Super Body Fuel

Hi everyone,

Happy August! :) It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally releasing our strawberry flavor, with real freeze-dried strawberries! :D We’ve wanted a fruit flavor in the lineup for a long time, and now that we’ve adjusted our recipes to bring down the pH (as of last November) and found a really delicious freeze-dried strawberry supplier, it’s finally a reality.

Based on our disappointing experience with Keto Fuel Coffee (pretty much everyone hated it), we’ve refrained from making a Keto Fuel Strawberry, since the flavor of the strawberry really clashes with the rice protein, and doesn’t create that delicious strawberry cereal taste that you get with the oat-based mixes – not to mention all the carbs that real strawberries introduce. So you get to choose from Super Fuel Strawberry, Athlete Fuel Strawberry, and of course Milk Fuel Strawberry (it’s really good). :) For all you ketoers out there, Keto Fuel Chocolate is still a favorite.

The only drawback with freeze-dried strawberry powder is that it’s really expensive. As in, it becomes the single most expensive ingredient in any product we add it to, even though we’re just using it for flavoring. :p So at our current subscription prices, we would actually lose money selling strawberry, and at our one-off prices, we barely break even.

So naturally, we’ll start by selling it at our one-off price, no subscriptions allowed. This is a test run, and we’ll see what you all think. If you just can’t get enough, and you’d even pay a little more just to have it as a regular option, let us know! Vote with your dollars and your comments. ;)

And no, if we have to use a “natural strawberry flavor” (fake) we won’t do it at all. Strawberry in particular is a really difficult flavor to synthesize well. It just doesn’t compare to the real thing. And we need to have the real thing. That’s how we do it.

Oh, and for those of you with strawberry allergies, we are producing our strawberry batches separately to avoid cross-contamination, so you should be good with your usual flavors. ;)

In other news, we’ve heard your overwhelming response in favor of making scoops an optional add-in to the shipping box, instead of including them automatically with every bag – thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! :D We’ll get to work on switching over our systems and processes to make that happen.

At the same time, we also hear that most of you don’t need the small bags of Milk Fuel, while some of you really love Milk Fuel Original and would be heartbroken to see it go. So we’re just going to stop producing the small Milk Fuel for now, while continuing to produce Original (and the other flavors) in the larger size. If you really want the small, now is the time to stock up! ;) And if you want to adjust the timing of your subscription to account for the larger size, just send us an email with the details and we’ll get that set up for you.

We’ll revisit the fate of Milk Fuel Original later on, so please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback on it too! In the meantime, please enjoy Strawberry and let us know what you think! :D We’re so excited to hear how it goes for you! :)

Thanks everyone!

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy (belated) New Year! ;p

We wanted to have something exciting to share with you for January, so we planned to release a new coffee flavor (yay!) on New Year’s Day, which would have been great timing. But the shipment of coffee powder we ordered was delayed by a few weeks, so, well… we’re releasing it halfway through the month, right now, yay! :D Coffee!

• Caffeinated coffee flavor: now available!
• Pumpkin spice flavor: still selling, until it’s gone.
• January sale! 10% off for the rest of the month: WAKEUPAND
• Athlete Fuel: increasing calories from 2500 to 2600.

Word on the street (well, among the Super Body Fuel team) is that coffee is quite possibly the best flavor yet, even for non-coffee-drinkers like myself. And that’s not counting America’s favorite nootropic, caffeine – one meal of our coffee flavor being the equivalent of about one cup of coffee* (around 100mg). So even if you like the taste, you probably don’t want to have this one for dinner. ;) But if you like coffee in the morning, you might want to give this a try!

