It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. Yes, that’s backward from the original prose, but that was how Becca Christansen, Co-Founder of Portland Salt Co, and her partner got started. It was December, 2021, COVID/pandemic when things couldn’t look bleaker that they took the entrepreneurial plunge. Becca’s background is certainly tailor-made for business, having a finance and sales resume and 18 years in the fast-moving technology sector. She and partner Justin loved and lived to travel the globe and enjoy each culture through its local cuisine. Their passion helped them find their way into some of the world’s top restaurants and learn from famous chefs. They had always felt that the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean held the finest salts on the planet and so it became their hobby to harvest it and enhance it with spices to highlight the flavors in different foods. Their steak salt became famous in their circle of family and friends to the point of being asked for shipments of the condiment. But it was the worst of times - the lockdowns during COVID – that increased the frequency and quantities being requested to the point of propelling them into birthing their new business, The Portland Salt Co; the best of times. Much of the magic of the company is in the balancing of the purity of the Pacific sea salt with the added herbs and spices. Becca wants the cooks and chefs using their product to spend time and effort over the stove and not extra prep time blending and mixing spices and rubs. All this comes from Becca’s lifelong love affair with food as a lens into people’s enjoyment and culture. She loves to cook and entertain, so she definitely has her audience in mind when creating condiments and rubs to add to their ceremony of preparing meals for family and friends. Obviously, the company is young. And Becca’s time in hi-tech is not over, Portland Salt Co is a side-gig for now until it takes on more popularity. However, the couple has accomplished much in a relatively short time. You can find their products on select grocery store shelves in Oregon and Washington, including those of our sponsor, Market of Choice. Also, you can order from their website, which is very tastefully done. There are individual condiments, spices and rubs in addition to terrific looking gift packs. Their website reflects their philosophy of being in business: “Connecting through culinary experiences is our love language. We hope our products inspire your cooking and lead to delicious adventures and lasting memories of your own”. Website: https://portlandsaltco.com/ Instagram: @portlandsaltco Also on LinkedIn and Twitter. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

You have a delicious meal in front of you. You chew, you taste, you swallow and enjoy. You think nothing of it. But a huge group of over 25 million adults and children cannot perform this pleasant daily ritual without great pain because of a swallowing difficulty called dysphagia. This condition forces them to a diet of very soft or pureed foods that are bland or filled with sugar and with very limited choices, so add boring to the long list. Although not afflicted with the condition, Dr. Reva Barewal relates to the pain and suffering of all those who are. Born in India when babies were delivered via forceps, her jaw was crushed. Consequently, she did not eat well as a baby and her parents and doctors could not diagnose the cause. The family moved to Canada, where more advanced medical analysis revealed the reconstruction that needed to be done to her jaw. Dr. Barewal then spent her life from childhood up to the age of 17 either in a dental chair or the surgical suite, science teaching her jaw to grow to the correct shape. During that period her only choice of diet was soft food because of the pain she experienced with food of any real texture. That is when her experimentation began, trying to find soft foods that were enjoyable and delicious to eat. It’s also when she decided to help others with jaw configuration and chewing issues as she had experienced. But first, culinary school at age 16 to learn more about cooking those soft foods people with those issues could enjoy. Dr. Barewal went to Cordon Bleu from afternoon until evenings while attending dental school from morning until noon beforehand. Ambitious. She then decided to help people diagnosed with head and neck cancer, because when going through those treatments, the patients had severe chewing and swallowing issues and she was determined to help them. So she moved to the US and her company, Savorease, was born. Since her work with cancer patients, Dr. Barewal has discovered that people who have suffered a stroke and people diagnosed with dementia and many others also have trouble with chewing and swallowing, and her soft foods can help. There is another discovery: When people eat with their fingers and not utensils, they tend to eat more food. For those having trouble gaining weight or coming off trauma and needing to gain weight, her finger-food snacks are the perfect answer. The company’s product offering is extensive, which certainly helps prevent boredom for its audience. Recently launched is the vegan cheese snack and both the harvest chicken and popcorn are longtime favorites. Her pediatric