The Holy Trifecta of Wholesome Nutrition with Krish Rathi

Hi, my name is Justine Reichman and this is Essential Ingredients. I want to welcome you here today, our guest is Krish Rathi, founder of Oorja bar. I'm excited to have you here, Krish. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me, Justine, I'm really excited to be a part of your podcast and looking forward to having a conversation.

Me too. And for our listeners. Just to tell you guys a little bit about Krish, I'll let him tell you a little bit about himself afterwards. But first, I met Krish, when I first started NextGenChef, he was one of the first people that I met at one of our happy hours at Kobo. And he was super excited about his product, about what we were doing, and he has been an active member ever since. So Krish, thank you for that. Thank you for your support and your participation in NextGenChef, and I'm sure you've seen him grow a lot in the last two years so I want to acknowledge that and just thank you for that. So thanks so much.

You're welcome, and thank you for having me. It was really awesome to discover NextGenChef, especially in San Francisco where there are more tech heavy networks and funds. It was really refreshing to see NextGenChef in the Bay Area.

Wonderfull, thank you for saying that, I really appreciate it. And NextGenChef, well, I'm Justine Reichman and this is Essential Ingredients. It's a podcast really to support NextGenChef, to support the thought leaders and the changing world that we have today around the future food, which you are at the forefront of with your new product. I'm excited to be able to have you share your story. If you can give our listeners a little sneak peek at who you are and what you're building.

Yeah, I mean, we are food for nutrition. We are a specialty nutrition food company, building better for you nutrition snacks. And before I even started OOrja bar, I was hit upon a realization through a series of misadventures and struggles with my own personal health, the realization that food can not only manage, it can also heal you in many cases from many of the chronic diseases out there. I was diagnosed with several health problems over six years ago with pre diabetes, high cholesterol, IBD, risk kidney creatinine levels because of my kidney stones, and I was able to reverse most of these problems through just holistic food nutrition. And what really started the Oorja movement was another realization that you could still get most of the healing properties of wholesome food from a packaged food product without any compromise, so this is really how the story of Oorja bar began. When I first was able to reverse my diseases and heal myself, I started a nonprofit initiative which ran for over four years, and it was a very successful nonprofit initiative. The goal was to teach people to make them aware of how to get the most out of their food, how to get the most bang out of their bug from whole food choices. We make customized meal plans as a part of this nonprofit organization, and they're upon the idea to help people in larger groups come upon me. And that's how the concept of how I can package most of these, this goodness in packaged food products was the impetus behind Oorja bar.

Wow, that's quite an endeavor. You're inspired by building your nonprofit, which is great. How many people were able to help that way?

When I started this nonprofit initiative, it was mainly to help Syrian refugees about six years ago. If you remember back then, hundreds of thousands of people were fleeing from Syria. They were being murdered. slaughtered and all that stuff, and there was no organization in the USA that supported it. There was only one state recognized, US state recognized Syrian organization, I collaborated with them and started a nonprofit initiative. I use my background, my Master's in industrial engineering, to come up with a decision model that would take inputs from you, as a customer, ask you questions about your food choices, your body type, your metabolism and all that stuff, and it would spit out customized meal plans for you. I did not take any money from that. They could donate for that customized meal plan, and it could directly go to the Syrian support group. As a result of this, we raised a really big amount of money, we were recognized by Syrian support group, which in turn is the only organization that is endorsed by the US State Department to help out Syria. So it was a big accomplishment. We were able to help out about over 100 people, give or take. And it was quite an endeavor, it was very exciting. And the amount of things, the number of things that I learned about people about their food choices, etcetera was just an invaluable data point which helped me in the building of my food business later on.

What was the one thing that you heard that surprised you the most?

About?

From your findings from all the information that you took in and you gathered, what was the most surprising thing that you learned?

Yeah. The one surprising thing I learned was that we are all, at the end of day, flawed human beings. What I mean by that is, you could come up with the most perfect customized meal plan, but no one is going to follow those customized meal plans to the tee. And the goal is not to have the most perfect meal plan, because the most perfect meal plan will always fail because you are expecting perfection from yourself and from people. The idea is to recognize practicality and come up with a practical meal plan so that people can get wholesome nutrition, while at the same time, not feel burdened enough or stressed out enough to follow the plan. That they have some oats, they have some breaks, they have some cheap breaks, those kinds of things.

