Specialty Food Magazine

Frozen Desserts Take to the Skies Ice cream trucks got their wings this summer, courtesy of Unilever, parent of brands like Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Good Humor, and Talenti. The food company partnered with Flytrex, an Israeli end-to-end drone delivery company. Through FlyTrex's app, customers place ice cream orders that are delivered within three minutes via drone. Real-time updates along the delivery route precede the package being lowered by wire into the customer's yard. The drone deliveries enhance Unilever's recent Los Angeles-area launch of The Ice Cream Shop, a fleet of Robomart on-demand mobile mini-marts. Customers summon the robots to their location using its app, swipe across the app to open the vehicle's door, retrieve their products, and pay via a proprietary, RFID-based checkout-free system. A recent FAA approval means Flytrex can double its delivery radius, increasing service to 100,000 people over the 40,000 who were previously eligible in Texas and North Carolina.—D.S. Clear Conscience Convenience The plant-based movement has reason to celebrate. Hangry Planet claims to be the first convenience store in the U.S. to offer cruelty-free shopping. Every item in the San Bruno, California, c-store is vetted and 100 percent plant-based and sustainable. "Increasingly, we have customers traveling from a 50-plus mile radius just to purchase from the store," said CEO Bob Bakhtiari. Brands range from Laird's Superfood fresh hot cocoa and golden milk, Why Bars, Oakland's Donut Farm, Nutcase Vegan Meats, and Follow Your Heart Cheese, to name a few. Bakhtiari shared that reactions have ranged from radical joy to unpredictable wrath. "More joy though as time goes on," he said. "We tuck away the term 'vegan' beneath our new 'Feel beautiful, not junky' motto, which has helped inspire curiosity and not agitation towards veganism and vegan products." He added, "Our products are yummy and predominately healthy, which helps buffer the agitation of meat and dairy addicts." To further support the cause, 10 percent of sales go to different charities each month. Bakhtiari told Specialty Food that he's in initial talks with investors to bring the concept to other states.—D.S. Milk Bar, Taco Bell Test Strawberry Bell Truffle Milk Bar's truffles are combining with Taco Bell's Crunchy Taco shell to form the new Strawberry Bell Truffle. In a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the brands, the dessert will be tested at Taco Bell and Milk Bar outposts in two major markets. The Strawberry Bell Truffle's vanilla cake is studded with strawberry pieces and soaked in strawberry milk. The cake is then filled with a sweet corn fudge center. The outside is coated with a sweet and slightly salty strawberry and sweet corn cake coating and studded with tiny pieces of Taco Bell's Crunchy Taco Shell. "A collab with our brilliant friends at Taco Bell has been on my bucket list for some time," said Christina Tosi, chef and founder of Milk Bar, in a statement. "We white-boarded ideas and R&D'ed to seemingly no end, but then the masterminds of our culinary team led by VP Anna McGorman struck sweet gold with this unique dessert that packs such delicious flavor and is a true meeting of minds who love to color outside the lines. We're pumped for you to take a bite!" The treat was available in stores as a two truffle package for $2.99 for a limited time last month, at one Taco Bell restaurant in Orange County, California, and at two of Milk Bar's flagship locations in the Nomad neighborhood of New York and on Melrose in Los Angeles. "The Strawberry Bell Truffle is the first mashup of its kind to be served to consumers on a large, test scale from our brands. This one-of-a-kind truffle is the friendship-fueled fruition of a concept made possible by a mutual dedication to innovation," said Rene Pisciotti, executive chef at Taco Bell Corp., in a statement. "Christina Tosi and her culinary team worked closely with experts within Taco Bell's very own test kitchen on this collaboration, and we couldn't think of better partners to learn from and team up with." PHOTO: THE ICE CREAM SHOP; A UNILEVER BRAND PHOTO: TACO BELL 12 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM TRENDS & HAPPENINGS Mark Hamstra is a regular contributor to Specialty Food and SFA News Daily. Denise Shoukas is a contributing editor to Specialty Food.

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