Every June, I don my most sensible pair of shoes and head to New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the Specialty Food Association’s annual Summer Fancy Food Show, an unending buffet of flavor overstimulation.
After tasting my way through this year’s dizzying array of coconut chips, pasture-raised meat snacks, self-designated superfoods and truffle-infused everything, I settled on the dozen or so mouthfuls that left a truly lasting impression. As in years past, I chose my best bites not just on the basis of their palate-pleasing flavors, but also for their healthful nutrition credentials. Look for these best bites at a store near you this coming year and you’ll see for yourself!
[See: Dietary Guidelines Do-Over.]
Best Unsweetened Beverages for the Water Weary
— Sparkling Bitters. You may be familiar with bitters as botanical extracts used traditionally as digestif liqueurs or old-timey apothecary remedies for indigestion. But the folks at Sparkling Bitters took these highly aromatic, flavorful plant extracts and infused them into unsweetened sparkling water in order to create a crisp, non-alcoholic flavor experience far beyond that of a flavored seltzer, still without any sugar or sweetness. (The ginger pear and grapefruit mint flavors were my favorites.) Unfortunately, I sampled this beverage early in the show, well before my food coma set in, so I can’t confirm or deny the product’s claims to relieve heartburn, nausea or upset stomach.
— Säpp Birch Water. Birch water is the sap produced by birch trees for a brief three-week window in early springtime — analogous to the maple sap that is produced by maple trees as a precursor to maple syrup. But while sap may conjure images of sugary sweetness, we’re talking the minimalist of the minimal here: Säpp has only 10 calories per 10-ounce bottle — a veritable rounding error of sugar even I’m willing to let slide. While the original flavor is so subtle as to barely register much beyond water, the company offers more pronounced flavors by steeping the birch water in rosehips or nettle, which impart a decidedly refreshing, tea-like quality that may slake quite the summer thirst.
Best New Ways to Snack on Veggies
— Pacific Pickle Works Brussizzle Sprouts. Pickled and fermented veggies were aplenty at the show this year, but Pacific Pickle Works’ products stood out from the crowd. The Brussizzle Sprouts were outrageously good — my mouth is watering as I recall them — perfectly textured, sweet, tangy and with just the right amount of heat to dissuade you from plowing through the entire jar in a single sitting. Then again, if you’re going to plow through an entire jar of something, you could do a lot worse than Brussels sprouts.
— JicaChips. Most so-called veggie chips on the market are really just potato or corn chips sprinkled with enough powdered vegetable dust to impart a health halo. So when you come across a chip that is made entirely of a baked vegetable undiluted by grains or added starches, it’s a big deal. Jicama is a great choice to chipefy in this more authentic manner, as it’s a root vegetable with similar textural properties to a potato. But it’s far less carby and starchy than a potato, and loaded with a fiber called inulin — which tastes naturally sweet despite having essentially no calories. One serving of JicaChips has 5 grams of fiber, compared to 1 to 2 grams (or less) in a portion of pretty much any potato or corn chip. (Note to the digestively sensitive: take it slow with inulin-rich foods; larger portions can be gassy.)
— Rhythm Superfoods Naked Beet Chips. They have one ingredient and one ingredient only: beets. These freeze-dried beet slices make a gorgeous magenta chip with some natural sweetness from the beet, offset by 5 grams of fiber per serving. Since beets are a natural source of nitrites, which improve blood circulation by relaxing the blood vessels, I might suggest trying these as an endurance-enhancing pre-workout snack!
[See: 9 Foods That Can Keep Your Brain Sharp.]
Best Way to Eat Your Coffee
If you’re among the unfortunate souls for whom drinking coffee is too acidic of an endeavor to manage comfortably, perhaps you might fare better getting your caffeine buzz from one of these delicious foods instead.
— Coffee bean-infused nut butters from Karmalize.Me and Eliot’s Adult Nut Butter. If you can’t start your day with a cup of joe, why not smear your breakfast toast with a delicious nut butter that’s been spiked with crushed coffee beans? Karmalize.Me’s Morning Joe Spread is a natural almond butter combined with enough ground coffee beans to deliver the caffeine equivalent of a full cup of coffee: about 140 milligrams per 2 tablespoons of butter. The coffee offers just a hint of bitterness to pleasantly balance the almond butter’s natural sweetness. Eliot’s Adult Nut Butter offers the peanut-butter version of this concept, spiking a natural peanut butter with both crushed roasted espresso beans and cacao nibs to achieve a trifecta of crunch, flavor and a natural buzz.
