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Welcome to Fancy Food & Culinary Products' blog, your place to read reviews of the great fancy and gourmet products we find in the marketplace.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Editor's Choice: Vermont Natural Foods


I’ve always liked light dressings on my salads. At home, a good olive oil and balsamic vinegar is just fine with me. If I’m at a restaurant, my tastes run to trying one of the vinaigrettes offered.

I’m also a big fan of berries. So you can imagine my delight when Vermont Natural Foods Red Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette (vtnaturalfoods.com) was sent to the office recently. I took it home and tried it on a simple salad. As I took the first bite, I was welcomed with the great taste of raspberry, sweet, yet a little tart blending nicely with the balsamic vinegar. It livened up the salad.

I next tried it on some slices of yellow zucchini I had cooked in the microwave. Again, it added a good contrast to the vegetable’s fresh, mellow taste. Lastly, I sprinkled a little on a roast beef sandwich where it added just the right burst of flavor.

Incidentally, besides the taste, another great thing about the vinaigrette is that it is gluten-free. In fact, it is part of a line of gluten-free vinaigrettes the company offers. Besides dressing salads, vegetables, etc., they all can be used to make tasty marinades for chicken and other meats. The website provides recipes.

For retailers, I can see this vinaigrette as part of a summer meal planning or grilling display. I can also see it as part of a celebrating berries promotion.

But for me, most of all, it captures in a bottle another great taste of summer.

Barbara