Transforming Kitchens with Lily's Blend Magic

Get ready to be inspired by the incredible journey of Lily Bond, a teenage entrepreneur who turned a simple spice blend into a thriving business. At just 13, Lily saw a gap in the market for low-sodium seasonings and decided to fill it herself, starting with a taco seasoning that quickly became a hit. We discuss her fascinating path from perfecting recipes in her kitchen to overcoming packaging and branding hurdles, all while benefiting from her family's entrepreneurial spirit. You'll learn how Lily's dedication and innovation have expanded Spyce Girlz Seasonings to offer ten versatile blends available across Canada.

Ever wondered how fresh spices can elevate your cooking game? Lily shares her insights on why fresh ingredients make all the difference. She talks about her transition from selling at local farmer's markets to securing spots in major retail stores like Loblaws and Farm Boy. Customer engagement has been key to her success, and through trial and feedback, Lily has discovered new and creative ways to use her spice blends. This episode emphasizes the importance of understanding customer demographics and building strong community ties, making spices more approachable and versatile for everyday cooking.

Finally, we dive into the art of brand storytelling and the joys of outdoor cooking. Lily shares her passion for barbecuing and using natural, preservative-free ingredients—like making homemade cold cuts to avoid overly salty store-bought options. From creating the perfect outdoor kitchen to experimenting with wood-fired pizza ovens, this episode is packed with useful tips and personal anecdotes that will inspire your culinary creativity. Whether you're a seasoned cook or a kitchen novice, Lily's story and practical advice will ignite your passion for cooking and show you how to make the most of your spice cabinet.

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Transcript

Teen Creates Low Sodium Spice Company

Speaker 1 0:00

Today's episode is brought to you by AOS Kitchens, the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

Speaker 2 0:17

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Today we're talking to Lily Bond from Spice Girls and a fantastic story about how a 13 year old decided to make a rub company and how, over many years, how that's grown and what it's become today, with over 10 rubs and seasonings. But Lily's going to talk us through all of that in a second, so, without much further ado, here's Lily. Hello, lily, for anyone who's listening, please do introduce yourself and tell everyone what they need to know about you.

Speaker 3 0:48

Sure. Hi everyone, my name is Lily Bond. I'm from Canada. I'm from Ottawa, ontario, the capital of Canada, and I make low sodium spice blends. My company is called Spice Girls Seasonings Spice the Y, girls the Z. I actually started my business when I was 13 years old at farmer's markets, just selling taco seasoning, and then people were loving it. They were using it on everything. So we wanted to create more versatile spice blends, so the line expanded to now 10 blends that we're selling and working across Canada. Yeah, we're selling to. I love food and I wanted some better option than this really, really salty spice blends that you found in grocery stores 13.

Speaker 2 1:27

Where do you even start there? I mean at the age of 13,. I was thinking mainly about kicking footballs around in sport. You know how did you even get on to that at 13?

Speaker 3 1:35

Yeah well, I was going into high school at the time and I wanted to buy a laptop and I couldn't legally work. So I thought, ok, well, I could, could start my own business, I could create my own job. And when I was figuring out what to start, you know, I was going through different things and I was walking around the grocery store and I'm like what's missing here? And I saw that the spice aisle was always really boring and there wasn't anything that was really all that great. Especially the taco seasoning that my mom and I were using when we were cooking at home was I don't know if you guys in the UK have old El Paso taco seasoning. Okay, yeah, old El Paso. So it was just, uh, it was full of a lot of ingredients that I really felt weren't necessary and way too salty. So, um, there wasn't a better version, so I created it.

Speaker 1 2:19

I mean, what that's? My daughter's just about to turn 12 and I just she's just doesn't have that kind of entrepreneurial spirit. It's quite, quite, you know, amazing that you've just thought, yeah, I'm going to just start my own business and go straight into it.

Speaker 3 2:37

My mom's an entrepreneur, so I kind of it was kind of a an option that I already saw out there, cause if you don't grow up in a family with it, you don't. It doesn't mean some people it does come to them. But you know, watching my mom do that all my life, I was like, okay, well, this is something that I could. I could do as well.

Speaker 1 2:52

And how did the actual process start? So obviously you've identified that you wanted to start a business, like you said. You've gone to the grocery store.

Speaker 3 2:59

You've seen the stuff that should shouldn't be used because of all the preservatives etc. That you were saying. Yeah, so how, how did you get going right? How, how do I make my own? How do I make it better? What's that process? So this? This will be interesting for for you. So it was a month of eating ground beef.

