Morningstar Artisan Foods

A Curated Collection of Culinary Delights & Health and Wellness Products from Around the World!

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These are the Importers and Makers we Broker to Distributors.

  • Wyoming Authentic Beef Jerky, Sticks & Bites

  • Elevation Artisan Meats

  • Italian Harvest Regional Artisan Foods from Italy

  • Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard

  • Bunches and Bunches Moles, Green Sauce and Ginger Snaps

  • Dirty Sue #1 Premium Olive Juice and Garnishes  for
    Dirty Martinis and More

  • Absinthia’s Craft Cocktail Syrups

  • ZOE WATER…  ALKALINE WATER 

  • SOBAR World First Protein Bar Designed by a MD, PhD Food Scientist 

  • ROOT 66 Certified Organic CBD and Ayurvedic Tinctures and Balms

  • SOY Naturista Certified Organic Ayurvedic Preparations

First of all Wyoming Authentic is a hot property at retail…  Not only is it health food compared to its competitors, it is selling well head to head even though it is more expensive. 

Their first chain was 7/11 in the Northeast and it is doing great… the 2nd was Publix storewide and it took off there also.  I’d say there are 2 reasons for its success. 

The package is sensational, it’s a real eye catcher and reflective of the Great American West. 

It’s made with Grass Fed Beef from a select group of Wyoming Ranches with no preservatives so it’s right on target with current trends where people all over the country want to eat cleaner better foods!

  • No MSG, Nitrites, Nitrates or Artificial Ingredients

  • Gluten Free

  • Grass-Fed-Angus Beef exclusively from a select group of family owned Wyoming Ranches

  • Made in the company’s own USDA Facility in Cody, Wyoming

So Elevation has done a good job of keeping up with demand to this point even though the brand has been growing steadily the last 2 years in chains like Spec’s Finer Foods, AJ’s, Whole Foods and even COSTCO.   As much as I love the butcher paper burrito it is a time consuming and expensive luxury.  Starting in April we are moving to the nitrogen flushed “flow pack” you see above.  For the time being we will still be cryovacing the chubs but as we get more comfortable with the new machinery that could change.

Chad’s crew did a really great job with the art work and the change in colors with each flavor along with the topographic pattern were both great ideas!

Artisan Regional Foods from Italy

Italian Harvest… Starts with 6 of Italy’s best Artisan Pasta Makers

This book of makers is truly Small Batch and Artisan from all over Italy.    Think Real Artisan Pasta, all the ingredients to make  Authentic Sauces, Prepared Sauces and Regional Delicacies. We have been successful helping clients build a store set that sells through with remarkable consistency.

The best thing about the store set we recommend is that it is a visual thing. You don’t even need to demo it just display it properly. 

 

 

 

Artisan Pasta is all about Italian Organic Durum Wheat & Ancient Grains, a slow traditional production process, shapes and colors.  Your better customers will love the pasta.  They’ll taste the difference with Italian Harvest and they will come back to buy it time and again!

 

 

 

 

These are shockingly good and so easy…new product from Marella that is the best pasta maker in Italy.  It is an all in one pasta and sauce…. add 4 cups of hot water and a TBS of  olive oil then stir for 18-30 minutes depending on the ingredients (Heirloom Lentils take a bit longer) and also accounting for altitude (we live at 4600 ft.) and it is ready. I finish with a drizzle of bright Olive Oil and a touch of salt and some grated cheese. 

Plus there are new edition on the website….  ItalianHarvest.com Click to View

 

 

 

 

John Blount who created Italian Harvest  grew up in Italy and speaks the language like a native which sadly I did not pick up from my parents.  In his misspent youth he hitchhiked and rode his motorcycle all over Italy.  This gave him a good sense of the food culture. His intimate knowledge of the peninsula has had a positive influence on the way he selected the products for the catalog. As further proof Italian Harvest has won close to  50 SOFI Awards.

