“Chorizo, yes! Paella, yes! Croquettes, yes! yes! All together? What have you done, M
It is sold with a homemade air (“Handmade in Spain”) for 5.75 pounds, more than a euro per unit. Chef Omar Allibhoy, of Spanish origin, tests them in a video. He describes the flavor of chorizo and details how the palate encounters what was promised: grains of rice among the béchamel. Creamy and resultona. Approved. “Would you include them on a menu? No, but that's not the point. “They serve a purpose very well and I won’t be surprised if they sell well too,” he writes on his Instagram.
The chorizo paella croquette is a perfect example of the gears of large food chains. An entire industry cooking tests in search of profitable novelties that attract attention in a jungle as complicated as a supermarket. A few days ago the Infojobs and Grefusa action for a snack taster job advertisement went viral. And there are Instagram and TikTok accounts specialized in telling supermarket launches.
The creator of @novedades.mercadona has 600,000 followers on Instagram alone; Among her latest posts, the toffee-scented candles, which are not eaten, but serve as an example. Among the innovative products with the most penetration in Spanish supermarkets this year are Croupán (a hybrid of sliced bread and croissant) or a soft biscuit and chocolate nougat, according to the annual ranking of the mass consumption sector by the consulting firm Kantar. Thousands leave, few take root.
The paths of food innovation can seem inscrutable. Who would have thought that a foot-shaped ice cream would succeed? “When an ice cream works, the normal thing is to prolong its success with shapes and flavors that do not stray too far from the original. After the hand, the logical continuation seemed to us to be the foot. And the idea of Frigopie also caught on among consumers,” said its creator, Joan Viñallonga. Maybe right now in Mark
