It was one of the more innovative items at the 53d annual Fancy Food Show, where an estimated 160,000 products vied for the attention of buyers for roughly 26,000 stores.
Chiles, as always, were a catchy theme. The show's Outstanding New Product was Tyrrells Sweet Chilli and Red Pepper potato chips, which led an unprecedented charge of products from the U.K. to the winner's stand.
This show wasn't entirely about spice. There was special attention paid to the organic movement, for which nearly a third of the 2,400 exhibitors presented products, and a resurgence in high-end pickling. The cachet of wine varieties helped flavor everything from grape juice to sorbet. Lemon was a hot fruit. There were the usual stellar olive oils (Castelas from Provence was this year's champ). And there were artisan odes to classic sweets, like the chocolate-covered peppermint jewels from Hammond's in Denver, or the sublimely soft black licorice snips from RJ's in New Zealand.
A bonanza of exotic ingredients from 73 countries sparked the imagination, from Sardinian bitter honey, to baobab juice from Mali, asparagus cream from the Piedmont, flaky sea salt from South Africa, stylishly packed Umbrian quick-cook risotto, and honeyed Benimosu purple sweet potato vinegar from Japan.
But it was the unexpected rise of British foods (yes, from England) that stole the show.
Chief among them were the scrumptiously moist little puddings from the Sticky Toffee Pudding Co., whose curd-laced lemon flavor won Outstanding Baked Good. Best Cookie went to the Ginger & Lemon from Elegant & English. And the Brits' cocktail expertise also shone through in high-end mixers from Fever-Tree - the bracing bitter lemon and all-natural Indian tonic.
