Annie’s has done it again. Just when you think “how are they going to top [insert their latest cool product here]?” – they come out with the next nifty thing that fills a niche. Before talking about their newest product, though, I think a brief history lesson is in order.

Most folks know about Annie’s Homegrown Macaroni and Cheese. It’s a legendary natural foods item. Starting a few years ago, Annie’s decided they wanted to expand their portfolio. They took the lovable bunny that adorns their mac and cheese box and they decided it would make a nice cracker. Literally. No surprise: Annie’s Cheddar Bunny Cracker is loved by millions of kids and adults alike.

Next, Annie’s and that lovable bunny took on the cereal category. They hit another home run with their delicious low sugar cereals. The encore to that? Organic Bunny-shaped Fruit Snacks. Another score.

Now, as I mentioned, how are they going to top all that? Here’s how: an organic version of the classically favorite snack mix? Annie’s developed an organic snack mix devoid of all the artificial flavors and hydrogenated oils of the conventional versions. The mix includes the cheddar bunny cracker, a butter version of the cracker and bunny shaped pretzels. Kids and adults alike will love this great combination of snacky goodness.

The question is not if you’re going to like them, but how will you eat the mix? Will you snack indiscriminately? Will you hoard the pretzels? Will you pick out the butter bunnies for your personal snacking satisfaction? Whatever your style, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this latest tasty endeavor. The snack mix…as well as the other Annie’s items mentioned…are in our stores now, so try a box today for yourself.

Continuing our cold weather = tea weather theme, I wanted to spotlight the Choice Organic Teas.  Recently Whole Foods Market launched four new tea items from Choice, a new line of full leaf teas, which, if you recall my last post, is one of the hottest trends in the tea category.  The tea experts at Choice use hand-picked whole leaf teas, flavorful herbs, and delicate flowers in a biodegradable tea pyramid pouch.  The pouch and the pungent tea leaves are the precise combination to create the prefect brew.  The new products are a mix of traditional methods and flavors combined with high quality tea.

The new Jasmine Green Tea is a classic.  Its leaves are hand-picked on small Chinese tea gardens, quickly pan-fired, then blended with fresh jasmine blossoms that are removed once they’ve imparted their essence.  Estate Blend Darjeeling features leaves that are hand-picked at the height of the season in the famed hills of India’s Darjeeling region. The English Breakfast is an old favorite with rich taste that comes from teas that hail from Vietnam and India’s Assam region. The Chamomile Citrus comes from whole yellow chamomile flowers harvested in Egypt while the orange peel and pink hibiscus add a light, fruity essence to this caffeine-free blend. However, the fact that this is great tasting tea is not what makes these Choice products so special.

At Whole Foods Market, we have a fantastic selection of some of the finest teas available so it should come as no surprise that the new teas from Choice please the palate.  What makes this tea special is the socially responsible aspect of how these products are sourced.  All of these teas mentioned are Fair Trade Certified by Transfair USA.  In fact, Choice Organic Teas has been one of the companies in the U.S. tea industry at the forefront of the Fair Trade movement since 2000.   Because their new products are certified Fair Trade…actually almost half of all their products are Fair Trade certified…they can be listed under the Whole Trade Guarantee.  Whole Foods Market donates 1% of all sales of products covered under the Whole Trade Guarantee to the Whole Planet Foundation, who then gives micro loans to people in developing countries. This is changing people’s lives.

To check out any of the previously mentioned Choice Organic Teas, just go to your favorite Whole Foods Market Store and grab one off the shelf.  Not only will you be satisfying your tea craving, you’ll be supporting socially responsible products as well.

As the weather gets colder, the thought of a warm cup of tea sounds pretty good to plenty of folks. Tea’s popularity has increased immensely in the last few years. It’s viewed as medicinal and therapeutic and many people have begun to make it part of their daily routine. However, tea still somewhat carries the stigma of a cold weather beverage. This is one of the reasons that at Whole Foods Market we look to launch new tea items when the weather turns brisk (we also launch new iced teas when the weather starts to warm up), so If you’re looking for some new teas to try, you’re in luck as we have some fantastic new ones available in our stores now.

One of the fastest growing segments of the tea category is full leaf tea in pouches. This allows some of the most flavorful, high quality, full leaf tea to be steeped in such a way so as to release the full potential of the precious leaves. This is the quick and convenient alternative to loose leaf tea which, before the tea pouch, was considered the only way to get the highest quality tea experience.

