The last 12 months or so have been, well, nuts! It all started when we realised we had grown up, (and if we may say so ourselves) through what has been an exceptional journey — from a small home-run bakery to a full-fledged patisserie behind clutter-breaking plant-based desserts, unique collaborations and so much more.
Between picking the fabrication for our boxes, decoding how and where the new logo will sit on our takeaway bags, coordinating with vendors miles away from us; and as the workload, hassle and pressure increased, we often caught ourselves in moments of crippling self-doubt. The penny dropped for us several times through this process. Like when, in our bid to give patrons the most distinguished experience, we backtracked 10 steps in deciding to go with ‘hard boxes’, or during head-scratching brainstorming sessions, where we went determined to alter the positioning of plant-based desserts in the customer’s mind — from ‘boring and uppity’ to ‘desirable, sexy and downright delicious’.
Often, we didn’t arrive at clear answers, at least not for very long. Ultimately, we realised the solutions we were looking for were in our products themselves. And that meant multiple trials, rigorous training, non-stop R&D and essentially, sleepless nights in the kitchen. Though, we would say this has been a longer battle as a patisserie that has steered away from the seemingly ‘good stuff’ (read: eggs, dairy, additives) right from the start.
Countless hours are spent to turns these thoughts into things — crafting white chocolate and whipped cream from scratch, finding the right kind of substitutes for refined flours, milk and gelatin, and other such gory details of our day-to-day that we’d rather not burden you with — it’s not as pretty as our finished products. In fact, long before we put our aprons on, we began thinking about sourcing. That can (and has) taken us across the length and breadth of the country in our search for key ingredients. And it’s a journey we’d happily take again, if it means sourcing the most ethical ingredients possible.
Having said that, it hasn’t been easy. Certainly not on our minds, and even less so on our pockets. We can write a book on how a sealing sticker or a tin of coconut milk, a hard box, a certain, specific type of print, plastic-free packaging and the opting for tree-free paper, hand-made from upcycled and recycled cotton rags (also 100% sustainable) for a small detail like an envelope can add up on the costing Excel sheet. And like the number crunchers on our team, we often asked ourselves, too — was this all worth it?
The lengths we go to, the hours we put in, the difficult choices we make have often made us second-guess ourselves and ask: will you — the customer — get it? Does it even make sense? How do we justify the costs on both your and our end? But every single question has brought us back to a simple realisation: the proof is always (literally) in the pudding. And you know what? Baby, it’s SO worth it.
