Made from popped lotus seeds, with just a few additional ingredients such as olive oil and salt, Gioia loved how the seeds tasted — and also how they seemed to “melt” in her mouth.
When I did find snacks that were both healthy and still tasted good, I noticed that they were usually highly processed, in the form of extruded puffs or vacuum-fried chips.”Article content “I had to figure out the supply chain, go to India and find manufacturing partners,” Gioia says. “It was a whole thing.”
Despite thinking the timing was, “like, the worst time to launch a business,” Gioia decided to forge ahead, launching her lineup of popped lotus-seed snacks with four flavours: Himalayan Pink Salt, Wasabi, White Cheddar and Sweet Thai Chili. Three of the Sacred Foods flavours are vegan — Himalayan Pink Salt, Sweet Thai Chili and Spicy Wasabi — and the popped lotus-seed snacks are also billed as gluten-free, non-GMO and suitable for Paleo and Whole 30 diets.
“I came up with the idea that, while we’re not allowed to have open samples, what if I create mini-packages of vacuum-sealed packages with little cards?” Gioia says. “I emailed all the stores and asked if I could do demo and sampling programs with the unopened packages — and quite a few stores said yes.”