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PEACASA protein-packed Chickpea Chips

Grown from a gap in the snack food category, Canadian founders of PEACASA bring a better way to snack direct from the Mediterranean

Company: PEACASA

Introduced: May 2020

Distribution: National

Suggested Retail Price: $4.99

Product Snapshot: PEACASA, Canada’s newest snack company, has announced the next phase of growth to bring an all new healthy snack option to the market in 2020.

Founded by Canadian youth entrepreneurs and recent University of Ottawa graduates, PEACASA is preparing for an official launch of its 100 percent Chickpea based chips in Sea Salt and Lime & Pepper flavors.

Made from five simple ingredients including chickpea flour, high-oleic sunflower oil, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper, PEACASA Chickpea Chips have 8 grams of protein; 2x more than potato or corn chips, as well as 4 grams of fibre, and are grain-free, gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO.

The idea of creating chips made from chickpeas stemmed from a 12-day Mediterranean hiking adventure in the Mountains of Corsica. PEACASA co-founders Aaron Johnstone and Victor Courarie-Delage discovered a delicious wood-fired crepe made from chickpea flour in the street markets of the South of France. The pair decided to recreate this Mediterranean super snack as a thin and crispy chip.

“Growing up between Ontario and the South of France, I always dreamt of bringing parts of the Mediterranean food culture to Canada. I wanted to show that simple quality ingredients are all we really need to make healthy and delicious snacks,” said Victor Courarie-Delage, co-founder of PEACASA.

In March 2019, Johnstone and Courarie-Delage decided to pursue building the healthy snack business in the Toronto-area full time.

“Making chickpea chips by hand, we sold PEACASA at Toronto farmers markets and listened to feedback from every single customer. Despite being told by industry veterans that we could not make a chip out of chickpeas without adding rice or corn like other bean-based chips, we were stubborn and never gave up on our commitment to using only simple Mediterranean ingredients.

We re-worked and fine tuned our recipe hundreds of times until Peacasa Chickpea Chips were light, crispy, and even more delicious than the warm chickpea crepes we first enjoyed in the street markets of Southern France,” said Aaron Johnstone, co-founder of PEACASA.

PEACASA has secured funding from Toronto based start-up program, Futurpreneur, and is now looking to raise additional capital through crowdfunding site Kickstarter in order to build a new manufacturing facility for the official launch of the product. The PEACASA Kickstarter campaign launches May 19th, 2020 and the company plans to enter the natural retail and online channels later this year.