The Alternative To The Alternative

Last week we left off in mid 2018 with another challenge. Freeze drying was new to most people we were met at demos. So to just about everybody, the experience is new, the ingredient is new and the preservation method is new too.

That is why Juliano and I were reading one star reviews that said the berries came stale or they got a bad batch that was dry.

If you have been following along you know nothing could be further from the truth. That dry crisp snap is exactly how they are meant to be. Freeze drying at peak potency was the breakthrough this category needed. It took an insane $7 per perishable berry and turned it into about 48cents per serving today.

But here I was scratching my head and trying not to pull my hair out. I was at a crossroads. I could either educate people on freeze drying or offer something that is not a dried berry.

I started a quick pros and cons T chart and immediately saw a problem. Technical education is rarely the fun part. Back when I sold cell phones everybody loved the new features and nobody wanted to hear about the boring tower network. Please call me anything but boring.

But what could we sell that was not a dried berry?

That's when I remembered our west coast dinner meeting with our supplier. He once offered to make us melts. Back then it felt like the wrong direction because they would cost about three times more and our mission is to bring prices down not up.

But I wasn't hot and bothered back then. I wasn't on the boring fence desperately wanting to jump off. In this moment the melts looked different. They were the alternative to the alternative.

Now for this week’s taste test.

I recently got the variety pack of Yellowbird® sauces in a product swap but Sprouts Farmers Market is where I'll be picking them up in case you're curious. I grabbed Trader Joe's olive oil popcorn from my pantry and decided to make it a drizzle test with two bottles. Classic Jalapeño and Blue Agave Sriracha.

Before the berry the popcorn was already a problem in the best way. Classic Jalapeño tasted bright and punchy with a clean pepper snap. Blue Agave Sriracha hit with a sweet heat that kept me reaching back into the bowl.

Then I chewed Nature's Wild Berry for 30 seconds so the pulp could coat my tongue and went again. The tang softened and the sweetness underneath came forward. The jalapeño sauce tasted smoother and almost candy bright. The sriracha turned into this sweet and spicy glaze vibe. This was a whole new movie - same heat but less bite. It made the popcorn feel like a snack you would pay way too much for at a fancy theater and still feel good about it.

If you have ideas for what I should try next drop them in the comments so we can keep the fun and discovery going.

As always there is a hidden alphanumeric code in this post. Spot the odd word with a number, enter it exactly as written and save 20 percent for the next 48 hours. Thanks for reading and for riding along.

-Hank