Speaker 3 3:17

Basically, I'm just I had a basic taco seasoning recipe that we would use if we didn't want a little pasta, but there was definitely some improvements that could have been made. Turns out there was a lot of them because it took us so long and to really really find like the perfect balance of spices. And then it was kind of through that process as well of having so much ground beef that we were so tired of it and we were like we have to put this on. Something else was when I realized that one of the value propositions, or really selling products, of my taco seasoning was how versatile it was right, because we started putting it in dips, we started putting it on corn on the cob, we started putting it on roasted cauliflower, started putting it on different meats, we really realized it's just a multi-urpose spice blend right, not just a taco seasoning. So that was a lot of fun to do.

Speaker 3 4:07

I always love developing these new spice blends because it requires a lot of cooking, a lot of trying and we get other people involved as well. So my neighbors are really into their big foodies as well, so they love getting involved. They'll just run over next door. I'm like, hey, try the new Greek, try the new steak spice.

Speaker 2 4:29

What do you guys think? So, yeah, like packaging. How do you even think about packaging at the age of 13, and how long did it take to get it to a point of when you're selling it? You've got it all set up how you want it to look at that age too, right right.

Speaker 3 4:40

So the my first, the first bag of taco season I should have. I should have brought one to have here with me, but it certainly did not look as nice as this. It was a black bag that I got from the local packaging store, a little black pouch kind of a very similar design to this, but it was a little sticker that I printed at, I don't know, my local office supply store. Local office supply store that had the same part, the same like that. That's been the consistent thing in my packaging is a little character of me. Um, and then eventually I just kind of refined it over the years, especially when I started getting into grocery stores.

Speaker 3 5:13

I realized, um, you know, like when I started really researching like the grocery industry and the market and how like things really have to stand out on the shelves because the grocery stores are really competitive place, so I really needed to make it very attractive to the consumer. So I've had various graphic designers kind of like contribute. I kind of put it all together myself, this final product. But I've had different people kind of pitch in different designs and different ideas. But yeah, I think it was really like everything kind of happened as I went on. So I've, you know, I had a little black bag and then eventually, when I got into major grocery stores, I realized I had to have bar coding and product testing and and all that kind of stuff. So it really, it really just comes as you get to the next stage in business. But, um, no, packaging is something I'm really, I'm really interested in, really passionate about too. So, um, I consider myself an amateur graphic designer.

Speaker 1 6:10

And go back to the ingredients. Then, obviously, you mentioned early on that one of the reasons that you started this because of what was already on the market. So, again, how do you go about making sure that, or sourcing ingredients?

Transforming Spice Industry Through Customer Engagement

Speaker 3 6:26

what's again the kind of process there to make sure that you get great tasting products that are actually good for you rather than, like you said, full of salt, sugars, preservatives, etc yeah, exactly, I think that's really one thing is controlling our own manufacturing as well is that our products are not just sitting on the shelf for two years, like three years at a time that we've had the back like they're really like the products that you're. The spice blends that you buy at the local like store were made like a week ago, right, so that's that's one thing as well. Um, we make sure we use like reputable, good suppliers as well, so the spice blends really are or, sorry, the spices themselves really are fresh and they're not old and bland tasting, because that was really my biggest gripe with a lot of spices and spice blends was they were all dusty tasting for whatever reason. They're manufacturing processes and they're suppliers, so that's why I really made sure I got that part right right, it's.

Speaker 2 7:28

It's a really interesting point because I think so many people are guilty of having spices and things in their cupboards for years and years and years and then they don't understand why they're not getting the same sort of flavors as they are, maybe, when they're out or when they're cooking things from fresh. So understanding that as well and then thinking about what are used by dates also looks like if you're trying to encourage people to use them as fresh as possible.

Speaker 3 7:49

Well, that's kind of actually I love that you mentioned that the whole sitting in the back of the pantry, because that's kind of one issue I'm also trying to solve with, I guess, the spice blend industry is. I don't want people to have these just sitting around on the front of the packaging. It just it tells you how to use the product. Cause a lot of people when they see a spice or spice blend, they're like especially, you know, north American consumers. They're intimidated because they don't really know what to do with it. If you give someone a steak spice, they're like okay, I can put it on steak, but they're going to be going through it a lot quicker Once you see that you can actually on the front, you can use it on salmon, you can use on everything, and then all of a sudden you know your spice girls.

Speaker 3 8:23

Spice blends are becoming, are using your everyday cooking and they're not just sitting in the back of the pantry, they're sitting there as a as a pantry staple right that you're using often. So I'm trying to take the guesswork out of using spice blends, making them more friendly and approachable, um, and just versatile and, I suppose, versatility right.

Speaker 1 8:44

So is that? Um, obviously you're trying to, like you say, make, make sure that things are versatile. So, yeah, again, from your side of things, creating the products, is it simply just a lot of trial and error, right? I'm going to try this on salmon, I'm going to try this on beef, I'm going to try this on chicken and I'm going to try this on chicken, and you just go through and test, test, test and test until you can say I'm confident that this is best for this, this, this and this.

