Now more than ever, natural products and gourmet products are looking a lot alike. Gourmet brands are ditching artificial colors and flavors, instead swinging into natural by choosing vegetable dyes and locally sourced ingredients, and carefully crafting formulations for special diets. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

Couldn't make the conference? No problem. Here, we tasted our way through the show (and tried not to overdose on cheese), while searching for unique products that win in flavor, ingredients and fun.