Yum! Jordan’s Skinny Mixes Reveals Tasty New Flavors in Exclusive Interview for ExpoWest 2023
Say yes if you love coffee. Say yes again if you love cocktails. Say yes a third time if you love ‘em, but wanna be healthier and save some money.
If you said yes to *any* of the above, you’re going to want to listen, because we just had twenty minutes with the woman who makes all those things happen for you.
This week at ExpoWest 2023 Jordan’s Skinny Mixes has a lot to share!
Jordan’s Skinny Mixes Margaritas
Their Naturally Sweetened line of margarita mixes is made with real lime juice and sweetened with agave and contains 75 % less sugar and calories than other leading brands. The four margarita mixes flavors are Classic, Peach, Spicy, and Strawberry Key Lime, and they do not contain any artificial sweeteners, flavors, or colors.
Jordan’s Skinny Mixes natural line of skinny syrups is available in 4 guilt-free flavors, including Vanilla Bean, Salted Caramel, Cinnamon Dolce, and Chocolate Mocha
Their natural line of skinny syrups is available in 4 guilt-free flavors, including Vanilla Bean, Salted Caramel, Cinnamon Dolce, and Chocolate Mocha, for your coffee, tea, protein shakes, baking, or just about anything.
Jordan’s Skinny Mixes was founded in 2009 by female entrepreneur Jordan Engelhardt. The beverage brand was created with the simple desire to enjoy a margarita that wasn’t loaded with sugar and empty calories. Now with over 100 products, this female-led team is on a mission to craft beverages that cut the sugar and keep the fun from coffee ‘til cocktails.
Skinny Mixes can now be found in over 13,000 specialty retail locations across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe, including Target stores, Skinnymixes.com, and Amazon.
Jordan Engelhardt is an impressive person, so when I had the chance to meet up and have a conversation, it was an easy yes.
Just to give us some background, what were you up to before launching back in 2009?
Back in 2009 I was a recent college graduate working in real estate as an appraiser. I launched this product [Jordan’s Skinny Mixes] right when the recession was basically at its peak. It had just started and the market crashed pretty heavily in Florida where I was living at the time.
So I found myself without work, and this idea that I felt pretty strongly about.
What are some of the biggest changes you’ve navigated in the industry over those 10 years?
Oh, there’s been a lot. The world has evolved much more to natural products, which is why we’re here at Expo West as we just have launched our new natural line so this is pretty big for us.
Also, the customization of flavors over the years have just gotten more and more prevalent.
Millennials, and the population in general, really like the variety of flavors, and being able to customize everything. And then Covid really drove at-home consumption of coffee. So I think all of those trends over the last 10 years have really helped drive this company’s growth.
When Covid forced everyone to stay home, did that become a “lucky opportunity” for the business and boost at-home coffee drinking?
It was certainly fortunate in some ways, but in many other ways [not as much]. We were selling to many grocery accounts. We’re selling to a lot of specialty stores which had no choice but to close their doors. So we lost quite a bit of distribution during that time, but were able to make up for it online [with website e-commerce]. So [with market] penetration and trying to drive consumer growth, in that capacity, yes, it was fortunate. But it was also a little bit scary [for us], like many other businesses at the same time.
What is the biggest misconception in general about skinny mixes?
People don’t necessarily understand the versatility of our syrup and how you can not only use it for coffee, but you can use it for baking and protein shakes, and just anything.
Flavored syrups are great for iced teas. You can simply just add a dash to water and transform your water.
Once we got the samples this week, the amount of random things we’ve tried [the skinny mixes] with just to see how it’d go.
I love it! It’s part of the fun and part of the great relationship we have with our consumers. They
have so much fun experimenting and making these recipes, and then including us on that.
So [experimenting with the syrups on different foods] just became a benefit over the years. It’s certainly something we think about now.
We have this really amazing closed Facebook group that has really active members. It’s called “Skinny mixes. Share your recipe”. You can see the amount of creativity that our users come up with and then they share their recipes.
One person put it with sweet potatoes, they used it on egg sandwiches. Interesting wild things that you would never think about.
Can you share a little bit about the inspiration behind the line and how you develop the flavors?
Yes, of course. We have a great relationship with our consumers, and they asked for it. When they ask, we listen. We do a lot of innovation. We launch a lot of flavors.
So that’s where it came from and it’s really done. We’ve gotten into Target with this line. We take a lot of pride in listening to what our customers want, and this is what they wanted
What’s the development process like for these flavors?
We have several partnerships with different food labs and beverage labs. We start by verbally explaining to them what we’re looking for. We have a big panel at our company and we just do a lot of tasting. It often takes quite a bit of time because we take a lot of pride in making sure it tastes exactly what we were visualizing.
We can come up with anything from “Mermaid” to “Unicorn”. The different food labs across the country are amazing and they make it happen.
It’s a slow, methodical approach. Then we have a larger tasting panel and we keep going until we find just the right mix.
That’s incredible. What’s the timeline from concept to finished product?
It varies widely. It could take a couple of months or it could take over a year. Probably on average, about 4 to 6 months.
Do you ever try to create flavors and they don’t end up working out?
Oh, it happens all the time, especially in the beginning. We’re innovating constantly. Trends change fairly quickly. We’ve been fortunate with a robust website where we can test things quite easily and pivot.
Are there any teases as to what flavors might be next?
Well at the show we’re launching our naturally sweetened flavors. French vanilla, caramel, peppermint, mocha and pumpkin spice. Maybe some new seasonal offerings after that. We’re constantly innovating, constantly looking at new categories.
Switching over to coffee, what inspired you to launch coffee syrups?
12 years ago the company started with cocktail mixes. With the popularity of Starbucks and people going through the drive through and having what they thought was guilt-free drinks but was not necessarily guilt free.
They didn’t realize how many calories they are consuming with their Frappuccino or their latte.
It immediately seemed like another way to really help people not have such a sugar laden beverage every single day.
That’s why the coffee syrup was developed. Since cocktail mixes are so seasonal, coffee syrup is something that consumers consume daily. So it was a natural extension for the product line with the coffee syrup
You have some new coffee flavors launching as well
Listening to the trends and looking at the popularity of the most popular flavors just through our [tasting] panel. and you know, just having a great team that’s out and about, and looking at menus, and using some common sense, if you will, and reading up on trends, it’s then a 3 prong process.
You’re getting a lot of positive attention at ExpoWest. What in your opinion, makes for a successful trade show?
Taking the step to take the risk to be there and have your branding there; and be open to meeting consumers and buyers in the trade. We try to make it fun. So we serve cocktails, and we’re going to be serving espresso Martinis today. Yesterday we served Margaritas, and we had a speakeasy happy hour. It helps people really understand the brand, and come by and see us. I think that’s most important, really put your brand out there and your brand’s personality and just have fun with it.
Can you talk a little bit about the mission behind Jordan’s Skinny Mixes?
Our mission summarized is crafting beverages that cut the sugar and keep the fun for a healthier, more flavorful lifestyle and to make everyday moments simply sweeter.
What is your biggest call to action for the audience?
