We were drawn to Chapul Cricket energy Bars as they were a Kickstarter project which has been a success! Kickstarter is a crowdsourced funding website. Anyone can have a business idea but may not have the funding to see it succeed. So Kickstarter lets you crowdsource funding. Often this is in exchange for a free product on launch, exclusive designs or the chance to meet the founders.
This is exactly how Chapul started. Pat Crowley, Chapuls founder was intrigued by a Ted Talk on entomophagy entitled why not eat insects? (We’ve inserted the Ted Talk below)
In the Western world (US and Europe) there is a psychological aversion to eating insects and bugs, but water is a precious resource which may not always be available to feed farms and fields so could bugs be the answer? With this in mind Insect protein is a dramatically more efficient choice. Ten pounds of grain can produce about one pound of beef or three pounds of pork…or more than 8 pounds of insect protein, and without all of the cholesterol and fats that come with our meat-laden diets.
So what is a Chapul Bar?
Chapul Bars are delicious, all natural energy bars with protein from an innovative cricket flour. Inspired by techniques used by the Aztecs, Chapul bake crickets and then grinds them into a fine powder which is rich in protein, calcium and iron, and very low in fats and cholesterol. Then they mix that cricket flour into mouthwatering bar recipes. Dates, nuts, agave nectar, ginger…it is a tasty, healthy mixture, fueled by the most environmentally friendly protein available. The cricket flour is a very small (and tasteless) portion of the recipe, but packs a powerful punch - fully one third more protein per ounce than leading protein powder products.
And Pat Crowley’s vision has come to life now. Thanks to the help of the Kickstarter funders Chapul have now released two flavours of their Chapul bar Thai and Chaco. Available to buy at Chapul.com or in an ever increasing network of activity stores.
