Boulder is a mecca of health food startups — many of which we love. The entrepreneurial spirit matched with our desire to feed ourselves with healthy, natural foods makes it the perfect place to launch such a business.
While many of Boulder’s local health food startups bear a story involving an athlete or long time health nut, we recently heard a story of a company with quite a different tune.
Insert Hope Foods, the makers of the well-known Hope Hummus, a local food company that was created by a group of food-loving college friends. Like we said, quite a different tune.
We were lucky enough to take a tour of the Hope Foods facilities recently, where we learned more about their story, how they make their hummus, and even got to mix together our own hummus flavor. We’ve compiled some of what we learned below.
The Story of Hope Foods
Soon after graduating from the University of Colorado, a handful of friends came together with two common interests: their love of food and their deep need for a job.
Together, they started making hummus…for fun, really. Their recipe testing and many, many hummus tastings led to their perfected concoction, which they started selling at the Boulder County Farmer’s market.
Nearly 5 years later, Hope Foods is now a national organic food company, selling their array of hummus flavors to stores around the U.S. (including Sprouts, who partnered with Hope Foods in 2013).
What started as a fun way to spend time with friends ended as a successful business selling hummus to chickpea lovers like ourselves.
The Hummus
Oh man, the hummus. Let us tell you one thing…their hummus is good. Real good.
Hope Foods currently has 8 flavors of savory hummus, a chocolate “dessert” hummus (yes, we said chocolate hummus…hello guilt-free dessert), and a newly released line of guacamole (spicy and mild).
How Their Hummus is Made
Unlike other hummus companies who produce their hummus with high-heat methods or add preservatives, Hope uses a cold pressure method to keep their hummus fresh — without adding any chemicals or preservatives. This method is known as “High Pressure Processing” (or HPP, as they like to call it at Hope).
Fun Fact: By “high pressure,” they mean six times the amount of pressure that exists at the bottom of the ocean. Goodbye bad bacteria, hello preservative-free hummus.
As a result of using this method, which takes place in a large, cylindrical, spaceship-looking machine, all bacteria, pathogens, and other food-borne babies are killed off. What’s left is a safe, delicious, and fresh container of hummus. Yum!
We were so excited about the high pressure machine that we didn’t mention how the actual hummus is made. Let’s back up a bit.
Hope Foods buys their organic, non-GMO chickpeas whole and fully cooked, and mashes them on site. The mashing, mixing of ingredients, and packaging all take place within close proximity of each other, making the process quick, yet efficient.
Unlike other companies that make flavored hummus, Hope has a unique recipe for each flavor. What that means is there isn’t a “base” flavor with mix-ins. Instead, each hummus flavor is made “to order,” or with its own recipe.
The Hummus Flavors
As we mentioned before, Hope has both savory and sweet flavors of hummus. All of their products are certified organic and non-GMO.
The savory flavors include:
- Original Recipe
- Spicy Avocado (this is the recipe that made them so popular at the Boulder County Farmers Market!)
- Kale Pesto
- Thai Coconut Curry
- Sriracha (made with their homemade Sriracha sauce, which they make in house)
- Red Pepper
- Jalapeno Cilantro
- Super Hemp
While we were at the Hope Foods facilities, we had the opportunity to not only taste the hummus, but also mix our own hummus at the “Hummus Bar!”
We mixed spices, herbs, seeds, dried fruit, and more into both original recipe hummus and a sweeter hummus. The results were quite delicious, if we do say so ourselves.
While our hummus mixing skills were pretty good, I think we’ll leave the hummus mixing to Hope Foods.
Our Last Hummus Thoughts
Supporting the local food community is something that is very important to us at Local Table Tours. We love not only the products Hope Foods produces, but also the people behind the scenes. They are a team of passionate, excited, dedicated people, which we admire. We highly recommend you try Hope Hummus products!
Thank you to both Hope Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market for the amazing tour, tasting, and event!