The fertile agricultural and cultural climate in Louisiana has stimulated a tradition of good eating and quality foods, and the rest of the nation is catching on. Demand for Louisiana foods by consumers across the country has prompted local companies to expand their markets. Foods once only found locally can now be purchased around the world. The following collection lists the ABC's of local foods that have created a splash outside Louisiana. Take it along the next time you're "makin' groceries."
Abita Beer
Supplied by the pristine waters of the artesian wells in Abita Springs, the brewers of this beer aim to please premium and import drinkers. To pure water, they add only malted barley, hops and yeast--no preservatives. The unique varieties of Amber, Golden Lager and Turbodog have caught on from Massachusetts through the Carolinas to Texas. California and New York will be next to sample the flavors Abita creates using English malts and German yeast.
Bayou Bang Gourmet Cajun Spices
Eric Eason started Bayou Bang Spices eight years ago to raise money to start his own restaurant. With that goal in mind, the spice business is booming. Bayou Bang's signature spice is the Cajun Salt-Free Seasoning. "It's great on everything," says Eason, "from barbecue shrimp to red beans and rice, steaks and chops too." Because it's salt-free you can use as much as you like. Bayou Bang is available at gourmet shops across the nation and in Canada.
Blackened Voodoo
Popular and controversial -- like New Orleans, the city it comes from -- this mysterious, dark, German-style lager produced by Dixie has become a hit across the country since its birth in 1990. When it was first introduced, the state of Texas banned Blackened Voodoo from crossing the state line because of its name's association with witchcraft. Public outcry from beer lovers in both Louisiana and Texas was followed by Louisiana's threat to discontinue carrying Texas' Lone Star beer. Eventually, reason prevailed and Blackened Voodoo now sits on grocery shelves across the country next to Dixie's other variety, Jazz Amber Lite.
Blue Plate Mayonnaise and Oil
Blue Plate products were first made in New Orleans by Hunt Wesson Oil in 1927. The cottonseed oil in the mayonnaise is grown in the state. The mayonnaise is sold throughout the country but is most popular in the Gulf states.
Camellia Beans
New Orleans' favorite Monday lunch special has caught on across the country. Camellia's red kidney beans top the sales charts not just here but nationwide. Because our wet climate prohibits beans from growing here, Camellia imports them from a belt of farms that stretches from California to New York. Lucky for those Yankees, Camellia prints a recipe for red beans and rice on every package of kidney beans.
Community Coffee and Tea
Henry Norman "Cap" Saurage opened the Full Weight Grocery in Baton Rouge in the early 1900s. He began to package ground and roasted coffee that he prepared for his customers, and his brother-in-law delivered them by horse and buggy to other grocery stores in the state. Community has since abandoned the horse and wagon for more modern transportation, and its coffee and tea are now available throughout the Deep South. In the tradition that Cap started, Community provides the "full weight" for its customers from the headquarters, which is still located in Baton Rouge. Community now has a canned iced tea line, featuring new orange, peach and raspberry flavors.
Crystal Hot Sauce
Crystal Hot Sauce, distinguished from other hot sauces by virtue of being cooked at a lower heat level, is hot enough to make your mouth water and good enough to spice up any dish. Crystal hot sauce is made by Baumer Foods, which also manufactures jellies, preserves and picante sauce. Alvin Baumer Sr. founded Baumer Foods in 1923 and today its products are exported to 70 different countries, with its strongest markets being in the Middle East, England, Korea and Germany.
Dixie Beer
From California to Massachusetts, people are demanding this New Orleans lager. Sales are especially high during Mardi Gras and the summer, when tourists flock to New Orleans a taste of the city.
Domino Sugar
Life is a little sweeter around the nation and in Mexico because of Domino Sugar. Domino uses Louisiana cane sugar, but not exclusively. There just isn't enough sugar in the state to sweeten up the lives of all of Domino's customers.
Elmer's Candies
Since 1855, Elmer's delicious concoctions have been delighting generations of candy lovers. Elmer's Candies, made in Ponchatoula, are available throughout the U.S. and Canada. Boxed chocolates for Christmas, Valentine's Day hearts, and Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash Easter eggs as well as Elmer's famous ice cream sauce liven up any holiday.
French Market Coffee
Since 1890, French Market Coffee company has been in business, shipping its rich, aromatic coffee around the nation. Consumers as far away as Guam and Canada yearn for the rich, full-bodied flavor of this New Orleans product. The special taste of French Market Coffee comes from chickory, a root cultivated in France, which makes the coffee taste stronger.
Gulf Breeze Honey
Throughout the Gulf Coast, sales of this product have been as sweet as, well, honey. Since 1941, Gulf Breeze Honey has bottled more than 25 million pounds of the sticky stuff. Bees from local farms and from as far away as China, Argentina and Canada produce the honey collected for sale under the label.
Horse Shoe Pure Foods
Rex Pure Foods sells some of its products that are packaged in New Orleans under the Horse Shoe label. Products include Louisiana Red Hot Sauce, olives, chow chow, cocktail onions, nectar syrup and horseradish.
Jazz Amber Lite
About a year ago, Dixie's New Orleans brewery started distributing Jazz Amber Lite, which is available in about 30 states. Formerly called Amber Lite, it won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival.
LouAna Oil
The popularity of this oil has grown beyond the confines of the state for which it was named. Since LouAna was founded in 1894, demand by restaurants, concession companies and groceries has spread nationwide. LouAna's Opelousas factory collects its diverse oils from Southern and Midwestern farmers, varieties like canola, cottonseed, corn, vegetable, coconut, peanut, palm, sunflower, and its best seller, soybean.
