What is Supah Stah 2.0 – The Bettah Way?
My 6 year old dark chocolate superfood company is ready to up-level itself. We already hand craft the most delicious, organic, cane sugar free, gluten free, power-packed, nutrient dense dark chocolate bars available. Our next level includes releasing our new chocolate bar flavors and our Chocolate Buttah (read more below). We’re also ready to refresh our brand/logo/website and source from an exciting new cutting edge cacao farm. Our ultimate goal is to reach out to SO many more chocolate lovers to give them the kind of mouth watering, heart opening, body and soul nourishing chocolate experience they deserve, all while honoring our planet with sustainable, organic, fair trade harvesting practices. It’s incredibly important to us to honor the farmers and their families. We also want to only use packaging made from compostable materials and renewable resources. It’s a win-win all around.
What have I learned from running a chocolate company for the last 6 years?
You can’t do anything alone.
I started Supah Stah with an initial investment from a crowdfunding campaign in early 2014. Since then, with lots of trial and error, “mistakes” and successes, I’ve come to understand that everything that feels like a “mistake” is just an adjustment. I’ve learned to listen to how the company wants to form itself, how the chocolate wants to express itself and have become a steward to the prayer that it all is and how to offer it to the community at large.
I’ve spent 6 years out in the community at grocery stores and events talking to people about my bars. I’ve noticed that many people have a beautiful relationship with chocolate. I can feel their love and admiration for it and for the cacao plant. It is a sacred relationship. One of the earth’s first agricultural commodities, cacao has a long, rich history as a heart opening plant – when we eat it, we feel love. It’s medicine. Chocolate has a ceremony all it’s own. Imagine some delicious chocolate in your mouth right now, it is a specific feeling – that is the cacao medicine. I use only the highest quality ingredients because I want my chocolate to be worthy of the money you spend on it.
So many of us assume that huge companies have our health and best interests in mind. We assume that packaging can be recycled and that measures are being taken to protect us. These assumptions are most often incorrect.
In America, you get what you pay for when it comes to food. I’ve learned that people do not appreciate what they do not pay for and that any compromise in quality to cut costs or reach a wider audience always backfires.
The reason my bars cost $6 is not because I am greedy, but because it costs $6 to make an organic, whole food, sustainably harvested cacao product that has compostable packaging and only the best quality, most nutrient dense ingredients. As my company grows and our volume increases, the price will decrease. We are primed and ready for that growth!
What will Supah Stah do with $60,000?
USDA Organic, Kosher, and Fair Trade Certifications: Supah Stah products already meet the standards for organic, Kosher and Fair Trade certifications, but the process of getting certified and getting permission to use these logos costs a lot of money. These certifications are necessary and incredibly important steps in the Supah Stah’s next level of expansion and our ability to continue being a trusted brand.
New packaging: We are always researching the most sustainable ways available to package our products. We have found a packaging that is made of 100% compostable materials that also protects the chocolate from damage and helps to keep it fresh.
New cacao farm: It’s a co-op! It’s about regeneration and supporting the local farmers long term! Our cacao is sustainable sourced in Esmeraldas, Ecuador by a company whose mission is to not only “protect and propagate fine flavor cacao for future generations but to also improve the livelihoods for cacao growing families.” Read about it HERE: https://www.conexionchocolate.com/esmeraldas/
Direct sales and Marketing: We want to offer SO many more people the opportunity to eat our delicious products and be able to make a healthier choice when buying and eating chocolate. We are excited to participate in more direct sales events such as food festivals, trunk shows, trade, and craft shows. This campaign will fund 12-15 of these opportunities in the next year, as well as digital outreach to folks who have never heard of us. WE SEE YOU MIDWEST, SOUTH AND EAST COAST!!!
New Website: We’ll update our online presence with our new look, as well as add functionality and efficiency of our current website. As our vision has shifted a bit, we need the esthetics and POS capabilities to grow in the same direction.
New Logo Design & Branding: We’re in the works for a look that better captures the essence of the brand and who we are. Can’t wait to see our make-over!
