Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/173967
company Datassential, the use of ingredients like salsa and jalapeño, Asian flavors like soy and sweet-and-sour, and street-food favorites like Korean- and Chinese-style barbecue are trending up. A wider variety of chile peppers are also being used, including chipotle, poblano and ancho. "By far, the most prominent sauce going mainstream is the Korean barbecue sauce kalbi, which is based on the chile paste gochujang, and blended with onion, garlic, spices, sugar and lemon-lime soda. It's spicy and sweet and it's used as both a marinade and basting sauce," says Gerry Ludwig, CEC, a corporate consulting chef for Gordon Food Service, a distributor with 155 retail stores in the U.S. One recent example is the Korean barbecue sauce We Rub You, which won the 2013 sofi Award for Outstanding Cooking Sauce. Alcohol Infusion. Dataessentials has recorded an uptick in sauces made with white wine, Marsala, bourbon and beer. Gourmet du Village, a Quebec-based producer, has introduced Apple Bourbon BBQ Sauce, featuring caramel, apples and bourbon. Stonewall Kitchen has enhanced its line of grilling sauces with Bourbon Molasses Barbecue Sauce. In fact, the reverse has also been true: Barbecue-based cocktails are a hot trend right now, particularly bloody mary mix, says Watts. "Ubon's of Yazoo City has the best barbecue bloody mary mix on the market. It also has a wonderful barbecue sauce that is gaining serious attention and entering major markets. Ubon's is a company to watch out for," he says. Fruits and Berries. Flavors like citrus, pineapple, mango, apple and fruit salsa, as well as a variety of berries, are making an appearance in many specialty barbecue sauces. Sweet Mele's Hawaiian Beach barbecue sauces, for example, feature such tropical flavors as passion fruit and papaya. Jeff Rosenstein, a natural foods consultant in Los Angeles, says a new berry is hitting the scene: aronia. "The only company I have seen integrate it effectively into a barbecue sauce is Sawmill Hollow's Aronia Cayenne sauce," he says. "It's sweet with just a little bit of kick. The company just announced it was entering national distribution through KeHE Distributors. Definitely something to look out for." A Look Ahead Innovative flavors, global inspiration and natural ingredients are likely to continue trending. As long as consumers want it, specialty producers are willing to make it. "People nowadays want it all—versatility of use; unique flavor profiles; low sugar, salt and calories; gluten-free and all-natural," Skinny Chef 's Iserloh says. "We're striving to meet those needs." Kara Mayer Robinson is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Parents, Emmy and Time Out New York. Gourmet du Village Apple Bourbon BBQ sauce on grilled vegetables OCTOBER 2013 29