Join us as we go beyond the label with food brands that we love at Martie. Today, we chat with Carmel Hagen, founder of Supernatural, the food brand making fun and colorful baking ingredients that are (wait for it) DYE FREE and plant-based! You heard us right, these incredible sprinkles and frostings are without preservatives and nasty dyes. They are free from Top-8 allergens by ingredient. Oh and they are still delicious. Shine in the kitchen, lovelies!
Grab your Supernatural from Martie, and read on!
What is the motivation behind Supernatural?
Over the last couple decades, we’ve come a really long way with food. Given a tasty alternative, most people will choose the healthier version of almost anything – that’s a major shift. So the role of entrepreneurs in this ecosystem is to connect with a food they’re incredibly passionate about, and evolve it to reach this next, better-for-you iteration. My biggest passion was something that was both regularly overlooked, but also openly controversial – colorful baking ingredients. The big question was, can you even make this stuff without the gross ingredients? Can it still be colorful and fun and imaginative? Don’t natural colors suck? The questions really motivate me. That’s the science project part that I love.
Let’s talk sprinkles! What’s the story here? And, favorite color? Favorite shape?
Our Rainbow Starfetti sprinkles are my baby. You’ll never meet a more photogenic sprinkle that’s good for any celebration – birthdays, holidays, your toddler putting on socks in the morning. When it comes to color, I’m always in awe of red cabbage, the source of the color in our Magic Blackberry food coloring, because its natural pH sensitivity can produce a teal color, a pink color, blue, purple, it’s wild. It lends itself really well to kitchen experiments with kids, because they can change the color back and forth with baking soda and lemon juice. So fun.
What’s in the pipeline next for Supernatural?
We’re gearing up to launch our version of the most popular sprinkle in America, the soft, tubular rainbow strand you find at all the froyo shops. We named ours Softies, and it’s made with amazing ingredients (it’s the first ever corn-free sprinkle in the world). You will have NO idea it’s made with natural colors, these colors are so bright. We can’t wait to launch it!
What do best by dates mean to Supernatural? Are Supernatural products still good after their best by date?
If you compare a colorful baking ingredient made with artificial colors vs one made with natural colors, you’ll see a big difference in their best-bys. Artificial colors are basically armageddon-proof, because they’re made with chemicals and preserved with chemicals. That’s why a tube of Red Dye #40 will hang out happily in your pantry forever. Natural colors are not armageddon proof, and like the plants they came from, can start to wither if they’re in hot weather or have a lot of light exposure. We store everything in cool, dark places, which keeps our colors happy. And once they’re in your own kitchen, they’ll continue to stay vibrant in the right conditions for a long time.
Why is working with Martie important to Supernatural?
It’s hard to get manufacturing exactly right, and occasionally producing more than you need is a fact of being in the food business. Throwing this excess away is nonsensical, but it’s common practice to do it, because it costs money to keep it in the warehouse. Martie solves these problems for us, while also making healthier products accessible to more people. It’s a no-brainer.
Save up to 70% on Supernatural, only at Martie, here!
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