Everyday Indulgence

Luxuries like foie gras and lobster may have defined indulgence for decades, but only now are consumers discovering similar worth in staples previously held at the low-rent end of the status spectrum. Whether by chic flavor profiles, exclusive inputs, or production and sourcing that whisper refinement, mass-market consumer goods, from potato chips to peanut butter and salt, no longer aspire toward sophistication, they attain it.

Everyday indulgence is about pampering. People want to enjoy what theyre eating more, rather than just trying to grab something quickly to keep going, says Vicki Nesper, marketing communications manager, Hazelnut Council Inc., Jersey City, NJ. They want to slow down a little bit to enjoy the food and the flavor and really indulge themselves.

Erin ODonnell, marketing manager, David Michael & Co., Inc., Philadelphia, sees how the penchant for midweek indulgence tends to send more consumers to sit-down restaurants during the week than to the microwave. But with more products in the freezer case and the deli counter and the fast-food restaurants that are trying to meet that upscale restaurant experience, she says, we can now indulge ourselves at homeand at considerably less expense.

True, you neednt be a bond trader to afford a nice weeknight supper. But when we choose to do so, we display a sign of increasing affluence in our country, says Patrick Galvin, creator of Berkeley, CAbased Vignette Wine Country Sodas. Food has never been so abundant, accessible or cheap, making it easy to forget that not long ago, strawberries in winter were a novelty, and a thick-cut prime rib was an extravagance. With the likes of imported saffron and hand-cured salumi within reach, our measure of extravagance has entered an inflationary spiral.

This trend is not all about flavor. A luxury food has to indulge the consumers ego as much as their gut. This isnt just aspirational buying. Its confirmation to consumersand to the person behind them in the checkout linethat, aesthetically speaking, they have arrived.

How low can you go?

Even as consumers make Champagne wishes on Budweiser budgets, food producers and manufacturers struggle to remain profitable in an atmosphere of ever-narrowing margins and ever-intensifying competition. With big-box stores and consolidating retailers firing the gun on what some call a race to the bottom, the general trend is to price everything as low as it can go. After sizing up the field, some manufacturers figured that if you cant beat em, just enter a different contest.

Because theres so much competition and because the consumer wants more, Galvin says, the need to be creative and different is even stronger for businesses. By redefining what a food means, a manufacturer changes the rules and provides a whole new matrix for choosing products. As much as people are looking for the cheapest product and the biggest volume at the least price, says Julian Rose, technical advisor, chocolate academy, Barry Callebaut Canada, Inc., Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, they want to keep a balance. Its a yin and yang of how the world spins. As much as people are looking for cheap toilet paper and everything else, to have the satisfaction of being able to choose a specific product that they feel is indulgent and a treat makes them balance out somewhere. As such, he believes that origin chocolates and coffees and all the specific products that consumers are now veering toward are their answer to world domination from the Wal-Marts and other companies.

Shifting landscapes 

As proof that turnabout is indeed fair play, the luxury shift championed by the little guys is beginning to attract the majors from whom they sought to distinguish themselves. The big playersHershey, Cadbury and Marsare all reacting now, Rose says. They know its coming.

Recalls Sean Greenwood, Grand Poobah of P.R., Ben & Jerrys Homemade, Inc., South Burlington, VT, We used to be one of the only players in the super-premium ice cream market. Nearly 20 years ago, the field amounted to his company, Häagen-Dazs and Frusen Gladge. At the time, I remember that trying this decadent product that was all about quality and less air and real pieces of candies and chocolates was such a huge marketing point for us. And today, everybody is doing it. The consumer who walks into the supermarket for Ben & Jerrys sees that even the local Safeway store brand has triple-brownie blast.

In fact, Ben & Jerrys has been part of UBF Foodsolutions, Lisle, IL, since 2000an acquisition many majors have sought to imitate, hoping to shave the risk from developing their own specialty lines while capitalizing on the boutique producers name recognition. Thus, The Hershey Company, Hershey, PA, which has begun producing its own reserve chocolates, purchased craft chocolate-maker Scharffen Berger in 2005 and organic brand Dagoba a year later. Last fall, PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, NY, acquired Izze Beverage Company, whose specialty, all-natural sparkling fruit juices play to a crowd keen on the companys vintage-looking bottles and progressive flavors, like clementine and pomegranate.

