S4 Ep25: ChoCho- A Super Protein That Can Redefine What Regenerative Future Means For Us! with Tara Kriese
“Regenerative is as much about an agricultural practice, as it is a strategy to ensure that every aspect of the business is really thinking about their footprint today and tomorrow.” — Tara Kriese
ChoCho is a species of Lupin grown in the Andes, mainly cultivated because of its high protein content. This super protein belongs to whole foods, is vegan, gluten-free, keto and paleo-friendly, and non-GMO. What makes ChoCho so innovative besides being drought-tolerant and rainwater-watered, is that it improves soil quality in terms of retaining water and fertility! Cho Cho is also lectin-free which is great for people with digestive problems such as bloating, diarrhea, vomiting, and more!
This week, Mikuna Foods’ Former CEO, Tara Kriese joins the show. “Mikuna” means nourishing the body through food- from the ancient Kichwa concept of nutrition. Justine and Tara discuss what regenerative means for us as individuals and as a people, chasing a more impactful dream, the benefits of going plant-based, how to navigate a nonlinear entrepreneurial journey, exciting developments for Mikuna, and why the healthy food industry is great business potential.
When it comes to a lot of crops, sustainable usually means “staying the same”. However, what the world needs now is to move towards a more regenerative future. Mikuna was created to lift the spirit and nourish the soul, we hope you enjoy every sip and leave empowered!
Connect with Tara:
Tara works tirelessly as Mikuna Foods’ Former CEO, the very company that introduced Chocho, a clean superfood protein from Ecuador into the US Market. Tara utilizes her 20+ years of consumer experience in emerging whitespace categories, created new product lines and launched device and service companies, and played an important role in increasing sales for the organization on numerous occasions.
Episode Highlights:
02:06 What is Regenerative?
06:40 Limited But Intense
12:23 There’s No Linear Journey
14:56 Cho Cho- The Clean, Super Protein
19:38 What’s Next for Mikuna?
22:02 A Prie Time for Functional Foods
Resources:
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Inspirational Quotes:
03:45 “Regenerative is much about an agricultural practice, as it is a strategy to ensure that every aspect of the business is really thinking about their footprint today and tomorrow.” -Tara Kriese
06:59 “Many people go plant-based for health reasons before it was a trend.” -Justine Reichman
10:54 “Plants can taste good…. That was something that had to happen to unleash innovation and money flowing into what can become the future of food.” -Tara Kriese
12:50 “We're the hardest on ourselves… Instead of focusing on those huge end goals, [focus more] on what's more accessible to you.” -Tara Kriese
21:40 “For a world that is going through what we're going through right now, something that literally needs nothing once you put it in the ground is idyllic.” -Tara Kriese
26:50 “Getting scrappy is one of the best qualities you could have when you're in a startup. You got to get dirty, you got to not push things off on other people, you got to be willing to do it yourself.” -Justine Reichman
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good afternoon, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. And today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Tara from Mikuna Foods. Welcome, Tara.
Tara Kriese: Hello, Justine, it's great to be here. Thank you for the invitation.
Justine Reichman: I'm so glad that we get to have this chat. I've been reading up about Mikuna Foods. I'm excited to learn even what you did today by going to Erewhon, making smoothies and just seeing all the different ways that you guys can use this product. But for those out there that are unfamiliar with Mikuna Foods, let's start there. Can you tell everybody what Mikuna Foods is?
Tara Kriese: Yeah. Mikuna Foods, well, right now, we have three products, all based on a regenerative crop called chocho that comes from Ecuador. The crop itself, chocho, is grown in the Andes mountains between 11,000 and 14,000 feet. When it grows there, it's grown by indigenous farmers who have literally been planting it as the regenerative overwinter crap for millennia dating back pre [inaudible].
Justine Reichman: Wow. Oh, my god. So wait, before we go any further though, I just want to circle back because so many people that I have on, and just in day to day life are talking about regenerative. And I just want to just address this for a moment because I feel like so many people have different definitions of this, or we're just starting to really wrap our heads around what regenerative means. So I'd love to just ask you, from your vantage point, if you could just talk to us a little bit about what regenerative means to you for our listeners.