Speaker 3 9:11

Well, it's actually, it's funny. It's actually a lot of my customers teaching me how to use my own product, which is very interesting. So I started my business selling at farmer's markets, right, and I still, you know, while a lot of our business is from retail stores now, I still do a lot of farmer's markets because it's a great opportunity. It's fun for me because I love talking to people, but it's also a really good opportunity to talk to people that are buying my product because I'll get, like I started using like this is the seasoning I use for my salmon, right.

Speaker 3 9:37

I had a customer of mine that came up to me and said, oh, you know what I use it on? I use it on salmon. So we get these repeat customers because we're lucky that we have a really good community and like, oh, you know what I use this on. Like, that's most of my conversations I have with people at the farmer's market. Like, people use my pizzazz seasoning here. They'll mix it into their pizza crust when they're making a pizza, right, or they'll put it on roasted vegetables, and so a lot of the key uses for these that I've my spice plans are have come from customer suggestion. How do you?

Speaker 2 10:07

even go from farmer's markets into supermarkets. You talked about being interested in researching what that looked like and everything, but how did that process move in that way, and was it a bit of a shock as well?

Speaker 3 10:21

Yeah, well, I think that the first grocery store we got into so it was kind of a it was a subsidiary of a major chain called Loblaws. In Canada we have Loblaws stores, but there's independently owned Loblaws as well, so there was one that I guess somebody had given us the store owner a package of my taco seasoning. And I got a. I got a call. I remember this was my first year in high school and the store owner, dave Massine, said hey, like you know I'm, I was given a package of your, your, your taco seasoning from a farmer's market and I think it would be really great on our local section. How about you? You know you come by the office and we'll have a talk about putting your product in our store. And I was. I was like okay, my first, my first retailer negotiation no-transcript.

Speaker 3 11:27

I love Farm Boy just as a customer, and I always knew that, based on, like our customer demographic is like the shoppers there they look for, like it's like a accessible premium, I think, like it's so, which is where our products stand, like we're a better for you alternative, but we're not like charging you up the wazoo for it. So it's so. That's kind of where I always envisioned farm boys like my, my dream retailer, and I ended up being approached by them on LinkedIn a year ago actually exactly, and that was kind of when you know, everything really really blew up for us. And now we're working and we're in discussions with another similar retailer, so that's really exciting for us. So that's kind of how our business changed.

Speaker 1 12:07

And in terms of that target market, I've got a Canadian colleague based in Toronto and when I mentioned that we were going to be talking and sort of said that you're in Farm Boys, he said oh, yeah're a again, like you said, a kind of premium store. So in terms of that target market, do you have? I suppose obviously we're a barbecue podcast, right? So do you kind of target people like barbecuers or do you target kind of home cooks or are you?

Speaker 1 12:36

quite a generalist in who you target Just people that love cooking, or do you have some specific demographics that you're trying to appeal to?

Speaker 3 12:44

Definitely home cooks is my target demographic, but I will say barbecuers were my early adopters of the product. There is a local Facebook group called Barbecue Ottawa that promotes my products a lot. They're actually often giving me ideas on how to use it. So I'll see posts like today using Spice Girls smoke and have a narrow barbecue rub on a, on our smoked chicken, on the, on the big green egg, and I'm like, ah, that's amazing. So I get so happy. That was like the first Facebook group that was really promoting me. So we've we've got quite a few that that are, that are great with it. The people love our products. So, um, no, barbecue water has been great to me. So I I do. I do consider myself I am part of the local barbecue community, so I've been to a few events with them and it's, it's, it's fantastic.

Speaker 2 13:27

Yeah social media is something that's very interesting and we talk quite a lot about on the podcast because, at very least, the barbecue community seems to be very friendly, very helpful, very engaging, which isn't always the case when you talk about social media in general. You've touched on it, then, but how has social media shaped what you're doing, because we can see how active you are on there and what you're posting. How has that developed on your journey?

Barbecue, Brand Storytelling, and Spices

Speaker 3 13:57

yeah, I think I really love sharing ideas on how to use my spice blends, like I think. If you, if any of you, have checked out our social media at Spice Girls Things, you'll see there's a lot of recipe videos.

Speaker 3 14:08

And I think the big thing is just letting your, letting your story and your personality shine through into the educating your customers so they really feel connected to your brand. I think brand storytelling is so important so that you're not just some faceless, you know brand kind of thing that people see who's behind it, who's making the spice lens. Yeah, because feeling connected to a brand story is so important. Right, like if you have a great product but you actually like the people that are making it too. So that's why I think social media can be such a useful tool to tell your story.

Speaker 2 14:41

And doing things like recreating a better version of Taco Bell products or doing things like queso, and also showing your engagement with growing outdoors and that link to ingredients as well has to be engaging for people.

