People in and out of New York love throwing the name Brooklyn on their cafes and bitters and moonshine and mall pizza, since it scores hip points, even if they have nothing to do with Brooklyn . The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce responded to that by launching the Brooklyn Made certification, a new initiative for products actually manufactured here. Today, they showed off the first 41 products that received a sought-after gold, silver or bronze “Brooklyn Made” label, with Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce CEO Carlo Scissura and Borough President Eric Adams making the announcement at By Brooklyn (261 Smith Street, Cobble Hill), the only shop that exclusively sells Brooklyn-made products.
Among the products that earned Gold for keeping it in the borough are Spoonable LLC’s (345 Clinton Ave, Clinton Hill) spoonable confectionary sauces, Raaka Chocolates (62-64 Seabring Street, Red Hook), and Michael of Brooklyn’s pasta sauces (2929 Avenue R, Marine Park). MakerBot Industries (1 Metrotech, Downtown) earned silver, along with Gillies Coffee Company (150 19th Street, Greenwood) and the candles and soaps at Perch Canteen. Sohha Savory Yogurt (128 West 112th Street) was the only bronze recipient. You can check out the full list here to see if any of your favorite places made it.
It should be noted that just because something doesn’t have a Brooklyn Made certification doesn’t mean it’s not made in Brooklyn, since businesses have to apply to get the stamp. Beyond having to be legally headquartered in Brooklyn, the formula for a Brooklyn Made stamp is based on factors such as how much of the manufacturing process takes place in Brooklyn and how many Brooklyn employees a company has, but Scissura emphasized earning the Brooklyn Made title is a bigger deal than the levels. Take that, random Swedish bars that abuse the Brooklyn name.