“Regenerative is much about an agricultural practice, as it is a strategy to ensure that every aspect of the business is really thinking about their footprint today and tomorrow.” -Tara Kriese
Tara Kriese: Yeah. So the founder of Mikuna, Ricky Echenique and I share a vision of wanting to ensure that the planet is here for future generations. And you hear a lot of people, brands, initiatives, governmental bodies talk about sustainability, and it's great. Not dissing companies who are focusing on sustainability mission, but to sustain means to maintain the current course or the current trajectory. When in fact, California was on fire last year, lots of places on the planet, we're still on fire. I don't know if we want to sustain that. We want to be on a mission to actually allow planet Earth to regenerate and to focus on supply chains, and crops, and initiatives, and strategies that put things back into the soil, the environment, the air, the water that allow the systems to thrive. Once again, we need to remove those components that are actually causing climate change, and fires, hurricanes and things like that. And so when I say regenerative, it's not just about things like folks like his the ground are focused on which is agricultural. Because yes, that's incredibly important. And sourcing regenerative crops, planting and using agricultural methods that are in fact regenerative, returning nutrients and things that the soil needs. But strategies that are regenerative as well, getting into working with communities like us, the indigenous people. So for me, regenerative is much about an agricultural practice as it is a strategy to ensure that every aspect of the business is really thinking about their footprint today and tomorrow.
Justine Reichman: I like that. And I think that really breaks it down for people. So I'm excited for your explanation and the opportunity for our listeners to be able to really hear from your perspective.
Tara Kriese: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Justine Reichman: So thanks for sharing that with us. So Mikuna, let's talk about it. So you talked about your founder a little bit, and how did you get involved in this? How did this land in your lap?
Tara Kriese: Yeah. So Ricky and I were introduced by one of our angel investors last year, actually 2020. I'm glad I've lost track of time in COVID land. In the fall of 2020, one of our angel investors, Ricky, a young man, native Ecuadorian didn't set out to have a food company one day, he was a professional athlete. He played tennis and played his first pro match at 14. Brought himself to the States as a teenager by himself, and ended up going through UCSB playing tennis and even playing post grad in pursuit of a professional career. And when he was in his mid 20's, training for a bit on the Ecuadorian Olympic team, he got sick. He had three autoimmune conditions hit all at once. And those autoimmune conditions put him in bed for almost 18 months, and ended his hopes of a professional career because the kind of training that's involved in that kind of pursuit of athletic endurance might be incongruent with autoimmune diseases. While he was working on trying to recover, he went plant based. And it was the first thing that actually calmed his system down and calm the inflammation.
And from there, that's what inspired the idea to create a functional beverage based upon a lot of the plants and crops he was familiar with from his childhood, and the Amazon, in the Andes. And fast forward a couple of years later, he had already started working on chocho and had started concepting the products we're working with today, and took on a couple of angel investors who are fantastic humans. And it was by way of getting a chance to have a conversation with him that I understood the power of this amazing crop and ingredient that I said, sign me up for whatever way I can help you. And it started in an advisory capacity. But last summer, they actually asked me to join a CEO and take the helm of the company.
Justine Reichman: Wow, that's amazing. So what's your experience coming into this in food?
“Many people go plant-based for health reasons before it was a trend.” -Justine Reichman
Tara Kriese: It's limited, but it's intense. So we'll start with my personal connection. I've been plant based for almost two decades now.
Justine Reichman: That's before it even became, I would say a trend popular, or a form of, I like to say, many people go plant based for health reasons. I mean, before it was a trend, right?
Tara Kriese: You hit the nail on the head, but it was my health. I have an almost 20 year old daughter who is now a sophomore in college, but she was born 20 years ago with 125 life threatening allergies that can kill her in less than 60 seconds.
Justine Reichman: Wow.
