Tag Archives: flavor of Georgia contest

Barlow Foods Named 2023 Flavor of Georgia Winner

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Decatur, GA

It’s been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And you’ll get no argument from Tiffani Neal, founder of Barlow Foods and the 2023 Flavor of Georgia grand prize winner. It’s an honor that provides affirmation to all of her hard work.

“I’m still surprised. I can’t believe that we won,” says Tiffani Neal, Barlow Food’s Founder. “It’s just a great reminder that we are headed in the right direction. It’s just great to see that your products are enjoyed and appreciated, especially on that level. So, we love our customers, we love their feedback, but to get it from UGA and to be recognized in the state is just totally amazing.”

While starting a business had been the plan for quite some time, deciding on what type came about organically three years ago.

“I love mixing and matching ingredients and putting things together. So, I’d always done that, had a wild idea to get into the food industry. I wanted to create a product, but I didn’t know what that was going to be. So, I made breakfast one day and a friend of mine loved the pancakes and for some reason it just clicked. I got obsessed with the idea,” says Neal.

That was the case for deciding on the name of the company as well, which is an ode to someone that had a big impact on her life.

“I was at my desk working late night and literally a picture of my grandfather was on my desk, but it just kind of spoke to me for whatever reason, and that’s the photo that we have on the back of our packaging, on the back of our cards. It’s just him on a tractor, on a farm. That’s what he did,” says Neal.

While they might be best known for their pancake mix, it was actually a product that was an afterthought that brought home the grand prize; peach cobbler syrup.

“I was sampling the pancake mix. Often, when we were just starting out, I was like, ‘what are people going to eat the pancakes with,’ so, I had some peaches, looked to the side, and decided to just whip up some syrup with this. I did that with the peaches and sweet potatoes initially, and then people would ask more about the syrup, says Neal.”

In order to highlight all the fresh, locally grown fruit within the state, products constantly change with the season.

“Now, we’re looking forward to spring and summer where we’ll get to put out our berry syrup, which are super fun, flavorful. You can do so many different things with them,” says Neal. “It’s strawberry and blueberry season, so, those get to come out. We are always looking at different things like what things are like, what say Georgia, what say the South, what say the southeast region? How can we incorporate that into what we do on a seasonal basis? Just to be in Georgia where we have locally grown peaches, where there is such a huge, strong agriculture community. It’s just so great right? When we win, it’s like the people that we source our peaches from right, the other producers we use locally, it’s like a win for everyone.”

By: Damon Jones

Goodson Pecans Wins Flavor of Georgia Contest

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Leesburg, GA – Whether you eat them in pies, salads, or just straight out of the can, pecans have been a staple of many diets across the south. However, recently a new market has opened up using this product thanks to innovative businesses like Goodson Pecans in Leesburg.

“There were no pecan butters at the time and so I asked, ‘what would happen if we tried to make pecan butters,’” says David Goodson, owner of Goodson Pecans? “So, we started slow. We moved out of our home as a cottage kitchen and moved to a store front with a commercial facility and just began the slow process of making and sort of trying to perfect our butters and how we did them. We were learning a lot as we were doing them.”

This multi-generational, family owned company uses the freshest pecans straight from their field to create this unique product. As for the taste and texture can be attributed to plenty of testing in their kitchen.

“We have found in just our experimentation with it some varieties that worked really well together in making the butter. You know, that was part of our process to get it tweaked just right so that the pecan is just super creamy and has got just a good overall sweetness to it. It’s great. I love not only having my wife part of this, but seeing my kids, every one of my kids is involved in some level. They will come up and help in different ways at the store and even when we go to shows, I have my oldest son who will go with me,” says Goodson.

Recently, they left one of those shows with some hardware, as they were named the overall winner for the Flavor of Georgia contest.

“The fact that we won the grand prize at the flavor of Georgia was just a huge burst of joy for us because we have been working hard and really for three years just trying to work on some things,” says Goodson. “We entered in our honey cinnamon pecan butter into the flavor of Georgia. That’s what we went up there with as a finalist.”

Even though the ingredients to this award-winning product might sound simple, the process of getting it to their standards was anything but that.

“We experimented with several different varieties of honey to find something that would pair well with not only pecans, but also with cinnamon and also with sea salt, and overall the whole thing would just have a great flavor profile to it. That’s what we feel like what we found in our honey cinnamon pecan butter is that it’s just a great balance of flavor in all those four aspects of the ingredients that are with it,” says Goodson.

It’s not just the taste consumers will come back for, as this pecan butter, as well as others Goodson Pecans sell can be part of a healthy diet.

“It’s got a lot of great nutritional value to it,” says Goodson. “It’s very high in antioxidants from the pecans but it’s also got other properties that you’re going to find from the honey, from the cinnamon, from the sea salt. We offer not just the honey cinnamon, but also our creamy and crunchy. Those are also great for you and if you love pecans, if you love other butters, it is worth trying it.”

They hope this is just the beginning, as the Goodson’s are always looking to update their product list.

“We are not only excited to be pecan farmers, but also developers of pecan products and I think there are just tremendous days ahead,” says Goodson.

By: Damon Jones