The Launch - Part One

From the moment my brand and I went Facebook official - by 2020 I genuinely believed we would be selling on aeroplanes, in hotels, hampers, shops and supermarkets throughout the country; Waitrose first, New York next. The office would host a small team of colleagues, together overseeing a range of products - not just nut butters but bircher muesli and nut milk, potentially a cookbook. (The last thing I planned for was a global pandemic and round two of therapy). A five-year-plan plucked from the mind of someone with unfaltering confidence; all the ambition and absolutely no-business-idea.

As far as my strategy went, the brand name was obvious; NB for short (because once you try it you will want to make a note of it - genius). The slogan evolved from writing out a list of powerful words and synonyms to represent the consumer experience (sigh-worthy, satisfying) and how it made me feel (unstoppable, empowered, to name a few). The alliteration of ‘Filled With Feel Good’ made my heart race - I particularly loved how it can be applied to all facets of the business: physical jars filled with good-for-you ingredients that make you feel good as a result of eating them. Values and intentions led by passion - and me! On a mission to spread positive energy (quite literally).

In June 2015, I registered my business on Companies House - carried away by the idea of it being an Umbrella Company, which would eventually oversee a range of products and services, including a gym and NB bar. Surprisingly a quick and underwhelming process, thanks to technology and Gov.uk making it almost too easy to appoint a company director with the click of a finger; one £8 payment and email confirmation later and I went straight to the top with as little as an interview. Unsurprisingly, given my lack of credentials, the legality of what information needs to be listed and printed on a physical product confused me (both brand and company details, in case you reach the same dilemma, including the logo - retail space I did not have to offer); three weeks later and I paid my second £8 to change the company name to what I should have started with. Streamline, simple, and effective. As well as this, I registered NB all social media platforms - Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram. Although the handle I wanted was already affiliated to a ‘Mr. Magic’ on Twitter - who had tweeted just once about the President in 2013. Not taking no for an answer, and in line with their guidelines, I pestered Twitter for four consecutive years until finally, in 2019, they granted me permission to take back what (felt like) was already mine. (Clearly got the magic touch).

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The original recipe I fell in love with tasted like Ferrero Rocher, according to multiple feedback; to me, it tasted perfect - so much so that I named it (wait for it) Perfect Nut Butter. (Winging it from day one). Of course nobody knew what it was: Body scrub? No, I’ve got it, body butter… (But butter as my phone likes to autocorrect). For creating a company around transparency, I do not think I could have been any more ambiguous. Alongside Perfect Nut Butter came Indulgent Nut Butter and Protein Nut Butter, to satisfy chocolate cravings and provide a post-workout boost respectively. Lucky number three felt like a strong number to launch with, except these two flavours were problematic from the start. Indulgent, aside from the fact it was my favourite, was intense, too bitter for some; I did not hold back from adding 100% raw cacao powder, and its counterpart crunchy cacao nibs, the best part in my opinion. Protein added hemp protein powder and hemp seeds for maximum gains; at one stage I became obsessed with trying to achieve the ‘high in protein’ health claim. Increasing the quantities bit by bit, ignoring my sweating processor, trying to condense seven ingredients into one. Eventually I gave up. Intriguing concept, and clever if it worked, but dense is an understatement - and I could taste it. Given the already earth-like quality of these ingredients, unless I was prepared to sell an even more acquired taste, with a slightly sticky texture, and break my processor in the process, it proved impossible. Lesson number one learnt - recipe testing is hard. I did too much, 25 batches, plus, easily, per flavour; overthinking to the point that if I thought just 0.5g of cinnamon was off, or overpowering - if I suspected I could make the recipe that significant amount better, the perfectionist in me had to try to find out; I re-did the entire batch. To roast, blend, (eat) and repeat in the middle of Summer, a British Summer, even, is hot business; time-consuming and expensive. Safe to say I quickly removed writing a cookbook from my to-do list and manifestation-board.

Having only ever tried one type of almond butter from one specific brand, quite frankly, I copied their jars - 170g, glass, gold lids. Triple tick. Calling around the country to secure the best price; ordering from Bristol as Kieran sounded nice on the phone. Nuts I bought in bulk from a local family-run business. They delivered various quantities free of charge during the week, and were very forgiving when I emailed late Sunday evening in a complete nut-shortage frenzy; they turned up first-thing Monday morning to replenish the goods. Sourcing the spices was more meticulous than this. My research included a call to Waitrose’s customer service - I had been using their cinnamon to recipe test so naturally wanted to determine where they import it from. The woman on the other end who kept her promise and phoned me back with the winning answer genuinely surprised me more than the origin itself. Fortunately it was ‘True’ cinnamon, top tier; as all ingredients, they had to be 100% pure - the amount of Technical Data Specifications I saw with additives, maltodextrin or preservatives amongst the ingredients list was surprising; realising how niche and rare 100% vanilla powder is - not syrup, pods, or essence - and seeing no breakdown on various other food products’ packaging made me dubious, sceptical, even, of what said brands were using and perhaps not declaring. In 2017 I ended up ordering it from New Zealand after the price in the UK soared - high-quality and cost-effective proved an unavoidable contradiction. Unfortunately, it never came down, so in 2018 I made the executive, difficult decision to remove vanilla from all three recipes. Fully aware of how this may impact the flavour, and I was nervous, especially with it being one of the only two natural sweeteners. The biggest mystery, though - fate, one may say - was how I came to work with my main wholesale supplier. Not only was their website literally a telephone number, but after I made contact and requested samples, the parcel they sent first-class never arrived. I began a full inquiry into its whereabouts with my neighbours - one day I found myself at a last-resort new building site (same flat number, similar road name) wearing a high-vis jacket and hard helmet to grant me access to the office to look for it there. Slightly horror-film-esque at the time, I remember thinking this would make for a great story, even better had I found it. Instead, 23 days later, having written off the parcel as lost, the samples randomly and magically turned up outside my door. Still to date, I have no idea what happened to them - but all ingredients met my high standards, and I was delighted to create an account with this clearly other worldly company.

In July 2015, I made my biggest commitment thus far and invested in an 8-litre industrial food processor. Somehow getting pointed in the right direction (“like a Magimix but bigger'') and naively accepting all 25kg of it, which complemented my Smeg toaster perfectly. In advance of my local council visiting, to determine whether the premises was fit to run a food business from, I also kitted out my kitchen with a fire blanket and extinguisher, and completed all relevant application documents - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and risk assessment, for example. Both of which I had never heard of nor completed before. On the day of judgement I was as nervous as it gets, even though I had chased my local officer down after first enquiring on the 8th July; turns out Betty was pretty chill. On receiving a five-star hygiene rating (thank you very much), from the 17th September 2015 I was technically legally allowed to make and sell nut butter to the public. Not that I was technically, legally, mentally or physically prepared to.

Up until this point, NB had been an allusive ‘what if’, doing bits to launch, but not really doing it. Doing what I do best - I work well under pressure - and regret not trying more than trying to make something happen - in October 2015 I gave myself an ultimatum; always with my mum, it seems, I voiced my thoughts over lunch at Aubaine. Take my brand public, or drop it. I felt like it would be quite straightforward… That same week I booked the BBC Winter Good Food Show in Birmingham. Not that I needed much (or any) convincing. To be honest, I think I had already made up my mind and just needed someone to validate my decision, that this was not me being impulsive or crazy, caught up in a dream about nut butter, of all things. Plus, being close to home, I had somewhere to stay, transport, (assumed help). It was official. NB was going live in six weeks’ time.

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