makers // mouth-us.mom

Bang Candy Co.
Alex Farrington, November 3, 2016

Nashville is for cowgirls, too – and Sarah Souther is perhaps the best living proof. She blazed a trail all...

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{"id":15352613,"title":"Bang Candy Co.","created_at":"2014-09-10T16:36:38-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/bangcandy_cropped.jpg?60723\"\u003eNashville is for cowgirls, too – and Sarah Souther is perhaps the best living proof. She blazed a trail all the way from a remote family farm in Ireland, where she earned a degree in design and did a stint in the film business, all while raising a son as a single mother. Then a Nashville songwriter happened to pass through, met Sarah and promptly asked for her hand in marriage. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was romance that brought this pioneering lady to Music City, but her affection quickly expanded to include confection – marshmallows, to be specific. Picking up on the waning trendiness of cupcakes, Sarah saw a space in which to create the \"future of classy elegance.\" Inspired by an exceptional homemade marshmallow she tasted while dining with friends at a local tapas restaurant, this bold lady took it upon herself to create a version of her own, involving ground cardamom and rosewater (she is an Irish rose, after all). Her friends loved them from the start (one likened them to \"swallowing God in velvet pants!\"), dinner party demand skyrocketed, and soon enough Sarah set up shop: in an unheated cabin on a trailer, in the dead of a brutal winter. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSarah stuck to her guns, though, and eventually secured a space in Nashville's Marathon Village where Bang Candy could officially take root and expand into the realms of hot food, simple syrups, boozy barks and caramels. Above an antique jukebox in the store's doorway hangs a framed pink silk scarf with a handgun print – part of a line of silk apparel this Renaissance woman had created in a past life as a \"bored housewife.\" Guns and marshmallows: an odd combo of interests that perfectly captures Sarah's ladylike poise and steely tenacity. After being held up at gunpoint not once but twice, in both Ireland and Nashville, Sarah adopted the image as a symbol of empowerment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCall us crazy, but we'd gladly take a bullet for her Sparkle Bark any day. \u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Alex Farrington","user_id":6845096,"published_at":"2016-11-03T10:15:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-26T12:32:04-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"bang-candy-co","tags":""}
Martin's Pretzels
Megan Stocker Headley, October 3, 2016

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind when we’re reminded that Martin’s Handmade pretzels have been made...

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{"id":201468553,"title":"Martin's Pretzels","created_at":"2016-10-03T17:53:34-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/Makers_MartinsPretzels_Crop-240x160_large.jpg?v=1486400462\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003e“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind when we’re reminded that Martin’s Handmade pretzels have been made in exactly the same way since 1935. It all started in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with Uncle Henry in a barn trying his hand at the crunchy twisted treat introduced to North America in the 19th century. Henry passed the pretzel business onto nephew Lloyd in the ‘70s, and Lloyd passed it onto brother Clarence in the early aughts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut it’s still Lloyd who is up and at ‘em at 6 am mixing up 150 pounds of pretzel dough at their Upstate New York bakery. He puts in eight to nine hour days alongside his dozen Mennonite employees who don the traditional white caps and long dresses, singing hymns while they work. It would seem as if time were standing still if these women weren’t speedily rolling and twisting 10 pretzels per minute! That adds up to 26,000 pretzels each day (except for Sunday when they rest their nimble hands).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA mainstay at New York City’s Greenmarket since 1982, these pretzels that the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e called “the Rolls Royce of pretzels,” have legions of fans. The short and sweet list of ingredients—flour, salt, yeast and soda—belies the amazing result. The absence of shortening keeps them super crispy and a ten minute bask in a 550-degree oven gives them a toasty flavor that makes us reach for another and another. No mustard needed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":49204101,"published_at":"2016-10-03T17:52:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-06T16:10:17-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"martins-pretzel","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2017-02-06T12:01:13-05:00","alt":"","width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/Makers_MartinsPretzels_Crop-240x160.jpg?v=1486400473"}}
Mayana Chocolate
Megan Stocker Headley, September 28, 2016

Love is a beautiful thing. It’s an especially beautiful thing when it begets chocolate. This is the love story of...