line is extensive too and is famous for its soft, quick-dissolve characteristics. Sales have been through the website and institutional sales through entities such as hospitals, where her snacks are used to help stroke patients not only get nutrition in their bodies, but also using the finger-food aspect to teach them to chew and swallow again. Senior centers and memory care centers also are huge prospects for Savorease as she continues to expand her marketing plans. One challenge has been to overcome the misunderstanding of texture. Even though Dr. Barewal explains that her snacks do not need chewing, that they simply melt in people’s mouths, there is a suspicion built into every sales prospect. You can view the product line at her website, www.savorease.com and follow her on: Instagram, Facebook and Linked In. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall. Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Co-founder and Director of Operations Chris Baily saw a need in the local Portland community for offering co-packing along with the expertise to guide food entrepreneurs through the gauntlet of successful commercialization. Coincidently our guest, Hannah Kullberg, Business Development Director, was at the SBIC seeing the same gulf between food startups and becoming successful food companies. The need was definitely there to assist these fledgling companies and help guide them over the hurdles. They met, decided on a strategy of offering entrepreneurs co-packing, the first step between the entrepreneur’s kitchen and the grocery shelf, and additionally the experience of Hannah and Chris to fill the knowledge gap to success. Hannah had the background for certain. While co-founding and scaling The Better Bean Company from farmers markets to national distribution, she intimately experienced the barriers to success. Over nine years building Better Bean Company she held all roles in the business including business development, sales, marketing, HR, basic accounting and operations. While operations manager, Hannah implemented a HACCP program and supervised three-fold growth in production, adding equipment, new filling lines and hiring new team members. She took the business through Non-GMO and B-Corp certifications. As sales and marketing manager, she launched the product into several new regions growing sales and velocity. They applied for a grant from Business Oregon to launch and even talked about that on our show on Episode #29, January, 2020! And so was born Community Co-Pack, or COCO as those on the inside call it. Currently with about 10 clients, Hannah and Chris have worked out the kinks of their startup and are producing entrepreneurs. Hannah fields inquiries in a very efficient manner. Inquirers fill out a form which also links to a mutual NDA and her calendar to schedule a call. Then begins the screening process. Criteria are pretty simple, as COCO’s equipment and resources don’t fit everyone’s needs. However, referrals are a big part of COCO’s services, as they believe in helping everyone build a strong food community. COCO has a fryer for snacks, a pouch packer, a blender for beverages, can do light vegetable processing and can do fresh also. They want to offer more services, but they also stick to their knitting for the present. And they want to focus on their local community, even though they have been approached by potential clients from out of the area. Hannah stays true to her calling and her mission to collectively build an equitable, regenerative, resilient, regional food system. Website: https://www.communitycopacknw.com/ Instagram - @communitycopacknw @hannahkathrynkullberg Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

We need great food entrepreneurs, and they need great marketing and promotion. Enter Jyssica Leilani, marketing guru. She and our host Sarah Marshall met when Sarah was taking a business course through RAIN – Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network – where Jyssica was speaking on social media and all the available marketing channels for budding entrepreneurs. What Sarah particularly enjoyed was how Jyssica empowered her audience to find their own voice for their companies and to express it in a way to make it exciting, individual and interesting. Female entrepreneurs often “stand in our own way” as Sarah puts it, and Jyssica does a great job of coaching people through that. Sarah Masoni adds that women are often reluctant to do something unless they are 100% certain and it’s hard to be brave and take risks for many of them, which Jyssica tackles. She does all these wonderful things through her company, Style Opal, a social media and online agency for brands and entrepreneurs. That list of services covers social media management, email marketing, photo shoot and video content creation and influencer marketing. Jyssica’s background has helped her approach to her business. She grew up loving acting and singing, and having fun is part of her success and her client’s success. And singing is a natural foundation for finding a client’s voice as well. Acting also adds to her power to dig in and really understand the brand, the audience and get the feel of a product. Sarah Marshall makes the point that finding the voice means the voice of the product and what it says to