Specialty Food Magazine

JUL-AUG 2013

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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store snapshots Points of distinction… From the beginning, the partners were specific about how they wanted to create ice cream: no stabilizers or milk powders. They use fresh, antibiotic- and hormone-free milk and cream, cane sugar and egg yolks, and the same rules apply for flavor-specific ingredients such as Sicilian pistachios or Sri Lankan cinnamon. The business does the whole process in-house, beginning with raw ingredients to make their own ice cream base, and finishing with the final product, which allows them to have a different custard recipe for each flavor. Coffee is from Brooklyn company Toby's Estate. Van Leeuwen also sells organic Rishi Tea, warm chocolate drinks made with Michel Cluizel 99% Infini Noir Chocolate and a variety of cold beverages. But the main event is the 15 flavors of Van Leeuwen ice cream served. The most popular flavor across all locations is vanilla, but other core flavors are chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut, espresso, strawberry, mint chip, Ceylon cinnamon, Gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut), Earl Grey tea and palm sugar. Special flavors vary from week to week but can include sticky black rice, roasted organic banana, salted caramel with Buffalo Trace bourbon and ricotta with candied lemon. New challenges… While there are no immediate plans for new stores, Van Leeuwen does expect to expand, possibly to other cities like Los Angeles. But for now, the team is staying busy in the New York area. In 2012 the partners opened Selamat Pagi, a Balinese restaurant (because of Ben and Laura's love of Bali), and in May 2013 they began selling scoops of their own vegan frozen treats. "We are excited about this. We use coconut cream and sugar plus one other ingredient. Instead of stabilizers, we are using cocoa butter," Van Leeuwen explains. The first flavors are vanilla—which is more of a coconut vanilla due to the strong flavor of the coconut cream—and chocolate. "We've tried a lot of vegan desserts but often found them lacking. Generally, people who are in the vegan-food business are focused on the vegan or organic aspect but may lose focus on getting the best-tasting ingredients. We use Michel Cluizel chocolate and cold ground vanilla—it makes all the difference."–S.S. Eva Meszaros and Susan Segrest are associate editor and contributing editor, respectively, for Specialty Food Magazine. SEE WHO TAKES HOME THE GOLD 2013 SOFI™ AWARDS CEREMONY FEATURING KEYNOTE BY CHEF MARCUS SAMUELSSON CONNECT WITH US FOR LIVE COVERAGE #sofiawards MONDAY, JULY 1 @ 5PM SUMMER FANCY FOOD SHOW JAVITS CENTER | NEW YORK CITY SPECIALTYFOOD.COM/SOFI 116 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com

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