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{"id":200883913,"title":"Mayana Chocolate","created_at":"2016-09-28T11:32:44-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/Mayana_Maker_Bio_large.png?v=1487715401\" style=\"float: none;\"\u003eLove is a beautiful thing. It’s an especially beautiful thing when it begets chocolate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003eThis is the love story of Daniel and Tamara Herskovic – the minds, hands and hearts behind Wisconsin-based Mayana Chocolate. It was conceived when Daniel, a restaurant chef-turned-private caterer met Tamara, an interior architect-turned-event planner behind the scenes at a function and fell hard for her beaming smile. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pair married and started a business planning and executing elaborate dinners for high-end clients in Chicago. Daniel began making chocolates for the guests to take home as edible favors and became intent on mastering chocolate’s inherent fickleness. He turned to the pros, apprenticing under a half dozen chocolatiers in the U.S. and France. With his techniques and flavors refined (and his truffles no longer the size of golf balls), he tapped Tamara’s talent to make them as beautiful as they were tasty. They entered the Chicago Luxury Chocolate Salon in 2008 and walked away with seven awards – and a lot more confidence in their fledgling business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese days, in Spooner, a town in the upper northwest corner of Wisconsin where Tamara’s family vacationed, the couple creates the kind of chocolate that dreams are made of: organic ingredients, no extracts and bearing designs \u003cem\u003ealmost\u003c\/em\u003e too pretty to eat. Their bars, which are loose takes (not to mention, massive improvements) on childhood favorites, feature their fleur de sel-salted caramel and take three days to make. (They take significantly less time to inhale, mind you.) The box designs are Tamara’s handiwork and feature the teal, ochre and cocoa colors of the Mayan culture. A peek into the box’s little plastic window induces drooling. Cutting into the bars induces utter annihilation. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Mayana\" means \"the future\" in Spanish, and with the Herskovics’ obvious love for chocolate and for each other, it’s a sweet future indeed.\u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":49204101,"published_at":"2016-09-28T11:32:00-04:00","updated_at":"2017-11-16T10:09:14-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"mayana-chocolate","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2017-02-21T17:16:52-05:00","alt":"","width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/Mayana_Maker_Bio.png?v=1487715412"}}
Love Hard
Megan Stocker Headley, August 22, 2016

Some people love hot sauce and some people love hot sauce hard. Jolene (Jojo) Collins used to put sriracha on...

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{"id":122795845,"title":"Love Hard","created_at":"2016-08-22T10:38:43-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/makerphoto_LoveHard_240x160_large.jpg?10075875490046399323\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003eSome people love hot sauce and some people love hot sauce \u003cem\u003ehard\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eJolene (Jojo) Collins used to put sriracha on everything. Then around 2010, when she started paying closer attention to what she put in her body, she realized how much sugar and how many preservatives came with each squirt of the classic Thai condiment. It was a deal breaker – time for the red rooster to fly the coop. Unwilling to live a bland, Sriracha-less life, the then 26-year-old knew what she had to do. She would make her own refined sugar- and preservative-free version.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurned out that living in Denver, Colorado, where amazing chiles grow on trees (well, plants), was just the place to be. Jojo began picking pecks of peppers (we couldn’t resist), grinding them whole and then fermenting for several days with judicious amounts of garlic, sea salt and coconut palm sugar. This is where the magic happened. Even after adding vinegar to the fermentations and then puréeing and heating the mixture, Jojo discovered that each batch brought its own thing to the party. Now each hand-poured, hand-labeled jar gets stamped with its unique batch number and no two jars taste exactly alike. Nor do all jars of Jojo’s Sriracha \u003cem\u003elook\u003c\/em\u003e alike. The prevalence of the area’s amazing green chiles inspired a sauce of a different color and now the sugary red stuff is green with envy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the heat is on, Jojo’s small but mighty team of two (sometimes three) wear bandanas over their faces, bandito-style. It’s fittingly fiery work for someone as passionate as Jojo whose company motto (edited for a family-friendly website) is, “Love hard and give a f*#$.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis girl is on fire.\u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":49204101,"published_at":"2016-08-22T10:42:00-04:00","updated_at":"2016-08-22T10:42:48-04:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":null,"handle":"love-hard","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2016-08-22T10:42:22-04:00","alt":null,"width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/makerphoto_LoveHard_240x160_325bbb78-0803-4872-b4af-c2bc7484ff1b.jpg?v=1471876942"}}
The Kitchen Garden
Megan Stocker Headley, August 19, 2016

“Vegetables with taste” is what Caroline Pam and Tim Wilcox set out to grow.After meeting at New York’s Greenmarket, where...