I’d love the consumers to experiment at home. I’d love for them to make their latte at home. Make that morning coffee at home. So many people will say it’s going to be a better experience.
Try our products. You’re going to save calories. You’re going to save time. You’re going to save money.
Shop Jordan’s Skinny Mixes products online and view recipes at https://www.skinnymixes.com/
Check out Jordan’s Skinny Mixes latest and greatest recipes by following on Instagram – @skinnymixes, Facebook- @skinnymixes, TikTok – TikTok , and Pinterest – @skinnymixes
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Lehigh Valley is Looking for Quality, Canned Wine — We Tasted with Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines
Sommelier Businesswoman Kristin Olszewski brings Michelin quality to Canned Wines with Nomadica Wines
Nomadica offers sparkling, rose, white, red and orange options — both canned and bag in a box.
Nomadica Wines ‘s Owner Kristin Olszewski
Nomadica Wines are sourced from vineyards with responsible farming practices and winemakers who engage in low intervention wine making.
Wine-lovers can be 100% confident you’re drinking serious sommelier-approved wine.
Nomadica Wines ‘s Owner Kristin Olszewski; Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Today’s conversation with Sommelier / Businesswoman Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger: We’re here today with Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines.
What’s the most important message you want to share today with our audience?
Kristin Olszewski:
I think the biggest message that I want to get across is that everyone should be drinking more wine. That’s my mission in life to just bring consumers back to the wine category.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Outstanding. And how how are you trying to get that done?
Kristin Olszewski:
I’ll give a little context on my own history and how I came here.
My undergrad degree is in sustainable agriculture and I ended up dropping out of Harvard Medical School to become a sommelier – typical journey.
I just really fell in love with wine. I worked in restaurants to pay for school and wine was always the thing that captivated my interest.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
I feel like it’s the intersection of history, agriculture and gastronomy. And then also there’s something so fun and communal and – you’re getting a little tipsy. It’s everything.
But I spent a decade-plus in Michelin restaurants all over the country, everywhere from three Michelin stars, Saison in San Francisco, Husk in Nashville, Osteria Mozza here in LA.
When Nancy Silverton was on a Netflix show called Chef’s Table, I started noticing a different customer coming into the restaurant. Usually as a sommelier, you’re talking to a very specific demographic of people. I would say 45 plus male white wine collector. That’s my demo. And when Nancy was on Chef’s Table, young people started coming into the restaurants, a lot of women, and I noticed they didn’t want to drink wine.
They would drink tequila, beer, cocktails, like anything but wine.
That always felt like such a missed opportunity because wine, it’s the most ancient beverage. Our people have drank wine for millennia. It’s also in an age where we care about what’s natural, what’s minimally processed, what’s better for you.
Great wine is literally just grapes, yeast, water, and time, so I started digging into why aren’t you drinking wine? And I found out a few things.
One, people felt like wine wasn’t a good value. If you weren’t going to spend a lot of money on wine, you couldn’t get a great wine, which is untrue.
The other one is people feel like they needed a PhD or some level of education or knowledge in order to access wine, which, again, is not true.
I want to be people’s guide, hold their hand and walk them into the world of wine. So I started Nomadica to do that on a larger level.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
That’s beautiful.
You mentioned two things. We’re going to go into both. Your background in Michelin restaurants. I’ve heard heavenly amazing stories. I’ve heard horror stories.
Can you share an experience and what you learned from?
Kristin Olszewski:
Everyone always asks me if I watch The Bear or not. And I’m like, no, I can’t.
Some positive stories, Michelin restaurants have changed a lot from when I started working in them. I think work has changed a lot for the positive. I remember one of my first serious jobs in a scary restaurant. You have your hair pulled back because you don’t want it to get in the food.
I had one small piece of hair hanging down above my face and the chef takes a match from the stove, lights a piece of my hair and says don’t ever have a hair hanging down in your face again.
Some of the wonderful stories are having the opportunity, especially at Mozza, you taste each bottle you open there.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
When I was at Mozza, it was a $5 million dollar all-Italian cellar with 90 pages of the best Barolo, Brunello, Etna Rosso’s, just things that like collector’s dream about tasting.
And I feel so lucky to have tasted things like Conterno Monfortino, which is the type of wine that you want to smell for three hours before you drink it.
When you have a wine like that, it makes you realize why collectors obsessively chase bottles, there’s something so romantic and intangible, and having a wine like that, you realize you’ll never have A wine that tastes the same at any moment in time ever again.
It’s just such a lucky experience.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
I’m curious about how that experience inspired you to open Nomadica.
Kristin Olszewski:
My entry point into wine was always through farming. I majored in sustainable agriculture.
I was an avid farmer. I ran our community garden in college and was focused on permaculture. I lived in India and farmed for a while there.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
And I always say great wine is made by great farmers, great wines made in the vineyard, not the cellar.
So when I was looking at starting Nomadica, that sustainability ethos, it was always my starting point, but I was really shocked when I found out how bad glass bottles are for the environment.
30% of glass is recycled in the US. The rest just goes into a landfill. It’s highly energy intensive to make, to ship, because it’s so heavy.
The fact is, most wine does not need to be in a glass bottle.
Yes, that Barolo I mentioned absolutely needs to be in a glass bottle. That needs to be aged for years before it even comes into its own.
But for a $20 – 30 bottle of wine that you’re going to pop open and drink it on a weeknight or on a not special weekend does not need to be in glass.
So that’s how we started.
Cans at 70 % reduction in carbon footprint. Our newly launched bag and box wine is almost a 90% reduction in carbon footprint.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
I sampled your sparkling white, your white, your red and your rose, they were dangerously drinkable.
Can we talk about where the fruit is sourced from?
Kristin Olszewski:
Absolutely.
The name Nomadica is really a fun double entendre because you can take it wherever you want to go. Of course, cans and boxes can be found in places that bottles can’t.
We source our fruit from all over.
We’re truly a nomadic winery.
Our head winemaker spent time at some of the best wineries in California, like Eric Kent Cellars, which makes award winning Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and also Kosta Brown.
Before that he spent 10 years doing vineyard management in California. So through Corey, we’ve really got a handle on some of the best fruit. A lot of our wine comes from Mendocino. A lot of our grapes come from Mendocino or Lodi. I’m such a Sonoma girly. Our winery is located in Sonoma, and so I always find myself drawn back to that region.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Are there any vineyards you’d recommend us touring when we come to Northern California?
Kristin Olszewski:
I think the Sonoma Coast is the best wine region in California. They’ve fought very hard to become designated as their own AVA, which is very important in terms of quality.
The oceanic influence, what we call a diurnal shift, the extreme temperature change between night and day, like Hirsch and Littorai.
I think if anyone ever wants to see proof in the pudding of what great farming can do, you need to go see Littorai.
Ted Lemon was one of the first Americans to ever be a winemaker in Burgundy and he brought all of his practices back, was one of the first people to practice biodynamic agriculture in California and really brought that style of farming onto a larger scale.
When you go visit his vineyards, it’s like teeming with life. You look next door at a conventionally farmed plot, which is just like dead and sad looking. And then you taste the wines and you’re just knocked on your butt because they’re so good.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Nomadica Wines has several varieties. White, Sparkling white, Rose, Red, Orange.