Oh, and this is another limited run flavor, like pumpkin spice (did you know we had that?), so again we’ve made one batch of each (Milk Fuel, Super Fuel, Keto Fuel, Athlete Fuel) and we’ll keep making it for at least the end of this month. As far as pumpkin spice, we’ve stopped making new batches, but we’ll keep selling it until it’s out of stock. If you have a problem with that, don’t be shy – let us know. ;)

And yes, we’re doing a January sale this year too. :) Get 10% off everything for the rest of this month with coupon code WAKEUPAND. You know, as in, “Wake up and crush your goals for 2019!” or however the saying goes. Well, whether you’re trying to get woke, or get swole, or just savor each moment (become whole?), we hope we can help make that just a little bit better for you. Best wishes for the new year from all of us at Super Body Fuel. :)

Also, you may have already heard this from us, but Athlete Fuel is getting an adjustment – we’ll be increasing the number of calories slightly, so that the default recipe gives you 2600 calories a day instead of 2500. This should make things a little bit easier and more cost-effective for those you trying to bulk, but most importantly, it makes the meal calories a nice, even 650, so I don’t have to keep being annoyed by the way we have to round 625 to 630 in the Nutrition Facts (thanks, FDA). Perfect! :D

At the same time, we’ll be bringing the Athlete Fuel sodium and potassium amounts to 100% DV as well, down slightly from the rather arbitrary levels they were at before. Thanks again to everyone who weighed in on these changes! Keep on eye out for them over the next month or so. ;)

Happy New Year, you all!

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

* We’re using actual coffee, the instant dissolvable kind, so caffeine content may vary.

Hi everyone,

It’s that time of year again… The time when I look at the calendar and realize that we missed the window of opportunity to release a seasonal pumpkin spice flavor for Super Body Fuel, and that we’re too busy to justify doing something so silly and frivolous when we’re frantically trying to build up a stable production team in time for the new year.

But this year, things are different.

We’re doing it. We’re doing the pumpkin spice (okay, the pumpkin pie spice, for you pedants out there) and we’re doing it only semi-ironically, because it’s delicious. And it’s the real thing – nothing but real, certified organic spices: cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.

Come and get it. We’ve made one batch of each (Milk Fuel, Super Fuel, Keto Fuel, Athlete Fuel), and we’ll make more if you all like it that much, but we’ll only keep making it until the end of the year. That’s the plan, at least. ;)

Thanks to the Super Body Fuel team for keeping this train chugging along so smoothly and getting behind the pumpkin spice crusade with such enthusiasm that I just couldn’t come up with any reasons not to make it happen. You all are awesome. :)

In other news, we’re rolling out an update to the potassium source in Keto Fuel and Super Fuel, because just using Potassium Bicarbonate alone makes the drink too alkaline. In order to bring the pH down and make it more neutral (and easier to digest), we’re using a combination of Dipotassium Phosphate and Potassium Bicarbonate instead, and replacing the Calcium Phosphate with Calcium Citrate, to keep the phosphorus content from getting out of hand. Specifically, the Dipotassium Phosphate will provide 100% DV of phosphorus, with some additional phosphorus coming from the oat flour or rice protein in the mix.

This should not affect the flavor – after a lot of testing, we’ve found that this is the best combination of potassium sources for flavor neutrality, while most other potassium sources have strong bitter or sour notes. And because it’s not so alkaline anymore, it won’t pop and fizz with carbonation after you shake it up, and more importantly, you can add berries to it without the acidic juice reacting with the bicarbonate and tasting weird, yay! :D

Hmm, perhaps a real strawberry flavor could become an option down the road?

Well, let’s see how things go with the pumpkin spice, first. ;)

Have a great holiday season, everyone. :) And we’re not going to do a sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday or anything like that, so don’t wait around for it. Maybe we’ll do an anti-sale, where everything costs twice as much. You’d like that, right? ;p

Thanks and Thanksgiving to you all! :D

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy summer! :) In honor of the summer solstice, the official start of summer, we have a new subscriptions sale for you, as well as a few other announcements:

• Reduced prices: subscriptions now 20% off instead of 10% off!
• Super Protein: hypoallergenic, complete protein mix now available.
• Global vanilla shortage: vanilla extract replacing vanilla bean powder.
• Schmilk Vanilla: it’s finally here!

As you may remember in the beginning of this year, we had a really big sale in January where everything was 20% off or more, right at the point where we’d just about break even. It was a big success in that you all sure bought a lot of stuff (thank you!), but it was also too much for us to handle and we got backlogged for a really long time! :p

Fortunately, we caught up with our backlog two months ago, and have been shipping out next-day or close to it ever since then. Things have been so smooth and stable since then that apparently I’m itching to play with fire again and try out another sale! ;) This time we’ll do a smaller sale – we’ll reduce the price of just subscriptions, and reduce them by $5 instead of $10. That means that Athlete Fuel, normally $50, or $45 for a subscription, is now only $40 for a subscription.

