Meska Sweets Offers a Taste of Morocco
By Lorrie Baumann
There was a time before the pandemic when the only places you were likely to encounter the Moroccan-style macarons made by Meska Sweets was in a fine New York restaurant or in the gift basket you received when you checked into your luxury suite at one of the city’s finer hotels. COVID-19 has changed that, and Meska Sweets is ready to see its cookies on the shelves of specialty grocers.
Meska Sweets entered the American market in 2016 with a line of hand-made, almond-rich, Moroccan-style macarons that were offered in the foodservice channel.
The cookies were adopted by upscale chefs for their white tablecloth restaurants. In December, 2018, Florence Fabricant pointed out in the New York Times that Meska Sweets’ cookie line included classics like crescent-shaped cornes de gazelle and honey-sesame chebakia that were traditional Moroccan teatime treats, although Meska was also innovating them with flavors like matcha designed to keep up with trends sweeping the American food culture. “It’s our grandmother’s recipe that we’ve upgraded to fit within the American taste,” said General Manager Mehdi Menouar. Meska’s Orange Blossom and Almond Macaron won the award for the best cookie at Kosherfest 2018.
When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. in 2020, Meska Sweets’ foodservice-centered business felt the tremors along with New York’s restaurant and hospitality industry, and Menouar took some time to think about how he could introduce his cookies into the retail channel.
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Grocers had already told him that the short shelf life of his macarons was an obstacle to that, so he had to figure out a way to lengthen the shelf life of his offerings without damaging the qualities that had made them so valuable in the foodservice market – they had to remain an American-influenced interpretation of their Moroccan heritage, and they had to remain all natural, with no preservatives or artificial colors. Menouar traveled home to Morocco to consult with bakers there about how to do that, and he came back to the United States with a new product line of Moroccan cookies that could be hand-made in a Casablanca bakery approved by the American Food and Drug Administration in quantities that could be scaled to support a national launch into the American retail market.
Like the foodservice line, Meska Sweets’ new retail line of cookies is all natural, with no colorants, and has a 12-month shelf life with no preservatives. “We’re sticking to all of those things,” Menouar said. “We’re super-excited about it. We’ve always had this issue of shelf life. Grocers will be much happier with the longer shelf life.”
Five flavors are offered for retail shelves: three sweet varieties and two that are savory and beg to be paired with cheese. “You don’t get to see a lot of savory biscuits on the shelves,” Menouar said. “What’s really cool about the Moroccan gastronomy that most people don’t appreciate is that we’re at the intersection of African and Mediterranean food. The Spanish and the French colonized Morocco at one time, so the food represents a fusion of traditions. You have this complete mixture of ingredients and spices, a true melting pot of aromas and tastes, and what we’re trying to do is build on that with our cookies and biscuits, and, hopefully, folks will like them.”
Savory Oregano Moroccan Bites, flavored with mustard as well as oregano and a touch of pepper, and Savory Paprika Moroccan Bites, with mustard and chile pepper as well as the paprika, are the two savory flavors. The sweet varieties include Sweet Ginger and Almond & Raisins Moroccan Bites and a third called Palmier Bites that’s a bite-size twist on a French-style Elephant ears pastry, rich with butter and deliciously sweet. All of them are bite-size nibbles – each a little smaller than a tea cookie, so that a 5.3-ounce box contains about 50. The cookies are sealed into an inner foil pouch inside the box to help maintain their freshness, and a box retails for $4.99.
A Frozen Treat for Everyone from Alden’s Organic Ice Cream
By Lorrie Baumann
Alden’s Organic Ice Cream is an always-organic brand of premium ice cream founded and owned by Oregon Ice Cream, which also owns other ice cream brands. The company is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, where the brand was founded in 2004. “We still make every batch right there in Eugene and ship all over the United States from that location,” said Joelle Simmons, the company’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “The premise is to be a brand that’s irresistible to all. We wanted Alden’s to have something for everyone in the family.”
In keeping with that core mission to offer something for everyone, the company offers dairy-free frozen desserts and gluten-free ice cream sandwiches along with the scoopable options in its signature “sqrounds” containers as well as novelties that include ice cream sandwiches in three different formats as well as stick bars for a total of 60 SKUs.
The dairy-free line, which is certified vegan, is the latest in the range, offered in 14-ounce pint-size cups as well as novelties. “These are all really hitting at a great spot for the American consumer,” Simmons said. “The novelties help set Alden’s apart, whether we’re talking about sammies or sticks. They’re driving sales growth. Everything we make is certified organic – everything is non-GMO, so consumers can feel good about what they’re giving their families.”
