FH Hispania Plaza

Cooking Up Hispanic Housewares Sales

The International Home and Housewares Show is being held this week in Chicago and among the many new products featured are several aimed at the U.S. Hispanic market.

Some products have arrived straight from Latin America (pots and pans from Mexico’s top selling cookware brand, for example) while others are designed specifically for Hispanic households, such as Megatrade International’s line of food containers.  The company sells containers meant to store traditional foods such as tortillas, rice and beans, aimed at among other targets, Hispanic laborers.

So naturally, I assumed that cookware companies selling Hispanic items would also be targeting the general market, but it appears from the article I read that their primary focus is the less acculturated Hispanic consumer and purists who want to use traditional tools from back home.

Niños, Watch Calories Instead of TV Commercials

According to a new report from the John Hopkins Children’s Center, Hispanic children are doing more than just being entertained while watching Spanish-language TV, they're also gaining weight.

The Hopkins team monitored commercial breaks and found that Hispanic stations "averaged two to three food commercials an hour, with one-third of them specifically targeted to children.  Almost half of all food commercials promoted fast food, and more than half of all drink commercials featured soda and drinks with high sugar content.”

This is a particularly important topic of concern in our community because Hispanic children have the highest rates of obesity, as documented by the CDC and other sources.

Happy Day of the Dead

Today is Día de los Muertos, a day on which the people of Mexico, and people of Mexican descent in the U.S. and around the world, honor friends and family who have passed away.  The day is not a macabre salute to ghosts and ghouls, but rather a beautiful celebration of life, love and humanity. 

Like many rituals throughout Latin America, Day of the Dead has its roots in indigenous cultures that revered and memorialized their ancestors.  The most traditional celebrations in Mexico include visits to the gravesites of deceased family members, shrines featuring items they loved while they were alive (I’ve seen shrines with cigarettes and tequila bottles!) and joyous, sometimes all-night, parties.  Other essentials include sugar skull and skeleton-shaped candies, pan de muerto and lots of marigolds (on the shrines and scattered around the gravesites).

If is sounds a bit like Halloween, that’s because it is.  They both have origins in ancient cultures, and they both are hugely popular modern holidays.

According the National Retail Federation, Halloween spending is up this year, at over $5 billion.  Across the country, there are Day of Dead celebrations and exhibits popping up in museums, art galleries, even on college campuses, making the holiday visible and increasingly popular among non-Hispanics.

There are even do-it-yourself sugar skull kits available online and at craft stores – one of the sweetest examples of cross-cultural exchange I’ve ever seen!

Hungry for Latino Cuisine

At FH Hispania Plaza, we recently covered the exploding popularity of chipotle peppers.  As we noted back then, Americans are hungry for Latino cuisine.

So hungry, that Packaged Facts predicts the U.S. Hispanic food and beverage market - which includes “authentic Hispanic,” mainstream Mexican” and “nuevo Latino” categories – will grow by 11.3 percent this year to $6.3 billion.

And now mainstream media is picking up on the trend.  Gourmet, the upscale epicurean magazine, has devoted its entire September issue to Latino cuisine in the U.S., and Everyday with Rachael Ray, the perky talk show host’s magazine, has added chef Daisy Martinez, host of her own PBS cooking show, as a monthly columnist.

On the broadcast side, chef’s Daisy’s show is going strong, and the Food Network has ordered more episodes of Simply Delicioso, hosted by Latina lifestyle goddess Ingrid Hoffman.  (By the way, Ingrid also has a show on Galavision/Univision, making her the first TV host to have two shows in two languages on two networks – you go girl!)

What’s interesting about all this is that food and beverage marketers now have even more media vehicles for promoting their products – and a hungry marketplace willing to give them a try.  Watch for more Latino chefs and media titles making it to the big time, and more Latino-inspired foods and beverages hitting the grocery store aisles very soon.

Is Chipotle the New Salsa?

chi·pot·le [chi-poht-ley]*
n.   A ripe jalapeño pepper that has been dried and smoked for use in cooking.  American Spanish, from Nahuatl xipotli.
n. The latest Mexican flavor to explode on the American culinary scene.

Chipotle, the dark, smoky version of the ubiquitous jalapeño, is popping up on restaurant menus and in grocery store aisles across the country.  Last year, Mintel Menu Insights reported that the chipotle pepper experienced a 15% growth on restaurant menus, and the trend shows no sign of stopping.  Nearly every fast food chain offers a chipotle sandwich and just last week I sampled a chipotle flavored chip dip. 

So what is it about chipotle that makes it so popular?  For starters, it offers an approachable version of an exotic ingredient.  It’s no secret that American tastes are changing, and stronger, bolder ethnic flavors are making their way onto restaurant and kitchen tables more each day.

Chipotle is also versatile.  It can be used to spice up virtually any dish, from chicken to fish to vegetables.  It lends a smooth yet rich, distinctive flavor whose heat factor can be dialed up or down.

The rise of the chipotle reminds me of another Mexican food, a condiment to be precise, that at one time must have seemed new and different to many people but today is more popular than ketchup:  salsa.