Num Num Sauce

Michael Lloyd, founder of Num Num Sauce, is a Durham-based scientist who reformulated an old family recipe to start his sauce enterprise after being laid off from a pharmaceutical job in 2008. 

May 06, 2014 by Nicole Bogas

White Whale Cocktail Mixers

Every cocktail enthusiast loves to nail a complicated new recipe whether that may involve infusing simple syrups, acquiring heirloom citrus, or burning cinnamon sticks with a blowtorch. The folks at White Whale realize you don't always have time for all that, so they created three signature cocktail mixers featuring high-quality ingredients -- organic when possible -- some exotic, some grown close to home -- but always well-balanced, delicious, and easy to prepare.

April 27, 2014 by Nicole Bogas

Big Spoon Roasters Nut Butters

Mark Overbay, founder of Big Spoon Roasters, tasted fresh-ground peanut butter while serving in the Peace Corps in Zimbabwe, where locals there roasted nuts over an open fire and ate the butter alone with a bit of honey and salt.

April 20, 2014 by Nicole Bogas

Crude Bitters

Craig Rudewicz was an avid cocktail enthusiast in Raleigh when he realized that New York and the west coast had the monopoly on bitters and that North Carolina was left without. No more! Craig started Crude Bitters and Sodas in 2012 as the first (and currently only) bitters company in NC.

April 13, 2014 by Nicole Bogas

Farmer's Daughter Brand Preserves

April McGreger grew up on a farm in Mississippi but made North Carolina her home when she came to UNC for graduate school. After a long stint as pastry chef at the acclaimed Lantern restaurant in Chapel Hill, and after studying preserving traditions around the world, April founded her Farmers Daughter Brand in 2007.

April 13, 2014 by Nicole Bogas