However, for Schmilk, we’re going even further. Just like we’ve subsidized our DIY ingredients and international shipping, offering them at barely breakeven prices while making money on our other products, we’re going to do the same thing with Schmilk. Instead of $30 for Schmilk and $25 for a Schmilk subscription, we’ll be charging $25 for Schmilk and $20 for a Schmilk subscription. We really can’t go any lower than that. But since Schmilk is our low-price option, we really want to make sure it is accessible to everyone, even on a very restrictive budget. So now you can subscribe to a month’s worth of Schmilk for $120, with free shipping, plus up to $60 of whole milk. That’s less than $200 for a month’s worth of complete nutrition. :)

How long will this sale last? My hope is make these price drops permanent, but at the very least we’ll keep it going to through the end of the month. ;) However, this time, we’ll keep the subscriptions at the sale price even after the sale ends, if it ever does. Only new subscriptions will start at the old price, in that case. So it’s a smaller sale, but it’s a sustained sale. If you secure your subscription now, you’ll have it as long as you want. Oh, and if you already have an existing subscription, we’ll make sure to adjust the price for that too, so you don’t have to do anything. ;)

In other news, we’ve recently added Super Protein to our lineup of discounted, high-quality DIY ingredients! Combine it with Super Fiber, Super Electrolytes, and Super Micros, and you get, essentially, Keto Fuel Plain. Or just use it on its own as a hypoallergenic, vegan protein powder with a balanced amino acid profile, that also has a reasonably good taste and texture.

We’re able to sell it for $3 a day (at 100g protein per day) which is competitive with the majority of organic rice protein powder on the market. But ours has added Lysine to balance out the amino acid profile, as well as Cellulose for insoluble fiber to prevent constipation, and a little Xanthan Gum to improve the texture and stability. And we source from a specific manufacturer whose organic rice protein has a much better taste and texture than comparable brands, while also being low in heavy metals. :)

We’ve also, at long last, made Schmilk Vanilla available to order! :) Ironically, this is also when we ran out of our vanilla bean powder, and our supplier actually did not have any more, thanks to the global vanilla bean shortage that has been going on for the past couple years! Fortunately, we were able to find a vanilla extract, made from real vanilla beans, that is on a fructose-free carrier (dextrose, which is essentially just glucose) instead of the sugar-based carrier we had found in the past, so our products are still low-FODMAP friendly even with this change. :D

So far people actually seem to like the taste of the vanilla extract version better, though it’s very subjective (and you don’t get those fancy black vanilla bean specks in the mix anymore!). Let us know what you think – we’re really curious how the new vanilla compares! :)

Speaking of taste, we’ve also updated our labels and our FAQ to recommend avocado oil as the best oil to use for Super Fuel and Keto Fuel, instead of olive oil. I’ve been testing out a bunch of different oils, and avocado oil not only rivals extra virgin olive oil as the healthiest (same lipid profile and more vitamins, but fewer antioxidants), it also tastes the best! Of course, it’s not always as easy to find, and it can be expensive, so we’re also recommending olive oil, high-oleic sunflower oil, and even canola oil as cheaper alternatives, in descending order of price… and quality! :p Say what you will about canola oil, but it’s definitely the least worst of the cheap oils – way better than soybean oil or corn oil.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why you’re not seeing subscriptions on the Super Body Fuel shop page anymore, I found a plugin that finally lets us combine one-time and subscription purchases onto the same product page! :D The old subscription product pages are still there, but they’re not featured anymore because they’re not necessary. Hope you like the new look. ;)

Thanks again, and enjoy the summer! :D

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

We made it to February, phew! :D I don’t know about you, but my New Year’s resolutions went out the window immediately when I got sick for a whole month and we got swamped with a huge backlog, after the rush of January orders combined with a delayed vitamin mix shipment and working past midnight became the new normal. But I hear February is the new January (okay, actually I just made that up), so I’m looking forward to a fresh start this month. :)

Here’s the news:

• The sale continues: reduced prices extended through February!
• New vitamin mix: updated for 2018 Nutrition Facts and more.
• Should we skip the scoops sometimes? Take the survey!

