SparkBlog by The Hartman Group

New face of tea

Reimagined tea shop, Argo Tea, in Chicago and NYC features lots of tea blends including a carbonated iced tea and fun-sounding beverages like hibiscus tea sangria. The newly featured bottle teas look interesting, too. They all seem pretty gentle (i.e., not jammed with extra caffeine/ ginseng/guarana).

We've written about this in the past (and blogged about it, too). Whether it be because of a felt need to decrease traditional CSD consumption, to drink more water or to experiment with alternative beverages, consumers are increasingly demanding more innovative beverages that provide a "better fit," for their contemporary lifestyles.

While it's hard to say how authentic Argo Tea blends are, they definitely hit a mark with consumers looking for new interesting and exciting flavor profiles and higher quality experiences.

Eat pizza and walk at the same time!

K! Pizzacone recently opened their door with a revolutionary product that's dangerously reminiscent of the Onion's Feedbag. See for yourself.

 

As the Eater writes,

The long wretched years of flat pizza ennui have finally come to an end. Plywood vet and pizza visionary K! Pizzacone opened its doors today, unleashing cone-shaped pizzas into the streets of midtown Manhattan. Heads are already exploding. The early word via the "Daily News: “It just cracks me up," said Victor Nelli, the executive producer for ABC's "Ugly Betty," who was in the area scouting locations. "Tastes like a pizza," he said after taking a bite. "You can totally walk with it, and you don't have the oil dripping all over you.” It tastes like pizza! You heard it hear first, folks.

We're not Snackless in Seattle...

On a recent Trends Trek, we stopped by Snacks!, a bodega-style shop in Ballard, one of Seattle's hipper neighborhoods (local t-shirts read, "Ballard - A sleepy little drinking village with a Condo problem."). Snacks! is reminiscent of the grocery stores in Europe on every corner with something for everyone. And what a spot it was!

While kitsch is king here, with shelves lined with single-serve cereals, Pop Rocks and you never know when you might need a Scotch sponge. They really hit the mark when it comes to marketing to and owning an occasion. Snacks! hours reflects the fact that they know their Millennials audience:

Thurs: 5:00 pm - 2:30 am
Fri - Sat: 10:00 am - 2:30 am
Sun: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

The brainchild of late night hot dog cart owner, Dante's Dog's, knows his crowd. And this crowd is way hip and stays up way late. Forget the middle-of-the-week lunch scene, Snacks! is going for the after-hours munchies crowd, staying open until 2:30 am each weekend. In addition to their Thursday, Friday, Saturday bar-friendly hours, they capture a captive audience on Sunday with the overflow from one of the city's best year-round farmers' markets, which attracts an eclectic crowd of local farmers and artisans, street musicians and patrons from families to foodies.

Snacks! offerings of candies, snacks and booze gives a nod to this market fare with an emphasis on all things local, from local ice cream purveyors to sodas and candies. Here, you can also grab a food-focused spread like Skillet's Bacon Jam and an iconic Pabst Blue Ribbon, along with a thoughtful bright yellow rain poncho (great when it's pouring on your way out of the bar at 2am.) Snacks! hot dogs and soft-serve ice cream are regularly praised on Yelp. No website, just a Twitter account and a Facebook page suggest their clientele are ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. 

If you're in the area and craving a snack at 2 in the morning, check 'em out!

Intersection of food and cycling = Pedaling.tv

  Here's the concept according to their website:

Equipped with only two wheels and a love of communing, our social-savvy hosts embark on culinary bike tours throughout the New York City metropolitan area - exploring each unique neighborhood’s vibrant characters, scenic destinations, and memorable rides. PEDALING hosts will guide viewers through some of the city’s best nooks and crannies. Episodes will contain practical tips for urban cycling, including an inside peek at a professional bike fitting, traffic etiquette, and where cyclists in the area ride, eat, and live. Special guest stars and a few unexpected forks in the road lie in store for our PEDALING hosts.

The first few episodes are heavily food-centric with chefs, spice traders and visits to food trucks and a hefty dose of sustainability thrown in.

Breaking news! CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) parodies itself!

According to "new" research by CSPI, the popcorn at movie theaters is loaded with fat in the form of “artery-clogging coconut oil!”
 
In what the objective scientists refer to as the “Godzilla of Snacks,” the consumer can expect to find as much “60 grams of saturated fat…That’s equal to three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter.”
 
All of this might seem interesting if not for the fact that (a) they first reported these findings 15 years ago, (b) it is increasingly unclear why we should be concerned with saturated fat and (c) many people are actually trumpeting the benefits of coconut oil.
 
As ardent cinema fans, we would be the first to admit there’s no getting around that sinking, logy feeling you get when you snarf down a bucket of oil-drenched goodness. And the calories are enough to fill the stomach of the great Tanzanian Wildebeest.
 
