Though they taste much more like everyday raisins than the nuanced notes you expect from wine, there’s a pleasant crunchiness to a handful of RayZyns, the new line of dried wine-grape snacks produced by cardiologist Chris Cates and his Napa Valley vintner son Andrew Cates.
The real treat, though, is that these raisins — which go well on your breakfast cereal, afternoon cheese plate, and dinner salad — are packed with antioxidants, thanks to the crunchy seeds that are left inside and caramelized during the toasting process. According to the Cates, a handful of RayZyns features 10 times more epicatechins than a glass of red wine, which is also more than green tea, pomegranates, and other so-called superfoods.
After years of prescribing wine to his patients due to its heart-healthy ingredients, the elder Cates spent two years developing this product after having an epiphany while snacking on grapes from his family’s vineyard. “It was then when I got the idea: What if you could eat your wine instead of drinking it?” explained Cates, whose RayZyns are now available in cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot, and chocolate-covered flavors.
See rayzyn.com.
