We have spoken about the nutritional benefit of tahini in previous blogs
Our son Billy used to love Nutella but when we realised what was being used to make Nutella we decided we have to come up with a better alternative. Petros is originally from Greece and grew up with chocolate tahini as part of his everyday staple diet. So quite quickly the idea about producing and launching a chocolate tahini on the market was born. We had the secret recipe (his mothers!) we just had to go about learning how to produce it, bottle it, sell it, market it and make sure not to go under during all this!!! At the time some of the tasks seemed insurmountable but as they say Rome wasn’t built in a day so we did what we do best…. We put our head down put the hard work in asked as many questions as we could along the way and gladly accepted help when it was offered. There was months of long days and even longer nights in the first 2 years of our business launching.
During this time Petros was accepted onto the Food Academy Programme back in 2016 which essentially helps producers get their product onto the Supervalu shelves. It was a programme which lasted 6 months and ended with each producer presenting to the powers that be in Musgraves. Completion of this course launched us onto the Supervalu shelves in the FOOD ACADEMY section in Wexford stores. The excitement of seeing our product on the supermarket shelves for the first time was really something and gave us the nudge to keep going. From there we launched into selected Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare, Cork and Dublin stores. You can check out our stockists on our website.
Our chocolate tahini is on the market now roughly two years and we have since launched our plain tahini which surprisingly to us many more people were familiar with than we would have thought. I suppose a rookie mistake we made is that we assumed that people would know what to do with our chocolate tahini. Not the case….. the idea of chocolate and tahini going together surprises and sometimes confuses people!
In Greece tahini is used as sweet and not just as savoury and our recipe is based on a traditional family Greek recipe hence chocolate tahini. If you have tasted our chocolate tahini you already know what it tastes like and what you like to eat it best with but if you don’t….
What does it taste like?
It’s nutty as opposed to sugary It has a grainy texture and is sticky It spreads nicely on bread/crackers
How can you eat it?
- It is delicious a s spread on toast
- You can use it in porridge (add some strawberries)
- Dollop some into natural yoghurt
- Use it on your pancake
- Or drizzle some over your fruit.
It will keep for over 12 months but the oil will rise to the top so it is very important that you stir it up. You can keep it in the fridge or the press.
If you are used to eating spreads with a lot of sugar in them you will find out chocolate tahini strong and probably bitter – we say to parents who are trying to get their kids off Nutella and using our chocolate tahini to put some honey into the jar to sweeten it up a bit. Remember it takes time to break a habit so even if they don’t like it the first time it is worth sticking with it if only for the nutritional value that our chocolate tahini offers.
There is no additives, preservatives or any hidden sugars in our chocolate tahini and only 6 ingredients .Our chocolate tahini is healthy, natural and VERY good for you.
TIP: 3 grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon of sugar so get counting those grams on the nutritional labels on Nutella and other spreads to see how much sugar you are actually consuming!!!
Fast forward another year and we launch our plain tahini. As they say launching your second product is much easier than the first – I think they same thing about having kids too don’t they?? J
Did you know that we are the only Irish company producing TAHINI? All other brands are big brands like Meridian or Sunita. We didn’t realise how popular tahini was already (another rookie mistake J ) and find that people are buying our tahini without having to taste it or given ideas on how to use it.
We will be expanding the number of stores our plain tahini is stocked in and we will keep you updated on which stores they will be stocked in over the next couple of months.
Here is a lovely recipe for you to try out at home. White Bean Hummus. Our recipe was featured in the Carlow Cookbook back in 2017 and proved very popular with our customers.
We still have a long way to go in our products being launched nationally but more importantly have a brand name that is recognised for bringing the flavours and taste of Greece to Ireland by sourcing and providing healthy, natural and real food to our customers. We are already 8 months into 2018 and have made great strides in growing our business and we will continue to move forward and hopefully provide products that our customers love and come back for more!!! Join us on our food revolution journey.