12 of our favorite natural products featured in 2018
The most interesting bites, bars and beverages we covered this year.
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This legacy brand has been a steward of environmentally sound agriculture since day one. The company operates on achieving six sustainability goals including growing organic, becoming carbon neutral, operating zero-waste manufacturing facilities and more. Plus, through the 1% For The Planet program, Nature’s Path has donated more than $3 million to groups working to conserve endangered animals and their habitats. This tasty bright yellow cereal is an addictive embodiment of the brand’s work.
This Keto Certified bar is a surprisingly delicious blend of almonds, chicory root fiber, pea protein, cocoa butter, sunflower seeds, pea protein crisp, coconut and a tasty blend of lemon and matcha. The bar is sweetened not with cane sugar, but with zero calorie stevia. Notably, the bar is plant-based, which is rare in a keto product, which typically contains dairy.
This Boulder, Colorado-based brand features a nourishing blend of organic ingredients including cashews, sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, and a warming infusion of turmeric, ginger, Ceylon cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. As these 290-calorie orbs are raw (and never cooked!), they must be refrigerated for up to 90 days. They can also be frozen for up to one year.
Overnight oats have permeated visual social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest for their meal-prep ease and opportunity to include healthful add-ins such as seeds, nuts, nondairy milks, spices and fruit. Brekki adds even more convenience with this ready-to-eat, refrigerated cup that contains a vegan, gluten-free blend of almond milk, oats, buckwheat groats, puffed amaranth, coconut milk, chia, flax and more. The cardamom adds an appealing, sweet-spicy flavor.
Patagonia, the uber-popular outdoor clothing company, is lauded for being a bastion of sustainable business practices. The company’s food arm, Patagonia Provisions, upholds the same environmental values. A great example is this new line of canned mussels—one of the most sustainable types of seafood available—that are sourced from family farms in Galicia, Spain. Currently, a USDA Organic certification for seafood doesn’t exist, so Patagonia made sure this product is EU certified organic.
We’re obsessed with these adorable canned wild-caught tuna salads containing whole foods, spices and herbs. We especially love the Thai Sriracha flavor, which contains skipjack tuna, black beans, rice vinegar, peanuts, ginger, garlic and spinach. Also good: Sicilian Caponata flavor—a fresh blend of butternut squash, fire-roasted veggies, almonds and more. Pair with baguette slices for a flavorful, protein-dense meal.
For those who eschew coffee but still want the taste and the wakefulness, Rasa is the answer. By using a slew of consciously sourced herbs such as he shou wu, ashwagandha, reishi mushroom, rhodiola, chaga mycelium and more, this yummy beverage helps you adapt to modern stressors. Ingredients such as chicory and dandelion lend a roasty, toasty flavor. Brew it in a French press for maximum herbal extraction.
Pop a waffle in the toaster, wait 5 minutes and eat alone or doused in maple syrup. Clean and simple ingredients make them a solid breakfast choice. We especially like how Birch Benders has reinvigorated a sleepy category, and demystifies paleo eating.
Individual packets of masterfully blended oats, fruits and seeds to make 10-second overnight oats. We love how Maker's USDA Organic ingredients contain no added sugar ever, and feature plump berries that burst in your mouth with each spoonful. The beautiful packaging wins bonus points, too.
Repurposed Pod salvages landfill-bound cacao fruit (the fruit that encases cacao beans made into chocolate) and juices them into this sweet, tart beverage that’s perfect for blending into cocktails or mocktails. We love Repurposed Pod’s new packaging, too.
Health Warrior grew to popularity with their chia seed-infused nutrition bars. Now, the company is highlighting pumpkin seeds! This USDA Organic bar is made with a simple blend of nutrient-packed ingredients including pumpkin seeds, coconut nectar, almonds, coconut, Dutch process cocoa powder, milled quinoa, coconut oil, cocoa extract and sea salt.
Nourishing almond oil is the featured ingredient in these heavily spiced, satisfying chips. To be honest, there's nothing super groundbreaking about these chips aside from the oil they're fried in. But we're continuously impressed with Kettle Brand for crafting what we think is a perfect chip: salty, sturdy and very crunchy.
Nourishing almond oil is the featured ingredient in these heavily spiced, satisfying chips. To be honest, there's nothing super groundbreaking about these chips aside from the oil they're fried in. But we're continuously impressed with Kettle Brand for crafting what we think is a perfect chip: salty, sturdy and very crunchy.
If my product-riddled desk is any indication (seriously, it’s getting out of control), we cover a lot of natural foods and beverages here at New Hope Network. From paleo energy bites to cricket-containing protein bars, our days are spent examining nutrition labels, talking with founders, scrutinizing ingredient sourcing and—duh—tasting all of these (mostly) delicious natural foods and beverages.
Throughout the course of an entire year, certain sterling products covered on our weekly gallery series “Unboxed"—which features new products that come across our desks—stand out for their innovation, ingenuity, clean ingredients and pure tastiness. These are the products that we seek long after product samples are gone. We become their regular consumers—which is saying something, given our proclivity for rapidly amassing piles of natural snacks without much effort.
Here is our extremely subjective list of favorite products we sampled in 2018.
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