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Karen Danudjaja | Blume Supply Inc.
76 Plays6 months ago
Food is medicine is a fitting description for this one as we dive back into the world of gut health and hydration healing.
In this episode of Aisle 42 we chat with Karen Danudjaja, the visionary founder of Blume and we talk about blending function and flavour to boost our health rituals, the delicious organic latte mixes and water elixir blends they make and we even talk about my beloved flavour… Birthday Cake!
Her teams’ commitment to wellness innovation and to being plastic negative is a beautiful thing. Enjoy!
Learn more about these remarkable superfoods and wellness rituals at https://itsblume.com.
Learn more about who’s behind this podcast at https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/podcast.
Here’s a summary of this interview:
Perfect Grocery Store Vision: Karen envisions a grocery store with an educated team that can share the stories and benefits of products, emphasizing consumer education over brand layout.
Birthday Cake Latte Success: Blume's Birthday Cake Superfood Latte, initially a limited edition to celebrate the company's sixth anniversary, received such positive feedback that it became a permanent product.
Product Lineup: Blume focuses on superfood lattes and their new Superbelly line. Superfood lattes aim to replace sugary, caffeinated drinks with healthier alternatives, while Superbelly supports hydration and gut health.
Gut Health Education: Karen highlights the importance of gut health, linking it to immune function, mood, and overall well-being. She emphasizes that supporting gut health can be achieved through simple, daily rituals.
Organic Ingredients and No Refined Sugar: Blume's products use organic ingredients and avoid refined sugars, opting for natural sweeteners like coconut sugar or date sugar.
Unique Ingredients: Each product has a unique ingredient profile tailored to different health benefits, such as blue spirulina and lavender for sleep support in their Blue Lavender Latte.
Inspiration and Founding of Blume: Karen was inspired to start Blume due to her own wellness journey and the challenges she faced with digestive issues, stress, and the confusing supplement market.
Plastic Neutral Commitment: Blume is committed to sustainability, partnering with Clean Hub to offset their plastic use by diverting plastic waste from oceans in areas like Southern India.
Product Availability: Blume products are available on their website, Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, Loblaws, and Indigo, with upcoming launches in Sprouts and expanded Whole Foods locations in the US.
Consumer Customizability: Blume allows consumers to sweeten their drinks to taste, providing flexibility and promoting a reduced sugar intake, which aligns with their health-conscious mission.
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Transcript
Introduction to Gut Health & Hydration Healing
00:00:00
Speaker
This is aisle 42.
Bloom's Mission: Function & Flavor
00:00:07
Speaker
Food is Medicine is a fitting description for this one as we dive back into the world of gut health and hydration healing. In this episode of IL-42, I chat with Karen Danuja, the visionary founder of Bloom, and we talk about blending function and flavor to boost our health rituals, the delicious organic latte mixes and water elixir blends that they make, and we even talk about my beloved flavor, birthday cake. Her team's commitment to wellness innovation and to being plastic negative is a beautiful thing, so let's get to it. Here's Karen from Bloom.
00:00:42
Speaker
Okay, Karen, super foods is one of my favorite topics and we'll jump into the deep end
Future of Grocery Stores: Education & Empowerment
00:00:48
Speaker
on that in a moment. But first is the big question. If you were to imagine the perfect grocery store as a future, what would it look like? Oh my goodness, starting off with a hard one. Well, when I think about like my favorite shopping experience, I think I love it when there's like an educated team where I can ask questions. So I don't really think so much about necessarily like brands on the shelf or like lay out of the store. The thing that gets me excited about a product is really like learning about the ins and outs, how it came to be and why it is the way it is because so there is always a story there. And I'm sure you've seen that too, where there's the founders that bring these things to life. There's always a reason why. And sometimes it's really hard to convey that in a package. So my favorite shopping experience right now locally, like I love going to Whole Foods, for instance, because
00:01:40
Speaker
team members there are so excited about individual products and really know the stories and are really educated themselves in the benefits of different ingredients. And so I think when I think about what the future of grocery should look like, it's more about putting more information in the hands of the consumers so they really know what they're actually buying. I love that. That sounds great. Speaking of buying, I bought something of yours, one of your products the other
Success of Bloom's Superfood Latte
00:02:08
Speaker
day. It's right behind me. Yeah, I see that. It's half empty now already. So your your Bloom Superfood Latte birthday cake, limited edition.
