4th and Heart: Leveraging the Possibilities of Ghee

April 11, 2020 1946 views

While past decades saw butter consumption drop considerably as Americans replaced natural butter with margarine products made from cheap vegetable oils and emulsifiers, today millions of consumers are returning to more natural diets based on real foods, including butter. A 2014 study found that Americans consumed around 23 sticks of butter per capita each year, which amounted to almost 900,000 tons of butter consumed nationwide. That figure has only grown as the $2 billion butter industry continues to show sharp signs of growth. At the same time, however, up to 50 million Americans suffer from some sort of lactose intolerance, including about three-quarters of African Americans and almost nine out of ten Asian Americans. For this enormous percentage of the population, are those cheap margarine sticks loaded with chemical additives the only alternative to butter?

Founded in 2014 under the name Tava Organics, LTD, the health food brand 4^th and Heart has stepped in to fill an important void within the butter industry. Their wide range of ghee products have taken the country by storm and are now sold in dozens of retailers around the country, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Ahold, Kroger, Wegman’s, Fresh Thyme, Erewhon in Los Angeles, as well as online via their online store, Thrive Market and Amazon.

What is 4th and Heart Ghee?

Ghee is a type of clarified butter that is made by removing the milk solids and water from traditional butter. It has long been a staple of Indian and other Middle Eastern cuisines and was an important part of Ayurvedic medicine and diets. While making ghee does take more time than making butter, it is also a lactose-free alternative that can be eaten by people who are sensitive or allergic to dairy products. Some people have described ghee as coconut oil with a buttery taste.

For cooking purposes, ghee has a much higher “smoke point” than butter (around 485 degrees Fahrenheit). This means that ghee can safely be used as a substitute for vegetable oils without having to worry about your vegetables and meats becoming imbued with an unpleasant smoky flavor that can happen when sautéed with butter. Ghee also doesn’t have to be refrigerated, thus giving it a much longer shelf life than butter or other traditional dairy products.

According to their website, the ghee that 4^th and Heart produces is sourced from the highest quality grass-fed butter that they purchase from a cooperative of farms in New Zealand. “Grass is naturally high in Vitamin A, D, E, K, and CLA. When the cow’s milk is rich with these vitamins, it goes directly to the butter and therefore the ghee,” they state.

Essentially, then, ghee offers a more plentiful dose of the good fat that is found in butter, is able to be consumed by people with dairy allergies, and has a longer shelf life due to the fact that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. While ghee hasn’t been shown to be able to lower cholesterol levels, it certainly does not increase bad LDL cholesterol levels while adding a significant amount of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E.

4th and Heart: Creating a New Niche in the Market

Despite the numerous benefits associated with ghee, overall levels of consumption have historically been low, especially when compared to butter and margarine. The food brand 4^th and Heart saw an opportunity to introduce a healthier, more nourishing product that would instantly appeal to the millions of people adopting diets focused on natural foods that are low in carbs and high in healthy fats, including the Paleo Diet, the Keto Diet, and the Whole 30 Diet.

According to 4^th and Heart´s co-founder Raquel Tavares, “I chose ghee because I’d spent the better part of a year deciding what type of company I was going to start and through the process of elimination chose ghee. Ghee fulfilled many of the critical components to launching and succeeding in the food industry, some of which were authenticity, shelf stability, familiarity and innovative.”

Raquel´s mother was Registered Dietician and Ayurvedic Practitioner and introduced her to the wonders of ghee in her early 20´s. While 4^th and Heart has expanded into new health food products, their line of ghee-based products continues to be the mainstay and staple ingredient of their product portfolio.

The ghee-based products that were available to consumers before 4^th and Heart launched were almost all simple, unflavored products. To make ghee more appealing and engaging to the general public and especially health food enthusiasts, they carefully sourced their raw ingredients, improved upon the manufacturing process, and introduced a wide range of flavor profiles to make ghee a much more versatile product in the kitchen. Among the flavored ghee products offered by the brand, consumers can find California Garlic, Himalayan Pink Salt, and Madagascar Vanilla Bean.

