Voici ce complexe réunissant un marché local ainsi qu’un hôtel de 15 chambres, les 2 parties étant reliées par un atrium dont une zone prévue pour la vente de produits locaux aux références à la tradition japonaise. Située dans la préfecture de Kochi, cette création de Kengo Kuma And Associates se dévoile dans la suite.
Voici cette excellente campagne print réalisée par l’agence Scholz & Friends pour la chaine de supermarchés biologiques frais « Fresh`N´Friends ». Une mise en scène des fruits de manière originale pour attirer les familles et les enfants à acheter de la nourriture saine et biologique. Plus d’images dans la suite.
Organic ingredients and natural sweetness from six boutique soda makers
Channeling the flavors of childhood without the sugary side effects, natural sodas keep the fizz while eliminating harmful preservatives. Instead, these sustainably sourced drinks call upon organically grown ingredients for the freshest in flavor. The following is a selection of six sodas that combine light sweetness with a bit of zest for a satisfying substitute to that classic can of Coke.
The 100% local, fresh ingredients packed in a bottle of Hot Lips bring the best of the Pacific Northwest straight to your lips. Recycled glass bottles house some spectacular essences, and we’re partial to the velvety Boysenberry—a rare flavor in the soda world—which is made from fruit out of Western Washington’s Willamette Valley.
Handcrafting cordials since the 70s, Belvoir Fruit Farms
creates perfectly balanced sodas that reflect their freshly picked contents. The assortment of fizz-filled “pressés” actually quench your thirst while tingling your palate with the delicate flavors of elderflower, lime and lemongrass, cranberry and English apple, among others.
Created by Bruce Cost, the author of “Ginger East to West”, Fresh Ginger Ale is arguably the purest ginger drink around. The lightly carbonated soda is made exclusively from fresh ginger and cane sugar, and is left unfiltered with a rich, full-bodied flavor profile. While perfectly good solo, the drink shines when paired with a plate of fresh sushi or mixed with a measure of gin.
The century-old soda maker Fentimans prides itself on a “botanically brewed” process, which involves infusion, boiling and a seven-day fermentation period. Made from natural ingredients like ginger root, dandelion leaves and juniper berries, many of the heavily spiced concoctions drinks also pack a strong caffeine punch.
Dry Soda Co. was born from the intent to create a non-alcoholic drink with full flavor and a small amount of pure cane sugar. Clear and elegant bottles contain exotic flavors of rhubarb, juniper, lavender and lemongrass alongside more mellow offerings of blood orange, cucumber, wild lime and vanilla bean.
Old-fashioned Maine Root is rightfully known for flagship root beer, although we’re partial to the Spicy Ginger brew and regional favorite sarsaparilla, which is touted as a lighter alternative to the root beer. The Portland-based company uses fair trade ingredients and organic evaporated cane juice for sweetness.
Seasoned food writer Nigel Slater presents an ode to fruit
In follow-up to “Tender“, his dedicated volume on vegetables, London-based food writer Nigel Slater turns to the fruit section of his garden in “Ripe“. The beautifully photographed tome serves as a comprehensive primer on 23 types of fruit and a collection of more than 300 recipes, but most importantly, reads like an alphabetically organized love letter to each and every variety, from apples and apricots to gooseberries, damsons and elderflower.
Overseeing a 40-foot terrace garden off his London flat, Slater extolls his devotion to fruit, which despite their secondary role in the importance of his growing efforts, fill him with an unparalleled sense of joy and wonder season after season. “I always knew that if ever I found a space in which to grow a few knobbly vegetables of my own, some of it would be set aside for fruit,” says Slater in an introduction that walks the reader through each row and past each bush and tree of his small city garden. “Their pleasures are brief, and yes, there is always a struggle to get there before the birds and the squirrels,” he continues. “But it is hard to find a mulberry more exquisite than the one you have grown for yourself, a strawberry more sweet, or a fig more seductive.”
Slater’s prose will delight fellow gardeners and offer indispensable instructions for the uninitiated. You may be inspired to start growing yourself, or at the very least, find a new appreciation for those who provide us with such sweet bounty at the market each week. Each fruit’s section comes prefaced with Slater’s deeply personal and highly informative analysis. “Without heat,” he says, “there is little point to the black currant. He goes on to pay homage to what he calls the “cook’s fruit” with concise recipe for making jelly—a hobby he picked up much to his amusement.