What I like most about Italian Harvest’s book is that is that it covers the basics of Pasta, Risotto and the the raw ingredients around which professional and home chefs can create really delicious authentic meals. Most of the classic recipes are really simple but they are ingredient centric.  You just cant replicate the terroir where these ingredients come from.  Plus their farming practices are better.

The makers themselves represent the Slow Food movement at it’s best never straying from tradition in order to save a few pennies. Everything in the book is the real deal.

 

 

 

It is all  about the flavor, mouth feel and texture when it comes to these artisan foods. One of the tell-tale signs that you are looking at “Real Artisan Pasta” is that in its uncooked state it has a rough texture.  You can feel it just by running a finger nail over it, even through a cellophane wrapper.  Industrial pasta by comparison feels very smooth to the touch. Once they’ve have had pasta of this quality consumers tend to adopt it. 

My older sister is a master of Italian Emigrant Cooking having picked it up from our mother who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject having frown up in NYC in a family that owned Italian Markets.  Anna Marie fine tuned her style with a number of classes in Italy.  Today she just loves showing off our mother’s recipes made with ingredients from Italian Harvest to her friends in Florida. 

 

 

Funny thing is you don’t have to be a total geek to tune into it.  Your better customers will figure it out the first time they try it!  I actually have had customers tell me “it tastes more like real food than pasta”.  

Ranise (below) is one of the best Olive Oil producers on the planet (96 Points in the Flos Olei Guide). The olive varietal they are famous for is Taggascia  grown in the hills above the Med in Liguria.  It makes a very pretty olive oil and they are great snacking olives.  The family are sensational farmers and all the little jars are just packed with flavor!  Basil or Ligurian Pesto is a regional specialty which means it doesn’t get any better than this.

 

 

 

Long story but we have had to deal with a certain amount of Gluten Intolerance.  So for a couple of years and intermittently there after we were forced to experiment with Gluten Free Pasta. Most of it tasted like cardboard. 

It was a happy day when we discovered La Rosa Gluten Free Pasta.  Slow extrusion through bronze dies and 2-4 days of drying at low temperatures just like our other Artisan Makers in the book but made with Organic Corn and Rice.  They are a really wonderful maker and you’d be doing your customers who require Gluten Free products a huge favor.

This is a really important sub-category in your pasta set as the number of consumers that are gluten intolerant is vast. 

 

 

So there are a couple of options here… You can take a look at the best seller list or visit the website to see the entire book. Prices on the site are at 50% GM on the site. The Price List Link will show you distributor pricing.

 

Condiments…

  • Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard

  • Bunches & Bunches

Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard…

This is a really great maker and on the West Coast where we have distribution it is very popular.  We really need some  grocery chains to sign on so that we can bring in few more distributors for this incredible Mustard line.

Just look at the mustard on your shelves and compare to the Kozlik’s package which has a lot of eye appeal.  The program we are offering distributors should put the w/s price at $3.49 and have Kozlik’s on the shelf at $5.99 to $6.99 at a 40-50% Gross Margin.  In Seattle and Portland they routinely sell it at $7.99 and online it is ridiculous.  You could say Kozlik’s has a cult following.

The 6 or 7 top sellers pictured below are a good place to start… for more info Click on the Image Below.

Bunches & Bunches

Tamalpais Star Roth-McCormick (goes by “Pai.”) is a professional chef, cookie maven and creator of Bunches & Bunches Ltd. based in Portland, OR.  She been real popular winning all sorts of prestigious food awards and receives a ton of press around the country.  We love finishing chicken in the sauces.  If you do well with gourmet cookies hers are the bomb. Dick Taylor, one of the country’s best chocolate makers uses her Snaps in one of their seasonal chocolate bars.  Click on the Image Below for more information and pricing.

The Dirty Sue Martini is a success story at retail and it should be in every good grocery store in the land.

Dirty Sue is a great cocktail mixer for a reason.

  • One Eric doesn’t mess with the brine which comes from Andalusia Spain. It’s not the stuff used to pack olives in jars.  It’s what they age olives in prior to packaging.  All he does is filter it twice and touch it with Spring Water till the flavor is olives. It won’t ruin your top shelf gin or vodka, it enhances it!

