This guest-blog comes courtesy of our new Operations Associate Extraordinaire, Christina Rohrmann.... 

On June 18, the NY Times published an article entitled "Sweet Rewards for Apricot Explorers", telling the story of one Californian’s journey to find the perfect apricot for an American market.  John Driver’s ripe apricots debut this summer, while here at Peeled Snacks we are excited for the arrival of Apricot-a-lot, which also makes its first appearance nationwide, online and in many stores which currently carry Peeled Snacks varieties. Apricot-a-lot debuts at the summer’s end, right in time for the fall back-to-school craze.

I haven’t yet tasted John Driver’s ripe apricots, but find them interesting considering the catchy sales pitch as CandyCots. According to Driver, these apricots, whose seeds originate in Central Asia, double the sweetness of apricots grown in California. Doubtless, consumers are looking for taste-value, as well as content and health-value. Driver hopes that consumers will readily buy CandyCots, sold in padded packaging to prevent bruising. Here at Peeled Snacks, I am now an apricot fan, ever since I tried the apricots in Apricot-a-lot. Before trying our new organic snack, I never really thought of apricots as all that delicious, either as a snack or a dessert. To me, they never really stood out in the grocery store.

My exposure to the industry has greatly increased both my knowledge and exposure to what I believed was an unusual fruit. This July, Patterson, CA held its annual Apricot Fiesta in honor of the fruit.  Apricots from Patterson are no longer sold at the same volume as they had been in the past, largely due to the fact Driver points to: California apricots are not as sweet as Turkish apricots. However, Patterson continues to celebrate the apricot and continues to find unique ways to fashion the fruit (ie, fried apricots to eat, the title of Little Miss Apricot as winner of the pie-eating contest, etc.). The fruit is something more than a sellable product; it represents a strong connection to the land and is a symbol of a pastime.

Here in NY, I may not have the strong connection to the land on which apricots are grown. Yet, as a consumer, I appreciate eating something which makes my day a bit more enjoyable. Apricots might make a considerable splash this summer to consumers looking for a tasty snack, both full of flavor and beneficial. I'll be following how the American consumer responds to CandyCots, and I will definitely be following and supporting Apricot-a-lot as a yummy snack. As a consumer, I'm concerned with the prices in this market. Will these new apricots be accepted in our current economy?  John Driver's seem a bit expensive at a SRP of $7.99-12.99 for 1 pound a box, but these days everything is increasingly expensive, including a simple gallon of milk. Will consumers be ready-buyers of these new products this summer? We'll see.

-Christina R 

Posted by iankusc at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, this blog entry marks exactly my 100th published Blog entry, so I thought I'd take a moment and recount how things have gone for me over the past 2 years or so since I began chronicling the slings and arrows of Peeled Snacks' outrageous fortune. 

My first entry went in June, 2006, which means that I've put in an entry just about every week for 2 years straight.  I know that some bloggers add several entries a DAY, but I've tried to make each of my entries count, each one say something precise and as fully as I dare.  I've occasionally entered in a quick little throw-away entry, but usually even those revolve around a joke that could keep you laughing for DAYS.

It's been a while since I added one, but I've added to the blogosphere some poems about which I'm particularly proud.  Note my odes to lousy sodas and odios jingos, input from man-eating martians and wayward cowboyd, and that homage to Shel Silverstein in honor of Halloween candy- you won't find any of THAT on Gawker.  One of my poems took a political bent that offended some people so we took it off the website, but I'll remain privately proud of it, ESPECIALLY that it got me in trouble.

Somewhere along the road I hope that I've established a STANCE, a POSITION which I can consistently present to readers where they can hear one clear take on this world of food and factor it in with other perspectives.  When I think about what I generally have to say, I'd call it "Post post-Food", as in, Industrialized food production moved us beyond recognizable ingredients, and I want to move us beyond that ugly paradigm. 

I've had a couple of guest bloggers, some real (Amanda Arrington, last summer's intern) and some semi-imaginary (Johnny Appleseed, one of my personal favorite blogs).  I hope in the coming year to have more such voices chime in, partly because I really want to have a DISCUSSION about food in America, and partly because I'm lazy and LOVE when somebody else does me job for me.

A last little note- over the year I've taken pot-shots at this manufacturer or that food movement, and occasionally I feel as if I've come across as rude.  Usually when I write this way, in my head it all sounds funny.... but I know that I've actually offended a few people.  I'll not apologize for this, exactly.  Rather, I'll say that I'll simply try to be more concientious of others while writing, and to say what I mean without clouding it in Snarkiness.

Here's to another 1000 blog entries, though by the time I get that many written, the medium will surely change and I'll be telepathically casting my brain-waves into the ether.  Can't WAIT till my job gets even EASIER!

Happy Snacking,

Peeled Skinny, at 100 entries

Posted by iankusc at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So we just wrapped up our 4th Summer Fancy Food Show, and for better or worse we come out with many new deals in the works.  Definitely it's for better because new deals for good food really help everybody.  You might call it for worse because, darnit, why didn't we have those deals going BEFORE the show!?!?!?!?