But other than those few extra calories, there is simply no credible evidence to suggest that movie theater popcorn is any more dangerous to our lives than a good old-fashioned PB&J sandwich. But hey, debunking the CSPI is nothing new.
 
But cinema fans need not worry, for if there’s anything the CSPI’s 15-year cycle of parody has taught us, it’s that nothing has changed. We still devour our fat-laden goodness, only with increasing confidence from the real scientific community that the boogeyman doesn’t exist.
 
And for those who can’t wait for the sequels (SPOILER ALERT), the next villains will be cinnamon buns, Chinese food and, of course, the parade of evil fast food villains (i.e., The Hamburglar).

Airport board rooms going foodie

Evidence that no place is too hurried, transient or mainstream for food trends to make their presence. And of particular interest as this one is not only "foodie" but "local" as well. This from an Alaska Airlines statement:

An Afternoon of Epicurean Delight

Drop into the Seattle Board Room Thursday, November 19, between 2 and 6 p.m. for a special culinary event, featuring àMaurice Cellars and Chef Scott Lents from Kirkland's bin on the lake Wine Bar & Restaurant. Anna Schafer from àMaurice will be pouring a selection of wines and Scott Lents will offer a selection of delicious appetizers.

(Yet, clearly, there are some places where going gourmet just doesn't seem, well, appetizing. We probably won't be making a special trip.)

Is Gluten the new boogeyman?

If you missed it, September 13th was National Celiac Disease Awareness Day. But don't worry because October is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. The whole month!

This begs the question: Is gluten the new boogeyman? Consumer interest in gluten-free eating habits—as well as gluten-free products—is unquestionably on the rise; and foodservice, food retailers and CPG companies are quickly jumping on the trend.

While many marketers have estimated 15% to 25% of U.S. consumers are interested in gluten-free products, our own research concludes that the number is 13.2%, or about 40 million people (data gathered by the Hartman Group from a nationally representative sample of 1,730 US consumers fielded in July, 2009).

While this is currently a sizeable marketplace, important questions remain regarding long-term opportunity. Is gluten-free an enduring trend with serious legs? Or, alternately, is our collective interest in gluten-free merely a passing fancy much like low-carb dieting? Likewise, while there is no question that sales of gluten-free products are experiencing rapid growth, one must remember that any new category experiences such growth. It’s easy to generate impressive growth results when you start from zero.

Happy Celiac Disease Awareness Month, everyone!

For more, sign up for our free 15-minute webinar: Gluten-Free: Context, Insights & Predictions, 09.17.2009, 10AM PT

Russian Haired Sausage

The latest in food trends is the “Russian Haired Sausage” which provides even further proof that the post-industrial world is now fully upon us.

If you can imagine it, it will happen.

Via English Russian

Chickens at the checkout counter: brilliant or a bust?

Reports are out this week that Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, will soon be selling live chickens as they embrace the "grow your own" trend. Seeing a boom in sales of vegetable seeds in the past year, they're expanding their offerings by selling chicks and live egg-laying chickens and buying 30 allotments to rent for growing your own produce.

This isn't, of course, the first chicken story as of late. In fact, the "urban chicken" concept, keeping chickens in city settings, has been positioned as a bit of a trend. There's even an organization "dedicated to promoting backyard chickens in urban residential landscapes." They list a number of reasons to "add chickens into your urban lifestyle":

• Local source of protein
• Better quality
• Sources of fertilizer
• Natural pest control
• And...it's fun! (??!!)

So is this really a trend worth following? Well, we'd say don't count your chickens until they're hatched. To quote Jack Shafer, media critic for Slate, “keeping chickens is a filthy, time-consuming, and expensive way to keep the pantry filled with eggs.”  When abundant and bountiful farmers' markets are selling superior eggs for a little bit of cash, why trouble yourself with chicken feed, chicken coops and lotsa chicken poop?

Consumers are redefining quality every day in ways previously unimaginable. Markers of quality, like fresh and local, do evoke an image and elicit an expectation of authenticity. And in today's marketplace, it's no longer enough to merely sell items; forward-thinking retailers must also create, manage and sell authentic experiences if they hope to differentiate their stores in a way that has significant relevance with consumers. Tesco's definitely doing that here. However, while it's true that consumers are looking to participate in the culture of food and are seeking high-quality, authentic food experiences, they want to do it on their own terms and in a way that's comfortable for them to participate. Cleaning out chickens coops might not be it.

Tesco is, however, positioning themselves as an forward-thinking advocate for their customers' lifestyles, helping them on their journeys in both the world of food AND the world of sustainability. Here they walk the talk in both.

Finally, a Pyramid-Shaped Watermelon

The Japanese fetish for unnaturally shaped watermelons shows no sign of abating.

The following reports of square- and heart-shaped watermelons being all the rage among foodists in Japan, while a pyramid-shaped watermelon craze has overtaken the city of Fukoka.

Pictured here, a 10-inch watermelon is on sale for 52,500 yen or $556.

Via The Food Section
Read the full story.