A family recipe inspired a mother-daughter duo to launch Numa Foods

Joyce Zhu’s parents moved to America before she was born, but they made sure she grew up with Chinese traditions. Joyce shares how a traditional Asian snack recipe changed her life, helped her launch her business, Numa Foods, and how she celebrates Chinese New Year.

Some of Joyce Zhu’s favorite holiday memories come from Chinese New Year celebrations at her parent’s home in New Jersey. The annual holiday, also called Lunar New Year, is a 15-day festival that features family reunions and feasts in China, and Chinese communities around the world. The holiday is tied to the lunar calendar, and depending on the year, can occur any time between January 21 and February 20. In 2023, Chinese New Year begins on January 22.

For last year’s celebrations, Joyce and her parents, Jane and Chaoying, dressed up in red for good luck and set off firecrackers in their backyard, prompting a neighbor to open their door and yell out, “Happy New Year!” One of their annual traditions is sitting down as a family to eat hotpot, a communal style of eating where everyone dips and cooks various thinly-sliced raw ingredients—meat, seafood, vegetables, and starches like rice cakes and noodles—in a simmering pot of broth at the center of the table.

“In China, everyone is off for at least two weeks and the whole country basically shuts down,” Joyce explains. “Being Chinese-Americans and celebrating here [in the US], it’s a one-day thing. We get together and give appreciation and think about how the year started and where we’re going.”

The sweeter the story

Joyce has much to be grateful for. 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of Numa Foods, a company she co-founded with her mom, Jane. Numa Foods makes healthy treats inspired by traditional Chinese candy recipes. They named their company after the Chinese characters for daughter ‘Nu’ and mother ‘Ma’.

Their entrepreneurial journey began in 2017, when Joyce, a management consultant who often traveled for work, had trouble satisfying her sweet tooth. Joyce was born with an autoimmune disease, and struggled to find snacks that helped her adhere to her diet while keeping sugar consumption low. When she expressed her frustration to her mom who was back home in New Jersey, Jane felt she could do something to help her daughter.

Jane and Joyce Zhu started by selling their products at local farmers markets
Jane and Joyce Zhu started by selling their products at local farmers markets.

Jane was born and raised in Shanghai, one of the world’s largest seaports and a major industrial and commercial center of China. She and Joyce’s father, Chaoying, moved to the US for further education. Their daughter, Joyce, was born in South Carolina and raised in New Jersey, where the couple eventually settled.

“They are the classic immigrant story,” Joyce says of her parents, adding, “They had a few dollars in their pockets and one suitcase to their name.”

Thinking back to her childhood in Shanghai, Jane remembered a milk candy recipe that had been passed down from her own grandmother. She wondered if a reduced-sugar version of the recipe might work for her daughter. She set to work in her kitchen, gathering all-natural ingredients that included whole milk powder, whipped egg whites, brown rice syrup, nuts, and fruit. She recreated the chewy milk candy (also known as nougat) that is popular around Asia, and that her own mother used to make decades before in Shanghai.

Her experiment worked. Joyce called home to report that, not only did her mom’s homemade, low-sugar candy satisfy her sugar cravings, it also didn’t trigger any of the typical adverse symptoms caused by her autoimmune disorder. Joyce also shared the candies with her colleagues, many of whom had never tasted Asian milk candy before, and they loved it as well. Before long, Jane was preparing additional candies for her daughter to snack on and share with her friends and coworkers.

Joyce, an economics graduate from the University of Chicago, soon recognized a potential business opportunity. Joyce shares how she and her mom decided to test it out on their community:

 We went to farmers’ markets just to see if complete strangers would buy the product. And they did. They loved it and they loved the story behind it. We laid out the ingredients on the table for them so they could see exactly what was in the candies, and they really loved that. We realized that it was not just me who had trouble finding a convenient low-sugar, clean sweet option. That was when we decided to launch it out of our own kitchen at home.

Even as the mother-and-daughter team found local success with their handmade healthy sweets, it wasn’t a formal business, and they treated it as a side hustle. Joyce continued to maintain her day job, even though she wasn’t sure she saw a future for herself there. While discussing potential career moves with her mom, she mentioned her desire to work for a startup.

“Why don’t you start your own company?” was Jane’s gentle response, suggesting her daughter go all-in on founding her own food business. When Joyce realized how serious her mom was about supporting her, she decided to take the plunge and launch Numa Foods.