One of the most popular brands in this segment is Mighty Leaf Tea. They are one of the pioneers of the whole leaf tea in a brewing pouches as opposed to tea bags and they don’t use staples or glue to hold them together. They created their silken brewing pouch in 1996 and it has steadily gained popularity since. The two newest editions to the Mighty Leaf line are Organic Detox Infusion and Organic Green Dragon. The Organic Detox is an herbal tea made up of peppermint, dandelion root, licorice root, burdock root and basil. Each ingredient serves a particular purpose from acting as a diuretic to helping digestion. The Organic Green Dragon is a special variety of green tea known as Lung Ching and also as Dragonwell. The tea leaves are wok-fired so it imparts a smoky flavor and aroma. The taste has notes of chestnut and has a slightly sweet finish.

Whether you’re looking for an herbal tea or a new twist on the old favorite green tea, these new Mighty Leaf teas might be just the thing to stimulate your senses and warm you up this winter.

My last blog entry was extolling the virtues of Sacha Inchi and how this unique food discovery came to be found in Whole Foods Market stores courtesy of our good friends Laurent and Thierry at the Brandstorm Company.  As promised, this time around I want to give a quick run down on the other nifty products in the TerrAmazon line.  As I mentioned, there are quite a few products that involve cacao due to its ubiquitous nature in South America.  The TerrAmazon cacao is certified USDA Organic and derived from a rare variety of cacao called Criollo, which is less bitter and more aromatic than other species of cacao.  The single ingredient cacao products include cacao powder and cacao nibs.

They also make products where cacao is added to other ingredients to create unique offerings like cacao nibs mixed with dried fruit for a tasty healthy snack.  The varieties include nibs with pineapple, nibs with raisins and coconut, nibs with macadamia nuts as well as nibs with Brazil nuts and coffee.  My favorites are the raisin and coconut and the pineapple.  The texture and sweetness of the dried fruits balance off the earthy qualities of the nibs.

On the functional foods side, they also have a cacao powder mixed with Maca.  Never heard of Maca?  Maca is an herbaceous perennial crop grown in the central highlands of Peru at elevations of 12,000 feet and higher. The oldest recorded date of maca use in Peru is around 1600 b.c. and since then Peruvians have used maca root to promote mental acuity, physical vitality, endurance and stamina.  Together with the high antioxidants of the cacao powder, this product packs a big functional punch.

Rounding out the TerrAmazon line are two USDA Organic Yacon products: Yacon syrup and dried yacon.  Yacon is another cutting edge product you may not have heard of.  It’s a plant that is indigenous to the Andean Region of South America.  The syrup is derived from the roots of the plant, and is a good source of antioxidants.  It’s glucose-free, does not increase blood sugar levels and boasts a very low glycemic index.  Yacon syrup is most often compared to molasses or honey in taste, with a deep and rich flavor. It easily substitutes for most sweeteners in recipes, and can be used to sweeten beverages . The dried yacon is reminiscent in flavor of dried melon, is a natural source of dietary fiber and is a natural probiotic.

Let’s see…last blog we talked about the story behind the products and introduced you to Sacha Inchi.   This time we described all the products in the TerrAmazon line…now all that’s left is for y’all to get out and try the products…what are you waiting for?

“What’s it called?” I asked inquisitively.
“Sacha Inchi,” he said.
“Uh…I’ve never heard of it.” I replied.  I asked him what it was.
“It’s the next cool thing.” he predicted.

I think he might be right.  The “he” I am speaking of is Laurent Coulloumme-Labarthe.  He along with his partner, Thierry Ollivier, are the proprietors of a unique product development company called Brandstorm. You may know them as the guys who brought goji berries and Himalanian pink salt to U.S. grocery retailers several years ago.  They have a knack for finding interesting and unique food products from around the world, so I was immediately interested in this new food find.

Turns out that Sacha Inchi is a plant that grows in the highlands of Peru.  Thierry had discovered it on a product exploration trip to South America.  It produces a seed that is really like a nut if you roast it.  One of the best attributes of the nut-like seeds is that they contain huge amounts of three varieties of omega fatty acids: 3, 6 and 9.  Laurent said they were tasty when roasted and salted.  Sounded like a healthy snack to me.  I asked Laurent when he would have this product ready to show me.  He said it could be a year or more as they needed to fine tune the operation.  Great.  Get me interested in the product, and then make me wait.  I’m not known for being very patient.

