In this article I will tell you about some of the exhibitors whose products and ideas surprised or even fascinated me – however, I did not have time to inform myself in detail about them during BIOFACH.

For some products I more or less just scurried by – for example the candy specialities of BIO4You from Bavaria. Here I would have liked to have taken more time, because the sweets are not only chic and sustainably packaged, but also totally delicious.

My absolute favourite was the filled Cherry-Aronia sweets, although sea buckthorn pomegranate also tasting very good. The portfolio naturally also includes varieties with ginger, such as a mixture of ginger with lime and ginger with orange – according to the exhibitors, ginger-mango is one of the most popular sales hits.

Right next to BIO4You, there were also the delicious BIO chocolate bars from Liebhart`s. Here I had the pleasure of tasting the varieties BIO Dark Nougat and BIO Noisette Amaranth. Both varieties tasted great and melted on the tongue – a real organic chocolate experience without regrets!

Here are a few more photos of products and trade fair impressions that I encountered during my rounds.

Kaskein, pure juices & more – quality from Finland

Founded in 1981, Kaskein Marja Oy from Lappeenranta in Finland distributes and manufactures unique natural products. Kaskein’s main focus is on wild berries and their exploitation.

So, this small but fine company produces great bottlings of 100% berry juices – all completely without the addition of sugar. I found Kaskein’s blueberry juice (Mustikka) particularly impressive – here the CEO didn’t promise me too much.

Even the fragrance of the juice promises the full power of the berries – an extraordinary natural product. Kaskein also produces freeze-dried fruit for all those who love the concentrated power of berries – for desserts or simply as super food.

There is a lot more to see at Kaskein – unfortunately I didn’t have the time to go into it this time – maybe another time.

 

Becker’s Best – this time in BIO

Becker’s Bester is certainly a household name for high quality juices. My previous favourite of this manufacturer was the cherry juice, because compared to other cherry juices it always tasted like more.

At the BIOFACH I took the short opportunity to try the BIO line of Becker’s Best Juices. More precisely, of course the cherry juice, but also the apple juice.

I have to admit that the two tasted BIO juices tasted even better – i.e. a little closer to the fruit – than the conventional line of the manufacturer. Besides the nice styling of the packaging, they are also sustainably produced, whereby Becker’s Bester naturally favours the glass bottles – which we should do as well. Just get the juice of one fruit – for example cherry – from both lines and see for yourself which product you like better.

 

Ajaa – plastics substitute from cane sugar

OnOff Spices – Thai StartUp

ONOFF SPICES offers Thai curry pastes, sauces and ready-made soups in organic quality. This doesn’t sound very exciting at first – but it is. As someone like me, who has been travelling in Asia and especially Thailand for decades, it is often hard to understand how people cook there.

Not only that the popular ready-made dry soups such as those made by “Mama” come with inferior quality noodles – they are also full of gluten. Also, the Thai housewife cooks daily with the help of glutamate, there it is completely normal “ผงชูรส – Phungschulot” to use.

 

This is exactly where ONOFF SPICES comes in and produces products according to traditional recipes without the addition of artificial flavours, colourings or flavour enhancers. They have also taken care of the noodles for the ready-made soups – here only high-quality and genuine noodles are used.

Here, the Dutch-born Onno Stienen as founder and owner of ONOFF SPICES has created something really great – try the products and support the project to get the Thai people back on the path of virtue!

 

Van Nahmen – known quality in the hip BIO garb

Fruit pressing plant van Nahmen exists since 1917 and its products, such as the pure fruit juices from 100% direct juice, have certainly been known to us all. The chic bottles with the tasty juices can be found in the food areas of Karstadt, for example.

At BIOFACH 2020 van Nahmen presented something completely new, namely her Sparkling Juicy Tea’s. On one of his trips to Asia, Peter van Nahmen came up with the idea for this product – a high-quality non-alcoholic drink to toast. The basis are good teas and exquisite fruit juices – so in addition, everything is completely vegan – partly seasoned with fresh mint. It was a really impressive experience for me to taste these BIO compositions – just something completely different.

 

FreshFläsch – no “Bölkstoff”, but a coffee innovation from Hamburg

With FreshFläsch, a completely new type of Energizer drink is coming onto the market – caffeinated FairTrade coffee with juice and a little carbon dioxide. Sounds funny, I have to admit, and even when I tried it, I had certain reservations.

But lo and behold, it actually tastes quite passable, although the culinary part of my brain wanted to refuse at first. It’s just a bit like with the black garlic – the combination of garlic/chocolate or sweet desserts with garlic was a real mental hurdle for me there too. But hey, you just have to try it – and I wasn’t disappointed with FreshFläsch either.

Personally, I hardly liked energizers until now, partly because of the artificial – mostly gummy taste – or the furry feeling that guarana leaves in the mouth, for example.

In the case of FreshFläsch, this is fortunately no longer the case – the three varieties produced so far do not contain taurine, guarana, colorants or artificial flavouring’s.

These are the flavours ginger & lime, grapefruit and rhubarb – my personal favourite. I wish you a lot of fun trying them out!

 

ELIMBA – the cocoa for adults

ELIMBA offers an extraordinary cocoa pleasure. On the one hand, it is the special portioning of the cocoa, as it is delivered in balls wrapped in paper, and on the other hand, the ritual during preparation.

The cocoa balls each contain 25g of untreated cocoa and are available in different containers. There is the 3-ball package, the 9-ball package or the ELIMBA starter set with 3 balls and a milk-frother in the stylish metal storage cylinder.

The cocoa contains coconut blossom sugar, agave syrup and a spice mixture in which, in addition to salt, cinnamon, saffron and some chilli can also be found. One ball is intended for 400ml milk – according to ELIMBA employees at BIOFACH, oat milk is the ideal choice. But of course, almond or cashew milk can also be used.

ELIMBA has an appealing concept which is rounded off by the stylish website. In any case, it is worth trying the cocoa of this Cologne company, have fun tasting it.

 

Mielizia – what a great honey from Italy

At the BIOFACH booth of Mielizia I basically only stopped because the crystal-clear honey “dazzled” me. I had never heard of honey from Italy before, I only knew the one from Greece.

The ladies at the booth were also super friendly and open-minded, which is why I took the time to taste the honey. Especially the acacia honey convinced me – from my culinary point of view it is especially suitable for sweetening salad sauces due to its characteristics.

The different kinds of honey of this small Italian company are characterized by their naturalness and a mild aroma. They also have all kinds of certifications and mostly meet the requirements for organic products. You can find more information on Mielizia`s informative website.

 

Here are a few more pictures of BIOFACH 2020 – including the excellent BIO Hokkaido pumpkin soup at Landgard, the tasty ICE DATE ice-cream from Munich or the delicious organic vinegar from VEDA in Bulgaria, a real “rising star”.