Whaling City Fest goers were the first to sample Silmo Syrup's newest flavor. Read on.
NEW BEDFORD — The Silmo Syrup brand revival story added a new chapter this past weekend as its owner, New Bedford City Council member Ian Abreu — with help from family members who double as Silmo staff — introduced Silmo's new strawberry syrup flavor to the world at the Whaling City Festival, held at Buttonwood Park.
"We put a poll up on our Facebook page two months ago asking folks what our next flavor should be, and we gave a whole host of different flavorings we could do," Abreu said at his vendor's tent set up along Court Street in Buttonwood Park on Friday. "Strawberry was the winner."
Taste of success
Since re-launching Silmo Packaging Co. back in December 2022 starting only with the brand's famous coffee syrup, Abreu says the product has been met with enough acclaim to encourage further expansion of the product line.
"Our coffee flavored syrup has been met with praise from far and wide, We're in over 75 grocery stores and retailers across all throughout southeastern New England," he said.
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Silmo Packaging Co. was owned by Abreu's grandfather, Manny Martin since 1970 and operated in New Bedford on Cove Road. Martin sold the company in 1989, after which it enjoyed a 22-year run before shutting down in 2001.
What do consumers think?
Abreu, who was at the festival Friday through Sunday distributing free samples of the new strawberry flavor, said he'd been pleased with the feedback from taste-testers, and those who wanted to bring some home were lucky enough to have the opportunity to before it hits store shelves.
"People have been buying pints left and right," he said. "The feedback has been fantastic."
What's different about this syrup?
According to Abreu, what makes Silmo's strawberry syrup stand out amongst its competitors is the brand's focus on natural simplicity in its recipes.
"Unlike some other strawberry syrups that might be available in the grocery stores today, there's no synthetic flavoring in ours, no corn syrup, no strawberry powder in there — it's pure strawberry extract, pure cane sugar and that's pretty much it," he said, noting the syrup is also GMO-free, "vegan friendly, and gluten friendly."
"It's all natural ingredients."
What's to come?
When it comes to what new additions may be coming up next, Abreu says the consumers will play a large role in those decisions as they did in bringing the strawberry flavor to fruition.
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"It's not just what I want but what the people want," Abreu said. "People have reached out about offerings like creamsicle, pistachio, maple, and, of course, the classic vanilla. We're going to get strawberry online and in the next few months from now we'll get other flavors online.
"We're still in the infancy stage of our re-ascension into the market so we're just looking to take this one step at a time."
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Silmo Syrup debuts strawberry flavor at Whaling City Festival
