In a sea of wellness brands, PlantBaby, a plant-based company focused on supporting children’s nutritional journey from infancy to adulthood, has carved out a very unique niche. Founded by husband and wife Alex and Lauren Abelin, PlantBaby is on a passionate mission to reinvent children’s food, beverages and supplements by supporting sustainable, organic ingredient sourcing and regenerative agriculture.
Its first product, Kiki Milk, launched in 2021 as the “world’s first” organic plant-based milk designed specifically for babies, and achieved sell-out success in Thrive Market and beyond. Now, the company is looking to revolutionize macadamia milk with Mac Nut Milk — an organic, clean-label product it describes as “wildly delicious” and nutritionally superior to most competing brands.
We spoke with co-founder Lauren Abelin about PlantBaby’s portfolio of innovative products, the runaway success of Kiki Milk, and the company’s vision to transform the health of individuals and the planet by increasing access to real food.
Can you tell us more about PlantBaby – how did the company start?
PlantBaby is a forward-thinking nutrition movement that creates a portfolio of clean-label, organic, plant-based foods, beverages, formulas and supplements to support children on their nutritional journey from infancy to adulthood. We founded PlantBaby in 2020 with the mission to help bring balance to our food and agriculture systems by supporting regenerative agriculture and sourcing climate-friendly crops.
“We have seen exponential growth over the past year, selling consistently”
Around this time, we celebrated the birth of our son Alakai, and learned soon after of his dairy and soy intolerance. This is when we improve Kiki’s milk. i am [Lauren] It was originally made from raw local coconuts, coconut water, local bananas, sprouted pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, and oats for alkali.
We saw a white space in the plant-centered children’s market and many families shared that this was a product they were looking for. PlantBaby launched Kiki Milk in original and chocolate flavors and has since been working to expand its portfolio. We are proud to partner with Farmers Footprint and Planet FWD, two organizations committed to creating a healthier Planet Earth.
Plantbaby Kiki Milk, a plant-based milk for babies debuts in 2021 – how has consumer response been?
Customer feedback has been absolutely incredible! To date, our website has over 1,400 5-star reviews from people across the country expressing their love and appreciation for Kiki Milk. From taste to nutrition, how this product has changed their lives, we hear it all. Parents have messaged us about how this milk is the only milk their children can drink because of allergies or chronic illnesses they are struggling with.
“[T]The products we are developing are impactful and powerful beyond measure.”
On the business side, since its launch in December 2021, the brand has generated six-figure revenue and is selling consistently due to demand. Between the customer response and the numbers, we could definitely see that a clear-label product was needed.
In addition to D2C sales, Kiki Milk debuted at Thrive Market last year – are you currently a retailer?
Yes! In addition to direct-to-consumer at KikiMilk.com and Thrive, Kiki Milk is available on Amazon Marketplace, Erehon Market, and at a plethora of mom-and-pop stores across the country, which you can find at https://www.kikimilk.com/ pages/find-us.
We’ve seen exponential growth over the past year, selling consistently, and we’re incredibly focused on being more accessible to everyone.
Plant Baby recently launched Mac Nut Kiki Milk made with macadamia nuts – what inspired you to choose a macadamia-based product?
Since launching Kiki Milk in December 2021, we have seen consistent growth in demand for products free of gum, inflammatory oils and fillers while boasting whole foods and nutrient-dense ingredients. When we were given a bag of local mac nuts from a friend’s farm on the Big Island, we naturally made some mac nut milk and were shocked at how incredible this milk tasted, especially when compared to the typical macadamia nut milk you can find in many stores. . . It’s creamy, a little nutty, a little buttery, a little sweet, and actually tastes like real macadamia nuts.
We realized that no true, all-organic and real-tasting mac nut milk existed on the market so we wanted to change that and create a super tasty and nutritious product free of gums and fillers for everyone to enjoy.
Looking ahead, what is your long-term vision for Plant Baby?
We are focused on inspiring behavioral change around health in 3 main ways:
1. Ingredients and nutrition. Our most important pillars are the quality and nutritional information of our ingredients. We want people to stop buying brands that lack nutrient density and include unnecessary, harmful ingredients and buy kiki milk if there is a financial alternative. At the very least, we want people to be aware of what to avoid.
2. Products. We started PlantBaby to design the first plant-based infant formula made in the USA. We are still very committed to this product, but it was naive of us to think that we could just make an infant formula and market it from a pre-seed round of funding. Infant formula is one of the most regulated products and the FDA is deeply involved. Although this is still on the horizon, we have expanded our vision and developed a product portfolio that includes formulas, beverages, tinctures, foods and supplements.
3. Planetary health. We want people to understand the connection between food and soil health (like why we third-party test our oats to make sure they’re not contaminated with glyphosate). We want them to understand carbon neutrality (our certification and partnership with Planet FWD) and how we make decisions about the ingredients we decide to use and where we source from.
Our vision is: CPG products aren’t going anywhere and we want to challenge the industry to do better.
Apart from Mac Nut Milk, are there any other innovations in the pipeline?
Absolutely! Kiki Milk Original, Chocolate and Mac Nuts are just the beginning. We can’t say much right now, but what we can say is that we are much more than just a milk company. We have big plans to expand our portfolio and make organic, clean-label products more accessible, affordable and mainstream (for lack of a better word) because we believe health is something everyone should have access to.
Our team is getting really creative in ways we can offer our products in completely new and unexpected ways. We can’t wait to share more soon!
Mac Nut Milk is now available for US shipping on Kiki Milk’s website.