00:02:18
Speaker
Now, so I did tease it out on social the other day, and I think you might have seen it. Well, launching my birthday cake certification program might not be a feasible ah scenario. I do believe that products inspired by the essence of birthday cake have the potential to offer some significant functional mental health benefits. What's been the consumer response to your limited edition birthday cake superfood? Well, honestly, it's been incredible. We originally launched it just to be for a short period of time. Our business was turning six. And so it felt like this really fun moment to do a birthday cake latte, really tap into the reason why of Bloom.
00:02:59
Speaker
and share a really special moment with our customers. Some context is that Bloom isn't a traditional supplement company. It's all about adding fun, nostalgia, familiar flavors and introducing people to super foods and whole ingredients in this really accessible way. So instead of it being a mushroom tincture, or a maca elixir, it's a birthday cake latte. It's a vanilla latte, something that evokes these feelings of nostalgia and deliciousness and tastiness in ah for in a format that actually delivers health benefits. And so when we launched it, the response was so incredible, one of the highest reviewed products that we've ever had that we've actually decided to keep it. So we still sell it on Amazon, on our website, and we have it as this special kind of
00:03:47
Speaker
fun capsule of when we turn six and did something really fun with our audience.
Fun & Whole Ingredients in Bloom's Offerings
00:03:52
Speaker
How the pressure's on it. Every birthday, what are what are you going to do? Can't do that. can it can't Can't do something new all the time like that. But I love that flavor. I love a vanilla latte personally. And I've always been one of those people that loves nostalgic flavors, like things that kind of evoke these childhood memories. And for me, birthday cake is where we've done that the most successfully. So good. I love it. And it was really fun. My daughter and I drank it on on Sunday morning and it was ah it was really fun. we We shook it up with almond milk and we plopped some raspberries and some ice cubes in our glasses and got really, it's you know, fancy little pink straws. So it was a nice little moment.
00:04:37
Speaker
making mocktails at home. That's so cute. I love that. Exactly. Why don't you take a moment and and take listeners through ah what it is you guys make. I know you guys have a lot of products. Sometimes it's a little overwhelming. You guys have so much out there, but what is it that you guys make and what's in it? So the Bloom brand or Bloom is all about building kinder rituals with superfoods. And so really the idea is that we want to make delicious superfood blends that are a kinder alternative or a healthier alternative to what exists in the market today.
00:05:10
Speaker
And so ah we have two product lineups. One is superfood lattes, which is what you've tried, birthday cake. And this is to replace your second cup of coffee, replace the syrupy lattes that you have at Starbucks with something that's satisfying, scratches that itch, but is ultimately so much better for you. And then we just launched a new lineup called Superbelly. And Superbelly is more in the hydration space. It's a water elixir. It's a powder you add to your water. And we had found that so many of our customers were struggling with getting enough water. like They just don't like the taste of water. They're always you know adding fruits and all sorts of things to their water.
00:05:51
Speaker
and also struggling with their gut simultaneously. And so Superbelly was really created with our customers to support both hydration and gut together.
Importance of Gut Health & Superbelly's Role
00:06:00
Speaker
And that has really been our big focus over the last few months because it's just been so incredibly received by our are community. And how do we know when our gut is out of whack? I mean, we can follow some symptoms and kind of go, oh, I just don't feel right, you know, down there. Is that one of the ways to say it? But how do we know when our microbiome is out of balance?
