Three industrious moms bring low-cal drink mixers to Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival
Attractive blonde women are never in short supply along South Beach. Or in Dallas, for that matter.
This week, three blonde ladies from Dallas will stand out from the crowd at the 13th annual Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE as they pour samples of their popular Skimpy Mixers, a new line of low-calorie, low-sugar mixers made from real fruit juices.
Come visit Skimpy Mixers’ table inside the MasterCard Grand Tasting tents at the Whole Foods Market Grand Tasting Village daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. More than 25,000 people are expected to attend the tasting event.
The company’s original founders, Megan Toole and Krista LaMothe, came up with the idea for Skimpy Mixers while attending a poolside bachelorette party in the summer of 2010. They were so impressed with the frozen Dreamsicle they were served, they left the party in search of the mix. When they couldn’t find it, they decided to concoct it for themselves. That’s when they realized the drink was loaded with sugar, and roughly 800 calories. They turned to Summer Lamons, a registered dietitian with a Masters degree in Dietetics and Health Promotion, to develop a delicious, low-calorie version of the mixer. Their mission: to “skimp on the calories, not on the taste.”
Little did they know how quickly the new mixers would take off. Skimpy Mixers can now be found at more than 1,300 Walmart stores nationwide, in addition to other retailers, grocery and liquor stores, bars and restaurants.
“It’s been a whirlwind over the last few months, but an incredibly fun whirlwind,” said Toole, co-founder and president of the Dallas-based company. “Summer, Krista and I can’t wait to get to Miami and show all the health-conscious ladies and gents down there just how great a low-calorie cocktail can taste.”
The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is a national, star-studded destination event showcasing the talents of the world’s most renowned wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities. Hosted by Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida and Florida International University (FIU), the Festival benefits FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center. To date, the Festival has raised more than $18 million for the School. The Festival runs from February 20-23.
Skimpy Mixers now come in five delicious flavors – Berry Lemonade, Pineapple, Sweet ‘n Sour, Skimpy Margarita and the original Orange. The mixers are sweetened with real fruit juice concentrate, which provides the robust flavor. But the proprietary formula strikes a refreshing balance between low-calorie and watered-down taste. The result is a palate-pleasing mixer that’s virtually indistinguishable from the leading sugary mixers, at 15-40 calories per serving, depending on the flavor.
“Most people would be appalled if they knew how many calories are in most of the cocktails they drink,” said co-founder Lamons, who still runs a thriving nutritional consulting practice. “The best thing about Skimpy Mixers is that you get all the same great taste with a fraction of the calories. Most people that try them say they’re even better than the sugar-loaded drinks they’ve enjoyed for years.”
Skimpy Mixers are easy to spot thanks to their distinctive zebra-print bottle sleeves. In addition to Walmart and other retailers, they can be purchased by the case, online at www.SkimpyMixers.com.
