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Oatmeal has always been a classic way to start the day, packed with vitamins, minerals, and health benefits. While instant oatmeal has catered to the larger population, it’s also saturated with sugar and repetitive flavor profiles. Conscious of the lack of tasty yet healthy options in the market, Chris and Melat Burger started making their own oatmeal at home to could control the ingredients – seven years later, they never grew tired of their original recipe and began working on their brand alternative OATS.
In the middle of the pandemic, we started toying with new recipes finally, and the first time we took dragonfruit, oats, and hot water, and the oats turned pink we were like ‘woah, you can do this with plants?’. So we went down this rabbithole of coming up with new recipes. We started the business as a side project, came up with 5 recipes, got the house approved and inspected by the Department of Agriculture to be an at-home manufacturing facility, and then we launched June.
On our dashboard, we sell the island spice, banana bread, and acai single-serve oatmeal cups – all of which have a stamp of approval from our team. We were able to taste-test each flavor and started our mornings off with a cup of oatmeal until the sample box was empty. My personal favorite was the banana bread oatmeal because it had the perfect level of sweetness to pair with my morning cappuccino and made our office smell like freshly baked banana bread. According to Chris, co-founder of alternative OATS, the blend he and his wife are most proud of is the acai oatmeal:
There’s literally nothing like it. The smell when the hot water hits it is like a tropical kick in your face because the guava activates from the hot water and there’s this bright tropical flavor. When people try it for the first time their eyes go big… I think that’s the blend that really showcases us and helps us spread our wings as a brand.
Committed to making the cleanest, best-tasting oatmeal on the market, alternative OATS has been able to master the premium-quality breakfast that’s gluten-free and vegan with natural ingredients including nutrient-dense nuts, seeds, fruits, and superfoods. Although each oatmeal is delicious on its own, every cup has a QR code on the packaging that shares recipes using their products, such as Tiramisu alternative Overnight Oats using their banana bread instant oatmeal. The quality of ingredients is apparent in each bite regardless of how you choose to serve it and lends naturally to the coffee shop and cafe setting.
When asked about future plans for alternative OATS, Chris explained,
We want to take this from ‘I need to eat a healthy breakfast’ to ‘wow, this is an experience’. We’re really proud of the products and the goal is to keep pushing out new and inventive recipes that keep people on their toes. Oatmeal is the focus, but at the core we want to be this oats company where we rethink what’s possible.
cups is eager to see what innovative oats recipe Chris and Melat come up with next (don’t hesitate to send more samples!), and we’re excited to support their company growth within the coffee industry. Keep an eye out for their products in independent coffee shops in your area, such as Poetica Coffee which serves alternative OATS in their shops around New York City!