It’s shopping time! Our team selects new products for you to put – or not – in your mouth.
Posted yesterday at 4:00 p.m.
Cheese curds differently
To satisfy the desires of cheese curd lovers, IGA, in partnership with the food company Montour, launched Squickmix a few weeks ago, seasonings to sprinkle on the famous couic-couic cheese. Even if we believe that this local delicacy is perfect naturally, that does not prevent us from being intrigued to taste these products capable of “sublimating” our favorite dairy product. Verdict? We really liked the BBQ seasoning, a taste similar to that of certain chips and reminiscent of products offered by certain cheese shops. Our young testers, for their part, had a preference for dill pickles. A third flavor is also offered: “tacos”. On grocery store displays, it is recommended to mix a 30 g sachet with a 500 g bag of cheese curds. Personally, we found this powder-to-cheese ratio a little too high, especially in the case of the dill pickle seasoning, which is on the salty side.
Suggested retail price: $1.49 for 30 g, in IGAs
Véronique Larocque, The Press
Visit the IGA website
A quality convenience store
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MAXI
An overview of the Jonathan Garnier range
There are tons of prepared products and meals on the shelves. But when a chef like Jonathan Garnier, known for starting La Guilde Culinaire, launches his own line of products, we pay attention. And with good reason: the 40 products he developed for Maxi are not only of good quality (with the integration of several local foods), but their price is also right. As the holiday frenzy approaches, we wouldn’t be embarrassed to serve our guests our frozen cubes of tuna or salmon for tartare, their purees to accompany our meats or their gourmet chicken, bacon and spinach puff pastry as a starter. It even offers two types of logs!
Suggested retail price: $20 or less, at Maxi
Iris Gagnon-Paradis, The Press
Visit Jonathan Garnier’s website
Dream duo
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VERIFRUIT
The new blueberries coated with chocolate and cream sugar
We already knew – and loved – blueberries and other small fruits coated in chocolate from the young family business VERIFRUIT. But now a new combination has just stolen our hearts: delicious wild blueberries from Lac-Saint-Jean coated in Laura Secord’s cream sugar chocolate. Everything was made possible thanks to the acquisition, in 2022, of the license for Laura Secord fudges by Norbleu, the company’s parent company. This coating made from white chocolate and cream sugar is the perfect companion for the popular little fruit, which can be enjoyed all year round, since the product is available frozen. The company recommends defrosting the blueberries about twenty minutes before eating, but we admit that we love eating them while still frozen! A treat that will be all the rage during the holidays.
Suggested retail price: $7.99 for a 200 g sachet, available at Metro
Iris Gagnon-Paradis, The Press
Visit the VERIFRUIT website
Smoked snack foods
PHOTO PROVIDED BY FUMIX
The three variants of Fumix
In Georgia, in the south of the United States, where cooking over a wood fire is a widely used technique, people would be accustomed to offering their neighbors, family and friends during the holidays their own confection of “Nuts and Bolts”, a sweet, savory or spicy assembly of cereals, nuts and wood-smoked crackers. A native of this region, Marshall Spratt wanted to make this tradition known here, he who founded the company Les Fumistes with his friend Jonas B. Imbault in 2020. Thus was born their maple Fumix, with very different tastes. here, and frankly delicious. The company also offers Spicy Ketchup (addictive!) and S’mores (kids’ favorite!). A new aperitif tradition to adopt without delay.
Suggested retail price: $3.99 for 60 g and $5.99 for 140 g, available at IGA, Petro-Canada and around a hundred independent grocery stores in the province.
Iris Gagnon-Paradis, The Press
Visit the Fumix website
