Three local childhood friends have a new Louisiana food business that's putting the image of Louis Armstrong on supermarket shelves and commercial kitchens across the region.

As Jimmy Hoppe harvests his rice crop in a small parish in Louisiana, he also is making history.  Jimmy  is among the first rice farmers to bring a new jasmine-type variety, named Jazzman rice, to consumers.

Jazzmen Rice is a new variety of aromatic rice that has recently been introduced to the market and is the first American aromatic rice that can compete head-to-head with the renowned Thai jasmine rice.

The first U.S.-bred Jasmine-type aromatic rice variety ,Jazzman, has been developed at the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station and approved for release in 2009.