In January, we experimented with lowering prices to the absolute minimum while still covering our costs. I was curious to see if volume would increase, potentially carving out some profit margin again because of lower overhead.

So what happened? Long story short, January sales were up 50% from the monthly average last year, and the number of orders was double that of December! Needless to say, we’ve been very busy. :p And to my pleasant surprise, the increase in volume pretty closely balanced out the decrease in prices, and the overall profit* for January ended up being comparable to that of a typical month last year!

However, it’s hard to say whether this increase is due to the reduced prices, or because it’s January, with the New Year and all that. Clearly, the only way to know for sure is to keep the sale going for February, yay! ;D So that’s what we’re doing. The sale lives on!

http://superbodyfuel.com/shop/

I promise it will end for real when March rolls around, though, because we honestly cannot keep going at this pace without a break! :p We have become so busy that we’ve had to introduce a new role dedicated to shipping orders full-time (congrats to Kunjal on her promotion!) and add a third person to the manufacturing team (welcome to the team, Rhodel!). But I have a feeling the sale will return someday, perhaps even permanently…

In other news, we finally got the new version of our vitamin mix, updated for the revised 2018 Nutrition Facts and some other cool things, like better B vitamins. :) Of course, it came a month late, which put us behind by about two weeks on some of your orders (maybe you noticed!). Fortunately, we’ve been working overtime to bring our wait times back down to a week or less, which should continue to improve throughout the month of February until we can get back to next-day shipping on all orders.

With the new vitamin mix, we’ve introduced activated forms of many B vitamins, while eliminating the forms that can cause problems for those with methylation issues due to a MTHFR gene mutation, such as Folic Acid. Other changes include adding Menaquinone-4 in addition to Menaquinone-7, two complementary forms of Vitamin K2, as well as increasing Vitamin D further from 2400 IU daily to 3200 IU, given mounting evidence that current Vitamin D recommendations are way too low. However, because of the 2018 revisions to the Nutrition Facts label, it may look like there is less Vitamin D, because 3200 IU is now displayed as 80 mcg, which is considered to be 400% of the new Daily Value, in fact a third more than the previous version’s 600% even though it looks like a third less!

Generally speaking, vitamin recommendations have increased slightly for 2018, while minerals and B vitamins have decreased, so 100% DV no longer means the same thing as it used to. But we’ve tried to keep to what is reasonable and optimal, within these constraints. And the new format allows us to show more detailed information about the nutrition in our products, which is certainly a good thing. :) I do plan on doing a detailed writeup of all the vitamins and minerals in the formula, explaining why we chose the exact amounts and forms we have included – hopefully soon if things actually ease up a bit in February! Of course, I’ve been meaning to do the same with all the ingredients in our products, so stay tuned.

The DIYers among you will be pleased to hear that Super Micros has been updated with this new formula as well, and even Super Electrolytes has been updated with more calcium and phosphorus (and slightly more magnesium) to better align with the new recommendations. And because our tests have determined that our latest crop of rice protein is actually quite low in manganese, we can now add Manganese Glycinate to the mix without worrying about overdosing. As a number of you have requested, this finally makes Super Micros a complete solution even for grain-free recipes that lack a natural source of this mineral! :)

Lastly, a number of you have mentioned your dismay at the mountain of scoops that you’ve been accumulated as your Super Body Fuel shipments come in, month after month. We like reducing waste as much as possible, so we definitely like the idea of making scoops optional, for those of you who don’t need another one! But that’s easier said than done – there are quite a few logistical challenges here that may not be obvious at first. So we need your feedback on how to proceed! If you have a moment, please take this super short survey to let us know how you’d like your scoops… or a lack thereof, as the case may be.

By the way, I’ve noticed that cinnamon has finally overtaken vanilla as the number two flavor (after chocolate, that perennial favorite) of all our products! I find this fascinating, and I suspect that because we’ve added the option to order samples that are not currently in stock, more people are trying samples of all the flavors before deciding what to buy, and naturally, discovering that the cinnamon is actually really good – better than our vanilla.