Redefining indulgent 

These specialty producers became hot by creating items that fit the consumers schema of a premium, indulgent product and doing so in the face of constantly evolving ideas of what premium and indulgent mean.

The fundamentals remain unchanged, with rarity (think truffles) and exoticism (think açaí) still prized. As Julie Snarsky, manager of culinary and foodservice, David Michael, notes: How many people have prosciutto in their refrigerator? How many have smoked chicken? These are things you generally dont keep in your refrigerator. So, she notes, buying such products is an indulgence.

When rarity and exoticism come up against supply and demand, the price point where they meet often qualifies an item as indulgent. Notes Anh Nguy, development research chef, David Michael, To me, if I want to experience indulgence, first I consider that something indulgent has got to be expensive, so it does have to do with cost, with price. Beyond that, she adds, it has to remind me of something. Whether thats feeling good or memories from childhood, it has to appeal to those senses. For Southeast Asian expatriates like her, that may mean eating tropical fruits that we cant get here in the States, she says. Edible indulgence, by playing to emotions that dont stop at the tastes buds, lets us escape to other places. 

Peoples lives are extremely busy, and there are certain experiences that help you escape that, even just momentarily, Galvin says. Take the wine-country lifestyle, which, he says, as an idyllic concept, has taken off. All you have to do is go up to St. Helena or any of the other wine-country towns in the summer and look around. So if my soft drink can contribute to that feeling, even when youre not in Sonoma County or Napa Valley or other parts of the California wine country, that would be terrific.

A sense of place 

Consumers also want to know the source of their food and drink, and Galvin takes pride in being able to tell them the specific area that the juice in this soda comes from. These days, a sense of place can automatically raise a product or ingredients cachet.

Were certainly seeing a lot of call-out of place of origin everywhere, from white-tablecloth menus to packaged foods in the supermarket, says Joy Blakeslee, culinary manager, Hazelnut Council, pointing out that Trader Joes crostini highlights the Turkish origin of the sun-dried figs and hazelnuts. The council conducted a national consumer-research study to gauge interest in nuts places of origin. We found that 64% of the consumers in the study were interested in knowing the origin of where their nuts come from, she says.

Does all this talk of terroir reflect a real difference in an ingredient? In the case of chocolate one of the publics more-keenly traced indulgencesRose says it does, at least for the bean, with a marked difference between, for instance, Indonesian beans, African beans and South American beans. For example, Barry Callebaut literature praises its Java-sourced milk chocolates explicit flavors of sweet caramel and biscuits, while its 70.1%-cocoa product from Ecuador has top notes of red fruits, dried grasses, and tropical flowers. However, a chocolate bar uses blended beans, not unlike an off-the-shelf supermarket coffee. Thats why Hersheys chocolate always tastes like Hersheys chocolate, he says.

Nevertheless, geographic distinction does add value, Rose acknowledges. So we as manufacturers can sell an origin chocolate, because of its rarity, a bit more expensively. And single-plantation chocolate pushes origin one step further, he says. You have very small crops, and very small amounts of chocolate can be produced from this one plantation. But as soon as were talking about origins and plantations, the added value weeds out most of the confectioners anyway.

Increasingly relevant to curious chocophiles is the specific cacao-bean strain: forastero, trinitario or criollo. The forastero represents about 70% of the world crop, Rose explains. So, most chocolates everywhere in the world have some forastero. But then you have the criollo, which has a connotation of being the best cocoa. Criollo has these fruity notes, these acidic tones; it has winey flavors. But at only 5% of world crop, criollo is almost so insignificant that we as a manufacturer cant rely on that 5% alone. So, for most manufacturers, criollo is used for flavor enhancementwe put a bit of criollo here, a bit there, and it enhances the profile. It makes it more exclusive and more expensive.

