Press Releases
COMIDA LOCA PRESENTING PROTOTYPE MICROWAVEABLE VERSION OF ITS AWARD WINNING GREEN CHILE CHICKEN SOUP
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- For the first time, Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is
presenting a fully-prepared version of its dry mix gourmet soups and chowders.
The company is introducing its Heat-em-Ups™ ready-to-serve Green Chile Chicken Soup™ at
the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade 2006 Summer Fancy Food Show here.
The Heat-em-Ups prepared soup will be packaged in 8-ounce microwaveable stand-up
pouches that are shelf stable for 18 months. Consumers just tear a corner of the
pouch and microwave for 60 seconds, said Comida Loca's founder Marc Gelinas.
"The Green Chile Chicken Soup is our flagship product," Gelinas said, "and we're
very excited that we could develop a convenient, single serving prepared soup
that faithfully reproduces the original dry mix family size version."
The dry mix version of the Green Chile Chicken Soup, which has been named a
finalist in NASFT's 2006 Product Award Competition in the Outstanding Pasta,
Rice, Bean or Soup Category, was the soup on which the company was founded.
It also won first place in the 2004 Fiery Foods Scovie Awards Competition Soup Category.
It grew from a supremely-spicy soup of chicken, tomatoes, potatoes and chiles
that Gelinas' mother made when she ran a small deli at the Albuquerque airport.
The sizzling soup gained a cult following with airline crews and travelers,
who would routinely route themselves through the airport just to get some of
the soup, Gelinas said.
"We had a cult following not seen since the fish tie," he joked. "So we developed
the dry mix because we had so much demand for the soup. Now we've come full circle
and are back to offering a prepared version, which I think will be a big hit."
Comida Loca will start full scale production in August, using vividly colored
retort pouches rather than the prototype white pouches and labels that will be
at the show, Gelinas added. "My background is in graphic design," he said,
"and I intend for the packaging to reflect the gourmet nature of our soups."
Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., and produces
gourmet soup and chowder products with traditional Southwestern flavors.
Its product line includes family-size soup mixes, single serve soup packets,
samplers and gift baskets. Comida Loca soups are available nationwide in
Cost Plus World Market and Le Gourmet Chef outlets and regionally at
AJ's Fine Foods, Balducci's, Central Market, Jungle Jim's International Market,
A Southern Season, The Better Cheddar and many specialty stores.
Products also are available through the website, www.comidaloca.com, or
by calling 1-800-825-7919.
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NEW COMIDA LOCA 'GRINGO' SOUP FOR TENDER-TONGUED DINERS WHO CRAVE FLAVOR AND SOUTHWESTERN FLAIR WITHOUT HEAT
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Fiery food aficionados fed up with the yelps of family and
friends who do not share their passion for capsaicin now have a flavorful new
soup, without the heat, from Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company. The Albuquerque, N.M.,
based company is introducing the new Gringo Dumpling Soup™ here at the National
Association for the Specialty Food Trade 2006 Summer Fancy Food Show.
The new dry-mix soup provides an alternative for the tender-tongued while
retaining the integrity of the company's trademark Southwestern style, said
Marc Gelinas, Comida Loca's founder. "While this soup definitely was born
from a traditional dumpling soup, we tricked it out using flour tortillas as
the dumplings," Gelinas said. "We wanted to be true to our nature, and a
Gringo Dumpling Soup fits right into our quirky family of soups." Not to
mention that it's always possible to add a shot of hot sauce for those who
want to turn up the heat, he said. Consumers also can add optional cooked chicken.
Rather than having a separate dumpling mix that consumers must make into a
batter and drop into the soup, Gelinas wanted to create a just-add-water soup.
"It was a challenge," he said. "Dehydrated dumplings just don't exist so we
rummaged around our Southwestern pantry and tried the heat-dried tortillas.
They plump up just like dumplings, but taste a lot better."
Gringo Dumpling Soup fits right into Comida Loca's brand profile and extents
its line of family size soups, which serve six. The line includes
Green Chile Chicken Soup™,
which is a finalist in the NASFT 2006 Product Awards Competition
in the Outstanding Pasta, Rice, Bean or Soup Category. It also won first place
in the 2004 Fiery Foods Scovie Awards Competition Soup Category.
Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., and
produces gourmet soup and chowder products with traditional Southwestern flavors.
Its product line includes family-size soup mixes, single serve soup packets,
samplers and gift baskets. Comida Loca soups are available nationwide in
Cost Plus World Market and Le Gourmet Chef outlets and regionally at AJ's
Fine Foods, Balducci's, Central Market, Jungle Jim's International Market,
A Southern Season, The Better Cheddar and many specialty stores. Products
also are available through the website, www.comidaloca.com, or by calling
1-800-825-7919.
Click here to download this press release.
(79 KB - Microsoft Word File)
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ALBUQUERQUE'S 'CULT FAVORITE' GREEN CHILE CHICKEN SOUP IS NAMED NASFT 2006 PRODUCT AWARDS FINALIST
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A Southwestern-style gourmet Green Chile Chicken Soup™ dry mix
that earned a nationwide "cult" following at a small airport deli in Albuquerque
has been named one of five finalists in the National Association for the Specialty
Food Trade 2006 Product Awards Competition in the Outstanding Pasta, Rice, Bean or
Soup Category.
The Green Chile Chicken Soup, produced by Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company of
Albuquerque, also won first place in the 2004 Fiery Foods Scovie Awards Competition
Soup Category.
