Food Porn Friday 1/30

While we’ve been busy fulfilling one of our 2015 goals of posting more ‘Chups recipes, we come across SO much deliciousness in our quests for inspiration – not all of which fit the need for a ketchup ingredient. Therefore, we decided to start a new tradition. Food Porn Friday. Here we will post a summary of the week’s favorite recipe discoveries and their mouth-watering photos.

(Click photos for recipes)

Roast Chicken w/ Potatoes and Olives by Bon Appétit

CrazyFeta Poppers by Cava Grill

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Rolls by Chelsea’s Messy Apron (via HuffPo Taste)

 

Wings Two Ways

Because what kind of sauce pushers are we if we don’t have WING recipes for the Super Bowl?!

 

Luckily, we have not one recipe, but TWO. Because as we know, people like options. (One kind of ketchup for 150 years? Come on).

Grilled Chicken Wings with Cherry ‘Chups Wing Sauce

Mango Glazed Chicken Wings

A Year Worth Celebrating

Exactly one year ago today, we launched our ‘Chups Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise $12,000 to launch our fruit ketchup crusade. Well, the response floored us and we’ve been off and running ever since!

As it usually goes when one stops to reflect on a significant period of time, it’s hard to believe a whole year has passed. (Time flies, right?) That said, some parts of the last year feel like ages ago.

We felt it only appropriate to take the time to highlight some of the biggest milestones we reached in our first year.

January

• January 21, 2014: “A Ketchup Revolution” Kickstarter launched. Only 2 days in we reached the halfway point of our $12,000 goal. Ten days in we reached $12,000.

March

• March 7, 2014: Kickstarter campaign concludes! After 40 days we managed to raise $22,000 – almost 200% of original goal.

• ‘Chups starts production at Union Kitchen! Moving from our home kitchen to UK, a food incubator in DC, was a game-changer for us. Not only did they help us become officially ready for market, but we’ve met lifelong friends through their supportive community.

May

• Through some serendipitous happenings, ‘Chups was featured in Food & Wine magazine!!! (Thanks, Julia Heffelfinger!) Something many food-related professionals and businesses wait their whole career for, we felt especially lucky. But the surreal opportunity also gave us proof that we were onto something with our ketchup concept.

June

• Though we had met and sampled ‘Chups with José Andrés months earlier and had been in touch with his team, June was when we finally received official word that ‘Chups would be used at the brand new America Eats Tavern restaurant. Not only that, but when the menu was released, ‘Chups was already branded in a separate ketchup section. Again, further indication that we may be on to something…

• We hosted a successful ‘Chups launch event at UK, block party-style!

July

• The Washington Post profiled ‘Chups in its very own feature article prior to the July 4th holiday!

• ‘Chups starts wholesaling to local stores and exhibiting at events, first participating in Yelp’s 10 year anniversary and Union Kitchen’s “The Lot”.

August/September

• We continue to grow our local presence and start in-store tastings.

October/November/December

• We start our holiday market parade – Taste of DC, MetroCooking DC, Parcel Market, Heurich House, and Yelp’s Totally Bazaar.
• ‘Chups hosts two successful pop-ups at Union Market.
• ‘Chups is chosen as a best holiday gift on Food & Wine magazine’s website

January 2015

• ‘Chups team travels to San Francisco to receive a 2015 Good Food Award! We submitted two varieties and won for our mango ‘Chups (submitted to the “Pickle” category).

So many wonderful memories! Of course, it hasn’t been all roses and puppies and we’ve met some serious speed bumps along the way. We battled through brand new problems: wavering fruit availability, running out of jars, too much demand, and not enough. But we’ve learned, we’ve adapted, we’ve created, we’ve curved, we’ve yawned, we’ve cried, we’ve asked ourselves over and over – WHAT ARE WE DOING?! We’ve also realized that if we weren’t asking ourselves that, we probably wouldn’t be human.

Thanks so much for supporting us on this crazy ride. We have big plans for 2015 and hope you’ll continue to help spread the ketchup revolution. As we all know, these kinds of things don’t happen overnight. 😉

PANTRY SALE – Buy 2 jars, get 1 free

It’s January and that means it’s resolution time. This year, we hope you’re resolving to try more new things — like expanding your ketchup game, perhaps?

Let us make it easier with the January PANTRY sale! Buy 2 jars of ‘Chups and get the third FREE.

Here’s how to redeem: head over to our online store and add 3 jars to the digital shopping cart. Once you do, continue to check out and when the PROMOTION CODE field appears, enter PANTRY115. Your discount will be applied.

(You can also get $8 off 2 sample packs or $8 off any order over $23).

Sale ends Sunday the 25th.

The 2015 Good Food Awards

The Good Food Awards, in their fifth year, celebrates what they define as “tasty”, “authentic” and “responsibly produced” food. Thinking that, at the very least, our products are pretty tasty, we submitted several varieties for consideration back in September.

In October, we received news that our mango flavor had been chosen as a Good Food Award Finalist, and by November had been deemed a winner in the pickle category! (Although we had to keep the news hush-hush until now.) As there is no general “condiment” category in the GFAs, we were honored that ketchup has a place among other amazing pickled deliciousness like kimchis, kombuchas, and relishes, not to mention cucumbers.

We attended the awards ceremony in San Francisco last night, which was held at the stunning 100-year-old Palace of the Fine Arts. A core group of thought leaders, including Mark Bittman, Sarah Weiner, Ruth Reichl, Nell Newman, and Alice Waters were in attendance to address a cadre of food producers that have followed in their example.

Each category of winners were addressed by keynote speakers, who shared enlightened words and hilarious anecdotes. We learned of the challenges of goat farming, the slowly evolving attitude towards gourmet coffee in Mississippi, and a how eating good preserves is a recurring soulful experience.

We were in awe of the gathering of some of the best food and hardest working folks around. And we hope this annual event continues the transition of good food being readily available to everyone, everywhere, all the time.

A most wonderful backdrop.

Palace of the Fine Arts

Mark Bittman opens the ceremony.

Winning ‘Chups featured at the reception.