— Beehive Cheese Company’s Barely Buzzed. This is a traditional Irish cheddar rubbed with ground-roasted espresso beans and lavender. This truly original flavor combination would make a killer breakfast cheese toast, though since the espresso rub is limited to the cheese’s rind, the cheese-to-caffeine ratio is probably low enough so that you could enjoy it in the afternoon without ruining your night’s sleep. If you’re not so into coffee, try the company’s TeaHive cheddar, rubbed with Earl Grey tea instead.
Best New High-Protein Snacks
— Moon Cheese. Cheese is an easy-enough portable snack, but when refrigeration options are limited, it may not be the most appealing. (Warm, soggy string cheese is not always welcome in a child’s lunchbox, or so I’ve been told.) I won’t pretend to understand the vacuum-drying alchemy behind turning fresh cheese into a crunchy, cratered cheese ball that resembles a moon rock, but seeing as the only ingredient in so-called Moon Cheese is 100 percent natural cheese with no added anything, I’m on board.
— RXBAR. Philosophically, I don’t like protein bars. Most bars out there are high in added sugar and loaded with highly processed functional fibers and protein isolates that often wreak havoc on people’s digestive systems. But even I have trouble finding fault with the RXBAR. It’s a whole food-based date and nut bar in the same genre as the better-known Larabar, but formulated with fewer dates and added egg whites for protein. The result is a bar in the 200-calorie neighborhood, same as a Larabar, with less natural sugar and more protein: a full 12 grams per bar.
[See: 7 Reasons to Choose a Plant-Based Diet.]
Healthy Dips Most Likely to Replace Hummus in Your Fridge
— Toom. This line of creamy, dairy-free garlic- and oil-based dips features updated versions of the traditional Lebanese condiment called toum. The pesto flavor is off the hook; I dare your picky kid to refuse a vegetable slathered in this garlicky ambrosia. I’d roast a cauliflower steak just as an excuse to get in on the buffalo flavor, and I can’t wait to spread the chipotle honey variety onto grilled corn on the cob.
— Maya Kaimal Green Garbanzo Dip with Cilantro. Green garbanzos are young chickpeas that have a slightly different nutritional profile than the mature ones used to make hummus. But that’s not the magic behind this delicious dip from Maya Kaimal, which eats like a chutney-hummus hybrid. Rather, it’s the bright flavor of cilantro combined with other classic Indian seasonings that jolts awake your palate and reminds you how badly you want to make a sandwich this very second.
Best Addition to the Produce Aisle
— Pichuberry. Otherwise known as goldenberry, it’s a sweet and tart little fruit native to South America that resembles a light orange grape and is a distant cousin to the tomatillo. Dried ones look like oversized golden raisins and taste like a grapefruit-raisin hybrid. It will be arriving in produce departments soon, sold in plastic clamshells similar to those used for other berries. Unlike other berries, in which vitamin C is the predominant nutrient, however, goldenberries are high in vitamin A — the eyesight-supporting nutrient typically found in orange and dark green veggies.
Best Trendy Food Product I Begrudgingly Loved
— Epic Turkey Cranberry Sage Bone Broth. I insist that there is absolutely nothing magic about faddish “bone broth” — or what generations of grandmothers knew as “soup stock” — and I bristle at juice bars selling overpriced cups of it as if it’s some precious elixir. Yet I cannot deny the fact that I accidentally fell hard for a so-called bone broth at the show. This delicious turkey soup from Epic Provisions tasted like Thanksgiving in a cup — with savory herbaceous flavors like sage and rosemary, and a surprising hit of fruity tartness from cranberries. Unlike most store-bought broths you’ll encounter, this one had some seriously complex flavors and a real homemade taste.
The author has no material affiliation with any of the companies whose products are mentioned in this article.
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Best Bites From the 2016 Summer Fancy Food Show originally appeared on usnews.com