  • No BS stories about using a one ton press (that’s what they used to use to make Olive Oil) just brine and water and we skip the preservatives and additional salt.

  • It is also great in Bloody Mary’s, in Bloody Maria’s and Margaritas and a variety of other  cocktails you can view on our recipe site. Barmen will also water it down a little more and  put it in a dasher bottle to use sparingly to add salinity to cocktails.

Dirty Sue Cocktail Garnishes

  • Grade A Extra Large Andalusian Olives from Spain’s top DOP.  They have a firm bite and taste noticeably better than all the other olives on the market.

  • The Pimento and Jalapeno Stuffed Olives are very popular.  However, for our clients the #1 garnish is the Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives.  The secret is ET uses real Wisconsin Blue Chees so it has a creamier bite than the concrete bricks the other makers use.

  • The XL Cocktail Onions and the crazy good in a Gibson Cocktail. They and the wicked good Jalapeno Stuffed Onions pair really well in Cocktails where olives and pickled onions make an interesting garnish. The Gen. Patton Martini and Bloody Mary’s & Marias come to mind. 

  • In Florida the Double Stuffed (Garlic & Jalapeno) Olives, which happen to be the most expensive garnish in the line, are #2 in sales behind the Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives so I am making a point to recommend this sku.  Price is not an object with Dirty Sue as consumers come to the brand looking for bigger and better!

  • Dirty sue is #1 On and Off Premise in every market we have placement.

  • The package does all the work for you as the graphics are great and the name is a cute play on words!

 

 

The Spice Mix from Dirty Sue is nothing like the Bloody Mary Mixes you see on store shelves.   When combined with spirits and a fresh bottle of tomato juice it creates a flavor profile and mouthfeel like nothing you have ever tried before. It’s light years better than even the best small batch mixes I have tasted over the years… 

I sampled it with Tequila the first time just because because Vodka tends to bore me.  However I went out and bought a handle of Kettle One the next day and it has been really popular entry at my COVID cocktail parties ever since.  

ET is a searcher…  and he’s been fascinated with the way top barman approach their Bloody Mary recipes around the country! A while back he had his Eureka moment with this staple of the cocktail scene and below Craft Spirits will share the story of how he got there! 

This Article was published in Craft Spirits Magazine…

Dirty Sue, created by long-time LA bartender Eric “ET” Tecosky (Jones Hollywood), creator of the bottled premium olive juice category and maker of fine cocktail garnishes, announces the launch of Dirty Sue Bloody Mary Spice Mix.

All natural, gluten free, and vegan Dirty Sue Bloody Mary Spice Mix is now available.  Ask your distributor about this NextGen Mixer Each 16 oz bottle of tomato juice-free Dirty Sue Bloody Mary Spice Mix can yield approximately 21-32 drinks depending on how spicy or flavorful you prefer your Bloody Mary. That’s almost three times more than a traditional 750 ml bottle of tomato juice-based Bloody Mary mix makes.

Dirty Sue Founder Eric ‘ET’ Tecosky has been working on his Bloody Mary Spice Mix for over a decade. The recipe originated during his time as Bar Manager of Jones Hollywood in Los Angeles. Soon after launching Dirty Sue Premium Olive Juice, which he formulated specifically for use in dirty martinis, he decided to put some time into another passion – Bloody Marys. The mix at Jones hadn’t been updated for a while and, inspired, he sensed there was room for improvement. Afterall, how hard could it be? 

He was about to find out.

While on his annual pilgrimage to New Orleans for Jazz Fest, ET started to pay close attention to the city’s Bloody Marys – some of the best around. He noticed how many bars infused their vodka with pickled goodness – olives, onions, green beans, etc. He had enjoyed them for years in ‘vacation mode,’ but now it was time for a little R&D. Back in LA, he started to tinker and taste and was moving solidly in the right direction, but the mix still needed something.

