We celebrate our favorite women all year, not just in March, but we want to mark the end of Women’s History Month with a spotlight on some new products from women-owned businesses.
Indian-Americans Esha Chhabra and Smita Satiani grew up in households where drinking chai was a daily ritual; they also spent over a decade in the social impact, sustainability, and climate change spaces before founding Alaya Tea in 2019 with the mission to celebrate the women that are the backbone of the tea industry in India. They source and import small-batch teas directly from planet-friendly farms in India, and work in concert with their producers to help retain healthy soils through emissions-minimizing practices like tree planting (which also protects from landslides and runoff), eschewing the use of chemicals, and working to preserve natural habitat. Picked fresh and sent in small batches, their loose-leaf teas are free of any added flavorings, fragrances, or preservatives.
From their early days as potluck hosts and pop-up producers, the team behind the Pineapple Collaborative have made it their mission to highlight women in all aspects of food culture. An ever-evolving network of friends and co-conspirators, the Collaborative launched their first physical products in 2019, using their unique platform to elevate pantry staples and celebrate the producers behind them. For their debut offering, called simply, “The Olive Oil,” they worked with acclaimed industry veteran Kathryn Tomajan and the family owned Rio Bravo Farm to produce an Extra Virgin Olive Oil that looks as good as it tastes. Bright and fresh, it’s great on everything from simple salads to pasta, a versatile kitchen workhorse that we’re proud to have on our shelves.
We met Daybreak founders Catherine O’Hare and Avery Resor on a trip to the Bay Area in 2019, and were instantly impressed not only by the quality of their products, but their commitment to sustainable and regenerative sourcing practices. Working with “ocean farmers” off the coasts of California and Alaska, they source high-quality seaweed that’s not only good for us, but good for the environment too. Their easy-to-use products are packed with salty-savory goodness, and add a welcome hit of umami to anything they touch: we liberally sprinkle their flakes on everything from avocado toast to rice, noodles to popcorn, and anywhere else we want a burst of nourishing oceanic flavor.
We’re getting ready to ship the new harvest extra virgin olive oils from Italy, and we need to make room for them, so we’re having a sale. You’ll save 25% on our larger sizes of Antheo DOP from the Mount Iblei highlands of southeastern Sicily.
The tins are marked with a best-used-by date, typically 18 months from pressing. It’s meant to help consumers, but too many people believe the oil somehow changes after this arbitrary deadline and should not be used. That’s not the case.
Extra virgin olive oil is an agricultural product that does change over time. The sharp flavor of freshly pressed oil mellows, and the bitter tang fades. But well-made oils, stored properly, can last several years before oxidation renders them unpalatable.
In the places where olive oil is made and consumed, the previous year’s is kept for cooking and other uses where the flavor isn’t so critical. If fresher oil is available, it’s used for salads and as a condiment at the table. But the older oil is still delicious, even if the flavor is softer than it was when younger.