Tara Kriese: And our diet, growing up, a well rounded meal in my household was corn, mashed potatoes and a pork chop that if I threw it, it could probably kill someone, the way my mother cooked it. So when we got the list of things that my daughter was allergic to, effectively, what was left was plants. And so her dad and I, we started off our mission towards this plant based diet that's made my daughter's life entirely possible. And then an incredible career in tech, so I was a while back when dial up sounds mattered. Brand managed AIM, do you remember your screen name?
Justine Reichman: I do remember mine.
Tara Kriese: T47@aol.com, there you go. There's always a number. And then I spent almost seven years at Microsoft working across their online services division. So Windows Live, being worked in Windows, worked on their search product. And then went to Amazon, worked on The Secret Letter projects teams that were Jeff Secret Letter Projects Teams, which now are all the devices that are permeating our lives. And then went to Samsung and worked for the North American CMO. Had a great career in tech, but I was watching my career become more about corporate politics than impact, and so I decided to go start up. In 2017, I had the opportunity to join Impossible Foods as the SVP of Marketing, and was there to launch the Impossible Burger brand. So I had a lot of fascinating experiences. But the underpinning of this all was that I always wanted the latter part of my career to be on something that made an impact. My parents like the joke that I was always the kid that cared about the wrapping paper getting used by somebody else, even in the 90's when recycling wasn't a thing. So it's always been part of my DNA. But having a daughter where food has literally been life or death in so many ways, and then seeing the material impact that going plant based had on my health, now getting to work on something that could change, not just plant based food industry, but the future food all together. I'm working on a dream right now.
“Plants can taste good…. That was something that had to happen to unleash innovation and money flowing into what can become the future of food.” -Tara Kriese
Justine Reichman: That's amazing. It's amazing how you get to have all these experiences and then be able to land in an opportunity that allows you to follow your dream and take that experience. And now, really be able to follow something that gets you to have the impact. You want to be able to change the future of food and have such a huge impact on something that's so personal to you. It really, for me, is the dream.
Tara Kriese: Yeah. Unbelievable, and understanding that when you see and understand from even being inside food now. So a lot of people are polarized by what's gone in the plant based food industry. There are people who are super excited about the fact that there's so many choices and options. There are people who are more purists and they're like, wow, things are super processed, and they're a little afraid of that. I look at what we did in impossible, say shirts processed, and there are a lot of things. No one ever tried to say that that burger was healthy for you, but it did one thing that was super important. And I think it is necessary for jobs, like I have opportunities to talk about food like we're going to, that it shows everyone, not just plant based eaters, but omnivores, carnivores that plants can taste good.
Justine Reichman: Uh huh.
Tara Kriese: And that was that catalytic moment of, oh, wow. That was something that had to happen to really unleash innovation and money flowing into what can become the future of food. So I'm really looking at it from the standpoint of now, getting a chance to work on this crop, and what it can mean for things like the next use cases that are coming Beyond Burgers and Nuggets, because we got enough of those now. The next use cases, because we eat a lot more than burgers and nuggets. That's where I'm pretty excited.
Justine Reichman: And there's so much coming up. I mean, we see it even with a mainstream Kentucky Fried Chicken. I mean, as crazy as it seems, I'm sure you saw what was going on this week, what they showed in Kentucky Fried Chicken. You can talk about that if you want, but we're really here to talk about your journey and Mikuna. I want you to share a little bit more about that. I do want to just circle back because we did talk about something that's really important, in your journey and my journey, had all these experiences, and then be able to come to where you are today and be able to have this opportunity to do what you're so passionate about. And I just want to take a minute and see if you have any advice for the younger entrepreneurs out there. I don't want to gloss right over that. I think that's a really important point, and I think that I want to take a minute and just let you maybe expand on that for those listening, that maybe are younger or haven't had the chance to be where you are yet, and they're still on that journey.
Tara Kriese: Yeah, and we're all on a journey. We're constantly--
“We're the hardest on ourselves… Instead of focusing on those huge end goals, [focus more] on what's more accessible to you.” -Tara Kriese
Justine Reichman: We have more to do on this journey. But from where you're sitting today, what would you tell that younger self or that younger entrepreneur that hasn't been there?