Can you walk us through the taste profiles of any of your favorites – what’s the aromas, what are the profiles?
Kristin Olszewski:
Something really cool about our wines is everything’s practicing organic. No pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, all of our wines are fermented dry. Naturally zero grams of sugar per serving. They have nice fruit notes, but none of the wines are sweet.
Crushable bright flavor.
Across the gamut, our entire portfolio has a brightness and a freshness to it. All of our wines are like slightly aromatic because I love an aromatic variety, but part of the thought that we put behind the brand is that I wanted to take that sommelier curation and put it in the restaurant, on the retail shelf so that when you’re serving Nomadica at your home, at parties and the beach, 99% percent of people will love it.
I’m doing the work on the back end on blending, sourcing, creating these flavor profiles that’s really taking that wine experience, that decade plus of developing my own palette and giving it back to the consumer.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Are there any favorite wine and food pairings for you with your wines?
Kristin Olszewski:
I love an aperitif. Our sparkling rosé is definitely my favorite wine in our gamut. In a can you always have the perfect pour because sometimes you don’t want to open up an entire bottle of wine.
When we do that in my house, it usually gets drank. It doesn’t go back in the fridge.
Sometimes you just want a glass of sparkling. And I love that.
I love that with a charcuterie board and cheese. I also love Rose with green salads.
I think one of the best things about living where we live [Los Angeles] is we have the best produce on the planet.
I still run some wine programs in Los Angeles and I’m actually opening up a restaurant in Silver Lake next year, an Italian restaurant. Orange Wine is like the hottest trend.
I was doing the wine list at a restaurant in Hollywood called Gigi’s and I noticed I was selling more orange wine by the glass than all other colors combined, which was just mind blowing to me.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
We made what I think is the best orange wine coming out of California.
There’s a lot of talk about natural wine, orange wine. They’re not all created equal. My winemaker and I tasted through my favorite Italian skin contact wines and decided on a really concrete flavor profile source.
My mother in law in Orange County is drinking her orange wine with her friends. So I really feel like I’ve achieved something. That with sushi is a mind blowing pairing.
Then our red. We found Teroldego growing in Northern California, which is a grape that’s indigenous to Northern Italy from the Alto Adige.
It’s really Alpine, like dark fruit, like a Zinfandel, but really refreshing and bright acidity and a little bit more tannin than a Zin [Zinfandel] has.
There’s a perception that we had to overcome about can and boxed wine. People think that it’s low quality.
Whenever I pour our red for somebody, the response is always, “Wow, oh my god, that’s so good.”
No matter your level of wine knowledge, you can see what I’m trying to do when you taste our red wines.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
What’s next for you and Nomadica?
Kristin Olszewski:
Right now we’re in hardcore expansion mode. We were the first people to do fine wine and can, and I grew really slowly at my own pace.
I wanted to build the brand.
A lot of people just run to retail shelves and they want to be in every grocery store on the planet. I didn’t want that. I wanted to be, at the Four Seasons, at the Ritz Carlton, at music venues.
I wanted to be in places where people don’t typically expect to see wine in cans and boxes.
We are one of the highest velocity items at Whole Foods in our category.
We just launched all of our box wines at Total Wine in California, Texas, Florida, Colorado, and New York and got some really big plans for next year.
So keep your eyes peeled. People are about to see me everywhere.
That’s my goal.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Having a canned wine at some of these nicer hotels is a challenge.
What lesson did you learn by accomplishing that rather large challenge?
Kristin Olszewski:
That’s the best thing about how we’re positioned. Not only am I a sommelier, my VP of sales is a sommelier. My winemaker has an incredible reputation. Every person on my team comes from the wine industry and we have the best product.
When we’re sitting down and tasting with these buyers, these people that are in our industry. They recognize it. I always say taste out of a wine glass. Everything tastes better out of a wine glass. The second that they taste it, these are people who taste wine all the time and they taste a lot of bad wine.
So that has been amazing.
We’ve always had the industry behind us. It’s a huge differentiator for us. So I think it was slow build. Everything takes a lot more time than you think it will, which is I think the biggest lesson that I’ve taken away from this business over the last seven years.
But you got to build your brand first.
Joe Winger:
You seem like a deep-souled individual. Whether it’s wine or otherwise, is there an overall message that you want to share to inspire the audience?
Kristin Olszewski:
We are in a time where sustainability is more important than it ever has been. You can’t base your entire brand about it, but I think it’s an absolutely necessary component to any consumer product that’s coming out today.
One of my missions in life is to have that conversation about sustainability and have it with other brands because it needs to be convenient.
Otherwise, consumers will not buy it, care or participate or choose a sustainable option. That’s my big thing.
Joe Winger:
What are the best ways to follow your journey and to learn more about you?
Kristin Olszewski:
You can buy Nomadica online and our new rosé yuzu spritz, which is delicious at ExploreNomadica.com. And then our socials are at Nomadica on Instagram.
And if you want to follow me. I’m at Kristin__O.
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Heaven’s Door Spirits, Bob Dylan’s highly awarded collection of super-premium American whiskeys, is turning up the heat on the age-old debate of which state, Tennessee or Kentucky, makes the best bourbon.
For as long as corn’s been cracked and stills have bubbled, Kentucky and Tennessee have been turning pristine limestone water and grains into a coveted amber elixir.
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud between these two bourbon powerhouses, inviting whiskey lovers everywhere to put their palates to the test and voice their opinion.
Heaven’s Door sets itself apart as the first brand to offer both a Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon, giving fans a unique chance to compare.
The brand’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, and Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, are made from high rye mash bills with grains largely sourced local to the distillery, and barreled at the same proof, yet yield vastly different taste profiles. Heaven’s Door invites you to level set, savor and decide which bourbon pleases your palate and wins your heart.
A Tale of Two Bourbons
Many folks mistakenly believe that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky, but the truth is, bourbon can be crafted anywhere in the U.S.
What makes an American whiskey a true bourbon is a special set of rules: it has to be made with at least 51% corn, distilled at a certain proof, and aged in new oak barrels.
Kentucky and Tennessee both have storied histories of producing excellent bourbon, with differences in water and climate producing distinct flavors.
Kentucky’s limestone water and Tennessee’s pure spring water are both famous for helping yeast thrive during fermentation.v
Differences in flavor profile come from the type and provenance of the grains used, the type of yeast used, water quality, the proof at distillation and the particular wood used to make oak barrel.
Even the location of the barrel warehouse, the circulation of air between the barrels being stored and where the barrels are within the warehouse (high up or near the bottom) all conspire to give impart flavor differences.
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, is a unique blend of two premium Kentucky straight bourbons aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, boasts warm and slightly sweeter notes of vanilla and baking spices. The limestone-filtered water of Kentucky, renowned for its purity, plays a key role in developing these rich flavors.
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, also aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, offers a drier profile with complex and sharp flavors. Unlike many Tennessee bourbons, Revival skips the “Lincoln County Process” – a charcoal filtering step – allowing the natural flavors of the local non-GMO grains to shine through, resulting in a lingering finish with hints of caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
“We wanted to fan the flames of this old debate
between Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon
and showcase
our outstanding expressions of both styles.