00:06:25
Speaker
So you know the gut is a really amazing thing. And I think that there's more and more science emerging every day about the importance of a healthy gut and a healthy microbiome. like So before we even talk about symptom symptomatic, it's just important for individuals to get educated on how influential the gut is. like An example of this is that 80% of your immune system is tied to your gut, that there's this connection from your gut to your mood, to your energy, to your too stress. And as our and our diet has changed in North America, you know it's like a little greasier, a little saltier, as our environments have changed, more toxins in our environment, our gut health has changed.
00:07:10
Speaker
And so about 65% of North Americans report having weekly digestive issues. And so that could show up in a ton of different ways. That could be bloating, it could be constipation, it could just be like uneasiness. It could be a weakened immune system. And I think it's very hard to know that just by symptoms. But the purpose of superbelly is not necessarily to cure your gut health. It's to support it. It's to become aware of it. It's to do something small, add a kinder ritual to your daily habit that supports it. And so superbelly actually is an all-in-one sort of solution. It's got a fermented apple cider vinegar. It has a prebiotic.
00:07:53
Speaker
which is basically like the food that feeds good bacteria. It's got a probiotic, which is the good bacteria and then it also has super foods. And so I think that it's really important as consumers or as individuals just we're so rushed. There's so much stress. There's so much on their plate. It's really hard to even have the self-awareness and a moment for yourself to think about how you're feeling and I think that the big takeaway for me like in the creation of super belly is just that your gut is so foundational to how you feel in so many different ways. And so doing a small thing to support it, like staying hydrated, eating more fiber, and having a daily probiotic is just like a really small thing that you can do to start feeling your best.
Organic Superfoods & Avoiding Refined Sugars
00:08:36
Speaker
And what are some of these ingredients? I mean, I realize that the the super belly is so much different than the latte powder, so probably have to divide and conquer here. But let's talk with the lattes for a second. What kind of ingredients are in these powders? They sure mix up well, which I really appreciate, by the way, because there's a lot of things out there that, you know, they sound good. they I'm told that they're gonna do everything for me and then i put them into a glass and'm like no it won't mix it won't blend it's kinda it's not working your product really works but i'd love to know is there sort of a common thread of the types of ingredients that you guys are putting into the lattes.
00:09:13
Speaker
We always use organic superfoods. So on the latte side, they're actually all ingredients are 100% organic. And the common thread between all of them is that we don't use any refined sugar. So none of them have cane sugar in them. There's no sucralose, there's no erythritol or anything like that in them. If they're sweetened, it's with coconut sugar or date sugar. So we're always you know leaning towards whole ingredients. and Each of them really has a super unique ingredient profile, ingredient deck. So our blue lavender latte, let's say, that's one of our best sellers. That's the one that's in Target and Whole Foods and is designed to support sleep. That one has ah real ground lavender, coconut milk powder, blue spirulina, some ingredients that are
00:10:00
Speaker
really functional but also are blended together in the super easy way so you don't have to buy blue spirulina, coconut milk powder, lavender, mix it all up yourself but you have an all-in-one solution that makes it really easy to enjoy a lavender latte at home that supports sleep. And so it would be really hard for me to tell you like an ingredient that carries through all of them because the idea is that they're all unique, serve different purposes, support you in different ways. But though the common thread is really like organic superfood ingredients and functional ingredients. That sounds like a supply chain nightmare. I'm so proud of you. It's not the best. That's certainly a unique way. Just everything being so unique is so, so great. And then on the super belly route,
00:10:45
Speaker
What are some of the ingredients that you're using in your in your bestseller? Yeah. So for super belly, they all have first ingredient of fermented apple cider vinegar. So we surveyed some of our customers and so many people are using apple cider vinegar to support digestion and blood sugar management. And so that's our number one ingredient. which is really rare, honestly, in a hydration product. like Usually whole ingredients don't make up that much of an ingredient list. But we have a clinically studied probiotic, which is BC30. And this is you know in quantities that have been studied in clinical studies to show support for a healthy gut flora, like support, bloating, support, symptoms of digestion. And then we've got the most studied prebiotic, which is inulin. And so
00:11:33
Speaker
Those three ingredients really make up the core of our super belly and then each of them varies in terms of like flavor profile and super food ingredients. so We've got lemon ginger, which has real lemon juice, real ginger powder. We've got acai pomegranate, which has real pomegranate, real acai. and so these drinks are so much more juicy, flavorful, complex than a trip ah typical hydration powder because they have real ingredients and that they make up such a big part of the recipe.
