LiveWell Louisiana

Better Butters

More omega-3s, please.
July 24th, 2014 by: Lianna Patch

Bella Nut Butters began in founder Sydney Bazan’s kitchen, as the mom of two started creating alternatives to peanut butter for her kids’ school lunches. “It was literally a ‘little bit of this and a little bit of that’ kind of recipe until I began measuring ingredients to get accurate nutrition information,” Bazan says of her first batch of “sunbutter.”

When Hollygrove Market bought a case each of her Sunflower Honey, Peanut Butter Vanilla and Almond Joy butters, Bazan created a company at her husband’s urging. She makes her seed and nut butters with perilla seed oil, which contains high levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids; then, she includes other delectable, organic ingredients, like chia seeds, cinnamon, cacao powder and local raw honey. 
 

“Each jar has over 3,000 milligrams of omega-3s per serving,” she says.

 

Last summer, Bazan formed an LLC and made Bella Nut Butters official. “We’ve taken off, partly because our product is handcrafted from the highest-quality ingredients and is incredibly fresh, not to mention cleantasting and loaded with omega-3s," 

she says. “Our products are all vegan, except the Sunflower Maca Cinnamon Honey, and that all depends on how vegan you are!”

Bella Nut Butters has grown quickly, with plans in progress to diversify offerings and partner with other healthoriented retailers and organizations — and Bazan is watching the company head for Canada. “We are already a fastgrowing company, but we have been approached by a major food distributor who sells to 500 stores in [Montreal and Ottawa], as well as distributors in the Toronto area,” she says. That’s not to mention the many nut-butter fans that have reached out from places as distant and diverse as Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom. Bazan sees herself building Bella Nut Butters for her children, a mission that brings the company’s existence fullcircle from its start in a school lunchbox.

“My biggest challenge is balancing motherhood and business,” Bazan says. “Hats off to every working mama — single or married, entrepreneur or not — in existence.” bellanutbutters.com