We’re excited to hear what consumers think and how they experience these two classic bourbons.”
Alex Moore
Master Blender and COO
Heaven’s Door Spirit
Heaven’s Door marries art and craft in every bottle, drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s restless spirit to continually innovate. By sourcing non-GMO grains and honoring each state’s natural elements, the distinct character of each bourbon is evident in every sip.
Lehigh Valley, are you Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Lehigh Valley, are you Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Publicity for Good is a millennial run communications firm that provides high-level disruptive, publicity and social media services for wide array of purpose driven clients in the food, beverage and beauty industry.
In 2016 by Heather Holmes former miss Ohio international celebrated publicist and Forbes 30 under 30 nominee publicity for good has built a reputation as the countries number one PR agency for CPG brands that have social causes built into their DNA.
Publicity For Food CEO Heather Holmes
Today’s conversation with Heather Homes from PublicityForGood.com has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes from PublicityForGood.com. I’m a big fan because you’ve helped us facilitate a lot of previous conversations about food and drink and nutrition and all the things we like talking about.
What’s the most important thing that you want to share with the audience today?
Heather Holmes:
I really want to take away the unknown or worry about getting in the media. I want to make it more accessible to amazing brands and people.
So I definitely want to share tactical advice that if someone is reading this, they have a good story in business, they have the confidence that their story is good enough and they could absolutely make an impact and grow their business by getting in the media.
Joe Winger:
Starting with the basics, let’s pretend I have a company, I think I want public attention. I want to reach out to someone like you.
So what should I be thinking about? What do I present to you as a step one?
Heather Holmes:
Step one is really the intentionality of why you want to get in the media. What’s your goal? Are you wanting to reach more people? Are you wanting to get your story out there?
Are you wanting more sales and more people to buy your product?
You really need to know. Where you’re going first, and if you don’t know where you’re going, or you don’t have a vision, then it’s really hard to help you.
But if you have clarity there, then we can really pull back and help you identify your story, how you’re different, your why, and why your product and or company, would be really great to be in the media.
The PublicityForGood Team
FlavRReport.com on YouTube
Joe Winger:
Now, looking at the grand scheme of the campaign, what kind of a campaign should we be looking for: expectations, results?
Heather Holmes:
After we know our outcome that we’re wanting to get more sales, more backlinks, or name in the media, then what I like to do first is work with every entrepreneur, and even if you have a product, to really reflect in “why your story matters”
Why does your product matter?
If you’ve never been in the media before, I take people for an exercise where I have them draw on a piece of paper, them as a baby, to where they are now.
I have them write the key pivotal moments that have happened in their life that have made them start that company, because those little components are absolutely a part of your story.
I’ve been in the media 700 plus times: Inside Edition, Fox News, The New York Coast, incredible media, but it hasn’t always been about being a publicist, right?
Yes. I’m the founder of Publicity For Good, but a lot of that has been my story or building a seven figure company from an airstream.
Now I have almost two under two with a third on the way.
So you need to have your key pivotal moments because those are things you can talk about in the media.
Then we need to look at what’s going on in the news and how we bridge the gap between your product. Relevancy.
Joe Winger:
People may not know you are a former Miss Ohio International. Can you tell us a lesson you learned from being a former Miss Ohio International that you’re using in today’s work?
Heather Holmes:
It’s really all about your platform and reaching new audiences.
When I was building my company I decided I wanted to get into pageants. I wanted to meet a community of like minded people that wanted to make a difference in the world.
It was a way for me to have a platform because at the time I was talking about why you absolutely can build a profitable business. But also make a difference in your community and make a difference amongst your team. And really just build an incredible legacy.
So that was why I did the pageants.
I did a bunch of publicity and again, it made me relevant and timely because that was what got me in the media because I was Miss Ohio and I was only Miss Ohio International for a period of time.
So it gave me that relevancy. So you have to be relevant.
You have to bridge the gap between what’s happening in the news, or we often use Awareness Days, National Nutrition Month, National Social Media Day, and you have to position your product or yourself as the solution.
[For example], we were talking about an incredible juice brand, but most pitches I see are very promotional, right? It needs to be how you or your product simplifies people’s lives. How are you adding value? Or you don’t have a product you need to inspire people.
Joe Winger:
You’re growing a 7- figure business. What’s it like growing a huge business while you’re taking care of your kids and for a while you were living out of your Airstream
Heather Holmes:
We lived out of a 23 foot airstream for 3 1/2 years. I went from dating to engaged, to married to [my first child] Rose, who’s almost two, who lived in our airstream with us.
The year the pandemic [hit] was our first million dollar year.
I think a lot of the reason why it was that year is because when March hit, everyone was so scared that we lost about 40% of our business, number one.
Number two, we had to hustle and grit to make it. There was no choice of failing. All the distractions were gone.
When you’re in an Airstream, all you have is your laptop, but we had no external distractions, and then everything else was closed.
So the only focus we could do was our business and we had to scale out of necessity because we didn’t want to lose what we had put so much time in.
Fast forward, we now have 22 acres where we live and we have two under two, we have one on the way, we’re a full time team of 40, and it’s not easy.
I say transparently, it’s a hot mess. There are so many miracles that happen every day, but life is one, right? I can’t turn off my founder hat and publicist hat and then “Oh, I’m a mom”. It’s all one.
So yes, I might have Rose [my daughter] on a call with me from time to time, but I’ve learned that the more you step in and embrace your life, who you are and the realness, sometimes people opt out and that’s okay.
And this is my legacy.
I like these missions that we’re doing good work to us is way more than a business. We want to grow your brand and mission and we take it so seriously.
So it’s not perfect. It’s not perfectly scheduled. I’m a full time mom, all the time on the weekends when the kids are sleeping, we’re working.
We know where we want to go, and these clients and ambitions that we’re aligned with and supporting are helping people with their health.
Joe Winger:
What an incredible story to share.
Heather Holmes: I have so much to share. Like I was adopted when I was a week old to having two under two and another one on the way and building a business and building a homestead.
It’s so crazy. Austin, who’s my husband, the first week we were dating, we’re all about intentionality. I have the journal and we mapped everything out.
This year, we were going to get engaged then married. Austin and I,l we will have been together almost five years.
We’ve had a kid every year. Rose will be two in June.
We want to build a business. We want to impact our clients, brands, and scale their business. We want our team to get better and flourish in their personal lives too.
This is our mission and I’ve seen so many miracles happen from getting in the media on a personal level.
I was talking to [a business owner client] and her business grew by 40% from getting in the media.
One of my favorite cookie brands, a mom had an incredible heart story. She went on our local news and she brought in $12,000 worth of sales, just the local people wanting to support her.
On the flip side, when people Google my name, it’s like my social currency, there’s all these articles. So I have so much peace in that. Our kids will see the good work we’re doing.
Joe Winger:
You’re talking to an audience of foodies. What is your favorite meal?
Heather Holmes:
We just had Indian food last night that my husband made and it was so good.
