Exotic No More:
Oils, Vinegars, and Mustards

by Susan Craig

The palates they are a­changin'­­and that means a hugely growing market for such former exotica as flavored vinegars, infused oils and unusual mustards. As customers line up to buy products that will tempt their taste buds, re­create their fine dining experiences, or just plain make it easier to cook snazzy food quickly, producers and purveyors are scrambling to oblige.

In the past ten years, sales of specialty foods have taken off as "gourmet" has found its way into the kitchens and the budgets of a wide range of customers. Today's consumer is educated, adventurous and definitely not in the mood for bland.

Vigorous Vinegar

Vinegar is a case in point. Longtime staples white, red and balsamic vinegars are being joined on millions of kitchen shelves by rice, malt and cider vinegars. And these, according to Michele Jordan, author of The Good Cook's Book of Oil and Vinegars, are only the beginning. New favorites include raspberry, Spanish sherry and champagne. But how many of us have a nodding (or tasting) acquaintance with black, cane or pineapple vinegar? Black and cane are both low­acid vinegars, the former from the Pacific Rim and the latter from the Philippines. Pineapple vinegar comes from Mexico. Adventurous vinegars like these can turn dining into a travel experience.

From Holland comes vinegar made from sugar beets, distributed by Culinary Imports of Jericho, Vermont. Though the company also offers traditional red, white and raspberry vinegars, they tout the distinct flavor of sugar beet vinegar. Their specialty Gulpener vinegars include a spiced version, steeped in eleven herbs and spices for eight to ten weeks. Sugar beets, say owners Bill and Charlotte Wheater, are the basis of products that are free of sulfites and gluten. To attract health-conscious consumers looking for "free" products, they have added "Sulfite Free" and "Gluten Free" labels.

While the purity of foods is definitely a major selling point right now, heat­seekers need not despair. "Chipotle is the pepper these days," says Cora Turpin of Chiles & Salsas Margarita of San Antonio, Texas. "From an old recipe from Mexico, we make a chipotle vinegar that transforms your meal into a gourmet festival." The popularity of and demand for chipotle peppers, says Turpin, puts them in a good position in today's market. Their products, like others in favor now, meet the market demand for flavorful condiments that are fat­cholesterol­ and preservative­free, produced from natural ingredients.

"Creole cuisine is becoming more popular," says Byron Clark, executive vice president of Rex Pure Foods Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, "so customers are looking for the rice vinegar that can help them create it. Specialty vinegars are increasing market share and gourmet buyers want them. They like the idea that rice vinegar is fermented directly from a pure agricultural product." Some brown rice vinegars from Japan are made from recipes thousands of years old; good vinegar for sushi. "Sushi"­­did you know this?­­means "vinegared rice."

Many foodies and food mavens however, swear that vinegar isn't worth having unless it can be sipped from a glass. After all, much of it had its start in wine barrels. The truly inspired chef will want aceto balsamico tradizionale, an expensive product derived from several years of aging in wood and at least twelve years of migration through a series of barrels. The vinegar that results is so intense, says James Mellgren in The Gourmet Retailer, that only a few drops are necessary to flavor foods. Perhaps this is the original flavored vinegar?

The Essence of Oils

Where there's vinegar, there's oil, even if not necessarily together. Oils are big--very big--in the specialty food market. According to Packaged Facts, the sales of olive oils overall have grown in four years from $350 million to nearly $700 million. Additionally, falling olive oil prices means good news for increased use by foodservice kitchens, wrote Olivia Wu in an article for Restaurants & Institutions.

At the top of the popularity list for kitchens, both commercial and domestic, is a vast array of infused oils with flavors from honey to hot to herb. Garlic and basil are the leading sellers, while chile, cilantro, lemon or tangerine, oregano, dill, tarragon, rosemary, sage, fennel, and, believe it or not, porcini mushroom flavors are rampant on the shelves. Some chile pepper concoctions seem downright lethal­­a blend of crushed peppers, four­color peppercorns and whole chiles comes to mind­­but producers of "hot" oils claim that their flavors don't overwhelm the food. One of the newest trends is citrus oils: lemon and tangerine.

Not everyone agrees that cooking with infused oils makes great dishes; critics maintain that the effect of herbed oils, for example, can be bettered by using good­quality oils and fresh herbs. Consumers who are pressed for time, however, are flocking to the stores to buy specialty oils so they can create interesting meals without a lot of hassle. Pacesetter chef Michael Chiarello, whose line of Consorzio flavored oils was launched in 1992, correctly predicted the market that was about to explode. "I began to see a real need for what I call 'convenience without compromise.' People were interested in more wholesome, healthful eating, but because they had less and less time for cooking, they needed solutions that would give them big flavor without a lot of effort," he says. Another company that is trying to address health concerns is Misto, LLC, of Danbury, Connecticut. They manufacture an oil dispenser that works without propellants and controls the amount of fat in the diet much better than drizzling or basting the oil. The sprayer is also much easier to use than a traditional bottle, says inventor­owner Tom Risch.