Speaker 3 14:58

Yeah, absolutely, oh gosh, I loved that Taco Bell recreation that I did. That was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 15:06

It's amazing. It's such a big brand but it's only really in a bigger way come into the UK in the last few years. I mean I would say like Colchester is probably the closest local city to us and weird calling it a city because it used to be a town and Owen lives just outside it. But I mean taco bell's only been there for two years, three years maybe most um, whereas it's iconic right I think, I think they're a me I don't know if I should comment on taco bell, just because I will, I don't mind, I think, I don't mind, I think it's very average.

Speaker 3 15:46

That was the only time I've ever had it was. That was my very first time. Cause when I was growing up like it was, it was really I guess that's kind of come into my my brand as well as like all natural preservative, free, like you know, no garbage kind of thing was when I was like I never had fast food growing up. Um, so trying Taco Bell, I was like, oh my God, what is this? I've never had this before, so it was kind of a novelty for me, which was which was really funny but on that point though surely, well, maybe not, I do it a lot just kind of go.

Speaker 1 16:12

Yeah, I think I can make that better myself, you know, and especially when you're creating the flavors yourself, I'm sure, I'm sure there were some. You know things that you tasted. When you try Taco Bell and you go, actually my stuff's more flavorsome.

Speaker 3 16:25

That's it. That's what my mom and I say that it's always hard for us to go to restaurants and eat now, especially because restaurants are so expensive. So when we go out and we cook so much at home especially during COVID, my mom and I we did a lot of cooking, a lot of barbecuing, a lot of cooking at home, we cooking a lot of barbecuing, a lot of cooking at home. We really got really good at it. So we go to eat at restaurants. Now it's like, ah, you know, we could really make this better at home and spend half the money and it's just it's.

Speaker 1 16:49

We have fun cooking too. So, yeah, yeah, what's, uh, what's your favorite thing to barbecue?

Speaker 3 16:52

oh, salmon. Yeah, I love barbecue salmon, and I use my steak spice on it too, like I'm a fiend for salmon, um, so that's that's what I love. One thing it must be done, though, is temperature control. Like we, we pull it at 130 to 135, so the salmon has to be like perfectly done. Uh, I know, that's probably I don't know if that's an unusual answer for a barbecue podcast to say I love barbecue salmon, but and then we? Um, I love a chart by charcoal. We have two charcoal barues, we have a big green egg and we have a Weber, and it just like the flavor is just impeccable.

Speaker 2 17:25

Yeah, proper barbecues is the way that we put it.

Speaker 1 17:30

We jokingly talk about gas being a, you know, a taboo word.

Speaker 3 17:35

Yeah, because I was worried. I'm like, if I say that, like, charcoal is the only, way to go.

Speaker 2 17:41

am I going to get like hate on my phone? Fan mail, that's what you'll get.

Speaker 3 17:43

It's so true, the flavor is just, it's just so. There, like we, we got into finding like, oh, different chips with different smoking chips we can use. So it's it's just. I remember us having a lot of fun. Um, we love making, um, roasts like roasts but used for. But we make them into cold cuts after. So we'll do a roast beef right, and we'll season with my steak spice or whatever. But because a lot of cold cuts I find we find in grocery stores are just, they're way too salty and they wait too many weird ingredients in it, we decided, like you know, we can make them ourselves and make them so much better. So, you know, we put it on the grill and season with my spices and it's. We have a meat slicer too, so that's kind of every barbecue person's best friend. I say thermometer and meat slicer because we use that slicer all the time and we're making our own, our own cold cuts. So that's kind of the two things I love to do with it.

Speaker 1 18:36

I'll come back to the meat slicer because I've got one. But um, in terms of the salmon, do you, do you typically cook directly on on the grill, or do you perhaps do like a cedar plank and then kind of cook the salmon on the plank? Or how would you normally go around cooking it?

Speaker 3 18:51

right on the grill. Right on the grill, yeah, and I use a. We use coho salmon. I'm not a big fan of Atlantic salmon, so I use coho. Or sometimes I use trout. Tastes similar to salmon, so those are kind of either ones I'll use, but, yeah, I always run on the grill.

Speaker 1 19:08

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Speaker 2 19:13

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Speaker 2 20:00

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Speaker 1 20:11

Visit aoskitchenscouk. Going back to meat slices, are you talking about like a proper electric deli slicer that can kind of yeah, they're great for big cuts of meat, aren't they?

Speaker 3 20:30

They're perfect, yeah, especially it also saves you having I mean, you can absolutely cut yourself in a meat slicer Safer because you're not using an item like actually no, you could injure yourself horribly on a meat slicer.