But what do you think? Is cinnamon an underrated gem, or an unworthy usurper of vanilla’s rightful place? Send us a reply and let us know! :) And take the scoop survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfk1mIDHZTxPhEnqLcH49NPVuLfLe8qGIXn0FSD-r7pfjufKw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thanks for making this sale so successful. We’ll do our best to survive it. ;)

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

* In case you’re wondering, my approach to paying myself from the company’s profits is basically the same as my approach to feeding myself from the company’s products. That is, I scrape together all the leftovers from each batch that would otherwise get thrown away, mix them all together, and drink it for lunch when I’m at work (and breakfast, and dinner, depending on how busy I am). I call it Mystery Mix. :D That way, I get free food, and no paying customer has to give up their place in line for me when there’s a backlog. ;) You can use your imagination as to how that translates to compensation.

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! :D

I wanted to give you a heads up about an experiment we’re doing for January. Instead of a coupon code for 10% off, we’re reducing prices by over 20% for the whole month. Yes, right now – see for yourself:
http://superbodyfuel.com/shop/

Why? Because I’ve calculated that this is the lowest price we can offer without losing money on any purchase – in other words, slicing down our profit margin to its absolute minimum! My goal with this company has always been to make a product that is accessible to everyone – not just in terms of dietary restrictions but also in terms of price.

Our prices have been pretty good already – low enough that most of you actually save money with every Super Body Fuel meal you have! But I want to get them even lower, without compromising on the quality of our ingredients. And I think I can do that by taking the money that would typically go to advertising and paying back investors, and cutting it out of the price entirely.

As a self-funded startup that has so far put zero money into marketing and has still nearly doubled in size over the past year, we can choose to do that. But it also means that the only way to raise money for future improvements (or just scaling up to serve more customers) is by gradually saving money from the profit that we earn on every purchase. So lowering prices is a dangerous game to play.

But I figure doing it for one month can’t hurt. ;) So let’s see what happens! :D

Maybe we’ll attract a bunch of new customers and the increased volume will bring our overhead down, carving out a little more profit margin, even at the lower prices. Then everyone wins! :) At the least, it will give us a more tangible sense of where we need to be before we can make this pricing permanent.

Here is how the prices have changed:

Schmilk – from $6/day to $5/day (or $4/day for a subscription)
Super Fuel – from $10/day to $8/day (or $7/day for a subscription)
Keto Fuel – from $10/day to $8/day (or $7/day for a subscription)
Athlete Fuel – from $10/day to $8/day (or $7/day for a subscription)

And if you’re wondering, yes, these prices make us one of the least expensive options available in the US. You’re welcome. ;)

Thanks for making this all possible. Do great things this year! :D

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy December! :) We’ve been really busy building up our team for the last several months, and now we’re caught up with our backlog, shipping out your orders faster than ever before.

Here are some changes we rolled out in November:

• Cellulose: now included for insoluble fiber.
• Increased vanilla for stronger flavor!
• Vacuum-sealed bags: longer shelf life.
• Discounted international shipping on orders over $100!

First of all, with the feedback from our brave volunteer testers, we determined that Cellulose would be the safest form of insoluble fiber to add to our blends. We’ve swapped out some of the Acacia Gum and replaced it with a modest dose of Cellulose in all of our product lines, bringing the ratio of soluble and insoluble fiber into better balance. You probably won’t have noticed unless you’re finding that you have less gas or constipation – we are using the extremely fine-ground “microcrystalline” cellulose, which does not affect the taste or texture.

Also, in response to feedback from you all, we’ve increased the amount of vanilla bean in our recipes by 50% to make sure you can actually taste the vanilla! If you’ve noticed your last order of vanilla tasting better than usual in the past month, that’s probably why. ;) Let us know if you think it still needs more, or if it’s just right!

More recently, we’ve been experimenting with vacuum-sealing our bags with a chamber vacuum sealer, which theoretically should increase the shelf life. If you’ve been wondering why the latest bag of powder you got was rock-hard and kind of wrinkly, then congratulations – you got a vacuum-sealed bag! ;) We do realize that this makes the bags kind of ugly and awkward, though, so let us know what you think – better or worse?

