Recently we booked a holiday in the picturesque region of the Byron Bay Hinterlands. Unfortunately, due to (both myself and wife’s) work commitments we had to cancel the trip. To compensate for this, I decided to write several articles entitled ‘Byron Bay Craft Food (Beverage) Producers’. Originally I was only going to publish one article featuring around 5 companies. However, due to the abundance of gourmet micro brands in this region it expanded into a series of three. One of the businesses featured is called 2die4 Live Foods and they definitely live up to their name.
2die4 Live Foods was originally established in 2004 by ‘Slow Food’ fanatic Clive Lawler. What originally began as home kitchen project (producing fermented walnuts, pecans and almonds for friends) organically grew into a profitable business. At this stage in 2007 Clive (who has subsequently retired) approached his friend Jon Henning to come aboard as a partner. The rest as they say is history and the company now owns a state of the art solar efficient facility in the heart of Byron Bay.
Over the last few months I have had several conversations with Jon Henning and am massively impressed with how he operates his business. The company works on a democratic basis and employees have flexible (family friendly) working patterns. Unlike many more commercialised manufacturers all of 2die4 Live Food products are labelled, mixed and packaged by hand. Certainly this meticulous attention to detail is evident when you try their phenomenal products.
Like most innovative food brands 2die4 Live Foods is constantly striving to create exciting new products. I have to say they have completely nailed it with a new snack range called ‘Hemptations’. In the UK I used to buy roasted and salted hemp seeds on a regular basis. However, by comparison what Jon Henning and his team have created is pretty extraordinary. Combining nuts and buckwheat gives it a moorish granola type consistency. The flavour combinations (Mint Chocolate, Lavender & Bee Pollen, Black Tahini & Pineapple & Sated Maple) are also highly experimental and truly delicious.
For more information about 2die4 Live Foods and their outstanding range of gourmet snacks follow this link