Speaker 1 20:45

But no, no, it's a fantastic, a fantastic thing. Um, highly recommend, uh, getting one of those. So, yeah, obviously cooking some roasts. Uh, obviously, british sunday roasts, sunday roast dinner. I noticed that and that's what I'm going to ask you actually, what? What is your typical sunday roast? What does it include?

Speaker 3 21:01

sure, so I mean, I usually put this on a. I'll put this on a roast chicken, um. But what I love about it, though, is that the drippings that come from the roast chicken it's it's seasoned already, like with the spice blend, um. So I have that. Potatoes, carrots, um, all of this can really be used with. This is for your Sunday roast. Everything in your Sunday roast can be used with this. So it's got the rosemary, it's got a little sage, thyme, smoked paprika. I use a little little bit of organic cane sugar in here as well, so it gives it that kind of sweetness to balance out those really savory flavors. So this is just a. This is one of my personal favorite spice blends, honestly, so this one's kind of my pride and joy.

Speaker 2 21:40

Which are your favorites and why okay um you can only, you can only pick one. You don't think I was gonna be nice, I was gonna be like three or four, and then we'll go for your favorite one. That's my favorite oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 21:57

Well, okay, I think it kind of changes depending on the season. I'll say, like, depending on what I'm cooking a lot of. So like, like, in the fall winter time, I'll definitely say my Sunday dinner is my favorite because I'm using it. I'm making a lot more roast, roast chicken, roast potatoes, where, summertime, I'm using a lot of my Theo the Greek seasoning or my steak spice. So the Theo the Greek seasoning is actually really special because it's inspired by my greek neighbors.

Speaker 3 22:20

So their dad, theo, um, it's always, is always cooking for us. He makes, uh, pork souvlaki. Oh, I love, actually barbecue lovers you'll love. He he'll take a. He's a fire pit in his yard and he'll cook everything on the fire pit, like the, the souvlaki and the skewers and the pills. Like he'll make his own pitas from scratch. He'll put it like right on the fire, pretty much so it's, it's amazing. And then they, yeah, so I just kind of that's the food I grew up on, so I wanted something that kind of you know, pays homage to them. So they, they use the spice blend now on their. We put it on our french fries because he also makes fantastic french fries. So, um, that's why I what I've been using all the time lately. It's also a newest spice blend, so that's kind of special place in my heart for this one for sure and where do you get your inspiration?

Speaker 1 23:08

obviously, appreciate, you mentioned your neighbor there, but generally you know, obviously you've gone from one. You're now up to 10, as you said. But yeah, where does the inspiration come from? Do you just wake up one morning and go yeah, do you know what I'm gonna do? A chili one? Or I'm gonna make a pizza one, like how, how do you what's? How do you go through that thought process?

Speaker 3 23:25

come from a few different places. I think some is like things that I've used in grocery stores before that I really wanted to see a better version of. So definitely that's where the inspiration from like a barbecue rum came from, because everything was just really, really like salty and I and I'm like there's got to be something better the taco seasoning same situation. Others do come from a more special place, like our old Montreal Steak Spice, for instance. My family is from Montreal, so this is kind of this is inspired by the flavors of like a Montreal smoked meat. So that's why we have coriander seed in it, because when you get like a Montreal smoked meat, it has like the cracked black pepper and the coriander seed and it's a really, really special.

Speaker 3 24:04

I like I grew up on smoked meat sandwiches right, my mom having them whenever we'd go to visit my grandparents. So I kind of wanted something that was special, like that, and also I wanted a better steak spice, because a lot of steak spices were just they were just too salty and they didn't have much flavor to it. But, um, yeah, and other ones, it's just from like, whatever we're cooking like, we got really into making like pizzas on the barbecue actually, uh, during COVID. So I came out with a pizza seasoning that I renamed pizzazz because I was using it on more than just pizzas. So, um yeah, it comes from a few different places of inspiration.

Speaker 1 24:33

I'll say and so I realize this is a such an open question. But, uh, what's next, you know? Uh, what's your, what's your plans? And to, I'm assuming you want to dominate the world one one spice at a time one spice at a time?

Speaker 3 24:56

no, no, absolutely so. Right now we're working on scaling across Canada, like via retail. We're also working on building up our online sales as well, but I'd say the next year we're hoping to be like fully across Canada. Year and a half to two years we want to go into the States and then after that, absolutely we'd love to take it internationally. I think the market would really really we can really use some Spice Girls, so Spice Girls seasonings.

Speaker 3 25:19

Not the band really use some spice girls. So, um, I scrolls, not the band, um no, but I think that's absolutely I've got. I've got big dreams for it.

Speaker 2 25:27

But, um, yeah, we're growing, mostly worth, uh, with different retail chains right and so if people are, should we say more local to you and they can go into different stores, but are you still event like attending regularly kind of different events and where can they kind of see you and talk to you about it as well? For that personal, experience local events.