Tara Kriese: Well, I'd say, it's twofold. I'd say that most paths are nonlinear. Many of us, especially those of us who are super driven and trying to chase our dreams, we're the hardest on ourselves. And at times, it seems like the next destination is not in front of you, not possible, or what is the natural path that's going to get you there? Instead of focusing on those giant, huge end goals, what's more accessible to you? And where can you get the kind of access experience or ability to demonstrate your capability? Even in similar capacities that are adjacent or maybe even not necessarily adjacent, but applicable that will allow you to build repertoire and as well as just functional back experience that you can once you do get that opportunity. Because if you care and are passionate about something in life, for me, this so called plant based journey that I've had a very personal experience with, I believe that those things end up converging, or you have opportunities that converge just by virtue of being passionate and caring so much about that. So don't beat yourself up so much about not having that perfect linear vision of where things are going to be tomorrow, because I just think that we are often our own worst critics. And we think there's this audience watching and it's so performative at times in it, and it doesn't really need to be that way.
Justine Reichman: I think that's brilliant. And I think that that's really insightful. So I hope that our listeners and our viewers that are joining us today take a minute to just soak that in. So thank you for sharing that. I want to get back to Mikuna here, what we're here to talk about in addition to your journey and just hear a little bit more about it. And right now, we've heard a little bit about it, but I'd like to just know. Today, you guys were in Erewhon, you're making your smoothies, what's your vision for going forward? It's still a new product and you still got a few different things that we were talking about. Let's get back to that and share with us maybe where you guys are headed this year, and what your plans are?
Tara Kriese: Yeah. Let's come back to the crop itself and why it's so Important. And that's really why I'm here because we have amazing products. And having a protein supplement was not something that I thought I would, there's amazing protein supplements on the market and did I think that I would join a company that was putting another protein supplement on the market. It is an amazing product for that court use case. But really, it's at that crop level. That is why I'm here and I'm most excited. So chocho itself, when grown in that environment, again, 11 to 14,000 feet in the Andes Mountains, produces a crop of Lupin. Lupin Chocho is one of four lupins humans can eat on the planet. So the other three are yellow, blue and white. Chocho is a far superior nutritional crop to those, but also a nutritional superior to any plant based protein on the planet. So it has over 54% protein. Meaning, more than half of it is protein. That protein is high quality protein with all nine branched chain amino acids. That sounds like I'm speaking Greek to somebody. But what that means is that like those houseplants that are behind me here that you can see in Zoom, just them, protein too. But if I go, those that's not going to do anything for my muscles. It's the quality of that protein and having all those nine branched chain amino acids at levels that far exceed what the USDA says, constitutes a complete protein, it also has over 20% oil. And that oil is second in quality only to olive oil, and it's full of maggots. It's also high in iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium, potassium and has several of the vitamins.
Justine Reichman: So is there anything else out there that you would compare this to?
Tara Kriese: No. Soy is 36% protein by weight, P is 34, and everything else is lower. So far a superior source of protein.
Justine Reichman: Okay. So here's my big question, how does it taste? Because everything comes down to taste.
Tara Kriese: That's the kicker, right? So food first, put in your mouth, how does it taste right? It has an incredibly mild neutral profile. So just using the pure chocho, so our first skew which has literally one ingredient, just the mill chocho is fantastic on its own. I stick mine in oatmeal because I'm lazy. I don't pick fruit, do smoothies. I can't be bothered with chopping lots of things. That's a weekend activity, that's not everyday activity in my head. And we also have two flavors, vanilla, cacao, and each of them, for folks who are more familiar with having a flavor protein supplement, they have four additional ingredients to get to either the vanilla or the cacao flavoring. But what you have is this incredibly clean, single protein source, very low ingredient list protein that on top of that, when we bitter the chocho, when it goes through the bittering process, we remove all of the alkaloids and antinutrients. Effectively, we remove the lectins. That's the stuff that makes you feel bloated when you eat something as pea protein, or soy protein. Super, super clean protein source. So it tastes neutral, and none of the bloating.
Justine Reichman: Nobody wants bloating.