More tinkering and tasting. And for the second time since asking himself why nobody bottled olive juice for dirty martinis, a lightbulb went on. OLIVE JUICE – that was it! He grabbed a bottle. He played around with the ratio until, Eureka! The olive juice that was only supposed to be for dirty martinis became the secret ingredient to the new mix, providing a full, round, delicious umami experience.

Now, rather than ET asking himself, “How come nobody bottles this stuff?” It was his guests at Jones who wondered aloud – and frequently – why he didn’t bottle his Dirty Sue Bloody Mary? The answer wasn’t so simple. First, how to capture the flavor from the infused vodka into a stand-alone spice mix? The answer was many, many trips to the spice store and, yes, many, many tastings. Second, how to make it less perishable than traditional mixes? This was an easier fix: no tomato juice. That could be added per drink! The hard work paid off and, after a decade of on-again, off-again R&D, Dirty Sue Bloody Mary Spice Mix is in the bottle and on shelves.

Nickel Dime’s… Advanced Cocktail Syrups are all over the current trends in Cocktail Culture!  Not only do they allow consumers to create Restaurant Quality Craft Cocktails at home with ease, for the more adventurous these syrups can be used to do riffs on all manner of stirred cocktails as well.  

This is a Very Versatile Cocktail Syrup 

Gift Sets are a wonderful way to introduce consumers to advanced syrups and mixers.  In fact it does all of the hard work for you on the shelf!  We see this strategy work with bitters sets all the time!

NickelDime Cocktail Syrups are a hot commodity online. And fit the mold of what several distributors who specialize in cocktail culture have told me are their best sellers which happen to be in the advanced mixer category. 

NickelDime syrups come with a slew of recipes for easy to make Craft Cocktails at home. 

In addition these advanced syrups can also be used in stirred cocktails to jazz up any that call for a sweet modifier and bitters.  Good examples are Old Fashioneds The Cherry Bomb works with Bourbon or Rye and Caged Heat work with Tequila, Rum or Bourbon.  Fairy Dust is a substitute for Absinthe in many ways. It can be used with any recipe calling for an absinthe wash.  I make a Gin Old Fashioned with a tsp of Fairy Dust and 2-3 dashes of Orange Bitters that’s sensational.  

The founders of Nickel Dime Cocktail Syrups.  

Jared Hirsch is a Mixologist, Bar Manager at Oakland’s Sidebar.  He has won multiple awards for his drinks, syrups and bar program, including the Four Roses National Cocktail Challenge at Tales of the Cocktail, Jameson’s Movember competition, and was a finalist in Belvedere’s National Project (Red) competition in New York.

Absinthia Vermut is an entrepreneur with a passion for making things that help others make better cocktails. Her first taste of absinthe was in 1996. She served her first bootleg bottles to friends a few months later on April Fool’s Day 1997, where she received the nickname, Absinthia. She continued making absinthe until suddenly one day, March 5, 2007 to be exact, the ban on absinthe was lifted. Never expecting absinthe to be legal in her lifetime, she knew she wanted to produce an organic absinthe. 

In 2013, she legally changed her name to Absinthia (Vermut is on her birth certificate), trademarked it, and founded Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits, LLC in order to bring her organic absinthe to market. Finally able to sell her absinthe legally in September 2017, Absinthia™ Organic Absinthe Superieure began to appear in bars, restaurants, and bottle shops and won its first gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2018. Six awards and one year later, Absinthia Organic Absinthe is currently available in California, New York, and Louisiana. Absinthia is a member of the Women’s Cocktail Collective.

A funny thing happed durring a conversation with well known barman “ET” (Eric Tecosky) and owner of American Mixers / Dirty Sue…  He introduced me to the crew at Soy Naturista and we now have a Health and Wellness Category…  

We all know that water is vital to our survival, but is your drinking water helping you maintain an ideal pH balance? We believe it should be.

WHY IONIZED WATER?

