Today we’d like to introduce you to Bess Weyandt.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Treehouse Milk was several years in the making by the time we actually launched. I had attempted to become a vegan about seven years ago but failed miserably at it (my weakness is cheese). But the one thing that stuck was drinking almond milk, which I bought from the grocery store. Some friends introduced me to the concept of making real almond milk at home with just a blender and a strainer. I tried it, and it became clear real fast that what I was buying at the grocery store wasn’t really almond milk — it’s just a mixture of water and other fillers with a few almonds thrown in. Given how labor-intensive it is, I thought that someone really ought to be producing it locally…
Fast forward a couple years to 2015. My previous careers were as an operative on political campaigns, with a stint working with tech startups. I had spent enough time in startup environments to know that creating something for others was what I wanted to do, and it turned out my friend and future business partner, Kate, did, too. I had wrapped up working on the 2014 gubernatorial election and was talking with Kate, who was transitioning in her own career. We were talking about our mutual love for locally made things and I threw out the almond milk idea. Kate jumped in and said, “well let’s do it.”
Less than three months later we were up and running with home delivery customers. I’d been going to Spiller Park Coffee when they were just a pop-up inside of unfinished (at the time) Ponce City Market, and ended up giving them some homemade samples. They added our pecan milk to their menu immediately, and we’ve had an amazing partnership with them since. The whole beginning was fortuitous and somewhat magical.
Today we have a commercial kitchen in Grant Park where we cold press a variety of nut milks. We focus on home delivery throughout Atlanta; do farmers markets; are in coffee shops, restaurants, and small retailers; and cold ship nationwide.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course not. I recently heard someone say that one should think of her life as a sailboat and not a train. There’s going to be shifts and setbacks and changes of course. I think that’s especially true of a business like this – food production is intense. There are no holidays, the costs are high and it’s labor intensive. There is always a problem to solve – whether it’s mundane like breaking a jar of milk on the way to a delivery or big like visioning a long-term growth plan, and everything in between.
When you own a business, it’s very easy to put it before everything else. There are times when I have to take a step back and remember to take time for myself.
Treehouse Milk – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We make all-natural, fresh, pure nut milks. What sets us apart from what you might find in your local grocery store is ingredients. We source organic, local and non-GMO whenever possible, and we leave out all the additives that one might find in commercial brands. For example, our almond milk is simply organic almonds and water, whereas the average big brand is going to have at least three additional ingredients that you can’t pronounce. A 16 oz jar of our milk contains 100 nuts.
We do a variety of blends — almond, cashew, oat, macadamia, and then flavors within those — but we are most excited about our Georgia pecan milk. Being in Georgia, and loving pecans, it only seemed natural that we make pecan milk. When we first tried it, it blew us away — it’s a luscious milk that’s great in coffee, on its own, even in cocktails. And we were shocked that no one else had really done it yet. We source our pecans almost exclusively from Pearson Farms, a family farm in Ft. Valley.
We also deliver directly to your home, old-fashioned milkman style. If you don’t know, ask your mom or grandma.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
There’s all this pressure that we entrepreneurs put on ourselves — scaling and hustling and all that. In business, it’s easy to get caught up in long-term, capitalistic notions of success. That’s all really important, and I have all of those, but I’ve found that I get perhaps the most joy from the interpersonal aspects of having a business.
Putting something in the world for others to enjoy, and be nourished by, feels like success. Cultivating community feels like success. Here’s an example of something I’ve seen a lot: When a mom comes up to us at a farmers market and tells us that her kid never liked non-dairy milk but she wants him to try our milk, and the kid takes a sip and responds with a huge grin. That feels like success.
This city is very much a part of me. I grew up in Midtown and have seen a lot of changes, and feel invested in this community. Seeing Atlantans catch on to more plant-based nutrition is exciting, and being a part of this growing ecosystem here that encourages better health and well-being and connection to food is rewarding.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1040 Grant St
Atlanta, GA 30315 - Website: www.treehousemilk.com
- Email: info@treehousemilk.com
- Instagram: treehousemilk
- Facebook: treehousemilk
- Twitter: treehousemilk
Image Credit:
Portrait: Gianna Keiko, Two girls on grass: Nathan Bolster, All other images: Gabriella Valladares
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