Lastly, we’ve extended our shipping discount on orders over $100 to international customers as well, by offering reduced international shipping ($20 to Canada, $30 anywhere else) on orders of $100 or more, to go with the free shipping we offer to our US customers. We’re paying for this shipping subsidy out of our own margin, so we won’t be making a profit on these discounted international orders. But that’s okay! :) We make plenty of profit on our usual US orders, which make up the vast majority of our sales. ;) So please feel free to take advantage of this discount if you are not in the US but still want your Super Body Fuel.

Coming up:

• Equipment upgrades!
• Any interest in Schmilk Vanilla?
• Ideas for the future? Take the survey!

The chamber vacuum sealer is just one of many equipment upgrades we’ve been experimenting with lately. Thanks to the initiative of our manufacturing team, we’ve been redesigning our space and process to crank out more product in a shorter amount of time, just to keep up with all your orders! ;)

That includes new rolling stainless steel shelves, more stainless steel work tables, and replacing our usual aluminum scoops with stainless steel scoops. But we’ve also been testing out a new automatic filling machine to bag up that powder a lot faster than scooping it all by hand. So far nothing has completely revolutionized our process, but every little improvement has made us just that much faster and more productive.

Oh, and by the way, with all these vanilla increases going around, I was wondering… Would you like to see a Schmilk Vanilla? Either instead of or in addition to Schmilk Original?

I don’t know about you, but I think that could be pretty good. :) Let us know if that’s something you’d want!

Finally, as the new year peeks out over the horizon, we are thinking about where to go next with this whole “nutritionally-complete meal” thing that we’re doing. For example, we know that a lot of you would love a more convenient single-serving option, where you just add water – or even a ready-to-drink liquid that you can just open and drink.

These are the kinds of projects that require a lot more upfront planning and a bigger initial investment, so in contemplating them, we need your guidance as to what direction you’d like to see us go. Please take this short survey to let us know what’s on your wish list. ;) We’ll definitely need some volunteer testers, again, so be sure to include your email address in the survey if you’re interested!

Here you go:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdkE9Ds2y-0znQKmW8vFR38zG-Zrzn3p4pywqYC9zkldp7i6A/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thanks as always, and happy holidays! :)

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy August! :) We have even more updates for you at Super Body Fuel:

• Keto Fuel: all flavors now with MCT oil!
• Light Fuel: just renamed to Super Fuel.
• Super Fiber: our MCT fiber mix is for sale!

The improvements that we announced in our last update have finally made their way to all the flavors of Keto Fuel, with powdered MCT oil along with the new rice protein and better-tasting potassium. So if you’ve been waiting for the go-ahead, this is it – go ahead and order! ;) We’ve sent samples of the new Keto Fuel to everyone who complained about the taste of the old version, and the response has been unanimous: it’s way better! I’m excited to hear how you like it – please let us know once you’ve tried it. :)

Also, now that Light Fuel has completely switched over to the new version as well, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to rename it to Super Fuel! :D After hearing from a number of customers who passed over “Light Fuel” because the name was unappealing, I consulted with many long-time customers, who all agreed that it would make a lot more sense to call it “Super Fuel” instead. If Keto Fuel is for losing weight and Athlete Fuel is for building muscle, Super Fuel is really meant to be our healthy, maintenance option, and now its name finally reflects this. :) So take a look if that’s something that interests you – it’s my favorite, and I think you might like it too.

For the DIYers out there, we have just started selling our acacia-based MCT oil powder as a standalone ingredient, alongside our Super Electrolytes and Super Micros. Based on the suggestion of a community member, we’re calling it Super Fiber, because it consists of a prebiotic fiber (Acacia Gum) combined with a ketogenic fat (Medium-Chain Triglycerides). The cool thing is, you can now easily create your own ketogenic meal shake by combining a flavored protein powder and a fat source such as heavy cream with our Super Fiber, Super Electrolytes, and Super Micros. And that’s just the start. ;) I look forward to even more ways of making DIY cheaper, easier, and more effective over time.

Lastly, our warehouse manager Ben has moved to the East Coast to go back to school, so Jamaica has stepped up to take his place shipping orders, buying ingredients and replying to emails. You may hear from her if you send us an email in the near future. So, good luck to Ben and congratulations to Jamaica on her new role! :D

Coming soon:

• Himalayan pink salt instead of sea salt!
• Insoluble fiber: any volunteers for testing?

