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Pure Flavor targets snackers with award-winning bite-sized tomatoes

While consumers continue to look for more healthy snacks in the fresh produce aisle, greenhouse vegetable grower Pure Flavor is launching their new Cloud 9 Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes.

After extensive product trials and consumer taste testing, the company is touting the new tomato variety as an everyday snack game-changer.

Jamie Moracci. All photos courtesy of Pure Flavor.

“We taste hundreds of tomatoes every year searching for something special – unique colours, shapes, sizes, but most importantly flavour. From the first taste of the Cloud 9 variety, we knew we had found it,” said Jamie Moracci, president.

Grown in high tech greenhouses in Canada, U.S., and Mexico, Cloud 9 tomatoes are available year-round. With a distinct colour, unique shape, and a fruit-like flavour profile, Pure Flavor has conducted extensive product trials in key growing regions to create the appropriate growing formula to consistently produce an exceptional snacking tomato.

“From the first bite, you know this will be memorable: it’s a fresh snacking experience that comes from an unwavering commitment to quality,” commented Matt Mastronardi, Executive vice-president.

Available in a variety of formats, Pure Flavor’s award winning Cloud 9 Tomato is now available to be shipped throughout North America.

The tomato recently received the prestigious Superior Taste Award Certification from the International Taste Institute (Brussels, Belgium).

The reviewing jury, consisting of more than 200 renowned European chefs and sommeliers from over 20 countries, critically tested and analyzed the Cloud 9 Tomato and highlighted these characteristics to award the product the Superior Taste designation:

• Very clear, ripe tomato flavour with a marked sweetness; the taste lingers for a long time on your palate;
• These tomatoes have an original shape, and the size makes them ideal as a snack or for use in the kitchen;
• An intense red colour with a soft texture and sweet taste; nice and juicy – good balance between sweetness & acidity; and
• The product is very versatile; can be used in numerous different recipes and types of cuisines, suitable as a snack, in pasta, salads, stews, with various proteins (beef, poultry, fish), or even a Gazpacho.

“It’s a strict process where all products are blind tasted; this means that the samples are anonymized, we do not see the packaging and do not know the brand name nor the producers’ name – we don’t even know from which country the product comes from. This forces us to be completely objective as we do the sensory analysis. Only truly good products are certified”, stated Stijn Roelandt – sous-chef at Hof van Cleve, three Michelin stars and member of the Jury, International Taste Institute.

The launch of a sweeter snacking tomato comes at a time when consumers are looking to enjoy a wider variety of healthy foods to eat at home.

In anticipation of the new product launch, Pure Flavor spent the last 16-plus months developing the Cloud 9 brand to ensure that consumers could go beyond the package to enjoy all aspects of the tomato.

“Our team has developed dozens of recipes, conducted in person tasting surveys before the pandemic and hundreds of digital preference surveys during the Love For Fresh campaign late last fall, to creating engaging web and social content in lifestyle situations – we needed to effectively communicate that Cloud 9 is not just another salad topper, it’s the sweetness you crave with the quality you deserve. We think it’s a tiny taste of heaven,” said Veillon.