Create new things.
There's a neon sign with that motivational phrase on a grassy green wall in the lobby of Tessa Porter's candy lab. It's become a personal and business motto for the founder. A self-proclaimed science nerd through and through, Porter runs Sprinkk, a candy product development and manufacturing company. With a factory in Albion and a candy lab in Omaha, the Nebraska roots run deep for this Cornhusker State native.
The road to Sprinkk was a sweet one. Winding from the University of Nebraska Lincoln's Food Science Department to an internship at Hershey, to a master's program in Madison, WI, to a legacy candy company in Chicago, Porter has dug in and learned from the best. Ultimately, she felt called to move back to Nebraska to start something locally.
"I wanted to fill the gap between the idea and manufacturing," she shared. In candy manufacturing, the production scale is massive, with minimum order quantities of 20,000 pounds. That's a huge amount to test since "there's really no place to do things on a smaller scale, which was limiting innovation," Porter said.
Porter explained that with traditional candy creation, "it can be tough to invent something truly and authentically new. I wanted to create a playground for candy innovation, with smaller equipment and a flexible process design. [That way] we can build unique processes with our equipment as everything is set up to be mobile."
So, in 2019, she made it happen by opening Sprinkk and a product development lab in Omaha.
Porter said, "Every project starts in the lab, testing out recipe and formula design and initial sampling. It moves to the factory facility once it's ready to go into production."
The candy scientist turned founder's goal was innovation in the form of new textures, new flavors, and new overall types of candy that no one has seen before. That's where Sprinkk was born — the name inspired by a childhood favorite: sprinkles, which bring joy.
"There's no real purpose for sprinkles other than to add joy to food, and I've always been obsessed with sprinkles. Life should be full of joy!" Porter said. Her joyfully creative company has been well-received in the niche candy industry, in Nebraska and beyond. "There's a need for a place where new things can be born."
Porter has enjoyed bringing these sweet ideas to life. Her clients include new petite candy brands, legacy brands looking to innovate, and even herself. During the pandemic, Porter developed a hyper-local fruit snack with her paternal grandmother, Norma. Aptly named for that grandma, the brand Norma's embraces its regional identity and uses transparent local ingredients like Fat Head Honey from Nebraska's Colfax County.
The fruit snack is based on Norma's elderberry syrup with honey, ginger, and elderberry. "There's a strawberry rhubarb flavor, too, 'cause I love strawberry rhubarb pie in the Midwest," Porter added. She went through the Sprinkk development process with Norma's, "so we always have this brand that we can test things on and try things on."
Create new things, indeed.
There's no real purpose for sprinkles other than to add joy to food. Life should be full of joy!