outstanding diet or lifestyle product

Organic Nectars
Raw Agave Gelato—Pistachio

Lisa Protter and her business partner Steve Treccase wanted to show their clientele that there are many applications for agave syrup. The creators of Organic Nectars, Woodstock, N.Y., a raw, organic food company that supplies raw agave syrup to retailers and restaurants, decided that ice cream was the way to go.

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outstanding meat, pâté or seafood

The Cheeseworks
Ortiz Conservas Boquerones
Marinated White Anchovies

Ortiz Conservas Boquerones Marinated White Anchovies come from a long tradition of excellence sustained by five generations of Bernardo Ortiz de Zarate’s family members, who produce this year’s award-winning seafood in the Basque region of Spain. Each generation maintains and improves upon the artisan production methods of cultivating local fish—and their time-honored traditions show in the high-quality of these delicate, flavorful white anchovies.

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outstanding pasta, rice or grain

Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co.
Port Clyde Lobster Mac & Cheese

Named after a small Maine fishing village, this year’s outstanding Pasta, rice or grain, Port Clyde Lobster Mac & Cheese, arrives frozen. Once defrosted, it can be on the table in 30 minutes—creating an instant comfort meal.

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outstanding jam, preserve, honey or nut butter

Barefoot Contessa
Lemon Curd

In 2006, at the request of Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, a well-known Food TV chef, cookbook author and former specialty food retailer, Stonewall Kitchen launched The Barefoot Contessa Pantry, a line of products based on Garten’s best-selling recipes. The partnership lead to the development, creation and distribution of 57 specialty products—plus nine gift collections for the upcoming holiday season—ranging from jams to baking mixes.

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outstanding snack food

Route 11 Potato Chips
Sweet Potato Chips

Sarah Cohen, owner of Middletown, Va.’s Route 11 Potato Chips, knows the potential of good chips. “Chips have been considered a low brow food and have traditionally been eaten directly out of the bag. But, a good chip can rise and impress on any occasion,” she says.

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outstanding perishable foodservice product

Good Wives/Innovative Foods
Beef Wellington

Good Wives was founded in 1979, when Nina Robertson and her then business partner, Dale Coxe, started making handmade hors d’oeuvres at Robertson’s home in Marblehead, Mass. Drawing from the region’s history, they named the company after the Puritan expression “good wife” which was applied to married women and spoke of industriousness and integrity. Eventually, Coxe left, some of Robertson’s family joined in, and the company and product line continued to flourish. In July 2006, the Robertsons retired and sold Good Wives to Innovative Foods, a distributor and manufacturer of foodservice items. 

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outstanding USDA-approved organic product

Blackwell’s Organic
Raspberry Sorbetto

“When we created the Raspberry Sorbetto, we started off by asking how many organic raspberries we could possibly put into a pint and still be able to scoop it,” says Marcia Blackwell, co-founder with her husband Tom of Blackwell’s Organic, Red Bank, N.J., explaining the intense flavor of the frozen dessert.

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outstanding baked good, baking ingredient or cereal

Callie’s Charleston Biscuits
Cheese Biscuits

It was not quite three years ago when Carrie Morey got the idea to launch her now award-winning food business. Her mother Callie had long had a catering business in Charleston, S.C., and was known for her great Southern-style biscuits. Although there were frequent requests, Callie always declined to sell only her biscuits—until Carrie changed her mind. Now Callie’s Charleston Biscuits makes—by hand—up to 5,000 biscuits in a single day, and sells frozen packs at specialty retailers across the country. 

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outstanding cold beverage

SAAF Ginger Beverage Company
Gingernize® Ginger Lemonade Rush™

Introduced two years ago at a farmer’s market in San Diego, Gingernize® Ginger Lemonade Rush™ offers consumers a twist on regular lemonade and the powerful health benefits of ginger all in one bottle.

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outstanding cookie

Minnie Beasley’s® Cookie Company
Almond Lace Gourmet Cookies

It was just four years ago that Harmon Canon, owner of Denver-based Minnie Beasley’s Cookie Company, decided to shift from making his mother’s Almond Lace Gourmet Cookies once a year as a holiday gift, to selling them at retail. “They’re just too good not to share with the rest of the world,” says Canon. “We call them delicate wonders, because they are.”

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outstanding dessert or dessert topping

Shootflying Hill Sauce Co., Inc.
Salty Butterscotch Dessert Sauce

Cory Clarke, founder and CEO of Shootflying Hill Sauce Co., Brookline, Mass., knew she liked to bake at a young age; she used to stand on a chair in her mother’s kitchen to reach the counter. Although always passionate about desserts, Clarke studied engineering in college and later worked at a software company as a mechanical engineer. But, when a year of experimenting with dessert sauces in her kitchen started to detract from her ‘day job,’ Clarke decided to follow her passion and create Shootflying Hill Sauce Co. The company is named after a local road in Centerville, Mass., that led to her family’s favorite ice cream shop.

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