All of these time-saving factors have resulted in more sales to an entirely new set of people. Angela Gyetvan, vice president of marketing for Napa Valley Kitchens in Napa, California, the parent company of the Consorzio line as well as specialty foods from Jacques Pepin's Kitchen, says that their marketing began in the specialty food environment but is now also directed to national upscale supermarkets. "It's interesting," she says, "that the position of the product is upscale gourmet but the customer is purchasing the products for convenience. This market is accelerating."

Even so, there are still more potential new customers who want to see how the oils taste and how to use them. Designing ways for the customer to sample the product is a top priority in the specialty food business. Napa Valley Kitchens is in the midst of a year­long promotion to its store customers, offering them a shipper of one­and­a­half­ounce bottles of oils that the merchandiser can sell to the customer for around a dollar a bottle. According to Gyetvan, free­standing displays or counter racks, often near or on the meat counter, are a big trend in upscale stores.

Mustard Madness

One of the factors in the continuing growth of condiment sales in the U.S. (7-10 percent per year, depending upon the source of the figures) is mustard. Mustard is really hot...even when it's sweet. Sometimes it's both at once, but regardless of the flavor, it's moved right to the top of the customer's grocery list. From the aficionado who attempts to research the 3,000 kinds of mustards to be found in the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, to the home cook who swears by one kind of mustard and orders it by the case, everyone's a mustard lover. Seventy­one percent of U.S. households bought mustard in 1996, according to American Demographics, and sales of the condiment hit $425 million last year, wrote Natural Foods Merchandiser. Projections are for sales to continue their meteoric rise. Many specialty stores, according to Jennifer Strailey in The Gourmet Retailer, stock more than a hundred varieties of mustard and sell out of them all. Why? Low fat, no cholesterol, only five calories per teaspoonful, terrific taste.

Mustard is even older than vinegar and flavored oils, having been cultivated as early as 5000 B.C., says Michele Jordan in Natural Foods Merchandiser. Like oils and vinegars, mustards have roots in interesting cuisines throughout the world. Julie Applegate, a native of Florida and owner of Mrs. Dog's Products, Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says that her Disappearing Mustard evolved from a sauce for stone crab claws. "The flavors of my products are a result of my life experiences and travel to many places," she says. Other worldly flavors include creole mustards made by Rex Pure Foods, the three Dutch mustards of Culinary Imports that are made with sugar beet vinegars, as well as varieties that originate in England, Ireland, France, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and many regions of the U.S.

The wide variety of mustards comes from differences in flavoring agents, liquids and milling. Yellow mustard is still the biggest seller in the U.S., but Barry Levenson, curator of the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum, says that Dijon and sweet hot mustard flavors are highly popular. "Coarse­grained mustards are also in," he says, "and you'll see Americans trying to duplicate a Dijon style mustard." In addition, he says that fruit, horseradish, herb, and hot pepper mustards have really grown in popularity. The museum sells all of these, plus other mustards made with bourbon, curry, Vermont maple, prickly pear honey, vegetables, brown sugar, pecans, and beer and spirits.

One beer mustard, made by Mendocino Mustard in Fort Bragg, California, was born when their Original Hot & Sweet mustard was joined in 1996 by Seeds & Suds, made with Red Seal Ale. Mendocino Mustard president Devora Rossman says that the mustard has a beer content of 22 percent so that "you can actually taste the beer." Started in 1977, Mendocino Mustard was "on the leading edge of the mustard mania that followed," she says. "We did only direct sales, positioning ourselves as a gourmet specialty item. But times have changed and supermarkets have gotten smart and caught on that customers have more educated palates; our sales moved from totally direct to today's eighty percent through distribution."

Anticipating what the consumer will want next is always a challenge. The mission of Beaverton Foods, Inc., of Beaverton, Oregon, says Domonic Biggi, vice president of sales and marketing, "is to be the trend leader. By working with small batches and creative people, we are able to try somewhat exotic flavors. While the multinationals have just figured out that honey mustard is hot, we are already working on what will be hot in ten years." Biggi credits the rapid growth of specialty flavors to the consumer finding new uses for mustard; two current favorite flavors are raspberry and dill. "Fun gourmet flavors," he says, "lend themselves to the creative chef." Flavors seem to be limited only by imagination.

No End in Sight

Condiments are a consumer gotta­have. A survey by Fiery Foods Magazine showed that condiments make up 10 percent of the total hot and spicy specialty foods bought by survey respondents. They buy them mostly at specialty shops, grocery stores and by mail-order. And, if they had to give up any category of foods, only 5 percent of the respondents said they'd give up their condiments.

