Leamington, ON (February 1st, 2021) – While consumers continue to look for more healthy snacks in the fresh produce aisle, greenhouse vegetable grower Pure Flavor® is launching their new Cloud 9® Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes to help meet the growing demand for consistently flavorful options. After extensive product trials and consumer taste testing, many are heralding the new tomato variety as an everyday snack game changer.  

“We taste hundreds of tomatoes every year searching for something special - unique colors, shapes, sizes, but most importantly flavor. From the first taste of the Cloud 9® variety, we knew we had found it”, said Jamie Moracci, President. With fruit like flavor, the new Cloud 9® Tomatoes are going to redefine what snacking tomatoes should taste like as an everyday item, not just as color in a salad. “We have created the Cloud 9® Standard for quality and look forward to consumers enjoying this premium and hand-selected bite-sized tomato every day”, said Moracci. 

 Strategically grown in high-tech greenhouses in Canada, USA, and Mexico, Cloud 9® Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes are available year-round. With a distinct color, unique shape, and a fruit-like flavor profile, Pure Flavor® has conducted extensive product trials in key growing regions to create the appropriate growing formula to consistently produce an exceptional snacking tomato. 

“From the first bite, you know this will be memorable: it’s a fresh snacking experience that comes from an unwavering commitment to quality”, commented Matt Mastronardi, Executive Vice-President. Available in a variety of formats, Pure Flavor®’s award-winning Cloud 9® Tomato is available starting February 1st to be shipped throughout North America. “We hand-select a limited quantity of the most vibrant tomatoes so you can enjoy bold, balanced flavor that sweetens any snack or homecooked meal”, said Mastronardi. 

Pure Flavor® recently received the prestigious Superior Taste Award Certification from the International Taste Institute (Brussels, Belgium) for the Cloud 9® Tomato. The reviewing Jury, consisting of more than 200 renowned European Chefs & Sommeliers from over 20 countries, critically tested & analyzed the Cloud 9® Tomato and highlighted these characteristics to award the product the Superior Taste designation: 

• Very clear, ripe tomato flavor with a marked sweetness; the taste lingers for a long time on your palate

• These tomatoes have an original shape, and the size makes them ideal as a snack or for use in the kitchen

• An intense red color with a soft texture and sweet taste; nice and juicy – good balance between sweetness & acidity

• The product is very versatile; can be used in numerous different recipes and types of cuisines, suitable as a snack, in pasta, salads, stews, with various proteins (beef, poultry, fish), or even a Gazpacho

 “It’s a strict process where all products are blind tasted; this means that the samples are anonymized, we do not see the packaging and do not know the brand name nor the producers’ name - we don’t even know from which country the product comes from. This forces us to be completely objective as we do the sensory analysis. Only truly good products are certified”, stated Stijn Roelandt – Sous-Chef at Hof van Cleve, 3 Michelin stars and member of the Jury, International Taste Institute. 

The launch of a sweeter snacking tomato comes at a time when consumers are looking to enjoy a wider variety of healthy foods to eat at home. Cloud 9® offers consumers a healthy new snack option that will “make life’s sweetest moments even sweeter” – figuratively and of course, quite literally.  

Video #1: https://youtu.be/CrsCQTszdp0 

Video #2: https://youtu.be/hQIwq8M2Tfs  

“The award-winning Cloud 9® tomatoes burst with a fruity sweetness that enriches any dish or eating occasion, every recipe you create deserves to be a showstopper”, said Chris Veillon, Chief Marketing Officer.  

In anticipation of the new product launch, Pure Flavor® spent the last 16+ months developing the Cloud 9® brand to ensure that consumers could go beyond the package to enjoy all aspects of the tomato.  

“Our team has developed dozens of recipes, conducted in person tasting surveys before the pandemic and hundreds of digital preference surveys during the Love For Fresh campaign late last fall, to creating engaging web & social content in lifestyle situations – we needed to effectively communicate that Cloud 9® is not just another salad topper, it’s the sweetness you crave with the quality you deserve. We think it’s a tiny taste of heaven™”, said Veillon. 

To learn more about Cloud 9® Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes, please visit: https://www.pure-flavor.com/cloud9/  

-30-

About Pure Flavor® - 

Pure Flavor® is a family of greenhouse vegetable growers who share a commitment to bringing A Life of Pure Flavor™ to communities everywhere. Our passion for sustainable greenhouse growing, strong support for our retail & foodservice customers, and focus on engaging consumers is built on a foundation drawn from generations of growing expertise.  

We are the next generation of vegetable growers, inspired to put quality, flavor, and customers first by providing greenhouse-grown vegetables from our farms that are strategically located throughout North America. 

About the International Taste Institute –  

The International Taste Institute, founded in 2005 and based in Brussels, Belgium, evaluates and certifies the taste of food and drink from all over the world. Its jury is composed of over 200 renowned Chefs and Sommeliers from 15 European culinary or sommeliers associations.  

The Taste Institutes performs objective sensory evaluation: its jury follows a rigorous blind tasting methodology in which product samples are anonymized to avoid any bias in the scoring. In addition to the scoring of the various sensory analysis criteria, the jury provides comments and eventually suggestions for further product improvement or food pairing suggestions.