Turning Pistachios into Profit: How Pistakio Cracked the Nut Butter Category

In this episode of Shopify Happy Hour, Dan sits down with Francine Voit, co-founder of Pistakio, to talk about how she turned an underused nut into a standout brand — and made pistachios fun, accessible, and delicious for everyone.

Fran shares the inside story of how Pistakio started as a college capstone project, went viral with creative sampling stunts (including a tiramisu purse that made it through TSA!), and grew into a fast-scaling DTC and retail brand — all while staying taste-first and relentlessly scrappy.

You’ll hear:
 ✅ The simple sampling strategy that built word-of-mouth and early traction
 ✅ How Pistakio turned customer feedback into product improvements
 ✅ Creative ways they inspire customers to use their spreads in everyday recipes
 ✅ Why taste-first product development beats trendy buzzwords
 ✅ How Fran thinks about growing retail, DTC, and content — without paid ads

If you love founder stories packed with practical CPG marketing lessons and organic growth tactics, this one’s for you.

Tune in, grab a snack (maybe a pistachio or two), and enjoy!

Products and brands mentioned during this episode include:

• Pistakio
• Faire
• Bezi Labneh
• Lottie's Meats
• Michele Ferrero

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Pistachio and Francine Voit
02:27 The Inspiration Behind Pistachio Products
05:25 Product Development and Market Entry
09:04 Sampling Strategy and Initial Sales
14:39 Balancing Direct-to-Consumer and Retail Sales
17:46 Viral Marketing and Content Creation
19:55 Retail Partnerships and Growth Strategies
21:50 Advice for Aspiring Founders
24:09 Speed Round and Personal Insights

Transcript

Dan Cassidy (00:00)
Welcome to the Shopify happy hour on the show. You'll hear from Shopify founders, operators, and experts on growth marketing strategies, lessons learned from the trenches and other nuggets of e-commerce wisdom shared over a different drink or snack each episode. Today, I'd to welcome Francine Voigt, co-founder of Pistachio, who is on a mission to make pistachios more approachable, accessible, and fun, and a staple in every pantry. Francine, welcome.

Francine Voit (00:29)
Thank you so much for having me.

Dan Cassidy (00:32)
Excited to have you on. So where in the world are you calling from? Are you on the PNW?

Francine Voit (00:37)
I based in Portland, Oregon.

Dan Cassidy (00:40)
Fantastic, you guys having some good weather out there recently?

Francine Voit (00:44)
We are, it hasn't been raining so much. It's been sunny and super nice out and you can see all the mountains from our apartment so it's beautiful out here.

Dan Cassidy (00:53)
fantastic I was in Seattle not too long ago and back in North Carolina now and it's the time of year where the windows sweat it's super humid everything's hot super muggy you can't wear glasses because they'll fog up immediately when you walk outside so I'm a little jealous of where you're at right

Either way, I'm excited because I'm about to try this Pistachio. So what's interesting on each episode, we'll ask people on it who they would recommend we have on future episodes. And I think a couple of different people recommended having you on. So you've got a bit of a fan following for this. So maybe we kick things off. Why don't you just tell me about what I'm about to try. So I've got two different Pistachio spreads, one creamy, one crunchy. Why don't you tell me what's in it?

Francine Voit (01:26)
Wow. ⁓

Okay, so basically we were inspired from the Italian pistachio creams. They exist all over Europe, so they also have French versions, Greek versions. And a lot of them are super, super sweet. They don't taste a lot like pistachios and they don't, some of them have like artificial flavors. They don't really look like pistachios so much. So we wanted to elevate that and make something that really tasted like pistachios and not just like sugar. Especially because when we were here in the US, there was almost nothing with pistachios.

But when we did find something with that, it had artificial flavors, coloring, preservatives, and just full of sugar. So this is our take on it with a little bit of a twist. It's kind of as if pistachio butter and Nutella had a baby together, but with way more pistachios, way less sugar, no palm oil, all good-for-you ingredients, and the star of our show is the pistachio.

