First, while they were able to use the brands we were used to for some ingredients, for other ingredients they were not.  If you’ve done much cooking with spices, you probably know that they differ slightly from brand to brand.  Next time you are at the store, compare cinnamon or garlic powder from different brands.  You may notice that they have a slightly different shade or a different granular consistency.  Using a teaspoon of either in a recipe, you might not notice a difference in taste.  But when you multiply that by 30,000, the difference becomes exaggerated and you notice a BIG taste difference.

This meant we would have to alter our kitchen recipe slightly in order to get the taste to match our homemade recipe that all our friends and family have come to know and love.  So, we would enlist those same friends and family to help us test each batch that came back from the co-packer.

Hmmm, free teriyaki samples?  They were lining up at our door to become part of our taste testing team!

It did take quite a few modifications and, with each iteration, a taste testing with our friends.  The formula was tweaked a little bit each time, but we finally got it where we wanted it.  It was a product we would be proud to call Truly Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce.

What’s more, it was a product my dad would be proud to serve his family and friends.  And that was important to us.

OK, so the formula was ready, we just needed an order to get started.  But how much would they order?  Would we start with our gallon size for the Meat and Seafood counter or our 12 oz retail bottle?  At our next meeting with The Fresh Market, that decision was made for us.

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We decided on Braswell’s Foods in Statesboro, GA.  They were the right size for us and could handle the smaller quantities we would need starting out.  When I say small quantities, I mean they would be making our sauce in 300 gallon batches.  That was a bit more than we were able to make in our kitchen!

Once we decided on Braswell’s we immediately begin the process of transferring our recipe that made about 30 ounces to their process that would make 300 gallons at a time.  So, just multiply each measurement, right?  Not so easy…

In my next post, we learn food math, and why multiplying a teaspoon by 30,000 just doesn’t work.

In fact, they agreed to co-brand the product.  We would enroll in their private label program, which generates many of The Fresh Market’s labeled products, but still carry our name on the bottle as well.  It is such a blessing to have this kind of exposure with such a prestigious store.  We are truly gracious for this great opportunity. (If you’re not familiar with The Fresh Market, I urge you to, at a minimum, visit their site and learn more about them.  Better yet, find a store near you and visit them for the total experience.)

And the news got even better.  As an added bonus from our cutting, we discovered that the Meat and Seafood department was interested in our sauce as their new teriyaki marinade.  This was a development we had not foreseen.  Basically, the butcher department superbly offers marinated meats, like chicken and steak, ready for purchase — for us it could mean chicken breasts and/ or kabobs. This meant we would need to produce the sauce in gallon-size containers in addition to our retail bottle.

So we had to start down a new path of learning how to produce and pack our sauce in gallon-size containers.  While we had toyed with the idea of somehow finding a kitchen and producing the sauce ourselves, it was becoming clear that it was time to find some help.  The next step was to begin looking for a “co-packer”, that is, someone who could take our recipe, mass produce it, and bottle and ship it to our new customer.

Let me tell you, that was quite a process….

As of today, we are on the verge of going into production and sending our first order to a major store chain that has requested our sauce.  I can’t reveal them just yet, not until all the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed.  But soon…

In the next few posts I will attempt to go back to late 2008 and review how we came to this point.  How we made the decisions we did to get here, and how we were truly blessed by those that were put in our path.  And how this amazing journey has unfolded….

Aloha!

Sam Kanakanui