Baking & Snack - July 2016 - 134

NEW PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Bear Naked Custom
Granola allows consumers
to clothe their breakfast in
sophisticated flavor.
Bear Naked Custom

Nude
No More

Bear Naked Custom Granola provides
adventurous new ways for consumers
to adorn their food.

Nude-look granola is so last season. The Kellogg
Company subsidiary Bear Naked Custom, Solana
Beach, CA, is opening a culinary costume trunk, allowing consumers to peruse subtle and flashy flavors for
their breakfast to don. Christopher Tutor, general manager, talked with Baking & Snack about his company's
innovative approach flavor choice.
"We wanted to empower consumers to create whatever they wanted, and we wanted to give them both traditional options such as strawberries, raspberries and
chocolate and non-traditional options like lavender,
jalapeño and green tea matcha powder so they could
experiment and really refine to their very specific taste
preferences," Mr. Tutor said. "With more than 50 ingredients available, consumers have almost 500,000 combinations from which to choose."
Citing the limitations of traditional retail outlets for
customization, Mr. Tutor explained that these custom
granola blends are available for purchase exclusively at
www.BearNakedCustom.com and are shipped for free
anywhere in the contiguous US. Taking full advantage
of this online platform, Bear Naked Custom partnered
with IBM to design IBM Chef Watson, a program to
help shoppers get the most out of their formulations.
"IBM Chef Watson is essentially an ingredient match-

134 Baking & Snack July 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

maker that serves as a guide through the process," Mr.
Tutor said. "Watson is able to understand and visualize
relationships between ingredients and their underlying
chemistry, and as a result, 'he' is able to help identify
unique combinations of ingredients that are likely to
taste good together."
In addition to Chef Watson, Bear Naked enlisted the
help of three human chefs of varied traditions to formulate their own signature blends. Sergio Semolina of the
Culinary Institute of America (CIA) created his Chocolate
Strawberry Jalapeño blend, following the Mexican practice of combining heat and sweet. Attempting to capture the experience of walking through a spice market
in Istanbul, New York chef Sayat Ozyilmaz's "Olive You,
Kale" blend combines olives, kale, basil, oregano, toasted
oat granola and a touch of red sea salt. Finally, pastry chef
Melissa Fritz, CIA, created Michigan Farms, a hearty mix
of cinnamon apples, blueberries, sweet praline pecans and
gently burnt caramel.
All of Bear Naked Custom Granola's ingredients are
Non-GMO Project Verified and thoughtfully sourced
from reputable locations, according to the company.
They are then baked into an 11-oz mix. Each canister of
granola retails for $9.99.
"We built Bear Naked Custom in response to a clear
consumer need and desire for more taste exploration
and culinary adventure," Mr. Tutor said. "We're taking it
one step at a time but are excited to learn more about
consumer preferences so we can continue to drive innovation across all Bear Naked products."
- Matt Hamer

http://www.BearNakedCustom.com http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking & Snack - July 2016

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