Soul Grain granola blends BFY benefits with flavor and flair

The better-for-you brand offers innovative flavors like Purple Grain and Banana Pudding.

Granola makers often aim for the middle ground between nutrition and indulgence, and many producers struggle to achieve the balance. Sometimes, they struggle with obtaining the palate-pleasing flavors that consumers crave, or perhaps they don’t quite hit the better-for-you mark, with nutrition labels bearing sugar or fat content that might be a little too high for health-conscious consumers.

Liza Maya and Sylvia Williams believe they’ve hit the right note. The long-time friends are the creative minds behind Soul Grain, a company that offers a portfolio of granolas with premium ingredients, intriguing flavors (like Purple Grain, a take on sweet potato casserole), and appealing crispy texture. What’s more, the brand is adding color to the category—the Black women impart their wares with flavors and names inspired by African-American culture and tempting soul food treats.

To learn more about the company, its innovations, and plans for the future, Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery connected with Maya and Williams.

Jenni Spinner: Could you please tell me a little about yourselves—how did you (a pastry chef and a nutritionist) manage to meet up in the times before the company got started?

Liza Maya: Sylvia and I have a long history. We initially met over a decade ago through our partners who were members of the Grammy-nominated band Mint Condition. Sylvia is an amazing and talented pastry chef with a beautiful gift of being able to put flavors together innovatively and delightfully. As a nutritionist, I found her skills fascinating and started dreaming of a collaboration.

Sylvia Williams: As Liza said, we connected through our partners who had been band members and friends for decades. As a result, we were around each other a lot and developed a close friendship. Our children have grown up together, and our sons have also collaborated in business.

JS: Then, please share a little bit about the conversations you had that led up to founding Soul Grain. What gaps in the food industry came up in your chats that helped fuel the company’s creation?

LM: Let’s be honest, the granola aisles lacked a little vibrance, taste, spices, and innovation! We wanted to create a product that filled that “white space” and introduce a healthy granola line without compromising taste and texture.

SW: Our initial focus was to create something healthy, quick, and easily accessible. As working mothers with children who were small at the time, we wanted to make a snack that we all could enjoy as we went about our busy days, without resorting to unhealthy items out of convenience. We initially experimented with a bar, but I couldn’t get it exactly how I wanted it, so Liza had the bright idea of deconstructing it and making granola.

Once we had that decided, we knew we had to make it cool. As Liza mentioned, granola was generally considered boring, and we wanted to make anything but.

JS: As you point out, Soul Grain is a unique company with some stand-out products. First, could you please tell us what makes the granolas you’re putting out in the world unique? Feel free to talk about the choice of ingredients, product flavors, layering of textures, etc.

LM: We were intentional about picking ingredients that are not only beneficial for our health but also a reflection of our heritage. We wanted to introduce the world to flavors and recipes that they may not have been familiar with! Our mission is to be inclusive, share the beauty of diversity, and bring us together through the universal language of food; granola is simply our vessel, crafted to nourish body, mind, and soul while celebrating the unique flavors and cultures that connect us all.

SW: Each flavor is derived from our cultural backgrounds, iconic soul food recipes, or representative of some aspect of the Black diaspora. In addition to our unique flavors, we wanted a different texture than what we had commonly found in the granola aisle, so we made ours light and crispy, as opposed to being hard and crunchy. Additionally, we use the highest quality, premium ingredients, including organic fruit powders and vanilla bean paste. We are gluten-free and contain no canola oil.

Also, for us, the granola is not just about food –it is an entire cultural experience. As such, each flavor has its own corresponding Spotify playlist which can be found by scanning a QR code on the back of the bag. For example, our Coco Mango flavor has a Caribbean Dancehall Mix curated by DJ Severe, the official DJ of the World Series champs the LA Dodgers.

JS: Your backgrounds make you uniquely equipped to deliver foods with a range of BFY benefits. Do you think you could please tell us a bit about how good nutrition can benefit brain health, for example, and how the ingredients in Soul Grain might benefit mental and other aspects of health?