the audience, not necessarily the voice of the entrepreneur. What counts is that the audience “gets it” and makes an informed decision to buy or not based on how it fills their needs. Jyssica says you do that by seeing your marketing as going to one person. Ask how that one person is receiving that Instagram or FB post. Analyze how they process the visuals, sound and words. Ask if you are conveying the benefits that make your product incredibly special and seemed to be custom made for that one person. Jyssica keeps close contact with clients with monthly touch-base calls; what’s new?, what’s exciting?, what’s changed? that help keep messaging fresh. And she asks the offbeat questions such as, “if you WERE a beverage, which one would you be?” to get more insight into the personalities behind the company. Jyssica also urges her clients to video themselves every time they make a product, to demonstrate the hands on craftsmanship of their product and then send it to her to create a reel or a story. Which goes to Sarah Marshall’s point that hiring a social media agency doesn’t mean they are taking that function away at all, they are making it more consistent and more meaningful. Visit Jyssica’s website for this freebee: A worksheet page from the Instagram Bootcamp workbook, her Ideal Follower Avatar Mad-Lib worksheet. The link to download that is bit.ly/followeravatar. Website: www.styleopal.com. Listeners: You can save 20% on Jyssica’s self-paced, virtual Instagram Bootcamp course at www.styleopal.com/instagram-bootcamp, using the special code MARKET. @StyleOpalMedia, @UpperLeftLadies, @Jyssica.Leilani (her personal), Facebook Group: Upper Left Ladies for soul-led entrepreneurs and leaders, Pinterest @StyleOpalMedia. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

“You gotta make a buck” is the driver for entrepreneurs in Hannah Jodoin’s view. Her parents were always involved in restaurants and loved food, and always took the family to popcorn and kettle corn booths for snacks so popcorn became a family staple. Then, a friend suggested that popcorn wasn’t that hard of a way to make a buck as a side hustle, and that spurred her on to set up a kiosk in a local mall. With an small, electric movie-style popper, it took two batches to fill a bag, so it was a terrific lesson on how important production was to a business and its revenue. They then moved up to festival sized equipment with propane heat and started serving their popular treats on a large scale, making more revenue and profit in a shorter time frame. This led to their first breakthrough, the Portland Farmer’s Market. There they developed a loyal clientele and also a big buy in from the community who gave them great suggestions on new flavors, which the family, in turn, produced. Miss Hannah’s Gourmet Popcorn took off. As we have mentioned many times before, our host Sarah Masoni had a hand in helping the company get off the ground with her advice and wisdom. Early on, Hannah’s parents took some of the popcorn to Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center of which Sarah is the Director to get her opinion on the commercial appeal of their product. Sarah’s positive review and encouragement was pivotal in the company having the confidence to dream bigger. Hannah’s involvement has been from the beginning, obviously, but there was a detour in her life. Her college degree was going to lead to a profession in the Christian ministry, but she came back to work in the business for a summer and that led to a unique job title for her. She was in charge of figuring out how the business could operate without a family member always being present to produce and sell the popcorn. At the time, their storefront was a kiosk and Hannah put together all the procedures and training so that employees could operate the kiosk successfully and free up the family members to work on marketing and sales. They now are focused on opening up distribution on more grocery stores to keep spreading the brand name. Along the way, Hannah has dug into how popcorn is grown and become somewhat of an expert as to the pollination of the crop and how large popcorn is developed. You can buy Miss Hannah’s Popcorn at their storefront in the high-end Bridgeport Village in Lake Grove, Oregon, or their manufacturing facility in Newberg, Oregon, also the heart of Oregon’s wine country. There also are various retailers across the Pacific Northwest, including our sponsor Market of Choice. For those not in the area, order online. And their gift boxes really are a work of art so think about Miss Hannah’s for a special surprise present. Website: https://www.misshannahspopcorn.com/contact, Twitter - @Hannahspopcorn, Instagram - @misshannahspopcorn, Facebook - @misshannahspopcorncorn, Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

