Throwing iceberg or romaine lettuce into a salad is one thing.

But adding more exotic greens like mache, tatsoi or mizuna — some of which have names that are hard to pronounce, let alone find in your supermarket — can be hard for salad eaters and a challenge often left for chefs at white-tablecloth restaurants.

Hoping to catch such customers who have acquired a taste for a wider variety of leafy greens and want an easy way to assemble higher-brow salads at home, Salinas, Calif.-based Fresh Express has introduced Baby Blends, a line of six new bagged salads made with a selection of greens still uncommon on the American dinner table.

"What we are seeing is consumers becoming more adventurous," said Jeff Lemmons, vice president of business management for Fresh Express. "This lineup speaks to that."

The first shipment of the bagged salads, ranging in size from 5 to 12 ounces, went out two weeks ago to supermarkets all over the country with a suggested retail price of $2.99 to $3.49.

The line includes Baby Spicy Spinach, featuring red-vein spinach, arugula, tatsoi, mizuna and baby spinach, and Sweet Baby Greens, with baby romaine leaf, oak, tango and baby butter salanova, a European specialty butter lettuce never before available in the United States.

The "baby" in Baby Blends refers both to the smaller size of several of the greens used and the fact that many of them are harvested earlier than other lettuces.

Iceberg, for example, is harvested in 90 days, while many of the greens used in Baby Blends may grow for half that time, said Jennifer Whittle, Fresh Express vice president of innovations.

"We are always looking for opportunities to create segments or lines like this," Whittle said. "It is unique. There is no competitor out there."

Fresh Express, acquired in June by Chiquita Brands International for $855 million, moved forward with the line about a year ago. It has invested in several new seed varieties and is working with new harvesting and processing techniques to produce Baby Blends, Whittle said.

The varieties used in the line are also more expensive to grow than other types of greens and more nutritious than the average lettuce head — which means retailers must pay more for the brand.

And, in turn, so will consumers. But research shows that they might not mind the extra expense, Lemmon said.

"They are willing to pay more for better flavor, more nutrition and better products."