PETALING JAYA, March 6 — Among their friends, Nicholas See (Nick) and Janell Tan (Nell) are known as the CrossFit couple. From meal preparations to working out together, fitness is a big part of their lives.
Since they both shared the love of fitness together, they wanted to start something that promotes healthy living and nutritious eating. After going through a few ideas, they founded The Kettlebowl together with Nell’s cousin, Yen; selling healthy snacks in the form of granola.
“At first The Kettlebowl was not intended to be a product. It was a fitness platform because we work out together and we wanted to have fitness videos of us and healthy cooking. We had a Facebook page where we posted workouts and interesting recipes,” said Nell.
Then, Yen joined the couple and suggested they start a food delivery business but after some discussion, they realised that it was not for them. So how did they end up making and selling granola?
One day, Nick and Nell invited friends for dinner and they made granola for dessert. When they served it to their friends, they were so impressed that they suggested the couple sell it. Spurred by the interest, they decided to launch the granola under The Kettlebowl brand. Both of them come up with all the various flavours but they have to be approved by Nick’s fussy tastebuds. Since Nell’s day job involves marketing for a multi-national FMCG company, she also juggles the marketing for The Kettlebowl while Yen who is a banker does the financial part of the startup.
“The granola is made to order so we make small batches weekly. There is no minimum order and you can order online. We use German steel cut oats, imported nuts and dried fruits from a baking supplier,” said Nell.
Currently The Kettlebowl has four flavours: Maple Pecan...Ginger?!, Chocolat, PB & K and Coco-Ca-Cash. From time to time, they will introduce seasonal flavours like the GranONGlai that was a special for Chinese New Year.
Their granola is made of five base ingredients: oats, nuts, dried fruits, honey and oil. Usually, the granola can last for a couple of months depending on how you store it. “We came up with the recipes through trial and error. It took us about a month or so to try out different recipes before we settled on the current flavours. To get a feel of things, we would walk down the supermarket aisle, checking out what could work because we don’t want to make something typical,” said Nick.
According to him, it was pure luck that he came up with the first flavour. Maple Pecan is a common flavour which can be found anywhere but he wanted to make something different. He saw some candied ginger and wondered if it could work well with Maple Pecan. After experimenting with it, they came up with the Maple Pecan...Ginger?! flavour.
All the flavours you find at The Kettlebowl are something that the trio would personally eat at home.
“You can eat the granola with milk, yoghurt, fresh fruit. Some of our customers also top it on salads and make an affogato with our granola!” said Nell. Although people have a perception that granola is a breakfast meal, The Kettlebowl founders noticed that customers eat it throughout the day. Housewives are also very fond of The Kettlebowl granola as well as fitness enthusiasts.
“People find out about us through our official site, social media and word of mouth. We also collaborate with cafes and restaurants. They list us as a partner so people can choose to pick up our granola from their restaurant instead of paying for delivery,” said Nell.
“We do not use processed sugars in our baking, everything is natural. There are no preservatives. Our customers request nutrition facts so we provide that too,” said Nick.
The name The Kettlebowl came about because they wanted to find a name that can relate food to fitness. Sounding similar to kettlebell or the cast iron weight often used for fitness training, even their packaging has a picture of the kettlebell that signifies the healthy meaning behind their granola. The trio not only has plans to expand their product range to other healthy snacks but also focus on other areas such as fitness training and opening up a gym in the future.
“What makes us different from other granola brands is that they focus on the product while we focus more on promoting the brand, to think of it as a lifestyle,” said Nick. “Our granola helps people become fitter and stronger. The key thing is that fitness does not have to be a painful journey. We want to share how to make it fun and sustainable,” said Nell.
Find out more about The Kettlebowl granola at www.thekettlebowl.com
The Kettlebowl ships to West and East Malaysia where a delivery fee applies. A pack of 400 grams is RM28, while a sampler pack of four is RM38.