San Francisco based Good Food Foundation does so, so many things. Support is the one word that comes to mind, but hardly begins to enumerate this multi-faceted organization and the impact they are having on helping America eat better. Their website says it best in their mission, that they exist of help the “passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked” food entrepreneurs who are being authentic and responsible “in order to humanize and reform our American food culture.”. Now that’s a big idea, but it takes follow up. The Good Food Foundation supports all those passionate and engaged people with five big, key programs that build incredible awareness for those folks. First is the awards program, a rigorous process by which the winners receive huge awareness and publicity. Second is the nearly 500-member guild, where membership is based on meeting high standards and is an amazing arena in which to talk shop. Fifty percent of American food dollars are spent in the grocery store, and the Merchants Alliance is where those store owners practice putting only the best food on their shelves. The Mercantile program is the grand trade show series, which includes the big NYC show and a Traveling Mercantile. These shows bring 350-800 retailers and media to meet with 200 crafters to show their stuff, each in the same size booth. The Fund program is a work in progress, to intensify innovative programs to unite crafters and merchants to keep good food in front of consumers. Their work has given immeasurable help to growers, ranchers, makers and merchants who buck the big corporate trend. How did this great effort get started? The Executive Director, Sarah Weiner (yes, there are three Sarah’s on this episode; try not to get confused) jumped into the fray fresh out of college. As Director of Communications for the Slow Food International Office, Italy, she became a staunch leader for the food movement. Moving then to California, USA, she became Alice Waters’ (famous author and national public policy advocate for universal access to healthy, organic foods) “Girl Friday”. Sarah then went on to produce a cavalcade of successful event; Slow Food Nation with 85,000 guests, Organic Food Festival with 20,000 attendees and Sips and Suppers, a fundraiser launched with Alice Waters, Joan Nathan and Jose Andres. These events evolved into bigger visions and missions, including Farm to Desk in Washington, D.C. organizing gardening, classroom and cafeteria programs in public schools where food topics were part of the curriculum. It was the Good Food Awards Project that really blossomed. The first event in San Francisco drew 2,000 entries from all 50 states and from there the team launched project after project, which ultimately became the current five programs of the organization. And the foundation of each of those programs is based on those two important themes: Authentic and responsible. Social media: @goodfoodfdn. Website: goodfoodfdn.org. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall, Sarah Masoni LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-masoni-67182a23/.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

For budding food entrepreneurs, this is an hour of pure gold, or pretty close to an hour. This show is our hosts, Sarah Marshall, founder of Marshall’s Haute Sauce and Sarah Masoni, Director of Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon, giving freely of their advice on being successful with your brilliant new food idea. On this episode, they get into the details of leveraging both trade shows and your own food communities to build your path to sharing your food creation, helping to bring people together. They start with community, and one of the biggest and best is OSU’s Food Innovation Center. Sarah Marshall talks about rolling into the Center once directly from Seattle for a mini-trade show, getting delayed by a train, showing up late but absolutely being surrounded by people she knew and didn’t know asking if they could help out. The Portland food community has always been supportive, cooperative and amazingly helpful to all food founders and feel that everyone can be successful; no need to have a win/lose attitude. So find that community where you live, or as close to you as possible. This particular Center mini-trade show event brought in journalists from the food industry to look over the latest research and meet the new food entrepreneurs, a tremendous opportunity for the founders. You can see pictures if you look on Sarah Masoni’s LinkedIn page. And here are some tips for interacting with people at these trade shows. When there are media people, you want to be part of the show’s story. When Sarah Marshall goes to shows, she sets up differently to stand out from the crowd. She has things for people to eat so they will stand there, chat, get to know her and understand her business. She doesn’t give the usual elevator speech but instead “sells” her story naturally and deftly, getting to know people by getting them to know her. They understand the WHY she has developed this unique food product, not just he HOW. And the food she set out was not a big spread. It was a few small snack items at a time, all freshly made. Also, she cautions be conscious of other’s food allergies and make sure you put out samples that appeal to a wide number of people. Also, change up your offering every day to attract different people and display the variety of package sizes as well. Sarah and Sarah also draw from two well-known sources, consciously or subconsciously. First, from the Boy Scouts: Always be prepared! Anytime you show up to any place, have your samples. Be ready to meet complete strangers and let them know about your outstanding treasure and where to buy it. As they say, every person is like a mini-trade show. Second, Woody Allen’s quote, “98 Percent of success is showing up.” Be there. Go to the trade shows that are worth while and work them. The good ones are like digging in a vein of pure gold and the returns are all out of proportion with the effort involved. However, be aware that some media people must be careful not to accept gifts, so have some mini-sizes that are obviously sample sizes and not in the gift category. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall, Sarah Masoni LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-masoni-67182a23/

