Jonathon is a vegan and lifelong health enthusiast. He owns Health Kismet, a health supplement company that makes a green superfood powder called Incredible Greens. It condenses 35 different types of raw produce into a sweet tasting powder. His company blog covers health, nutrition, and the benefits of a plant based diet.
What’s the meaning of the name “Health Kismet”?
Kismet is an arabic word that stands for good fortune and destiny. I’m a bit of a word nerd, and it’s always been one of my favorites. So the chance to use it in my company name in a way that had a remarkable meaning was very appealing to me. And the domain name wasn’t taken!
Where did you get your inspiration for Incredible Greens?
I’ve always taken a greens powder, and am more or less de-sensitized to their taste. My friends and colleagues were always curious about them, but were either afraid to try or disgusted by them because the taste was so bad.
I even remember the look my Mom got when she saw me drink Green Vibrance. Watching me drink it gave her a visual discomfort……it was actually kind of funny.
I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and I thought if you could find a way to create a Greens powder that maintained their most important health aspects while providing a taste and texture that made them palatable to everday people, you might be onto something.
In a broader sense, I’m convinced the food industry has reached a pivot point, and there’s space for a new type of company to fill a void that no other company currently occupies.
The internet has made middlemen irrelevant, but the food industry still largely operates through bulky supply chains that erect large barriers between the buyer and seller. Food and our health is inherently personal and social, and it’s the current situation that is abnormal.
I think the idea of a “small” food company that can use human/digital media to grow itself through human interaction is a very powerful idea, and something I’d like to make a reality!
How did you decide what to put into Incredible Greens?
Incredible Greens powder
For me Incredible Greens had to have the following qualities to it:
1). It had to have a taste that would make it palatable to drink on its own, even for people who are unfamiliar with these drinks
2). It had to meet my minimum requirements for what I would want out of a Greens powder, which includes
Probiotics and digestive enzymes fibers cover the major “healing food” bases: grasses, leafy greens, metabolic and immune boosting herbs, and sea vegetables
With a minimum threshold of taste, it ought to have as much of the “best” superfood ingredients as possible.
To achieve this end, we included some “light” ingredients that have a very mild taste like rice bran solubles and lecithin granules, which act like a sponge and soak up the bitter after tastes of some of the most potent ingredients, like bee pollen, royal jelly, licorice root, astragalus, and milk thistle. This allowed us to include the latter ingredients (and more) in copious amounts while still having something that had a mild, but distinct flavor that would taste good on its own or could be added with other foods.
Are all the ingredients in Incredible Greens sourced from the USA?
No. Our ingredients are sourced from all the over the world…..and thank god they are! Many of the ingredients in Incredible Greens are very distinct to certain locations and must be sourced from there to maintain potency.
For example, Acerola is an Amazonian berry that’s native to South America and we source it from South American farms. It wouldn’t be possible to have high-quality Acerola sourced from the USA.
However, Incredible Greens is manufactured in the USA. This allows us to be compliant with a set of regulations called GMP, which stands for good manufacturing processes. It dictates the quality of ingredients we use, how they’re stored, how machines are maintained, and all the small details required for legally compliant manufacturing. It’d be impossible to consistently ensure GMP compliance with a manufacturing facility located overseas.
What’s the Future for Health Kismet?
From a product standpoint, we’re probably going to go in two directions:
1). Expand our flavor offerings. Berries would be the easiest flavor to accomplish next, and possibly cocoa after that. We’d look to make Cocoa a big splash, since the benefits of a sweet, chocolatey superfood powder would be immense.
2). Make Incredible Greens more accessible. This will include expanding our international shipping options, and more product sizes. Since we’re a new company a lot of people are hesitant to try, and so creating a smaller bottle size or some packets that can be bought for a very low price might be a good way to go.
We’re also very wrapped up in content marketing and customer outreach. We’re looking to start having Google+ hangouts so we can see our customers in person, and our very own cooking show! Being small has a few drawbacks, but one of its immense benefits is it gives you the ability to be adaptable and unique in ways that an established company could never dream of. We have little overhead and we’d like to fully take advantage of that.
How Can I Learn More About Being Healthy With Incredible Greens?
Currently we have a company blog that we put a lot of effort into. You can find it here: http://blog.healthkismet.com. We try as hard as we can to offer useful nutrition advice, and we have a lot more in the works!
We’re just getting started down this road, but the following are paths we’re looking to pursue:
1). A “Healthy Living for Smart People” course that details how to live healthy and be active with little time and a tight budget.
2). As mentioned before, Google+ video hangouts and a cooking show where we make different foods with Incredible Greens that are simple and healthy.
3). We’re working on a cookbook with recipes that can be used with Incredible Greens
4). A lot of our customers are into juicing and detox diets, and we’re working on 30 and 15 day guides for people who are looking to make the switch and experiment with the raw/green/clean diet but are hesitant to make the switch. We’d also look to incorporate these guides with our video hangouts to provide morale and answer questions.
Is Incredible Greens Considered Vegan, Gluten Free, Kosher, etc?
Incredible Greens is kosher, GMO Free, Raw, and 96% vegan. It has barley in it, which contains gluten.
Including barley was a tough choice because on one hand it contributes to Incredible Greens’ unique flavor, but of course it adds gluten to our mix which turns some people off.
We’re not organic at the moment, but are considering going down that route. The reason we didn’t do that to begin with is that it’s actually hard to find high quality organic suppliers for some of the ingredients we wanted to include. Sourcing everything can be a messy process. But we’re working on that.
Every ingredient comes from farms/suppliers without any GMO’s.
I say 96% vegan because 4% of our ingredients by weight are bee pollen and royal jelly. They’re incredible nutrients, but are harvested by bees, and are considered animal products by some people.
Buy Incredible Greens online and use Coupon Code “antioxfruits” to save 40%!