One imminent update that some of you may be excited to hear about is replacing our Sea Salt with Himalayan Pink Salt. Not only is it a nifty pink color, but it has trace amounts of nearly every element, so you don’t have to worry about whether you’re getting enough, say, gold or silver in your diet or any other as-yet-unknown dietary requirements that may or may not be necessary in very tiny amounts.

Finally, the biggest update we have on the horizon is adding some form of insoluble fiber, to go along with all the soluble fiber we’ve been adding in the form of Acacia Gum. We’ve got a few candidates in mind for this addition, but we’d like to test them first, to make sure they don’t have any unintended side effects like gas or bloating. You never know with fiber. :p That means we need some brave volunteers to help us test it out. If you’re up for ingesting two or three fiber samples over the course of a week and recording your results, let us know! And make sure to include your current shipping address. ;)

Thanks as always for your continued feedback and support!

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy July! :) Hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend, if you’re in the States, and a great normal weekend, if you’re not. ;)

We have a bunch of good news to share:

• The best rice protein: finally here, hopefully for good.
• Keto Fuel: now with MCT powder already included!
• Better-tasting potassium: Potassium Bicarbonate.
• Super Electrolytes: finally available for DIY!

First of all, after many delays and stopgap measures, we’ve gotten our hands on a new rice protein that is the best we’ve seen so far, both in taste and texture. With any luck, we’ll be able to maintain a reliable supply of this year-round, and next year as well! For rice-protein-based recipes especially, like Keto Fuel and Light Fuel, this should have a big positive impact on the taste.

Perhaps more excitingly for the Keto Fuel fans, we’ve also finally received our custom acacia-based MCT oil powder, and based on our test batches this week, it’s working great! Not only does it mean that you no longer have to buy your own MCT oil or coconut oil, it also eliminates the dustiness that made scooping Keto Fuel powder so annoying. We’ve just started manufacturing batches with the MCT powder, and over the next few weeks our stock of the old MCT-less Keto Fuel will be replaced with the MCT version, so you can look forward to that! ;)

One thing we’re finding, though, is that the big bags of Keto Fuel will now barely fit all the powder required, with the addition of MCT oil. Because of this, we’re planning to phase out the big bags and update ongoing subscriptions to have two small bags for every big bag of Keto Fuel. Same amount of powder, same price, just twice as many bags and recyclable plastic scoops. If you have any thoughts about this change, please reply and let us know – we’d love to hear from you!

The last improvement we’re excited to share with you is a new form of potassium, for a much more neutral flavor. We’ve phased out Potassium Citrate, which is very bitter and sour, and replaced it with Potassium Bicarbonate, which is the most neutral-tasting potassium source we’ve found, according to our taste tests and the feedback of our volunteers. This should make a big difference in Keto Fuel and Light Fuel especially, as they are high in added potassium. Not only that, but it has allowed us to reduce the amount of Monkfruit Extract used as a sweetener, which should reduce the sweetener aftertastes that some people experience.

Basically, our recipes are getting better than we could have imagined, and we’re excited to hear what you think of them. :) As some of you may have noticed, we’ve started sending out feedback surveys to see how we’re doing with these improvements. Keep your eyes open for a survey email about a month after your order ships. Thanks to everyone who has already participated! :D

And finally, for those of you into DIY or who just want to supplement your electrolytes, we’re now making our optimal electrolyte mix available for sale as Super Electrolytes! This includes the new Potassium Bicarbonate, Sea Salt, Magnesium Malate, and Calcium Phosphate in the amounts that we target in our recipes. Have it with water or juice for your own homemade sports drink or combine it with Super Micros for an easy DIY meal shake. If you do try it, please let us know how it goes – we want to hear your feedback! :)

Thanks for celebrating these achievements with us. Here’s to a healthy, better-tasting summer! ;)

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)

Hi everyone,

Happy May! :) In honor of International Worker’s Day, I’d like to take the opportunity to plug one of my favorite books of the last few years, Reinventing Organizations. Decentralized, self-organizing businesses really do exist, in industries from manufacturing to healthcare, and this book shows how it can be done. As an idealist who has found myself suddenly running a manufacturing business with a growing team of employees, I find this vision extremely inspiring and I hope that someday this business can have as big an impact of empowerment and liberation through the lives of the people working for it as it does through the products it sells.

