Epicurean Butter Organic Cocoa Coconut Finishing Butter

John and Janey Hubschman run Colorado-based Epicurean Butter with a passion for quality food and cooking. These sweet and savory finishing butters add flavor to grilled steaks, seafood, vegetables, and pasta. Create a restaurant quality meal effortlessly.

Epicurean Butter blends organic cream, coconut oil, honey, cocoa powder, and Himalayan Pink Sea Salt to create this smooth, lightly-sweet compound butter. As with all our flavors, Organic Cocoa Coconut melts beautifully on top of any warm breakfast or snack food.

1. In what year did your company begin operation?

Founded in 2004 by classically-trained Chef John Hubschman and his wife, Janey. The first-to-market in the flavored compound butter category.
2. How do you define success? With the sofi win, are you “there” yet?

There yet? Definitely not there yet. Epicurean Butter’s mission is to assist home cooks in creating restaurant quality meals effortlessly. The sofi win definitely contributed to our exposure and brand awareness. We also offer a wide range of culinary services, custom blending and private labeling. There are tremendous opportunities that we have yet to capture.

3. What challenges did your face in establishing your company?

Educating consumers was our biggest challenge. Anyone who has eaten in a fine dining steak house knows that there is something “special” the chef has done to their steak – a dollop of compound butter tops the grilled steak just before serving. We had to convince consumers that Epicurean Butter held that secret. After describing our product, we had a young man say “Oh, it’s like a bachelor trick.”

Doing demos in retail stores such as Whole Foods was a very effective means of educating consumers how to use our product; however, those demos are expensive. As our product placement increased in more and more stores, we just couldn’t afford to do enough demos.

4. How long did your initial roll-out for the above product line take (months or years?) and how much did it cost? ($5,000? $20,000?) What kind of funding was available to you?

As owners of Epicurean Butter, John and I can make decisions quickly and implement them immediately. Innovation is what differentiates our company from any competitors.

Reading about the notable coconut oil trend, John tried blending it with it with butter. That afternoon Cocoa Coconut Butter was born. The only cost was label design. We decided to make it available in our new 1 oz single serve squeeze pack and as the 3.5 oz retail container.

5. Please share your insights and advice for new to industry companies.

Plain and simple: Determination. If you are determined to make your company a success, you make certain every penny you spend, every decision you make helps you reach that goal. Also, staying flexible helps. We have stayed open and responsive to customer and industry feedback.

6. How do you define your “vision”? Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? Describe in the present tense (as if you were reporting from the year 2020).

The real food movement is the norm. Households are cooking at home using whole, natural ingredients. In specialty and conventional grocery store, every meat department and seafood department has a selection of Epicurean Butters to add dimension and flavor without time consuming preparation.

Produce departments feature rotating flavors with seasonal produce such as Chili Lime with fresh corn on the cob, cinnamon brown sugar with sweet potatoes etc.
In-store bakeries have abandoned the shelf stable garlic oil blend and are using Roasted Garlic Herb butter to make garlic bread.

7. How would you define your exhibitor experience in the 2016 Specialty Food Association Summer Show? What was your total investment (booth, travel, drayage, promotion, etc?)

Epicurean Butter spent over $10,000 exhibiting at the FFS in New York. We have a small travel budget and count on seeing our existing customers at the show to help maintain relationships. This show is a major source of leads and potential customers. The show was very well attended this year and we were constantly talking to attendees and preparing samples. The sofi award definitely brought high level buyers and press to our booth.

8. How did participation in the SFA Show impact your business? Did the added exposure encourage buyers to buy? Will being a sofi winner impact your business in the long run?

Being a sofi winner was a tremendous morale booster for all of our employees. It gives Epicurean Butter credibility with our industry peers.

Contact:
Epicurean Butter
Janey Hubschman
9355 Elm Court
Federal Heights, Colorado 80260
720-261-8175
email: epicureanbutter@msn.com; Website:epicureanbutter.com