Like many great products, JAMBAR was born out of a personal need. Jenny Maxwell, who launched the entire energy bar category in the 80s as a co-founder of PowerBar, couldn’t find an organic, whole food bar she felt good about eating. So she created JAMBAR. End of story. But wait! How does one “create” an energy bar? Decide on flavors?
We sat down with Jenny to do a deep dive on the origin of Jammin’ Jazzleberry, one of the flagship flavors from JAMBAR’s launch.
Q: Do you enjoy cooking and baking? What kinds of skills does it take to know how to create an energy bar not once, but twice?
Jenny: Yes! I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen and cooking healthy meals. I’m a creative person, and the kitchen is a great outlet for trying new things. In regards to creating an energy bar, especially with PowerBar, that felt somewhat like a science project. My degree is in food science and nutrition, and while at Cal, I studied exercise physiology with Dr. George Brooks. So my goal with PowerBar wasn’t just to create a healthy snack, but to make a highly digestible fuel for athletes that had the right mix of simple and complex carbohydrates. With JAMBAR, I really wanted an all-organic bar that tasted great and could be used by athletes and active people alike. The availability of organic ingredients and protein sources really changed in the 30-plus years since I first formulated a bar, so that made experimenting with JAMBAR a whole new adventure.
Q: Where did you start creating JAMBAR and what did your work space look like?
Jenny: I started working on JAMBAR in 2016, so it took several years of formulating before we were ready to launch. My work space was my kitchen, where I took out the same KitchenAid mixer that I used 35 years earlier to create PowerBar. To measure ingredients, I used a digital scale and an old-school triple beam balance scale that I’ve had since college.
Q: How did you keep track of the different batches? Who were your testers?
Jenny: I made hundreds and hundreds of batches. I have a notebook where I would write down weights and exactly what that day’s batch contained. The first step was to get a base, finding ingredients that held together and had a good mouthfeel. Cashew butter proved to be a winner. It’s a premium ingredient that provides a good source of protein, does a great job binding the grains, and isn’t oily. Then came the fun part of creating all different kinds of flavors. My kids were the first tasters!
Q: Jammin’ Jazzleberry is a unique flavor. How did it come about?
Jenny: I originally planned on five flavors for the launch of JAMBAR - Chocolate Cha Cha and Malt Nut Medley, and then three fruit flavors: Blueberry Blues, Rockin’ Razzleberry and Strummin’ Strawberry. The fruit bars get their flavor from real, freeze-dried fruit. As we prepared for launch, we discussed the fact that there are often seasonal supply fluctuations, which could make consistent single-flavor production a challenge. I was mulling this over in my kitchen when I had a light-bulb moment. What about a berry blend? That way, we could adjust individual levels if necessary while still delivering a great berry taste. I actually like the flavor of the blend even better than the individual flavors - lots of fruitiness, with just the right amount of tart. After the first blend batch, I knew I had a winner.
Q: What exactly is a Jazzleberry?
Jenny: While it might sound like a Willy Wonka fruit, it’s the name I came up with to describe our blend of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries! Since music is central to our brand, I wanted a name that had a fun musical connotation. I play drums in two Bay-area jazz bands, so the name is a nod to my love for that style of music.
Q: You mentioned that the fruit is freeze dried. Why did you choose that instead of pureed or dried fruit?
Jenny: When making a bar, you need to keep the water content low. Foods with a high moisture content need to be refrigerated or else there is a food safety risk - mold and bacteria thrive in moist environments. So removing excess moisture leads to a safe, longer shelf life. Freeze-drying fruit removes up to 95% of water, while retaining the fruit’s original vitamins, fiber and flavor. Unlike heat dehydration, freeze drying rapidly freezes the fruit and removes water in a vacuum. This preserves the cellular structure and protects vitamins and antioxidants. Our organic freeze-dried berries contain just one ingredient - fruit. They don’t need any synthetic chemicals to stay shelf-stable for months.
In addition, berries contain lots of beneficial compounds including phytonutrients important for overall good health. Freeze drying is a way to retain those phytonutrients.
Q: What was your biggest challenge when creating Jammin’ Jazzleberry?
Jenny: I knew I wanted to only use real fruit, no chemical flavorings or esters. Those additives are the shortcuts that can make bars less expensive to produce. On our ingredient label, you can see that we only use freeze-dried fruit and concentrates. That can get really expensive, especially with seasonal fruits. As I mentioned earlier, having a berry blend gives us some flexibility in tweaking the recipe when there are price spikes or shortages.
Q: Let’s take a look at some of the other ingredients in the bar. Oat bran is the first ingredient, and then you also have an organic whole grain blend. Can you talk about those?
Jenny: Organic oat bran is a great source of soluble fiber. It was also the first ingredient in PowerBars! It creates a great base to build upon, along with the whole grain blend. The sorghum, quinoa and brown rice in our grain blend have different grind levels to provide great texture for our bars. They also provide amino acids to create complete proteins.
Q: Sugars are always a hot topic, and there has been quite a bit of buzz lately about health issues from sugar alcohols. What is your philosophy regarding sugars and how did you decide what to use in JAMBARs?
Jenny: I encourage people not to be sugar-phobic, but instead to be educated and sugar conscious. When it comes to eating sugar, it’s important to limit consumption to real sugars, and to match your activity level. You can read more about my views in a blog post I penned. When it came to formulating JAMBAR, I knew I wanted to use sugars only found in nature - never sugar alcohols, highly processed sugars, or chemical substitutes. The “real food” sweetener that worked best in JAMBAR was maple syrup. It compliments all of our bar flavors. We also use honey in our non-fruit flavors, and our fruit flavors get some sweetness from the fruit concentrates. We like to say that you could eat all of our ingredients off of a spoon, and that holds true for our sweeteners.
Q: Perhaps the biggest trend in the food industry right now is protein. What are your thoughts on this macronutrient and how did you decide what kind of protein to use in JAMBARs?
Jenny: Protein-based diets have been going in and out of vogue for decades, and I answer some common questions about the latest surge in interest here. My nutritional philosophy embraces a realistic, sustainable diet that includes a healthy balance of carbs, fats and protein. I encourage people to focus on integrating quality protein throughout their day, to learn to read nutrition labels, and to understand the role protein plays in a healthy diet.
When formulating JAMBAR, I wanted to make sure to have both animal- and plant-based protein options. I knew I wanted to use a high quality protein from milk (whey protein) for our chocolate and peanut butter flavors. For the fruit flavors, I wanted a plant-based protein. I ended up trying more than a dozen types including pumpkin seed, pea, hemp, walnut and soy. The challenge was to find a high quality source that didn’t have an overwhelming or chalky taste. I landed on sunflower protein, which has a mild flavor and no aftertaste. You can often tell when a bar is using a lower quality protein source with a flavor that you need to mask because they enrobe the bar with chocolate flavoring to overwhelm the taste of the protein. That’s not the case with sunflower protein, which balances the sweetness of the fruit and lets the slight tart flavor shine through.
Q: Anything else you want to share with us?
Jenny: Sometimes I crave fruit, sometimes I crave chocolate, and sometimes, I want both! I like to “stack” our JazzleBerry and Chocolate bars to create a delicious, chocolate-covered fruit taste. This is even easier to do with our new JAMBAR Minis!