Maybe it’s because he’s Swiss.
That’s where muesli was born – Switzerland – and that’s what Chris Young makes, muesli, in Tacoma, in a spotlessly clean, high-ceilinged room in a storage complex on the Hilltop.
Young, 43, got the idea for his Mountain Muesli line of products while living in Iceland with his wife, Jill Purdy, who was there working on a Fulbright Scholarship.
And while Purdy was a member of the founding faculty at University of Washington Tacoma, Young has spent the last seven years as a stay-at-home dad, caring for two daughters now 10 and 8.
Today, with the help of grandparents, the couple coordinate their schedules, allowing Young to accomplish all the tasks necessary to build a budding business.
He orders ingredients, manufactures the current products, and does the research and development for additions to the line. He also manages the marketing, from making cold calls at local markets to conducting weekend demonstrations of the virtues of natural, high-protein, high-fiber, allergen-free cereals and bars.
Young was not trained as a maker of muesli.
He earned an undergraduate degree in archeology from Penn State and went on to work as a mortgage broker and a specialist in specialty foods for a large grocery distributor.
But he grew up on a farm eating real food.
For those who are unfamiliar with the word: Muesli is similar to granola, but different. The ingredients of granola tend to be more heavily toasted than those in muesli, the preparation of granola involves more oil, and the granola itself is more apt to come in clumps than is the smoother muesli.
“I had granola here,” Young says, “but it hurt my mouth.”
The Icelandic muesli was something of a whole-grain epiphany.
“After getting back home, I tried to find it. I looked in various stores.”
He could find none so good, so he started looking for recipes. One he especially liked contained poha, or “beaten rice,” typically found in Indian cuisine.
That, in combination with oats, sealed the dream.
Not that it came easily.
Purdy estimates that over two years, her husband concocted about a hundred pounds of muesli that almost worked – but just almost.
Along the way, there were strict criteria: healthful food, no wheat, no dairy, allergen-free, gluten-aware.
“I just started to think that I’d like to start a business,” Young says. “I always knew it would be about food, and I’ve always liked oats.”
The nearest commercial kitchen was in Poulsbo.
Actually, the nearest commercial kitchen was in South Tacoma, but the owner wouldn’t allow the use of nuts.
“It’s not muesli without nuts,” Young says.
Of an initial capitalization of $25,000 taken from personal savings, some $18,000 went to bring the space in the Hilltop up to food-production code.
As a business professor, Purdy well knows, “It ends up being more expensive than you thought.”
She’s talking about plumbing, sinks, commercial appliances, wiring, dropping the ceiling and lowering the fire-suppression system, and hiring an architect, and then there’s the rent, supplies, ingredients and packaging costs.
A few of Purdy’s former students offered real-world advice. Family members assisted. Purdy’s parents became investors, and Mountain Muesli LLC was formed.
The first product went onto a shelf in May.
At Tacoma Boys, general manager Alex Erickson says, “Usually something that’s so healthy doesn’t taste that good. Oh my gosh, it’s really good. I think he’s smart – he knows what he’s doing. I think it’s going to get pretty big.”
Sales of Young’s products, Erickson says, “are better than average for other mueslis.”
Likewise at Harbor Greens in Gig Harbor, buyer Dawn Lawson says, “Customers love it. It’s the freshness. It’s not your run-of-the-mill granola. It stands apart.”
She’ll find space for a product, she says, “if it’s local, and it’s good.”
Beyond success, Young counts a handful of additional goals: to introduce healthful food to people who may not have access; to bring that food into schools; to offer foods for people with allergic or other sensitivities.
And to one day hire and pay employees.
So far, he’s the only one.
C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535
c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com
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