Zygote Nation was there! … At the 2021 Miami Seed Food & Wine Week’s Tasting Village Day on Nov. 6, 2021, at Regatta Park in the city’s southern Coconut Grove neighborhood.

It was a lovely day for this plant-based food event, which drew hundreds of people and scores of vendors. The oceanside park lies adjacent to Miami City Hall. Looking northeast of it, one can view the Miami skyline. Gazing out on the water, one sees anchored boats and yachts.

Among the tents of vendors were local vegan restaurants and sellers of natural foods, beverages—Who knew there was kombucha beer?—and beauty products. Also present were a regenerative farm, a kitchen appliance business, and a not-for-profit organization supporting clean oceans. Plus, automaker BMW showed off two electric cars.

Hundreds turned out on Nov. 6, 2021, for the Miami Seed Food & Wine Week’s Tasting Village Day at Regatta Park. Photo by Michael Sirak

At times during the day, activities took place on the main stage, including a vegan fitness instructor leading an exercise routine. In addition to the park’s playground, there was a huge inflatable slide/playhouse set-up brought in for the kids who enjoyed it, based on their happy screams.

A nice view of the Miami skyline from the Regatta Park area. Photo by Michael Sirak

The weather co-operated. It had been raining in the early morning, but by the time I arrived at the park, the sky had cleared, the sun had emerged, and the muddy splotches of grass on the park grounds dried. The day remained gorgeous thereafter.

Here is my list of the vendors and products that were new and notable to me:

Māla Girl

Māla Girl of Orlando, Florida, sells a line of gluten-free, vegan broths that the company calls “magic veggie dust.” I place these broths in my “refreshingly different” category and was pleased to discover them. The broths come in six flavors: Cosmic Curry, Fireball Basil, Miracle Moringa, Mushroom Brainiac, Mystic Maca, and Soulful Classic Broth. All varieties contain cacao butter, Himalayan salt, lemon, celery, dulse, nutritional yeast, and herbs and spices. Each blend then has additional ingredients, respectively: Cosmic Curry (curry spices, ashwagandha, onion), Fireball Basil (tulsi, onion, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, garlic), Miracle Moringa (moringa, onion, ginger, garlic), Mushroom Brainiac (reishi extract, cacao powder, lion’s mane extract, porcini, garlic), Mystic Maca (cinnamon, cardamom, Peruvian maca, onion, ginger), and Soulful Classic Broth (onion, ginger). Each variety is available in single-serving packets (just add one cup of hot water), with colorful, well-done packaging, as well as eight-serving and 36-serving bags. A serving has between 25 calories and 40 calories depending on the variety. When I think of broth, I think of drinking a savory concoction that is warming and nourishing. I got that vibe when I tried two of the Māla Girl broths. I enjoyed a sample cup of the Soulful Classic Broth—its chicken-less, chicken-like broth—at the company’s tent, and, later on my own, I had a full cup of Mushroom Brainiac—its beef-free, beef-like brown broth. I liked both. The Mushroom Brainiac had a pleasant flavor, but not an overwhelming one. It did not taste mushroomy and I would not have known it contained cacao powder had I not read the list of ingredients. It had tiny chucks in it; maybe they were the dulse and garlic. Regardless, they tasted good. I had a feeling of alertness that kicked in about 15 minutes after drinking my cup of Mushroom Brainiac—a nice sensation of a subtle energy boost. I look forward to trying all the broth varieties. The company’s website states that most of the broths’ individual ingredients are certified organic, but the broths themselves do not carry the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s organic certification.

Etheridge Organics

Etheridge Organics of Santa Cruz, California, offers organic hemp liquid extracts. I like that these formulations combine herbs with hemp extract to assist the body’s healing and health-maintenance functions. There are five blends, each available in one-fluid-ounce glass bottles. The first variety, Pure Potency, is a straight-up hemp tincture without herbs; it contains the extract of flowers from the hemp plant, organic vegetable glycerine, and organic grape ethanol extract. The remaining four blends feature that same hemp-glycerine-ethanol mix, with the addition of different herbs, respectively, for each variety: Pure Harmony (organic holy basil, organic coriander) to help the body manage physical, emotional, and spiritual stress and pain; Pure Serenity (organic skullcap) to help it curb anxiety and nerve pain; Pure Sleep (organic chamomile, organic valerian, organic spearmint oil) to help it ease anxiety (small doses) and induce deep, restful sleep (larger doses); and Pure Vitality (organic gotu kola, organic nettles, organic cinnamon oil) to help rejuvenate the body and mind by supporting the nervous and circulatory systems and brain function. I purchased a bottle of Pure Harmony, and I like this formulation much. It has a pleasant taste and I do feel nicely calm and balanced for hours after taking it. Etheridge Organics uses hemp grown on an organic-certified farm, and the formulations’ other ingredients are certified organic, states the company’s website. The company uses biophotonic (i.e., violet) glass bottles to block ultraviolet light from passing through, thereby “reduc[ing] the risk of any microbiological contamination after the bottle is opened,” states the website. Etheridge Organics combines the capital of singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge and the herbalism expertise of Jozee and D’Angelo Roberto. The latter have more than a quarter century of study in herbalism; they founded a medicinal cannabis company back in 2014.

