The New Frozen Soup Brand That Millennials Are Raving About…
Let’s face it, very few millennials cook. The kitchen is trendy but only for shoes and plants. They love to restaurant hop and post their experiences, and a weeknight restaurant reservations can easily turn into a two hour foodie photoshoot. Bad for the restaurant, good for Instagram likes!
For those not taking your local eateries hostage, there’s Wholefoods and Traders Joes along with some smaller specialty stores where millennials congregate in the gluten free and salad aisles trading dog stories and work politics. Their breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack is wrapped up in a private label pre-packaged product somewhere between frozen foods and produce. They like flavor because their palates are exposed and they concoct their own creations from foodie blogs and posts. They are always looking for the next trendy thing.
Enter Yummy Jamaican, an attractive 30oz yellow pouch frozen goodness with the traditional flavors of Jamaica’s most popular soups. It’s advertising says it’s a ‘taste of Jamaica in a pouch’. Maybe that’s why I stumbled upon Emma* in an Austin, Texas supermarket holding four bags of Yummy Jamaican Hearty Beef Soup in her hands, at the verge of toppling over in an effort to save them from falling. I offered help and she politely directed me to the frozen food section with a pointed…”there are like two left, you can grab them before they are gone’.
I obeyed and went to a crowded frozen food section, but this soup was waving at me before I even opened the freezer door. It’s bright yellow package was hard to miss. This mystery shopper Emma* said there were two left, however, now only one was apparently awaiting my curiosity. I grabbed it and raced over to a floor manger I saw walking by. I explained my encounter with Emma and asked what’s the rave about these soups. He chuckled loudly and said, “You know what’s interesting, we just started carrying that brand maybe two months ago and we can’t keep them on the shelf. Somebody at the nearby university discovered them and we haven’t been able to supply the demand since”. I did some digging and here’s what I found.
Yummy Jamaican is a small northeastern U.S. packaged food manufacturer and these frozen soups are their thing. They are scarce in the major chain supermarkets and is focus mainly on smaller grocers in select states. Having tried the Hearty Beef Soup, I may be able to vouch for the rich, tantalizing and indigenous flavors they rave about. It was good soup. Easy to thaw in the refrigerator and heat for immediate use. It’s thick, meaty and very filling. It’s Jamaican food alright, without the scotch bonnet spices used in most of it’s cuisine. It’s generally gluten friendly and preservative free. My pouch portion was just enough for me.
When contacted, the Yummy Jamaican representative explained that they are taking their growth in strides and is now focused on perfecting the processing and distribution process. Goodluck on finding this wonder brand in your area as they are not being distributed nationwide yet and this store, a private grocer sourced them personally from a brand rep. “We are working on expanding the business all across the U.S. in the very near future”, says Kara would didn’t wish to share her last name. Well there you have it. Hopefully you’ll get your turn soon.
