Every year we have customers ask us for Turkey for the Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday (Oct 14th, 2014). We never have them. Why is that?

Well, we don’t really like Canadians…..just kidding.

The real answer is because we import most of our products from the US. Unfortunately, turkey farmers in the US don’t really have their birds ready early enough for us to order them. For us to have our turkeys in stock for the beginning of November (in time for the US version of the Holiday), we often have to place an order in the beginning of October (pre-order here). They are processed and then shipped down to Trinidad. If we needed turkeys in the middle of October, we would need to book those turkeys at the end of August! We are very willing to do that, but the turkey farmers aren’t ready for us at that time. So, we are working on getting a Turkey supplier (possibly) out of The Great White North, that will have product ready for us to order for delivery in the beginning of October. Unfortunately, that won’t be until next year. 🙁

So, hopefully that helps explain why we never have our turkeys in time for the Canadian Thanksgiving.

Regardless of our issues, we hope all you Canadians have a very happy Thanksgiving!

When you use your credit card to pay for goods/services at small businesses, Masterard/Visa/etc charge a fee to the store for processing the payment. Being able to use a credit card is a convenience that most stores like to provide their customers, and that of course, that comes at a cost. Here at Blooms, we made the decision a while ago to offer this service to our customers. A lot of customers preferred not to have to walk with cash, and we agree.

Unfortunately, we quickly realized that with every swipe we were paying this nasty little processing fee. We also have noticed that for most people, the decision to pay with a Credit Card OR with Linx/Cash, isn’t really that big of a decision. Most people don’t mind either way and just grab what they see first in their purse/wallet. If only there was a  way to let people know that we preferred to Linx/Cash payments over credit card, and with the money saved, give them something back……..

So, we came up with an idea! A chance to reward customers that pay with Linx or Cash and help us spread the word.

Here’s the deal:

With your next purchase, if you spend over $300TT and pay with either your Linx Card or Cash, you will be entered to win a FREE rack of Blooms Smokin Saturdays Smoked Ribs. Simply write your name and email on the back of your receipt (or a piece of paper) and drop it in our WIN-A-RACK box. Every Saturday, we will draw a name and that person will receive a free rack of smoked ribs on the following Saturday.

Hopefully, this will help us pay less in credit card processing fees, give back to our customers and keep our prices the lowest in Trinidad.

Don’t want to take your chances? Pre-order your Smokin’ Saturday Racks here.

By far one of the most popular products we have ever carried. The quality of the ribeye and the price of the product, make it a win-win product.

What are Random Ribeye Steaks?

Steak producers cut Certified Choice and Prime Ribeye steaks for high-end establishments every day. These restaurants demand the highest quality beef. They also need their cuts of steak to be perfectly shaped and have a consistent weight. Because of this, these steaks can be very expensive.

Unfortunately, when you cut a whole Rib Loin into steaks, you don’t always end up with a perfect amount of exactly 10 ounce steaks. You may get 18 steaks that are all 10 ounce, but then 1 steak that is 6 ounces.  So, there are usually a few steaks in the bunch that are not a perfect size or shape, and thus, cannot be sold as ‘perfect ribeye steaks’.  The company cutting the steaks is charging the hotels and restaurants plenty of money for their perfect steaks, so they are okay with accepting less than their cost on these ‘random-sized steaks’. It is the same ultra-premium meat, just not in standard/even cuts.

Over the past few years, we began traveling to meet with these producers and develop a way that they could pack these steaks and we could purchase them. We wanted smaller packs of steaks, so that customers could use 1 or 2 at a time, not an entire block of beef. And so, Random Ribeye was born.

As soon as we began selling Random Ribeye steaks, we realized how much customers loved them. They were able to grill expensive ribeye steak for dinner, at about 1/3 of the price. They were great for parties as well, because everyone usually wants a different size steak. Most customers really didn’t need steaks that were perfectly shaped; they just wanted a nice tasting/tender steak. So the product has done exceptionally well ever since.

Now, it’s important to remember that these steaks are not perfect. Some steaks in the case will be perfectly cut 6, 8 or even 10 ounce steaks.  Some will be very small and packed with another steak. This is the reason they are a fraction of the price of the same steaks being sold to restaurants. At the end of the day, it is the same exact meat and all of them are excellent on the grill. If you need a steak that is perfectly cut, we sell dozens of different shapes and sizes.

Tilapia is a fish that has increased quite a bit in popularity over the past few years. This clean, white fish that is often sold in fillets and is great fried or grilled. Now, quite a few people in Trinidad carry it. We get a lot of questions on the Tilapia seen in other stores, and in particular a ‘big warehouse store’, so hopefully this will help provide everyone with the same explanation on why the two are different (and why our’s is better :).