Speaker 3 25:46

We do. We do farmers markets around Ottawa. Um, we do a lot of consumer shows, like in Toronto as well. So, um, we'll definitely have some like a lot during the Christmas season. We'll do like, we do like one of a kind, the one of a kind show. If you're in Ontario, you'll you'll know that. Um, we do a lot of online sales as well, so that's kind of we're working on building it up, but we, we have quite a few people that order online from us, from us across Canada. So at spicegirlscom spice with y girls thez. Um, so that's yeah, if you, if you're not going into to a farm boy, then uh, that's kind of where you can find us and so many recipes as well.

Speaker 2 26:24

So many recipes. It's like a cookery book and that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 26:30

What we're trying to create is definitely like an online community. A lot of our recipes that we have on our website that you'll see some of them are inspired by things our customers make as well. So I'm always encouraging people to to send us recipes that they're using, because we we love to get the people involved to make them feel part of the the Spice Girls brand and the Spice Girls community. So that's no. I love inspiring people with, with with new things to use and they're always inspiring me too.

Speaker 3 26:56

So you mentioned Christmas, which is getting a lot closer than we, uh, than we realize. Oh god, don't remind me. That's what's in business.

Speaker 1 27:10

You gotta start planning now for Christmas well, I was gonna say, surely, from from a retail point of view, it's Christmas in July, isn't it usually but, uh, getting ready for Christmas, but Christmas. But I suppose my question is around seasonality. Do you find that there are kind of peaks and troughs of when you do sort of see more engagement or more sales you know it's something like Christmas to people you know buy gift boxes et cetera or is it actually fairly consistent across the year?

Speaker 3 27:37

I think it's different products have different peaks. Like right now are like we have a hot spiced hot chocolate mix. Like that doesn't really sell to like it's a bit it definitely sell. Like it still sells in the summer, but it really flies during the Christmas season like it really goes. Same thing with Sunday dinner seasoning as well it really sells. We see that high sales velocity. Definitely in in the winter, summer, people are using naturally a lot more barbecue rub and steak spice taco seasonings, really year-round though. Um, but we do see like a lot of like eating seasons, like definitely like holiday season in summer, you know, spring everyone's on their cleanse, so I mean you can still use our food on, uh, any sort of our spice blends and any sort of diet foods, but, um, that's definitely when we see our people using a lot of our spice blends or during those times I don't think I've ever done a spring spring cleanse.

Speaker 1 28:25

I just eat more meat. I just eat all the time, yeah yeah, it blitz it up, put it in a, but it's still me, it's fine um, going back to barbecue, um, great to hear you doing a lot of it, kind of during the pandemic.

Speaker 2 28:43

I think the great thing about barbecue is also great for mental health and being outdoors more, which is great. But when? When did you first start barbecuing? Is it something your family has always done and you've naturally gravitated to?

Speaker 3 28:55

yeah, well, my, I remember we had a. We had a big green egg growing up and then my parents got divorced and my dad got the big green egg, so my mom didn't have one, even though she was the one like going beyond I don't know, like burgers and sausages and that kind of stuff. We started getting more creative doing like we smoked butter, made smoked cheese, putting making pizzas on there, doing a bunch of wacky stuff. So that's kind of where we we started using it, for most of our meals was on a big green egg, which was kind of crazy.

Speaker 1 29:44

They're so easy. I think once you've kind of mastered the kind of temperature control on something like a ceramic grill, then you know they're so easy to use and actually Weber's are exactly the same, very versatile. I mean, is it a kettle, weber kettle that you've got just the kind of the round, yeah, yeah again, such as that was my first barbecue. I've still got it 12 years later. It's it just lasts a lifetime but again they're really easy to use.

Speaker 1 30:12

Once you master putting the lid on, it's essentially an oven outdoors and you get all the flavors from charcoal no, we also.

Speaker 3 30:19

We also have, um, a wood-fired pizza oven that we just got um, and we also have a a blackstone. So we, we're really, we're really set up. But, um, you know, I think temperature control is definitely the big thing. We're struggling a little bit with it with our pizza oven. On the wood-fired pizza oven it's a little hard to control the temperature. But, um, for the big green egg, we kind of we don't have it anymore. It broke.

Speaker 3 30:40

But we were kind of cheating. We had this thing called an egg genius. So there's this little little thing that you'd attach the big green egg and it was an app that we could get on the phone and we could see. I guess it's not really cheating. You could see the temperature. Oh no, so we get it. We didn't get a notification at all. Like you're, you know your meat's almost done. Um, clearly we don't have that anymore because a few weeks ago, um, we put a I think it was a pork roast on that we were going to slice up for for pork sandwiches, and we left the house and we forgot about it and on the drive back, like, we just looked at each other like, oh my God, like it's been all day and the big green egg is still going. So we came back and it was this little like sad little nugget. Like you know, if we had the app we would have remembered.

