Beans Beckon in Pandemic Fog
By Lorrie Baumann
Bean sales went through the roof this spring as the COVID-19 pandemic sent grocery shoppers to their supermarkets with the same motives that prompted the original Paleolithic hunters and gatherers to stalk herds of meat on the hoof and make their annual visits to the same patches of maguey that their parents had harvested. Specialty items on grocers’ shelves were initially passed over when shoppers began stocking their pantries in mid-March, looking first for the conventional brands that they already knew and then, as grocers’ shelves cleared when supply chains couldn’t keep up with panic-buying, picking up specialty items despite their higher prices, said David Browne, a market research consultant who works with the Specialty Food Association on its tracking of the specialty food market. He noted that specialty brands that had surged during the first panic-buying continued to sell well once the panic had subsided, buoyed by shoppers who’d become introduced to them as they stocked their pantries and continued to buy afterwards.
“It was a good opportunity for a lot of specialty brands to get some shelf placement,” added David Lockwood, Consulting Director for Mintel, the market research firm that compiles the data that goes into the SFA’s annual “State of the Specialty Food Industry” report. “This is the year of essentials,” he said as he noted that sales growth of specialty food items in essential categories like bread, meat and beans, rice and grains has been much higher this year than in either of the past two years, outpacing even the growth of plant-based foods.
A Dozen Cousins is one of those brands that has benefited from consumer interest in shelf-stable essentials, said Ibraheem Basir, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of A Dozen Cousins, which makes prepared bean dishes that reflect the culinary traditions behind the bean dishes that his mother used to serve her family when he was a child growing up in a culturally diverse New York City neighborhood. He launched his company in 2018 and sold his first products in 2019. This year, he’s selling his bean dishes to people who’ve suddenly been inspired by the pandemic to stock up, and beans are on their shopping lists. “The business has seen explosive growth. There was just a big boom when people were stocking up and looking for nutritious things to eat,” he said. “As things settled into a routine, we’ve maintained our retail velocity.”
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“Previously, people might have gone out for lunch. They’re now preparing lunch in the middle of the day. That’s not a totally new occasion, but it’s something that they’re doing now,” Basir said. “We’ve seen people looking for solid meal options that don’t include meat, and beans are classic options for that. They’re high in protein, they’re very natural, they’re shelf-stable…. People are buying more and taking fewer trips to the supermarket. As a result, products like ours that are shelf-stable have a renewed benefit.”
A Dozen Cousins launched its most recent products in August of this year with Refried Black Beans and Classic Refried Pinto Beans. They join an existing product line comprising Cuban Black Beans, Mexican Cowboy Pinto Beans and Trini Chickpea Curry. Packaged in 10-ounce pouches that provide two servings, they’re all ready in 60 seconds in the microwave oven.
“The goal for the next year is just to continue growing the business,” Basir said. “We have a product line that we’re excited about, and we think there are many more retailers for whom this would be a great addition to the category.”
Granola for the 21st Century
By Lorrie Baumann
By day, Margaret Barrow is a mild-mannered college professor who teaches composition and literature at Borough of Manhattan Community College. When she unleashes her vegan super powers, though, she’s on a mission to use the granola-based snacks she used to make just for herself as a tool to help her students make better lives for themselves. The product she’s making for that purpose is It’s NOLA, poppable snack balls made from oats, seeds and nuts.
The idea to turn the snack balls she’d been making at home for her own consumption into a business came from her students, she said. They’d been bringing snacks to her classes that her vegan sensibilities wouldn’t allow her to share, so she decided to bring the snack balls she’d been eating at home – they’re chia seed, pumpkin seed, flax seed and sunflower seed along with nuts, oats and spices mixed with a vegan binder to hold them together in crunchy balls. “I started making them for me and my family because I’m the only vegan, and I wanted to make something that we could all eat,” Barrow said. “My students had never had vegan before, and I was delighted to share it with them.”
The students liked the snacks so much that they started asking Barrow if she’d bring more so they could share with their family and friends. Then they started showing up at her home at night. Then some of them told her that she should really start a company and sell them. She said no.
Undaunted, students Mariem Sanoe and Candice Ricks took some of the snack balls to other New York colleges and New Jersey’s Rutgers University and passed them out to students there, along with a survey. Then they brought the results of their consumer research back to Barrow. “We think you should read these,” they told her. “You always told us to get evidence to support our arguments.”
Shocked, Barrow held out a hand for the surveys and started reading. “I was shocked. It was totally unexpected,” she said. “The surveys gave me a sense of the commitment and the belief that the students had. I was the person who was always their champion, and for the first time I felt I was on the opposite end of it.”
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Then she started thinking. “I’ve spent most of my life doing two things at once,” she said. “I’ve spent so much of my life juggling two goals at a time. I have a lot of energy.”