Just about every important function of your body is linked to and monitored by proper hydration, but what does that really mean? Proper hydration requires getting water to each and every cell in your body. Seems simple enough, right? Well here’s the catch: the cells in our bodies are positively charged and so are the molecules in most drinking waters. This means… you guessed it, they repel one another (who said you weren’t paying attention to your 8th grade science teacher?).

This is why most water leaves you feeling bloated and making frequent trips to the bathroom. Through our unique ionization process, ZOÉ WATER is negatively charged for deep hydration at the cellular level that never leaves you feeling heavy — proof that a negative can sometimes be a big positive!

We all know that water is vital to our survival, but is your drinking water helping you maintain an ideal pH balance? We believe it should be.

WHY IONIZED WATER?

Just about every important function of your body is linked to and monitored by proper hydration, but what does that really mean? Proper hydration requires getting water to each and every cell in your body. Seems simple enough, right? Well here’s the catch: the cells in our bodies are positively charged and so are the molecules in most drinking waters. This means… you guessed it, they repel one another (who said you weren’t paying attention to your 8th grade science teacher?).

This is why most water leaves you feeling bloated and making frequent trips to the bathroom. Through our unique ionization process, ZOÉ WATER is negatively charged for deep hydration at the cellular level that never leaves you feeling heavy — proof that a negative can sometimes be a big positive!

 

I would have never guessed that SOBAR would Win SOFI GOLD this year as the competition is intense in the Health and Wellness Category.

Food & Wine just released their article about SOBAR so they are continuing to get considerable good press!

SOBAR is going to be a featured at one of the worlds great festivals in 2022 (I am not allowed to tell you which one but there’s always a a lot of drinking going on!). 

Before it even hits the retail market there will be 100,000 bars going to a distributor in China. 

We’re in the business, but alcohol is a big problem in the USA and the world.  SOBAR can alleviate some of the downside risks of drinking and even add some points to our Karma.

In addition to its ability to slow down the absorption of alcohol by 50% it is the world’s best source of protein in a bar!  This should be in every liquor store, specialty market and grocery in the country.

 

 

SOBAR is a revolutionary concept in Protein Bars. 

  • Dr. Fisher found that there were no real guidelines for judging the quality and effectiveness of protein bars even at the FDA.  It was a no-mans land of misinformation.  In fact he ended up developing the tools and data to do so himself.

  • SOBAR was designed to provide a highly effective source of protein that could also reduce peak blood alcohol concentration by preventing the absorption of 50% of the alcohol consumed in cocktails.  Now that is food for thought!

Nobody knows what a protein bar actually is…
at least until Joe came along!

Yes, you did read that correctly! The FDA has not established the specific attributes of what defines a “protein bar”.  Any “bar” with any amount of protein can be labeled as a “protein bar” as long as its protein content is specified properly in the Nutrition Facts on its wrapper.  (Definitely Click on the first link below where Joe documents all the research he has done on Protein Bars and what they contain.)

This fact, along with the current popularity of protein supplementation, has led to an abundance of “protein bars” and related products with a huge range of protein enrichment. Furthermore, some of these “protein bars” are loaded with sugar and fat and are not the most nutritionally sound snacks.

For many, “The Most Important Hour of the Day”!

I have never worked with a food scientist before but it confirms much about food & supplement biz that sometimes goes untold.  That said we have done hundreds of seminars related to good food and drink.  From that experience and the time spent hand-selling Wine, Spirits & Craft Beer, I can tell you for a fact that most consumers should eat a SOBAR prior to Cocktail Hour…  

 

Meet Joe Fisher, MD, PhD,  the Creator of THE SOBAR…

State-Of-The-Art, Natural Products and Methods.

From seed-to-home, we are USA-based business. Our hemp extract CBD products are made AND sourced from organic farms in Oregon and the renowned “Emerald Triangle” in California. Our agriculture and production methods and practices are state-of-the-art, sustainable, ethical, and eco-sensitive. This means that our hemp extract products are natural, vegan, gluten-free, pesticide-free, and contain only non-GMO organic ingredients. Perhaps most importantly, we are science-based and use third party testing and validation for our ingredients, formulations, and benefits.