Tilapia is usually sold two different ways, but almost always in fillets (no bone/no skin). One way is IQF or Individually Quick Frozen. This means that after the fish is processed it’s sent through a freezer on a conveyor belt. This freezes the fish and allows it to remain separated in a bag. If you were to just throw the fish into a bag and freeze it, all the fillets would be stuck together. So IQF products allow them to remain individual and freeze properly. The only thing with some IQF products, like Tilapia, is when constant frozen air hits a delicate meat like fish, it creates freezer burn very quickly. To prevent, manufacturers almost always adds what they call a ‘glaze’ to their IQF products. A glaze (usually just water, but sometimes other preservatives) is sprayed onto the fish fillets as soon as they begin to freeze. Other times, the items are dipped into a big bin of the solution. This layer of water freezes immediately onto the product creating a ‘shell’. This water shell on the product increases the amount of time the fish can remain in the freezer. If you purchase IQF fillets from other stores you may have noticed a label on the product that reads “Glazed” or “Glaze Product”. If you haven’t noticed, check for it next time.

We don’t like selling glazed products, so we don’t carry them. Aside from adding something other than fish to the product, you are increasing it’s weight with water. Kind of like the guys that drive around neighborhoods in West Moorings selling shrimp out of the back of their trucks. When you drain off the water out of the bag, you quickly notice how much water you bought for the price of shrimp. If people are buying fish, we want them to pay for fish, not water. Getting home and hearing your grill sizzle as water leaks from your meat is no fun.

Our tilapia comes individually vacuum packed. This means that each fillet has been vacuum sealed in a plastic pouch. The fish is then separated by it’s packaging when frozen, rather than a water solution. This also means that each of our tilapia fillets can be used individually, as each one is packaged as it’s own fillet. No added water weight and your fish tastes like fish, not odd water. We like to leave the ‘glazing’ up to you.

So, hopefully this helps clear up some questions on the differences in the Blooms Tilapia and the other products on the market.

Happy Grilling

When beef is ‘aged’, it is allowed to sit in between the time it is slaughtered and cooked. During this time, the microbes and the enzymes in the meat interact to help break down the connective tissues in the muscles. This gives you a much more tender cut and deepens the taste profile as well. A properly aged steak cooks better and eats better, as well. It’s really the best way to eat beef.

Back in the day, when you ordered a steak from your local butcher, it was probably hung for at least a few weeks. The primary reason for this was there wasn’t a lot of ‘chiller’ space available. It was usually hung in small wooden houses above chilly creeks and broken down into smaller pieces as it was needed. Any crust or rough edges on the beef due to contact with the air would be removed and disposed of. This is the process of ‘dry aging’.

Dry aging these days is a little more difficult and an usually much more expensive. If you are purchasing meat from a trusted and inspected source in any developed country, certain temperature and air quality guidelines must be met to ensure the meat you are eating is properly dry aged. We always carry a few Dry Aged steak products, as they offer customers with a different taste profile when compared to non-aged steaks.

The other method of aging beef is ‘wet aging’. This is a very similar process in which the cuts of beef are taken directly from slaughter and allowed to age for up to 45 days before they are portioned into steaks. The only difference from dry aging is that the steaks remain in a vacuum sealed packaged to ensure there is no contact with outside air. The temperature must still be controlled perfectly. You maintain many of the same benefits as with dry aging, but it is easier to store packed cuts and therefore the costs is less.

We have most of our steaks aged for 21 to 30 days. These steaks are superior to others that are cut immediately after slaughter, usually on large assembly lines. This adds a tremendous amount of flavor AND provides a steak that is much more tender. Almost every ultra-exclusive steakhouse in the world uses steaks that are properly aged prior to cooking. We like for our customers to receive that same product in their own home.

We tried! We tried our damned hardest to keep up with the deliveries of orders from the site, but unfortunately, it’s just not working out right now. It’s impossible!!!

For those of you who have been customers of Blooms since the beginning, you know that you could always expect speedy and friendly delivery of your orders, right to your door. (Well, most of the time) We took a lot of pride in this. We had no ‘retail outlet’ but that was okay, we were able to get everyone their orders in a (somewhat) timely fashion. Everything was going fine. As we grew as a company, we made the necessary changes in our logistics  to deal with the increased demand and the increase in request for deliveries. We also aimed to get customers their orders much more quickly than before.

Then we opened our store.

