Ale-8-One...salsa?

For those of you unfamiliar with our native drink, Ale-8-One is smething akin to Mountain Dew or Mello Yello--but a bit spicier with a heck of a lot of caffeine. It was the breakfast of champions that got many of us through college. It is traditionally paired with a sugary Moon Pie, so the thought of mixing it with salsa ingredients is...well...interesting. Below is the announcement from the Kentucky Agriculture Cabinet:


NEW ALE-8-ONE SALSA WILL LAUNCH
AT MOUNT STERLING COURT DAY FESTIVAL


FRANKFORT, Ky. — Peanut butter and chocolate. Montgomery and Gentry. Ale-8-One and tomatoes.

The Winchester bottler believes its Kentucky Proud soft drink and locally grown tomatoes (and peppers) go together as well as the popular snack foods and the country music duo. It has worked with northern Kentucky processor Millard Long to develop an Ale-8-One salsa, and it will launch its new product at Mount Sterling Court Day Oct. 14-16.

“This is a good example of how the Kentucky Proud program brings people together to find ways to add value to their products,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “This partnership also helps the growers who raise the vegetables. And consumers can try a new product from an old Kentucky company that they know and love.”

DeAnne Elmore, director of marketing and public relations for Ale-8-One, said her business will sell the salsa from its tent in front of Cooper Tire in Mount Sterling at the annual Court Day festival. Elmore said a jar of the salsa was included in a gift basket that was raffled off at Pioneer Days in Winchester during the Labor Day weekend. She said the salsa will be sold at the Winchester plant and in local stores through Christmas to see how it sells.

Ale-8-One is working with another Kentucky Proud partner, Ruth Hunt Candies of Mount Sterling, to produce Ale-8-One suckers for the first time in 18 years, Elmore said. The suckers will be sold at Ruth Hunt and at the Ale-8-One tent during the Court Day festival.

To make the salsa, Ale-8-One sells the concentrated form of its soft drink to Long, who processes and bottles it at his northern Kentucky plant.

The idea for the salsa emerged from a recipe contest for students at Sullivan University that was held to celebrate Ale-8-One’s 80th anniversary. John Morris of Allied Food Marketers saw the winning recipes in a newspaper and suggested to Long that an Ale-8-One salsa might be worth a try. Allied is the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud marketing partner.

The salsa was tested in Ale-8-One company potlucks and adapted until Long developed the formula that will be sold in Mount Sterling next month.