Well, the wait paid off when we recently launched the Sacha Inchi nuts under the TerrAmazon brand name, available exclusively at Whole Foods Market.  There are three varieties: plain, tamari and sweet, which is enrobed with a sugar coating.  Those are my favorite.  Though the taste does resemble a nut, it has some different textural and flavor qualities all its own.  Add in those omegas and its truly a healthy snack.  Just so the Sacha Inchi nuts don’t feel lonely, Laurent and Theirry also procured some other South American products to create an entire family under the TerrAmazon name. Cacao is widely grown in South America, so there are a few products that are based on that ingredient, including powder and nibs with dried fruits like pineapple, raisins and coconut.   There are other unique products as well.  More on those in my next blog, so…stay tuned!

A few years back nutritionists and parents alike started scrutinizing the sugar content in foods designed for kids. Recently we’ve seen lots of products touting lower sugar content. Cereal was an obvious choice for new lower sugar products, but the real trick in kids’ cereals was to get them to taste good with less sugar. I remember the first iterations of low sugar cereals…they just didn’t taste enough like the products people were used to buying.

The good news is that’s all changed.

Two of the best tasting, low sugar kids’ cereals I’ve tasted are the Annie’s Homegrown Bunny cereals. Most of you know Annie’s from their mac & cheese products — and their bunny mascot. They are the leader in natural and organic mac and cheese. They recently branched out — along with the bunny — into the cereal category. Last year we launched the first three varieties of Annie’s kids’ cereals, which, of course, are low in sugar content. They range from 2 to 9 grams per serving. That’s much less than the conventional brands that range from 12 to 16 grams per serving.

The inaugural Annie’s cereal products did so well that they created three new items. The new flavors are Fruity Bunnies, Honey Bunny Crunch and, my personal favorite, Cocoa and Vanilla Bunnies. They are so tasty that when we received the samples we ate them all up immediately and were asking the folks at Annie’s to PLEASE SEND MORE!! The fruit and cocoa flavors will definitely have you thinking about their more sugary conventional cousins and, as if having less sugar wasn’t enough of a bonus, they don’t contain any artificial flavors or preservatives either.

Whether you have children or simply have a need to satisfy an adult sweet cereal craving, these new Annie’s cereal products are right on the mark.

Continuing the theme from my last post…which was about products designed for kids with special diets…I have more new “special” products available at Whole Foods Market to share with you. This time we’re talking non-dairy. For those folks who have an allergy or aversion to dairy, their choices can be limited — think rice- and soy-based products. The good news is that there have been some recent innovations that have created more choices.

Let’s say you’d love to eat yogurt, but…you can’t because of the dairy, so you look for a non-dairy yogurt and all you see is soy-based products and…you’ve got an aversion to soy as well. Sound unlikely? It’s not. There are thousands of people who have problems with both dairy and soy. There are even more who want an alternative to dairy, but don’t enjoy the taste of soy. Enter So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt. Turns out, coconut milk is dairy and lactose free. Who knew? The good people at Turtle Mountain did. They have been innovators in frozen non-dairy products since 1990, but only recently got into the yogurt business.

In January we launched their first foray into the category with a fantastic tasting soy-based yogurt. After testing the waters successfully, they let their creative juices flow and recently showed us…in my opinion…the biggest innovation in non-dairy yogurt since the first soy-based yogurts hit the market years ago. These coconut-based non-dairy yogurts are what we refer to as a “no brainer” — as in an obvious choice to sell in our stores. There are six flavors available. Some have a bit of the coconut flavor shine through but others don’t have a hint. My fave is the Passionate Mango. Besides tasting great…and being dairy/lactose free…they’re soy-free, cholesterol-free, trans fat-free, contain pre- and probiotics and are certified vegan. These innovative new products are in stores now. Whether you have an allergy or are just looking to try something new, give them a try.

Interested in other cool products from Ian’s? Check out their Cookie Buttons… guess what…they come in two versions as well.

If all that wasn’t enough, you got an otter. As in Andy the Otter, the venerable mascot for Ian’s kids products. And who doesn’t love an otter? Not only is Andy on the package, he leads the SuperFit Kid program online, where he combines fun and prizes with education and tips for developing healthy habits.

These Ian’s items are in store now so check them out.