Does the Name “Kalettes" Make Sense?

Photo credit: Golden Sun Marketing

It’s no secret that “kalettes,” a hybrid of America’s two biggest cult vegetables of the past few years, kale and Brussels sprouts, will be available for your molar-mashing pleasure this fall.

The name, though, isn’t exactly a mashup of the two; that would be ”kale sprouts.” But “sprouts have a different connotation,” says Lisa Friedrich of Golden Sun, the produce marketing company behind Tozer Seeds’ super vegetable. “People think of alfalfa sprouts, et cetera—it would be confusing” to call this new veggie “kale sprouts.”

Others are calling it lollipop kale. Kalettes existed in the United Kingdom already under the name “flower sprouts” when Tozer approached Friedrich, but “we believed that the U.S. market would have a greater interest in kale, due to its rise in popularity over the past few years.” (Interesting side note: The "flower sprout" name was the result of a consumer contest!)

Friedrich and Golden Sun started with 40-50 names—“It’s brainstorming, so it’s not like they were all great”—and narrowed it down from there. “If you’ve seen them, they look like mini kale,” she says. “So it’s really about the petite size. Plus, we just couldn’t find a good way to get Brussels sprouts in the name.” And how about their taste? ”It has Brussels sprouts’ nutty flavor in a milder way, but it looks more like kale and the texture is crunchy like kale’s.”

Kalettes “is easy for people to remember,” says Friedrich, “and it’s kind of cute.” Which is really what we want from our vegetables, isn’t it?