Natural Products Expo East 2015 Recap-Part 2

Here is the conclusion of Natural Products Expo East 2015 Recap, if you missed part one you can find it here.

Sticking with more sweet treats I discovered that day, I want you to know about Pure Genius. What a rather cute name for a company that makes brownies and blondies from beans. I’m sure there was a meeting about their company name, in which they decided baking with beans was “rather genius.” I agree with them, if you want a sweet treat, why not have it be a healthy one? I tried the brownie and blondie and could not tell at they contained black beans and chick peas, respectively. They had the texture of a chewy undercooked brownie, which I’m sure a lot of people try to replicate with boxed brownie mixes. As their website says, they will be begin shipping these today actually, I suggest you try your own when these little tasty squares taste so good, so get some for yourself.

Veggie Fries are a new to me product, as I was encouraged to stop at their booth and try a sample – it was well worth the time. Veggie Fries are a combination of vegetables and potatoes; they have four different flavors – including broccoli, carrot, chickpea with red pepper and kale with Tuscan bean. All fries contain just under 30% of the vegetables listed, though I wish that number was a bit bigger. However they do pack a great flavor and wonderful crisp on the outside, thanks to a special “patent-pending” process, allowing the inside to be fluffy too. You can bake or fry them, but I’d suggest baking since that’s the healthier way. These would be a great compliment to a burger and salad, plus a great alternative to full potato fries. Find them at most major food stores, including Whole Foods.

Upton’s Naturals Bar-B-Que Jackfruit is a great meal replacement for your burger to go with these Veggie Fries. I heard so much online about the Bar-B-Que Jackfruit that I was so excited to try it at the show. Though never having Jackfruit in its natural form, I must say that this was an identical copy cat of pulled pork. I could not tell that it wasn’t meat! That is the key to great vegan food, to not be able to tell easily that it isn’t meat. The Bar-B-Que sauce was just a tad sweeter than I’d like and would love an even spicier version too!

Wash down your burger and fries with a drink mixer from Cocktail Crate. They caught my eye as we wandered through many vendors that lined the hallways this year. Their nicely designed bottles caught my eye, which I had wrongly assumed contained actual liquor, but instead contain the drink mixes. For all those non-drinkers these are wonderful drink mixes, add your own alcohol or don’t to their four different flavored mixes. I happily tried the Ginger Bee with some club soda and it was instantly my absolute favorite of them all! It tasted like a lightly flavored soda, similar to Green Bee Soda. For comparative purposes, I did try the Spiced Old Fashioned mixer with alcohol. Unfortunately that wasn’t as well received by my tastebuds. The other flavors include Siracha Margarita and Maple Whisky Sour, as well as a Grapefruit Daquiri-but that wasn’t available to taste at the expo. Get a party pack of four flavors in their online shop here.

Grayl is the final stop of awesome companies in this recap. There are of course many companies that make water bottles, also a lot that make water filters. But how many of those combine products to make something awesome? Grayl would be one of those companies making awesome things. They created a distinctly designed water bottle and added one of three types of water filters to it. There’s a type of filter for everyone and every need. Grayl offers three different types of filters based on use; tap filter, trail filter and travel filter. Each is capable of removing chemicals, bacteria and viruses respectively. Each filter lasts about 300 uses or 40 gallons. Find out which is best for you here.

Hoping you enjoyed our recap of some unique companies we found at this year’s Natural Products Expo East. Did you attend and find a great company we didn’t mention? Leave us a comment and we’d love to check them out!