Dan Cassidy (02:29)
Fantastic. So how did you get started with this? Where did the idea come from? And how did you kick things off?

Francine Voit (02:35)
So a little bit about our background and how it started is I mentioned the Italian pistachio creams because I went to culinary school in Italy and my partner Nico is from Italy. He grew up in Verona and I went to culinary school in Milan. And we noticed that in Italy they're infusing pistachios in so many different dishes. But here in the US, the nut butter category was full of like pecan butters, cashew butters, peanut butters, but there was nothing with pistachios.

and even the different nut milks that were coming out. So we wanted to show people how versatile pistachios really are and how you can use them in so many different ways and sweet and savory, just like they do in Italy. And so we started in college. It was our capstone project about two years ago and did some farmers markets, realized that people loved it and people really did want something like this. And that's kind of how it began. And then we moved to Portland about two years ago to launch it. And we launched just over a year ago now.

Dan Cassidy (03:26)
Fantastic. Well, I gotta say, so I tried both the creamy and crunchy and they are delicious. They are super, super good. I wasn't sure if, you with it, so I love pistachios, but I've never had a pistachio spread.

Francine Voit (03:33)
Thank you.

Dan Cassidy (03:40)
And so I thought that it might be just purely pistachio, but you're adding other sorts of goodies in here because this is not just pistachio. So what else is in both of these products? And are they the same? One is just denser and crunchier, or are there different ingredients in each? Because they do taste a bit different, the crunchy and the creamy.

Francine Voit (03:59)
They are the same actually. So the base of our creamy has pistachios, oat milk powder, sunflower oil, cane sugar, and sea salt. And then the crunchy has the same base as the creamy, but it has quinoa puffs and crushed pistachios inside. And most of the time, like in the Italian pistachio creams, they have like milk powders. They have just other ingredients too in there. So we wanted to make ours a little bit more accessible. That's why we made it vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free. And the crunch is kind of like a new take on crunchy peanut butter.

Dan Cassidy (04:29)
The the keen what helps is that we call them. Those are really cool. They definitely add a little crunch It's almost like so I'm a child of the 80s and there were

Francine Voit (04:31)
Yeah

Dan Cassidy (04:39)
there was this candy called Fizzwiz that when you would consume it, it would sort of explode in your mouth. And it was kind of a crazy thing, but the quinoa puffs do a little bit of that, where it has a very fun, light kind of popping crunch. ⁓ So, excellent job. These are fantastic products. When I received these, the packaging is really nice because you're doing a couple of things with this. When I first saw this,

Francine Voit (04:41)
Come on.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dan Cassidy (05:05)
To me, I compare this to other nut butters. I was like, okay, this would be perfect on toast, kind of a replacement for peanut butter or almond butter. But then on the box and on the inserts, you talk about different.

let's say recipes that can be used with this. And it's pretty broad. You talked about using this in lattes, four different chocolate bar desserts, donuts, even some more savory products. So from an e-commerce and marketing standpoint, I love that you're broadening people's horizons to get people thinking about all the different ways that they can use them. So what are some, I guess, of the more unique ways that people are using the product?

Francine Voit (05:18)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

But because it's a little more drizzlable and not as thick as a nut butter or even the pistachio creams or Nutella's, that's kind of what leads to the versatility of it. You can drizzle it on top of your ice cream. You can put it on a yogurt bowl. People love putting crunchy with some strawberries or in a chocolate bar. I love the coffee one and I think most people, most of our customers also love the coffee one and that's probably one of the first things they do with it.

I also really like it with cheese. It's super good with goat cheese or a grana, a parmigiano type of cheese, harder ones. It kind of has this different sort of taste every single time you try it on something new. And that's what we've heard from some of our customers too is they tried it with apples and it tasted different and then they tried it in a latte and it tasted different. And they loved that they could kind of play around with all these different recipes and see how it tasted together.

