Premium Lemonade Concentrate Photo Credit: Island Rose Gourmet Tea

Island Rose Gourmet Tea was founded in the 1990s in Nassau, Bahamas.  Although they began by selling tea bags to resorts their business quickly evolved to include the tea and lemonade concentrates that have become the mainstay of their company. After just one taste of their delicious lemonade it was easy to understand the popularity of the product.

Using simple, natural ingredients Island Rose’s philosophy is that the “sum would always be greater than the parts.”  What this means is that by using real ingredients, as close to nature as possible, and combining them in the most perfect way, the final result will be amazing.  And as far as I can tell, they have succeeded.

The tea and lemonade concentrates boast a shelf-stable product with no artificial colors or flavors.  With a one year shelf life for unopened product, and one month after opening, you can be sure to have refreshing drinks at your fingertips without worrying about spoilage or product damaged from sitting in the warehouse for a length of time.

Island Rose’s Classic Black Tea is unsweetened goodness, reminiscent of the tea we make ourselves to cool off on hot summer days.  Refreshingly uncomplicated, this 11:1 concentrate is true to the taste of freshly brewed tea.  It “provides an eye-brightening energy kick without all the fillers,” just like a good glass of iced tea should.

The Southern Style Tea is the perfect blend of tea and sugar that you would expect to find in the South.   Made with the finest black tea and natural cane sugar, the 11:1 concentrate “will make any home down-home.”

Island Rose’s Premium Lemonade is “true summertime nostalgia.”  Made with real lemons and pure cane sugar this 5:1 concentrate is sure to knock your socks off.

Create the perfect beverage with Island Rose Gourmet Tea concentrates.  Whether you need a large batch to feed a crowd or a glass to serve to a single diner, Island Rose offers flexible preparation with no waste.  Or you can even combine the two to make an invigorating Arnold Palmer.  Custom carafes are available with easy-to-follow recipes stamped directly on the container, making preparation a breeze.

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Let’s face it, a lot of the allure of going to the ball field is the great (or not so great) food that you can nosh on while watching your favorite player hit a home run or field a double play, sack the quarterback, score a goal, or make a free throw.  Whatever your favorite sport, I would still bet that hitting up the concession stand is a part of your agenda.  The arena owners and managers want it that way; food is a great source of revenue for them.  But as the price of tickets go up, and as the public becomes more culinary-savvy, the cardboard-like chips dripping with fake yellow cheese is not cutting the mustard for the typical fan.  Gone are the days of boiled hot dogs on a stale bun slathered with ketchup.  Food at sports venues is undergoing a reawakening as fans are demanding better food and better hospitality.  Now gourmet chefs are at the ready to rid the concession area of tired menu items, opting rather for upgraded versions of favorite refreshments: locally sourced vegetables atop your now deluxe nachos, grass-fed beef burgers, smoked brisket and pulled pork sandwiches with all your favorite fixings.  Vegetarian hot dogs and black bean burgers are available for the non-meat eaters.  You can even find fresh sushi or sashimi at some arenas.

But why stop there?  Meet Michael Mina, a self-proclaimed San Francisco 49ers fan, a lover of tailgating.  Mina is a renowned chef, having acquired fame from his restaurant, Aqua in the late 90s.  Enterprising owner of Mina Group (with tennis star Andre Agassi) with restaurants in destination cities from Seattle to Washington, D.C., Mina has recently opened a fine dining venue inside Levi Stadium, home of the 49ers, in Santa Clara.  For the first time in the history of professional stadiums a restaurant within a professional arena is open to the public even on non-game days.  Bourbon Street Steak & Pub is a high-end restaurant on every day of the week, but game days find the pub transformed into an upscale tailgate party for members (premium season ticket holders) only, first serving traditional sit-down meals with about ten available items—such fare as wood-fired rotisserie ox or cow and boiled lobster.  After the meal is finished, fans can walk around to different bars and stations within the restaurant, enjoying pastries, charcuterie, and cheese until game time.  Mina’s vision isn’t complete, though, without the help of guest chefs who are brought in from the city of the team the 49ers are hosting at home, allowing his customers to experience the local favorites of different areas of the country at each home game.  Chef Mina’s trailblazing sports-venue-dining muse seems to have ignited new trends, as sports settings across the nation are aspiring to emulate his 5-star dining experience—NYY Steaks at Yankee Stadium, Curly’s at Lambeau Field, or Dempsey’s at Camden Yard to name but a few.

So the next time you find yourself craving a gourmet plate of nachos or hot dog, or even a 5-star meal, you really need to look no farther than your local sports arena.  And maybe you can even catch a ballgame while you are at it.

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So what, you may ask, is a food hall?  It is like a public market, but it is more.  It is a comparable to a food truck, but it is more.  It shares similarities with a mall food court, but it is more.  It is an extended galleria of local vendors, convened for the same purpose—to sell their craft to consumers.  Local, sustainable shop ranging from soaps to cheese to fish to beef, and everywhere in-between.  Restaurants, artisan bakeries, coffee shops, wine and beer stalls, butchers, produce grocers, and much more, all under one roof, where vendors are eager to talk to customers, to share the stories behind their craft.

Food halls, though, aren’t a new concept.  They have been a staple in Europe, Japan, and other places throughout the world.  But in America, we were drawn to the convenience of “fast food” or to the elegance of “fine dining,” and therefore there was no need for any sort of food hall in our culture.  A shift is being made, though, as we are developing a hunger for authentic, homegrown products, real food that we can connect to via the farmers who grow produce without chemicals or even to those who raise livestock in a humane manner.   Food halls give us the opportunity to feed that hunger.

Also, according to the New York Eater, food halls are “another sign of an urban and culinary renaissance that’s happened over the past decade,” that food markets and restaurants have been successful when they are a “destination” for consumers. Customers can find every gourmet food item imaginable, all in the same place, all ready to eat at communal dining areas or ready to take away and be prepared at home.    A food hall is a haven for artisanal and specialty purveyors, buzzy food stalls and upscale restaurants, and as Anthony Bourdain, American chef and television personality, tells M Live, “I think there’s a real appetite for more low-impact, more casual, yet good-quality meal options.  That goes along with a shift in dining habits in general.  On one hand we demand more variety, better quality, more options.  On the other, we seem fatigued with the conventions and time investment of a multi-course, full-service meal.”  So really, we aren’t heading in a direction opposite of convenience, but rather in the direction of local vendors and restaurateurs available to us in one single location.

In short, the food hall trend catching fire across the United States will allow consumers to shop for groceries, for toiletries, for beer, for wine, that is grown or made locally, while also having the option to dine on meals of the same quality.  When all is said and done, who won’t appreciate the convenience?

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