Each fruit he outlines by their behavior in the garden and purpose in the kitchen, listing details on their many varieties and offering proper pairings among different herbs spices and other ingredients. Throughout the practical introductions Slater reiterates the pleasure he derives from fruit, likening a bag of cherries to “a bag of happiness” because “their appearance, in deepest summer, comes when life is often at its most untroubled.”
Recipes are simple and thrilling. “When the oven has been on for a roast, I sometimes sneak in a dish of baked fruit,” offers Slater, as an intro to a recipe for baked pears with marsala. From lamb with quinces to classic applesauce and gooseberry fool, dishes represent rustic delicacies from several different cultures while sticking to Slater’s essential unfussy but still very passionate attitude toward his ingredients. Despite the collection’s creative range, the author reassures us “you should find nothing to raise an eyebrow…no flights of fancy, no strawberry sauce with chicken to upset the family at suppertime.”
All the sweetness of fruit shines through in their thorough explanation and simple imagery throughout this thick new book. “Ripe” drops 10 April 2012 and is currently available for pre-order through Ten Speed Press and Amazon.
Sourcing fruits for Jessica Koslow’s line of boutique preserves
One bite of crusty bread spread with Sqirl raspberry and fresh lavender jam made by Jessica Koslow creates an explosion of local flavor. From the taste of such a juicy creation, it’s hard to believe that Koslow swears she barely ate fruit as a child. Now, her sweet preserves are quickly gaining popularity among discerning consumers and pastry chefs alike.
The day after Koslow returned from a trip to London to sample bitter marmalades—she’s on a mission to satisfy her new bitter orange craving—we tagged along for a drive to Mud Creek Ranch in Santa Paula, California. Koslow has made several jams with Steve and Robin Smith of Mud Creek, including, for one, pineapple quince with rosewater.
With the Smiths’ menagerie of seven dogs in tow, Koslow checks out the Pitanga cherries, Palestinian limes, and Bergamots and places her order—”Whatever you have I’ll take it,” she says.
Still thinking about oranges, Koslow inquires about Sevilles or other bitter orange varieties like Bouquetiers, but Robin advises her that Sevilles are too hard to grow in their climate, despite several attempts. Miraculously, Mud Creek did yield a tree of Bouquetiers for the first time this season, and Koslow is able to leave with a heaping bag for her marmalade quest. She feels that American jams tend to be sweeter—and Sqirl skews on the sweet side of those American options—but for her, the bitter marmalade flavors of London are where her heart is at the moment.
The next morning Koslow will make her way to the other side of Los Angeles to the
Santa Monica Farmer’s Market where she will see Smith and the other farmers she has
befriended along her food journey. Then she’ll head back to Sqirl headquarters pull
out the custom copper pots—made for her by David Burns of Copper Gardens—and begin the process of making her bitter marmalade one juicy fruit at a time.
Koslow jarred more than 6,000 containers of jam on 2011, in addition to piles of pickles, sauerkraut, cocktail syrups, candies orange peels, and several other small batch projects—all emblazoned with the bold Sqirl label designed by Scott Barry.
Sqirl jams are available at 15 Southern California retailers including Lindy & Grundy as well as in the Sqirl e-shop.
An all natural “supercandy” ups your game with its performance-driven ingredients
Recognizing that most people think about candy first and nutrition second, the just-announced line of Snap Infusion Supercandy seeks to provide snackers with both. Each biodegradable package of candy contains a daily dose of B vitamins, antioxidants and electrolytes delivered via patented “Snap bead” microcapsules.
There’s no pretense that these are “health” food; the creators wanted to make candy, but candy that was healthier than most. Snap’s launching with five classic candy varieties: gum, tarts, caramels, gummies and jelly beans. Each is naturally flavored, colored and sweetened. There’s no high fructose corn syrup and no trans fats. And while they still pack a calorie punch, it’s around half that of most similar treats.
Snap is the latest project of Andover, MA-based husband and wife team Eric and Andrea Stoll, well-known personalities in the athletic industry. Eric previously worked as the Marketing Director of Finnish running brand Karhu, while Andrea had senior roles at both Converse Sport and Vans. This experience helped them form the concept, marketing strategy, design and packaging for the product.
Snap will be available in August 2011 for around $2 a pack at sports stores and natural food markets across the USA. It will also be available online at Amazon and the Snap site.
