March 23, 2018
![The bloggers of Natural Products Expo West share their favorite finds The bloggers of Natural Products Expo West share their favorite finds](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/bltfcca6c27b221f9d9/64ff1dedc013225784952e91/00-bloggers-picks-2018EW.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Frusano Organic Filita Quinoa Cluster: Yum! I loved this FODMAP friendly, fructose-free, crunchy, chocolaty gluten-free snack made of cornflakes and quinoa, coated with dark chocolate! Elmhurst 1925 Unsweetened Milked Almonds: I loved trying this deliciously FODMAP friendly, clean and satisfying almond milk, which contains nothing more than almonds and filtered water. You'll get 18 whole, raw almonds in every glass with no sugar, no salt and no natural flavors. EggLife Original Wrap, Sandwich and Burrito Wraps: When you follow a gluten-free diet like I do, life is frustrating when you don’t have many options to wrap up your favorite ingredients for breakfast or lunch. EggLife Original Wraps solve that problem. These light and moist wraps that don’t crack when folded are also FODMAP friendly, made with water, egg whites, xanthan, salt and nisin (a natural preservative). Aside from grocery stores, I’d love to see restaurants offering these too!
Schar Gluten-Free Puff Pastry: We finally have a ready-to-use (and easy-to-use) puff pastry option with U.S. distribution. And best yet? It's dairy-free too! This is one product every celiac has been searching for. Daiya Burritos: It's so hard to find a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free burrito (and meat-free) that's ready to microwave. And yes, they're delicious. I can't wait to eat these—probably more often than one should! Pascha Chocolate Quinoa Chips: Being gluten-free and vegan is hard when it comes to baking. Add any additional allergies and forget it. These chips are not only free from top allergens, but the quinoa makes a nutty taste that you can't find on the market today for anyone with nut allergies.
Beyond Meat Sweet Italian Sausages: Beyond Meat did it again. Last year, they launched their scrumptious Beyond Burgers, and this year Beyond Sausages made their debut. Almost too "real" for this vegan, but great for the animals, the environment and worldwide health! Hurray! Color Garden Pastel Food Colors: Many foods are colored with smashed bugs disguised as carmine or cochineal, but Color Garden's beautiful hues are from healthy beet juice, grape juice, turmeric and spirulina instead! Sure makes it easy to color tasty treats in a cruelty-free, natural way. Alpha Foods Pizza Burrito: Can't decide between having a pizza or a burrito? Don't fret; Alpha Foods has created a vegan pizza burrito, and it's really good! Just brilliant!
Modern table pasta: There are many plant-based, healthy alternative pastas out on the market today. This brand stood out to me due to its complete protein pasta claim, simplicity and clean ingredients, while it tastes just like traditional pasta. Kasira coffee fruit tea: Instead of wasting the coffee fruit during the de-pulping process of production, this brand is working with farmers to turn coffee fruit into organic coffee fruit tea. All the energy you need, without the crash. Packed with electrolytes and antioxidants. Ocean Halo soy free sauce: These products stood out to me in that they are low sodium, soy free and allergen friendly. It is a perfect healthy alternative to traditional Asian sauces.
Zupa: This cold-pressed drink is a cross between a soup and a vegetable smoothie. It is a convenient way to get those organic veggies into my day, and the creative flavor combinations left me refreshed and satiated. Sejoyia Coco-Thins: Sejoyia Coco-Thins not only won the NEXTY Award this year for Best New Sweet Snack, it won me over with its sweet, slightly salty, light, crispy, crunchy, seven ingredients or less paleo snack, because even though food is medicine, I need a daily treat. This is one I can feel guilt-free about eating. Aunt Fannie's: At SistersUndercover.com, we investigate clean eating, clean beauty and clean household products. That's where Aunt Fannie's fits in. They have developed products using a unique blend of essential oils and vinegars that are effective for cleaning and pest control without disrupting your microbiome. As a mom, this is very important to me.