00:12:05
Speaker
And you're inspiring new rituals where people are for the first time kind of deciding that their gut health is going to be a part of their daily or, or more frequent use. Is it sort of just like ah a one a day kind of thing, or do you find that there's other occasions or multiple occasions in a day where they're combining a couple uses so that they can sort of balance out their gut health throughout the day? I mean, all the products serve really different functions. So matchas for energy, blue lavenders for sleep, we've got
00:12:38
Speaker
Like birthday cake is more about hormone balancing or reishi hot chocolate, which is my one of my favorite flavors is more about relaxation and distressing. So we definitely have customers that combine using different lattes for different scenarios throughout the day. And that's really what we want to be like bloom wants to create these really accessible solutions for different pain points in the modern women's day. And so maybe it's gut, maybe it's stress, maybe it's energy. We really want to have an easy, tasty solution for you. And so the goal is that we build out that suite and make it really easy for customers to find solutions with us that they can trust.
Karen's Wellness Journey & Bloom's Creation
00:13:17
Speaker
So let's hit rewind here. Let's go back a few years. What in the world inspired you to start Bloom? it Starting a business in the food space is
00:13:28
Speaker
Uh, it's a challenging one and I can't help but look and like watch what you've been doing and seeing all the hard work you and your team have put into it. And now it just seems like a rocket ship, but a few years ago, it probably started more simply. Uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about your, how you got to this point? Yeah. Well, I actually don't have a background in food or in, um, in startup. I was in commercial real estate of all industries. I was working in that role for five years and it's a super kind of corporate environment, very coffee focused. And I was really on my own journey of wellness.
00:14:06
Speaker
Thinking about you know, was I living my purpose? Was I feeling good in my body and going to all of these coffee meetings that had me having issues with digestion sleep and and stress honestly and so it started me out on this journey of trying to discover what worked for me and realizing how clinical and expensive also the supplement aisle could be and And so I loved the cafe setting and I love the community aspect of it. I love the flavors, like a pumpkin spice latte, a salted caramel latte, but I didn't like all the sugar and caffeine that were associated with it. And then on the supplement side, I found it really confusing as someone who didn't have a health background. And so with Bloom, it was really about trying to solve my own problem and find this convergence or intersection between function and flavor. And so,
00:14:59
Speaker
That's what our first lineup was. You know, our first products were really inspired by favorite cafe lattes, but recreated to have less sugar, less caffeine and have functional benefits. And super belly is now an extension on that vision where what other favorite rituals do we have that are kind of laden with sugar, not necessarily good for us. And how can we update them for the modern consumer? And so hopefully we're able to take that vision to new categories going forward. So good. Well, it's been amazing to watch these last few years everything that you guys have accomplished. So you brought up sugar a few times, and I just wanted to first have a confession of a consumer. And I like how your packaging, at least on the on the lattes, it says, you know, sweetened to taste. And it's sort of a suggestion like, you hey, consumer, you come up with your own idea of how you want to sweeten this, whether you want to or not.
00:15:51
Speaker
And so when we, because I've had a number of your products, so this time with the birthday cake and my daughter, we we grabbed a teaspoon of honey, just to to sweeten it up a little bit. But knowing that the ingredients that you are using that they're, like you said, they're all organic, which is remarkable. And the fact that they're formulated in such a way that the sweetness is not, it's not sweet for like, there's so much dependence on flavor and which usually people refer to as sweetness. I mean, you guys are sort of playing it a lot more gentler. And I really, really like that approach. I think ah when we get excited about things that are sort of ritualized, they're usually decadent. They're usually things that are kind of not great for us, but we've fallen in love with them for whatever reason. So having a a wellness ritual that isn't dependent on sugar, I think is ah is a remarkable thing. But you guys have really leaned into that very, very well.