Tara Kriese: That's the worst part. So when you combine those two things, today, we're protein supplements. But really, where we're going in the long term view and why I'm here is this has the potential and ingredient level to literally change the future of food.
Justine Reichman: Now, do you consider yourself a functional food?
Tara Kriese: We are a premium functional nutrition brand Mikuna. And the product line that is Mikuna will always be a super clean, premium functional product for people who care deeply about what they put into their body, and the performance of that food. We like to call our target audience, the high velocity performer. Might be an athlete, but might be someone who just expects their body to keep up with them and whatever that means. But that food got to make me go because I'm going to go anyway. And so really clean profile foods. We have a snack line that's coming in the future that can't say too much about today.
Justine Reichman: That was my next question. I was wondering what other skew is going to be coming up with down the line.
Tara Kriese: I can't talk too much about the details, but there is a snack coming. And then there are future developments beyond after that. There's a lot of addressability and capability with this that we are ring fencing right now. But in addition to that, we already have a few B2B customers that we took on early. They're smaller businesses because we're a small growing business. If we were gonna mess up the supply chain side, we wanted it to be with friends. There's a company called Kroma Wellness, and we are in more than half of her skews already. And so for us, it's as much about the products the Mikuna can bring, but really at an ingredient level, I'm going to be able to create competitive products to go up against the future of soy and pea protein. So today, where Mikuna is today, but why we're all here, and we have a fairly impressive executive team for a company that's only been in business for a year. And it's because of the potential of this crop and its ingredients on a stage to change food.
Justine Reichman: So we've talked about the next three to five years, where do you guys see yourself?
“For a world that is going through what we're going through right now, something that literally needs nothing once you put it in the ground is idyllic.” -Tara Kriese
Tara Kriese: I see ourselves first is the Mikuna brand servicing customers across, not just this country, but several geographies. With the Mikuna premium functional brand, I see servicing foodservice customers as an ingredient partner with both just the mill chocho but also getting into the future of what ingredients can look like. And then also being servicing much larger industrial food with ingredients in the long term. So there's a lot of potential here, because it has the profile that it does. And then bringing it back to that early piece around your question, around what does regenerative mean, it's quite literally the perfect climate change food because it doesn't require irrigation of any kind. It's a cover crop itself. It's harvested above ground. It's cut above ground, so we're not disturbing the root system. And it grows in this incredibly harsh environment. For a world that is going through what we're going through right now, something that literally means next to nothing once you put it in the ground, that is idyllic. So it's really truly a dream and a mission that we're referring to.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I'm curious. In the last few years, obviously, you've been doing this during COVID, how has COVID impacted the growth of the company?
Tara Kriese: Well, in a lot of ways, like a lot of other categories that are focused on health and wellness, there's been a lot of pluses for us because people are very focused on staying healthy right now. And so for the category of food that we're in, in premium functional nutrition, that part has been a great journey for us. Back to the Erewhon question, not only have we launched our direct to consumer offering, and we're available on Amazon, but early last year, Erewhon approached us. That doesn't happen. I have a lot of friends, your friends are like, how did you do that? But we've been in all Erewhon locations here in Southern California since last March. And the COVID impacted them in the beginning of the year, once things started opening up and people got back to going out, we launched a beverage with them with our sleeve to our beverage, it was called Regenerada, in October, and it was a collaboration between Mikuna and Erewhon. And that beverage was the strongest beverage launch in the history of Erewhon.
Justine Reichman: Congratulations.
Tara Kriese: Because you've been in LA before, it'd be at the Erewhon Tonic Bar. The product is huge, but that led them to want to take on Mikuna as the official plant protein of Erewhon. And so now, we are the plant protein of choice at all--
Justine Reichman: Wow. That's a big deal. Congratulations.
