This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Winter Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Put on by the Specialty Food Association twice a year, this industry trade show features thousands of vendors showcasing their best and newest food products.

I was at the show to search for the tastiest and craziest new products that companies had to offer. With the sheer number of new products and companies present at the show, it was a daunting task to take a look at everything. However, I’d like to share some of the most memorable moments from the show and what it’s like taking in the entire Winter Fancy Foods Show.

8:30 a.m.

When I first walked into the Moscone Center after checking in, I was blown away at the sheer size of the show. The Fancy Foods Show took over enough space to easily fit the thousands of vendors in attendance. The exhibition floors with most of the vendors weren’t gonna open for about another hour, so I took some time to preview showcases for what was trending and new at the show, as well as the “Sofi Awards” winners (basically, the Oscars of the specialty food industry) from the past year to get an idea of what products to look at during the show.

9:45 a.m.

I was able to get up front for the ribbon-cutting and get some cool shots of the ceremony before dashing onto the exhibition floor, ready to taste everything.

9:53 a.m.

The first company to really jump out at me was ReGrained, a San Francisco start-up that takes spent beer grains and converts them into tasty granola bars. I sampled a Chocolate Stout and a Honey Almond IPA bar, both of which were extremely delicious and had a touch of beer flavor.

One of my friends from a recent San Francisco food hackathon had also just gotten hired as the chef for this company, and had hinted at a new recipe of his being tested at this booth. While he wasn’t there, the product — a brown butter shortbread cookie — was, and it tasted absolutely amazing.

Phil, if you’re reading this, get that shortbread cookie into stores NOW.

Turns out I wasn’t the only reporter at the show to love the company, as Food Business News named ReGrained one of the top innovative startups in the show.

10:25 A.M.

While traversing the floors of the show, I stumbled across a booth heating up sausage. Without any idea what it was, I took a piece and bit into it. It was the most tender sausage I’ve ever eaten, with a ton of amazing flavor. Turns out I had just tried a bratwurst that was mixed with FOIE GRAS. I had never had it before up until that point, and it was a great way to get introduced to it.

The sausage is being made by Bella Bella Gourmet Foods, and I highly recommend giving it a taste. It will change the way you think about sausage.

11:00 A.M.

I had an interview scheduled with Bantam Bagels, the Shark Tank business that got their amazing bagel bites into Starbucks stores nationwide. I got to sample their various bagel bites as one of the owners, Elyse Oleksiak, talked about the company’s story of getting into Starbucks. Bantam Bagels started by delivering the bagel bites to a couple of Starbucks stores in New York, then scaled up drastically and went nationwide with the coffee chain last year. The next big step for the company is to get into grocery stores across the U.S. Currently they’re at 2,000 stores and hoping to expand nationwide, and I couldn’t be more excited to see that happen with these delicious bagels.

(P.S. The French Toast bite with the Maple Cream Cheese is my favorite of the bunch.)

11:45 a.m.

I came across a booth that advertised itself as “Single Origin Ice Cream.” This was the first time I had heard of the term “Single Origin,” and was curious. Turns out that the company, Choctal, has developed flights of ICE CREAM that feature either vanilla beans or chocolate produced around the world. I got treated to samples of four different types of vanilla and chocolate ice creams, and it was crazy to see how different all of them tasted! This was definitely the coolest product in the show. Each flight of four 2-oz ice creams is $8, making it an affordable way to class up basic ice creams for dessert.

12:20 p.m.

Next I made my way to a MASSIVE booth dedicated to Ghiradelli chocolate. As a San Franciscan native, I’m a huge fan of Ghiradelli, and wanted to see what was new with the company.

The chocolate makers were featuring two new square flavors at the show: Dark Chocolate with Bourbon Caramel and a new holiday flavor for 2017, Milk Chocolate Peppermint Brownie. Both were amazing, and I can’t wait to buy a whole bunch of them when they’re released.

1:00 p.m.

I also came across Revive Kombucha, and was drawn to their booth because of the sick bar set-up they had going on. Black-light countertops, light-up shot glasses, and kombucha on tap? I was all in on it, and even got a free bottle of hibiscus kombucha to take back home.

1:25 p.m.