00:16:46
Speaker
Well, I think that more and more people are becoming aware of the impacts of sugar on, you know, your gut health and your mood and all sorts of different things. And really, most things come auto sweetened. They come, you know, if you go to Starbucks and you get a pumpkin spice latte, it's three pumps of sugar and you can't ask for like, you can ask for a half sweet, but you're getting half the flavor. And so we wanted to add that. customizability to the individual consumer. You can add some maple syrup, you can add some honey, you can add sugar if you want to, but you have the ability to not and really adjust your taste buds to having something that's less sweet. And so I i think that most people are sweetening a little bit to taste, but they get to choose and they get to choose that adventure and share it with their kids and share it with family members in a way that they are you know not worried about.
00:17:40
Speaker
it having 30 grams of sugar. And that's something that I think is really different about Bloom and that people were really looking for.
Bloom's Environmental Commitment & Packaging Goals
00:17:47
Speaker
And from an environmental and sustainability standpoint, what are some of the things that your team is doing now and that you'd love to do in the future when it comes to, you know, considering people and planet? So I'm really proud that Bloom is plastic neutral, actually. So we partner with an organization called Clean Hub. Clean Hub has outposts all over the world. The one that we work with is in southern India, which is where a lot of our ingredients come from. And basically, the exact weight of plastic that's created in our supply chain gets diverted from oceans in places in in southern India for us, but they also work in Indonesia and Thailand and different places.
00:18:27
Speaker
So compostable packaging is behind in our industry, and we would love to do compostable packaging. Unfortunately, right now it would mean, you know, short and shelf life, decreasing kind of like the quality of the end experience for the consumer. So this is our in-between measure. But one day I would love to be able to say that Bloom uses compostable packaging, and it's something that we ah we do like annual reviews on to make sure that we're staying in touch with where that industry is. That's awesome. I love that. And where can people find your product? i feel like I feel like it's everywhere. Maybe it isn't, but it certainly feels that way. Are people buying from your website? from a like where Where's all the places and spaces? least At least on a high level where everyone can find you guys.
Where to Find Bloom Products
00:19:12
Speaker
People can find Bloom at itsbloom.com. That's our website, but we're also on Amazon. We're at Whole Foods. ah We're actually launching with Whole Foods and Sprouts in the US in the next couple of months. So that's coming up. We're at Target, Loblaws, real Canadian super stores. We're in a bunch of different retailers across the US and Canada. So lots of places to pick up Bloom and we're just you know at its Bloom on social. We can direct you if you have any questions. I love it. Yeah. And I came across you guys on the weekend at Indigo. It was next to, yeah it was wonderfully displayed actually. I thought it was really nice. And, um, but i I can't remember, I have seen it there before. So, but this is the first time I bought it from there. Indigo, um, we've worked with for a really long time. They have an incredible tea assortment and they always do such a great job merchandising it. So yeah, that's a great place to pick it up as well. They have super belly too.
00:20:04
Speaker
Oh, that's good. Yeah. And seeing Superbelly do so well on Amazon, it sure, that's been quite the ride to see you guys rock Amazon. Yeah, it's really cool. It's only been up there for about maybe two months now. And we're number three in the hydration category. So we're really excited to see what it can do there. That's fantastic. Well, Karen, thank you for the time. Thank you for everything that you're doing and to your team. I can only imagine how much hard work it is, but your commitment to organic, your commitment to everyone's got health. It's a beautiful thing and we're all grateful. Yay. Thanks so much, Corbin. I appreciate you having me.
00:20:43
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of aisle 42. Please visit itsbloom.com to learn more about improving your gut health and where you can find all their wonderful products. Okay, that's it for me. I'm Corwin Hebert. We are Ethical Food Group, and I'll see you in the future.