LM: I am passionate about learning as much as I can about the correlation between food and mood. It is now a mainstream concept that what we put in our mouths has a definite effect on how we feel. All of our flavors feature amaranth, gluten-free oats, and coconut oil for the benefits of mood and mental well-being:

Amaranth: rich in magnesium, tryptophan, protein, B vitamins, and antioxidants
Gluten-free oats: help to steady blood sugar, high in tryptophan, rich in magnesium, B vitamins, gut health benefits, and a complex carb which helps combat irritability and fatigue
Coconut oil: rich in MCTs which is a great energy source for the brain; has anti-inflammatory properties; contains antioxidants; boosts serotonin; and stabilizes blood sugar

The rest of our ingredients are recipe-dependent but all just as beneficial to our mood and mental health. We picked spices and nuts that have anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidant power, and help with brain protection.

SW: As you can see, Liza brings the nutritional knowledge to our relationship, and I bring the flavor. Liza told me what she wanted to achieve nutritionally, and I made it happen, combining components from a list of ingredients that met our dietary goals. It was a delicate dance.

JS: What makes Soul Grain stand out as a company? Feel free to point to your backgrounds, talk about your philosophy and mission, etc.

LM: I believe that our duo of licensed nutritionists and pastry chefs makes us able to deliver recipes that are delicious, fun, and innovative without compromising our health. We made sure to include some iconic soul food recipes to ignite nostalgia in some while introducing them to others. Again, Soul Grain aims to bring us all together through the power of sharing ourselves through food.

SW: Nostalgia is a big component of our brand, right down to our name, logo, and packaging. For some, to dive into a bowl of our Sweet Potato Casserole granola is also akin to diving into the past - like enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s house. For others, Coco Mango might bring to mind their last Caribbean vacation. Or, Banana Pudding might remind someone of a backyard BBQ from way back, with a 90’s R&B playlist to match.

JS: It’s awesome to see a business owned by women of color grow and grab the attention of retailers, publications like Us Weekly, and hungry consumers. Did you want to talk about some of the challenges unique to female and minority founders, and any resources available to founders like you?

LM: Although the journey has been and remains fun, we have faced some obstacles. Access to funding is the main one. It is well known that women entrepreneurs, sadly, receive less business funding than our male counterparts. Thankfully we have been part of great incubators like Target, Lunar, and Connect UP! which gave us access to some funding. Our biggest hope is to someday, be able to help founders like ourselves and pass the torch!

SW: In addition to funding challenges, a lack of experience in running a CPG business was a hurdle to jump. We are still learning new things every day, but participating in the Target, Lunar, and Connect UP! cohorts helped equip us with the knowledge to get us this far. Tarte Cosmetics has also been a great ally, by granting us a Shape Your Future Award, combining a stipend with education sessions, and also ordering our products for their gift bags and promotions. We also have won Hyvee Pitch competitions twice, first as a Judges Choice Award recipient, then as a recipient of their Grand Prize. All that to say, help is hard to find, but it is out there. To parrot what Liza has said, we would love to be in a position to help other women founders one day.

JS: What’s next for Soul Grain? Feel free to share a sneak peek of any new flavors or products, new retail outlets, etc.

LM: We are looking forward to growing and becoming a household name, bringing more innovative flavors to market, and expanding our offerings with bars, cookbooks, and lifestyle branding!

JS: Anything to add?

SW: We really love what we are doing and we hope we’ve created an experience our consumers love just as much! Love, Peace, and Soul Grain!

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Jenni Spinner is the chief editor of Snack Food and Wholesale Bakery with more than 25 years of experience in business-to-business communications. She has written extensively about food production, safety and packaging; pharmaceutical drug development; concrete and masonry construction; and more. She holds a Bachelor’s in Communications from the University of Illinois. Jenni can be reached at spinnerj@bnpmedia.com.