We used to live in San Diego and I think San Diego has the best food. It’s all fresh. We’ve traveled a lot. We’ve been to Bali, their food is pretty incredible too. Where we live [now] we’re right outside of Asheville and Charlotte. So they have some good restaurants, but like I’m not in the phase right now where I’m the foodie like I used to be.
[At our house] we have chickens and we have fresh eggs. So I’m obsessed with fresh eggs every morning. You’re living a good life when you can go get your eggs and have them at home with some goat cheese.
And honestly, I love Livermuth. Crazy. So I’d say some Livermuth fried in a cast iron with some eggs and goat cheese. It’s the simple things that I really do love.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes with Publicity for Good. As we wrap up, whether it’s a potential client, a potential vendor, someone wanting your help with publicity, what are the best ways to find, follow you, websites, social media, etc?
Heather Holmes:
You can go to PublicityForGood.com You can find me on social media as well.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherdesantis
https://www.instagram.com/heatherdesantis
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Lehigh Valley wants Family and Flavor — Howell’s Standard Hot Honey Delivers On Your Plate
Lehigh Valley wants Family and Flavor — Howell’s Standard Hot Honey Delivers On Your Plate
Howell’s Standard provides raw, natural honey in its purest form, a variety of herb and fruit-infused honeys, and products from the hive.
They are a small family-owned company in Northeast Maryland that appreciates the gifts of nature and artistic expression. Find their website, their Instagram and their in-person farmer’s market experience.
Below, Alexander and Monica Howell visited for a conversation about family, flavor, health benefits and the magic of honey.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the full, unedited conversation on the FlavRReport YouTube channel.
My understanding going back to the beginning is, this whole company was a COVID baby, meaning the idea of it launched during the pandemic. Is that accurate?
Alexander Howell: So I’ll give you a bit of a backstory. We had, like you said, started around the boom of COVID. During that time with all the sickness going around, one of the things we decided to do was to figure out how we can stay healthier and keep the entire family more healthy during that entire time.
One of the things we decided to do was to cut out a lot of white and processed sugars because it’s the cause of a lot of health issues, cancers, things of that nature. After that we [realized] we can’t just not have any type of sweetener at all. We’re not that strong.
We went across a couple of different sweeteners. We tried agave, we tried monk fruit. We tried all those, [but] they didn’t hit the spot for us.
Then we were at a farmer’s market [and] tried some raw honey. Once we had tried that, it’s like the entire world just opened up for us because.
We started researching it more and found out there were tons of health benefits tied into raw honey itself.
Once we started consuming it ourselves, we felt the changes. A lot more energy naturally, our skin started looking a lot better, our hair started looking better. Then we decided instead of keeping this a family secret, we can share it with the world.
Monica Howell: So I’ve got a slightly different angle on it. Everything Alex said is definitely true. Pre COVID, I had always been an entrepreneur at heart, always dabbling in something, always doing a little side things. They say you have to have multiple streams of income.
So I was always looking for the next best option. Prior to COVID, I was creating body butters and detox masks and sugar scrubs; and just looking for things that were positive for your skin in a natural manner. Honey was one of the ingredients that was always on my shelf.
[Honey] is one of those ingredients. It’s a wonderful connector. I had really only ever thought of honey as this thing that was on aisle number eight of the grocery store always next to the maple syrup. A condiment to get with your fried chicken.
But once I started having success with personal skin care, the products that were most sought after, that had the best outcomes for my skin all had honey in them.
During COVID, we just really started to come together more, having more conversations. Bringing together the things that we were doing individually as a group and kind of figuring out
We started minimizing ingredients. Looking at that 20 line ingredient list on the back of everything and saying what can [remove]?
Something you both touched on was the zero to one aspect. Talk a little bit about the process from idea to reality.
Monica Howell: So for me, it was checking boxes. Throwing something on the wall and seeing what sticks, that old spaghetti adage.
There’s so many layers, so many things that I wasn’t aware of honey as a whole.
Figuring out how we could integrate this into our lives, and then how we then convert that and transition that into something that was revenue generating, seeing there was a niche.
We started with friends and family. Letting people that would trust us, try things out.
A lot of the response was ‘I don’t like honey’ or ‘I already have sugar. I don’t need to do this.’
But we said, it’s open your mind, let’s look into something a little different. Let’s consider it in a different way and move forward from there.
One thing that I think stands out for us is the fact that everything that we do, all the honey options that we have available are all beneficial in some way, shape or form. You get the benefit of those things that are being infused into the honey. So everything is purposeful.
Everything added is to expand the benefits of the honey into something beyond.
Each honey is different, with different infusions. We call them varietals. Essentially a varietal is a honey that the beekeeper and the farmer have integrated hives into that particular crop. The honey has a flavor and nuance. Then we have our infusions.
Local honey is where I go. That’s all I want. Our local [honey] in Maryland is not the same local that’s in Texas. What’s local to California is not what’s local to Utah. What’s local to Utah is not local to Maine. But when you look at it, all those honeys have a slight variance and nuance in flavor because of what’s being pollinated.
Our plants aren’t the same here as in Hawaii. So when you say I enjoy wildflower, the enjoyment of your wildflower might taste completely different than what I’m used to because of the plants that are growing. It doesn’t necessarily all taste the same.
When you started with this idea, were you aware of the different varietals, the regions and how that affected honey?
Alexander Howell: We definitely didn’t know how intricate and how deep this kind of rabbit hole of honey goes. It’s a very nice and very informative learning experience for two reasons. One, just so we are aware of the benefits and can tell our family, but also so we can now have those kinds of conversations with our customers.
Monica Howell: Even something as a variance from season to season. Literally your spring honey can be a completely different product from your fall [honey] and your winter honey.
The amount of moisture that’s in the air, that can even be from location to location. April showers bring May flowers. Those April showers are happening, there’s a ton of moisture in the air. And then when you’re getting into the fall, you’re having the bees that are pollinated when you’re getting into the fall, there’s a variance in that same region.
That same area has shifted the temperature. You’re just coming out of 90 degree weather. There’s still flowers out. But the pollination process that’s happening, the bees are what they’re collecting now, it can be different.
In the U. S. alone, there’s over 300 different types of honey. Over the world, there are thousands.
The interesting thing is when we’re bringing those varietals together in one place, you actually taste them side by side, [you can taste and notice] there are definite differences that you may never [have noticed otherwise] .
Someone says, “I don’t like honey. I say, “Well you haven’t tasted my honey.”
They find out, they dont like wildflower from North Carolina, but they love sage from California or macadamia nut from Hawaii – it’s amazing.
You’ve both mentioned farmer’s market experiences, sampling and buying. Let’s talk a little bit about those experiences.
Alexander Howell: As far as farmers markets goes, we’ve gotten the entire spectrum of reactions – ‘Oh, this is some of the best I‘ve ever had in my life’, or ‘This is nasty’
I appreciate either side of the spectrum, it’s just very honest and blunt. In person, you get to actually see that emotion, you get to see that interaction, you get to not only see what they think but maybe they brought a friend or a family member of theirs – their husband, their wife, their kids, their dog.
We get to see what your dietary needs are, your favorite flavors, your favorite vegetables. If you have a health issue, what type of things we have that could possibly help.
