Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Slowing Economy not affecting Desserts

It appears that while consumers may be cutting back on lattes, they aren't doing the same for their favorite desserts

By Angus Loten
Inc.com
updated 12:52 p.m. PT, Sun., July. 13, 2008

Not long ago, Tracey Hughes had an enviable career as an executive marketer at Colgate-Palmolive in Chicago and New York. Then she started bringing homemade rum cakes to corporate functions. In no time, Hughes, a former fashion model, was taking special holiday orders from friends and colleagues, eventually baking up to 10 cakes a night in her small Brooklyn apartment. That's when she decided to go into the dessert business full-time.

"I grew up in the kitchen, watching and learning," says Hughes, who launched the Rum Cake Fairy Company in October 2005, armed with a handwritten book of her grandma's secret recipes and her own marketing savvy. It paid off. Two years ago, her rum cake was discovered by Oprah Winfrey and featured on the coveted "O List" of must-have holiday goodies. Since then, she's launched an entire range of cakes sold at high-end retailers.

And at a time when many businesses owners are easing spending plans to cope with the sputtering economy, Hughes and her business partner, Patricia Kolaras, are closing a deal to buyout the New Jersey bakery that mass produces her cakes.

The American sweet tooth
In good times and bad, Hughes and other successful dessert entrepreneurs can count on the American sweet tooth to help keep their businesses afloat. A recent survey of some 1,500 U.S. consumers by Techmonic, a Chicago-based foodservice research firm, did not find a single person who regularly skipped dessert. More than half said they indulged in such perennial favorites as chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream, and apple pie at least once a week, though typically more often than that. That kind of appetite is driving a $23 billion domestic industry of bakeries, chocolatiers, ice cream makers and countless other small businesses.

"Clearly, consumers love dessert," says Darren Tristano, Techmonic's executive vice president of information services. By keeping an eye on shifting consumer trends, he says, restaurant, café, and foodservice owners can leverage the appeal of desserts to boost incremental sales, and in turn help dessert makers grow their companies.

(From MSNBC.com - see entire article at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25561551/)

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Smaller , richer frozen desserts a new trend

Here's a great article on the latest trend in frozen desserts from an article at QSR Magazine

Cold Case - Why frozen indulgences might warrant a more prominent place on quick-serve menus.

Contentious though it often is, there are a handful of things we can all agree on when it comes to the subject of food. The popularity of ice cream is almost certainly one of them. To wit, the market research firm Mintel has reported that more than 90 percent of U.S. households consume ice cream and other frozen desserts.

But like most indulgences, ice cream in its pure, premium form—with all the butterfat and sugar that make it so tantalizing—tends to leave American adults feeling a little conflicted. We crave its richness, but our society’s obsession with health, diet, and nutrition also forces us to reckon with the consequences of enjoying great ice cream to the degree we might like. No matter how you churn it, downing two or three pints a day just isn’t a good idea. Unfortunately.

So in order to reconcile our ice cream cravings with our calorie consciences, we compromise, often by turning to products made with low-fat dairy products and/or sugar substitutes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has noted that light, low-fat, nonfat, and reduced-fat ice cream products, along with frozen yogurt, ices, sorbets, and sherbets, accounted for about one-third of the domestic frozen dessert market in 2006.

The alternative to eating lighter products, of course, is to enjoy smaller quantities of the really good stuff. To judge from a recent National Restaurant Association survey of culinary experts, this seems to be the track many Americans are now taking. In that poll, 1,300 members of the American Culinary Federation were asked to identify the most popular food trends from among a list of 194 items, including everything from red wine to sushi to energy drinks, pomegranates, fresh pasta, and couscous. At the end of the day, “bite-size desserts” emerged at the very top of the list, in the No. 1 spot.

