Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patter Gersuk. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Patter, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Yes: our ingredients are 100% whole food. There are so many energy bar companies but very, very few that are actually whole food. Brown rice crisps and protein powder are not whole food, but refined and highly processed manufactured ingredients. The industry standard is to add “natural flavors”, stabilizers like tapioca starch, or guar gum, processing agents like soy lecithin, multiple sweeteners, and preservatives to make sure the shelf life is at least one year. They are added to aid production, minimize cost, and extend shelf life.

Whole food without additives is expensive. It is much cheaper to use processed ingredients, particularly in an industrialized setting. We have had to work very hard to maintain the purity of our ingredients while scaling up our production to meet demand. It is far easier and cheaper to use ingredients that don’t vary from crop to crop or are synthetically made in a lab. We are committed to not compromising the integrity of our product for the sake of production.

An ingredient like Organic Brown Rice Syrup is a highly refined sweetener with no nutritional value, just empty calories. Despite this, it can be found in nearly every “better for you” energy bars. Customers think it is good for you because it says organic and brown! At the end of the day, it is a highly processed chemically made substance with non-nutritive properties.

The food industry in the United States is dominated by large companies that have engineered “food” to maximize longevity on the shelf and to minimize cost; the exact opposite of fresh, whole food. The United States spends the lowest percentage of annual income on food than any other industrialized nation because cheap, processed “food” is everywhere. I also believe that the percentage of our population living with chronic illnesses can be attributed to eating such processed, unhealthy foods over the course of their lives. If healthy, nutritious food was made available at the same cost and accessibility as processed food, we would be in a much better situation. Do you know the shelf life of energy bars is one year? What is in these bars that let them sit on a shelf for a year? It’s not food!

Patterbars are 100% whole food: our dried fruit has no juice, sugar or oil. Our nuts are dry roasted with no oil and no salt. We don’t use lemon oil or lemon flavor; we use real lemon zest. Just pure, unadulterated, real food ingredients.

Using real food has presented many production challenges for us: real food varies from crop to crop, which is why companies use stabilizers and things like soy lecithin or tapioca starch to help in processing. We have instead worked with our suppliers to identify the best way to maintain pure ingredients.

I am very proud of the fact that we haven’t and never will compromise our ingredients. We don’t take shortcuts and we source our ingredients with the same care and attention a chef does at a fine restaurant. It may have taken more time and money to figure out how to produce at scale with pure ingredients, but customers respond to our transparency and authenticity.

Patterbars are convenience without compromise, and they taste like food because they are

At Patterbar, we don’t need to make the same health claims so many other energy bars do. Everyone knows whole food is the most nutritious.

Patter, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always loved cooking and feeding people and when I had children, I made their baby food. I went to culinary school at the the Cordon Bleu in London and I love good food! I am a purist and believe that real food tastes best. When my children were older, it was hard to find healthy, convenient snacks so I made my own energy bars. In 2017 my son-in-law, Connor, who was a D-1 college athlete, was eating a bar in my kitchen and said I should sell them because there was nothing like them on the market. I was skeptical because there are so many energy bars, but he said most bars taste terrible, and junk ingredients and actually don’t fill upon up. I sorted to look at other bars and saw that Connor was right: so many bars but none with real food ingredients.

I launched Patterbar in 2018 with Connor and a couple of his good friends. We started in Denver coffee shops and the South Pearl Farmer’s Market. It’s been a fantastic journey and the Denver community has been incredibly supportive! At this point we are now in about 175 retail outlets including Natural Grocers as our biggest chain store.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started out making the bars by hand in a commissary kitchen with culinary students from Johnson and Wales. We mixed everything by hand, grated the ginger and lemon zest, roasted all of our nuts for the first two years of the business. We eventually moved to a facility that had larger mixing machines and cutting and packaging machines. This facility then started co-packing (making the bars) our product.

One of the challenges when moving into large scale production is to adapt to huge machines. This is when we were told to add “processing agents” like soy lecithin, etc. to aid in smooth and consistent production. I refused, as the point of Patterbar is to use 100% whole food ingredients. I had many battles over this but I refused to compromise and we worked it out eventually but it required significant investments in time and energy. It was exhausting!

This worked well for a time until the co-packer left the lemon zest unrefrigerated for five days resulting in mold. We had to dispose of 10,000 bars. It was a nightmare. We are a small company and trying to find another co-packer with the type of machines we need was next to impossible. We eventually found a local company with the equipment we needed and they have been truly incredible.

Lessons learned:

1. Do your homework and talk to as many people in the industry– even your competitors–about co-packers. I have helped many new energy bar companies get started as I believe there is enough room in market and I would love to spare everyone the traumas we went through!

2. Trust yourself as nobody knows your product as well as you do. What is your purpose? What drives you? Why is your product different? Keep your focus because you will always confront tough challenges– sometimes everyday!

3. When you find a manufacturer, keep your eye on them to maintain quality control.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Farmer’s Markets have always been the best source of new customers for Patterbar. Not only do we meet and grow our local customers, but there are visitors from all over the country who come to the markets. We started out with one market every Sunday and then added a Saturday market. We are hoping to be in four weekend markets this year.

Demos or samplings are also a good way to find new customers as for the same reason the markets are: they provide the opportunity to connect with customers one-on-one and explain why Patterbars are different.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.patterbar.com
• Instagram: patterbar
• Facebook: patterbardenver
• Linkedin: Patterbar
• Youtube: Patterbar

Image Credits
Pia Beck, William Callan