Soup as Anti-“Big Food”
Ah, the American food system... In my opinion, the grand shining experiment of our great nation has gone down the road of being quite permissive of large corporate agendas and nowhere is that more clearly seen than in our food system where margins, shelf life and efficiency trump nourishment and healthfulness. That's why I started SouperStar...
Some of you may know that I started another food business in 2010: Cocomels - The Original Coconut Milk Caramels (https://cocomels.com/); organic, vegan and award-winning. The idea was inspired by a literal dream one night and I started the business first in my kitchen, then the Boulder Farmers Market. Over the next decade I grew the brand with the help of capital from investors, to a national brand in about 5000 stores. The work was stressful, and after a while disillusioning once I got to clearly understand the pressures our food system puts on brands to cheapen, add chemicals and scale. I sold the brand in 2020 to Madhava Foods, a great local brand who I worked for for four years, who recently sold the brand again. Cocomels lives on, well outside of my influence, and we'll see what happens, but my point is that my experience in the American food system has clearly shown me why our grocery stores are full of absolute crap and why our nation is getting fatter and sicker (Foods sold here banned in the rest of the world). I was subject to those pressures and can see how even brands that start out with good intentions can end up slowly succumbing to financial pressure to make their food cheaper (ie. more processed).
After leaving Madhava/Cocomels I took a moment to figure out what I would do next. I had developed expertise in running a packaged food company but was quite soured on the system. That's when I developed the idea for SouperStar, bringing together my love of SOUP, with a hybrid model that was part packaged food company, part restaurant. We'd source locally when we could, not globally like I did with Cocomels. We'd sell directly to our customers, not to distributors and stores that take a big cut (driving up prices). We'd freeze our soups, a natural preservation method that doesn't require chemicals or acidification, and we'd use whole, real ingredients, organic when possible (don't get me started on the US agricultural system), and humanely raised meat. It's old school, rootsy and how our ancestors ate - how crazy is that!? The goal is provide real nourishing food in a delicious way, that is reasonable in price (even though we use ingredients that cost more). It's a tricky proposition, but one that fills me with excitement at the challenge and that, to me, is an important mission.
JJ about to sample Cocomels when we launched in Target, circa 2018