During the manufacturing process, 4^th and Heart slowly cooks the grass-fed butter until the milk solids become crisp and the water evaporates. A double filtering process ensures that all the milk solids are removed, making the product 100 percent free of lactose.

Raquel goes on to say that “interestingly enough, it’s the feed (grass versus grain) and the type of cow that indicate the butter’s and therefore the ghee’s vitamin profile, fat profile and the color of butter/ghee! You’ll find all of the omega-fatty acid profiles in ghee, but what makes it special is the butyrate it possesses that isn’t found in coconut oil, margarines or other everyday vegetable oils. While it’s still in butter, it is more concentrated in ghee as we are removing about 20 to 30% of water and milk solids out of butter to make the ghee.”

The high butyrate content found in ghee is yet another added health benefit of ghee. This fatty acid is naturally found in the lining of the human gut and is often depleted or even completely removed due to the high level of consumption of processed oils, which are an unfortunate staple in the modern-day diet. By replacing highly processed vegetable oils with ghee, the butyrate levels in your gut will naturally replenish, thus aiding digestion while adding essential minerals to your diet.

Using Tradeshows to Find Investors

Introducing a relatively innovative food product into the health food industry comes with a set of challenges. While some investors might be eager to support brands that venture into already-established products within the health food industry, “selling” a new product idea to investors will require a solid business strategy and confidence in your product.

Tavares and her co-founder started 4^th and Heart with about $80,000 of personal savings, allowing the company to begin the process of experimenting with product development and testing local markets. The company really took off after presenting at the 2015 edition of the Expo West Tradeshow. Expo West is one of the largest trade show events within the natural foods industry and is a proven opportunity for food brands to reach natural, organic and healthy lifestyle buyers. The event (unfortunately cancelled this year due to the ongoing pandemic) offers opportunities for startup food brands to connect with retailers, distributors, health practitioners, and food-service professionals.

According to one recent study, more than three-quarters of the executive decision-makers for retailers who attend tradeshows claimed to find at least one new supplier at the last show they attended. For Tavares and her partners at 4^th and Heart, the booth at the 2015 edition of Expo West allowed the brand to capture important investor attention. The company secured its first deal with UNFI, one of the leading organic and natural food distributors in the company.

This original deal gave the brand traction to continue attracting important and strategic investors. Shortly after an intensive rebranding campaign, 4^th and Heart also attracted more investor capital through a Series A crowd-funding campaigning. In 2016, the company secured over $2.2 million in revenue and was well on its way to becoming an established brand within the health food industry.

Though ghee was not exactly a household item found in refrigerators across the country when 4^th and Heart launched, it retailers were extremely quick to adopt the brand and commercialize the ghee-based products. In an interview with Forbes Magazine, Tavares says that “I had an idea and I didn’t know how fast it was going to take off…We were in a small category and the idea was just starting to trend.”

The success of 4^th and Heart is a revealing example of how small food brands can anticipate market trends and introduce healthier food products that have yet to be adopted by the general population. The fact that they are now sold in thousands of points of distribution across the country is a testament to the success of their product innovation and their ability to use trade shows and crowdfunding in order attract investors that allowed the scale-up to happen quickly.

Instead of simply sticking with what has worked, however, 4^th and Heart continues to innovate. 4^th and Heart has over 20 Paleo and Keto Certified SKUs and have expanded into making oils, chocolate spreads and ghee fueled power bars!

Raquel says that “4th & Heart’s plan is to continue to launch better-for-you pantry staples and expand the brand to other aisles of the grocery store. We will continue to put every ounce of passion and love into every aspect of our product. By doing this, we hope we will inspire others to live their best life, by eating well and understanding that the result is only as good as the ingredients you put in.”