I think that that applies to so many things, right? I mean, my goal is to support better free food businesses to create greater access to healthy food. And while I try to do that, there's always something else, what about the packaging? What about, is it sustainable? Is the food locally grown? There's so many variables.

Yeah.

And the truth is, I can't make all of them be part of it. I mean, my goal is to hopefully support businesses to be able to make one or two positive choices that take us down that path, to build better for you food, greater change. I think it's overwhelming, it's burdensome, it's also intimidating. I mean, at least for me, I don't know about you, but to be able to say, Oh, my God, all those things seems overwhelming, unachievable maybe even at times. So if we pick out a little bit, we say, okay, well, let's do this first. Once we achieve that, it's easier than to get the other things down. I don't know, what do you say?

No, that makes total sense, Justine. I mean, what you're saying is exactly the kind of realization that I hit upon. It's like perfect is the enemy of the good as they say, right? And by going through more practical steps, you can at least get them on a better plan. And as people build their foundation for better nutrition and better health, then they can jump on to the, graduate themselves to a more ideal regimen, if you will, in diet and exercise. So baby steps.

I agree. It's so exciting to have this conversation with you because I am really energized and motivated by the impact food can have on our wellness and the planet. And to find entrepreneurs like yourself that are building businesses with that value system, it's exactly what I want to do, support and be part of. And I want to make it accessible to everyone because people don't know, they don't know what to look for, they don't know what's bad or good. Why to choose one aside from price point sometimes. So I want to take this opportunity to circle back and really just hear from you a little bit about the impact you're having with Oorja bar. Maybe even just start with the impact. Maybe you can share a story before we get back into Oorja. One of the people that had a meal plan through you and maybe there was a great impact you could share, a story.

Yeah, I gave up my meal plan to everyone who donated, I would send them a Google survey form so they would answer the questions. I would run my decision model based on all the inputs that I had gathered from registered dieticians, nutritionists and holistic practitioners, we would spit out some results. What happened was, it was interesting that one of the people who had contributed, she was addicted to rice, and there was no way she would let rice go away, and she had blood sugar problems and all those things. I came up with the customized meal plan, and there was no rice in my customized meal plan. I sent it to her and she said: "This is BS, there is no rice here, I can't follow this." And that's when this whole thing that we were just talking about, perfect being the enemy of the good hit upon me. I thought: "What can I change in my meal plan so that you can follow at least, let's say 60% of it." She said: "Either you give me some rice to it, or you can give me some kind of a substitute." And back then, cauliflower was not a very popular rice substitute. There were not like many substitute choices out there. So what I came upon was, yes, you can eat rice, for once every two days, as long as you eat it before 6pm. The idea is, when you eat simple carbs like rice after 6pm closer to your mealtime, it can actually have a bigger effect on your weight gain on your gut health and all those things. So I was trying to come up midway so that she can still, you know, whatever one of our goals was to maintain weight gain, maintain her weight. So I try to come to a compromise where she can have some of the rice, but at the same time, not have it at obscenely heavy levels that she was having before. And at the same time, try to create a time interval for her so that it minimizes the harmful effect on her body. And when I gave her that suggestion, she followed it to the tee, she was blown away by that. As she said, she became a customer of Oorja bar later on. She's a regular repeat customer at Oorja bar, always sends orders every month. So yeah, that was pretty cool, I thought.

She had success with the new meal plan that you gave her? And her objectives were to, what? Maintain her weight? Did she have any other health issues that she was trying to deal with?

Yeah, she had blood sugar issues.

So what was the impact, by changing it? Do you know?

Yeah. Luckily at that point, she was pre diabetic. She does not have diabetes at all right now.

Okay, that's good.

It's amazing because, and I don't mean to say I am going to take all the credit, a customized meal plan at the end of the day is just a plan, it's that person's resolution and determination. So she was probably, already in her mindset, she had determined. But I think the customized meal plan can have helped her in the sense, like, caught her some guiding post, if you will.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that sometimes we just need a plan to follow that we can achieve. If it's too complicated a plan to follow, or if it's too overwhelming, at least I do, I tend to be like, forget it. But if it's simple enough, and I feel that's doable, I'm gonna have a greater chance for success. I find that sometimes, I feel like if I can't do it, it's all or nothing, but you really can't have an impact. You just have to make those small adjustments, and you can have really large impacts.

Yeah, and just seeing another big thing that I found from this customized meal plan was the fact that many people could not cook home cooked meals three times a day, that was not practical. They would ask me for recommendations for what are nutritious snacks out there. These people, like me, were very busy, having an active lifestyle and all that stuff. So like me, they were trying to find protein bars and energy bars that they could eat, that was the first time I had that aha moment when I realized about the amount of compromise and the amount of problems that were there with the current protein bars which led to the creation of Oorja bar.

It's a great story. It really evolved organically from your meal plan company to this. Because now, I've got a guest, you can hit a lot more people and have a greater impact by having a bar out there that's sold all over the place.

Yeah, exactly. My whole goal from the nonprofit initiative, Justine, was to really make people aware that they can enjoy food, and at the same time, get healed from it. And my nonprofit reached out to several people, but there were a limited number of people. How could I make that similar reach but with a bigger impact, with a broader audience. And that's when it hit upon me that I should look at packaged food products and see if they can provide the same kind of nutrition, or close to the same kind of nutrition as a wholesome home cooked food.

That's great. Well, I've tasted that Oorja bar myself and I really liked them. I mean, I only imagine the feedback is great because I've given them out to see people as well at different events, and people really liked them. I did it at a harvest event this past year, before COVID. And from chefs to just your everyday person, everybody was talking about the, just the taste of it, that it tasted good. That's super important with these food, it's not just about what goes in, it's about having, being able for it to be palatable for people too, which begs the question for me to you, what's more important to you, taste or what's in it?

Personally for me, it's what's in it, like, I become very taste neutral. But I have had a background in nutrition and hacking myself to death, making myself a guinea pig for so many experiments. So you know, this is gone out of the window. But even now, for me also, but for 99% of the people, it is important to admit that taste is very important. The best compromise thought process here would be taste is as important as what's in the food.

I would think so, if you look at nut milks, and you look at all these different replacements and substitutes that people are creating, or even in their own right into it, nut milk is a thing isn't necessarily a replacement for milk But if I want to use that, I want to put it in the in my coffee, I wanted to resemble a good taste, I don't want it to be watery. It's about consistency, it's about how it makes my coffee taste, all of it.I'm interested in what's in it, but I'm also interested in how to use it in a way that gives me, I feel good about it, I like it, it gives me enjoyment, because food give me enjoyment. So I'm really impressed by your brand, because not only is what's in it really good for you, it does taste good. I think you're one of the lucky ones, you married the two things together, either equally as important. I will be able to have such a great reach because of that.

Thank you. Yeah, that has been very gratifying to me. I was trying to, if I'm gonna veer people away from protein bars with questionable ingredients, I have to give them an alternative that is equally promising. Most of the time people eat artificial bars with artificial ingredients, or artificial sweeteners, and other kinds of questionable ingredients because it gives them the macros that they are looking for. Most people are following keto, or paleo diet styles, the saying, I need more than 15 grams of protein, I need low sugar. I understand what you're saying, Krish, like it has sucralose, and planning destroying palm oil, but there is no good choice out there. If I take a natural bar, they have poor macros, or they taste like cardboard. I might as well eat this because I will need this. I mean, little do they realize over the long run, they're really affecting their health in various bad ways. So I had to give them an alternative that was practical. It had the holy trifecta, so to speak, only natural ingredients, but this same heavy duty performance that you would get from artificial bass and third grade taste. So it will arrive. Exactly. It was quite an adventure and journey to come up with these recipes, hundreds of iterations, going through hundreds of published research studies and those kinds of things. But yeah, I think that we have been reasonably good in coming up addressing this holy trifecta, if you will.

Yeah. And I kind of asked him, you're not necessarily a chef, you're not, you do a lot of things, you innovate, you have a background in engineering, all sorts of things and nutrition. How did you decide and where did you start when you decided you wanted to come up with a bar?

Yeah, you're right, I'm not a chef. Although I wish sometimes I was. I do have a background in engineering. I just started cooking up bars in my own kitchen and started creating recipes and those kinds of things. The idea was born, based on what I said, earlier through my nonprofit, when I realized like, okay, a lot of people are looking for similar solutions, there are people out there who are very discerning of what goes in their body. So I started researching protein bars and going through hundreds and hundreds of protein bars, trying them out myself. I realized that, okay, I need a better bar that is good for your body, tastes good and has really amazing nutrition. So I said, why can't I create bars. And Justine, actually, if you google right now how to create a protein bar at home, you will get thousands of links.

Isn't that what you did? Did you Google how to create it?

I literally google that. I literally googled that six years ago, and I saw that it's very easy to make a protein bar. But one thing led to another. I created protein bars and I realized why these protein bars are not nutritious, the so called recipes on google because they are overloaded with sugar and sodium. They're like candy bars in disguise, really. That's when my engineering background really helped me out. I started researching medical studies, nutrition science studies. I started creating recipes in a different way, started using my own decision models that I've used in my nonprofit organization, and I came up with my own set of recipes. And after 75 major recipe iterations and looking at all, sorry?

I'm kidding. I said, that's all? .

That's it. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, after several pots and pans, I came upon this recipe of Ooja bar that I really liked. I was very excited about it. The question was, how to make it shelf stable? And that was another interesting adventure in and of itself. So yeah, that's long and short of how I started making the bars.

That's great. So what was the first place you got your bar into?

The first place I got my bars into was a food fair held near, actually, there was a farmers market near Embarcadero building in San Francisco, but they wouldn't let me in because I had to be an established vendor, I had to have an established business and all that. So I stood outside the farmers market, and as people were entering and exiting the fair, I said: "Hey, I made this bar." Of course, these were prototypes, I got help from a commercial kitchen in making like a small batch of bars and properly packaging them and everything. They were not in proper design bars and all that fancy design or anything like that, but I started giving out bars to these people who are entering and exiting the farmer's market. And they started taking the bar and I had made a makeshift business card in case if they like it, they can email me. So that was my first time starting handing out Oorja bars for free.

Well, I think we all start doing everything for free in the beginning. It's a good way to test the market to see what's working, to see what's not working, what people like, and then sometimes we go back to the drawing board, sometimes it's a hit off the bat, right?

Yeah, exactly.

That's fun. I can relate to that story. With all the founders coming to NextGenChef, from product to placement from soil to shelf, seeing what they're doing, it's so inspiring to see brands like yourself and hearing these stories where you started off literally giving out bars outside of the very building, right? And now to know that they're being sold in stores.

Yeah.

You can tell people Oh, they're available in Costco, or whatever.

Well, not yet Costco, but yeah, it will be available hopefully soon. But yeah, they are available commercially, and most of the time, we do sell it online.

[inaudible] commercially?

Commercially, they are available in smaller food stores in and around the Bay Area. But what had happened was we launched full scale commercially in July. And then in January, end of January, February, COVID hit. I know we are going to talk about that later, but that's when the product was yanked out of stores because I couldn't continue with the distribution, because of disruption in my food supply chain. So right now, we are selling on online, but I'm actually in discussion with a distributor who is actually, I believe a member of NextGenchef foods?

Conference, they're actually coming on here next week, our founders breakfast.

Yes, yes, exactly. So I was in discussion with them before COVID and I plan to resume my partnership with them so that we will have a more streamlined distribution system with them. And we will again start selling as soon as COVID ends in physical stores. But right now, yes, they are available online.

So let's go back to COVID, because obviously, it's been a huge impact on everyone's life, on the supply chain for food and beverage, it's just obvious, right? I mean, there's so many different challenges that have come up as a result. You had just said that you launched and you're about to be in this partnership with pod foods in July, and obviously, due to COVID, things changed. So what changed for you, and how were you directly affected?

Also is a very small business so we work in partnership with a lot of vendors. We have suppliers who supply, who have direct contact with my co-packer. I have a partnership with my co-packer, but I kind of choose the suppliers for the ingredients, for many of the ingredients that are not traditionally available. I have a partnership with the third party fulfillment houses who store a product in the warehouses and ship them. Because of this, there were several moving parts. And what happened was when COVID hit, we were not quite prepared for it, we did not have a large inventory. Because as you know, if you look at my website, we are committed to making Oorja bars in small batches to retain the freshness without using any artificial preservatives or additives. But the negative side of that was we didn't have enough inventory. And there were in February and March, I was not able to sell any bars because our supply chain got disrupted. Some of the suppliers were not able to get the ingredients, our third party fulfillment house was staffed way below threshold, so they could not get the product back into their warehouses and start distributing. So for two months, we were in total limbo. But fortunately, by the end of March, we were able to put everything together. And not to mention the fact that we completely revamped the manufacturing practices. We were already in a SQF and GMP certified facility, which is the highest standard of quality certification you can get in America. But on top of that, we implemented all the procedures that CDC and FDA recommended so we became fully COVID compliant. And by the end of March, we started selling again online.

Well, that's good. Okay, so you weren't delayed too long. Yeah, you come up with some new processes. It sounds like you're one of the lucky ones.

You could say that.

Sounds lucky good. And as we're coming, we're in COVID right now, we don't know what the future is going to hold? How long is this going to go on? What does that look like for you?

There's so many bad things about COVID, I really hope that we collectively pass through this and come out more successful. But I have to say that COVID also has been good for packaged food companies like me, in the sense that we were able to reach out to a broader audience that we couldn't in the past. This audience was looking for quick solutions. And as you know, just from the stats and the data out there, many people are gravitating towards easier to make snacks, or packaged food, or takeout and those kinds of things. So my pitch to a broader set of audience was, look, I know that you need to reach out to some comfort foods during this pandemic. But what if you could satisfy your craving, but at the same time, be nice to your body too. We use that pitch during COVID, and so far, the strategy seems to be resonating with this broader audience out there, and we are still selling the bars.

And are you planning to expand your line? Are we going to see more Oorja products that we're going to see--

That is the most commonly asked question to us on our emails on our website, why do you have only one flavor? It's like, it's unheard of for a company to survive with just one single flavored protein bar. And I totally get that, we are coming up with several other flavors. We are in the process of RND, and I have some really exciting news about that in the coming months. But just to go back to having one flavor, yes, deliberately slow and very purposeful with what we come out with. Because our whole point is we are not a traditional protein bar company. We care about your health more than our bottom line. If that is the only way we want to do business, and that requires extremely careful and deliberate research. The first major protein bar has hundreds plus published studies in nutrition and medical science to back up the ingredients and the benefits you get from those ingredients, and we want to do the same level of rigorous research for every single skill that comes out of Oorja. With that said, we completed the RND and the prototype for another Oorja protein bar, which is actually geared towards the keto market. It's gonna be a dark chocolate truffle flavored bar. It is amazing, I'm really excited about it. And when the prototypes are out, I can't wait to send some of those to you, you like chocolate?

I do. I love chocolate.

Okay, perfect. We'll talk and I'll send a couple of prototype bars to you.

That sounds super exciting. I know that there's so much I want, so many questions I have for you. I mean, I'm even curious about who's doing the RND with you and what that processes like but we do have a limited time. So I want to be respectful and keep us on point, and hope that you will join us again back here so that we can talk even more, as maybe you launch those new products or chocolate truffle one comes out. And just a couple last of things that I'd love to just chat with you about. This sounds like this is a purpose driven business that's from passion. Am I right about that?

Absolutely. There is no other way to do the business.

I agree. And it's so great, the smile on your face is just so authentic and the way that you talk about it just shows how motivated and how driven you are to build a business that is directly connected to your passion, your values. And with everything you were saying. I'm wondering, are you a B Corp?

Oh, no, not yet. Once we release three more skills, I will be applying to the B Corp because we are still a very small business. We are building up revenues, building up customers. A B Corp requires a certain amount, certain number of products and revenue and other standards. Right now, we are partnering with a couple of vendors, but our vendors are certified in several standards that are very similar to B Corp. So for us, getting a B Corp would be very easy once we reach our customer and our revenue goal. That's my goal, so as soon as we release more skills in our product line, that's my next step to apply for B Corp.

Are you a public benefit company, though?

I'm sorry, I actually don't know what is a public benefit.

Benefit company means that your impact on the world, whatever that is, is equally as important as your bottom line. So it's just written in your bylaws. NextGenChef is a B Corp, and that is because it's as important to me as it is to build a scalable company, as it is to support food and beverage entrepreneurs to make scalable, viable companies, create greater access to healthy food and build a new food paradigm.

Absolutely. There are two things that I should tell you. First of all, it--

That's what a B Corp is, so are you a B Corp? Because the B Lab is a certification.

Yeah.

That's different.

Oh, okay, okay.

Two separate things. One is a B Corp, a benefit corporation, one is a certification.

I thought you were talking about certification.

Okay. So are you a benefit corps?

Yes, definitely. It is in our DNA coming from the nonprofit initiatives, which we're still running, Oorja bar came with that intention of placing people's health benefits over everything else, and we are making our products with ingredients that do the least amount of damage to the environment too. So we are trying to address both those issues, and not only that, we want first prize in a Global Food Innovation contest held a few years ago in San Francisco and we came first in the nutrition bar category, in terms of the impact that we are having on the ingredients and the environment.

Well done. Congratulations. That's super exciting, and it makes me so happy to have you as part of the NextGenChef Community because you really are the exact profile of the kinds of people that we want as part of the community. you're practicing it, you're doing it, you're having an impact and it's so inspiring. I hope that everyone that's listening to this podcast is also equally as inspired.

Yeah, one thing I wanted to share with you, you were asking for what was my most gratifying moment? I would like to answer that a little bit more.

Please do.

So in general, there have been several gratifying moments when we got over 105 star customer reviews on our website. Every customer review is a gratifying moment. About one particular thing happened to me just two months ago, I got a voicemail on my phone. One of the customers left a voicemail for me, she told me that she's raising an autistic niece, the girl's mother had died and she was taking care of this autistic girl. She told me that when she got her Oorja bars, she gave one bar to her niece. As you probably know in autism, children hate food, they don't really eat anything. And the other big thing is like, no published research shows that autism is aggravated by gluten and other kinds of food. So autistic children naturally gravitate towards gluten free food because it's better for their body. Anyway, she told me on the voicemail, I gave this bar to my niece, she ate the whole bar, I have never seen that before. She was crying when she told the story, because for her, this was a big deal. She found something that could actually help her niece eat. The next day, she by herself asked for that bar again. And that was so touching to me that, I'm not saying that our bars cure autism, to have such an impact on the life of an autistic kid meant so much to me. That itself completes my mission.

That's awesome. I got to tell you, a good friend of mine from growing up has an autistic daughter, I want to have a couple bars sent to her.

Oh, perfect.

I don't know if it does anything positive, that's all I want. Any positive results doesn't need to cure it, but if we can expand, if we can share that message and find out if that helps other people and give people a chance, that's all I want to do. But the opportunity to learn to make informed choices themselves to see what works and what doesn't. So just before we close out, and this has been such a great conversation, Krish, I learned a lot about you. I learned a lot about your startup beforehand and the impact it had on driving you to build your new business. Where do you hope to see Oorja in the next few years?

To me, what is most important is that, through Oorja, I have made an impact on people's awareness. Awareness that they can look at packaged food and they can know that they have an alternative. Through Oorja, I see in five years from now that more and more people will be empowered by better alternatives in the packaged food industry not getting manipulated by clever marketing spin that must questionable ingredients, but more having real food based, wholesome ingredient based packaged foods.

I'm so on board and that's all we want to do. We want to empower people to make more informed choices. That's one of the reasons that I brought you on here, to share your knowledge, your inspiration and what drove you to create such a healthy and thoughtful product so that people can learn a little bit more. And maybe next time when they go to the store they have a choice between one bar and the next, maybe read what's in it, see if it's natural, learn a little bit more about what it is they're putting in their body.

