Tazzy Pivots From Candy To Cookies With Eyes On Bakery Set
The New York-based co-founding team behind hard candy and lollipop brand Tazzy Candy (Booth # 4824A) have reapplied their food scientist backgrounds to the bakery and snack set, pivoting from the brand’s inaugural product type to a new 3-SKU line of Cookie Bites along with the yet-to-be launched second endeavor, with both debuting at the Summer Fancy Food Show this week.
After four years of trying to “make the hard candy business work”, which co-founders Lindsay Simon and Delia Hughes noted has extremely low turns, the first-time Fancy Food show exhibitor has discontinued those items and reemerged with a focus on snackable, chocolate-enrobed mini cookies. While the product format is new to Tazzy, the brand maintained its clean label, low sugar focus.
Hughes said that “outside of knowledge, know-how and [CPG] experience” the team had to virtually start from scratch to rebuild the business around Cookie Bites. However, their experience helped expedite the go-to-market strategy with Hughes claiming it only took the company three months to go from concept to launch.
The Cookie Bites are available in two Milk Chocolate covered varieties – Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip(less) – as well as a Dark Chocolate Vanilla Shortbread. Each 10 oz, single-serve bag contains 140 calories, 6 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein. The co-founders highlighted the short, clean ingredient label, which includes about seven inputs total.
Two SKUs of the Cookie Bite varieties have launched at Whole Foods locations in the Midwest, and the team is now focused on an expansion into the Northeast with the natural retailers and others.
In addition to ramping up distribution, Hughes and Simon are also working to develop a line of clean label, fruit and vegetable-packed baking mixes under a secondary brand known as The Pantry Project. The muffin and cake mixes will contain less than 5 grams of sugar, and be made with unbleached wheat flour, chickpea flour, chia seed, coconut sugar and a combination of carrots, sweet potatoes and/or zucchini.
As for the impetus, the co-founders explained that they surveyed parents of young children and found a common pain point was their desire to bake fresh, carb-heavy breakfasts for their kids, but lacked the time to do so. The team views this new product line as solving a need for parents while the snackable Cookie Bites serve as an affordable luxury and checkout counter add-on.