Dan Cassidy (06:31)
What was your process like to come up with the products? Like how long did it take to go from, okay, you've got this idea where you're enjoying pistachios, you see kind of a gap in the market for this type of product, then I'm sure you moved to product development. What did that look like between your idea and the concept to get into a point where you've got something that people love?

Francine Voit (06:54)
So when we started in college, I iterated the first couple of recipes the night before we went to our first farmers market in our college dorm. And we made a pistachio cream. So it was like just pistachios blended up into a nut butter and then we added some white chocolate into it. And that was like all we did for that. And then just had people try it. And then actually we were working on some savory ones. So we had a pistachio mayo and a cheesy pistachio mayo.

And we brought all of these different samples to the farmers market and just had over 200 people that one day that we went in the span of like three hours that just loved all of them and they wanted us to launch it. So that's kind of where we got like this light bulb moment where we were like, okay, maybe we should try and figure out the recipe and then come up with branding and launch it. So then a few months later, I was taking a packaging design class and my partner, Nico, was doing an entrepreneurship class and doing some social strategy for the brand and everything.

and I was also working on the recipes. So we landed on starting with the pistachio mayo back in college and we kind of made this like infused pistachio oil that we use to make the mayo. But it was very, very difficult to launch that when we moved to Portland because we were just a small business starting like in a commercial kitchen. It had to be certified, it would have been refrigerated and we also wanted to make it vegan. So if you know anything about like food science, the water activity was...

way too high for this product to be shelf stable. So that's kind of when I had this chef try our pistachio cream, so the spread that we have now, and she loved it and she was like, no, this one is ready. You should just let go of the mayo because this one right here is ready and it's shelf stable. And kind of like the whole process behind that was looking at the ingredients in the pistachio creams in Italy.

and then saying, okay, I don't want that, I don't want that, I don't want this, and I do want this, so I want pistachios to be the first ingredient in this, I want it to taste like pistachios. Everything else should be as neutral and natural as possible. So the little bit of salt in there also gets to people because they love a little bit of sweet and salty. I also love sweet and salty, so that was part of the reason why. And then most of them have milk powder, like I said before, so just in my mind, I was like, let's look for oat milk powder.

Oat milk is a thing, maybe they have that. And then we found oat milk powder, got a supplier, and we started, we found sugar, we started working with those ingredients, playing around with the ratios for a little bit. And honestly, it didn't take that long. We just needed to launch, so we launched with what we had, which was good enough at the time, people loved it. And then we iterated and changed the recipe based on consumer feedback.

Dan Cassidy (09:32)
I love that very smart starting as soon as you could with a product that people liked from the start and then iterating a bit from there. So how did you, what did your first production run look like and how did you sell through those units? What was your plan to launch and what did it look like?

Francine Voit (09:48)
It was a lot more scrappy than I would say most CPG businesses when we first came to Portland and found a commercial kitchen. The kitchen only had capacity in like each batch for about like 25 jars every run. So it wasn't much and we would spend the whole day make about like a hundred jars if that in a long day. And they

We went to, you know, farmers markets, we went to like stores, we walked into like different retailers that we thought would like the product and just had them try it. Also, when we first started, we moved to Portland without knowing anybody. So part of our way to like build some hype around it and get people to know us and hear about the product was by basically giving away free samples of our products to everyone that we could find.

So we put up some stuff on social media saying like, come get a free little mini jar of pistachio and like you can try it, we'll ship it, we'll deliver it for free. Cause we only opened within a radius of like three miles so that we could drive to everybody's house and then bring them the jars to their doorstep. We also just, we didn't really have much capacity. We didn't know how to ship. So we had glass jars in the beginning and it would have just probably broken in transit without the boxes. So we just used those.

sort of like marketing tactics to have people try it for the first time. And then word started to spread around Portland and people started to their friends. And then when we knew that we could launch with like an e-commerce site and get our boxes to ship, we launched in April of last year.

