Expanding to Sam's Club

Easter Sunday marks the official start of the 2015 Major League Baseball season, and the unofficial start of another American pastime – barbecue grilling. Just in time for Opening Day tailgating, more than 600 Sam’s Club retailers nationwide will add Angelic Bakehouse sprouted seven-grain hamburger buns to their freezer shelves. The buns will become available April 4 in packages of 16.

Sprouted grains are one of the hottest trends in food right now, boasting a stats line that would turn the head of everyone from Little League coaches to Moneyball-obsessed front office execs. Not only do sprouted grains have more protein and fiber than traditional breads, they are lower in calories, carbohydrates and glycemic index. That’s kind of like hitting for power and average!

Angelic Bakehouse is one of the category’s leaders, having recently added several major retail chains across the country (including Sprouts, Whole Foods and Earth Fare), as well as several new products. Major corporations like Kellogg’s and Panera have also jumped on the sprouted grain bandwagon in recent months. Not surprisingly, industry analysts are predicting that U.S. sales of sprouted grains will increase eight-fold in the next five years. The food community has also deemed sprouted grains the naturally functional ingredient of 2015, citing their highly bioavailable nutrients, including soluble fiber, B vitamins and Vitamin C.

Although sprouted grains are only now bursting into the national consciousness, Angelic Bakehouse’s roots go back to 1969, when it was founded as Cybros bakery. Current owners Jenny and James Marino remade the company upon their arrival in 2009, but they preserved the original bread recipes, including the recipe for the sprouted grain hamburger buns.

“When we tried our first sprouted grain hamburger bun five years ago, it was love at first bite,” said Jenny Marino, Angelic’s CEO. “While we appreciated the nutritional value, it was the taste that really blew our minds. Once you’ve had this, you’ll never go back to a bland, highly processed, mass-produced bun again.”

Like all its products, Angelic Bakehouse’s sprouted grain hamburger buns are made from all natural, clean, non-GMO ingredients. The dough is made from a premium “mash” of seven whole sprouted grains—including two “ancient grains,” quinoa and amaranth. Angelic is one of only a handful of commercial bakeries in the U.S. that uses a true premium mash, which involves significantly less processing than the traditional flour method and preserves the taste and texture of real fermented grains.

The sprouted grain hamburger buns will be the third Angelic product to receive the Sam’s Club seal of approval, coming on the heels of Angelic’s sprouted grain dinner rolls and sprouted bread loaves, which launched in Sam’s retail locations at the beginning of this year. Angelic’s hamburger buns will replace the dinner rolls and bread for a limited time as part of Sam’s healthy spring/summer offerings.