Tara Kriese: So honestly, it was a great year for proof of concept for us. And the impact of COVID really was more on, we've had to be careful in the supply chain, we've had to be careful, particularly in Ecuador, making sure that communities stay healthy that are working against our supply chain. But as a business, because of the category we're in, I think it probably ultimately helped us.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, it sounds like you guys had a stellar year. It sounds like you guys really did, you were able to really challenge yourselves. See if the concept worked, see how people reacted to it, try it. You're getting solicited by people, you're getting really great feedback. I mean, it sounds like a win. It sounds like you've done everything right, and everybody's loving it so that's amazing. Congratulations.
Tara Kriese: Thank you. We have such an incredible support network from our earliest investors through, we have over 51 private mission driven investors so far.
Justine Reichman: I am curious, on a personal level, you come from a background being in large corporate America, AOL, Microsoft, and now here you are at a startup. I'm curious a little bit about that journey for you, what it's like for you to go from a larger corporation to now being in a startup?
Tara Kriese: I was always the anti corporate inside of corporate anyway. It was funny because, and I think you asked earlier about advice for younger folks. I didn't come from Stanford or one of the beautiful college brands, I went to a smaller college in the middle of Pennsylvania. And getting AOL was a dream. I got on AOL very, very early. Early 90's and long dreamed of working there. But getting to Microsoft in particular, I had a huge chip on my shoulder walking around the halls of Microsoft when I first arrived, because everybody seemed to have gone to IVy this, IVy that, incredibly big consulting company experience. I'm going to get found out. Huge imposter syndrome, huge. And my way of dealing with that was always, I know how to get stuff done. I knew how to be scrappy, and I had that edge. And so I always focused on not only being strategic, but getting stuff done. That profile of just always staying close to the work, and knowing how to get stuff done is literally startup because whether it's your chief cook, FedEx, you just got to get the stuff done and stay strategic. So while I'd say that the corporate background has polished me, particularly for investor conversations and presentations, making sure I understand how to construct partnership agreements with large corporations that might be partners with us in the future, really, that scrappy kid background is what serves me well in startup land.
Justine Reichman: I understand wholesaling. I mean, years ago, I worked at PWC, and I really am the girl that just fixes things. I know how to fix problems. My partner calls me the fixer. I don't mean that like that. You saw that movie where they have the fixer?
“Getting scrappy is one of the best qualities you could have when you're in a startup. You got to get dirty, you got to not push things off on other people, you got to be willing to do it yourself.” -Justine Reichman
Tara Kriese: Yeah.
Justine Reichman: Okay, so maybe not like that, but I know exactly what you mean. So getting scrappy I think is one of the best qualities you could have when you're in a startup, because that's what you got to be. You got to be scrappy, got to get dirty, not push things off on other people, you got to be willing to do it yourself. If you're not willing to do it yourself and you're always looking to give it off to somebody else, that's not really the entrepreneurial spirit. It's more of a team oriented thing where everybody's willing to do everything in anything. And it's not about whose job it is. Yes, as you grow, it's about expanding that. But regardless, there's times when we just all pick up the pieces, and we all do everything in anything to get it done. It just doesn't matter.
Tara Kriese: Entirely. It's so hands on.
Justine Reichman: Hands on. So Tara, thank you so much for joining me. I really had such a good time getting to know you. I had such a great time learning about Mikuna and your journey. I just want to thank you for joining me, and I want to know how would our listeners get a hold of you if they wanted to connect with you, learn more about Mikuna, maybe find out about a partnership, you never know who's listening and paying attention. So I want to make sure that if people want to reach out, they know how to get a hold of you.
Tara Kriese: Just tara@mikunafoods.com, super easy. And they can find us and our products at mikunafoods.com. We welcome, I hope to God that everybody checks out what Chocho is, and I'm grateful for this opportunity, Justine. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you and get to know you. Thank you for this opportunity.
Justine Reichman: You want to offer a discount code?
Tara Kriese: The discount, 20% off with code essential.
Justine Reichman: Wonderful. Thanks so much for doing that. Our guests will love it. So what's the website they go to?
Tara Kriese: mikunafoods.com, and Mikuna is spelled M-I-K-U-N-A.
Justine Reichman: Perfect, thanks so much. Thank you, and I want to thank all our listeners and viewers for tuning in today. We're here every week, so thanks so much for tuning in.
