[W]ASHINGTON — The din from the crowd spilling out from the marble-columned room hosting the Taste of Vermont in a Senate office building Thursday evening echoed down to the basement, four floors below.
In the days before Vermont food and drink producers set up for an evening in a Senate office building, more than one person on Capitol Hill referred to the evening as the “event of the year.”
And, at least for those with a penchant for craft beers, artisanal cheeses and other Vermont products, it is easy to see how the reputation developed.
Organizers and participants say the Taste of Vermont is a chance to get products from Green Mountain companies on the radar of businesses and customers in the D.C. area. But it also is tinged with politics, offering business owners a platform to bend the ears of their representatives in Washington.
Guests feasted from trays of flatbreads, sliced ham, and cheddar jalepeno mac and cheese. A colorful bowl of Vermont-grown greens, presented alongside an array of salad dressings and croutons balanced wares from some of Vermont’s most well-known companies, like Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Cabot Creamery, displayed alongside products from dozens of others.
Hill staffers chatted over cans of Heady Topper and Sip of Sunshine — cult favorite brews impossible to find in the beltway.
Fifty-three Vermont businesses participated in the 13th annual event. According to organizers, nearly 800 people were on the invitation-only guest list.
Tom Bivins introduced guests to various cheeses on a long table crammed with everything from oozy bloomy-rind camemberts to flaky aged cheddars and accouterment.
Bivins, the executive director of the Vermont Cheese Council, said the event is a good opportunity to introduce people who may know a bit about Vermont to the diversity of cheese coming out of the state.
“They’re really surprised when they find out that this is just a miniscule amount of the cheese that’s being produced,” he said.
The event is an opportunity to get Vermont cheese producers on the radar of businesses in the Washington, D.C., area, he said. Through the course of the event, he often meets people who own cheese shops in and around the beltway. He also meets people in the tourism industry, who might develop travel itineraries to Vermont based around the food scene.
This year, 22 cheese-makers’ products were part of the council’s spread, an increase of about half a dozen over last year. Asked what drove the increase, he said there is an interest in raising the profile of Vermont’s cheese industry among policymakers in D.C.
“(Cheese-makers) recognize that we’re in a very strange place right now in our government,” Bivins said.
Dairy farmers and cheese producers could face changes in federal policy, he said.
“I think they just want to show what we’re doing in the state and make sure that people recognize the economic impact of cheese-making for the state,” Bivins said.
All three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation mingled through the crowd, smiling for photos and visiting with vendors.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who helped start the annual event more than a decade ago, said it’s an opportunity to attract tourists to Vermont and to increase the profile of Vermont products through stores and mail order.
“It’s wonderful, it’s also one thing that brings Republicans and Democrats together,” he said.
Vendors and organizers from across the political spectrum join in, he said.
“It’s the one place where there’s no politics, everybody just wants to promote Vermont,” Leahy said.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the Appropriations chair with whom Leahy has recently launched a bipartisan effort to broker terms of the next round of budgeting bills, circulated the crowded room.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said she tries to attend most state’s events. Next month, she said, businesses from her home state, along with more than a thousand fresh flower leis, will come to D.C. for a similar function.
Joe Buley of Joe’s Kitchen at Screamin’ Ridge Farm dished out tacos with a choice of Misty Knoll chicken or Rhapsody tempeh.
“It’s a great way to meet people and to be honest, I get to talk legislation with my legislators a little bit,” Buley said.
As a food producer and a farmer, he feels the strain of various levels of regulations the business must comply with, which in some cases can be redundant. Licensing fees, which may be less burdensome on a larger business, are a hefty expense for his family-run operation.
Buley said he had a chance to speak with a Senate aide about his thoughts.
“We’ll see if something comes of it, but I’m trying to advocate for myself a little bit,” he said.
Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts attended the event.
The evening gives businesses a chance to showcase their offerings to a bigger market, and for business owners to tell their stories he said.
“You don’t know who’s going to circulate and taste a product,” he said.