Luzianne
William B. Reilly, a wholesale grocer from Monroe, started a revolution in the coffee world in 1903. He thought that shoppers would rather buy his ground, roasted and ready-to-brew Luzianne White Label Coffee than roast and grind store-bought beans. He also sold Luzianne tea. Today, the company is the second-largest independent coffee company in the United States. William B. Reilly and Co. also owns Standard Coffee, which distributes java to offices and restaurants nationwide and makes CDM coffee and chickory.
Magic Seasoning Blend
The man behind the magical flavors at K-Paul's Restaurant, Paul Prudomme, has bottled his potions into a line of almost a dozen different seasoning blends. Among them are Seafood Magic, Poultry Magic and Pasta Magic, all made in Harahan. Sprinkle a little Meat Magic on ordinary meatloaf and stand back! Prudomme began distributing his blends nationwide in 1984 in response to the demands from restaurant patrons.
Melinda's Original Habañero Pepper Sauce
From its 6,000-square-foot warehouse in Metairie, Melinda's Gourmet Food Products produces the fourth-best selling pepper sauce in the country. Unlike other brands, Melinda's uses "the world's hottest chili pepper," the habañero pepper, and adds to it a rich, thick blend of carrots, garlic, onion and lime juice.
New Orleans Chef's Creations
Diversified Foods and Seasoning, owned by Al Copeland, puts out this line of prepared frozen meals and also supplies the tasty ingredients for his Popeye's and Copeland's restaurants. Specialties from these popular eateries can now be found in frozen meat cases across the Sunbelt. From California to Georgia, Diversified's baked beans with ham and its red beans and rice with smoked sausage have become favorites of consumers. These are just two of the company's many creations that cater to Southern tastes. Prior to their appearance in the freezer case, all potential dishes must pass a strict process. Al Copeland must personally approve the taste of each product before it can be mass-produced.
Orleans Food Company
The Orleans Food Company makes the best-selling canned shrimp and crab in the country. Its New Orleans factory cans seafood caught in Louisiana and around the world. Among the varieties are smoked oysters, chopped or minced clams, sardines, lump or white crabmeat and shrimp.
Rex Pure Foods, Inc.
Whether it's Creole mustard for your ham and cheese po-boy, seasoned fish fry for the big catch, or remoulade sauce for boiled shrimp, Rex has the seasoning that makes Louisiana food worth eating. Since 1888, Rex has been spicing the palates of Louisianans and started to export outside the state in 1978. Exports now comprise 28 percent of sales. The spices are most popular with people in coastal areas such as south Florida; Anchorage, Alaska; and Newport, R.I.
Reising and Zip Bread
Without the right bread, a po-boy is nothing but a sandwich with a marketable name. The G.H. Leidenheimer bakery, which makes Reising and Zip bread, has been providing New Orleanians with French bread for their po-boys since 1896. And while there has been a huge leap in technology over the 98 years since the company was founded, the bread is still finished by hand. According to Leidenheimer vice president Sandy Whann, the bakery is the premier supplier for New Orleans restaurants that serve po-boys. The company also makes muffaletta bread and pistolettas and sells its bread in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Hawaii.
Steen's Syrup
In 1910, C.S. Steen had a problem. He was going to lose his sugar crop because he couldn't get it from his farm in Abbeville to the sugar mill fast enough. So he erected his own mill. Today Steen's syrup is sold widely throughout Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and is distributed nationwide. It is still grown and processed in Abbeville. Steen's molasses is used in a variety of oatmeal cookies and in K.C. Masterpiece barbecue sauce.
Tabasco
When the Tabasco company began in 1868, little did the McIlhenny family know that within 125 years, it would reduce the world to tears. This little bottle of hot stuff first blazed a trail across the U.S. just five years after its creation. The company now ships to more than 100 countries and prints the Tabasco label in some 19 languages. Its biggest fans are the Japanese, followed by the Germans, Canadians and western Europeans. Despite all this popularity, the Tabasco company has not forgotten its roots. It still operates out of the original Avery Island factory in the heart of Cajun bayou country. When you're near scrumptiously spicy Tabasco, being surrounded by all that water is a good idea.
Watermaid and Mahatma
There is nothing that goes with Camellia red beans like Mahatma or Watermaid rice. Mahatma is a long grain rice, and Watermaid is a medium grain rice. Riviana, the company that owns Mahatma and Watermaid, grows much of its rice in Louisiana and still mills and packages it in Abbeville. The rice is sold nationwide -- in the northeast under the Carolina and River brand names. It also is sold in parts of Europe and Australia.
Zapp's
You won't find any crawfish in Zapp's "Cajun crawtator," the company's most popular flavor of potato chip. What you will find is a chip that tastes like a potato still piping hot from the crawfish pot. Zapp's combines unique flavors (and names) such as "gator tators" and "sour cream and Creole onion" with the unusual texture created by frying in peanut oil. The result is an extra crispy, extra tasty chip that has become a hit across the South. Even better, Zapp's chips contain only one and a half grams of saturated fat per ounce, which qualifies them for the claim, "cholesterol free." At last, a snack that has more flavor than fat.
Zatarain's
For as long as your mama can remember, Zatarain's has been right up there with Creole tomatoes and andouille sausage as a staple in New Orleans kitchens. Zatarain's has been in business since 1889. Purveyors of seasoning mixes, Zatarain's went nationwide 10 years ago with the products it makes in Gretna. The unique flavor has caught on fast; Zatarain's jambalaya mix is the country's favorite.
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