Did you ever wonder why a company you like would stock some brands but not others? It's not only a choice based on costs: we like to choose suppliers, whenever it's possible, that share our values and offer quality products that can make a difference in our customers' life, even when it's the flavour of a marshmallow.
Today we want to get to know better Toast'd, our British marshmallows supplier. We had many questions for them, but Elena, from our marketing team, selected a few to ask Jonathan.
E: Let's start with basics: do you have an all-time favourite kit/flavour?
J: My personal favourite is our Triple Chocolate S’mores as it’s simply divine oh and it comes with not 1 but 2 varieties of sprinkles so you can be really creative!
E: Can you summarise your work day in a word for us?
J: Fun!
E: That's a great answer, I'd be jealous if I didn't love working for Scouts. Can you tell us how did Toast'd come about?
J: Born from a memory of happy times around campfires with friends and loved ones, during lockdown when we yearning for our Marshmallow toasting fix in Anglesey or Cornwall. The idea came about as we were looking for a quick fix alternative that we could use at home, indoors or in the back garden. Whenever we’ve toasted marshmallows and made S’mores with our kids, we’d always add in chocolate and other sweet treats to make it uniquely memorable. Like most really simple and unique ideas, nothing existed so we created our own unique Toast ’N’ Dip kit's, created the brand identity and as a family tested a lot of combinations to finally get the very best we could.
Oh and then we tested them again …just to be sure!
E: Now I'm definitely going to test the free from Toast kit. Were you saying?
J: We stared selling our Kits in August 2020 and over the last 2.5 years have continued to grow rapidly. We’ve been voted best Marshmallow Kit for families by the illustrious BBC GOOD FOOD and the Independent’s INDIE BEST Letterbox Gift for Families which are both massive achievements for us as a small family business.
However, it’s our customers feedback that really matters and we’re always excited to see our 5 star customer reviews with the one from Steph below epitomising everything we do:
“We had so much fun doing this last night, thank you! Always a bit hesitant when buying kits like this that they’re not going to be as good as they appear but our S’mores box was FAB 🙌. Plenty for 4 adults and 2 children, really easy to do, and sooo yummy 😌Will definitely be recommending!xx”
E: Where are you based?
J: We are based on the Wirral peninsular, which lies between Liverpool and Chester. We are blessed by having beaches on our doorstep, 2 great Cities within 25 minutes and plenty of gorgeous countryside all around. We’ve always been kind of ‘Beach bums’ which helps when you want to toast marshmallows by the beach!
E: Why did you choose to have plastic-free products?
We’ve always tried to be as eco friendly and conscious as we can as parents and we applied the same principles in setting up Toast’d. It’s really important to us to be 100% Plastic Free. It’s not easy but with a little more effort and yes a little more cost, you can always adapt your product and packaging to find plastic free alternatives. We have a simple line on all our Kits which states…100% Plastic Free. Why? Because it matters… and it’s a simple as that really.
E: how do you develop your mouth-watering creations?
J: We test, test and test! Not because we love toasting marshmallows but because we are perfectionists and we want the whole experience of using any of our kits to be fun, exciting, unique and different. Also, to be used literally anywhere, indoors, outdoors or wherever the adventure takes you. We only produce the very best tasing kits and so you have to test them in a variety of combinations just as a customer would.
E: Thank you so much and... keep creating delicious kits please!
Let's get Toasting