Speaker 1 31:25

But that was just not us, though. I know we're fully fans of bracing in technology. You know, meet thermometers with apps. You know meters. Or you know you think Traegers. You know they have inbuilt apps Weber, you can get the iConnect and things. So I absolutely embrace the technology. Yeah, it's about convenience, right, it makes our lives easier. It makes sure that we're not unfortunately forgetting about it and then coming back to kind of overdone meat. So you were talking about your pizza oven. What pizza oven have you gone for? And how are you kind of trying to balance that uh heat? You know if you can't quite get it right yeah, oh gosh, I I don't remember the exact.

Speaker 3 32:05

We got it off amazon actually. So, uh, it's a. It's a fully, because it's a stand-up one right with a little compartment in the bottom we store logs in. So it's not like the um. We didn't go for the the uni like the little uh one. So it's a fully stand-up wood-fired pizza oven. Um, I think it was a couple hundred bucks on amazon, so it was a pretty, a pretty good deal. We got for it. Um, I think one thing we're also struggling with is finding the right like pizza crust recipe.

Speaker 3 32:30

We haven't fully got one that's worked yet. So we're doing a lot of experimentation with different different crusts. So I remember actually sorry, this was on Big Green Egg we were making a pizza and this was a while ago my friend Ada came over and we were making a barbecue pizza and it turned out horribly because it was we couldn't get the temperature control right and it was burnt and she goes mmm toppings. She definitely had some more toppings moments with the pizza oven. But I think we're starting to get better with different crusts and kind of managing the temperature. The temperature drops really quickly, I think is what we're finding, so we have to keep. It's kind of hard to keep it going, but no, it's a great little new gadget that we got, so we're happy.

Speaker 1 33:16

Playing with fire is also fun it is.

Speaker 2 33:20

I was going to say going back to dough. So there's a great app I'd recommend. That's free.

Speaker 2 33:26

It's called pizza app, but it's all one word p-i-z-z-a-p-p I'll write this down um, and the great thing about it is you can say if you want like a neapolitan style base or if you want like more of a like pan deep dish type of base, and you can go through the amount of dough balls ball weight.

Speaker 2 33:44

It goes through things like um, hydration levels and it'll give you exact amounts of ingredients to put in and recommend time for how long to room temperature proof if you're going to cold proof the, how long to leave it in the fridge is it 24 hours, is it 48 hours and everything and that's been a big game changer for me. I also find that if you can be patient and plan ahead cold proofing for 24 to 48 hours, just leaving it in the fridge once you've made it, depending on either after you've balled it up or just make the initial dough there's so much more air in there, you get a much more should we say, aggressive rise on the crust and it's so much easier to roll out and handle as well compared to kind of just letting it proof for an hour, two hour, three hours. So those would be my tips for trying and experimenting thank you, I'm.

Speaker 3 34:40

I'm excited now because I'm excited to make some more pizzas, although when we first got the pizza oven, my mom was making so much pizza I was like no more, I can't, no. And she's like we're having pizza for lunch. I'm like please, no, I love feeding for pizza. But at that point I was like I think I'm ready to jump back on now. I think a fiend for pizza, but at that point I was like I think I'm ready to jump back on, though I think I've had a break from pizza. I'm ready to start experimenting again.

Speaker 2 35:05

It's easily done, just, you know, just overdoing it completely. I've done it with other foods like chili before as well. Make a batch, batch, big cook of chili and all of a sudden you think I've had chili like four times this week. That that's.

Speaker 3 35:16

That can't be good, no it was funny because it was my boyfriend that pointed out to me. He's like I've been counting. You've had pizza five times in the past two days I'm like that's impressive yeah, it's impressive yeah crazy.

Speaker 1 35:36

Um, actually pizza ovens in general, though, uh, good for not just cooking pizzas. I would definitely try and experiment with, just if you've got like a cast iron dish or even a pan that can withstand a bit of heat, you know, like a rubber handle or anything I would be. So I've got a couple of wood fired pizzas, uh, wood fired ovens, and I cook anything, cook anything, you know, I'll cook lasagnas, I'll cook, I'll fry eggs, I'll anything, and just use the wood as the heat source. So they're definitely more versatile than just pizza, for sure that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 3 36:12

I'm like, I mean, I was like I can do a capstone, but I'm like that's still kind of pizza, because that's what we've been doing on our big green egg. Is we make everything on it, right?

Speaker 1 36:19

so just finding having the same versatility with with that, so that'd be fantastic yeah again it takes a little bit again used to in terms of yeah and not just. You know cooking everything at 300 degrees like you would. A pizza, um, you know you want to. I don't know if you put bacon in it or whatever. You don't want to incinerate it very quickly. So, yeah, it's just about playing with it. Exactly, yes, great.