Maple Guild Organic Maple Syrup: Meeting the maple farmers themselves made learning all about Maple Guild extra special. Of maple on the market, 99 percent includes defoamers that can be allergenic and aren’t on the label. Maple Guild is the exception, as they use cold sap from their trees as the defoamer. Additionally, it’s a single-farm source, making this product exceptional in my world. Curoxen: If you have less-than-common allergies and can’t use products such as Neosporin, this is the find of the year. As someone with a severe corn allergy (and many others), it was refreshing to see a topical medication with only three ingredients. Carve Cookie Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie: Perhaps the miracle cookie we’ve all been waiting for. This cookie touts only 3 grams of sugar for the entire package, 10 grams of protein, and is allergy friendly. Additionally, it’s beyond delicious. Our team members who sampled it couldn’t say enough good things about this cookie that tastes like eggnog dreams.
Made In Nature Broccoli 'Chedda' Veggie Pops: The ingredients are super legit: seeds, nuts, veggies and spices. No fillers or anything unnecessary. These savory snacks have a great crunch (but aren't too crunchy), and you don’t want to stop eating them. They are gluten free, organic, vegan, non-GMO and cane sugar free and coming soon! Malk Organics Strawberry Cashew Milk & Chocolate Almond Milk: No fillers, gums or additives of any kind. Just the good stuff: nuts, maple syrup, vanilla, chocolate/strawberry and sea salt. Malk is organic, paleo, gluten free, vegan, cane sugar free, gum free, non-GMO, soy free and very tasty! The Osso Good Co. soups: We were blown away by how tasty their broths and soups were. So much flavor! There’s no dairy and all kinds of real ingredients like their bone broth, veggies, herbs and spices. All soups are gluten free, paleo, Whole 30, no added sugar and BPA free!
Serenity Kids: They make organic baby food that’s high in protein and healthy fats by using grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. They’re also low in sugar (all 3 grams or under per pouch), gluten-free, non-GMO and paleo. Serenity Kids doesn’t hit shelves until June of this year, and I cannot wait. Sejoyia Coco-Thins: I was drawn to their Coco-Thins because they are grain-free and made using cassava flour. I have been hearing for years now that cassava flour will become quite popular in the gluten-free and paleo baking world, and these cookies made me understand why. They are so good! Siete Cashew Flour Tortillas: I’ve been a fan of Siete for awhile now and have been impressed with their grain-free tortilla line. I have never heard of using cashew flour as a grain-free flour alternative until I tried this product and I loved it. Seriously, I keep thinking about them. I tried several grain-free tortillas at the show that I loved, but have to choose Siete as my favorite for using cashew flour.
Wildway Smoothie Bowl Starter Mixes: I can start my day with egg-based protein powder with something a little extra. Each blend contains egg white and collagen protein, probiotics and MCT oil. I like that it doesn’t have a gritty texture and the “extra” in each blend can help me recharge, recover, restore or relax. Wild Keto Bacon Style Salmon from Simply West Coast: Combing two of my favorite things—wild salmon and bacon—into a delicious bite. This was one of last year’s NEXTY Award winners but it was new to me. The texture is similar to turkey bacon with a peppery finish. Organic Monk Fruit liquid sweetener from NOW Foods: I have tried to ditch the sugar/sweetener but there are some things, like iced tea, that I can’t do without. This new monkfruit liquid sweetener is sweet like sugar without the after taste of other natural sweeteners.
Plant Snacks Beet with Vegan Goat Cheese Cassava Chips: These were so interesting and tasty. I loved that this company was making something so different from the rest. They totally nailed it with this unique flavor profile. Pitaya Plus Organid Freeze Dried Powder: Finally, the prettiest food in the world can live right in your pantry. I loved the taste of this product, but mostly how beautiful it looks just mixed with water. Now, even my water can be Instagram worthy! Miyokos Un-Lox Your Dreams Cream Cheese Spread: I never liked lox on my bagels until I went vegan. Now, I can’t stop dreaming about this delicious new non-dairy spread by Miyokos. It was the perfect texture and flavor. Salty and savory and truly mouthwatering. Probably the most delicious thing I tasted at Expo West this year.
Simple Mills Soft Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies: In my life, I've barely ever had a cookie that tastes this good, much less one from a package with minimal ingredients. Simple Mills' cookies are a home run. Wildway Foods: Wildway Foods released a smoothie bowl starter kit, and it's incredible. Now, instead of adding in all your nutritional boosts, one at a time (l-glutamine, MCT powder, ashwagandha, maca, etc.), you can buy one product that includes many of them in one. For all the smoothie and smoothie bowl enthusiasts out there, this will be a game changer! Cauli'flour Foods: I was skeptical on a cauliflower crust because of taste and concerns that other (unnecessary) ingredients would be added to them. And then I stumbled upon Cauli'flour Foods and their cauliflower pizza crust. I am now excited all over again for pizza night with the kids!
