Telling the story of a product — making it something special rather than a commodity — has been a marketing approach of increasing importance in recent years. It might have possibly reached its apex at the Bar Show this year, with the Jägermeister display (pictured). The bitter liqueur, popular as an ice-cold shooter among young people, is now being touted as a family-owned, craft, all-natural amaro with 56 ingredients.

Other stories abounded on the show floor, of course, including Rumi Spice, a saffron company founded by U.S. military veterans who were deployed in Afghanistan and set up the company to help Afghan farmers; and Lyons-Colo.-based Spirit Hound Gin, which gets its juniper from locals in exchange for free drinks.

This mild, tropical fruit is a breakout flavor this year. GS Gelato won a FABI Award, presented to superior food and beverage products by the NRA, for its guava sorbetto. Kaly featured a guava syrup, and Monin’s new Hawaiian Island syrup is flavored with passion fruit, orange and guava. Goya had guava island punch on display (pictured), as well as guava empanadas.

A wide range of tea varieties were on display, particularly powdered matcha, such as 10th Avenue Tea’s soluble varieties — all made from matcha except for powdered rooibos. Tea Pigs had ready-to-drink matcha beverages, with about 5 percent fruit juice added.

A wide range of more complex flavors were available, too, such as Palais des Thés’ Thé du Hammam — green tea with rose, green dates, berries and orange flower water (pictured). And Art of Tea is rebranding some of its creations to evoke specific places: Brooklyn is a vanilla black tea; Tuscany is white tea with lavender, mint and rose.

Bronco Wine Co. displayed dry sparkling wine colored with blueberries, as well as peach and mango flavored Moscato. Tcho, a chocolate company based in San Francisco run by such purists that it took them years to introduce milk chocolate, this year added a flavored line including hazelnut chunk, toffee sea salt, coconut crisp, almond and sea salt, and mint chip gelato (pictured).

There was banana bread beer, salami flavored with absinthe and Hatch green chile, and the Wisconsin Cheese booth had cheeses flavored with garden vegetables, roasted red and cracked black pepper, garlic, Buffalo flavoring and, of course, bacon.

Although there is much talk about going back to basics on the NRA Show floor and in the food world at large there’s definitely a counter trend of spiking pure foods with new and different flavorings.

Both The Coca-Cola Co. and Pepsico displayed their new craft soda lines — Blue Sky and Stubborn (pictured), respectively — at the show this year. A smaller craft soda company, Reed’s, launched bag-in-the-box syrups for use at fountains. Meanwhile, ginger beer rollouts continued, along with sodas targeted at adults, with fewer calories and more complex flavors, such as Bai Bubbles sweetened with stevia and in flavors such as Bolivia Black Cherry and Jamaica Blood Orange.

Premium, non-dehydrated ramen was on display in many varieties, including the ones showcased by Twin Marquis. So were buckwheat soba noodles, spaghetti and glass noodles made from sweet potato starch from Wing Hing (pictured). Other Italian varieties in resealable bags were proffered by O Sole Mio.

People have been expecting Indian food to go mainstream for a couple of decades now, and there are signs at the NRA Show that it has a voice at the table at the very least. For example, Azar Nut Co. used its chipotle praline pecans and peanut butter to make the mulligatawny stew. Somrus, an Indian cream liqueur with cardamom, pistachio, almond, rose petal and saffron (pictured), was on display at the Bar Show. Chief operating officer Monica Badlani said the drink was not bought as much by Indians, but by foodies from all walks of life.

A salesman for Creminelli Fine Meats (pictured) said his product was made with nothing but “meat, salt and time.” Crescent Foods makes flavored beef and chicken products such as shawarma, or whatever other flavors their customers might like, using cage-free chicken fed vegetarian diets and never treated with antibiotics, or grass-finished Angus beef not treated with hormones or antibiotics. Many of the cold cuts on display proclaimed that they were made without nitrites, and other claims about what wasn’t in meat products abounded.

Tillen Farms had preserved asparagus and other vegetables on display for cocktail garnishes, and Sevillo Fine Foods won FABI Awards for its fire-roasted, marinated artichokes (one of many marinated artichokes that were on display, pictured) as well as for its slow-roasted tomatoes. Many restaurants are seeking ways to highlight vegetables on their menus, and NRA Show exhibitors provided them with plenty of options.

Chances are if you walk up to a booth with food at the NRA Show, the exhibitors will be proud of something that’s not in their product — gluten-free products abound, of course, but so do foods without allergens, hormones or high fructose corn syrup. Equally, there are brands touting what is in their food, such as Sweet Street Desserts new Manifesto line, made with cane sugar and real butter, cage-free eggs and sustainably grown chocolate (pictured).

Possibly a new category in the carbonated soft drink world, both Teafinity and B.W. Cooper had sparkling iced tea on display (pictured) — possibly to help turn around shrinking sales at restaurant soda fountains.