Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Girards Flavor Innovators


I was one of several food bloggers invited to be a member of Girards Flavor Innovators panel.  We began our quest in June "hanging out" on Goggle+ to brainstorm with Girards' team to develop new flavors for their salad dressing line up.

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Based off our first hangout in June, Girards sent each of us eight salad dressings to sample, take notes on various aspects of each dressing such as taste, texture and our overall impression.

We got together last week to provide feedback to Girards and narrowed down the eight salad dressing to our top four favorites. I found it particularly amazing how much in sync we were overall on the dressing we absolutely loved and the dressings we thought need a little something more.

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PhotoAs individuals, we picked apart the salad dressings in unique areas but we all seemed to agree on the basics. We even played around with the names the dressings were originally given.  The original names are in bold and the variations are listed below.

Artichoke Sundried Tomato Dressing 
·          Sundried Tomato Artichoke
·          Sundried Roma Tomato
·          Sundried Roma Tomato with Artichokes

Mediterranean Hummus Vinaigrette 
·          Roasted Garlic Hummus Vinaigrette
·          Hummus Vinaigrette
·          Original Hummus Vinaigrette
·          Classic Hummus Vinaigrette

Garlic Honey Pepper Dressing  
·          Garlic Honey Pepper
·          Sweet Garlic & Pepper
·          Sweet Garlic Peppercorn

Espresso Balsamic Vinaigrette
·          Coffee-Kissed Balsamic
·          Balsamic Americano
·          Barista Balsamic
·          Espresso Balsamic
·          Café Balsamic Vinaigrette
·          Java Balsamic
·          Balsamic Vinaigrette (“With A Hint of Coffee “- printed smaller underneath the flavor name)


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Many of you have been involved with Girards and know their salad dressings are the best not to mention how wonderful and easy they are to work with. The Girards Flavor Innovators experience was a lot of fun plus learning about the R & D and the effort Girards expends in making sure they are putting a quality product out for consumers completely "WOW-ed" me.

Girards wants to know what you think of these flavors and the potential names.

I can't wait to read your feedback!

Disclaimer:  I have a business relationship with Girards and this is a sponsored post.


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4 comments:

  1. I love the Girards dressings, they are generally my 'go-to' dressing for balsamics.

    The Artichoke/Sundried tomato dressing sounds quite good and I would love to try it out, but none of the names scream out to me. The more predominant flavor would play into it for me. Is there more of an artichoke flavor or more of a sundried tomato taste?

    I'm not too sure I would want to try the hummus vinaigrette but the name you have bolded does give more exotic sound to it.

    The Garlic Honey Pepper would be another I would like to try and I like the original name the best. The other names would lead me to think that there either wasn't honey in it or it was so minuscule that it won't have a play in the flavor.

    The Espresso Balsamic does not intrigue me in the least. It might be good as a glaze of some sort but for every day use, I wouldn't buy it.

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  2. Some of those sound great.

    I'm not sure I want a coffee dressing though

    Hummus would be the 1st to try

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  3. Katherine, We like Girard's Dressings...but they are a little pricy. It's nice that we know someone who's working with Girard's on their new products. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  4. The sun dried tomato artichoke and the honey garlic ones are my two favorite. Mainly because I like to use Girards as marinades for grilled meats.

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Thanks for stopping by, I enjoy reading your comments.

Katherine