Miyoko’s Vegan Un-Lox Your Dreams Cream Cheese: Miyoko hit it out of the park on their new vegan cream cheese line. These nondairy artisan cheeses are fermented and cultured like your traditional type. You cannot tell these are nondairy. The Casa Market Hibiscus Marmalade: The Casa Market wants to show the world the best flavors come from our mother earth. This 100 percent natural marmalade was out of this world. Sweet tones of the jam and slight soft chewiness of the hibiscus flowers. Elmhurst Milks Milked Peanut: This family-owned business creates 10 flavors from various plant sources. Started in the early 1900s as a dairy farm, they shut down dairy a few years ago and retrofitted to make milk plants instead. Our favorites were Milked Peanuts and Milked Peanuts with Chocolate which were creamy, silky and without aftertaste.
Northwest Fork: As an individual with food allergies and with children that also have food allergies, it's a relief to know a company makes allergen-friendly disaster relief supplies. The emergency supply is 30 days of food in one box. It's all vegan, gluten, dairy, peanut, tree nut, soy and GMO free and has a shelf life of 10 years. It's probably the best $150 I have ever spent. Barlean's Ideal CBD extra-strength hemp oil: Its CBD is derived from hemp grown on American farms. It's a vegan, gluten-free extract that is added to MCT oil and has natural mint flavor. CBD (cannabidiol) is known to promote health benefits and have helped me personally with stress, anxiety and sleeping. Looking forward to finding this product on the shelf. Pan's Mushroom Jerky: This was a great find, as I’ve been a vegetarian for over 12 years. This imitation jerky has clean ingredients, is free of the top eight allergens, and is gluten free and GMO free. I am a mushroom lover and have learned how to love them even more after learning all their benefits.
The Tea Spot 7-Day Tea Cleanse Kit: A cup of hot tea has long been my go-to whenever I feel the need to decompress. I love this seven-day kit, featuring 35 beautiful sachets of wonderfully delicious teas that support the body’s natural cleansing and stress resistance mechanisms—5 different teas, each perfect for its own time of the day. Pizootz flavor-infused peanuts: This amazing snack is packed with savory all-natural yumminess but doesn’t leave your fingers with the oily or sticky residue that other munchies often do. The flavor, of which there are nine different varieties, is infused in the peanut, so you get all the taste without any of the mess. Alpina: No Curd Cottage Cheese: This product is a delicious lower-sodium option when I’m looking to get my probiotic boost from a cottage cheese snack. It has a remarkably smooth and creamy texture that makes it a stand-out to my taste buds.
YumButter Organic Cashew Butter: This nut butter is one of the best I've ever tasted. It will knock your socks off in the best possible way. It's smooth, it's sweet and it's packed with superfoods! Holy Kombucha: While kombucha may be a recent trend, I've been drinking it for close to 10 years and have tried my fair share of different brands. Of all the brands I've tasted and all the different flavors I've had over the years, this is—hands down—my favorite I've ever had! Barleans Omega 3 Fish Oil Key Lime Pie: There's a reason why this product is labeled "seriously delicious"—because it really is seriously delicious! I was quite skeptical at first, but after one spoonful not only did I immediately want another, I also knew right away this would be one of my favorite products on the show floor!
YumButter Organic Cashew Butter: This nut butter is one of the best I've ever tasted. It will knock your socks off in the best possible way. It's smooth, it's sweet and it's packed with superfoods! Holy Kombucha: While kombucha may be a recent trend, I've been drinking it for close to 10 years and have tried my fair share of different brands. Of all the brands I've tasted and all the different flavors I've had over the years, this is—hands down—my favorite I've ever had! Barleans Omega 3 Fish Oil Key Lime Pie: There's a reason why this product is labeled "seriously delicious"—because it really is seriously delicious! I was quite skeptical at first, but after one spoonful not only did I immediately want another, I also knew right away this would be one of my favorite products on the show floor!
Among the 80,000+ people attending Natural Products Expo West 2018 were members of our #ExpoBlogger team, who did their best to visit every booth and try every product available. We asked these 15 natural living and health bloggers to choose their three favorite products, which are featured in this gallery.
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