RifRaf, Brooklyn, N.Y., launched ricotta cups, a first-of-their-kind ricotta cheese snack. The snack combines spoonable, lightly cultured whole-milk ricotta and a sidecar of flavored jam or honey.
The ricotta cups are available in five flavors: serrano pepper honey, wildflower honey, sun-dried tomato, strawberry balsamic and Meyer lemon, and packaged in 4.6-ounce cups. The dairy snacks are available in select Whole Foods across New York City and retail at $3.39 per cup.
The wildflower honey flavor contains 250 calories, 14 grams of fat, 22 grams of sugar (20 added) and 10 grams of protein. The ingredients include milk, whey, honey and apple cider vinegar, along with cheese cultures.
The concept for RifRaf Ricotta Cups came to David Eisenman, CEO of Brooklyn-based creative agency Madwell, by accident, the company said.
“Believe it or not, RifRaf came to me as I was making lasagna in my kitchen, eating spoonfuls of ricotta cheese and thinking how well this would pair with honey,” said Eisenman in a press release.
Eisenman shared the idea with longtime friend and business partner Chris Sojka. Confident there was an opportunity to give consumers a new take on a snackable dairy product, the two tapped chef Will Hickox to help bring that vision to life. Hickox has a background in recipe development and years of experience in the restaurant industry, the company said.
“One of the reasons RifRaf is such an innovative idea is because if you look at CPG trends over the last few years, they tend to mimic the restaurant industry,” says Hickox in a press release. “That industry can obviously move much quicker, so you see this trickle-down effect of things starting out at a fine-dining level — premium ricotta being served as appetizers or desserts with different garnishes — and then moving to conventional dining. Once they’re accepted in conventional dining, they can launch into the CPG world.”
The team said it spent months perfecting the texture and flavor of the ricotta. The result: a fresh, fine-curd texture with a subtle salty-sweet ricotta base that can pair with a range of curated jams and honeys, including some savory flavors, the company said.