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{"id":122742533,"title":"The Kitchen Garden","created_at":"2016-08-19T17:45:42-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/makerphoto_TheKitchenGarden_240x160_large.jpg?9738706264450979373\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003e“Vegetables with taste” is what Caroline Pam and Tim Wilcox set out to grow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter meeting at New York’s Greenmarket, where they both worked as managers, they found themselves doing just that on an acre of land they rented in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley in 2006. Soon one acre became\u003cem\u003e 50\u003c\/em\u003e acres and in 2013, the farmer and his farmer wife figured out a way to bottle those vegetables with taste: home-grown sriracha.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith two of the greenest thumbs around (both spent time on farms in in Italy), a penchant for spice (they host a Chilefest on the farm every year to showcase their 30 odd varieties) and plenty of culinary cred (Caroline studied at the International Culinary Center in New York City and Tim is a self-taught obsessive), they were just the team to refresh the commercially-produced crimson condiment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne acre of Kitchen Garden’s certified organic farm is devoted to growing the 1,500 pounds of peppers that become one batch of sriracha. (One batch per week for eight to 10 weeks = 12,000 to 15,000 peppers!) Caroline and Tim use the entire, fully-ripened pepper, grinding them with farm-grown garlic, natural cane sugar and salt, and then fermenting the mash for anywhere from four to 10 days. They pass the fermented mash through the food mill, add white vinegar and then heat the saucy goodness until it achieves that addictive yin and yang of sweet and tangy heat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven with an annual production of 16,000-plus bottles, Kitchen Garden tends to sell out before the year’s out. Get some while it’s hot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":49204101,"published_at":"2016-08-19T17:43:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-06T17:53:24-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"the-kitchen-garden","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2016-08-19T17:52:13-04:00","alt":null,"width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/makerphoto_TheKitchenGarden_240x160_035e0eef-755f-4893-b0b7-73e65b2c59e6.jpg?v=1471643533"}}
Todd's Salsa
Megan Stocker Headley, August 15, 2016

Chips and salsa are sacred grounds for serious snackers. Choices abound: Blue corn vs. yellow corn vs. white corn? Mild...

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{"id":122550469,"title":"Todd's Salsa","created_at":"2016-08-15T17:48:07-04:00","body_html":"\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/makerphoto_Todds_240x160_large.jpg?12860782091995582224\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChips and salsa are sacred grounds for serious snackers. Choices abound: Blue corn vs. yellow corn vs. white corn? Mild vs. medium vs. hot? Saucy vs. chunky? Tomatillo vs. tomato? The decisions are enough to make your head spin (and your Mouth water). What Todd Simcox couldn’t find anywhere near his home of Bangor, Maine, however, was a store-bought salsa that tasted as good as the one he made. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis experimentations in salsa began at the end of a summer when faced with a glut of tomatoes from his home garden. He endlessly tweaked his recipe by bumping up the jalapeño here and scaling back on the garlic there until versions in mild, medium and hot were wowing everyone around him. Fueled by his chip-dipping fans, Todd decided to start a salsa business with his father, John, and a longtime friend, Erik Zola. Their big debut was at the Maine Harvest Festival in November 2013 and they ended up selling salsa as fast as they could make it. The jars were literally hot to the touch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince then, Todd’s Salsa has kicked things up a notch to accommodate demand, fulfilling requests from hot heads to bring the heat by adding habanero and ghost pepper to their lineup. And those of us who remember the 90s are thrilled that Todd brought back Inner Beauty Hot Sauce with its Caribbean accent and fruity, mustardy heat (don’t miss our CEO \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.mouth-us.mom\/blogs\/mouthpiece\/todd-s-inner-beauty-a-love-for-hot-sauce-that-s-more-than-skin-deep\" title=\"Craig’s explanation of his 25-year obsession with this sauce\"\u003eCraig’s explanation of his 25-year obsession with this sauce\u003c\/a\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite all this growth, Todd’s Salsa remains small-batch and family run. Todd’s son, Connor, was especially grateful when production moved from their home kitchen to a commercial one—he was tired of wearing goggles to shield his eyes from onion fumes. And Lena, Todd’s wife, was honestly just happy to walk into work everyday not smelling like salsa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmazingly, Todd still hasn’t quit his day job. Afternoons and evenings are reserved for salsa (and family), while mornings are spent as the meteorologist for Bangor’s TV 5 Morning News. We don’t need to tune in to know that the forecast for Todd’s Salsa is hot, hot, hot. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":48994245,"published_at":"2016-08-15T17:48:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-06T17:58:37-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"todds-salsa","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2016-08-15T17:51:07-04:00","alt":null,"width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/makerphoto_Todds_240x160_d5f3483f-3105-4c02-942e-299c82646f0b.jpg?v=1471297867"}}
Hayden Flour Mills
Megan Stocker Headley, August 2, 2016

Jeff Zimmerman is fulfilling a dream that first took seed in 1868. That’s when Charles Hayden, a man on a...