If small indulgences that deliver big flavor constitute the trend of the moment, quick-serve operators might consider how they might tap into the phenomenon. Here are a few suggestions:

Smaller and Richer

When I lived in Paris years ago, I used to love to go to Bertillon Ice Cream where, for the equivalent of roughly $7 at the time, patrons would order a scoop about the size of a golf ball, served with a miniature wooden spoon. That worked out to about $5.50 per ounce, but this ice cream was worth every cent. With its authentic, intense, and perfectly balanced flavors; sumptuous, creamy texture; and lush mouth feel that made for a positively sublime experience, I would have anted up at least a few more francs for the privilege of another serving.

That’s ultimately why I believe that it might be a good bet for quick-serve’s more popular chains to begin offering small scoops of a proprietary, crave-inducing brand of premium ice cream in all-American flavors such as vanilla and peach. The results might be surprisingly tasty—and profitable. In a similar vein, Pasta Pomodoro might opt to sell small portions of authentic sorbet or gelato with Italian-inspired flavors such as bitter chocolate, coffee, hazelnut, almond, or espresso. And though they’re nowhere near as decadent, paletas—icy Mexican fruit pops made with fresh fruit, water or milk, and sugar—offer an engaging variety of textures and tastes, including tropical fruits, hibiscus, tamarind, avocado, corn, lime, and cucumber. At least a few of these could fare very well at the likes of Baja Fresh, Chipotle, or Qdoba.

(see the rest of the article at http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/menu_development/116/frozen-1.phtml)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Frozen yogurt popularity grows despite industry downturn

(From an article published by Dawn Reiss, Special to R&I -- Restaurants and Institutions, 5/1/2008)

The economic chill gripping much of foodservice—bringing less-ambitious forecasts for new-unit openings and sales growth—has so far skirted at least one corner of the industry. Proving that little luxuries can thrive even when basic necessities are scrutinized, the frozen-yogurt segment is expanding inward from the coasts and keeping warm the industry’s entrepreneurial spirit.
This really is frozen yogurt’s second expansion wave. The first, in the 1980s, driven by brands such as TCBY and I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, lost its momentum. According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, retail sales of frozen yogurt declined between 1998 and 2003 while ice cream sales grew by 24%.

Frozen yogurt’s current popularity wave is led by new brands. Berry Chill, sno:la, and FreshBerry are joining the ranks of Pinkberry and Red Mango, which already have a strong hold on the East and West coasts. The product these new purveyors serve is different: tangier or more tart, depending on the brand, and lighter than frozen yogurt’s previous incarnation. It usually is topped with fresh fruit, granola, cereal or a more-decadent splurge, such as chocolate. Flavor choices go well beyond chocolate and vanilla territory to more-exotic options such as green tea, pomegranate and sour cherry.

The free-standing frozen-yogurt shops cater to an audience that shuns fluorescent lightening and expects a sit-and-chat type of ambience. In place of the outmoded ice-cream-parlor look, many of the stores have opted to feature high-end furniture, flat-screen televisions and Wi-Fi to lure everyone from business professionals and teens to late-night revelers. Many play upbeat dance music and have sofas and cafe-style tables that encourage customers to linger. Of more importance, the operators think that consumers are willing to spend $5 on a different frozen-yogurt experience.

See entire article at: http://www.rimag.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6556318&article_prefix=CA&article_id=6556318

Monday, May 12, 2008

San Francisco fights pollution and saves sewers

Here's a great way to help keep our sewers flowing and our municipal vehicles running cleaner - free grease recycling from the City of San Francisco. SF Greasecycle was recently established to reduce FOG (Fats - Oils - Grease) pollution from the sewer system (a $3.5M annual problem) and to create a renewable resource to run the city's diesel vehicles, as well as others interested in using this less polluting fuel source.

Blue Sky Bio Fuels in Oakland is charged with this lofty recycling project and is completing a facility that will produce 20 million gallons of converted grease to biodiesel each year. Among its customers are Michael's Transporation who serves both Vallejo and Oakland area school districts.

For more information on how to recycle your used cooking oil in San Francisco, please contact SF Greasecycle at (415) 695-7366 or visit http://www.sfgreasecycle.org/fse.shtml.