Image credit: Courtesy of gr8nola About two months before Halloween, Erica Liu Williams, founder of granola company Gr8nola, had an idea: black granola made with activated charcoal. Liu Williams worried, however, that some people would just be scared of trying her Charcoal Chia flavor. That didn't happen. "I rolled this out as something different than the traditional pumpkin spice flavor you see all the time," she said. Better yet, Liu Williams found another way to market the product that has proven popular on social media: as a healthy version of Oreos or cookies and cream. (It also ties in well with the current trends around activated charcoal and black foods.) Liu Williams predicts that after the next batch goes out, the item will be profitable. "Food brands have to innovate. Even if it breaks even, it creates something that's really exciting for my community and a lever I can use again every year. It can snowball into something bigger."
About two months before Halloween, Erica Liu Williams, founder of granola company Gr8nola, had an idea: black granola made with activated charcoal. She said she thought that the introduction of black granola would scare up seasonal sales not only for Halloween, but for Christmas — replacing a lump of coal in a stocking with something tastier.
Liu Williams worried, however, that some people would just be scared of trying her Charcoal Chia flavor. That didn’t happen.
“I rolled this out as something different than the traditional pumpkin spice flavor you see all the time,” she said. “The response is beyond what I expected,…
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