The Zesty Moose in Grand Junction is a tailor-made foodie paradise for professional chefs and home cooks alike. The founder’s commitment to offering non-processed herb and spice blends and a variety of natural food products has made them a go-to shopping spot for natural seasonings and ingredients. Owner Diana Tap is dedicated to offering healthy, alternative, flavorful products with no MSG, fillers, or preservatives. She began her company with nine original blends and today has well over 150 specialty-crafted blends and products.
In 2007, Diana made a decision to educate herself about the ingredients in her food and began to question why so many chemicals and unpronounceable items were found on the labels of ordinary grocery items. She soon made a conscious choice to eliminate foods, brands, and products that were highly processed from her diet. It wasn’t long before she realized that alternative options for concerned consumers were sorely lacking in the food industry, so she started to research and experiment with product development to see if it was possible to produce healthy products without sacrificing flavor.
While there is some debate as to whether or not some of the additives, preservatives, and other hidden ingredients in products are detrimental to our health, Diana is convinced, after countless hours of research, that there are many adverse effects connected to the long-term consumption of highly processed foods. Processed foods comprise 70% of the U.S. diet and often have very little nutritional value. Usually, the only benefit to consumers is an extension of shelf life, but at what cost?
Diana wanted to become part of the solution in the food industry, so she opened her company, The Zesty Moose, with just a handful of spice blends. Now, The Zesty Moose offers a wide variety of food items, including seasonings, olive oils and vinegar, pasta, and rice, salts, herbs, spices, finishing butter, dips, hot sauces, teas, coffee, and more.
The store, kitchen and winery are located on Colorado Avenue, just a block off of Main Street in downtown Grand Junction. Operations have based out of the Colorado Avenue location since 2017, after completion of two years of extensive renovations on the building.
Diana and her husband, Brian, take brand ownership to heart. They are adamant about transparency concerning any ingredients they use and consider the practice a top priority in their business. They never use MSG, fillers, preservatives, excessive amounts of sugar or salt, and all of their products are gluten-free. In addition, the ingredients in each of their offerings are simple, natural and have names that everyone can pronounce – unlike just about everything filling commercial grocery stores today.
As if researching and putting together all the specialty food items in The Zesty Moose wasn’t enough, Diana and Brian have also been bottling hand-crafted wine. Their vision has brought to life the first working winery and tasting room to an urban setting in downtown Grand Junction.
While Diana handles most of the duties of their food operation, Brian is the head winemaker. He bottles their wines onsite in a craft brewery-style winery after sourcing the best grapes they can find and has created partnerships with small family-owned vineyards from the West Coast and Western Colorado.
Reasonably sized stainless steel tanks, small fermentation bins, and crushing equipment allow the winemakers to keep their operation as small-scale as possible. It also allows them to experiment and craft their wines in small batches. Brian specializes in dry reds, dry whites, and rosé varieties.
Shiras Winery is located inside The Zesty Moose. Pronounced “shy’-russ”, the name refers to the subspecies of moose that live in Colorado. The tasting room offers over 30 wines by the glass, with a build-your-own-wine flight from the menu. You can complement your tasting with a charcuterie board. Wines may also be purchased by the bottle.
In addition to taking advantage of the tasting room, be sure to set aside enough time to check out all the products in the specialty-foods marketplace at the Zesty Moose. All their products have been crafted in the commercial onsite kitchen, using only the finest premium herbs and spices in small-batch productions. The products are fresh, and busy families will appreciate the simple recipes they offer to incorporate fresh ingredients in everyday cooking. Diana and Brian believe that flavor layering is a craft – when it’s done right, it should be savored.
The Zesty Moose is located at 449 Colorado Avenue and it is open from 10-5 Monday through Saturday. Diana and Brian can be reached at (970) 270-6263.
