LIHU‘E — For Stephanie Krieger of Nani Moon Mead, this was the first year she attended the trade show for Kaua‘i Made products Friday at the War Memorial Convention Hall. Krieger said she closed her Kapa‘a shop so she could
LIHU‘E — For Stephanie Krieger of Nani Moon Mead, this was the first year she attended the trade show for Kaua‘i Made products Friday at the War Memorial Convention Hall.
Krieger said she closed her Kapa‘a shop so she could take advantage of the trade traffic to expose her line of honey wine at the day-long event.
“I’m letting my wholesale accounts sell for me today,” Krieger said. “I just bottled a batch of mountain apple and the ginger spice will be ready for the holidays.”
Those two new varieties join the guava honey wine that she said is currently being carried by her retail accounts, including several on O‘ahu.
Beth Tokioka, the former director of the Office of Economic Development who launched the Kaua‘i Made program, said Friday’s event attracted a good number of people during the morning hours. This included several people from O‘ahu who traveled here to take in the show.
More than two dozen Kaua‘i Made vendors took advantage of the opportunity to showcase their products to people in the trade as well as announce new products for the upcoming holiday season.
“Most of the vendors are doing well,” Tokioka said. “Having this trade show should help them even more.”
Laura Cristobal of Salty Wahine, doing business in conjunction with Lori and Tony Cardenas at the Aunty Lilikoi shop in Waimea and also a vendor at the recently opened Kaua‘i Community Markets, Saturdays at the Kaua‘i Community College campus, said she took advantage of the trade show to debut some new items to go along with her line of seasoned salts.
“It took me almost four months to find the reuseable grinders, but now I have them,” Cristobal said. “I listen to what customers tell me they like and try to accomodate them. They were asking for grinders and now I have them. The key is to have fun and we’re having fun.”
The grinders come with assorted seasoned salts packaged with them and once the contents are gone, customers can refill them with other offerings, Cristobal said.
Joining the grinders, Cristobal said she also found rainbow peppercorns that make a perfect complement to the salt grinders.
Rod Sueoka of Sueoka’s in Koloa was busy chatting with the ladies about where they could expand the store to accomodate some of the new products.
“I came because of them,” Sueoka said. “They invited me to come and see what is available.”
Aunty Lilikoi is offering four new products for the holidays including a Passion Guava Syrup, Passion Fruit Habanero Jelly, Passion Habanero Mustard and a Passion Fruit Vinaigrette.
“We’ve come a long way since Lori started the line with five recipes eight years ago,” a representative from the Waimea-based operation said.
Marty Amaro of Kaua‘i Coffee said they have Holiday Spice now available.
“It’s like having pumpkin pie,” said one vendor who returned for a refill. “It’s good. I’m having a second cup.”