I got a text message from one of my old college friends working at the show. He was working for a British brands company and had a cool product he wanted to show me.

When I came over, he gave me a sample of lemon curd. The curd was perfectly tart, but also perfectly sweet. Apparently, the brand, Tiptree, was so good, that the Queen of England uses it. Talk about royal-class preserves.

1:40 p.m.

I stopped by the Incubator Showcase to take a look at a few businesses coming out of local commissary kitchens. The incubators, which include the prestigious La Cocina of San Francisco, help new food business owners get off the ground, providing everything from kitchen space to business advice to develop and help their brands grow.

My favorite product from the Incubator Showcase was definitely Don Bugito — a company that makes flavored insects as a healthy, protein-packed snack. While bugs seem a little weird to try at first, they really don’t taste any too different from chips — especially the Chili-Lime crickets, which you will love if you’re a fan of Takis.

2:15 p.m.

The next eye-popping booth I came across was featuring sausages… made out of bacon.

The owner of Big Fork said that it was his way to hop in on the massive bacon craze, by taking as much high-quality bacon as possible and cramming it into sausages in the most flavorful way. Based on the sausages I got to try, he’s doing a great job of it, and I definitely want more bacon-infused sausage. This is the cure to choosing between bacon and sausage on the breakfast menu.

2:50 p.m.

Walking over to the New Businesses Showcase, a couple of products caught my eye back-to-back. The first was an entire company dedicated to celebrating the BEST cheese on the planet – halloumi.

Halloumi is a Cypriot cheese that can be pan-fried without melting, and is a great base for vegetarian sandwiches. Grillies is capitalizing on the awesomeness of halloumi, with a line of burger-style patties and halloumi-filled products. My personal favorite? The Halloumi Sticks, which were basically a saltier, tastier version of Mozzarella sticks. I cannot wait to see these guys grow and succeed.

The second product that caught my attention — and was probably the most decadent new product in the show — was Fookies. Half fudge, half cookie bar, these desserts are rich, indulgent, and downright tasty. I tried a Snickerdoodle Fookie and was absolutely blown away by how incredible they tasted. The company is still extremely young, but it’s potential is limitless. Fookie may just be the next big dessert trend with how big of a hit these were at the show.

3:25 p.m.

I heard there were some cool new ice creams at the Arctic Zero booth, so I went to check it out. This low-calorie, lactose-free dairy dessert is a favorite of my mom’s, and I was curious to see what was new and in store.

I ended up having an awesome conversation with their marketing team leader, and after getting to taste brand-new flavors like Cherry Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup, and Rocky Road, I got let in on a special product that was also being released with the new ice creams that not everyone at the show got to taste.

I was treated to a Red Velvet Cake Batter Frozen Dessert Bar. Yeah, it’s as good as it sounds. It takes Arctic Zero’s popular Cake Batter flavor and gives it a red velvet shell. At just 80 calories for the whole bar, I had no guilt at all scarfing down the entire thing.

All of the new Arctic Zero products are going to be available in April, so you’ll be able to taste these awesome desserts for yourself.

4:10 p.m.

After spending a long time at Arctic Zero, and a long day on my feet taking tons of pictures and gathering info and samples, I was ready to call it a day. However, on my way out, I stumbled across one of the greatest finds of the Fancy Foods Show — $2 wagyu beef sticks.

This is no joke. Epic is actually selling beef sticks (similar to Slim Jims) that are made with wagyu beef. At $2 for a stick, it’s an incredible deal, with the meat being incredibly tender, despite being essentially a beef jerky stick.

Epic is also releasing sticks made from venison, salmon, and turkey, completing a lineup that will standout in any convenience store or checkout stand. I cannot wait for these guys to hit stores and will be hoarding all of the Wagyu beef ones. Sorry guys.

4:30 p.m.

I finally made it back to my car with a massive bag of samples and business cards, ready to head back to the Foodbeast office to debrief and get everything set to write on the awesomeness of this show. This was my second year attending the show, and my first reporting for Foodbeast. It definitely is the best place to get the scoop on awesome new food products, and this year was a huge hit. Everything was delicious and revolutionary, and I can’t wait to see it all hit stores.

I just gotta fight Bay Area traffic, LA traffic, and flooded roads to make it back first.