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Philly native and Brooklyn resident Khia Nelson is founder and owner of K Bloody Mary Mix, an overnight success after 10 years of hard work. Winner of the 2020 Good Food Awards, a major specialty food competition, and Gold Medal Winner of Fifty Best in 2021, Khia’s plugging away one step at a time is really paying off. And no wonder. Her unique formula is organic, vegan and gluten free and that equals a unique taste. Her mix is not just hot, it’s savory and begs to be rolled around in the mouth like fine wine. Fabulous with alcohol in the traditional Bloody Mary, Bloody Maria or Red Snapper, it also is delicious and refreshing over ice. So, it’s the perfect item for any party to surprise both the alcohol and non-alcohol guests equally. It’s such a versatile elixir it also doubles as an addition to a cocktail sauce recipe or a marinade to add a spicy kick to your favorite foods. All this because of Khia’s background. 20 Years in hospitality as a bartender, restaurant manager and vegan home chef, she has always been a fanatic Bloody Mary lover. But she was always constantly tweaking her recipes because she never quite fell in love with other people’s mixes. It was at a social gathering a decade ago that Khia’s dream of starting her own company was conceived. She was always experimenting with her recipes during her bartending stints, but at this particular event, her latest creation drew raves and accolades just too good let pass as mere kudos. It was a sign that she had something special and it was time to share that recipe with the world. Khia had other goals for her recipe besides great taste, she wanted it to be of the highest nutritional and sustainable qualities. Therefore, her mixes are hand made and bottled in Brooklyn, New York. All ingredients are organic and gluten free (other Bloody Mary mixes contain Worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovies). All are bottled in glass, which is recyclable and easier on Mother Earth than plastic. This makes K Bloody Mary Mix more expensive than most other mixes, but you get what you pay for. Great side story: Khia and our host Sarah Marshall first met at the Good Food Mercantile Awards in Brooklyn setting up booths across from each other. Khia offered Sarah a bottle of her mix and it wound up being a meal for Sarah. In the rush and hectic race to set up for the show, Sarah hadn’t had time to eat any breakfast, but the rich, nutritious K Bloody Mary filled her up, gave her energy and the spicy flavor gave her a much needed recharge to get her through the day. You can purchase bottles online at the website and the packaging is absolutely gorgeous. Gift packages also are available and make very special presents. Distribution is growing but check the website for stores near to you and also for restaurants that serve the mix. And somehow, with all this going on in her life, Khia also is a former model, animal rescue advocate, animal lover and eclectic music lover. https://www.kbloodymarymix.com/the-mix/, FB and IG @kbloodymarymix, Twitter @kbloodymary Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

The inspiration couldn’t come from a higher source: Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn. And it was the dawn of the recreational cannabis laws passing, intersecting with Founder Victoria Pustynsky’s background in beverages that gave her the idea to make cannabis-infused drinks. Her experience was mostly in wines and beers, so she focused on adult audiences and flavors. And Victoria’s target audience was easy to identify, she targeted people like her. Females who liked well balanced cocktails, not too sweet, to be part of a social situation without being too intense. It also worked well that she created the dawn of a new kind of cannabis consumption. Each flavor is about enhancing the plant ingredients and celebrating natural infusion with a slightly bitter but slightly sweetened taste with a pleasant citrus forward glow. All ingredients are natural and have undergone rigid testing. All elixirs are made with a blend of broad spectrum hemp oil and raw extract hemp oil. And Each 200ml bottle of hemp beverage contains 25mg of hemp extract and zero THC. Vitoria recommends starting with one bottle of their beverages and noting the sensations you experience to better understand how this and other products containing cannabinoids and hops interact with your individual body. Here’s the background story. Victoria started out like most food entrepreneurs, in the kitchen. She started with alcoholic extractions of herbs but quickly realized that was going to take a very long time. Plus, she was mixing in hemp oil and oil was another ingredient that