It’s even as simple as someone getting a gift for somebody who’s a pescatarian who likes to cook so, ‘What do you have for this?’
And I can then give them a whole range of stuff [to browse].
Monica Howell: We’ve been selling at farmer’s markets for 2.5 years. By far, it is my favorite. People who grew up going to farmer’s markets. Beekeepers that have grown up in their Grandma’s backyard.
We always get somebody that says, ‘Oh, my grandma had honey. And I’m already familiar.’ I always challenge them to taste something that’s a little different,
We get people who are extremely health conscious. They are looking for natural options.
On your website, there’s a lot of products What are the major categories and what are one or two or three that you really want to highlight that are currently available?
Monica Howell: We do some switching out from season to season, but for the most part, 25 items. A combination of the varietals and the infusions.
We’ve got an amazing macadamia nut honey that comes from Hawaii. You get a honey that has a certain butteriness to it, a nice weight to it. A little nuttiness at the end. It’s amazing in coffee. It’s amazing on top of a banana bread, really good in yogurt. Also good to cook with.
Our blueberry is from Maine. A little bit of a nuance of that blueberry flavor. It’s a little sweeter than some of the other honeys. It’s amazing on bakery goods and breakfast. So instead of using traditional maple syrup, we’re using the blueberry honey on a Belgian waffle on a pancake. Amazing on yogurt and things like that.
Then we’ve got our infusions. So the infusions essentially are different botanicals using a particular honey.
I’m using an extra white honey from Iowa. If you’re looking on the spectrum of honey, not only does honey change area to area, there’s water white honey, all the way down to your dark amber honeys. So there’s an entire rainbow of different types of honey, based on what’s being pollinated and what’s growing.
Your darker honeys have more of a molasses flavor, probably 10 – 20 x the antioxidants that you’re getting then like a water white honey. But when we’re considering what to use to infuse, I’m usually going with that lighter honey.
Our elderberry honey is super important. We’re taking a ground elderberry from the actual berry, not the elderberry flower. And we’re grinding that up and then infusing that into honey over a period of time. That allows you to then take that elderberry on a regular basis, either in as a sweetener for your tea or actually adding it into a yogurt.
Alexander Howell: Some of the things that I like to highlight, because I’m a foodie, I’m always trying to find honey that would elevate the taste.
One of those is Hot Honey. Anything from chicken, to beef, to pork, to seafood, to shellfish. I love it all. One specific thing is strawberries. It sounds a little out there, but it’s amazing.
And also the vanilla. I love it on my baked goods, banana breads, cornbread, really good on cinnamon rolls. Instead of the sheet icing I’ll put the honey. Even simpler like a latte or a cup of tea. Put some of your pancakes or crepes.
It’s the two different honeys on two different ends of the spectrum, but at the end of the day they both serve their purposes
Monica Howell: We are working with a few bartenders and mixologists that have taken our honeys and creating mocktails. Super fun.
One thing to acknowledge, the audience is a large majority of our conversations are wine based. So it’s with winemakers and chefs.
Do any of these honeys pair better with any specific kinds of varietals of wine?
Alexander Howell: One of the best ways I do like to enjoy wine with honey is charcuterie.
Monica Howell: Charcuterie and honey go hand in hand. It’s like a whole little puzzle of delicious-ness.
I like Merlot. Something becoming more popular are meads. So mead is wine essentially made with the foundation of honey versus grapes. There are a lot of brewers that are starting to play with mead. So you’ll find mead in all different varietals, some that very much tastes like wine and some that tastes closer to beer.
We’re not necessarily pairing the wine so much with the honey as helping the person that’s hosting the event, creating that perfect board, that perfect accompaniment to it.
What’s the best way to learn more about you? Website, social media? How can we follow you more?
Monica Howell: Definitely the website is the easiest way. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. The unique feature of what we do in-person. That’s the benefit of coming to see us at a farmer’s market. We also are actually on a couple of stores in the local area, local by design, which is an Annapolis mall in Annapolis, Maryland, where our product is available on their shelves.
You can find gifting boxes and samplers on the website too.
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Lehigh Valley, What does ‘Planet-based Milk’ taste like? We asked Chris Langwallner from WhatIf Foods
Lehigh Valley, What does ‘Planet-based Milk’ taste like? We asked Chris Langwallner from WhatIf Foods
Planet-Based food? You heard right. Find out more from Chris Langwallner and WhatIf Foods.
WhatIF Foods believes in a better better.
Tasty, delicious foods that are better for our bodies, better for our taste buds and farmer buds alike. Better for degraded lands, our eco-systems and naturally… better for cows.
Today I had the chance to have a conversation (via zoom) with WhatIF Food’s Chris Langwallner to talk about inspiration, their foods, their flavors and the science and technology making it all happen.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation visit our YouTube channel.
Today we are here with Chris Langwallner from What If Foods. Thanks for joining us today.
Absolute pleasure. I cannot thank you enough. It’s fantastic to be here and letting our story get out a little bit. So thank you very much. I’m excited because it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
We’re talking about plant-based foods, we’re talking about planet based foods and for a “better-better” world. I’m hoping you’ll clarify that for us.
I look forward to it. Yes, it’s all about a planet based food company. It’s all about regenerating. It’s all about reconnecting to communities, restoring the greater land, and making sure that we are replenishing the nutrients we need on a day-to-day basis.
What inspired you to get into plant-based food?
To be honest with you, as a planet based company I think what really inspired me to get into a better way of doing things is actually a call out of my grandfather.
He has been always saying, leave this planet a better world than how you found it. When I was a young boy, I couldn’t understand. It was too abstract. I couldn’t really get my head around. But as I was then working in the industry for 20, 25 years you look behind the scenes, and you see how food is being manufactured on large scale and how profitability over shadows a lot of decision making.
And on the other flip side of the coin, there is a community out there, about 2.6 billion people. This planet makes a direct income or an indirect income from farming activities. And the vast majority, more than two thirds of these people are the poorest of the poor. And we are leaving them behind. And that’s not fair to them because what we have on the plates has been harvested by them.
They take care of their land. And if we leave them behind in the current state of affairs We’ll see many tears in their eyes. And it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be totally different. And hence my strife was really to look at the planetary health and its affairs as well as humanity overall.
And thinking about that must be a better way of doing things and how can we improve it, not incrementally, but really make a system change. And here we are basically inspired by my grandfather.
On your website, you take some very science-based heavy content and you make it fun and easy. Talk about that process.
It’s a team effort. Honestly, there’s a huge team behind the scenes that works tirelessly on improving our communication and our style and our tone. But the essence of it all is that we understand that Gen Zs and today’s youth are essentially those consumer groups that are on this planet.
Probably the first sort of generation that is fully educated in sustainability. And they have their ability today by one click of a button to really look behind the scenes and understand whether or not there is BS or whether or not there’s transparency, there’s honesty, and there is a different approach to things.
So that is one aspect of things. So we wanted to really make sure we are speaking to the youth on this planet. The second aspect of it all is that, You open your social media feeds today, or you open a media channel, you switch on your television and you are bombarded with bad news, after bad news.
