Looking for food and drinks to serve at your holiday meal? Keep it local with these Georgia-made teas, dips, snacks and other tasty food items to make the holidays delicious.
Dips, sauces, spreads and spices
Love Guac. Give your holiday a Mexican kick with the guacamoles from Love Guac, Fayetteville-based Tasha Tolbert's business. After two years of experimenting, Tolbert got her recipes down to the four that do best for her: Love Guac (the original), Drop It Like It's Guac (with habanero, jalapeno and serrano peppers), Trop Guac (she adds pineapple and mango to the mix) and Summer Breeze (with watermelon added to the mix and the whole thing topped with feta). Read more about Love Guac here.
Thyme to Garnish. Becky Battle and daughter Lindsey Conway create, mix and package their herb and spice blends in the light-filled kitchen of Battle's Candler Park bungalow. Look for options including Loaded Onion, Sorta Spicy Very Veggie, Call Me Corny and Here's the Rub. Though traditionally used for dressings and dips, their mixes can also be used in other dishes including soups and black bean patties; Battle and Conway provide recipes on their website. Read more about Thyme to Garnish here.
Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q. Brothers Larry and Danny Williamson own three restaurants in the metro Atlanta area, with the big draw being their sauces. They produce and sell six flavors, in addition to rub, spice mixes, seasoning salt, spices like chili powder and granulated garlic, and beef jerky in three flavors. Read more about Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q here.
More locally-made dips, sauces, spreads and spices:
Garlic2 Rub and Seasoning from Lane's BBQ
Fish & Seafood Rub from Casa De Rusch Custom Rubs
Ras el Hanout Spice Blend from MarRay Foods
Marinade and Sauce from C'est Djen
Amazing Dumpling Sauce and Red Chili Oil from Gu's Kitchen
Nick's Grecian Sauce from Grecian Gyro
Kickin' Mustard Sauce from Maxwell Farms
Ramblin' Red Pepper Spread from Georgia Jams
Fig Bourbon Jam from Elusive Jams
Pepper Blend from Hotlanta Peppers
Hungarian Wax Pepper Hot Sauce from Pulp
Chimole from Sabor Provisions
Salsa #Verde from Hopes Salsa
Mole Rojo from 100% Salsas
Spicy Peach AubSauce
Sweet Potato BBQ Sauce from Kyvan
Original flavor from Causey's BBQ Sauce
Gullah/Geechee Seafood Boil Sack from Taste of Satira
Tybee Island Coastal Blend from The Salt Table
Salad Dressing from Kushina Catering
Cognac Sauce from Frik & Frak
Carrettera Sauce from FraLi Gourmet
Praline Mustard Glaze from Dr. Pete's
Drinks
Belux Coffee. Give your holiday crew a pick-me-up with coffee from Belux Coffee Roasters in Alpharetta. Ben Li and Lucy Liu, who both grew up in Taiwan, source single-origin, single-farm, micro-lot, organic coffee from Central and South America, Africa and Asia. The shop's shelves are filled with more than a dozen varieties, along with the latest in coffee brewing equipment to help customers make the perfect cup at home. Read more about Belux Coffee here.
Just Add Honey. Brandi Shelton has been mixing and selling her tea blends around Atlanta for years, including Earl Grey Cream, with black tea that's scented with oil of bergamot mixed with vanilla bean and cornflower petals and her Chocolate Mint Rooibos, featuring rooibos tea mixed with peppermint, cocoa beans, dried apple, chocolate flakes and vanilla bean. She also offers tea tastings and special events at her two Atlanta retail locations. Read more about Just Add Honey here.
Pride Road. The Atlanta-based Muhaimin family use hibiscus in a variety of products, including teas, sodas, chutneys and more. The family is hands-on with every step, from planting the seed and managing the fields, to harvesting and processing the fruit. The current best-seller is their hibiscus tea with ginger and citrus. Read more about Pride Road here.
More locally-made drinks:
Sweet Monsoon from The Chai Box
Georgia Grey Black Tea from Thistle & Sprig
Sleep Tight Herbal Tea from Jayida Che
Traffic from East Pole Coffee Co.
