek means flowing and it is also the name of one of the founder’s daughter that was born when the company was forming.    One thing that I have noticed is that I too have searched for a good gelato in California — not understanding why they were such a big deal until I went and had gelato in Italy.  Naia’s gelato has ended my search.  All of the flavors were excellent.

Best of Show so far:  California Caviar.  I tasted the caviar on Sunday and went back on Monday.
We will see what Tuesday brings.

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