With a mere $50 in hand, LaToya Moppins set out to expand the limits of consumers’ taste buds and reinvent one of the nation’s most popular snacks.
Her company, Glorious Gherkins, was founded to introduce exotic gourmet pickles to the masses, with highly inventive flavors like Piña colada, birthday cake, bubble gum, and spicy mango transforming the traditional sour cucumber we’re used to tasting. Traditionally, the green vegetable is pickled in a solution of brine or vinegar and is left to ferment for a certain period of time without much fuss or attention. Moppins’ gherkins are a standout due to her creative taste profiles and the unexpected combinations she uses to enhance this tangy, crisp morsel and change expectations.
Starting a business that reinvents a staple food product as we know it doesn’t always come easy — Moppins said she dealt with her fair share of naysayers when she first began selling the pickles in 2009 out of the smoke shop she worked in. The negativity didn’t keep her down, however, and once she convinced hesitant consumers to try the fruity, spicy, or sour gherkins, she said minds were quickly changed. Now, these are the people constantly asking her for new flavors, she explained, but as we know in the packaging business, convincing people to try your product depends upon how well you can spark their interest with a great first impression.
Moppins began packing and selling her Glorious Gherkins in standard plastic zip-lock bags before realizing she needed a more protective pickle packaging that could really help sell this inventive and unusual new product. With a limited budget, the entrepreneur could not afford to buy all the materials to make her own bags, which is why she sought out the packaging expertise and products from a trusted supplier. Moppins found StandUpPouches.net and chose stand up pouches with a silver foil back and clear front window that shows off the individual colors of her various pickle varieties, locks in flavor, extends shelf life, and protects the product from any outside contaminants.
Packaging pickles in stand up pouches allowed Moppins to show off her fresh line of gherkin flavors — pineapple, strawberry cheesecake, tropical punch, and cherry Sprite among the most popular — in the storefront she recently opened, changing consumers’ expectations about pickle packaging and how this snack “should” taste. A unique product requires fresh, modern packaging isn’t fragile or hard to open like a glass jar and can be easily taken on the go.
Today’s consumer is active and excited to get their hands on gourmet foods that make every meal or snack a fun and delightful experience. Packaging pickles can be tricky due to the flavorful liquid that should be packed with the vegetable itself, but using stand up pouches ensures the bag will not break, the top can easily be reclosed, and it offers all the benefits of a clear glass jar without the extra bulk, heft, rigidity, or fragility.
This year, Moppins said she’s already seeing the full potential of where her Glorious Gherkins brand can go. She currently ships her products to consumers in all 50 states and has even gained a few devoted celebrity customers as well. With growth comes more new ideas, she explained, and among them is a sugar-free line of flavors for diabetics that is currently in development. From initial skepticism and adversity, Moppins has become known as “Miss Taste Bud Changer” and is out to shift perceptions of what pickles — and pickle packaging — are truly capable of.
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