Classic Cocktails in Cans from Post Meridiem
Ironworker Half Caff Coffee from 4AM Coffee Roasters
Coffee from Ejo Heza Cooperative in Rwanda from Cloudland Coffee Company
Matcha Almond Milk from Treehouse Milk
Meats and fish
Water-Buffalo Jalapeno-Cheese Sausages from Carrell Farms
Smoked Trout from Dancin' Salmon
Snacks, sides and salads
Lupa's Kitchen. Naturopath Lupa Irie of Lupa's Kitchen is a student of natural remedies. After learning that sprouting seeds, nuts and grains would make their nutrients more accessible, she was inspired to sprout buckwheat and pumpkin seeds and mix them with coconut flakes, raisins and other ingredients to make a trail mix she called Morning Glory. Since then, she's expanded to sell kombucha, sauerkraut and a variety of trail mixes. Her daughter, Claire, has also joined the Doraville-based business. Read more about Lupa's Kitchen here.
Suga's Pimento Cheeses. Stacey and Robert West and Stacey's son Quinton Jones are behind this Powder Springs business, which offers 10 kinds of pimento cheese including a mildly spicy pimento cheese with jalapeno, bacon asiago with jalapenos and one with serrano peppers, plus vegan varieties including mildly spicy with jalapenos and spicy serrano. Their 10th flavor, a smoked gouda pimento cheese debuted at the 2018 Atlanta Cheese Fest. Read more about Suga's Pimento Cheese here.
Val's Kale Chips. Valerie Burroughs is the creator of Val's Kale Chips, a Fayetteville-based company that sells five flavors of handmade vegetable-based treats including original, spicy curry, garlic, sweet garlic and ginger spice. It all starts with putting the five Vitamix blenders to work, pureeing the seasoning mix, and then washing the organic curly kale and massaging the seasoning mix into the nooks and crannies of each leaf. She's able to source some of her kale locally, working with Truly Living Well Urban Farm in Atlanta and Bugg Family Farm in Pine Mountain. Read more about Val's Kale Chips here.
More locally-made snacks:
Savory Popcorn from Poppa Corn's Gourmet Popcorn
Kettle Corn from Cork's
Triple Popcorn from Miss D's
Classic Southern Eudora Chow Chow from Harrison Family Farm
Pimento Cheese Straws from Mama Geraldine's
Classic and Spicy Cheese Straws from home.made
Versatile Vegetable Stock from Mad Mama's
Mac and Cheese from Anna Bell's Mac
Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans from J. Martinez & Company
Fried Peanuts from Georgia Fried Peanut Company
New Orleans-Style Gumbo from Casseroles
Jambalaya Pot Pie from Paul's Pot Pies
Bulgar salad mix from Vom Fass & Violas' Spice and Gourmet Foods
Dessert
Jardi Chocolates. Jocelyn Gragg's Chamblee business specializes in chocolate bonbons, filled bars and chocolate-covered nuts. Most Monday mornings find Gragg tempering more than 20 pounds of chocolate. "Tempering" is process that ensures chocolate will be smooth and glossy, and have a bit of "snap" when you bite into it. It takes 24 hours for the chocolate to go from solid chunk to perfect "temper." Read more about Jardi Chocolates here.
Perennial Pop Co. The mother-daughter team of Wendy and Chloe Collins whips up vegan pops in shared commercial kitchen space just outside the Perimeter. Their business, Perennial Pop Co., is the result of a desire to find dairy-free frozen desserts with high-quality ingredients and interesting flavors. The business offers seasonal flavors including mango and lime pineapple coconut in the summer and salted caramel apple and mint chocolate in the winter. There's also a golden milk turmeric pop they thought would be seasonal, but their customers love it so much, it's in demand year-round. Read more about Perennial Pop Co. here.
More locally-made dessert options:
Doughnuts from Doughnut Dollies
Purposeful Chocolate from Meals on Wheels Atlanta
Smores from Smores Couture
Fig Newnans from Let Them Eat Toffee
Gelato Sandwiches from Honeysuckle Gelato
Oatmeal Lace Cookies from A Little Taste of Heaven
Chocolate Obsessions from The Toasted Nut
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Shortbread from Angel Lane Bakery
Peanut Brittle from Boston Brittle Company
Peanut Bites from Miss D's Pralines & Popcorn
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