Balanced Tiger

Balanced Tiger of Miami is a new business that has brought to market organic, gluten-free protein bars that contain “functional” mushrooms, in this case cordyceps and lion’s mane. I have taken lion’s mane in supplements for years to boost my cognitive performance, and I have used cordyceps at times to bolster my stamina. Thus, I was pleased to run across these bars. Balanced Tiger calls them “a remedy to modern imbalance.” The bars come in two varieties: Energy (chocolate chip cookie dough—and almonds—with cordyceps) and Focus (peanut butter and chocolate with lion’s mane). Cordyceps is “recognized for the ability to support endurance and sustain energy,” while lion’s mane is “recognized for the ability to support focus and productivity,” states the Energy and Focus bars’ respective wrappers. Each bar’s main ingredients include tapioca (cassava) syrup, brown rice protein, pea protein, chocolate chips, diced almonds or peanuts, sorghum flakes, sea salt, and sunflower lecithin. Each bar weighs 44 grams, including 11 grams of protein, five grams of sugar, and 1.5 grams of the respective mushroom, and has 190 calories. I liked both varieties, but I preferred the Focus bar, as I tend towards peanuts/peanut butter and chocolate more so than cookie dough. Neither type had an overpowering rich taste, but rather a more-subtle clean taste that was not overly sweet. There was no discernible mushroom taste. The bars were easy to chew and went down easily. One minor point: The Focus bar didn’t taste like peanut butter to me. Instead, it came across as peanutty with the chocolate. That’s not a bad thing; it was just different to my palette. I verified with Balanced Tiger Co-founder Jackson Gorman that the bars are certified organic with the US Department of Agriculture and that the department’s organic seal will appear henceforth on the wrappers of forthcoming batches. Also of note, Balanced Tiger’s website states that the company’s goal is to “have 100-percent compostable packaging—wrappers and all—by the end of 2022.”

Nutsóla

Nutsóla of Livingston, New Jersey, produces gluten-free snacks featuring fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices and sweetened only with dates. “We’re on a mission to improve the food industry by providing delicious products using only clean ingredient, without added sugars,” states the company’s website. Nutsóla offers three lines of snacks: Superfood Bites, Superfood Mixes, and Date-Glazed Cashews. The Superfood Bites caught my eye. There are seven varieties, each available in 3.5-ounce bags: Banana Nut, Cacao Almond, Cherry Max, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter & Cacao, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Vanilla Almond. I enjoyed a bag of the Peanut Butter & Cacao mix (ingredients: dates, peanuts, peanut butter, cacao, chia seeds, coconut, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt). I found this snack—more specifically, these little square-shaped bites—to be fresh-tasting, quite flavorful, not too sweet, and not dry or hard. There was a nice balance between the peanut and cacao flavors. I also liked that the bites did not leave gunk on my hands. As a result, I could see myself throwing a bag of Superfood Bites in a backpack for on-the-go noshing, even on an airplane or train. The Superfood Mixes come in eight varieties, each in eight-ounce bags: the same seven as the Superfood Bites and then the seasonal Pumpkin Spice blend. The mixes have the same ingredients as the Superfood Bites, but are loose blends, not formed into square bites. The Date-Glazed Cashews are Nutsóla’s newest offerings. They come in two blends, each in 3.5-ounce bags: Coconut Cream (ingredients: cashews, dates, coconut, sea salt) and Vanilla Caramel (cashews, dates, vanilla extract, cinnamon, seal salt). I hope Nutsóla’s owners will consider incorporating organic ingredients into these snacks. That would make these already-worthy products even better in my book.

Nov 6 2021 Miami Seed Food & Wine Week's Tasting Village Day

Māla Girl

Etheridge Organics

Balanced Tiger

Nutsóla

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