And quite frankly, I have worked in universities and with students and I have been shocked by the fact that people, young guys, talk to me, ‘Hey, I don’t care about sustainability. I don’t care about our planet because it’s so crappy. Everything is so bad. I might as well just enjoy the time span I have on this planet.’
And I was shocked in contrast to what my grandfather told me. Today’s youth, some of them, not all, a fraction of them think like that. Or in other words I met this young girl and she says, I don’t know if I want to have children. Because I don’t know whether or not I would like to give birth to people that then inherit a planet that is so hot.
And all of that together was just making me restless and I wanted to really change things and and take this finite time span that I have on this planet to try as hard as I possibly can to leave it better than I found it. And that’s what I strive for. Hence we’re speaking with a fun and engaging voice.
We are speaking with colors and we are speaking with cartoons so that we basically get this heavy message across in an uplifting way and saying, Hey, you can be part of something. That actually does the opposite. It’s not grim. Yes. If we change, we can make this. We’re a better place and here we are.
Thanks for the call out. The credit goes to my team.
As we segue into the products themselves, what I wanna highlight is this BamNut Is that the nickname for the Bambara Groundnut?
Yeah, so we came up with Bamnut as a short version, as an acronym for the Bambara Ground Nut, which in reality is a legume, a legume that helps us fix nitrogen organically in soils that are essentially degraded and left behind by intensive agriculture.
The Bamnut word came about in Singapore. We actually did not quite know when we started using it. We didn’t quite know how the Americans would pronounce it. And then we found out, alright, it’s the Bamnut. So it all turned out to be so witty and entertaining and just perfect fit for a “better, better” to be honest.
Because that’s a main ingredient in all of your food. Let’s talk about what is a BamNut. Why is it magical and unique?
I was walking through the world of agro food over the past 20 years, and I’ve always been hugely concerned about the massive speed of land degradation, particularly on arid land.
And that’s getting accelerated because of climate change; and the weather is changing; and the rains and the monsoons are not hitting regularly anymore. So it becomes increasingly more difficult to plant, the planting season to make sure that you are having the seeds in the ground before the rains hit them and so on and so forth.
So it becomes really challenging for folks. So land turpitation has always been a huge concern of mine because another, on the flip side of that, we are losing about 25 soccer fields worth of arid land every minute, while at the very same minute, the same amount of primary forests have been cut down.
So if you compare and contrast these two figures, what it tells me is that in order to make way for the old food industry, we actually cut primary forest and we leave land behind. And that is the wrong thing to do. That is one aspect of things.
The other aspect of things is I had once the fantastic opportunity to have an interview with Dr. Roy Steiner of the Rockefeller Foundation. And he gave a casual shoutout and he said, nowhere in the world do we produce and consume enough legumes. And I was thinking, why does he say that? But then it’s quite obvious if you think it through, because we are depending so much on crops that the land that basically holds the crops is deprived from organic nitrogen fixing crops like the legumes, and in the absence of nitrogen being fixed through the legumes, we throw endless amounts of synthetic fertilizers on the ground in order to make up for it.
That’s an aspect of things that also worried me. But today the input costs have gone through the roof is it unravels all over the world and it has gotten more and more expensive to do so the degrading of land in one pocket, I was basically going through my work with that sort of lens.
Then there’s this whole water issue. We are big time irrigating crops, but what does that do? It just slows down the loss of water tables because the moment we take water out of the ground, the water tables are collapsing. I have numbers for that. I had a business in India a long time ago, and it used to be 30 meters, and today it’s probably 90 to 120 meters.
So water is basically a huge issue. There was another lens through which I looked at, and then I was at a conference in Jakarta, and I happened to run into a scientist. He said to me that he works on the Bambara groundnut. It’s a complete crop. I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting. So what does that mean?”
And I started to really explore that much more deeper. And a complete crop turns out to be essentially a crop that has all micronutrients in the sort of right balance that we need. On top of it, it has all nine essential amino acids that we need. It has rich fatty acids, quality fatty acids, as well as car complex carbohydrates. So fiber.
You remember the forgotten macronutrient fibers for our microbiomes? So I got really inspired. So I looked up the amino acid profile and I saw it is rich in plutonic acid or spartic acid. So these are very cool amino acids in terms of generating nice flavors. And off I was; I organized the first couple of five kilos and the trial started, and that’s years and years ago.
In the meantime, the Bambara groundnut actually taught us a few lessons because it’s a very hearty nut and it really takes an effort to make cool products outta it.
It’s called a complete product, is that correct?
A complete food. A complete crop or complete food crop.
Right now all of the products on your website are based from BamNut. I see Bam Nut milk. I see noodles with seasonings, and then there’s bundles and swag and all kinds of delicious things.
In the future, are we expanding that beyond or what’s the scope?
We would love to explore new categories as we build our business. There are so many occasions throughout the day where we can actually incorporate the bambara ground in exciting products, and we look forward to doing that.
Our focus right now is definitely our milk portfolio. It’s a wonderful product. I encourage everybody to have a little taste and Judge for yourself. We have a client in Los Angeles, a coffee roaster, who said ‘This is the closest thing to cow milk that I’ve ever seen in plant-based milk.’
We call it planet based milk. I have to say again, shout out to my team in the R&D side of things because they have established a wonderful product essentially with just three ingredients: that’s water, the bambara groundnut, not coconut oil. The rest is essentially technology behind the scenes that actually makes it foam nicely, very stable foam, small bubbles. So you can do latte art.
Our Airy [flavor] is essentially the one that I would use for a nice drink, like a shake.
In between there is the Every Day [flavor] that goes essentially into my cereal in the morning.
What are the flavors?
Today we are in the market with three different products.
The first one in a slightly black sort of packaging is the Barista. It has the richest mouthfeel. It is the creamiest. We have designed it to perform fantastic or be able to perform fantastic latte art. So it really goes into the cappuccino sort of an experience rather nicely.
I personally take it also for Boba tea. I might as well use the bambara groundnut and foam it up.
I have my little trick with the barista. I actually froth it in the frother and I put my espresso shot into the frother with the barista together. So I froth it together. But that is just me. I just like it that way.
Then we have the purple package, which is our Everyday. My wife uses it in baking. We do make cakes, like traditional Austria style, and we totally use only the Everyday [flavor] for that.
Friends of mine [pour] it into their cereals in the morning. It’s a little bit richer, earthy, nutty in character because we do tend to roast the nuts a little bit stronger in the process of making it.
Last but not least, we have our Airy [flavor], which is the lightest one of it all. It is the mint colored package. It is the one that people take into milkshakes and protein shakes.
Let’s move on to Noodles
We wanted to create technologies that help us regenerate what’s broken. And today a large portion of all ramen that is being consumed on a day-to-day basis globally is deep fried in palm oil. Palm oil leaves huge banks of land degraded behind, particularly after the third cycle of palm plantations being grown.
We see the aftermath of the palm plantation industry essentially now in Southeast Asia. Therefore we were alerted when we started this project to basically say no to frying and no to deep frying and no, to essentially dehydrating instant noodles or ramen using that sort of process.
