The Kitchen

I'm pleased to be able to report that we seem to have overcome the production issues with our wheat crackers. The last trial went well enough that we're going to try a full-scale production. Of course, it's now the busy season for crackers, so we're having a hard time getting on the line, but we've been promised that they'll try to fit us in as soon as they can. And not a moment to soon, as we're now out of the few mixed cases we had left, also. Wheat crackers should be back within the month, I think. Mmmm, I can taste them already :)

It all started with the oil.

In our first production of the crackers, we used the oil which our manufacturer had in stock, a soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added as a preservative. It wasn't until we got to selling the product that we found out TBHQ was off-limits to many retailers (most notably, Whole Foods). So we thought we'd be smart, the next time we had to print the 80-calorie cheese crackers packaging, we switched to palm oil, which didn't have TBHQ.

That turned out not to be so smart. Palm oil in turn is unacceptable to some people because it has slightly more saturated fat or something (you just can't win), plus it made the texture moderately less crispy, which some people objected to.

At this point we needed to print up more 50-calorie packaging, but because of our bad experience with palm oil we wanted to switch to sunflower oil instead, which should avoid both of these problems. But we want to test the sunflower-oil crackers first, to be sure we (and you, our customers) are going to like the texture before we make up 300,000 film impressions. See? We learn from our mistakes. But it slows us down when applying the knowledge, because...

...that in turn means we need to beg politely ask our manufacturer to do a small production of crackers for us as a trial. This means they need to find time on their now very busy line (it's right before school starts, and crackers are in demand) to do an itty-bitty 500-1000 lb production.

And to top things off, we're also asking them to do yet another wheat-cracker trial, so we can finally get those back in stock (we think we know how to solve it now. Really.)

So, I apologize again for all these delays, and can assure you that no one wants to get the crackers back in stock more than we do. We're just having a really hard time getting all the piecese together :(

So you found the only cheese crackers that taste just like the Cheez-It's (or Cheese Nips) you love, but with literally half the calories, and 12g of Fiber. Sounds great, right? But how do they taste? Sure, we have a lot of raves & reviews, but that's not the same as tasting it for yourself.

Now you can dip your toe into FiberGourmet without commiting to buy a whole case. We're now offering a trial-size box of crackers (6 of the 80-calorie bags), for a mere $7.50, with free shipping. That works out to $1.25 per 1.15 oz bag, still pretty close to the price for Cheez-Its. Click here to buy them today!

You may have noticed that products on our website have been dropping out of stock fast. This is due to both our advertising with Weight Watchers and our crackers being handed out on JetBlue, which have really been spiking both website and retail-store sales. It's a good problem to have, but a problem still.

Anyway, just thought I'd give an update: the truck with the pasta has already left to our warehouse, and the truck with the cheese crackers should leave tomorrow or Wednesday. Expect us to be fully restocked by Monday at the latest, hopefully even Friday. We'll fill all the outstanding orders then.

Thanks again to everyone for their patience and understanding during our crunch time.

Sorry for the gap in blog posts, getting married will do that to ya...

Anyway, I just wanted to pop back in and let you know that our cheese crackers are now available as a (free) snack on most JetBlue flights!

We know we'll be on there until the end of November, and if things go well (i.e., feedback is good and their passengers keep asking for more, more, more!) we might even be there permanently. So if you fly JetBlue this month, be sure to ask for the healthiest snack in the sky - FiberGourmet.

Want some of our light crackers at a low, low price? You're in luck. Before we did our first full-scale production we had to do a few trial runs where we worked out the kinks. We have a few cases left-over from the last of those productions, and they're cluttering up our office.

Available in Nacho flavor only. The crackers are packed in either 30g or 45g clear-film plastic bags (should say which on the outside of the box), which are then bulk-filled in 10-lb boxes. An equivalent amount of our normal crackers would run well over $100, but we're offering these at a super-low discounted price of just $35, plus shipping. Only a few cases are available, though, and first-come, first-serve.

Since these are not fully up to spec, caveat emptor and no backsies. Buy them here.

Since the launch of the crackers last week, we've been getting a few questions which I thought I'd address on the blog (expect them to be integrated in the website later):

What's the shelf life on the crackers?

They're good until April of 2010. The date is stamped on each individual packet and box, as well.

Where can I buy the products listed on the 10-Minute Diet Plan on the side of the box (microwave cakes & pasta)?

Those products are still in development, but coming very soon (we hope!) stay tuned to our blog or sign up for e-mail updates to be notified when they become available.

Thanks for your interest, and keep the questions coming!

Our cracker packaging production has just been plagued with snags.

First, the box proofs came back with random letters missing: for instance, if it was supposed to read "Six Individual Packages" it instead read "Six Indi idual Packages", which doesn't quite inspire confidence in the cracker manufacturer, who consumers hope got the formula right. This was eventually determined to be a glitch in the printer, as the digital files from which the plates were being made did seem to be correct. We still don't know how that happened.

The next day the bag proofs came in - and they were missing random words, like where it was supposed to say "Not labeled for retail sale" the last three words were missing which meant that it instead just said "Not labeled". Which makes for an interesting philosophical question, but still doesn't inspire confidence.

Both of those weren't our fault or our artists, but today we finally got to share some blame. Somehow the product name on the two boxes - cheese and nacho flavors - got switched on the bottom panel. Fortunately, the printer caught this and notified us about it. They're now correcting the switch-up, and hopefully only adding another day of delay there.

With any luck, this means the plates will be ready on Tuesday so they can start printing, and everything will have set and dried by Thursday so we can pick up Friday morning. Our first production is scheduled for the Tuesday after that, and we still need to move it from NJ to GA, so this is tight. At this point I'm considering renting a van and driving it down to the plant myself, just to make sure everything happens on time.

Stay tuned...

I thought our loyal readers might be interested in some pictures from the first plant-trial of our crackers. The formula still needs to some more "time in the oven", but we're definitely making progress. Stay tuned...