So every year I look for trends of what's growing in food, what's fading, etc.  2005 had too much frickin coffee, 2006 was the year of Jerky (most of which is gone now), and 2007 was a Hummus-a-thon.  Every year there's plenty of dips and hot sauces, and the world will never seem to run out of Tea companies (SHEESH!) and Chocolatiers.  But 2008 is, in my humble opinion, the year of the MIX!!!

Out of no-where, this year's Fancy Food Show boasted about 12 or 15 companies all selling mixes, mostly for cookies (with a glut of "Gluten-Free" promises).  Being the foodie that I am, I like the idea of people being involved in their food creation, but then again, if the whole world dried its own fruit, I'd be out of a job.  Having tasted pre-baked Gluten Free cookies, I see the sense in this trend- Gluten Free stuff just tastes BAD!

One of Peeled Snacks' best friends, codenamed ND, pointed out the moisture problem of taking Gluten out of baking (Gluten holds in a LOT of goo-iness).  So these mixes help the Gluten-challenged amongst us make cookies to their liking that, hopefully, taste better than card-board.  But ND also pointed out that most of the Gluten-challenged likely already know how to make their own food, so how much of a market is there really out there? 

Another, perhaps more encouraging trend is the tendency of companies to donate a portion of their proceeds to this charity or that one.  Part of me wants to say that Peeled Snacks should jump on that bandwagon, but the other part of me says, "woah, we give enough to the causes we like, and we try not to make too big a deal about it."  Inevitably, I want it to be the FOOD that sells our stuff.

Allow me to bang the drum once more- there are TOO MANY FRICKIN TEA COMPANIES right now.  Tea surely makes a large enough profit margin to warrant some competition, but if any Tom/Dick/Harry thinks that he and his packaging designer can compete in a world with Ineeka in is, Tom/Dick/Harry has surely been smoking too much SOMETHING.... 

Greetings from Brooklyn,

Peeled Skinny 

Posted by iankusc at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

When you have a baby, it seems, people shower you with gifts and acts of kindness.  It's no wonder, then, that the population is gowing- not only are these new creatures SUPER cute, but there's a bonanza of benefits behind them.  As a foodie, many of the gifts that my wife and I have received are in the food vein- home cooked meals for those tough days, cookies for sugar crashes, and....

....a gift basket intended for the hippie foodie set.  Contents include:

Gnu foods Flavor & Fiber bar

Earth's Best everyday Lavender lotion

Glenny's 100 calorie Chocolate Chip Brownie

Country Ovens Cherry De-Lite cherries (with added sugar!!!)

Almondina bran treats

Celestial Seasonings Clementine Chamomile tea

Crispy Green Crispy Apricots

Sleepy Baby Music CD

4 individual honey sticks

1 sea turtle finger puppet

1 giraffe stuffed animal

1 starfish stuffed animal

You might think that the basket intended for people like ME- lots of products with limitied ingredients, organic skin care products, and finger puppets (sorry, I freakin LOVE puppets....).  This basket was sent by a really thoughtful business associate who I'm guessing is neither a Foodie nor too terribly concerned with the Green Generation.  So here's who this gift basket is REALLY geared towards- people who don't necessarily know what Foodies and Greenies would like, but want to sent their Foodie/Greenie friends something nice.

Very clever.  And very thoughtful.  The tea will be drunken, the music played (if my boy likes it, it'll go into regular circulation), the lotion rubbed, the finger puppets puppeteered, and the Apricots have already been eaten....

But Cherries with Sugar?  I draw the line there.

Pay attention to who wants you to want something....

Ian "Peeled Skinny" K 

Posted by iankusc at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here at Peeled Snacks' World Headquarters we're really not above the occasionally agregious breach in protocol, etiquette, taste, and sensibilty.  Example- when we cursed out ALL of our customers by sending them an email advertising Peeled Snack's brand new T-Sh!ts (it should have been t-shiRt).  Quite an "oops", that.  Of course, when I published my BLOG about it, I get more hits than EVER.

To commemorate that MAJOR goof, and to commemorate the entry of Oren Kelleher into the world, a MAJOR Peeled Snacks buddy (Thank you RACHEL!!!) and Peeled Snacks' Designer Extraordinaire (Thank you Christine!!!) got together and concocted a brand new T-shirt that fuses Peeled Snack's constantly hilarious falibility with it's sharp design sense and sense of humor.  To wit....

 
The NEW Peeled Snacks ONE-SIE!!!!

Just in case you don't have your reading glasses on, it says "Poo-What?" Damn clever, no?

And just in case you'd like to know what it looks like on the world's most phenomenal 5 day old model (I think that's not too big a boast, to be entirely honest...) here's the source material:

If that doesn't melt your heart, you should really read the Tin Man's autobiography. 

Happy Friday,

-the happiest Peeled Skinny in the world 

Posted by iankusc at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)