The long and sort of it is that we have a huge new responsibility with the retail store. Everyone always suggested we open a store and it seems as if customers are now very happy they can just come in to pick up an item or two. We have a lot of new customers that come into the store having never heard of Blooms, as well as, customers that have known about us but were never able to shop online. All of this has increased the number of people who visit our website to see what we have to offer. This is great!

Unfortunately, with the increase in exposure has come a sharp increase in the number of online orders. I has become impossible for us to deliver the orders that come in daily from the website. We’ve been trying for the past few months, but we fear it’s having a negative effect on our customer service level.

The orders for one day can stretch from a mega-yacht in Chagaramas to an apartment in St. Ann’s, with several in between.  Traffic is an ongoing concern and a major issue, as we sometimes will have no choice but to leave at a certain time to meet a customer’s deadline. Everyone knows in Trinidad that heading down a certain road at a certain time of day is the equivalent of suicide. This is even harder if we have promised several customers a delivery all at specific times. We have days where half a dozen people are upset because they were waiting at home for a delivery and Dominic was stuck in traffic for hours.

Blooms has increased the amount of customers and thus the demand for deliveries, but we have yet to increase our delivery capabilities. We aren’t a large company and we have realized it’s easier said, than done. We prefer to have customers deal with one of us personally, rather than a random guy we hire to make deliveries. In order for us to ‘hire’ someone that we will send to your home, it would have to be someone that we have known for a while and fully trust. You can’t really find that kind of person from running an Express Classified’s ad.  So, it’s really not as simple for us to just hire a person to drive the orders around town and help alleviate the logistic pressure.

Our goal is to provide each of our customers with the very best possible service, at all times and with each order. At this point, we no longer feel we can maintain this standard with our home delivery system.

I know, I know, it sucks.

It seems that prior to opening a store, everyone wanted us to have store so they could just come in and pick-up what they needed. And now that we do have a store, that is still true for most of our customers. Most of our regular and new customers prefer to pop into the store to shop rather than order online and wait for us to show up. The store is easily accessible for most people and it’s very quick. Most of our old customers now just come in to shop, rather than ordering online and almost all say it’s much easier. (also, we have about 60+ items that aren’t even on our website)

So, as hard of a decision as it is, we have decided to put a hold on our home deliveries until future notice. We will continue to work on a solution to our logistical issues and we hope to have home deliveries back on track as soon as possible. We will figure out how we can efficiently home delivery our goods and still maintain the customer service you expect from Blooms.

Just a note: Over the years we have realized that a lot of our current customers utilize our delivery services because it’s difficult for them to visit the store due to physical limitations or a physical handicap. If you are one of those customers, we will be happy to continue to offer the delivery services.

You are still more than welcome to place your orders online (via the website) and pick-up (or send someone for it).

Thanks for understanding and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Jason, Raul, and Dominic

We have some big news. But, before we give you that news, I want to take a minute to explain how Blooms Imports started and how we ended up where we are at now. It’s been a very interesting/stressful/exciting but overall GREAT few years and we are happy to be here.

When you have no money and you start a business it’s fairly difficult. You have to decide what you need, what you don’t need and what you have to make work for the time being. If you could buy whatever you thought you needed, it would be much easier. But knowing what I know now, that is not always the best way. We had very little money to start Blooms, so we had to make do with what we had. Our ‘store’ consisted of a chest freezer in our carport. Our products (well actually our one product) consisted of a case of Choice/Certified Angus Beef US Tenderloin Bars.  That was it. We use to joke that if a bandit came to the house and popped the lock on the freezer that our entire business would be shutdown.

Soon after, BloomsImports.com went live and people could visit the site to see our one item for sale. It wasn’t a pretty website, but it did the trick. More importantly, it allowed us to take suggestions as to what other items we should carry. So, slowly we started adding items that people were looking for, higher quality meats and products that no one in Trinidad carried. There still seems to be a predicament for consumers here in Trinidad that I’ve seen over and over again with the retailers I work with. “We don’t carry nicer/new items because all customers want is the regular/cheap products we carry now”. Sometimes, the reason customers don’t buy nicer meats is because THE STORES AREN’T SELLING THEM.

The hardest thing about the way Blooms operated in those days was the deliveries. We didn’t offer pick-ups, so everything had to be delivered. Orders would come in via the site, we would run to the public cold storage to pick them up, weigh the items and then hope the customer was able to accept the delivery. Most of the time we had to drive the item BACK to the cold storage facility and re-check them back in until the customer was ready. It was a completely and udder nightmare. We operated this way for years…somehow. Slowly we managed to add on small restaurants as customers as we were able to get them what they needed, when they needed it.

