Displaying and offering samples of "the world's most amazing breakfast cereal" at the recent Winter Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco, Holy Crap representatives introduced the crowd to the cereal's tapioca-like textured combination of chia seeds, hemp hearts, and buckwheat. There are also bits of fruit in the mixture including cranberries, raisins, and apple.
A version of the product, minus the fruit bits, is called Skinny B. As you can see, the company's founders have a sense of humor.
The cereal is extremely condensed in its packaged form, so the samples offered to the San Francisco food show attendees were pre-soaked, as is suggested by the company on the product pouch.
"The chia does expand nine to eleven times," said Lyle Hartley, the U.S. spokesperson for HapiFoods Group Inc. "A lot of people do put it with their yogurts or a lot also do it with some kind of smoothie."
If the cereal brand gets accepted into some of the nation's largest chains, Holy Crap could instantly become a big seller among the growing health-conscious public. The packaging hits on several top nutrition trends in the U.S., as the cereal is gluten-free, lactose-free, vegan, kosher, and contains 100 percent organic ingredients.
It's already making a dent among health-based retailers.
"We are currently in about 20 percent of Natural Grocers, with more stores coming on with the cereal each week," Hartley said of the brand's expansion into a chain that operates in 12 states under the names Natural Grocers and Vitamin Cottage.
The Holy Crap brand is now under review by Whole Foods Markets here in the U.S., as well.
The company is based in British Columbia and got a big boost when its founders appeared on a CBC program called Dragons' Den—the Canadian version of ABC's Shark Tank. Hartley says Holy Crap cereal still holds the title as being the product quickest to gain a business offer in Dragons' Den's seven seasons.
Another big moment came when the cereal was accepted as a staple aboard the International Space Station. There are currently astronauts eating Holy Crap for breakfast as they circle the planet.
