7 Best Bites and Sips at the 2015 Summer Fancy Food Show

Check out our favorite sweet and savory eats, plus a cool drink, from the recent Summer Fancy Food Show held in New York City.
Chuao Chocolatier Strawberry Waffle Wild Bar

Photo by: BREVIN BLACH ©Brevin Blach

BREVIN BLACH , Brevin Blach

Picture this: Two convention hall-size floors filled wall to wall with both brand-new and famed eats and drinks from around the world, the freedom to roam around and sample all of the goodies you want, and the chance to chat with the companies that created them. That was the scene at the 2015 Summer Fancy Food Show, which took place at the Javits Center in New York City last month. This three-day extravaganza brought together the best items in the culinary world, and FN Dish was on hand to take it all in. From super-buttery biscuits from South Carolina to DIY cold-brew coffee, fizzy matcha tea, lavender-scented caramel and just about everything in between, there was no shortage of creative, inspiring takes on the foods and drinks you know and love. Read on below to find out which seven bites and sips we're most excited about.

Chuao Chocolatier Strawberry Waffle Wild Bar (pictured above): Chuao is known for delivering "creative flavor combinations," and they've indeed done that with this brand-new bar, part of the company's breakfast-inspired collection, which also includes the Cinnamon Cereal Smooch Bar. The strawberry-scented treat features a base of a smooth milk chocolate plus specks of crunchy waffles.

Callie's Charleston Biscuits Cheese and Chive Biscuits: Light yet full of intense buttery richness, the biscuits from this South Carolina mother-daughter team range in flavor from buttermilk to cinnamon, but we're especially keen on the cheese-studded variety laced with bright chives. No, we won't admit exactly how many we sampled.

Motto Sparkling Matcha Tea: Matcha is all the rage right now, as the green-hued powder is popping up everywhere from icings to brownies to beignets. Here Motto used it in an iced tea and added carbonation. It's not too sweet — we were pleasantly surprised by that — and there's just the faintest bite of citrus to round out the iced tea.

Spoonable Flowery Lavender Caramel: You've surely had caramel sauces before, and perhaps even ones dressed up with salt, but the lavender-scented caramel sauce from this Brooklyn-based company is on a whole other level. Think sweet, soft, smooth and rich — plus a touch of floral. You can use it atop meat, cheese or ice cream, but we're happy to indulge straight from a spoon.

Lillie's Q Hot Smoky Barbecue Sauce: Inspired by the 'cue sauces of Memphis, this rich, smooth barbecue sauce is indeed smoky, but that's not all. There's a welcome punch of heat, thanks to the addition of cayenne pepper.

A&B American Style Organic Jalapeno Pepper Sauce: Hot-sauce connoisseurs, you've met your match. This small-batch purveyor specializing in hot sauce is known for delivering "Flavor. Not Just Heat. ™" and we're inclined to agree. The jalapeno pepper sauce, while indeed full of heat, isn't knock-you-out spicy, but rather slightly smoky.

Sanders Fine Chocolatiers Chocolate Fudge Bumpy Cake: This cake is by no means new. In fact, this over-the-top rich dessert from the Michigan-based chocolatier has been around for more than 100 years, which just goes to show there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. Featuring a base of moist devil's food cake, plus "bumps" of frosting and a blanket of fudge topping, this timeless dessert will surely satisfy any sweet tooth.

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