All About Gardenia and Gardenia's Next Big Sandwich Hit!

Our favorite bread, Gardenia is made in the country’s most modern bread manufacturing plant, using the most technologically advanced equipment and a world-class, fully automated baking process. I have been more than once in their factory for an educational tour and indeed, Gardenia breads are produced in a hygienic and pest-free environment.

When I was in college, my school backpack won't be complete without my t-square, a bottle of water and my favorite Gardenia Chocolate Cream Roll. Gardenia uses the finest ingredients for their breads from all over the world, that's why my mom taught me to reach out for it every single time we do our grocery.

Facts about Gardenia:

• Gardenia has a distinct taste, softness, aroma, freshness and nutritive value no other bread has claimed.
• Premium flour from US Wheat especially milled to Gardenia’s high quality standards. Its Milk come from the US, Australia and New Zealand.
• Gardenia’s Classic White Bread is so tasty you can eat it on its own.
• It is so soft that a slice could be rolled without breaking. It also stays soft and springy longer than ordinary loaves, giving buyers more value for their money.
• Gardenia Classic White Bread also has a fresh, natural, oven-baked aroma wafting out of each loaf.
• Gardenia imposes a strict freshness policy which ensures that only fresh breads reach consumers every day. All unsold breads are replaced with only freshly baked top-quality products to ensure that what consumers get on the shelf daily are always fresh.
• Gardenia uses color coded G-locks to indicate their expiry The G-lock contains all of the vital information that the consumers might need. It even contains information on which production line the bread was produced and the batch number. The G-lock color coding is part of Gardenia’s quality control system. To prevent confusion, 1 color per-day is assigned, meaning there are 7 G-lock colors assigned for the 7 days of the week. The day always matches the color.
• Gardenia products are also fortified with vitamins and minerals. Aside from being cholesterol- and bromate-free, each loaf of Gardenia’s Classic White Bread has zero-trans fat to ensure a healthy heart. It also contains vitamins and minerals like Calcium to help build strong bones and teeth, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) to help prevent fatigue, Vitamin C to help build the immune system, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) and Vitamin B3 (Niacin) to help boost energy metabolism and Iron to help maintain a healthy blood. It also is fortified with Vitamin A to promote good vision and youthful skin and Iodine to aid in physical and mental development. It’s also fortified with folate that helps prevent anemia during pregnancy, and is critical to the normal growth and development of the fetus. Folic acid reduces neural birth defects and protects fetus against the development of heart defects.

Aside from producing heart-warming bread for the family, Gardenia created an inter-school business idea in a friendly-competition called: Gardenia's The Next Big Sandwich Hit 2015!

ABOUT NEXT BIG SANDWICH HIT

• The Next Big Sandwich Hit is an inter-school business idea and sandwich-making competition that aims to promote healthy, conscious eating among younger generation and develop and hone the creativity and entrepreneurial skills of the students while they are young.

• This year, Gardenia made an even bigger competition with 100 teams in total (5 teams each) from 20 colleges and universities all over Luzon (North, South, Central Luzon and Metro Manila) included in this year’s competition:

1. Tarlac State University
2. Centro Escolar University Malolos
3. Angeles University Foundation
4. De La Salle University Dasmariñas
5. Cavite State University
6. University of the East (Manila)
7. University of Manila
8. National University
9. La Consolacion College Manila
10. Philippine Women's University
11. Adamson University
12. St. Paul University Manila
13. University of the Cordilleras
14. Benguet State University
15. Malayan Colleges Laguna
16. University of Sto. Tomas
17. Manila Tytana College
18. Laguna State Polytechnic University
19. Arellano University
20. Polytechnic University of the Philippines

• There are 3 phases for this year’s competition, the School Hop Phase/Elimination Round, the Business Implementation Phase, and the Finale.

• For this year’s elimination round,10 themes were used as basis for the recipes that the students should come up with: Bread & Breakfast; Lunch Out; Dinner Affair; Workout Boost; After School Merienda; Midnight Hacks; Pica Picks; Sweet Escape; Study Buddy; and Breaktime Fix. Each team was also asked to come up with 2 recipes for the given theme: a school spirit recipe and a price challenge recipe, which should have cost of not more than Php 35.00 per serving.

• Aside from the competition, other highlights of this year’s Next Big Sandwich Hit School hop are as follows:
• Cooking demo and lecture by guest celebrity chef, Jeremy Favia
• Cooking demo from Gardenia’s resident chef, Benjo Fundales
• Gardenia Sandwich Game Truck (a sandwich-making touch screen game where students can get an actual sandwich treat).

• The Business Implementation Phase is where the students are given the chance to test the marketability of their sandwich so they can get a glimpse of actual industry practice.

• For the Finale, the students were also given 1 theme each. The line-up of themes were based on Philippine seasons (New Year, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Holy Week, Summer Time, Back to school, Nutrition Month, Rainy Day, Halloween, Christmas.)

What school are you betting for? Since I studied in Baguio, I'm proud that Benguet State University (BSU) & University of the Cordilleras(UC) has made it to the Top 20 for Semi-Finals. UC, my alma mater even made it to the Top 10 Clash for Grand Finals.

Who took home the bread?
3rd place (20k prize) - Elaine Francisco and Ramon Eloriaga of Manila Tytana Colleges (Team Lubdub)

2nd place (30k prize) - John Lustre Pestin and Adryx Ivan Rafols of La Consolacion College Manila (Team Funtoastic)

Champions (50k prize) -
Jod Michelle Jacinto and Juan Carlo Caparas of Phil Women's University (Team D'Pidabest Duo)

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners and to the school they represent! I'll end this post with my little blog event escort:

With one of Gardenia's Chefs, Sir Benjo during the Grand Finale of Gardenia's The Next Big Sandwich Hit 2015 held in Market Market Activity Center.