The dairy-free options are made from a base mix that includes brown rice, oat flour, coconut oil and pea protein that Alden’s calls its Oregon Blend. The pints line offers flavors that include Double Strawberry, Vanilla Bean and Freckled Mint Chip along with Muddy Brownie, Caramel Almond Crunch, Cookie Crumble, Peanut Butter Chip and Mocha Latte. There’s also a Vanilla Bean Round Sammie and Dairy Free Caramel Drizzle Round Sammie. “What it [Alden’s Oregon Blend of non-dairy proteins with coconut oil] did was give us a nice neutral base, so that whatever we were making delivered on true flavor,” Simmons said. “Strawberry tastes like strawberry, without an underlying flavor of coconut or nuts. It delivers on our high standards.”
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The dairy-free line is key to Alden’s mission to have something in the freezer case for every consumer, but the dairy-free options are appealing even to consumers who aren’t strictly vegan, according to Simmons. “There are a lot of people who look for dairy-free options. We’re finding that more and more it’s about curiosity,” she said. “There are flexitarians who change depending on how they’re feeling or what else they’re eating that day or how close it is to the weekend.”
Novelties in the Alden’s Organic dairy line include “Old School Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich,” a conventional size rectangular sandwich with chocolate wafers; indulgent round sammies with thick layers of ice cream and either chocolate or vanilla wafers, depending on the flavor; and Mini Squares with chocolate wafers and Vanilla or Sea Salt Caramel ice cream. “We find that they’re consumed at different times of day for different occasions,” Simmons said. The Mini Squares are appealing to individuals who are looking for portion control, not just for weight control, but so they can be served as a snack for the whole family in a guilt-free indulgence of pure organic ice cream, she added.
The company has just added gluten-free sammies to its dairy line as well, with Vanilla Bean ice cream between two round gluten-free chocolate wafers. “It has a really nice, luscious brownie texture,” Simmons said, adding that consumers are unlikely to be able to distinguish the gluten-free cookies from conventional wafers.
Alden’s offers a double handful of flavors in its line of 14-ounce pints, including Moose Tracks, Dough Yeah Cookie Dough Fudge, Peachy Keen Twist and Caramel Macchiato. The newest introduction for spring is Honey Lemon Cookie, which is a collaboration with Glory Bee Honey’s Save the Bees Campaign. The new variety is shipping now.
Shelf-Stable Creamy, Crispy Snack Bars
By Lorrie Baumann
Super Pop Snacks is a brand of snack bars based on nut butters. They’re gluten free, non-GMO and contain no refined sugars along with 10 grams of plant-based protein per bar. “It’s creamy and crunchy, not packed with protein powders. We’re making this snacks to help feed a healthier family and future,” said Melissa Wessely, Founder of Super Pop Snacks.
Wessely founded her company in 2016, while she was working full-time and wanted a convenient snack for her six-year-old daughter. At the time, she was doing some of her family’s grocery shopping at a small health food store next to where she was working, but she wasn’t finding snacks there that offered the taste that her daughter demanded along with the nutrition that she required. She decided to try making her own in her apartment kitchen. “I came across crispy quinoa at Whole Foods and thought I could do something with that,” she said. “I was trying to get my daughter to eat something nutritious, and my neighbors were having the same trouble. So I started making the snack bars for our family and the neighbors.”
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She took the bars around to her health food store and then to another, and they started selling. When she’d outstripped the capacity of her home kitchen, she found a bakery where she could make her bars after hours and then took them to southern California farmers markets. “My husband helped us at the farmers market, my daughter too,” she said. “We did that every Saturday – it was a family event.”
Sales of the bars have since outstripped Wessely’s ability to make the bars on her own, so she found a co-packer to make the bars to her recipe. Her husband, who has a background in graphic design, offered his services to build her a website, and the company launched on Amazon a couple of years ago. The bars have now been offered for sale in more than 300 locations, including juice bars, hotels and coffee shops. The bars are labeled for individual sale at $3.29 to $3.49. Online, Super Pop Snacks offers a box of 12 bars for $34.99.
“I grew up as an athlete, running cross-country and track. I always ate healthy. Using that background as an athlete and my operations background and knowing how to sell works great for starting a business and becoming a woman entrepreneur,” she said. “I have a natural entrepreneurial spirit. I always wanted to do something that was mine and provided a product or service that can help people.”