Today we’d like to introduce you to Beata Lerman.
Hi Beata, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Let’s meet, I’m Beata, the founder and creator of Sinless Treats. By training and profession, I am a biomedical research scientist, an Immunologist with a background in genetic engineering. For the last 25 years, I have done bench-to-bedside research and development, consulted clinical trials, developed protocols for clinical laboratories, and helped bring cures to the market. I made a lot of progress and I would say I had a stellar career. I hold patents for a new approach to treat cancer (immunotherapy), and I have seen firsthand what a combination of factors including high carb (sugar) diet can do to physical, cognitive, and emotional health of people. I wanted to do something about it. This is how I came up with Sinless Treats, an alternative approach to desserts, which can support a variety of low-carb lifestyles.
I believe that the food we eat has to be nourishing, healthy and balanced, and bring joy. How many times has this happened to us when we eat the dessert, especially in the evening and then feel guilty and resentful towards ourselves for that extra piece of cake, or chocolate, or pastry? No more guilt! In my desserts, I use the highest quality sugar alternative such as monk fruit, stevia, and allulose which are good for health and have beneficial impact on the body.
It took me over a year and a half to develop the recipes that would consistently work. I have given up many times, and walked away from it thinking this is impossible to accomplish. I felt that chocolate was too difficult to figure out, and it would never work. Many times, I felt frustrated and disappointed that I had to through away another batch of pastries, for they did not come out as well as their sugary counterparts. But the challenge always drew me back. Just like in science when we are looking for cures and progress may take time. In the end, using a combination of a scientific method, persistence, patient, and good old trial-and-error I came up with the variety I can now offer everyone.
I am also a mom of a three-year-old, and she was my additional motivation. it feels great to reward a child with their favorite chocolate knowing full wall, that they will not be bouncing of the walls and it will not ruin their bedtime.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing that is worth something is ever easy, otherwise, everyone would be doing it. My first challenge was to create the perfect sugar-free chocolate. It is hard to make sugar alternatives to behave like sugar in the recipes. Anyone who is leading the low-carb diet and tried baking for themselves knows this. I use three highest end sugar alternatives in my chocolate and fillings I use Stevia, and for the fillings Monk fruit and Allulose. All of them are natural, plant based sweeteners, with positive effects on the body which is described in many peer-reviewed scientific articles. It took me over a year and a half to come up with the recipes that consistently work, and result in highest end product which is nearly indistinguishable by taste from the conventional, sugar-containing sweets.
Now my next challenge is building my own production and retail store. I am currently renting the fully licensed, and health department certified commercial kitchen where I produce my chocolate. However, the space is too small to make it a larger scale operation. My store, once open, will be in Bellaire, right across the street from the Bellaire triangle. Opening a business is a costly operation, and my third challenge is to raise funds to complete the buildout. For that I am launching the 30-day kickstarted campaign with hopes of razing $25000 so my own fully certified production facility and the store can open to public in Q2 2022.
I already did most of my heavy lifting. I acquired all the equipment I needed, I designed and produced the chocolate boxes, I built a fantastic website with interactive ordering platform, and I am making new partnerships to expand my portfolio of products which would support health while tasting great. I am going through some very natural growing pains, but I know every new business is going through it. I would love get the community support to help me pull through these times.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I went to the ancient traditions of the Mayans and the way they made chocolate to make my chocolates impressive on all levels of senses. Not only it is low in carbs, and containing exotic flavors and spices, but also all coloring I use in my creations are plant-based colors, and not artificial food dies which causes the variety of negative health consequences. In addition, I am one of the few artisan chocolatiers who is transparent with my ingredients and nutritional values. My chocolates were lab analyzed and that the findings are published as they are, unredacted on my website. I also import my cocoa beans from Costa Rica, Equador and Peru. The reason for that, is that in those places along with very few other cocoa trees have the “original DNA”, and are grown organically without use of pesticides or other chemicals. There is a fungal disease that are killing cocoa fruits worldwide, and over 70% of world cocoa comes from the genetically modified trees from large farms in Africa. That is done to maximize the harvests and to stop the fungus from damaging the cocoa pods. I am trying to stay away from anything genetically modified, follow the ancient traditions, and also reward the cocoa farmers who go through the great length of difficulty to do it right and closer to nature.
My chocolate are not only good for healthy adults that want to make good choices about food they eat, they are also safe for diabetics and children, because they don’t spike blood sugar levels. My chocolate boxes, make fantastic corporate and personal gifts. They also make fantastic networking and coffee-break snacks, which will keep participants focused on the discussion at hand, and not make then sluggish and tired in 20 minutes because of “sugar crash”. Also, this is a fantastic way on both personal and professional level to send the message that “I CARE”. I care about your health, I care about your productivity, I care about your quality of life, I care about you enjoying your treat. I care about health of my community and our children.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I am very much a “high risk-high reward” type of person. This does not mean that I’m irresponsible with my resources and don’t calculate and consider outcomes very carefully. I know that chocolate is one of the things people miss the most when they decide to cut carbs, whether for health or personal reasons. However, the market still lacks options for the great tasting products which would support healthy lifestyles. There is no shortage of “keto” advertised sweets, but if one looks at the ingredients, it is full of unhealthy additives, which often are not low carb lifestyle compliant, but they are marketed as such. Another problem, large companies usually opt for a cheaper and lower grade sugar alternative and filler ingredients, which often give the opposite effects from which were advertised or intended.
To create my company, I invested and continue to invest my own money. So you can see that I am risking it all, my personal finances, my assets, and my financial freedom in pursuit to make my community and in the future the world a better and healthier place. The rationale behind that is I don’t want investors to dictate the key company decisions. I will not lower the bar and reduce the quality of my raw materials in favor of profit, or higher financial returns. In fact, I would give my customers my word, that the chocolate they are buying from me is the same as I consume myself and feed my children. It is very hard to self-fund an endeavor like this especially in moments when I have doubts that I can lift it all alone, but I am a firm believer that integrity honesty and transparency and not profit should be integral values, and I can’t trust investors to uphold these principals and values over making the profits and getting the returns. I would appreciate the support of the community of my Kickstarter campaign so I can finish building my store and open my doors to everyone.
Pricing:
- Small box of 6 $16.50 + tax
- Medium box of 10 $27.50 + tax
- Large box of 24 $65 +tax
- Favor box of 4 $11.00 + tax
Contact Info:
- Email: sinlesstreatschocolate@gmail.com
- Website: www.sinlessdesserts.com
- Instagram: @sinlesstreatschocolate
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450057716813345
Image Credits
Tatiana Arkhipova
TXfilms