Yeah, and then, sorry. Yeah, and then since then, we actually had some boxes that were breaking because they were too thin. So the actual glass jars in there just were arriving damaged to people's homes. So we had to iterate from there too. And that's when we changed the packaging, we changed the formula also based on the feedback. And it all kind of just came together with our 2.0 version that launched in June of last year.

Dan Cassidy (11:22)
So... ⁓

No gun.

So talk to more about the sampling program. So on social, you just saying, were you just posting saying anybody within this three mile radius, if you want some, just DM or did they have to sign up and you were driving to their house to give them free product?

Francine Voit (12:01)
We opened our Shopify, but on Shopify you can do like a radius of like people that you can ship to. So we did, there were like one ounce jars. We sold them for 50 cents, which was costing us more than that. And then we were doing free shipping. That way there was no like reason that people wouldn't want to get it. And it was from like a whole month of January. So before our launch, the entire month, we just went and brought it to people's homes.

We already had like a bit of a following. It wasn't so many people, but we had been posting a lot since before even starting just about pistachios and trying to build a community and just some loyal fans. So that's kind of just where we started. And we put this video out that said like, whoever wants to try our product, come and try it. And then as soon as someone got a sample, they told someone else. And as soon as someone else got it, they bought like 10 for their friends. So it just kind of started to spread really quickly.

And before launching two, we also went to like some coffee shops and then had them do a latte with us so that people could see how you could use it in those ways too.

Dan Cassidy (13:02)
So you were doing the sampling, you also were selling your regular jars as well.

Francine Voit (13:08)
No, we didn't have the regular jars yet. Yeah. They were by 10 minis. Yeah. Like one ounce, tiny little glass jars.

Dan Cassidy (13:10)
Gotcha. So when you're saying people would buy 10 for friends, they were buying 10 samples to. Gotcha. Okay.

Nice, nice. And so how many of those one ounce jars did you give away through that sampling period?

Francine Voit (13:25)
Ooh, probably like a month we went through, I would say at least like 300 or so of them.

Dan Cassidy (13:32)
That's fantastic. I love that you had the belief in the product to know that, hey, if we get just get this in people's hands and have them try it, they'll come back for more. So as you did that, when did you at what point did you shift to selling, selling actual product?

Francine Voit (13:39)
Mm-hmm.

So right after we did that, this was like in January of two years ago. No, last year. Yeah. This was in January of last year. So right after we did the sampling program, we knew that we could at least sell the jars after the sampling program and have people buy it again in that three mile radius. So we were still bringing it to people or figuring out while we were figuring out how to ship it. So then in like February and March, we

were selling those around Portland and then also finding retailers around Portland, like smaller shops that could carry it. We were working with some coffee shops to do lattes and trying to like expand there too. And then we opened up pre-orders for like nationwide shipping in March. And then in April is when we officially launched and started shipping nationwide.

Dan Cassidy (14:36)
is I love the progression. So I guess, so once you went through the sampling program and then you were then, you then began to sell, how did you get in front of the people who had samples? Did you do direct mail? Did you email? Did you like, you had their contact information in Shopify? Were you doing email blasts? Let them know.

Francine Voit (14:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. That's what we did. So we had their information already from when they bought like a sample jar. Then we would just send them an email as soon as we were launching nationwide and obviously with like a discount code so that they could use it and send it to their friends. And that's kind how we got the word out.

Dan Cassidy (15:12)
fantastic. I love that you use your product as marketing at the beginning through this sampling program. So, okay, so we're about a year past that point now, right? All this stuff happened, let's say a year and a half ago January, then you moved to selling online. And what does your, I guess, what is your percentage of sales look like for direct to consumer versus retail now?

Francine Voit (15:33)
It's probably a 50-50, maybe a little bit more on the e-commerce side, but right now we're shifting a little bit more on the retail side and trying to expand on that end.

Dan Cassidy (15:44)
Gotcha, okay, and how are you, I guess how are you thinking about marketing across both channels?