Launches, lessons, and no losses

Joyce and Jane Zhu stand in front of boxes of Numa Foods products
Joyce and Jane Zhu stand in front of boxes of Numa Foods products.
From the beginning, I always felt like it wasn’t just that we were selling candies. We were also bringing diversity to the food industry in the US. 
Joyce Zhu
Founder and CEO, Numa Foods

“The food industry just really intrigued me, along with the fact that I had a personal connection to this particular food item,” Joyce says. “And I felt like there was an opportunity for me to share not only my story, but a piece of our family, our culture, and our heritage.”

In 2018, the duo expanded to a dedicated production facility and launched the first flavor—original crème—of their “good for you” taffy. Original crème leans heavily on the traditional creamy flavors of Asian nougat, combined with peanuts and cranberries. Soon after, they added more flavors: strawberry and cream, banana, coconut, and coffee. The high-protein, low-sugar nature of the candies, was a hit with customers. In 2021, the company introduced its newest product line, mini peanut butter bars with coconut and black sesame flavors, inspired by crispy Asian peanut candy. That same year, actress Mindy Kaling declared Numa Foods one of her favorite finds.

“From the beginning, I always felt like it wasn’t just that we were selling candies,” Joyce says of their success so far. “We were also bringing diversity to the food industry in the US.”

The pair celebrates their wins and also learns from their mistakes. In the early days of the business, while they were still undergoing iterations of their product, they ordered four shipping pallets of maltose. It turns out that maltose comes in different varieties, and they’d ordered a type that wouldn’t boil at the temperature they needed.

“None of us, my parents nor I, come from the food manufacturing background,” Joyce explains. “So we had a steep learning curve to climb. And I think we’re still on it, but we’ve obviously gathered a lot more experience now than when we started five years ago. The first three years were focused on just figuring out how to make this product.”

Looking to the future

Jane Zhu and her mid-twenties daughter, Joyce, both wear white Numa Foods shirts
The mother-daughter duo of Jane and Joyce Zhu launched Numa Foods together.

At this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations, Joyce will focus on appreciating how far the business has come. Plans are underway to install a fully automated food production line. This will help ensure better quality control for their products as well as help the business to scale. Since Numa Foods began selling in Amazon’s store, the experience has given the young business a chance to focus on manufacturing, and has also helped Joyce with her decision-making.

“In Seller Central, Amazon gives us a lot of excellent data,” she says. “We religiously record the repeat rates per SKU per month. It helps us see which flavors are doing really well, which ones can we improve on, and then, how we can improve on that. I read every single review on our listings. They’re all real people writing these reviews, and they’re all real opinions. And so, we’ve gotten a really, really good snapshot of how people feel, and we’re constantly analyzing that feedback to find ways to improve.”

Pro Tip

Use Seller Central to get automated customer review insights

Amazon’s Customer Review Insights tool gives sellers actionable information gathered from customer reviews to help you develop and launch your next top-rated product. We apply natural language processing and machine learning to customer reviews to identify trends, actionable insights, and the most important topics that impact a products’ star rating.

Feedback comes in many forms and from many customers, ranging from a grateful celiac patient whose illness also restricts what they can eat, to a trucker who wrote in to explain how Numa’s candy helps him get through long cross-country trips. Many customers also mention the brand’s origin story, which is printed on the packaging, and how they’ve connected with it.

“Sometimes, the emails are extremely touching to where I could have never imagined that a piece of candy could impact someone so deeply,” Joyce says. “So, it’s very cool to hear people connect with the candies beyond just being delicious. Numa has become a vehicle for us to introduce a piece of our culture, heritage, and identity as Asian-Americans.”

Can’t wait to try the recipe in the video above? Joyce shared the recipe for her Asian-inspired yogurt bowl below. Enjoy!

The packaging for Numa Foods Peanut Butter Black Sesame Bars
Joyce uses the Peanut Butter Black Sesame Bars as a topper on her yogurt bowls.

 

Festive Asian-Inspired Yogurt Bowl

Ingredients

  • Numa Peanut Butter Black Sesame bar
  • Vanilla Yogurt
  • Pomegranate
  • Ripe persimmon
  • Goji Berries

Directions

  1. Place the yogurt in a bowl.
  2. Cut and de-seed the pomegranate.
  3. Peel and slice the persimmon.
  4. Top the yogurt with the pomegranate seeds, persimmon, and Goji berries.
  5. Crush a Numa Mini Peanut Butter Black Sesame Bar and sprinkle it on to complete your toppings.
  6. Serve and enjoy!

1 comment

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