We are very happy to introduce to you our friends at Twin Treats. If you hadn't guessed, these two mumtrepreneurs are also twin sisters and create delectable treats!
We picked their brain about business, baking and life.
What was your background before starting?
Probably best to mention here that we are Twin Sisters! Though growing up we use to find it hard that this is what identified us, now we fully love that we are Twins. Alisha studied psychology and worked three years in child and adolescent mental health before becoming a full time stay at home mum. Jasmine studied occupational therapy and currently works in the stroke unit at a Christchurch hospital.
What inspired you to start Twin treats?
I (Alisha) had just had my 3rd child, and Jasmine was about to enter maternity leave. We got chatting on a walk one day about how we are going to make this year different. Jasmine in particular wanted to start doing something extra while on maternity leave and thought she could whip up some raw baking and sell around the neighbourhood. We expanded this idea a bit and came up with Twin Treats!
Where do you look for inspiration?
Firstly it’ll have to be our mum I reckon. She has been on the raw food/whole food bandwagon way before it became a big thing. She used to whip it up for us as teens and we would love it. It wasn’t until we moved into our own homes that we started playing around with ingredients and having a bit of fun. Mum’s also our toughest critic - but we definitely trust her guidance on this. We have also followed the journey of Sarah Wilson and Dr Libby for a while - though we don’t agree on every single one of there views, we do think they are incredibly talented women who know what they’re talking about.
How do you decide which ingredients to use in your creations?
Our biggest eye-opener when starting our raw food business was recognising that there are a lot of raw treats out there that are crammed with a tonne of unrefined sugar. Though we love the idea of making treats with unrefined sugar, we feel it’s really important to ensure that people understand and know exactly what they are eating. With that said, we now aim to make each of our treats with less than 10g of unrefined sugar per serve. So the ingredients we use are definitely worked out to suit this criteria. But a majority of our ingredients consist of nuts, seeds, cacao and coconut. Our sweeteners are typically A-grade maple and dates, and of course your fabulous Solomon’s Gold Chocolate.
How were you introduced to Solomons Gold chocolate?
Initially, I was introduced to the chocolate by my sister in law but started using the product for our business after chatting to the lovely ladies at the Auckland Food show in 2019,
How do you use Solomons Gold Chocolate?
We use it in soo many ways! We love using the chocolate pieces to make mousse and ganache, or simply melting it down as our toppings for a lot of our slabs. We even sometimes just sprinkle the kibble on as it is.
What’s your favourite part of making new products?
Our favourite part would be when we know that our customers love it too, and tell us this is the best thing we’ve made to-date! Then we know we are on to something.
The best piece of advice you have received?
That’s a hard question to answer, I feel like we’ve always been pretty blessed with a lot of guidance. But a big thing we discussed prior to starting our business was that in our current stage of life (with five very young children between us) we weren’t going to invest all of ourselves into the business, so the key for us is to keep it fun and keep it simple and see where it goes. As soon as it becomes stressful and starts to impact our relationship with our children and loved ones, we know that it’s getting too much. So for now.. ‘fun and simple is key’. Mum continues to remind us of that.
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Click here to learn more about Twin Treats.