New Products: YES! This is our favorite part really. We got some new products on deck!
Here’s the breakdown of our $60,000 Fundraising Budget:
About me:
Hi! I’m Erika Wright. I’m originally from Boston, hence the name SUPAH STAH. I’ve lived in Northern California for 25 years. I’m a mother to 2 wonderful daughters, a 2 year old and #2 is due in March 2020. I’m 47 years old and married to a really great dude.
My career background is eclectic. I’ve been a record store clerk, a waitress, a bartender, a yoga teacher and owned a bodywork/massage practice for 13 years. I’m a medicine person (www.medicinepath.org). I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2008 and owner of SUPAH STAH chocolate since 2013. I also co-own a company that creates transformational weekend retreats for women called Made of Stars (www.madeofstars.co)(not com).
Good food is a BIG deal in my family and I have always been obsessed with it. My Mexican grandmother and my Syrian/Lebanese grandfather created a life where everything revolves around food. My mom is a phenomenal cook and I grew up with incredible dinners every night. Both my brothers are trained as professional chefs, one currently runs a very successful restaurant just outside of Boston.
A few interesting facts about me: I’m a singer. I’m currently in a 70’s & 80’s hard rock cover band called FeatherWitch. I have a condition called synesthesia, which is a neurological condition that causes an overlapping of the senses. Some folks have it where they see numbers as colors or music as colors. My version is that EVERY SINGLE WORD spoken, thought about, said, heard, read, in all languages has a TASTE. All of them. Needless to say…..some words taste great and some taste like the worst possible things that could occur in your mouth…..it’s extraordinarily unpleasant. People are always asking me what their name tastes like. They all taste like SOMETHING.
Why did I start a chocolate company?
I spent so many years walking around grocery stores feeling outraged and disgusted at the lack of integrity in both ingredients and packaging that’s available. I’ve studied nutrition in depth and have always been very passionate about protecting our environment. I thought I could do it better. I wanted to make a product out of superior ingredients and package it in a sustainable way. So I decided to give it a try.
I started making chocolate superfood bars at home after reading the book Superfoods by David Wolf. I wanted to make something healthy and easy that would give me sustainable nutrition/fuel for my life AND also something delicious and appealing that my husband would eat. He’s from Cincinnati so pizza was pretty much his main food group. I combined pretty much EVERYTHING David Wolf mentions in his book and all at once, Supah Stah Dark Chocolate Superfood bars were born.
I wasn’t born a chocolate fanatic (I’ve met some of them since being in the chocolate business). I have a deep respect and reverence for the cacao plant, which has only deepened as Supah Stah has grown and evolved over the past 6 years. I also have a prayer to honor my ancestors and future generations by creating something that makes them feel valued and supports their precious lives.
I was making these bars, eating them, feeling great, giving them away to friends and family. I was in a Medicine Ceremony praying about it and the plant medicine just simply said, “Here’s the deal…” and gave me the name of the bars and told me to do it. I listen to plants. I do what they say. After the ceremony, I casually mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of starting a chocolate company and he knew a guy that makes chocolate. That guy is now my chocolate manufacturer and a company was born.
Please support me and help fund the future of Supah Stah Chocolate. We have so much goodness that we want to get out into the world. We want to pave the way for more small, female owned businesses to create companies that are in alignment with serving our community in a healthy, sustainable way. I am doing this for myself too, so that I can live a really long life and see how amazing my daughters become and what they choose to do for themselves and our planet.
My daughter Starla loves my chocolate so much! Kids don’t eat things that don’t taste good. She knows what’s up.
What isn’t challenging for a pregnant lady entrepreneur with a 2 year old daughter trying to run a food company whose objective is sustainability and regenerative farming?
My mission is, and has always been, to offer people a product worthy of their precious human lives. You deserve to feel valued and enjoy food that is delicious and useful to your body. I want future generations to feel valued by food companies like mine. I am busting moves now because I care about how my grandchildren are going to live.