Anyway, here are the updates:

• New rice protein that doesn’t taste awful!
• Back to next-day shipping, or close to it.
• Free US shipping on orders over $100!
• Bimonthly subscriptions now available.

The biggest good news is that we’ve been able to get a better placeholder rice protein that doesn’t have the awful burnt taste of the previous one. All the products made in the last month or so have been made with this new rice protein. Phew! :p Still no updates on availability from our preferred supplier, but the worst is over.

Part of the reason we didn’t announce this earlier is that we were also a bit backlogged over the past month as well. One of our manufacturing technicians, Justin, had to stop working due to (unrelated) health issues and production slowed as we filled in for him and looked for a replacement. Fortunately, he is recovering and we have hired Julia, who, along with Jamaica, is now cranking out batches at an impressive rate. So we’re happy to say that the shipping delays of the last several weeks have been resolved, and we’re back to shipping next-day, or close to it!

Now that we’re caught up with our backlog, I’m excited to finally introduce something I’ve wanted to do for a while: free shipping on larger orders. As we’ve honed our process and seen sales stabilize at a sustainable level, we are finally at a point where we can begin to pass cost-savings back to you, our customers. So, to start with, we are offering free shipping on orders and subscriptions over $100! :D This is only for US orders – unfortunately international shipping is still prohibitively expensive, though international expansion is part of our plan, as soon as we have the volume to make it work, logistically.

As part of this update, we’re adding the option to have your subscription delivered every two months, so that you can consolidate your subscription into a larger order to save on shipping. If you’d like to change your subscription, just tell us in an email and we’ll take care of it for you. ;) Or, you’re always welcome to cancel your existing subscription and set up a new one yourself.

Coming soon:

• New, odor-free vitamin mix just arrived!
• MCT oil powder for Keto Fuel coming in June.
• New electrolyte mix for better nutrition and taste.

We just received our first shipment of our custom vitamin mix from our new supplier, reformulated to be free of the sulfurous odor of the original batch. It was the L-Selenomethionine, the active selenium compound that gives garlic and onions their characteristic odor, and to a lesser extent the particular brand of Choline L-Bitartrate, that caused the smell after all. We’re now using the odorless amino acid chelate Selenium Glycinate instead, and a more expensive but relatively odorless Choline L-Bitratrate in this version. You can expect to start receiving product with this new mix over the next few weeks.

More excitingly, we’ve just put in an order for a custom MCT oil powder made with Acacia Gum, which we are expecting to receive by the end of May. The plan is to add it to Keto Fuel, at a dosage equivalent to about half a tablespoon of MCT oil per meal, so you’ll no longer have to buy and add MCT oil yourself when using Keto Fuel! Even better, this reduces the dusty lightness of the Keto Fuel powder that is so annoying when trying to scoop and pour it. :p And crucially, we’ve been able to get the costs of this extra ingredient down enough that we won’t be raising the price of Keto Fuel at all – it will just be a better product, at the same price. So we’re really looking forward to rolling this out in June. :)

Also, we’ve just finished lining up the last suppliers for our electrolyte upgrade, and will be getting our hands on these new ingredients by the end of the month if all goes well. We’ve found that the electrolyte Potassium Citrate is responsible for the majority of the unpleasant flavors in our products, especially the potassium-heavy Keto Fuel, and we are cautiously optimistic about the opportunity we have here to significantly improve the taste with a few formula tweaks. So, we’ll keep you posted on that – and if you want to help out with taste-testing, definitely let us know. ;)

Last but not least, thanks for your help with our branding survey in February! We’ve been glad to hear that the qualities that we’ve been most proud of, in terms of our product and service, are the same qualities that you notice and appreciate. However, it’s also clear that neither “Schmilk” nor “Super Body Fuel” do a good job of expressing that brand identity. So we’re going back to the drawing board as far as articulating our brand and coming up with a name and visual identity that will really speak to what is unique about us. Stay tuned! ;)

Thanks again for sticking with us!

Alex Cho Snyder (axcho)