WEBSTERVILLE, Vt. – Vermont Creamery, known for its consciously crafted line of fresh and aged goat cheeses, cultured butter, and culinary creams, today introduced the brand’s first Cultured Sour Cream, available in dairy cases Sept. 2021. Two distinct, nuanced flavors sit alongside a crème-style classic sour cream to establish a new industry standard for discriminating palates.
“The last 15 months generated consumer demand for new taste experiences and the desire to shake things up from the norm,” said Adeline Druart, president of Vermont Creamery. “Our cultured sour reinvents a beloved staple into a more luxurious offering, setting the new high bar for a rich and velvety sour cream experience. With 22% milkfat – as compared to 18% in regular sour cream – and the same blend of cultures as our award-winning crème fraîche, Vermont Creamery has once again delivered on its promise to make dairy that tastes better because it’s made better.”
The culinary team at Vermont Creamery was intent on developing flavors that would elevate consumers’ experience beyond a mellow dip, leaning into robust condiments and high-quality standalone ingredients to fill the gap. Taking inspiration from slow smoking, charcoal cookery, and fire roasting with different woods and preparations, they developed hundreds of flavor concepts before narrowing the field. The team tested the best concepts on a variety of foods and selected two finalists.
The new flavors, designed around complementing Latin-inspired food and potatoes, cover a combined 70% of sour cream usage occasions. Specifically, Cilantro Limeis an ideal pairing for spicy dishes, delivering a cool and refreshing counterpoint to the heat in tacos, chili, and cheesy quesadillas with hot sauce. It may be used as a topping or as a base to build a dipping sidekick for favorite dishes. Fire Roasted Onion & Chive embodies a savory sweetness with smokey and roasted notes that is the perfect complement to loaded potatoes, crinkle chips, chilis and stews. Not to be outdone, the crème-style classic is anything but plain, with a rich, velvety texture, cultured notes, and just the right amount of tang for pairing with traditional favorites.
Vermont Creamery’s Cultured Sour Cream will first launch in the northeast beginning September 2021, where the premium sour cream category is experiencing strong growth, and growing nearly three times the rate of non-premium. The launch program will include social media initiatives to drive awareness with videos, influencer seeding and a virtual tasting event, in addition to in-store displays and post engagement programs.
“Premium food is on trend because consumers want to eat something they believe in,” shared Kate Paine, director of marketing. “We feel these next generation, ‘2.0 flavors’ are approachable, but elevated and have no competition in today’s marketplace. Our sour cream, obsessively created with heart and soul, using simple ingredients, time and craftsmanship, gives people the opportunity to finally love a sour cream worth loving.”
Reinforcing its mission to honor the community that it serves, Vermont Creamery Cultured Sour Cream is consciously crafted in the rolling green hills of central Vermont with fresh milk and the passion of its dedicated employees, called “Bettermakers.” The company has been B Corp certified since 2014 and is dedicated to Business for Good. This past June, Vermont Creamery was ranked in the top 10% of most purposeful brands, according to the 2021 Purpose Power Index.
About Vermont Creamery
Founded in 1984, Vermont Creamery has won countless national and international awards for their suite of dairy products, while supporting a network of family farms and promoting sustainable agriculture in the region. Vermont Creamery is an independently operated subsidiary of Minnesota-based Land ‘O Lakes, Inc., one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives. For more information, visit www.vermontcreamery.com.
