AKUA is a modern food brand on a mission to create food the right way: healthy, delicious, plant-based, and with a positive impact on the planet.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
#KELPJERKYISCOMING! UPDATE #4
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 08:51:00 PM
Happy Friday dearest backers!
Team AKUA here. We might be late, but it's still a party over here in Kelp Jerky making land. We've got some great news, and a new teammate to introduce you to!
First, please meet Pete- AKUA's first Operations Manager, who has a background in bringing food companies to life like Organic Avenue, WTRMLN WTR, and Blue Apron. Pete's extensive knowledge in dehydration and plant-based foods have helped us nail the perfect texture and taste for Kelp Jerky.
Pete, AKUA's Ops Manager
Over the past several weeks, we've been iterating test after test for three main reasons:
To achieve the perfect, meaty texture
To achieve a delicious taste
To ensure that our Kelp Jerky dehydrates evenly on all sides (Bonus: the jerky has a new wavy shape now in order to achieve this!)
We are inventing a new snack - never forget that - this is hard work! But we've finally nailed all the parameters consistently in small batches. Today marks the day when our team enters the main stage arena for our first scaled production run complete with flavor applications! (Our new flavor profiles, by the way, are amazing!).
We'll have more photos soon of the new flavored Kelp Jerky. We're making the final tweaks to our packaging. We just ordered all of our awesome AKUA water bottles, and we're placing orders for the beach totes next! We're expecting to ship all Kickstarter prizes to you in early December.
For daily updates - please follow us on Instagram @lifeakua.
#kelpjerkyiscoming!
#KELPJERKYISCOMING! UPDATE #3
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 08:56:49 PM
Dearest backers,
Thank you for your patience as we work through the final stages of Kelp Jerky's scaled production process. It hasn't been easy, thus the delays, but we're making forward progress with each batch.
To keep your appetite wet, we have another fun behind-the-scenes update for you!
CBM & Spicy Lebo make Kelp Jerky
Last week, our co-founders @CBM + @SpicyLebo went up to visit our manufacturer in Connecticut. We spent long hours creating a batch of Kelp Jerky then put our babies into the dehydration room, went out for veggie burgers and trivia night at local pub, and then spent a glamorous night crashing at the Days Inn before waking up at 6am to do it all over again with the Reuters TV crew who came to visit! #startuplife
Read on for the full story and watch our video with Reuters below!
Co-founder CBM & Organic Kelp
(New business idea? Cute hair nets that ladies actually want to wear?!)
Kelp in all its glory - ready to be turned into jerky!
Pictured above is organic sugar kelp from our friends at Maine Fresh Sea Farms. While sugar kelp is brown in the water, it turns BRIGHT GREEN when we blanch it in hot water. We then rinse it and chop it into bite-sized pieces.
Spicy Lebo getting all of our spices ready for our flavours!
Ladies, how about that curl? Don't worry - he usually wears a hair net!
Our CFO, Spicy Lebo has been learning a lot of new skills as of late - from running batch after batch of Kelp Jerky to making small tweaks each time while on late-night calls with our food scientist.
like a savory, superfood smoothie...
After we mix all the superfood ingredients, we blend them with our kelp into a savory, superfood smoothie and then lay the smoothie into molds to create the shape of our future Kelp Jerkies.
Molding our smoothie into jerky shapes
We then put these molds into the dehydration rooms -- which is currently our main focus as we tweak our process. We're adjusting levers, settings, duration, and temperature to ensure the perfect texture while bringing you food-safe, raw, and nutritionally-packed, Kelp Jerky snacks.
We estimate it will take two more tests until we nail the perfect Kelp Jerky. Then it will take a few weeks of food safety regulations before your Kelp Jerky will be in the mail to you!
For a video of us making Kelp Jerky - check out the behind-the-scenes film we made with Reuters! Please watch + share it by clicking on the the link below.
#KELPJERKYISCOMING! UPDATE #2
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 10:27:27 PM
Wherever you are in the world, we hope you're thriving! And for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, we hope you're surviving the heat of the mid-August summer.
It's been one month since our last update, when we let you know about our 8-week delay. We've been pushing forward with our new production partner and our new food scientist to get your Kelp Jerky to you as soon as we can!
As team AKUA works to invent new specialty food products like Kelp Jerky, we are writing our own rule book. We’ve learned that can mean more challenges than anticipated in order to get everything right. We've already conquered many unknowns and, while some days the climb still feels steep, we are more energized than ever as the finish line is just around the corner.
Our new co-packer partner
Our latest test batch of Kelp Jerky going into our partner’s giant dehydration room, a critical (and time-consuming) part of the process.
Our new copacker partner in Connecticut is super rad. They even use solar electricity, which significantly reduces their carbon footprint while also reducing overall operating costs!