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{"id":120922117,"title":"Hayden Flour Mills","created_at":"2016-08-02T14:06:03-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/makerphoto_HaydenFlourMills_240x160_FINAL_large.jpg?16730193472898542453\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003eJeff Zimmerman is fulfilling a dream that first took seed in 1868. That’s when Charles Hayden, a man on a mission to plant and mill wheat in the Northwest, settled in Arizona after being held up by the high waters of the Salt River.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJeff, who grew up on a North Dakota farm (though never farmed), purchased the Hayden Flour Mills trademark hoping to resurrect wheat varieties that hadn’t been grown for decades in order to offer a more wholesome and tastier flour. In 2010, Jeff found a 300-square foot space in the back of a sandwich shop in Queens Creek, barely 40 miles outside of Phoenix and 30 miles from Tempe where Hayden’s original mill operated until 1998. There seriously must be something in the water there, because the space in the sandwich shop Jeff was drawn to was run by Marco and Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco fame. They \u003cem\u003eloved\u003c\/em\u003e Jeff’s idea of buying locally grown and milled flour made from heritage wheat varieties. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJeff ordered a 1,000-pound millstone from Austria (which took up about 200 of those 300 square feet), but had trouble convincing farmers to plant the unfamiliar types of wheat. Finally, a farmer right there in Queen Creek volunteered 30 of his 800 acres for an experiment with White Sonoran wheat, a variety brought to the Southwest by European missionaries in the 1700s. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stalks wound up thriving and Jeff has since convinced more than a dozen local farms to plant everything from farro (a nutty ancient grain that’s delicious on its own or as flour) to Blue Beard durum (a hard variety that’s often ground into semolina for pasta and pizza dough). Each flour lends its own distinctive taste and texture to polenta, pancake mix, crackers, etc. Local chefs and home cooks began to clamor for everything in their lineup. When demand outgrew his tiny digs, Jeff moved the whole operation to the farm that gave him his first shot. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStill, Hayden Flour Mills’ production remains small, and the team tight-knit, with Jeff’s daughter at the helm, a bearded banjo player named Ben running the millstone and two of the farmers’ daughters helping with the books and other behind-the-scene tasks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBetter crackers come from better flour. And better flour comes from better wheat. Lucky for us, it all comes from Hayden Flour Mills.\u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":48994245,"published_at":"2016-08-02T14:06:00-04:00","updated_at":"2017-11-16T10:15:59-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"hayden-flour-mills","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2016-08-11T17:20:28-04:00","alt":null,"width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/makerphoto_HaydenFlourMills_240x160_FINAL.jpg?v=1470950428"}}
Unna Bakery
Megan Stocker Headley, August 2, 2016

It didn’t take long after moving to New York from northern Sweden in 2010 with her husband and eleven-month-old daughter...

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{"id":120920965,"title":"Unna Bakery","created_at":"2016-08-02T13:28:49-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp style=\"float: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/makerphoto_Unna_240x160_b_large.jpg?v=1486400003\" style=\"float: left;\"\u003eIt didn’t take long after moving to New York from northern Sweden in 2010 with her husband and eleven-month-old daughter for Ulrika Pettersson to want recreate the same cookies that her mother and grandmother taught her to bake.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Many of the recipes were the same that were once served at \u003cem\u003ekaffereps\u003c\/em\u003e, the 19th-century social custom of a ladies-only coffee gathering. Here, it became \u003cem\u003ede rigueur \u003c\/em\u003efor hostesses to serve exactly seven cookies. Seven. Fewer would give the appearance of being cheap, and more could make one appear uppity. It was also assumed that a hostess would select the finest of tableware and embroidered linens. These rules, of course, were all unwritten.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUlrika, a graphic designer by trade, didn’t worry about such conventions when she first made cookies for her daughter’s birthday. The elegant treats took the edge off her homesickness and impressed enough partygoers that she began Unna Bakery, using ovens in the Hot Bread Kitchen incubator space in Harlem.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile\u003cem\u003e unna\u003c\/em\u003e means “to indulge” in Swedish, cookies are actually far less of an indulgence in Sweden than they are in America. In fact, the coffee\/cookie break in Sweden (termed \u003cem\u003efika\u003c\/em\u003e) is a common and practically culturally mandated part of workplace culture. It’s a way to connect with coworkers over something delicious – taking the time to make, share and appreciate simple pleasures. \u003cem\u003eFika\u003c\/em\u003e also clears the head: “You get a proper break, even if it’s just 10 minutes. It’s when I get the most creative and can solve problems that were tricky just five minutes ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe agree! Unna Bakery’s tender, buttery cookies, each with a secret ingredient or texture that makes them especially awesome, are capable of solving a whole lot of problems (so we’re making sure to have them on hand for important meetings)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe packaging – a modern nod to the beautiful lace tablecloths, vases of flowers and china patterns with porcelain stamps used at \u003cem\u003ekaffereps \u003c\/em\u003e– adds to their appeal. Made in small batches with mostly organic ingredients and no preservatives, Unna Bakery cookies are best to, as their box commands, enjoy now!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Megan Stocker Headley","user_id":48994245,"published_at":"2016-08-02T13:28:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-06T18:05:22-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"unna-bakery","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2017-02-06T11:53:47-05:00","alt":"","width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/makerphoto_Unna_240x160_b.jpg?v=1486400027"}}
Meri Meri
Arthur Bovino, July 26, 2016

