So many booths, so little time

The hardest part of attending the trade show every year is the time constraint. I did do my pre-show work by looking at every website listed on the Fancy Food Show exhibitor's list. Yeah, talk about making you not want to look at the web for a while. Thank goodness you have a few days to spend at the show!

So after looking over the web, I made a list of companies I had to talk with and those I'd have to ignore this time around. The ignore group had to be the usual suspects this year. Who are they, you ask? Well, the giants of industry of course. The Guittard's, Ghirardelli's, the Sunkist's and all of the foreign olive oil dealers.

On this year's list were new names, and a few old favorites. I did have to stop by Hammond's Candies as they are my all time favorite company. Along the way were Yam Good Pies, J.K. Adams Co., Sheer Bliss, Coco-Luxe, The Truffle Kit, Sister's Gourmet, EMSL Analytics, Umpqua Indian Foods, cmb sweets, Cooks Kitchen, Chronicle Books, Seasoned Skewers, TSP Spices, Dr. Stuarts, Clearbrook Farms, Amano Chocolate, Linda's Gourmet Latkes, HINT, Mrs. Meyers, Dry Soda, Bissinger's, Brandt Beef, The Savannah Bee Company, Crummy Brothers, Hint Mint, and Carlsbad Gourmet.

I'll be writing up a bit on each of these companies and a few more that caught my eye at the show. My favorite time spent? It had to be talking with Cooper Bates and Harley Cross of HintMint. They are two of my favorite guys. Cooper and I spent way too much time talking together that I should have spent elsewhere , but gee, he's really a nice guy and I needed the rest stop.