8 Unusual Finds at the Good Food Awards Marketplace

These Californian Wine Forest Pickled Sea Beans ($14), also known as glasswort, resemble pickled green beans in texture and flavor. According to the producer, since the sea beans naturally have an ultrasalty flavor, they basically pickle themselves. Try them in a bloody Mary!

The Guittard 100 Percent Cacao Unsweetened Baking Bars ($84 for 12 bars) from California's beloved chocolate factory will blow your mind, because the bars contain no sugar whatsoever. Yet they maintain a rich chocolate flavor and smooth, creamy mouthfeel. This is no bitter baking bar. Diabetics, those on no-sugar diets, and chocolate connoisseurs need to get their hands on these for unctuous snacking.

Wine isn't the only thing you can wash a cheese with. Hailing from Tennessee, Blackberry Farm Downer Brown cow's milk cheese ($15) is washed in the farm's own beer, covered in a layer of dehydrated spelt grain saved from the beer-making process, and then aged for three weeks to develop a bloomy rind. Beer lovers will enjoy the sour, yeasty flavor of the cheese.

Clear Creek Distillery Oregon Cranberry Liqueur ($30 for a 750-milliliter bottle) may make you skip your vodka-cranberry cocktail altogether. Subtly tart, full in body, and only slightly sweet, this fruit-flavored liqueur is the ultimate representation of the humble cranberry.

We saw many vegetable jams and pickled fruits in this year's group of winners. One that cannot be overlooked is Texan-based Confituras Pickled Blueberries ($7). Though they may sound odd, the briny, spiced blueberries make a great topper for cheese.

Colorado-based Continental Sausage Bison Pastrami ($15 for one pound) sold like hotcakes at the Marketplace. The pastrami has the traditional peppery flavor, but the bison meat basically melts in your mouth. Slice me up another piece of that!

The Madre Chocolate Triple Cacao ($11 for a 1.5-ounce bar) from Hawaiian chocolate makers will make you do a double take. Or should I say triple take? The trifecta of sweet, chewy Brazilian cacao pulp, crunchy Costa Rican cacao nibs, and luscious Costa Rican 70 percent dark chocolate makes this a whole new way of eating chocolate.

Tennessee's Bathtub Gin Limoncello Strawberry ($12) pairs homemade limoncello liqueur with candied citrus zest and ripe strawberry preserves. Why is dousing a jar of preserves with liqueur so ingenious? Because even toast could use some spiking.