A father-and-son duo dedicated to health and wellness have started their product line with the one thing many Canadians start their day with — a good cup of coffee.
Jacob Hooper, 21, and his 52-year-old dad Howard are the faces behind Fanstakular Health Inc., a Barrie company taking a holistic approach to health with products they’ve invested a lot of time and education in.
Jacob admitted it was tough for the pair to decide what product they would start with, because they saw so many companies in North America doing health and wellness products.
“Do we start with food? Do we create a (nutrition) bar? But that's been done. And then it hit us that the first thing many people do is have a cup of coffee,” he told BarrieToday. “We realized that's where we start as one of the healthiest things you can do is have a cup of coffee.”
Howard says there were a few companies in the U.S. doing the same thing, but he believed the coffee didn’t meet taste or price expectations.
“They tasted horrible, in my opinion, and are way overpriced. We couldn’t stand for that,” said the father. “We needed a gourmet coffee that tasted great and was optimized for health benefits. People also needed to be able to afford it.”
Fanstakular coffee beans have had a lot of work put into them, with the Hoopers searching for the “perfect bean.”
Jacob says the struggle they had early on was trying to convince people that there was such a thing as a healthy coffee.
“At first, people just didn’t care what was in their coffee, until they tried ours. We demanded 16 proprietary things that had to be in place before we were going to sell this coffee; we weren’t going to compromise,” said Jacob.
“We wanted to lab test the beans to ensure there was no mould and no mycotoxins, which completely drain your energy if you drink them," he added. "This is a single origin bean, no GMOs (genetically modified organisms), free from pesticides and herbicides, no yeast or fungus, no heavy metals, and the farmers are treated fairly.”
Howard says there will be more items available through the company as time goes on.
“We are focused on creating many products eventually, but for now we want to get a bit of traction on the coffee first,” he said. “We want to get a dark roast going, as well as a decaf. We’re even working on a powder to go in the coffee that will contain many great health benefits.”
Coming from a sports background, Jacob is also working on an energy drink that will focus on maximum health and nutrition benefits.
The company is home-based in Barrie, with father and son holding down full-time jobs.
“After a change in jobs a few years back, I began to eat differently, started to drink different coffees, eat organic, exercise and sleep better," Howard said. "Just overall doing what I could to improve my health. Those changes helped me see a real change in my overall health.”
His father's death in 2017 from dementia also made Howard research how illness ties into wellness.
“Everything I saw him go through was just devastating. He had become overweight with a poor diet, and I really started then to research dementia and other issues,” said Howard. “I read that a lot of what he was going through was part of his metabolism and how he was eating and not exercising.”
As for the name of the company, it happened just as it sounds like it happened.
“About 25 years ago, I was out for dinner with my wife and meant to say fantastic and spectacular and 'fanstakular' just came out by accident,” Howard said. “I wrote it down and told everybody that sometime it would be the name of a business or particular brand.”
The business will also be dedicating one per cent of sales “1% for the Planet” to help the environment.
For more information on Fanstakular Health and how to get their products, head to the website by clicking here.
