Happy summer! Food week for June 21 -27. Among the things going on in world of food: better stevia, worsening drought and the same Chinese food , because the chefs want it that way. We learned about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. a new way to store citrus peels and how COVID messes with your smell and taste. Enjoy!
MACRO
- Vaccinations slow, as does job growth. Bitcoin crashes.
- A heat wave to go with the drought is hitting the West Coast
- Food week June 21 saw 649,000 workers leave retail jobs this year, mostly due to lousy pay and conditions.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Vaccines solve drugstore traffic problems; some grocers too. Sales at CVS and Walgreens were stifled by the pandemic, but vaccinations helped turn it around.
- Stevia keeps getting incrementally better – less noticeable and bitter. Zevia is all in on stevia and the beverage maker is floating an IPO.
- I may be a flatlander but even I don’t think Wisconsin consumers are dumb enough to think that cashew milk is not dairy. But the legislature there has decided the public is so stupid that it is banning calling Impossible Burger a burger.
- Premium chocolate brand Scharfen Berger goes back to being privately held after 15 years as part of Hershey
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Room service? Nah replace it with GrubHub. No it’s not a motel, it’s a giant Vegas casino.
- To-go cocktails arose during the height of COVID. They are sticking around. It strikes me as being somewhat risky for the restaurants. If cocktails are the lure, will consumers forgo food purchases?
- Much is written about ‘authenticity’ in Chinese food. There is now a generation of Chinese American chefs who want to take their North American life experience to the next level and don’t care how you define Chinese food.
- A summary of the balderdash around restaurants unable to get workers b/c of $300 per week in unemployment benefits. From that infamous left-wing site, The Bulwark
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- The US has deficit of 300 million square feet when it comes to ecommerce.
- Inland erosion can have profound effects on marine eco-systems: How Cows Destroyed a marine ecosystem in California.
- Not out of the woods yet regarding the impacts of COVID on global shipping.
- As previously discussed in Food Week, the drought in California is causing a complete restructuring of almond production.
LAGNIAPPE
- I always have asymmetries between lemon juice and peel, depending on the drink or dish I am making. Now I will start freezing peels, thanks to learning this handy hack.
- COVID destroys sense of taste, smell. It causes confusion – things smell like other things.
- The difference between yams and sweet potatoes