changed the chemistry, not being water soluble. This was in 2016 and not many hemp products were available in the US, so she was experimenting by sourcing overseas with all the quality and transportation issues. How do you solve this puzzle? If you are a Reed College graduate like Victoria, you call the chemistry department at Reed. Lo and behold, she found a chemist who had a great food background and began figuring out how the oil was going to be part of the beverage formula. Victoria knew what primary flavors she wanted the drinks to deliver, and the secondary and tertiary flavors as well, so there was an excellent road map for the chemist to follow. Thus began the quest for an “Elevated beverage for luxury occasions”, which is Victoria’s mantra for the space she has carved out. A visit to their website will not only display an incredibly sophisticated marketing and packaging touch, but will show two distinct product lines. There is the Aurora line, hemp infused and Lolo, the hop sparkling beverage. You can order online or go to a store if you live in Portland, San Antonio, Los Angeles or Erowhon. The distribution is bound to grow as the party beverage scene evolves, so there should be many more locations soon. Website: https://auroraelixirs.com/about-us/ IG: VP personal @victoria_verve, @drink.lolo, @auroraelixirs. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Recently launched at The Good Food Mercantile and The Portland Night Market, Portland, Oregon, in April, 2022, Pink Cloud Beverages is out to change the attitude on drinking and enjoying it. Without alcohol. Sierra Thomas is founder driving force behind this beverage product line that is much more than a delicious drink. Being very new as a company, Pink Cloud Beverages is currently targeting Portland’s elite chefs, of which there is an impressive list, and selling at select small grocery stores in the Portland area and online from their website. As their website says, Pink Cloud is made with love in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon. Now for the story behind the impetus for Sierra to take on such a world-changing challenge. In 2010, she stopped drinking alcohol while working in the music and media industries, where it was “party time” pretty much all the time (Sierra compares it to the “Mad Men” series). There were challenges to being sober in that industry, as the non-alcoholic choices were few. But her wellness had taken a back seat from the fast pace of her career and it was time to put her health first. With all the entertaining she did as part of her job, it was hard to carve out a non-alcoholic beverage at a bar, restaurant or hotel at that time. She then got out, graduated from schools in Oahu, Hawaii, and was contacted by a friend who had grown up in the area. Her friend knew Sierra was having trouble sleeping and adjusting to her sobriety, and suggested she research the health benefits of CBD. The stigma of associating CBD with the intoxicant THC from the same hemp plant was in Sierra’s mind, as she did not want to abort her recovery, But when she found that pure CBD had amazing natural healing powers and was not addictive, she became a convert. Then, driving back from a New Year’s Eve party with husband and friends, the idea for the company was born. Sierra had been mixing CBD with other flavors to make mocktails, and her husband turned to her and said basically, “Why not make start a company with all these drinks you’re inventing?”. After laughing, Sierra had the idea settle and then the fire to start a company consumed her. The name, Pink Cloud, is a term known by those in recovery. The first couple of months of sobriety bring a feeling of euphoria and clarity that is truly a rebirth. The euphoria of course gives way to the day-to-day of living at some point, but is always a memory of having come through the hard part of becoming sober. Sierra has added her own term to the process, “sober curious”, meaning, if you are addicted to alcohol but curious about being sober, then experiment. Try just one day being sober. If that works, try another, then another; you get the point. Sierra’s market appears to be growing. Pink Cloud appeals to a growing group of non-drinkers who want to enjoy the social side of drinking without anxiety or the negative effects alcohol has on our mind and body. The goal is to create inclusion and normalize sober drinking as a movement so people can take pleasure in a refreshing adult beverage over a good meal, concert, just like they would with wine, seltzer, and cocktails. The company’s mission is global, too. They are passionate about the beaches they love and have dedicated 1% of Gross Sales to go back to protect our oceans from the challenges threatening the vitality of the ecosystem. Pink Cloud Beverages website: https://pinkcloudbeverages.com/pages/faqs Social media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pinkcloudbeverages/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pinkcloudbeverages/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/pinkcloudbeverages/ TikTok (not active yet) - https://www.tiktok.com/@pinkcloudbeverages Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

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Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky