Company Hopes to Use Funds to Grow Nationwide Retail Presence.
Not one to resist tasting or reading about caramels (case in point, see NYT weekend 19 January “Seeking a Buttery Treat” about Breton caramels), one of the first Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns to catch my eye was Boise, Idaho-based Nana’s Caramel Co: Handmade Artisan Caramel and Caramel Sauce. Sublime caramels Made in the USA with 5 fundamental ingredients: unrefined sugar, cream, butter Vanilla and sea salt.
Nana’s Caramels Co’s pledge:
“Our Caramel is 100% All Natural – No Preservatives – No Chemicals – No High Fructose Corn Syrup or Any Corn Syrup – No Artificial Flavors or Colors of any kind ever.”
Their first campaign was supported by 304 backers and $9,169 pledged toward their modest $500 goal, a 1834% funded project. Nana’s Caramel Co. second initiative seems just as good. To date their 2nd project on Kickstarter has over 280 backers have pledged more than $10,500, well over their $1000 goal… with a few days to left to go.
Pledgers reaped “tasty” rewards such as pound packs of flavored caramels, including Turtle Caramel, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Vermont Maple, Harvest Spice, Old Fashion Vanilla, Peanut Cluster and Yin & Yang. Sauces Flavors include Vanilla Caramel, Dark Chocolate Caramel and Coconut Caramel. New flavors are currently being tested.
Why Caramel? According to former account executive turned candy maker Big Mike, founder of Nana’s Caramels Co:
“This culinary caramel journey began a few years back when I was looking through my grandmother recipes and came across her caramel recipe. As I read through her recipe for caramel I was taken back to my childhood, visiting my grandmother and looking forward to grabbing a few caramels from her glass candy bowl she always had out. The soft buttery, rich caramels would envelop me and take me to another place all together. Then, in 2011, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I wanted to make something special for her that would bring her to a happier moment so I grabbed my grandmother’s cookbook and started to make her caramel. After lots of batches upon batches of practice caramel, I finally created the perfect balance of smooth, sweet, chewy and soft caramel.”
What plans does Nana’s Caramel Co’s have for its new batch of seed money?
“Nana’s Caramel is now going to expand into a full time kitchen. I will have the space and time to make more caramel, develop more caramel flavors and come up with new twists on caramel. Some of the things that need to be done are replacing the tile floors, painting the walls, we also need to purchase new work tables, these are for additional space to be able to create more caramel. Any proceeds over our projected amount will be used to develop and purchase retail packaging including obtaining UPC codes so we can have our product in retail locations nationwide.”
The Kickstarter project is scheduled to close next week on February 10th.
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Erin Hobey taught college literature and writing for several years. She currently serves on the board at Hopewell, a therapeutic farm community in Cleveland. She graduated from Brown, was a Bosch Fellow in eastern Germany and then earned her MA from Dartmouth. Food, fashion and film crowdfunding particularly interest Erin; she looks forward to exploring creative projects. Erin may be contacted via email at CrowdfundInfo@gmail.com or Twitter.
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