Less is more 

With the tab for some high-end chocolates running to hundreds of dollars per pound, it gives one pause when contemplating a second or third bonbon. Those steep pricescoupled with widening waistlines and an appreciation for discreet indulgence have led the modern luxury hunter largely to abandon equating indulgence with extrajumbo, chocorrific decadence.

When Greenwood wants something as a treat, he likes to spend my calories wisely, and I think that consumers across the board are saying, Im OK with having some butterfat, some sugar, some calories. But when I spend those calories, I want to spend them wisely, too.

Michelle Peterman, vice president, marketing, Kettle Foods, Inc., Salem, OR, reads into the trend what she calls a debit-credit dynamic. Americans are adopting a more-pragmatic approach to a balanced diet, she says. Deploying a debit-credit approach, they recognize that they can enjoy everyday indulgences within reason and still achieve health goals.

Thats not to suggest that luxury is going dietetic. When someone says to me, Create something indulgent, Snarsky points out, I still bring out the butter and cream. By focusing on distinctive, high-quality ingredients with a recognizable premium, everyday indulgences may actually promote dietary restraint by yielding more ounce-per-ounce satisfaction. According to the report Masstige & Super-Premium Consumers: Attitudes and Buying Habits from Datamonitor, New York, the mass-marketing paradigm favors over-consumption leading to social health problems. Consumers want a reduced quantity of products with a greater accent on quality.

Those consumers often define quality as simplicity and transparency in labeling. At a time when high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats are increasingly unwelcome, indulgent foods distinguish themselves as much by the ingredients they dont carry as those they do. Its the absence of negative that elevates it, Galvin says. As for his own soda, the ingredients remain simple: made with pure varietal juice, carbonated water, no high-fructose corn syrup, and a hint of natural flavor, he says. Its meant to be very simple, and yet what elevates it is the quality of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir juices that go into it.

Peterman feels the same about the Russet Burbank potatoes that go into her companys chips. As consumers become more health aware, they place higher value on food made from real ingredients, all natural, and with no fake stuff added to the process, she says. In addition to electing for Russets over the chipping stock most manufacturers use, she says, weve been trans-fat free since day one and use only nonhydrogenated safflower and sunflower oils.

Sustaining indulgence 

The ability of everyday indulgences to sustain popularity against standard-issue snacks has some manufacturers hesitant to dive into the category. But to listen to those already knee-deep in it, the waters just fine. Our sales are growing by leaps and boundsover 20% for five or six years in a row now, says Allen Rupp, corporate chef, purchaser, and research and development director, Woodland Foods Ltd., Gurnee, IL, which supplies a gallery of specialty wild and cultivated mushrooms, including porcini, portobellos, chanterelles and morels, among other ingredients. Our products have always been an item on white-tablecloth restaurants, he says. And there is an extreme demand for them.

Such demand touches every corner of the specialty market, with premium-chocolate sales rising 28% from 2003 to 2005, even as overall category sales grew at a meager 1% to 3% for the past 20 years, according to Chicago-based Mintel. Newage beverages, which comprises natural and specialty soft drinks, teas and juices, have also grown from $4.3 billion in 2001 to $11.6 billion in 2004, per the Beverage Marketing Corporation, New York. So it almost tripled in three years, Galvin saysand thats at a time when traditional soda sales have either gone flat or declined.

It makes sense, then, that Packaged Facts, Rockville, MD, found nearly 20% of American adults calling themselves gourmet consumersloosely defined as adults who seek to eat gourmet food whenever they can. Says Galvin: I think that its a big marketa bigger market than some people realize. And its not just about demographics. Its about mindset. When youre talking about sodas at the $2.50 or $3.00 price point, most people, if theyre interested in rewarding themselves with something a little more indulgent, can justify that. They do so evenperhaps especiallyduring recessions, since, in those times, chichi food is just about the only indulgence they can afford.

