Some amazing food products are now available at Kitchen Conservatory. Please taste and test them these delicious new ingredients!

Academia Barilla makes the very best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted. Called “Condimento Balsamico” or balsamic must, this rich, aromatic, and smooth vinegar is delicious on salads. It’s too expensive to use in cooking, but this balsamic vinegar is a dazzling addition to vinaigrettes or as a finishing sauce.

September is fig season, but this highly perishable fruit is more easily purchased in vinegar or jam. Fig vinegar (made by Acetoria) is a fabulous addition to any salad with blue cheese. Fig jam (made by American Spoon) is wonderful on toast, but even better on a bacon-gorgonzola pizza!

Speaking of American Spoon Foods, the Kitchen Conservatory staff loves their pumpkin butter. No, there is no butter in pumpkin butter, but the maple-sweetened squash is cooked down to a very thick consistency. My personal favorite American Spoon product is their tart cherry mustard, which makes the most delicious turkey sandwiches.

If you are addicted to chocolate, two new products will tempt you: Breaded Bliss by Companion Baking, which combines chocolate, bread, and salt — the three food groups and Nocciolata, which is the Italian version of peanut butter — chocolate and hazelnut paste. Nocciolata can be used in desserts or just eaten on toast.

Our favorite Belgian chocolate is now available in chips. Upgrade your cookie recipes with better-tasting chocolate: Callebaut semisweet chocolate chips. Of course, these chips are good enough to eat straight out of the bag; unlike supermarket chocolate, they do not contain paraffin.

A very special new food product is a jar of beautiful wild hibiscus flowers in syrup. These red flowers, which taste like a combination of raspberries and rhubarb (hibiscus is the taste of Red Zinger tea), make a dramatic presentation in desserts or floating in a flute of champagne.

Please try these wonderful new foods; any of them would be most appreciated as a hostess present.