From Kitchen Experiment to your Pantry: The birth of Nanuki

Imagine this: a tiny kitchen in Doha, Qatar. Two small children race around while I bake lactation cookies – delicious, healthy treats that helped me on my breastfeeding journey. But there was one problem – my son, the beneficiary of these cookies, wouldn't touch anything else! It sparked a fire in me. Could I create a snack bar packed with goodness that even a picky eater would love?

Fast forward, and life took a big turn. With a two-year-old and a six-month-old in tow, I moved alone to South Africa to chase this dream, leaving my husband behind in Doha until we knew the concept had legs. My "office" was a converted garage at my mom's house, with a domestic oven and just two baking trays. It wasn't glamorous, but the fire was burning bright.

As we navigated registering the business and raising two tiny humans, it became clear we needed better equipment. The challenge? Our product was so unique, no manufacturer wanted to take a chance on us. We had to do it ourselves, from start to finish.

Meanwhile, my husband in Doha had made a huge leap of faith. He gave up our apartment, sold our furniture, and packed our entire life into four boxes that sat precariously in my mother-in-law's living room. (Talk about commitment!) So there I was, a single mom hustling in a makeshift kitchen, and my husband living on his mother's couch – all for a dream of healthy snack bars.

One pivotal phone call changed everything. We needed a (very expensive) packaging machine. The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. Finally, my husband's voice came through, "Do you believe in this product?" Without hesitation, I said, "I do." That conviction led him to make a heart-wrenching decision. He sold his beloved Ford Mustang, a car that embodied a lifelong dream. In its place, he bought me that flow wrap packaging machine. It may not be a Mustang, but it sure runs like a champ!

Five months of relentless recipe testing, supplier meetings, and printer consultations flew by. Finally, in March 2017, I held the first ever Nanuki Bar in my hands. The journey from there was a whirlwind – sending samples, cold-calling health shops, and vowing to donate the first order to charity (a core value that still drives Nanuki today).

Then, the phone rang. It was a buyer for one of South Africa's leading online stores, and they loved our bars! The order was small, but for me, it was monumental. It meant sending my creation, a product born from a tiny, hot Doha kitchen, out into the world.

This is just the beginning of the Nanuki story. There have been setbacks, challenges, and countless lessons learned along the way. But through it all, the dream of creating healthy, delicious snacks that everyone can enjoy has never wavered. Stay tuned for more adventures on the road to changing the world, one delicious bar at a time!