The six-serving Green Chile Chicken Soup dry mix melds potatoes, onions and garlic
with spicy green chiles to create flavorful, but not overpowering, heat. Home cooks
add a can of diced tomatoes and 8 ounces of cooked chicken for six one-cup servings
of 70 calories each.
Marc Gelinas' family sold the soup for more than a decade at a small deli in the
Albuquerque International Airport and found themselves catering to increasing
demand from airline flight crews and travelers who wanted to enjoy the fiery
soup at home. "Pilots, flight attendants and travelers told us they deliberately
routed their schedules through Albuquerque in order to get some of the soup,
so we began freezing gallons of it for people, created a soup base, and finally
when we gave up the concession, developed a dry mix because we had so many people
asking for it," Gelinas said.
Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., and
produces gourmet soup and chowder products with traditional Southwestern flavors.
Its product line includes family-size soup mixes, single serve soup packets,
samplers and gift baskets. Comida Loca soups are available nationwide in
Cost Plus World Market and Le Gourmet Chef outlets and regionally at
AJ's Fine Foods, Balducci's, Central Market, Jungle Jim's International Market,
A Southern Season, The Better Cheddar and many specialty stores. Products also
are available through the website, www.comidaloca.com, or by calling 1-800-825-7919.
Click here to download this press release.
(79 KB - Microsoft Word File)
[Click here to download Microsoft Office Viewers]
LE GOURMET CHEF ADDS COMIDA LOCA SOUTHWESTERN SOUPS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Le Gourmet Chef has added Comida Loca Deli & Soup
Company's family-size Southwestern style soups to its array of gourmet foods.
Comida Loca's line of five spicy and fiery dry-mix soups includes the award-winning
Green Chile Chicken Soup™,
which is a finalist in the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade's
2006 Product Awards Competition in the Outstanding Pasta, Rice, Bean or Soup Category.
It also won first place in the 2004 Fiery Foods Scovie Awards Competition
Soup Category.
Other soups include
Black Bean Chicken Soup™,
Green Chile Corn Chowder™,
Smokin' Chipotle Potato Soup™ and
Corn Tortilla Soup™.
All of the soups and chowders serve six. Home cooks add fresh ingredients
for a homemade taste, said Marc Gelinas, Comida Loca's founder.
"We're excited to be part of Le Gourmet Chef's outstanding product
line-up," Gelinas said. "We think it's a great fit. They create a
fun and entertaining shopping experience for their customers, and
we deliver delicious soups with dash of humor."
Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., and
produces gourmet soup and chowder products with traditional Southwestern flavors.
Its product line includes family-size soup mixes, single serve soup packets,
samplers and gift baskets. Comida Loca soups are available nationwide in
Cost Plus World Market and Le Gourmet Chef outlets and regionally at
AJ's Fine Foods, Balducci's, Central Market, Jungle Jim's International Market,
A Southern Season, The Better Cheddar and many specialty stores.
Products also are available through the website, www.comidaloca.com, or
by calling 1-800-825-7919.
Click here to download this press release.
(79 KB - Microsoft Word File)
[Click here to download Microsoft Office Viewers]
SOUTHWESTERN STYLE SINGLE SERVING SOUPS TO BE INTRODUCED AT SUMMER FOOD SHOW BY NEW MEXICO DRIED MIX PRODUCER
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The old saw about quality versus cost and
time goes like this: you can have it good, cheap or fast.
Pick two. Now with new
Single Serve Southwestern style soup packets
from Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company, soup lovers can
have it all. The four-minute soups will be introduced at the
Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City July 9-11 at
Booth No. 5708. The new just-add-water gourmet line includes
Corn Tortilla Soup,
Green Chile Corn Chowder,
Red Chile Cheese Soup and
Smokin' Chipotle Potato Soup.
The vegetarian-base soups contain no artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives. The Single Serve soups are microwaveable, ready in four minutes and have from 140 to 150 calories per serving. They are shelf stable for up to 18 months.
"This is not your ordinary 'instant soup'," said Marc Gelinas,
Comida Loca founder. "Just like our line of longer-simmering dried soup mixes, we use generous quantities of gourmet-quality ingredients. For instance, our Red Chile Cheese Soup uses the distinctive flavor of chiles from Hatch, N.M., known as the Chile Capital of the World."
Gelinas said he began formulating prototypes of the Single
Serving soups last year; test marketed them and now has a
product for large-scale production that matches the quality
standards of his longer-cooking soups. The company's Green
Chile Chicken
Soup has been named a finalist in the 2006 NASFT Product
Awards Competition Outstanding Pasta, Rice, Bean or Soup
category. The Green Chile Chicken Soup also earned first
place in the 2004 Scovie Awards Competition Soup Category.
Visitors at the Summer Fancy Food Show can stop by Comida
Loca's booth No. 5708 for a taste of the new soups.
Comida Loca Deli & Soup Company is headquartered in
Albuquerque, N.M., and produces gourmet soup and chowder
products with traditional Southwestern flavors. Its product
line includes family-size soup mixes, Single Serve soup
packets, samplers and gift baskets. The soup mixes are
available nationwide through Cost Plus World Markets and
regional specialty markets as well as through the
company's web site, www.comidaloca.com.
Click here to download this press release.
(79 KB - Microsoft Word File)
[Click here to download Microsoft Office Viewers]