Francine Voit (15:51)
We do a lot of in-store demos and then we try to send as many people as we can to come visit us in store. But also like lot of our retailer, like bigger retailers that we do the demos in are in Portland. So those people are always shopping in store because they know that we're there and they know they can come and find us and get it at any time versus having to get it shipped. And then just online has been super, super well for us. Just like using Instagram as much as we can.

We do a lot of email marketing too, so people find us through there and we try to tell them when we're doing an event or when we're going to a retailer to go and sample our product.

So yeah, things like that.

Dan Cassidy (16:23)
Fantastic.

Nice. And so when you're saying Instagram, are you talking organic or paid?

Francine Voit (16:29)
Organic. It has all been organic. We haven't spent anything on ads yet. It's just been us.

Dan Cassidy (16:36)
Okay, awesome. And all Instagram? Are you doing it? Are you posting across other platforms too?

Francine Voit (16:40)
We're posting our costs, TikTok and Instagram, but probably our main focus is Instagram because most of our like loyal customers and following that are following our journey are there.

Dan Cassidy (16:53)
Okay, talk to me about this tiramisu purse. Where did the idea come from? And maybe talk about what exactly this is for people listening who might not be familiar with

Francine Voit (17:03)
Yeah, of course. So it actually started because one of my favorite ways already to eat our product is in a tiramisu, pistachio tiramisu. It's incredibly delicious and we have a recipe on our website if you haven't tried it. And I saw someone do a, I can't remember who the creator was, but she made a tiramisu purse already on her page and she just like walked around with it and we were like, what if we did that with pistachios? And then what if we took it to the next level because we have a flight coming soon.

and try to bring it onto our flight. And the whole idea, the whole concept for this was like watch TSA confiscate my tiramisu purse. That's what the video was supposed to be. But somehow like maybe it was too cold or something that it wasn't really that liquidy. It was like pretty hard. They let it pass and they let it go through. So I had this purse in my hand and I was like, okay, I didn't even bring a bag to cover it because I didn't think that she was gonna take it and let me go with it. So.

That video got over 35 million views on Instagram and almost 10 million on TikTok. We got on the Today Show because of it. We got on the Drew Barrymore show. We were featured on Food and Wine, on Eater, but it was crazy. We didn't think it would go through. And then once it went through, we were like, okay, well, this is probably gonna blow up because people are gonna be really upset.

Dan Cassidy (18:21)
What sort of impact did you see? Well, first of all, congrats on being creative and kind of being inspired by another creator and what they did and then making it your own. I think a lot of brands that have success are, you know, creating original content, but then a lot of people that just do well, they're looking at trends that work well or they see what somebody else did and then they make it appropriate for their brand using a little bit of a framework that has already been proven a bit. So very nice there. What did you see in terms of sales left online?

and in store from all of the media that you were able to get from that.

Francine Voit (18:54)
So it's harder to see it in store. I definitely think that there's some retailers who found us through it, but definitely online there was a spike for a couple of weeks more so when we got on like the Today Show and the Drew Barrymore Show than the actual post itself. Something that I kind of regret was not showing really like the product enough in the video or talking about it at all. But it's also like you found...

People find you through the page and then it's a funnel effect too, so they're going to see that and then eventually also end up buying it later on as they're following along and start seeing more of your recipes and more ways to use it and the reviews.

Dan Cassidy (19:35)
Nice. So now, so you've had lots of success with that post. What is your content creation process look like now when you're looking to create content? Sounds like mostly for Instagram, but you know, also TikTok and some other platforms. What does that process look like? How are you thinking about different ways that you can generate content that ideally would have another win that kind of like you had with the tiramisu purse?

Francine Voit (20:00)
I think part of it is, yeah, like you said before, seeing what already works, but then putting your own twist on it and making it more original. The problem with a lot of the trends that are going on now is that everybody does the exact same thing. And if you're not the very first or second person to post that, it's not going to do anything for you. So we, as a brand and like me and my partner, Nico,

We try to show ourselves as much as we can because people really relate to other humans and they connect to them more than they do to the product. So that's why most of our marketing right now has been all organic and just us talking to people, taking them along our journey. And that's what we see do the best for us. And then every once in a while we try to think of ways that can be more fun and take people along the ride and maybe a little bit more humorous like the tiramisu purse.

or just like the journey, we've had some videos that also went viral that were just about our journey and some wins and successes that we've had to have done really well.

