Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Peters.
Karen, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
About six and a half years ago, I decided to create the best, most delicious, fluffy, light, slightly sweet, warm, melty, yeast raised doughnuts. Sounds simple enough, right? Yeah, but not without eggs, butter, and milk. I found out that vegan, yeast raised doughnuts require so much more than egg substitute and nut milk if fluffy, warm, and melty are the goal. I had tried many vegan desserts and most of them were either thick, pasty and wet, or thick, chalky and dry. My first four hundred or so batches were no exception. They ranged from cracker-like texture to thinner than air with no substance. I was about to admit defeat, when my middle son looked up at me with big, hopeful eyes and said, “Mommie, don’t give up.” Another four hundred million bags of flour later, I happened on to the perfect combination of ingredients and techniques. I took samples to a vegan event in Atlanta and got thumbs ups and kudos from Plant-Based Princess and Tassili Maat. I knew I was on to something, and Great Rising was born.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Great Rising doughnuts are best served “fresh-out-the-coconut-oil”. This is how we like to present Great Rising to the community. Our greatest challenge right now is finding the right equipment and a brick and mortar location to put it in, where our guests can come in and get our best offerings. We’re searching, so if anyone knows of a second-generation spot, please share!
We’ll be popping up at BEAUTIFUL, Atlanta’s first natural soap refill store.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Great Rising – what should we know?
Great Rising prides itself on gorgeous ingredients, meaning when we say organic lemon, we mean organic lemon. We buy lemons, with seeds, and squeeze and zest them. When we say lavender, we mean we steep lavender buds in filtered water. We cannot access organic fruits and herbs all the time, but we do our VERY best and we don’t cut corners. We also don’t use artificial flavors and colors, bleached flours or anything that is GMO.
There isn’t one dedicated vegan doughnut spot in Atlanta and we want to bet the first. There are places that serve other items in addition to vegan doughnuts, and they even have a nice selection of vegan doughnuts I might add, but we’ve been told that none of them are like ours. Everyone has his/her own preferences. We think ours are the best and we’ve tried many, many vegan doughnuts.
We’ve had many proud moments. I think that one of our proudest moments was all the smiles we got at the Village Market Atlanta. My whole family was out there rolling, proofing, gently frying and glazing doughnuts on site. It was bananas and so much fun! We couldn’t believe we pulled it off.
What sets us apart from other companies is our triple proof process and our quality of ingredients. There’s nothing healthy about a doughnut. It is an occasional indulgence; our doughnuts give vegans an opportunity to enjoy this once-in-a-while indulgence.
Our proudest moments are always when we see people smile after biting into our doughnuts. We love to hear people go “giiiiirrrrlll, you on to something here.” And these are the guests who aren’t vegan.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My husband and my three sons are my wing folk. They are in the trenches with me and I’m a perfectionist, so they put up with a lot. My mother allowed me, as a child, to mess around with things in the kitchen. I’ve always liked experimenting with ingredients. My sisters have been my guinea pigs too. My oldest sister, Vanessa, is an angel now, but she always encouraged me to start this business. My Aunt Honey. She used to make cinnamon rolls for my sisters and me. She would call my mother and say, “Tell Aunt Honey’s girls I got something sweet for em”. Last, but not least, the Most High. Divine inspiration and discovery are always at the forefront of our process.
Pricing:
- doughnuts start at $3.50, vegan “cronuts” [when available] are $7
Contact Info:
- Website: greatrising.co
- Phone: 4075926408
- Email: greatrising.co@gmail.com
- Instagram: greatrisingatl
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