Colombian dark chocolate packed with a healthy crunch of real freeze-dried fruit
Wanting to combine the finest quality chocolate with “fruit in its purest form,” MarieBelle founder Maribel turned to freeze-dried fruit specialists Van Drunen Farms for her new Chocolate and Fruit Bars. The crispy organic bits mixed into MarieBelle’s single-origin Colombian dark chocolate add a surprising texture not unlike puffed rice, but with a vibrant flavor kick and the nutritional value of fruit resulting from the freeze drying process.
The technique means that the bar’s intense flavors comes directly from the fruit inside, eliminating the need for additives, preservatives or artificial flavorings “to show people that by using the best quality ingredients you can make something simple but so flavorful and rich!”
While the banana bar has the most pleasing crunch, the blueberry and strawberry were quickly nibbled up by our tasters too. Other flavors include mango and apricot, and each sells online, at the MarieBelle store in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood and at select Whole Foods for around $7 a bar.
A full fruit spectrum in candy form, without the artificial dyes
Since bringing a roll of
Mentos‘ new fruit-flavored candies back from Switzerland earlier this month, I’ve been searching online and in local NYC stores for them constantly. Luckily, it looks as if I don’t have to resort to ordering
a box from Amazon as we found them in a deli today and scooped up a few for an official Cool Hunting tasting.
Packaged in order for fun and easy flavor identification (we like how even the foil keeps up the colorful code), standout flavors tend toward the less-common choices, with pineapple being the clear winner and raspberry a close second. As a whole, while these still have an artificial tang, the flavor profiles hint at a more “natural” direction, with watermelon drawing as much praise as criticism for the distinctly summery hints of green rind.
A closer look at the ingredients reveals that the natural taste isn’t just lipservice either. Rather than the usual numbers and letters, Mentos lists turmeric, beta-carotene and beetroot, among others, as colors used. Free of high fructose corn syrup too, all we can say is take warning Skittles.
An 80-year-old candy maker gives their classic confection a tropical twist
Since 1930, when Charles Howard first started peddling his “unique and different flavored” violet candy on Manhattan’s street corners, not much has changed in the brand’s line-up. Peppermint, lemon and spearmint have also been enduring options under the Choward’s label, but last year’s introduction of guava candy marks the first new flavor in over 50 years. The confection is a crowd-pleasing tropical flavor that wins points both for its softer texture as well as for a not-too-sweet but authentic take on the fruit.
For those looking for a non-minty way to freshen breath (what has made me a longtime fan of Violet Choward’s), Guava comes as a welcome addition to corner store shelves. Pick up a box of 24 for $13.50 from Choward’s directly or get a single pack for $.80 from Victory Seeds.
Cool Hunting marries bean-to-bar chocolate and artisanally-processed fruit in a delicious collaborative bar
We admit to a serious weakness for the mind-altering tastes of the artisinal chocolates crafted by the Mast Brothers. Intent on bringing out the heavenly natural flavor of cacao, primarily sourced from Venezuela and Ecuador, the brotherly duo of Rick and Michael Mast developed a process for producing the finest in small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate. Their signature flavors, running the gamut from single origin Dominican and Madagascarian bars to chocolate sprinkled with roasted Stumptown coffee beans, range from the deliciously rich to the downright sublime.
We’ve previously featured the Brooklyn-based Brothers in our Cool Hunting video series, so it seemed only natural that we would pair these chocolatiers with stem-to-fruit guru June Taylor, another video subject. Taylor, a longtime favorite of Cool Hunting, uses traditional preserving methods to make positively ambrosial jams, preserves, syrups and marmalades. Her creatively paired concoctions include Oro Blanco Grapefruit and Rose Geranium marmalade as well as Wild Fennel Syrup; everything she whips up in her Berkeley kitchen is yummy, natural and inventive.
The Mast Brothers bar that utilizes June Taylor’s fruit combines the best of each purveyor’s specialties; the CH Edition 72% bar features sumptuous Madagascar chocolate as well as Taylor’s candied blood orange peels and candied oro blanco grapefruit peels. Of his collaborator, Rick Mast gushes, “June Taylor is the greatest woman on Earth who is pioneering amazing fruit confections. She is also a babe.” We can’t imagine a sweet treat (from two sweeter companies) that we’d rather find in our stocking than this delightful concoction.
Find the Mast Brothers and June Taylor chocolate bar exclusively at our Cool Hunting for Gap holiday pop up shop.
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