Market growth of these condiments into the coming century will be influenced by factors already in progress: the educated palates of consumers, chef­inspired products and recipes, desire for healthful and natural products, ethnic cuisines, and convenience cooking. The increase of all of these can be associated with the demographics of the population. The educated, fit, well­traveled, restaurant­going and time­challenged Baby Boomers are swelling the forty­five to sixty­four age group by 8.4 million people, and between the years 2000 and 2010, that age group will increase by over 18.5 million, according to Natural Foods Merchandiser. Given all these factors, the food business had better be ready for the stampede.

Susan Craig is an Albuquerque freelance writer and business consultant. She writes for a number of local, regional and national publications and publishes several business and trade guides each year.

Resources

Beaverton Foods, Inc.

P.O. Box 687

Beaverton, OR 97075

PH: (503) 646­8138; FAX: (503) 644­9204

Domonic Biggi, vice president of sales and marketing

Chiles & Salsas Margarita, Inc.

4738 Shavano Oaks, Suite 2

San Antonio, TX 78249

PH: (210) 479­7449; (888) SALSAS­9

FAX: 210) 479­7452

e­mail: scorita@corita.com

Cora Turpin, owner

Culinary Imports

100 Schillhammer Road

Jericho, VT 05465

PH: (800) 958­7678; FAX: (802) 899­4678

Bill Wheater, owner

The Gourmet Retailer

e­mail: gourmetretailer@worldnet.att.net

Michael J. Keighley, executive editor

Mendocino Mustard, Inc.

1260 North Main Street

Fort Bragg, CA 95437

PH: (707) 964­2250; FAX: (707) 964­0525

Devora Rossman, president

Misto, LLC

2 Augusta Drive

Danbury, CT 06810

PH: (203) 722­1687; (888) 645­7772

FAX: (203) 744­8337

Tom Risch, owner

Mount Horeb Mustard Museum

109 East Main Street

Mount Horeb, WI 53572

PH: (608) 437­3986; (800) 438­6878

FAX: (608) 437­4018

Barry Levenson, curator

Mrs. Dog's Products, Inc.

P.O. Box 6034

Grand Rapids, MI 49516

PH: (616) 454­2677; (800) 2MRSDOG

FAX: (616) 774­0193

e­mail: mrsdogs@voyager.net

Julie Applegate, owner

Napa Valley Kitchens

4 Financial Plaza

Napa, CA 94558

PH: (707) 254­3700; (800) 288­1089

FAX: (707) 259­0219

Angela Gyetvan, vice president for marketing

Natural Foods Merchandiser

New Hope Communications

PH: (303) 939­8440; FAX: (303) 938­1621

e­mail: jgunn@newhope.com

Karen S. Hull, Editorial Assistant

Packaged Facts

PH: (212) 627­3228; (800) 541­1535 (Placon)

e­mail: advantage@placon.com

Scott Dempster

Rex Pure Foods, Inc.

P.O. Box 29323

New Orleans, LA 70189

PH: (504) 254­9903; (800) 344­8314

FAX: (504) 254­9889

Byron E. Clark, executive vice president

R&I (Restaurants & Institutions)

PH: (847) 635­8800; FAX: (847) 390­2080

e­mail: r&iedit@cahners.com

SIDEBAR:

Top Food Trends

1. Freshness: product labeling and dating, packaging that communicates freshness, organic ingredients. Fifty­seven percent of shoppers consider freshness dating extremely important; 34 percent say a label claim of freshness is extremely important.

2. Taste: perception of taste vs. healthfulness of foods, with taste winning out. Product sampling crucial. Fifty­seven percent of shoppers would eat low­fat foods more often if they tasted better; 28 percent think healthful foods taste good.

3. Natural foods: going mainstream to satisfy the forty­two percent of shoppers who consider food labeled "natural" to be extremely important. Typical customer: female, 35­55, college education, household income over $40,000.

4. Baby boomers: redefining the mature market, driving new­product positioning.

5. Older singles: men, a $236 billion market; women, a $280 billion market overall. Expendable income, desire for convenience and healthful products.

6. Gourmet stores: serving increasing niches of consumers. Sales of $31.2 billion in 1994 estimated to grow to $40.8 billion by 1998.

Used by permission of Natural Foods Merchandiser, a publication of New Hope Communications, Boulder, Colorado

Various issues, credit to Linda Gilbert, Heather Granato, Danny Wells

What Helps Condiments Sell:

Tips From Producers and Retailers

*Prices low enough so that consumers can use the product every day

*Distinctive and colorful packaging; not necessarily slick, not overly sensational

*Demonstrations and customer sampling

*Cross­merchandising

*Selling points: flavor, ethnicity/regionality, family recipe, heat, healthfulness, convenience

*Testimonials from chefs, restaurants, specialty shops, individual customers

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