Dan Cassidy (20:57)
Fantastic, fantastic. What are you, so you've got, you've landed different retail accounts. How do you do that? So it sounds like early on you would go into different retailers, you would share samples of the product. What are you doing now and what have you found work best for landing new retailers?

Francine Voit (21:14)
We use Fair now, which is a great wholesale platform. when we first started and we were walking into these different stores, we were doing everything direct, but it became really overwhelming as a two person team to have to like control all of those invoices and all of the orders. And that's when we moved everything to fair and kind of streamlined it all. especially because if you use the direct link on fair, you can just send people there and you don't have to pay extra fees or anything. So finding all of these like super like curated small.

local independently owned shops have been one of the most successful ways that we're able to grow and kind of be everywhere without having to spend or have a big budget. Like being in like a big Whole Foods, people are like, I've seen you everywhere. But also if you're in every single like shop in every single city in a small store, the owner of that shop knows your brand and they can advocate for it. So we've seen a lot of success and just being in these smaller stores where people can actually talk about it and educate someone on how to use the product or

how they like it or what are their favorite things in the store. So, Fair has been really, really good for just doing that and finding all of these smaller shoppy shops.

Dan Cassidy (22:23)
Awesome. Any other tech or apps or tools you have found super useful for either retail or DTC or anything to help grow your business?

Francine Voit (22:33)
I would say not necessarily for retail or due to sea, but keeping everything organized on Notion has been super helpful just for peace of mind, especially like when we have a big event coming up and we can share like the page. We keep everything on like a shared Notion doc and invite people if we need to. So that has been super good to organize our thoughts a little bit better.

Dan Cassidy (22:56)
Nice. So I think you've unlocked something early on with the brand that a lot of brands struggle with. A lot of founders will have an idea for a product or new business and they go to market and they don't get the response that you got right away. Sounds like you went to the first farm market and people were loving the product and right away...

Francine Voit (23:17)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Cassidy (23:18)
We should turn this into a thing and then shortly after you move to Oregon, build stuff out, do the sampling program and people are hooked and then they go on to purchase product once you move on to selling the real product and not just the samples. So what advice would you have for...

Francine Voit (23:27)
Mm-hmm.

Good one.

Dan Cassidy (23:35)
people listening, any founders who are thinking about starting a business, whether it's CPG or not, how can people, I guess, find a product within a category or build a product that will resonate with people as quickly as Pistachio did with your customers?

Francine Voit (23:53)
think it starts with just having a good product and I know it's easier said than done, but I think a lot of products, don't really come out to market and be taste forward. Whereas like we saw a gap in the market because pistachio creams and pistachio products out there were, just didn't taste like pistachios, like even the ice creams and stuff. Like they just tasted artificial. They had this like weird something flavor, but it was never like pistachio. So our goal was to make a product that

tasted really good and that showed people how they could use this nut that was very underrated. And I think some people see the gap but then they forget that it has to taste good. So going to like a food scientist, going to like a recipe developer, I was lucky enough that I could just develop the recipe myself but obviously there are many people out there that can do the same for you and just make it taste good. Go to any chef and I'm sure they would be happy to help. So definitely taste first and then

the marketing and stuff, it can come after. And when they all come together, that's when you find this like beautiful balance that people really stick and resonate to.

Dan Cassidy (24:57)
Taste first, I love it. Yeah, I think there's a lot of products out there, especially right now. There's tons of functional food and beverage brands that are coming to market because health is top of mind for so many consumers and there's lots of different, let's say, keywords or terms or buzzwords that are trending where, let's take protein, right? You could add protein to anything right now and people will buy it. But if products don't taste good, it's gonna be really difficult for people to come back.