She consulted the business professors at her college, and she asked a lawyer if there was a way that she could use profits from an entrepreneurial project to support community college mentoring programs.
They didn’t tell her no, and maybe it wouldn’t matter if they had. Vegans are used to answering doubts about the positions they’ve staked out. Barrow started accepting a new identity as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a small artisanal food business. “I asked the students to accept sweat equity to come into the company and help me,” she said. “I’ve been mentoring them while I’ve been learning about being an entrepreneur. I want to continue working on legacies of wealth with them.”
It’s Nola is a snack that’s intended as a fun and filling amuse bouche to soothe a between-meals hunger pang rather than as a substitute for a regular meal or any part of one. A serving is low in calories, low in sugar, low in sodium and low in fats and carbohydrates. “It’s filling without making you feel lethargic. It provides energy. It’s a true traditional snack, which means that you’re having something between meals to get you to the next meal. You don’t need to eat a whole bag,” Barrow said. “Most people say that they can eat three or four of these balls and they feel good. They’re addictive – that, I can say. They’re very uniquely flavored.”
It’s NOLA is offered in Luscious Cranberry Coconut and Sassy Mango Masala as well as Decadent Chewy Chocolate, which is the newest flavor. They’re packaged in stand-up pouches with either a single serving, a two-serving 12-count or a 24-count. “We’re working on getting them into cafes, so it’s a stand-up pouch that will work next to a cash register,” Barrow said.
Ten percent of the profits from It’s NOLA are dedicated to community college mentoring programs, with the funds to go directly to the programs rather than being funneled through a foundation or non-profit organization, Barrow said. “Ultimately I’d like to raise enough money so we can create housing for community college students,” she added. “Some of them live in the projects – they just don’t live in the greatest of circumstances while they’re being educated.”
A Coffee Creamer for Active, Health-Conscious Consumers
By Lorrie Baumann
Urby Modern Creamer is a new keto-friendly coffee creamer with functional benefits from plant protein and no added sugar. The brand’s name is a reference to the idea that it stands for products designed for consumers who are trying to live their best lives.
Urby Founder Nick Boggs was looking for a healthier alternative to the flavored coffee creamer that he’d been using, so he started looking at ingredient labels. After those labels convinced him that he wasn’t going to find the clean-ingredient option and functional benefits that he was seeking on grocery store shelves, he set to work to develop his own.
Boggs started by looking at the data to discover how many other people shared his problem. “I really relied on the market research to define what the product profile would be,” he said. “That provided a lot of guidance to take that product profile to the food scientists.”
Boggs told the scientists that he had a list of features that he wasn’t willing to compromise on and asked them to develop a formula. The product had to contain no artificial ingredients and no added sugar, he insisted. He also wanted a functional benefit in the form of a plant protein.
Product development took more than a year and entailed more than 100 iterations of the creamer to come up with a product that met Boggs’ specifications and dissolved satisfactorily in both hot and cold beverages. Experiments tested different ingredients and different suppliers, with the results checked through a lot of blind taste testing, Boggs said. “We ultimately were able to meet our high standards for nutritional value while delivering a great taste.”
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Urby Modern Creamer is made with organic pea protein and organic sunflower seed protein, so that each serving provides 5 grams of plant protein. The product is sweetened with monkfruit extract, so it contributes 40 calories and 0 grams of sugar. Like protein powders, Urby Modern Creamer tends to clump when it’s added to a hot beverage, so Boggs recommends the use of a handheld electric frother to mix it into coffee. “Most of our customers are familiar with protein powders, so it’s very intuitive to them,” Boggs said. “Some people even like to use a blender.”
The creamer’s organic coconut milk provides flavor and creaminess. “Since we don’t use any color additives to create a bright, white product, it’s got a little bit of a beige tint to the product, due to the natural color of the plant proteins,” Boggs said.
Urby Modern Creamer is packaged in a polyethylene jar that contains 26 servings and retails for $25.99. It includes a scoop that measures out an individual serving. For each jar that’s sold, Urby donates a meal through a partnership with Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. “It’s a partnership that we established prior to launch, so it’s built in as core to the business,” Boggs said. “Now that the pandemic has hit, the need is even greater, so it makes the partnership really special.”
Distribution arrangements to brick and mortar retailers are under discussion, according to Boggs. “Before the pandemic occurred, we’d started placing the product in fitness studios. At the same time, throughout the pandemic, we’ve started conversations with larger national retailers. We’re getting a lot of interest in the product, and we’re moving forward with the conversations,” he said. “There’s never a good time for pandemic-level disruption, but the positive thing is that there is great interest, and the conversations are moving forward despite the challenges.”