Of course, even the luxury consumer has limits, shelling out for the novelty of truffled organic popcorn, perhaps, but vetoing premium ketchup. (In 2004, New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwellno stranger to the food industryengagingly explored ketchups repeated refusal to go upscale in The Ketchup Conundrum.) Although we may claim to crave gourmet, sometimes we prefer it in the abstract.

For example, dark chocolates with cocoa contents pushing the limits of palatability are all the rage with aficionados of intellectual candy, Rose points out. Talk to all your friends, talk to anyone, and they all say, Im a real connoisseur; I like dark, he notes. But if you look at numbers, we still sell a lot more milk chocolate than dark. So then who are all these closet cases buying the milk? Not for nothing does Snarskys company offer a milk-chocolate flavor to help tame those 75%- and 80%-cocoa bars. As she says, There are a lot of people who like the idea of dark chocolate, but still want it to taste like milk chocolate.

Making indulgence manageable 

So the arithmetic involves finding the food that: captures the publics fancy, is amenable to efficient and economic formulation and production despite high-caliber ingredients, and represents a tangible improvement over the norm. It then boils down to the matter of formulation. Premium products contain premium ingredients with premium prices.

Difficult sourcing and supply fluctuations account for much of the sting, with plantation-origin chocolate often costing 50% more than standard high-quality chocolate, Rose says. Introduce the complexities of organicswhich, signals, if not indulgence, then at least enhanced valueand costs climb even higher. Organic production can put as much as a 20% to 30% tariff on chocolate. It also creates a lot of issues in sourcing, he adds. There is not that much organic sugar being produced in the world, and there are not that many cocoa beans. We regularly have shortages in organic products. The demand is exceeding what is being produced.

Organic sourcing poses challenges in the case of wild mushrooms, too, says Rupp. We have suppliers in Eastern Europe that are certified. We have suppliers in China that are certified. But its a tax for them. It can be expensive, for the wild side. Cultivated mushrooms are a little easier to manage, he notes, But at the same time, you still have the difficulty that the medium you grow them inthe soil mixturehas to be certified, too. Youve got to go back and prove that all of that is organic, which is a challenge.

Nevertheless, designing for indulgence organic or not neednt break the bank. Prices for commodities are subject to market whims, and while that means you sometimes get burned, it also means that you can sometimes find bargains. For example, Nesper notes that hazelnuts can make food products appeal to that premium gourmet market, but at the same time, they are actually not priced as a premium nut. In late winter of 2007, for example, hazelnut price per pound ranged from $2.80 to $3.25, below macadamias at $3.65 and pecans at $3.90 to $4.40.

Regardless of market prices, spreading the wealth can lower cost in use for key luxury ingredients. Lets be realistic, Rupp says. We can always make a pasta sauce that tastes great because its 30% mushrooms. But thats probably not price-effective. So, its finding that balance of getting enough of the flavor that you want at an acceptable cost. And thats what we try to help our customers with by offering different blends, doing size reductions, and offering a lot of ingredient forms. Blends are especially effective; by buttressing a pinch of specialty shroom with a more-ordinary fungi foundation, they stretch mushroom mpg. The one mushroom that customers typically want to put on their menu is the porcini, he says.

They still have that lore of Europe. By blending them with other mushrooms that arent as expensive, its a way for manufacturers to get a couple of different mushrooms onto their ingredient statement and get some different flavor profiles, too.

Another cost-saving tactic Rupp mentions is to reduce ingredient sizeagain, to distribute the perception of premium throughout the product. We call it kibbling, he says, but its essentially a diced form. Porcinis can be 4, 5, 6 in. tall. Well, you dont want to see a big slice of that on your pizza. So, by having them diced down to a ¼-in. size, or something like that, it allows you to mix it into the formula easily. And while freeze-drying best preserves a mushrooms quality, its also among the most-expensive preservation methods. A more-economical, yet wholly acceptable, option is air-drying. When you air-dry it, youre essentially only removing the moisture, so youre concentrating the flavor of the mushroom, he explains. When you rehydrate it, you get all that flavor, and you dont have to ship all that weight.

