Top 5 Expo West Products

I’ve been back from Expo West for more than a week now and my brain has been able to process my experience. I’ve also been able to try the samples I cam home with. I saw a lot of cool products at the show and here is a run down of my top five favorites (in no particular order):

1. Nasoya’s TOFU PLUS: I have recently eliminated meat from my diet, so that is why this product sparked my interest. It tastes like regular tofu, but is it fortified to provide 20 percent of the daily nutritional requirements of the nutrients that can be harder to get when meat is less prevalent in the diet.  These include vitamins B2, B6, B12, D2; and calcium.  I just wish they sold them in Sprouts Farmer's Market!
2. Q.bel Foods’ chocolate: I was able to try these treats in January when they sent some to the office, but at Expo, I got more of these delightful chocolates. The new varieties to its wafer bar line, Double Dark Chocolate 70% (vegan) and Mint Dark Chocolate, as well as the rest of the line are free of the chemical additives. The mints are great, but my favorite is still the Peanut Butter wafer rolls.  All Q.bel products are made with all-natural ingredients and contain no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, hydrogenated oils, or high-fructose corn syrup. Q.bel’s wafer bars are covered in Belgian chocolate, and the wafer rolls have a crispy cookie inside. They gave some samples to take home and they didn’t last a week! hope more retail stores pick these up.
3. Elemental Herbs Sunscreen Sport™: I like the Tinted SPF 22 version of this chemical-free, zinc oxide sunscreen offering UVA/UVB protection. It’s like make-up, but it protects me from the sun, and helps my conscious because it is a fair-trade, organic, herbal-based, and incorporates organic whole herbs. I also tried the children’s formula Kids SPF 20, but it didn’t blend in to my face. Maybe I need to be a bit younger for that product to work on me.
4. Ascenta’s NutraVege: I have high hopes for this high-potency, vegetarian supplement that has the essential fatty acids (EFAs) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).  Like I said earlier, I’ve stopped eating meat, but can’t call myself a true vegetarian because I still take daily fish oil, but NutraVege could change that. It uses echium and algal oil as sources for EPA and DHA, respectively.  Each serving contains 400mg of DHA, 420mg of GLA and 550mg of SDA (stearidonic acid), which the company said efficiently converts to EPA in the body. Its citrus flavor is quite good. However, I did not get the chance to see a nutrition label on this one because the product is so new. It if takes 150 calories to get these EFAs, I’m sticking with fish oil. Time will tell.
5. Choice Organic Teas: Tea and granola are all over Expo West, but luckily for me, I like tea and granola. My favorite tea there was Choice Organic. While they aren’t new (released in May 2008), I loved the samples I got of the Jade Green, Jasmine Green, Sweet Liquorish Mint and Lychee White.

It was difficult to narrow this to five, so I cheated and added a few runners-up:

Harmony Valley’s low-fat, soy Sausage Style Mix really tasted like sausage.

Clif Bar & Co. is established and make excellent bars. It did it again with the new Clif Crunch Bars, which are so tasty. I also got to try some of Clif Bar’s wines on Saturday during a little cocktail hour they had. I only heard about the wine offered by Clif Bar a couple of months ago, so it was good to be able to taste a few.

Speaking of bars, LaraBars are an old favorite of mine, and their new varieties of Carrot Spice and Peanut Butter and Jelly were fun to try. Gluten-free is a growing trend making quite a presence at Expo West, and LaraBar has been creating gluten-free, delicious products for a long time.

Speaking of free-from foods, my favorite allergy-friendly offering were cookies from HomeFree.

And, a thank you to Amy’s Kitchen, French Meadow Bakery and Hain for supplying my lunch for those days I was too busy to stop.