Francine Voit (25:03)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dan Cassidy (25:21)
time and time again to purchase. So I love that you led with taste first, knowing that if people love the taste of it and you have kind of good for you ingredients within it and you're checking the boxes for it's vegan, it's natural, all that stuff, then I think that obviously led to people loving the product right away and sticking with it time and time again. Because it's one thing to sell a product one time, it's a whole different thing. You get repeat purchases in a place where people are

Francine Voit (25:44)
Yeah.

Dan Cassidy (25:48)
ordering online for you know lots of people are not they're just going to their local supermarket and buying nut butters there's not many nut butter brands that are being sold direct to consumers so so great job leading with taste first okay well awesome let's move on to the speed round so each each question or each response about 30 to 60 seconds somewhere in there so what is one of your most recommended books

Francine Voit (25:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I love the book from Michele Ferreiro. It's the founder of Nutella and it's super interesting, great read.

Dan Cassidy (26:19)
Awesome. What is an under-the-radar product or brand you've used and like, but most people don't know about?

Francine Voit (26:25)
Bezzi Labneh.

Dan Cassidy (26:28)
awesome.

Francine Voit (26:28)
It's like a delicious,

dairy forward, design forward too. It just tastes amazing. Like you take a spoon, I could just eat the whole tub in one sitting.

Dan Cassidy (26:37)
Nice, and I think you're the second person to recommend that, so I've got to... Awesome. What is one thing in life you do better than most people and just naturally and how do you do it?

Francine Voit (26:40)
Really, you have to try it.

This doesn't have much to do with the CPG world, but I can turn basically any leftover food into an entirely different meal because I just hate wasting food and I hate buying too many groceries. So I can elevate any leftovers with whatever I have on hand.

Dan Cassidy (27:04)
That is such an important life skill and hack that I think will serve you well throughout life. I see people in their teenagers and people in their early 20s is like learn how to cook, learn how to maximize any food you have, because it's a skill you're gonna use for the next 60, 70, 80 years. So that is awesome, that's a fantastic skill. Tell me about one of your favorite shopping experiences online or offline.

Francine Voit (27:06)
It does.

Yes.

I think like grocery shopping in Europe just brings me joy and nostalgia, especially like just walking into a cheese aisle and being able to pick out all these different cheeses and then come home and make a little charcuterie board. But definitely like Italian or Swiss grocery stores, my favorite place to be.

Dan Cassidy (27:48)
You are 100 % a foodie with that response and I appreciate that. ⁓ Nice. Who is a brand founder we should have on a future episode?

Francine Voit (27:50)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Cassie and Chelsea from Lottie's Meats, this would also be one of my favorite brands and products. They have a delicious sausage and meat company and it's just so good. But also taste forward and I love it. And they're so sweet.

Dan Cassidy (28:13)
Nice. Good stuff. Friend, where can people connect with you to learn more?

Francine Voit (28:19)
You can follow us on eatpisakyo that's our social handle so on TikTok and on Instagram and then it's pisakyo.co, C-O, online and that's where you can shop. We're also in Portland so we're at the New Seasons Farmers, not Farmers Markets, New Seasons Market of Choice here and some other stores around the country and you can look at our store locator for that on our website.

Dan Cassidy (28:40)
Love it. Well, for everybody listening, I would highly recommend, you know, I am big fan of nut butters and I like, I typically go crunchy over creamy and I would say, once again, the quinoa puffs really add a lot of...

Francine Voit (28:51)
Nah.

Dan Cassidy (28:52)
extra texture to that one. So if you see in store, definitely grab one. It is delicious and I'm surprised at how good it is. So fantastic job being tasteful with the product. Great job with the sampling program and growing the business to where it's at today. And Francine, thank you so much for bringing Pistachio to market as a way to make Pistachios more accessible, fun and delicious and sharing your expertise and insights with our audience and for joining us on the Shopify happy hour.

Francine Voit (29:16)
Absolutely, thanks for having me. This was fun.