In the 1980s, to normalize soyfoods (foods made out of tofu or soymilk) we “Americanized” them, packaged them in forms familiar to the average American. Cottage Salad, soymilk, dips like Missing-Egg Salad and Tofummus, Soy-o yogurt, chocolate and strawberry puddings (Bill Cosby was big back then), but also brands like Le Tofu, Better Burger, Better Than Meat, VeganRella cream cheese, and TofuRella. Over 140 different products, flavors, and sizes.
Then in 1994, we introduced the first frozen and perishable hempseed foods, Hempeh Burger and HempRella; again we Americanized our hemp foods (veggie burger and cheese). The organic tempeh burger with 10% HempNut shelled hempseed was the only hemp food ever with an FDA-legal health claim on the label “reduces risk of heart disease.” Carnivores and vegans alike loved its hearty mouthfeel and made from real food, not powders like today. It also had an innovative gas-flushed package and sleeve.
The organic HempNut Blue Corn Chips had an FDA-legal Structure-function claim for omega-3 and was packed in an argon-gas-flushed Mylar metal bag. It contained 10% HempNut and was considered the best organic corn chip on the shelf because our co-packer used a special corn masa flour instead of the usual. It had a better mouthfeel, and the shelled hempseed made it more savory.
HempNut peanut butter closely emulated the all-American favorite breakfast spread despite being 51% HempNut. We introduced organic chocolate chip cookies, which were made by what today is Pamela’s Products. And an ambitious bar made in Santa Rosa by Lotus Bakery: a graham cracker/HempNut crust, a layer of HempNut peanut butter on that, covered by a layer of organic dark chocolate, packed in an oxygen-proof mylar metal pouch with great graphics and a long shelf life. It tasted as good as it sounds, all credit to Jim Dow at Lotus.
In 1997, I developed an aseptic hemp milk at the same Tetra-pak® plant Silk® soymilk was being developed. Although very “American,” hemp milk was a huge project the world wasn’t ready for yet. HempScream powdered frozen dessert mix leveraged our years of international sales of them since 1984. The organic vegan margarine project never got finished because there was a standard of identity for margarine, and “Spread” would have been the kiss of death for it, not nearly as American as “Margarine.”
We sold a vegan HempNut lip balm with sunscreen after we made them just to give away for promotion, but then people wanted to sell them in their stores so our designer made a 36-pack display box.
HempNut, Inc. was the first hemp food Best Practices company, with several innovations and firsts. It was also the first one started by an already-successful food industry professional. We had over 15 different HempNut brand products.
That was my approach, Americanize new and weird foods so as to be palatable, literally and culturally, to my fellow Americans.
I went back to Sonoma State University at night for five years (while still running fast-growing Rella by day) to get a BA in Marketing + MBA. Originally, it was to study Consumer Behavior because I found it inexplicable; it really should be a subset of Psychology. I studied in the years 1988 to 1993 and applied what I learned to marketing hemp foods. HempNut, Inc. products were the capolavoro for me. To this day, the products and marketing are relevant and unmatched in the market, and the logo still timeless a generation later thanks to designer Al Haeger.
Innovation of new markets is all about catching the wave in the moment naturally and riding it uninterrupted for as long as you can. It takes skill, money, a great product, and tons of luck to create and leverage momentum.
That’s how we opened new categories that didn’t even exist yet, but today USDA is tracking ads of: hemp foods. Even with a 7-finger bright neon-green hemp leaf and HEMP an inch high. Perhaps especially with a 7-finger bright neon-green hemp leaf and HEMP an inch high.
The above was excerpted from “Seedy!” by Richard Rose, a free ebook released in 2024. “Seedy!” or How To Start A Hemp Food Business reveals how to do well by doing good with hemp foods. Seedy! is 177 pages, 52,000 words, 200 images, and thousands of links. Cost: free. Value: priceless. Never before has an industry insider pulled back the curtain on the successful strategies used to create hemp’s biggest industry segment. Part how-to, part hemp history, part self-help guide.
Click here to download a free copy.