Speaker 1 36:46

So I suppose we've kind of talked a bit about the brand. We've talked about the kind of story, the inspiration and the next plans, and obviously a bit about barbecue as well. And you've got a decent setup there. I've got. You've got a Weber pizza oven and you've got a decent setup there. I've got a. You've got a webber pizza oven. You've got big green egg and a blackstone. We haven't we actually interviewed blackstone a few episodes ago and I've got a blackstone myself. Again, really, really versatile piece of kit. But, um, is there anything else that you would, perhaps, that we haven't covered yet, that that you'd like to talk about with us? Food spices, barbecue or anything in between?

Speaker 3 37:23

Oh, my goodness, that's a big question. It is a big question I'd like to talk about. I mean, I could talk about food all day, whether it's. I mean, I think I've talked a lot about how I, how I use my spice blends and how I really love to get my customers involved. And, yeah, the barbecue, the barbecue, um, all my barbecue gadgets have really been great for helping me with, um, yeah, different uses for my spice blends, right, and how to make cool, uh, different things. And, yeah, the barbecue community has been, has been great on for inspiring me as well. So, yeah, I think, just uh, the food community is a great place to be. I'm definitely, you know, very informative, uh, very inspiring and very supportive, so that's been fantastic.

Speaker 1 38:04

Actually, I do have one question I've just thought of has there been any idea or spice that you wanted to create and you've just tried to make it work and it just hasn't happened, anything that hasn't made the shelf the shelf yeah, I think there was one that I was working on.

Speaker 3 38:23

Um, I was working on an umami spice blend. It was using salt, pepper, garlic and porcini mushroom powder, so to get that really like that. You see, I don't like msg. I know some people say it's fine, I'm really not an msg person, but it gives. And the way that MSG works is it gives you this kind of umami flavor that you get from a lot of Asian food kind of thing.

Speaker 3 38:47

Porcini mushrooms are really strong in that kind of flavor. So I was thinking I almost wanted to give people that addictive flavor that you get from the MSG, but obviously without the MSG. So I was thinking of using porcini mushrooms for that at MSG, but obviously without the MSG. So I was thinking of using Porcini mushrooms for that and it was. I tried it a lot, I tried to make it work, but Porcini it was just, it was really strong. The mushroom flavor was so strong that I tried using a different kind of like a gourmet mushroom blend and it was still. It was okay, but I think that one could still work Like it was going to be like a multi-purpose, versatile blend.

Speaker 3 39:21

But, um, I put that one on the back burner but I think I'm going to pick that one up again, although right now we've focused more of our efforts on perfecting our ranch seasoning. That's going to be coming out at some point um, as well as a rotisserie chicken seasoning. So in uh, in quebec, in canada, we have a lot of like chicken joints Any Canadians watching you'll know Saint Hubert or Swiss Chalet. It's this wonderful seasoning you get on this roast chicken. We're kind of just trying to figure the balance of smoked paprika and tomato powder, a little bit of sweetness, to kind of get that nice well-rounded flavor that you get in all Spice Girls blends. Yeah, that's kind of what we're working on right now.

Speaker 2 40:03

Just playing with food must be fun, so fun to do day in, day out.

Speaker 3 40:08

Yeah, I love to eat, I love to cook, so I love being in the food industry and they're great people too. Whenever I go to different industry trade shows, you know just talking about food with other business owners and we will trade products and try each other's products out. It's a great, it's a really fun community to be in.

Speaker 1 40:32

Well, Lily, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. Thanks so much for telling us about your story and the products. Again, just tell people where they can find you.

Speaker 3 40:43

At wwwspicegirlscom. That's spice with a Y grows the Z Um. And if you're in Ontario, in Canada, you can find us at um any farm boy location, and in September you'll be able to find us in a Longo's as well. So, farm boy Longo's if you're in Ontario. Um, for the rest of the world, you'll be able to find us in Longo's as well. So, farm Boy in Longo's if you're in Ontario. For the rest of the world, you can shop online at SpiceGirlscom.

Speaker 2 41:06

Thank you so much. It's been great speaking to you.

Speaker 1 41:09

That's it for another episode of the Meat and Greet BBQ podcast. Thanks so much to Lily coming on. It was great to hear about her story about starting a business at such a young age her story about starting a business at such a young age, her passion for cooking, healthy eating and really enjoyed listening to that story. As ever, we'd love to hear from you. Please do get in touch. Use the fan mail. Connect through us, which is in the link of the description. Contact us on social media. Either way, let us know what you want us to talk about and until next time, keep on grilling. Today's episode is brought to you by aos kitchens, the south's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.