We're in the process of scaling up our Kelp Jerky production on their machinery and we're after the perfect piece before we can send out our final product for final nutritional testing and process approval. We're keeping the pressure on for an October delivery date – without compromising quality.
We get a lot of requests for photos of Kelp Jerky in-the-making, which is frankly like asking a chef to take a photo of an uncooked omelette... but here goes!
We make our 100% vegan Kelp Jerky by mixing ocean harvested kelp with shiitake mushrooms, and blending other good-for-you foods like fiber-rich chickpeas, locally sourced maple, and pea protein.
This creates an earthy batter that we then mold and dehydrate into a soft, chewy snack.
After our Kelp Jerky comes out of the dehydrator, we then spice it up in three delicious homemade flavors: Spiced Turmeric, Rosemary BBQ, and Sea Salt & Sesame.
The perfect snack
Lastly, we wanted to share our latest ink in Forbes Magazine: "The Best Burger You'll Ever Have Is Made From Plants." They were kind enough to give our Kelp Jerky a shoutout, but we think this also means we should make Kelp Burgers soon too! What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
And now for our regularly scheduled programming from our crowdfunding friends:
As you can imagine, we're healthy-living obsessed at AKUA, which is why we dig this new portable fitness gear from Body Boss! It's literally thousands of dollars of gym equipment in one concept. Your home gym, trainer, and motivator in one. They've raised over $1.6 million on Indiegogo - check out their campaign here!
#KELPJERKYISCOMING! SHIPPING UPDATE #1
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 10:38:48 PM
Thank you for your patience!
We are working to ensure that we bring the best possible Kelp Jerky to you as soon as possible.
As with any startup, we’ve hit some speed bumps, and we want to be very transparent about them with you.
TL;DR: We are unable to send Kelp Jerky to you this July as originally hoped, but we are now targeting October.
Here’s where we stand:
NEW PRODUCTION PARTNER
There are lots of benefits of being a small company – importantly, being able to keep quality control at the top of the list. But there can be some challenges as well. In the food world, it is very common for food companies to share manufacturing space with each other (this is where all of our raw ingredients are turned into Kelp Jerky). These spaces are called "co-packers." They have the equipment and expertise to make everything from cereal to clothing and medicine or makeup. (You’d be surprised to learn how many brands you buy are actually made by another company).
We recently transitioned to a new Connecticut-based co-packer, and their team is on a learning curve to meet our specs for Kelp Jerky. This process has added about 8 weeks to our schedule. This means we’re probably looking at an October delivery versus our original date of July. We’ll keep the pressure on for an earlier delivery date – without compromising quality. We’re confident they are up to the task to take us into the future.
NEW REGULATIONS
The move from our old copacker in Brooklyn to our new copacker in Connecticut means that we need to be re-certified by a new state authority with different standards (called "process authority"), which has impacted many things, including our final nutritional panel.
NEW PEOPLE
On a positive note, we've hired a brilliant food scientist to help us optimize our initial Kelp Jerky flavors (Spiced Turmeric, Rosemary BBQ, and Sea Salt & Sesame) for you so that they taste incredible. While this required ramp-up time, we are excited to have a trusted, long-term partner to work with to develop new Kelp Jerky flavors and future Kelp-based products.
Lastly, in order to optimize transport and shipping, we are waiting until we have Kelp Jerky in our packaging, ready to rock, before we send you any other physical prizes from the campaign.
Like you, we had hoped to be enjoying our favorite new Kelp Jerky snack on the beach this summer. As they say, good things come to those who wait. In this case, it will be great things… so thank you for waiting!
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us [email protected].
#KelpJerkyIsComing
Cheers,
CBM & TEAM AKUA
P.S. The future is all about KELP and CRICKETS! We know you love food and sustainability so we wanted to let you know about an awesome new Kickstarter project from our cricket-loving friends at Seek Food! They just launched their new line of cricket flours on Kickstarter on Monday and are already killing it. Give their fun animated video a watch!
Last Call: Fill Out our BackerKit Survey + Send Us Your Address to Get Your Kelp Jerky!
almost 8 years ago
– Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 08:42:44 PM
Hello to our amazing Kickstarter backers!
We are pushing hard to get you your Kelp Jerky to you this summer! We've hired a new food scientist and we're moving to a great spot in Connecticut to scale up and make Kelp Jerky for our launch this year.
We are getting all of our ducks in a row to be able to ship 1,000+ boxes of goodies your way. For the majority of you who've already filled out your information via BackerKit - THANK YOU - GOLD STAR!
For the 10% left of you... this is your last chance to fill out our survey and provide us with your most up-to-date address where you'd like to receive your Kelp Jerky and other eco-friendly, swaggy rewards!
