Bone Broth Trend Crashes Into Boulder With Three New Options

Drop your green juice and grab a jar full of liquid gold: Bone broth. You could argue that it's supposed to be called stock (if there are animal bones or parts in it) but that would miss the point — bone broth is the new big health craze this year. The trend has been gaining traction for the last few months across the country and it is hitting Boulder hard this week.

Fresh Thymes, the health-consious eatery that opened a year and a half ago in Boulder, launched a broth bar yesterday.  Chef and owner Christine Ruch offers two bone broths and one vegetarian broth at her Community Supported Restaurant (one of the very few in the country). There is beef with ginger and cilantro, chicken with turmeric, and wild mushroom, all of them bearing deep umami flavor. Making the broth is a time-consuming endeavor; Ruch spends five days to make her beef bone broth and two to make the chicken one.

"Broth is nutrient dense and full of the good stuff our body craves - collagen, gelatin, bio-available minerals, and amino acids," Ruch shares. "Add to that a few other ingredients that fuel our immune system in the winter months such as ginger, garlic, turmeric, curcumin, and chlorophyll and you've got yourself a new lease on life," she continues.

Here's how is works at Fresh Thymes: Pick your flavor and grab the warm liquid served in a mason jar hugged by a koozie. Head to the broth bar area for things like lime zest, cilantro, green onion, parsley, cabbage, and even Fresh Thymes' homemade sriracha sauce. Ruch plans to adjust the components of the bar based on customer feedback.

Cured, the popular Boulder cheese and specialty foods shop owned by Will and Coral Frischkorn, is about to launch its own version of the bone broth bar. By next week, the spot located at 1825 Pearl Street will offer three house-made broths for customers to take home.

"From-scratch stocks are a staple ingredient in any real kitchen, and something we always loved to make at home," Will Frischkorn explained. "With a new baby in the house and time short we realized why don't we make the stocks we use in all of our soups at the shop available for sale, and for us to take home ourselves!"

The staple categories will be vegetable, poultry, and beef/veal, but the individual recipes will change weekly. For the launch, Cured will offer beef broth, vegetable broth, and a turkey broth, each available for $7 a quart.

Chef Hosea Rosenberg has also jumped on the bone broth wagon. At his hot new restaurant, Blackbelly Market, Rosenberg will feature what he calls the Barnyard Broth, a glowing rich liquid made with pork bones, beef bones, and poultry bones (turkey, duck, and chicken). He will also offer the three component broths separately: pork, beef, and poultry broth.

"I've known how to make a proper stock since I became a professional chef - that's one of the first things you learn," Rosenberg says. "We'd always planned to sell stock out of the market for people to take home and make soup with, but selling it as something to sip out of a cup - that's kind of mind blowing. I didn't see that trend coming but it's right up my alley."

Meant for sipping, not spooning, Rosenberg's broth will be available for $4 a cup. The bone broth is also available to-go in a cup or a quart for $12. The broth could be enjoyed in the restaurant or can be taken to go, starting on Monday during breakfast and lunch. Refrigerated quarts of the broths will be available for sale out of the market during all business hours of the restaurant.