A startup that makes a range of baked goods from the ancient African grain teff has made its debut.
Teffie is the brainchild of Jessica Rogers, a former business development co-ordinator who began learning about the nutritional properties of teff during a trip to Ethiopia five years ago.
After returning home, she began making brownies with teff flour for her diabetic father, and the idea for Teffie was born.
Rogers’ range of treats are claimed to taste “like a brownie”, while providing “less sugar than a banana” and “more iron than a steak”.
All three variants – Chocolate Date, Chocolate Orange and Cinnamon Sultana (rsp: £2-£2.50/35-37g) – are free from the top 14 allergens, with no artificial sweeteners.
“When you look at the back of snack products that claim to be healthy, you see rapeseed oil, erythritol, maltitol, you see soy lecithin, fructose corn syrup, you see xanthan gum… All these things have been shown to be extremely inflammatory for your gut,” said Rogers.
“What I wanted to do was create something that first thing would be inclusive, that everybody would be able to eat, but also something that was a smart alternative to ultra-processed snacks.”
Teffie recently trialled its snacks, wrapped in plain packaging, in Soho House and Planet Organic to “test the uptake of the product on its taste and nutrition attributes alone over a three-month period”.
Following a “highly successful test run”, Rogers decided to launch them nationally.
Teffie’s range is available to order DTC via the brand’s webstore (prices from £60/24). Rogers is currently in conversations with retailers, airlines and foodservice channels.
No comments yet