Reliant Foodservice, a “single source” distributor specializing in products for frozen yogurt, juice, smoothie and coffee retailers, held its annual product expo at the Anaheim Hilton on June 6th. Hundreds of shops attended. The expo featured over 80 national manufacturers, including established and new products. We noticed a definite healthy products theme with raw, vegan, gluten free, non-GMO and all natural products well-represented. Reliant recently developed a new division called The Organic Connection.
Reliant made the Expo fun (with photo opps and prizes), informative and tasty (plenty of samples, lunch was also included).
New Frozen Yogurt and Soft Serve
Several mix suppliers were present at the Expo, including California Cultures, Chloe’s Soft Serve Fruit Co., Dannon YoCream, Dole/Frostline/Kent Precision Foods, Flavormine, Sugar Creek Foods/Honey Hill Farms.
California Cultures is a new frozen yogurt line, exclusive to Reliant Foodservice. It offers premium frozen yogurt and organic frozen yogurt. The organic frozen yogurt comes in three flavors: Tart, Vanilla and Chocolate. The organic vanilla was tastier with more vanilla bean flavor than their premium conventional frozen yogurt. The premium line currently has 12 flavors with more on the way. We liked the Peanut Butter flavor while attendees raved about their Salted Caramel froyo.
Chloe’s Soft Serve Fruit Co. brought two soft serve flavors – strawberry and chocolate and their new fruit slushes. Their products are made with just fruit, filtered water and a touch of cane sugar. The strawberry soft serve was very good – not icy and it had a clean not too sweet flavor. The slushes were refreshing beverages.
Dannon YoCream brought their new FunTown signage, designed to appeal to families, since 74% of froyo visits are with the family. The new flavors, Party Punch and Cereal Magic, tasted like Hawaiian Punch and Froot Loops milk.
Dole Soft Serve brought the famous Dole Whip and a new non-dairy, gluten free, fat free, lactose free flavor, Lemon. Dole Lemon was soft and not icy, with a light tang reminiscent of lemonade. Dole Soft Serve comes with a bucket and super simple directions for mixing their shelf stable dry mix with water. Frostline’s dairy free vanilla soft serve was soft and not icy.
Flavormine has over 10 years of experience producing frozen yogurt for national brands. It recently introduced its own brand of liquid frozen yogurt mix, produced in California at a Kosher certified facility. They currently offer eight flavors but plan to add additional flavors. They can also produce custom flavors. Flavormine also sells toppings.
Sugar Creek Foods/Honey Hill Farms brought a variety of soft serve treats, including Italian ice, soft serve gelato and frozen yogurt. The Jamocha gelato was the flavor we enjoyed the most.
New Toppings
Lyon Magnus brought their sauces and syrups while J Hungerford Smith brought sundae toppings like fudge, Reese’s peanut butter sauce and Nutella. TR Toppers had cups out so that visitors could sample the toppings. The new toppings are salted caramel rocks (Yogurtland had these a few months ago) and graham cracker crumbs.
Smoothies and Healthy Beverages
There was more than one pitaya vendor. The pitaya packs can be used in smoothies and superfood bowls. Tea, coconut water, juice, yerba mate, kombucha, bottled water and natural sodas were all represented.
While there were various coffee flavored ice blended drinks, the one that caught our attention was Joe Froyo. Joe Froyo is a blended coffee beverage made with Dannon frozen yogurt and Arabica coffee from Brazil. It’s a refreshing drink with a strong coffee flavor. The frozen yogurt makes it healthier (live and active cultures, nonfat) but it doesn’t taste like frozen yogurt. It has tiny ice bits like a granita, slush, or Frappuccino. Joe Froyo comes with a countertop machine that requires little labor and takes up little space.
Soft Serve Machines
We saw a brand new Double Barrel Batch Freezer from GiF. The top loading programmable machine can be used to prepare froyo, ice cream, gelato, and other frozen products. It combines a batch freezer with a display case. Because the machine has fewer parts, it’s easier to clean and maintain.
We were dazzled by Electro Freeze’s Fuzionate technology. One machine served up 9 different flavors of Italian ice.
Packaging
Packaging vendors brought paper cups, hot cups, cold cups, lids, spoons, and more.
Other
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Thank you Reliant FoodService for a wonderful product expo. We look forward to the next one!
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