Meet the Man behind CocoZen and Energy Pods

Today, Sisters and Brothers of The Chocolate Cult, we welcome Fahad Ahmad from the KG Food Company who reached out to us about two of their chocolatey products. Thank you, Fahad, for answering our questions so we can all learn more about the business of chocolate.

Fahad Ahmad, Founder of KG Food Company

Fahad, would you tell us what your role is with KG Food Company and how you started working there?

First of all, thank you for the wonderful opportunity to be part of this community of chocolate lovers! I am the founder of KG Food Company and I've always been the type of person who enjoys bringing value to the lives of others while always trying to learn new things in life.

How did KG Food Company get its start and how long has it been in business?

It all began in 2017 when I was working 12-hour days at my car business and wanted something tasty and healthy to help fuel my life. Initially, the Energy Pods were meant to be a nutritious and tasty chocolate bar but due to the high-fat content(for example, substituting cocoa butter with fats from almond flour), the product would melt and the wonderful yoginis at the Napa Valley Yoga Center said why not run with it? From then began a journey of learning, podcasting, and creating Energy Pods, a decadent chocolate fudge pudding, and eventually CocoZen, our almond chocolate spread.

KG Food Company currently has two brands – CocoZen and EnergyPods. The first is a spread while the other is a meal replacement. Those are two different categories of foods. Why put out products in both categories instead of focusing on just one or the other?

Energy Pods are an answer to the question, "What are the unlimited possibilities inside a small cup with a spoon?" And geared for on-the-go lifestyles. Some of the customers started asking for jar-sized versions of our product that they could use as a spread or in their recipes so we created CocoZen. 

Which brand is the most popular and why do you think that is?

Energy Pods are more popular among culinary enthusiasts and experts, fitness enthusiasts, busy parents, travelers, backpackers, and anyone looking for a rich, nutritious, and decadent snack whereas CocoZen is the choice among people looking for a spread or a dose of chocolate every day! Generally, the unique type of food and packaging of Energy Pods take a conversation before people understand that it is a fudge pudding whereas CocoZen is more popular overall because spreads and sauces are more familiar to most people. However, once people try Energy Pods versus CocoZen, they tend to generally pick Energy Pods over CocoZen!

Will the business be expanding into other foods and do you think those will also include chocolate or cocoa powder?

We are huge chocoholics who want to have chocolate every day and though we may not currently have plans to add other types of products, we've experimented with adding textural complexity to our Energy Pods such as chocolate chips and chunks which has been quite a hit among culinary experts and enthusiasts. 

Ingredients on edible products in the USA are required to be listed in the order of the amount of each that is included, ranked from the most to the least. In CocoZen and the Chocolate Energy Pods, cocoa powder is the 4th ingredient. Why hasn't more cocoa powder been used to intensify the chocolate flavor?

I am so glad you brought up this question! While working with cocoa powder in our product, we noticed a very strange phenomenon: anecdotally, we were getting nearly 4-5 times the intensity of chocolate flavor in our Chocolate Energy Pods which we speculate may have to do with more dispersion of cocoa particles on the tongue compared with the melt-in-mouth sensation obtained from eating a chocolate bar. We even did side-by-side single-blind taste tests against high-end gourmet chocolate bars in public and we got the same anecdotes from people. 

To usher in a completely new genre of food that would appeal to the general public while not being super intense in chocolate flavor, we decided to aim for a similar flavor profile to a 50% dark chocolate bar when it comes to developing the flavor of our Chocolate Energy Pod. Over time, as more people try our product, we will experiment with even more intense chocolate flavor notes. A side benefit of using 4-5 times less cocoa powder while maintaining high chocolate flavor is that it enables us to use a higher amount of California almonds which helps sustain local farmers and economies while boosting the nutritional value of the product. 

Let's talk about you, Fahad, if you don't mind. Did you plan to have a career in the food industry? If so, how did you train to get such a job? If not, what led you to this field?

I have always dreamed of making a positive impact on the world. Though born in Nashville, TN, I was raised in Pakistan for the first 18 years of my life and saw many family members and relatives suffer from diabetes and associated health conditions. To help them all and create a positive difference in the world was and is my ultimate calling.

When I started this business, through podcasting with scientists and researchers and reading coursebooks and research papers, I was fortunate enough to do a deep dive into nutrition and food science for the first 4 years of the business.

Now, for our most important question here on The Chocolate Cult. Are you a white chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate lover?

Dark chocolate! You get to have a more intimate experience with the cacao fruit this way. However, I'd like to point out that milk chocolate is tasty, and white chocolate too has its place in many places. They are all beautiful and marvels of our learning and exploration that bring people together through experiences! 

Of the products that KG Food Company makes, do you have a favorite?

Chocolate Energy Pod. I love, love chocolate flavor. I like that I can quite literally dip chocolate in the Chocolate Energy Pod to indulge myself in a chocolate coma! 

Where can our readers find your products? Are you starting to get into health food or grocery stores?

Readers can visit us at www.KGFoodCo.com to learn about our products and relevant information. They can geek out directly with me at fahad@kgfoodco.com. We are in several stores all over Napa Valley, available both on Amazon and Walmart Marketplace and are about to branch out further as more people learn about Energy Pods and CocoZen. 

Thank you, Fahad, for answering our questions.

Readers, if you have any other questions, please leave them in the comments and perhaps Fahad will come back to answer them in the future.