Think about it Justine, in the clothing industry, there is a company called Patagonia which cares more about what the customers wear and how it affects the planet than a food company where you actually induce the food in your body. How weird is that? So we want to be the Patagonia of the food industry.

Okay, I'm on board. You tell me how I can help, I'm here to help.

Thank you. We'll do that, we'll do.

In the meantime, just before we close out, share with me something that you've done that's untraditional with your Oorja bar during the pandemic. Have you made anything, any new recipes with it? Is there anything fun that you've done with this Oorja bar that you can share with our listeners so they can see 12 different ways to eat it?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you can take an Oorja bar, put it in the microwave, heated for 10 seconds, it becomes just soft enough then sprinkle some blueberries and blackberries on it and add a dollop of yogurt on the side. The combination is delicious, trust me, you love it. It's awesome.

That's awesome.And are there any favorite products you've come up with that you've come across, a natural product better for you product during COVID that inspired you or you're excited to learn about what you want to share?

Does it have to be food related?

No. I mean, I think food impacts so many things, impact passion and impacts something, so share with us what you have.

Okay. It is related in the sense that I enjoy my coffee, and by the way, Oorja bar and coffee goes really well together.

You've got a partner with [inaudible] who is a B Corp.

Oh, nice. Yeah. I would love to do that.

And in their stores, maybe you can sell their bars? Their founders are in Mill Valley.

Oh, okay. Cool, I'll look into that. I started making pour over because I couldn't go to Starbucks anymore. I bought this single cup drip pour over made of ceramic, no plastic so the coffee doesn't, the plastic doesn't leak, and you can just use this to make a single pour over serving, you can have a bigger cup for multiple servings for multiple people, I think this was one of the best pandemic product for me because I saved so much money from pour over coffees and I just discovered the joy. It's very therapeutic if you actually make pour over because you have to just stand there for few minutes and really--

It's a ritual, right?

It is a ritual.

I may press coffee every morning. It's a ritual, it's getting up, it's like using the electric tea cup to make the water, it's pouring, grinding the beans, waiting six minutes.

Yeah, I hear you.

Well, Krish, thank you so much for joining us, telling us about Oorja. And a little bit about your story, I'm really pleased to have you here. If people want to find out where they can get your bars, can you share with us where our listeners can find them?

Yeah, absolutely. You can just search for Oorja bars or Oorja Nutrition on Google, our website should pop up as the first link. Otherwise, go to oorjabar.com, O-O-R-J-A-B-A-R.-C-O-M. You can also follow us on Instagram by the same profile, Oorja bar. Facebook, Twitter, it's the same profile Oorja bar. And Justine, I also have some good news for your followers, we created a special discount code, it's called essential. They can go to the website, no matter how much they order, they can use this coupon code and get 25% off plus free shipping which is one of the biggest discounts we have done recently. So I hope your followers use this code and enjoy Ooja bars.

Just to clarify, the code is essential, right?

Correct.

Essential like Essential Ingredients?

Yes, exactly. So they can just win a checkout, they can apply essentially in the coupon code field and get their order.

Great. Thank you so much, Krish, I really appreciate this. So excited to have you here today, and we look forward to you joining us again in the coming months to hear about your new products that you're coming out with, and how you're moving forward and having an impact on the world.

Yeah, Justine, thank you so much. I really appreciate what you're doing here. For the food community in general, this is a really great, brave and very noble adventure that you're putting forth, I really appreciate that. And thank you so much for having me today.

It's my pleasure. I want to thank my guests and my listeners for joining me today at Essential Ingredients. If you liked this episode and you want to make sure not to miss any others, please subscribe. You can find us on all the large channels including iTunes and I hope that you'll make sure to follow us and share it with your friends. For more information about Essential Ingredients, you can check out the website, justinereichman.com, you can follow myself on Instagram and Facebook at Justine Reichman. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about NextGenChef and the platform that powers this podcast, you can find us at nextgenchef.com, on Instagram, Facebook and all the other social media outlets. I hope to hear from you, and see you again soon.