Central Milling Product and Packaging Name Change at Costco
If you've been using Central Milling's Organic AP flour from Costco You most likely may have noticed that it is no longer available - well sort of, let me explain . Costco is not in the habit of communicating changes in their product offering especially in staples like flour. My guess is their belief is that the branding costs buried in a products cost should be returned to the customer in the form of a lower price. It's part of the Costco shopping mystery.
The Costco Shopping Mystery has now run into the Sourdough Baking Mystery and the fact that "in soudough baking everything counts".
I've been through this before with Central Milling and Costco resulting in a sudden increase in the cost of flour due to the transportation costs from orders placed with Central Milling's distribution center in Petaluma, California. As it turned out, the fault was not with Costco but from production changes at Central Milling in Logan, Utah. That embroglio finally settled out and the flour variable returned to normal. Supply from Costco has returned to shopping the flour locally.
The Organic AP Flour in the "Bin" at Costco may now look different label wise but in fact the flour is little changed from the previous "Central Milling" Branded AP Flour sold by Costco. The "newly labelled product" is part of a private label program being carried out by Central Milling for Costco and remains certified "Organic" by the State of Utah. It also has an additional 1% of protein content and remains malted with diastatic malt. The price is also now higher...,
Happy Baking,
Wild - Yeast
P.S. Print on the packaging does not mention anything about Central Milling as a source agent.
Dear Wild,
...a spicy smell (i think of it as cinnamon, my wife says nutmeg) in the Kirkland flour? It's kind of nice, but I just started noticing it around the time when the Central Milling flour was replaced with the Kirkland brand. I wonder if the smell could be from the malt that's included in the flour... Now that I'm sensitized to it, even my dough has the smell. Flour works great, but either it's been there all along and I just noticed or maybe some covid-induced olfactory hallucination?
Phil
Hi Phil,
No, I haven't noticed any "spice" taste or smell in the flour. I've been suffering from Long Covid and it has affected my olfactory sense somewhat. The smell of the dough under build does have a wonderful fragrance though. The extra protein percentage point produces a superior product for those that bake higher water ratio doughs with long preferments. The Pain au Levain I bake is turning out spectacular tasting loaves not to mention the derivative croutons for Caesar Salads and as Bar Bits...,
Happpy Baking, Wild-Yeast