Lovers of things small and artisan, we here at Mouth love a good story of the little brand that could....

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{"id":120700869,"title":"Meri Meri","created_at":"2016-07-26T16:09:38-04:00","body_html":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/merimeribiophoto_large.jpeg?6205578656927432139\" alt=\"\"\u003eLovers of things small and artisan, we here at Mouth love a good story of the little brand that could. Few beat the humble way that the now global stationery and partyware brand Meri Meri began.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking for something to do while raising her family, Meredithe Stuart-Smith (Meri Meri was her childhood nickname) started making cards at her kitchen table in L.A. in 1985 with nothing but scissors, pens and a pot of glitter. When stationery stores in the area bought them all up, Meredithe enlisted the help of some other moms. They set to work at their own kitchen tables, and in 1987, she presented a small range of handmade cards at the National Stationery Show in New York. When heavy-hitting stores like Bergdorf Goodman came calling, the brand took off and grew to accommodate the incredible demand. Now Meredithe oversees a studio of more than twenty designers and artists in the US and the UK (where she moved in 1997), but she still likes to look back and marvel at how far she’s come. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhether it’s a watermelon-shaped napkin or a gold foil pineapple-topped swizzle stick, color, sparkle (remember the glitter?) and fun are at the center of all of Meri Meri’s designs. They delight children and adults equally and are sensible yet stylish with just the right touch of fancy (scallop-edged napkins and gold-tipped wooden cutlery, for example). And it’s surely no accident that nothing is overly gender-specific or holiday-specific, so you can stock up on cups, napkins and placemats and use them year-round. In fact, it’s the type of partyware that brings on the party just by setting it out.\u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Arthur Bovino","user_id":42835845,"published_at":"2016-07-26T16:12:00-04:00","updated_at":"2018-02-06T16:15:29-05:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"meri-meri","tags":"","image":{"created_at":"2016-07-26T17:51:53-04:00","alt":null,"width":240,"height":160,"src":"\/\/mouth-us.mom\/cdn\/shop\/articles\/merimeribiophoto.jpeg?v=1469569913"}}
Coop's MicroCreamery
Brent Bailey, April 22, 2016

Marc “Coop” Cooper was once an electrical engineer and hospital administrator. Ever since he had his first premium scoop at...

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{"id":77673989,"title":"Coop's MicroCreamery","created_at":"2016-02-26T15:41:50-05:00","body_html":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0100\/5392\/files\/CoopsMicrocreamery-edited.jpg?4208695017505955104\" alt=\"\"\u003eMarc “Coop” Cooper was once an electrical engineer and hospital administrator. Ever since he had his first premium scoop at Herrell’s Ice Cream, Steve Herrell’s eponymous shop in Boston, he was hooked on the rich, creamy, low-air ice cream. What do you do when you’re obsessed with something like that? You learn how to make it yourself, of course!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarc learned under the tutelage of Steve Herrell himself, making a whole line of frozen desserts under Herrell’s brand and receiving the Best of BOSTON award 12 times over 25 years. He even supplied ice cream for the 1999 Major League Baseball All Star Game in Boston.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the advent of COOP’s MicroCreamery in 2009, Marc has also created caramel and fudge sauces to pair perfectly with his own brand of rich, natural ice creams, frozen yogurts and dairy-free ice creams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes, we’d take just about any excuse to be cooped up with Coop’s.\u003c\/p\u003e","blog_id":1310142,"author":"Brent Bailey","user_id":23116578850,"published_at":"2016-04-22T10:48:00-04:00","updated_at":"2019-05-14T13:50:39-04:00","summary_html":"","template_suffix":"","handle":"coops-microcreamery","tags":""}
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