Walk through the inner aisles of a natural grocery and you’ll find a dizzying array of natural packaged food products. All of those options can be intimidating for even seasoned natural eaters—not to mention time consuming to sift through.

This is why I’m thrilled to announce Delicious Living’s 2015 Best Bite Food & Beverage Awards, the magazine’s annual awards that recognize natural brands that win in product formulation, ingredient sourcing, nutrition and, of course, taste.

How we chose the winners and finalists

Months ago, we culled nominations for products to consider across 33 categories from natural retailers, manufacturers and our readers. The response was impressive. We received thousands (yes, thousands!) of submissions.

It is an enviable job to taste top-notch and delicious natural products (ahem--determining which company won the category for “Best Chocolate” was rather enjoyable). But pitting excellent, consciously made products against each other? That was a lofty task. How do you choose between gold and platinum?

The Delicious Living editors and I set to work. We read the ingredients and nutrition facts panels of foods and beverages. We scrutinized sodium, calories and fat. We prioritized products that were USDA Organic and non-GMO. We highlighted brands that are making positive strides for the environment and the ingredient producers. We tasted, tasted and then tasted some more, and chose products strictly based on editorial review.

The result? We present to you 99 sterling winners and finalists that are the crème de la crème of natural products.