When building Tasty Mates. Nick and I wanted to do three things:
- Have the coolest branding possible. Something that we were excited by; something that we knew our mates would get excited by; something that has our personalities plastered all over; something relatable.
- If we were to have a brand. It was essential we did everything right. Make sure we did our bit for charity. Use sustainable ingredients wherever possible. And try and do what we can to have zero impact on our planet.
- Taste bloody good!
Well we sure are happy with how the Tasty Mates branding has turned out. And after two years of finessing, we have been overwhelmed by the response. And in terms of the taste... well we’ll let you be the judge of that. (If it’s not clear. We think we’re the best sweet on the market!).
In terms of our ethos and values, as a company. The biggest question we faced was how we could have net zero impact on our planet. Having studied Geography at University (see it’s not just a useless degree), I knew a little about offsetting carbon, but we thought we could go one better. This is one of the reasons we decided that all our products would be vegan, and what’s more, decided to produce everything here in the U.K. rather than in Europe ... seems like this turned out to be a good decision.
In terms of Tasty Mates packaging, there was little alternative to plastic pouches. To break it down - Nick and I went into this looking for compostable pouches to package Tasty Mates in. After countless days, weeks and months of research we found out that actually, the U.K’s infrastructure is just not there at the moment.
The next possible solution was jars - reusable jars. Great - and we’ll for sure be introducing them soon, however again, this brought up its own issues with the main one being shipping; the weight and size of the jars alone would mean our carbon footprint would increase astronomically - not an option for us on scale.
So here at Tasty Mates, we landed on recyclable packaging. After speaking with experts in the field, this is simply the best option for now in the U.K. As such we will do what we can to offset this too. Being recyclable is something we are proud of. We are doing what we can to limit our impact on the environment.
We have also partnered with Seven Clean Seas, an awesome non-profit that will offset our packaging. So for every pack sold, we will ensure the equivalent weight of plastic is picked up on the beaches. So if one forgets or accidently doesn’t recycle our packs (once they’re finished of course), we have you covered… and if you do – then together we are having a net positive impact on the planet… Happy Days!
Don’t get us wrong. When we can. We’ll be the first to jump on compostable packaging. Or whatever the next ‘best thing’ is. And, if any government initiatives come out to introduce home compost bins, as well as street compost bins, alongside the infrastructure needed for this to work…Then count us in!
Tasty Mates is doing what we can to protect our other mate - the planet. So be a mate and make sure you dispose of your Tasty Mates packs in recycling bins.
