First Bites January 2023 - Don't Skip Breakfast
THE MOST ‘JUICILY’
Marie Thérèse Fifa, who goes most often by just Fifa, launched her business in February 2018. She began selling ginger-based cold-pressed juices formally after a period of offering her spicy ginger drinks casually to friends — and family — with some encouragement from her husband. “He normally can’t handle spice, but he always loved my spicy ginger drinks,” Fifa says.
In most of the juices, ginger is the main ingredient, which lends a distinctive spicy zing. Fifa is quick to emphasize that her juices also impart the health benefits of ginger, which has anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties that may assist with digestion, inflammation and nausea — even morning sickness.
Juicily Ginger uses only organic ginger, which Fifa says is “juicier,” than the standard Chinese ginger variety most commonly found in the grocery store.
Tropical Dream, the company’s bestseller, is a mix of pineapple, lemon and ginger and is the spiciest of the offerings. Close behind is Bissap Harmony, a mixture of hibiscus and ginger that is popular throughout Africa. Other popular juices include Bold Orange, an invigorating blend of carrots, orange, turmeric and ginger, and Verdoyant, a green juice made from spinach, celery, B.C. apples, lemon and ginger.
Fifa is enthusiastic about her participation in farmers’ markets and says the feedback motivates her to keep doing what she’s doing. “I love the opportunity it gives me to interact with different types of people,” Fifa says.
Juicily Ginger | juicilyginger.com | @juicilyginger_
Find it at: Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and Port Moody farmers’ markets and online
CAFFEINATE, BUT MAKE IT ECOFRIENDLY
Pete Poovanna wants Canadians to demand a more ecofriendly cup of coffee. Poovanna grew up on a sixth-generation coffee farm in India. In 2013, while at SFU studying for his PhD in sustainable energy engineering, he observed Vancouver’s passion for coffee with interest and excitement — and also concern. He noticed that Canadian enthusiasm for coffee didn’t always equate to knowledge about the detrimental effects, such as deforestation, that some forms of coffee production can have on the environment.
In 2018, Poovanna launched Forest Bean to bring shade-grown coffee from India to Vancouver. “We grow our coffee in harmony with nature,” he says.
The company’s coffee is 100 per cent Arabica and grows in what the company refers to as “coffee forests.” The plants grow under the shade of native trees in the leafy environment of a polyculture farm, employing traditional and spiritually rooted farming methods used by Poovanna’s ancestors since the 18th century. These practices avoid deforestation and provide and preserve habitats for birds and animals. The beans mature slowly and, in a similar way that wine has terroir, the coffee berries take on the notes of the fruits and other plants grown alongside them, such as bananas, jackfruit, avocado, black pepper, guava, mangoes and oranges.
Once the beans arrive in Canada, they are roasted and packaged in the company’s facility in Delta in attractive 100 per cent recyclable and refillable metal tins fitted with a one-way valve that keeps coffee fresh. Forest Bean offers three roasts: Matanga, a light to medium roast; Nari, a medium roast; and Mayura, the darkest of the three, for espresso.
In a competitive industry, Poovanna acknowledges that Indian forest-grown coffee is not as well known, but says people in Vancouver have been responsive. “We’re slowly growing, making a footprint against the giants.”
Forest Bean | theforestbean.com | @theforestbean
Find it: Harvest Community Foods, Roaster Central (Vancouver), Burnaby Farmers’ Market, Ambleside Farmers’ Market (West Vancouver) and online
LOOK ON THE BRIGHTSIDE
Aiyana Kane and Jackie Avery, owners of Commercial Drive favourite The Burrow (formerly Bandidas Taqueria) have teamed up with their long-time communications manager and cookbook author Dana VanVeller to start Brightside Foods. The company offers frozen vegan and vegetarian burritos to heat and serve at home. The pandemic put on hold the team’s plans for a fast-service takeout concept, originally conceived in 2018 and envisaged as a beachside burrito shop.
After a pause, they reworked the concept with the idea of offering frozen heat-and-serve products and launched Brightside Foods in July 2021, selling through The Burrow and at retail grocery locations throughout the Lower Mainland.
VanVeller explains that key to the idea is the superior quality that they are able to offer through a frozen product when customers heat the food themselves and enjoy it hot from their own ovens.
In addition to burritos and pinto pockets (beans and cheese folded into a tortilla), the company offers a vegetarian breakfast burrito, which features scrambled eggs, cumin-spiced potatoes, refried beans, salsa and cheese. The vegan version swaps the eggs for scrambled tofu and includes butternut squash and vegan cheese. They are all wrapped up in tortillas from Santa Rosa, a family operated business from Port Coquitlam.
When asked about the challenges of the new business, VanVeller couldn’t name them all.
“A million things — that’s the food business,” she says, but adds, “I love when I get to demo and see people enjoy the food. I know we’re providing a high-quality product.”
Brightside Foods | brightsidefoods.com | @brightsidefoods
Find it at: The Burrow, Organic Acres Market, Welk’s General Store, Be Fresh Market (Vancouver) and online