Finally we accomplished our own cold storage, a 40ft reefer container that we hooked up in a rental car facility off of the Cocorite Highway. Not the prettiest of locations, but it gave our customers an opportunity to place their order and stop in to pick it up.  It also gave us a chance to buy in bulk and save money. We love to do this because it allows us to pass those savings along to our customers. Also, we realized that most customers preferred picking up their orders and stopping in to chat, which we also liked. Speaking with customers picking up as helped us learn about many new items that we weren’t carrying.

Unfortunately, just as with the chest freezer in the carport, our spot in Econo Car became very difficult. People would hear that there was a place in Econo-Car with great deals on meats and they would show up only to find a brick room with a guy on a laptop! We had no way to show them the meats without running back and forth in/out . All of our meats are still sold online and we weren’t set up for brick/mortar retail. We still did not have a place where customers could ‘pop-in’ and pick something up for dinner or swing in for some steaks for a last minute lime. Ordering from us took some time and visiting the website. This greatly limited the type of items we could carry AND it turned away too many customers. Plus, there was an iquana that lived behind our office that would scratch on the roof all….day….long. We had to go!

It’s really funny how everything seems to happen for a reason. A few months ago we received a call from friends of ours that own/operate a store in Diego Martin. They explained how they were becoming more occupied with their own individual companies and that their store could really benefit from new ownership and having Bloom’s items. We jumped at the opportunity! The details and sale have been finalized so…….

We are very happy to announce that starting Thursday, September 13^th, Blooms Imports will open its very first and very own retail store! Our new store is located on the Diego Martin Main Road just past Hi-Lo and the Big Tree, next store to FCB bank. Most may know it as Caribbean Catch. It’s a great location for most people in the west and easily accessible for those coming from out of town. There is plenty of parking, which we are big on!

Obviously, this will change a lot of things about the way we do business. No longer will you have to go online to submit your order. You can just stop in and see all of our items. They will be displayed in beautiful chest and display freezers. We are filling them up as we speak. We understand it’s hard to select meat based on a picture or description on a website. It’s a challenge we’ve been facing for years now and it takes a lot of effort/time. So, now just come in and see the cuts first hand. If you like it than you can buy it immediately. ‘A reeeeeaal proper store’.

We will also be able to carry a lot of items we never could carry. There are a lot of great products available to us, but we’ve never been able to facilitate selling them online. Now we can. So, the range and selection at Blooms is really going to expand. Our first project is what we like to call a ‘Local Shelf’, items that are created by local artisans/chefs/foodies that we will provide a sales platform to. So, keep an eye out for that. (If you have an item you think might work, please contact Dominic : dominicfabres@bloomsimports.com)

It’s important that we address a few questions:

Will you still operate BloomsImports.com?

The answer is ‘yes’. The website will still be updated daily with the items that we have in stock and even specials that we won’t have in the store. You will be able to check and see if we have an item in stock before you stop by. As an FYI, we will have a lot of items that will be fresh specials, deals or not regularly carried, so you have to stop in for those.

Will you still deliver?

The answer is ‘yes’. We know most of our customers live outside of the West, and we want to make sure you can convienently access our items, so we will still deliver (for FREE) within Port of Spain. This store should help us save some time with pre-sorting all orders and we are hoping to use that time to pursue outside of POS deliveries soon.

Can we still order and pick-up?

The answer is ‘yes’. You can most certainly order online and ask for pick-up. We will prepare your order, send you a total and when you arrive it will be ready and waiting. We also have a pick-up window at this store, so you may (in the future) not even have to get out of your car.

Will you still have a spot at Econo-Car?

The answer is ‘no’. We will not be operating out of Econo-Car for pick-ups effective September 10th.

Will you carry the same items?

The answer is ‘yes’. We will carry our same items, plus a lot more. This was a fish store and from the looks of it, there are a lot of different fish options that we never even thought of carrying. We will be carrying a lot of those items as well, so our retail and wholesale seafood department will be huge. As soon as we get done googling what the heck a ‘bangamary’ is. 🙂

But wait, with a store and high overhead, won’t your prices go up?

The answer is ‘no’. This was a major concern from the beginning of Blooms. We operate with such low overhead that it’s hard for many people to compete on price with quality meats/ foods. We stayed away from a store for fear of having to increase our prices to pay for our rent. But, what we failed to realize at that point was how much ‘VOLUME’ played a part in the way we source meats. The more we are able to buy, the better pricing we receive and the better prices we pass along to our customers.  This was evident with just the increase in customers that we saw from offering pick-ups. So, as it turns out, because more people will now be able to shop with us, we will can buy more goods and that will allow us to negotiate even better pricing with our suppliers. It’s really a win-win.

