The Top 30 "Whoa" Moments at the Fancy Food Show

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• There you have it, "Beans Without The Bang!"
• Q Club Sodas
• Icio's flavored water, in flask shaped bottles for easy drinking.
• A rock candy installation, that is all.
• Justin's organic (and vegan) peanut butter cups in dark and milk chocolate.
• Ayala's herbal water in sparkling and flat varieties. The Lavender Mint was a favorite.
• Pecorino de Rocca, aged with wheat berries at the Fresca Italia booth
• Brothers McClure from McClure Pickles sampled their pickles, new pickle potato chips, and bloody Mary mix.
• McClure Pickles' newest move, McClure's Bloody Mary mix in foodservice size for restaurants.
• The Ginger People's new ginger skincare line featuring eye cream, face serum and cleanser
• Candies that are carbonated? And made in soda flavors. Yes, it's happening.
• Sonoma Brinery recently changed it's portion sizes and rebranded a bit. Here are the whole koshers and spicy bread and butter pickles.
• Naia was sampling some unique flavors of its new Bar Gelato popsicles like a guavasteen sorbet made with the rare fruit grown in Berkeley.
• Bariani, a much loved local olive oil spouts off a new skincare line.
• California Caviar Co.'s Deborah Keane Damond says her mission is to integrate caviar into everyday life and that her kids eat the bacon infused trout roe on bagels.
• California Caviar Co.'s approachable caviars. Ruth Reichl is quoted as saying on "I'm revived! All it takes is caviar", after a caviar tasting on Saturday.
• The gummy candy to make you more beautiful: Germany-based Beauty Sweeties has just brought it's new collagen-injected product to the States. They're way cheaper than the dermatologist.
• Aux Delices des Bois butters were the Winner of a sofiâ„¢ Gold Award for Outstanding New Product of 2008.
• The original hummus chip, as claimed by Plocky's Fine Snacks president, Paul Cipolla.
• Raaw's natural juices are bright, fresh tasting, and will be available in Whole Foods in California by the end of February. Pineapple Cucumber was a favorite.
• Monini's hand cream, or crema mani, in Italian. Made from olive oil, this product will soon hit the shelves in the United States.
• A few of Falksalt's many varieties of seasoned sea salt.
• People were going crazy for all that Haribo gummy candy.
• Fearless Chocolate from Oakland made from a single origin in Brazil. There's a Chia and Flax flavor.
• Notes of lavender in this cheese from Rogue River lightly tasted of herbs de provence.
• Skillet Bacon Spread: tasty on toasts
• Low calorie mixers showed up a few times at the Fancy Food Show.
• Brownie Crunch literally launched their line of crunchy brownie snaps on the first day of the Fancy Food Show.
• Boat Street Pickles are fruit pickles that started out as garnishes for charcuterie athe Boat Street Café in Seattle.
• Grandma's recipe for Victoria's Kitchen Almond Water came from France to LA, where the company is now based.

[Photo: Molly Decoudreaux]

This year's Fancy Food Show wraps up today at SoMa's beastly Moscone Center after a terrifyingly well-attended weekend thanks to one Martin Luther King. It was nearly impossible to push through the wall-to-wall people without bumping into local bloggers, artisan crafters and Ruth Reichl—all of them doing their best to take in as many flavored waters, cheeses, boutique pickles and granola samples as possible without suffering from palate fatigue.

If anything is to be learned from this year's foodocalypse, 2012 will be the year of food-based skincare spinoffs, caviar for kids, and water in flasks. It will also be the year when—finally—you'll be able to get your weekly hits of carbonated soda and collagen in candy form. Lets skip the "three is a trend" roundups for now and hit the gallery above, busting with 30 photos to give you a feel for all that was crazy, cool and ridiculous at the three-day taste fest. Onwards!

· All Fancy Food Show Coverage [~ ESF ~]