So we invented a technology that actually took that sort of challenge away. We invented an industrial scale air frying technology. Once you actually don’t fry anymore, you save about 20% of the space because 20% of palm oil is [based] in the noodle product of classic ramen. That’s what it absorbs in the frying process.
So if you don’t deep fry, you save 20%. Now nutrients will survive. Now colors may survive. Then we replaced all the palm oil with the Bambara.
We started to actually say, how can we bring color and different flavors and textures on the plates of consumers? And we created these four different products with the four different colors, which is essentially the black one, which is charcoal driven, moringa is green, pumpkin is orange and the original is yellow.
So four different options, all the same philosophy.
The backbone of making it is the same, but then we add different nutrients to it to have fun, and then we add fancy seasonings to it, which makes just a nice flavor experience as well.
Our audience is passionate, hungry, curious, foodies. What does it actually taste like?
I’m extremely proud of our Noodles because even without the seasonings, you can cook them up and eat them and you will have a wonderful experience.
Try and contrast that with other ramen that you find in the market, and you will come back to our offering immediately because they’re just tasting nice.
So our starting point of then adding the seasonings to it, like hot and spicy, or the mushrooms is an easy undertaking. It is actually an easy sort of concept to work with because if you have a neutral and nice taste to start with from the noodle base, you can build interesting flavor profiles on top.
Rather than having to use heavy flavors to mask off-flavor from a product base, or not so nice processes or even crappy raw materials. We don’t have that challenge.
We also decided very early on to keep the salt at a minimum to stay away from any flavor enhancers. No MSG, we’ve tried to keep it as clean as we possibly can.
We’ve tried to use as much spice as we can access. No flavoring and stuff like that. I’ve been in that industry for over 20 years. We thought let’s stay honest, to the product as well, to the noodles as well. And that has been a fantastic journey.
Our “Original, is a hot and sweet, hot and spicy pairing. In Southeast Asia, it’s based on wok cooking. That’s my personal favorite. I eat it on salads with a little bit of a balsamico dressing
We have with Sesame Garlic, many kids who go for a green one.
Pumpkin with the traditional Indian curry offer a great pairing. Watch out, it comes hot and spicy. Typical Indian flavors.
Last but not least is our charcoal with mushrooms. It’s fantastic for, if you go out to have a beer and come home and wanna have a bite, go for it. It’s a good one.
How did you decide which flavors to choose? Was it a lot of trial and error?
There’s a lot of trial and error. There’s a lot of pairing up with our noodles.
What we have tried to do is really look into what are the best pairings for these sort of flavors.
From that point of view, we also wanted to stay with our seasonings. We wanted to stay essentially planet based. None of our ingredients have any animal derived products in it.
You look at the charcoal, you cook it up, you eat it, you give it to a chef, let him experiment around.
We had a Spanish chef take our charcoal and put it into a paella. All of a sudden there was a totally different sort of recipe.
The way we actually derived the final products has also a lot to do with people that actually use it day-to-day in the kitchen and learn from them.
What’s the future of WhatIf foods?
We are going to enter new categories of food and we are gonna expand our existing categories with new products.
But I probably would love to use the opportunity to take you along on a more philosophical sort of journey for WhatIf foods and what comes hopefully in the next couple of years to come, because I think we have a better opportunity that needs doubling down now.
What I’m talking about is really the cost of the way we are making everything right from originating bambara groundnut, with partnering farming communities in all parts of Ghana. Encouraging them, making the ingredients ourselves, and then making the food applications, making the food, and then basically taking it to retail all the way through to Manhattan and other parts of the US.
So it’s that entire regenerative value chain that we have created and what that actually represents to us is an opportunity to really explore the intersection between soil health and restoring the soil that has been once degraded from intensive agriculture.
It is that intersection of renewable energy because the Bambara groundnut now grows in a shell and hence the shell has energy in there and can be used in order to fire up essentially for power.
If you do that smartly, you generate biochar. With biochar, you then actually sequester carbon from the atmosphere into the soils permanently for hundreds, if not a thousand years to come.
And last but not least, another intersection is wellbeing for consumers. We call them “Better Believers” as well as farming communities because we work with them directly.
We are proud of the fact that we have increased profit, not income; profit of farmers who work with us by 300%.
At 2.5 acres, these farmers are permanently uplifted above the poverty line. That’s the intersection we really wanna double down to. Again, soil health, renewable energy, carbon sequestration.
Well-being for both the better believers as consumers, as well as the farming communities. Its possible and we’re looking forward to doing that on a large scale. If we wanna fulfill the demand that we hopefully can create, then we will probably need about 20,000 farmers to do that in the next five to ten years to come.
And then generate all the energy that we need internally to be there for carbon zero. Even further carbon or maybe even participate in the carbon market through certificates. That’s our next challenge. That’s where we wanna go.
Find more about What If Foods on their website
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Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom returns on Friday the 13th
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom opens to the public on May 13, 2022, for its 139th season.
The park is located at 4000 Dorney Park Rd, Allentown, PA and will open its gates at 11:00 am and close at 7:00 pm.
The Dorney Park side of the amusement park will open Friday, while the Wildwater Kingdom will officially be available to the public on May 28.
The Amusement park release their full event lineups:
- Opening Day (Friday, May 13): The season kicks off with your favorite rides, food, shows and more.
- Season Pass Preview for Wildwater Kingdom (Sunday, May 22): Be the first to experience the splashtastic fun by being a season passholder. Among the many benefits, you’ll get to visit Wildwater Kingdom on this exclusive Season Passholder Preview Day, six days before it opens to the public for the 2022 season.
- Wildwater Kingdom Opening Day (May 28): Get outside and jump into a water lover’s paradise, the coolest place to slide, splash, chill and dine.
- Fourth of July Celebration (July 4): When night falls, stay for an Independence Day event that will knock your sparklers off with an impressive display of holiday fireworks. Witness an exhilarating fanfare of radiant bursts and brilliant shimmers complemented by a patriotic soundtrack set to begin at approximately 9 p.m.
- Grand Carnivale (July 23 – August 7): Come experience how the world kicks up its heels at our day-to-night, larger-than-life, global celebration. King Carl Nivale, Queen Cara Nivale, and their Royal Court are your hosts on a worldwide expedition. Enjoy amazing high-energy live music, delicious international food, lively games and unique crafts.
- Halloween Haunt (select nights, September 16 – October 29): Every corner is cursed with haunted scare mazes, scare zones and live (or maybe not live) entertainment. Hordes of hungry zombies and blood-thirsty vampires eagerly await you – i.e. their next meal. Add our world-class thrill rides that instill a brand of fear all their own and you’ve got an extreme, supreme Halloween event.
- The Great Pumpkin Fest (Saturdays and Sundays, September 17 – October 30): Hop on your tractor, pirate ship or witch’s broom and hurry on over for a super-sized festival of all things fall at Dorney Park’s Great Pumpkin Fest. We’ve got a full harvest of fall-tastic fun for everyone with games, activities and just a speck of spooky for pint-sized ghosts and goblins.
If you would like unlimited access to the park, Wildwater Kingdom, live shows, and events, you can purchase a season pass on the Dorney Park website.
