I'm so excited about this new product on the market that launched July 11, 2020. Mezcla is a new protein bar on the market using. And since its inception, the website has been revamped and looks beautiful. https://eatmezcla.com/. Learn more about Mezcla's uniqueness with their food + art + community culture.
Note, the company did not pay for this review.
1) Who are the founders and why Mezcla?
During co-founder, Griffin Spolansky’s, senior year in a social entrepreneurship class at the University of Virginia, the initial seed for Mezcla was sown. The class demonstrated the notion that successful businesses could also be socially conscious through featuring guest lecturers every week to discuss their businesses. During one of these lectures, Griffin was inspired by one of the speakers, Coco Sotelo, a young woman who immigrated from Mexico to America over ten years ago.
Upon initially arriving in America, Coco struggled to fit into a culture and society that differed so greatly from her native country. So she turned to food as a way to not only remind herself of the life she left behind in Mexico, but also as a way of establishing new roots in a place so foreign to her. Coco began to make and sell granola using ingredients from her hometown.
After hearing her story, Griffin was inspired and the two developed a friendship centered around food. They began to bake in her kitchen, spending hours trying to make products that captured the Mexican culture and her background. Both in the kitchen baking and through conversation around the dinner table, each learned about the other’s background and experiences subconsciously manifesting what Mezcla is all about: the ability of food to connect and foster a sense of community.
Mezcla, meaning mixture in Spanish, was founded by Griffin and Coco in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is a protein bar company focused on celebrating the world’s diversity through food and art.
2) How did you come about with doing local artists?
The idea to use local artists on the front of our bars’ packaging came later in the process. After we established our flavors, we decided to highlight our unique flavor profiles on the front of our wrappers. Although we could have sourced our ingredients from farms within the United States, we wanted to take our product one step further and source certain ingredients from their respective countries. So, we sourced our matcha from Japan, our cocoa from Peru, and our chipotle from Mexico. We wanted to be as authentic as possible and create that community-driven experience which inspired the idea of using local artists on the front of the packaging. The local artists we chose to design our bars’ packaging created an opportunity for the artists to truly express themselves as they ultimately chose what they wanted to highlight on the bars’ wrapping. By giving these three artists a blank canvas and asking them to share their backgrounds and culture as they saw fit, we not only managed to create that sense of community but also act as a forum for expression.
3) How did you find out the flavors?
Choosing and creating the flavor profiles for Mezcla was mainly a process of trial and error starting in Coco’s kitchen. We wanted to create flavors that were different and unique to the protein bar space. We tested out a lot of different flavor pairings and bar textures until we were ultimately satisfied with the final three flavors: Japanese Matcha Vanilla, Peruvian Cocoa Peanut Butter, and Mexican Chipotle Hot Chocolate.
4) Why pea protein?
We didn’t want to use an animal or soy protein but we knew that we wanted our bars to provide that quick fix of protein to the consumer. We came across pea protein and knew that it would work well for us because another large factor we were focused on was the texture. We wanted our bars to have that crunch factor that so many bars in the space lack.
Another large factor that led us to pea protein was the health benefits. We wanted our bar to be that tasty, plant-based yet healthy protein alternative and we were able to achieve just that through our use of pea protein. To name a few health benefits, pea protein is rich in essential amino acids, highly soluble, allergen-free, and great for muscle-building and repair. Another thing that attracted us to pea protein was sustainability. Pea protein requires less water than farming other sources of plant-based protein such as almonds. Pea protein is also known as a regenerative crop as it puts nitrogen back into the soil, ultimately improving the health of the soil.
5) More information on the Kickstarter
We planned to do the Kickstarter for six months as it was very important to us to test the proof of concept and gain some initial funding. We created a video to compliment all the information found on the Kickstarter website.
We were very excited about our feedback and support from the Kickstarter. We launched the campaign in February 2020 and raised over $30,000 in just 30 days.
The Kickstarter campaign was a great way for Mezcla to gauge consumer interest as our brand concept is unique to the protein bar space.
Now to try the bars….
So which bar is the best? So my intern and I tried all of the flavors and enjoyed the Mexican Chipotle Hot Chocolate the most. The unique sweet/hot flavor followed by the crunch was unique. In addition, the sweetness wasn't overpowering as it had the "dark chocolate" elements. To combat the otherwise bitterness from the cocoa besides using sweetness, Mezcla used heat was leaving a lasting mark long after it was consumed.
Our next favorite was the Japanese Matcha Vanilla. Although the matcha flavor wasn't as heavy as I wished it was, I can see the appeal to the general public with the hints of it. The vanilla flavor, in contrast, was more prominent making this overall bar on the sweeter side.
Lastly, the Peruvian Cocoa Peanut Butter was the bottom of the list. Not because it wasn't delicious, but the components of peanut butter and cocoa have been done and are more of comfort food for us. American. In addition, it was on the heavier side. However, I do dare say you should try all three of them and see for yourself.