So please, all of those friends that you told about Blooms that said they didn’t have the time to go online to order their meats, send them an email and tell them they can now pass in whenever they want!

What hours will you be open?

The answer is ‘we don’t know yet’. We haven’t yet decided that. We will definitely be here Mon – Sat, but we will work on the hours and let everyone know.

Can I get some items before you open?

The answer is ‘no’. We have to move everything here, so that is going to take until most likely Wednesday evening. So please, feel free to place your order and we will get it ready for you to pick-up/deliver on Thursday. But for the sake of both the new store and our level of customer service, we have to take the next 2 days off. Thursday, though. Please eat veggies until then.

Will there be a Grand Opening?

Unfortunately, the answer is ‘not yet’. Because we are so nervous about having everything ready for Thursday and getting all of our stock here, that we don’t want to disappoint. We will probably all be cracking a Carlsberg Saturday evening, so you are welcome to stop by.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support throughout the years.  As I mentioned, it wasn’t necessarily an easy journey to get to where we have reached, but it was made absolutely possible by our customers. As hard as it was to drive back/forth to a public cold storage for hours for 1 order, it was much harder for customers to put their trust in buying meat from a website. Or much harder for customers to pull into a junkyard to pick-up an order from an odd old man named Raul or a fast-talking yankee-boy. So, our most heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been there for us over the years and helped have helped us grow our business. Friends, family and customers….thank you! We are extremely excited about this new opportunity and we hope you will come check us out.

The Guys at Blooms

Chef Ruben, owner/executive chef at Melange Restaurant on Ariapita Avenue, Port of Spain took some time to show us how to cook a very simple, but very delicious Geera Pork using our Pork Pieces.

Melange Restaurant is located at #40 Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, Port of Spain. Right on the Avenue! They offer amazing dinners in an beautiful atmosphere. They also do quite a bit of catering. Chef Ruben does amazing things with a lot of local dishes, as well as international. Melange offers a wide range of catering items for any type of event you are hosting whether corporate catering or personal. For information on catering options or to book a dinner reservation, please email: melangett@hotmail.com or call: 628-8687

Ingredients Used:

Blooms Imports Pork Pieces Veg Oil, Salt, Geera (Cumin), Garlic, Trini Pimento Peppers, Coc0nut Powder, Onion, Tomato, Scotch Bonnet (Habanaro), Black Pepper.

Basic Instructions:

Season the Pork using the above ingredients. Chop necessary vegetables to help season. Drizzle with Vegetable Oil and mix. Place in an oven pan and add a little bit of stock or water. Cover with foil and bake at 300 for 20 to 30 minutes. Check the pork to see if it’s done. Do not over cook.

Chop onions, pimentos, garlic, tomato, hot pepper. Heat in pan with butter. Add back drippings from pork and then pour over pork in bowl.

The same mix / seasoning can be used to make Geera Baby Back Ribs. Simply rub down the baby backs with the Geera seasoning (same seasoning as with the Pork Pieces) put the Baby Back racks onto a baking pan and place in the oven @ 300 degrees for 2 to 3 hours. Checking often.

Our corned beef briskets come ‘corned’ or brined and are ready to cook. This is a excellent and very flavorful dish that dates back to the 18th century (well, not these in roasts in particular but the idea of salting beef).

This is a famous American / Irish traditional dish.

Here’s how to cook our Corned Beef Brisket:

Boil a big pot or pan of water. Place in your Beef Brisket and reduce to simmer. You do not need to add any additional seasonings or spices, unless of course you would like to. Your brisket should remain cooking for 2 to 2.5 hours. Knowing when it is done is kind of an art form. You can use a fork to poke the meat to see if it’s approaching your desired tenderness. The longer you cook, the more tender it is. Corned beef can easily become fall apart tender.

As with most meats, these will reduce in size when cooking, so expect to have about 70% of the meat that you started with. Serve with roasted potatoes, steamed cabbage and carrots. DON’T forget the spicy mustard.

We often get phone calls from customers that aren’t quite sure how to use our website to place their order. We agree, sometimes ordering online is not that simple. That’s why we worked with our web developer to make our website so simple and easy to use that ANYONE can use it.

Just to show you how easy it is, we did a quick video on how to find the site (well, you are on it now, so you are doing good so far), how to look up items, add those items to your ‘cart’ and complete your order.

So, if you are new to Blooms or have never ordered online, take a minute to watch this clip to see the easiest way to order meat online, ever!