Even air-dried white truffles might command a price too dear. Flavor suppliers want to cut the manufacturers costs, says Snarsky. A little hit of flavor might be all it takes to amplify the impression of a premium ingredient whose character just doesnt rise to the top at practical amounts. I think having the porcini mushroom in the ingredient statement is the hook, Snarsky says, but when they taste it, its got to taste like what comes out of a restaurant. And thats where flavors can definitely help.

Nobody ever said indulgence would be easy. As Greenwood recalls, we did things that were incredibly difficult, like saying, Hey, lets put a couple of chunks or add-ins with a swirl. Or how about two swirls that wind around each other? Or how about a pocket of fudge right in the middle of the thing? When he and his colleagues began toying with their now-legendary chocolate- chip cookie dough ice cream, Wed take these 5-lb. barrels of cookie dough, put them in our spiral freezer, and scrape the dough out with a double-handled knife and cut it into one-inch blocks to put in the ice cream. Suffice it to say, they dont do that anymore.

So hats off to our engineers, Greenwood continues, and to the R&D team, and to production, and our quality-assurance people here who had to tackle some of those challenges to make the ice cream seem like a luxury, and to make people say, Wow, how did they do this? 

Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in Consumer Food Science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco bay area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at [email protected].

Sophisticated Salt

Naomi Novotny isnt one to boast, but, broach the topic carefully, and she might reveal that shes a salt connoisseur. As the vice president of SaltWorks, Woodinville, WA, shes well versed in the 30-odd varieties that her company brings in from over a dozen countriesfrom coarse grains of Bolivian Rose harvested in volcanic Andean lava beds to the pinkish-gray Kala Namak that seasons chaat and chutneys in India. She speaks of her favorites in an argot more frequently associated with fine wine than with something as elemental as NaCl.

Take Murray River. Its an Australian flake salt, a pink salt, says Novotny. Its just like little snowflake- shaped crystals, and its mild and wonderful. You get a really dry, crunchy texture with your food, and the flavor is just great. As for smoked salts, she touts one that adopts sweet, vinous notes from smoking in oak wine barrels, and another that gets that true, deep smoke that you think of with smoked salmon from Northwest alder wood. Its great for finishing off a creamy pasta dish or a baked potato. Then theres fleur de sel. It grows in a different direction than the other crystals, which gives it a different texture, she says.

Its the trace minerals that really mellow and round out the flavors, so its not just that sharp salt flavor, says Novotny. The Himalayan salts and Hawaiian salts both have a high iron content. With the Hawaiian salt, theres actually a clay thats mixed with it thats high in iron oxide, and it mellows it out and gives it a really nice flavor. It doesnt taste metallic.

According to George Lutz, quality assurance and technical services manager, Cargill Salt, St. Clair, MI: Salt has been a rising star for some time. In recent years, as the number of upscale restaurants has increased throughout the country, professional chefs have sought to differentiate themselves by using innovative ingredients, including salt. This rising popularity has exposed customers to a broader array of salt choices. At culinary schools, students learn how specialty salts from all over the world can enhance the unique flavors and textures of a dishand endow food with international mystique.

Premium salts are delicate enough to warrant special processing and handling considerations. When using a specialty salt, you must be sure it does not degrade during production; otherwise you may need to alter your process, incurring additional expenses, says Lutz. In general, he advises coarser specialty salts for topical application, while finer specialty salts, like our Alberger Fine Flake, shine in both topping and blending applications.

Although a specialty salts unique character will somewhat dissipate when dissolved, connoisseurs might swear they can still pick out the buttery notes of a Velvet de Guerande in, say, a bowl of onion soup. But as far as texture is concerned, according to Novotny, you dont want to take one of the salts that have been developed for their texture and dissolve it to where youre just getting the flavor of the salt.

That its taken so long for the public to appreciate salts full richness leaves Novotny a little bemused. Everybody likes its flavor. Everybody uses salt. Its such an easy concept to understand. You dont have to be a gourmet chef to appreciate the differences.