Winter Fancy Food Show 2012: Day 2 Coverage

The Winter Fancy Food Show continues in sunny (if slightly overcast) San Francisco, with a busy Day 2. We scoured the floor for the trends and innovative products that will be hitting store shelves in the coming months.

Someone got the word out that health nuts can be caffiene fiends too. Energy drinks have saturated their market with plenty of calories and disappointing (if not outright awful) flavors. Enter caffeinated water. Two companies have churned out this simple yet brilliant innovation, in which natural spring water doesn't get tarnished with flavors weighed down with other ingredients. Avitae delivers crisp water with two caffeine levels: 45 mg for a light boost a la diet soda, and 90 mg for a stronger coffee-like kick. Shock H20 (a.k.a. SH2OCK) derives its caffeine from green tea but leaves out the tea flavor.

DIY pickling and preserving saw a boom in 2011, and gourmet producer Fire & Flavor is catching the wave with a line of pickling spices for the at-home cucumber connoisseur. Flavors include Crispy Ice Box Dill and Sweet Bread & Butter. Get your mason jars ready.

Retro and nostalgic throwbacks are popping up in food as well as packaging. Hagensborg Chocolates has created created a line of truffles in nostalgia-inducing flavors like Peanut Butter & Jelly and Bubblegum, while Cucina Fresca showed off its gourmet take on a childhood classic, mac & cheese, in Smoked Gruyere, Creamy Fontina and Sharp Cheddar. Hammond's Candies channels the good old days through its flavors and its packaging with new chocolate bars in More S'mores and Malted Milkshake, to name a few, and a design with clean lines and an antiquey type.

Vintage designs and old-timey photographs were everywhere, from Sensual Olives' pin-up girls adorning its various dipping oils and Rancho Gordo's sassy-housewife art to those hearkening all the way back to the Victorian era—often with a tongue-in-cheek twist—including Sir Kensington's Ketchup and Sir Francis Bacon's Peanut Brittle. Expect your local market to start looking way more charming.

One day remains, so check back in with foodspring.com for more tidbits and goodies as the Show draws to a close.—Eva Meszaros

> See all Winter Show News

0 comments