From Peanuts to Progress: Peanut Caramel Turns One

Just over one year ago, Gemma and I launched our product Peanut Caramel and embarked on the journey of a business that has grown faster than we could have expected, and during that same year we also started a family! We welcomed our daughter "Little Peanut" into the world in July last year and she's also growing faster than we can believe. So what have we been up to in the past year? Here's a potted summary.

Refining the product and process

Before telling the world about Peanut Caramel and selling it, I needed to tweak the recipe to make it richer in flavour and improve the consistency. When I made the first experimental batches of it some 12 years ago, the caramel had a tendency to crystallise – a problem that needed to be fixed. The solution was to enhance the recipe with a home-made inverted caramel syrup, which would prevent the sugar molecules in the caramel from crystallising. This is the most technical part of the recipe and the bit that requires the most care – if I take my eye off it for too long the caramel will overcook and burn.

I then needed to streamline the production process so I could make big batches of Peanut Caramel to a consistent quality. I sourced a nifty spatula with a built-in thermometer which has turned out to be a great asset for measuring the temperature of the caramel whilst continuously stirring it.

The first sales

Once our Instagram account @peanutcarameluk and Shopify store were set up, I posted about the launch and cross-posted on my existing @grubdaily food blog account which has a modest following. The first sales started coming through. Very exciting, even though all of the orders were from friends and family at this stage. My friend Ruaridh who lives in California ordered 8 jars – we'd gone international already!

Making some direct sales through our Shopify store was only the start though – we wanted to get Peanut Caramel into local delis and farm shops. By the end of summer 2024 we had our beloved peanut spread in a number of local shops, and also on the DELLI marketplace, a great online shop supporting independent producers. We also got Peanut Caramel onto the shelves at the Foodies! store in central Glasgow, which was super exciting to be on the high street.

Writing Peanut Caramel recipes

I had written a small collection of Peanut Caramel recipes using the first incarnation of the product some years ago, and I couldn't wait to write more. I was keen to get as many people as possible across the country making my gourmet creations, and the photos of the recipes would provide perfect content for Instagram and our website.

West Lothian Producer's market

We attended the West Lothian Producer's market a few times over the summer which was great to build a presence with local customers and get the Peanut Caramel name out there. We made a selection of cakes and tray-bakes to sell alongside the jars, which was a great way to demonstrate the versatility of the product. The Peanut Caramel meringues were a hit! We also did a "guess the number of peanuts in the jar" competition which was a lot of fun.

Distributing to more shops

Things changed notably in November when we were contacted by Mahalo Supplies, who were interested in stocking Peanut Caramel. We had to ramp up production considerably to meet their orders of around 200 jars per month. Around this same time, we made a decision to focus less on the food markets and more on developing the wholesale side of the business. It seemed more beneficial to sell larger quantities (albeit at a smaller margin per jar) with repeated sales each month, than making what were essentially one-off individual sales at the markets.

Christmas madness at Foodies!

December was a very busy month for us, mainly due to the sales at the Foodies! store in Glasgow going through the roof. From August to November I hadn't been particularly impressed with the footfall at the shop whenever I'd visited – it seemed rather quiet most of the time. Things were to change towards the end of November though with the approach of Christmas. We could barely keep up with demand and had to work hard to keep production going.

Unfortunately however, the Foodies! store wasn't to last. February came around and we were informed of the closure of the store. As a non-profit organisation set up to help small businesses grow, it certainly achieved that goal for us, and we were grateful to be a part of it, but it seemed that they just weren't busy enough to thrive in an economic climate where high street shops are on the decline and more and more people are buying online instead.

Plans for the next year

We are keen to get Peanut Caramel into more farm shops, delis and specialist food stores across the country. I'd like to share our story more (which this blog is helping to do), write more recipes and spread the word to as many sweet toothed peanut loving foodies as we can. I'd also like to develop at least two more variations of the product in addition to the original dark-roasted version. Watch this space, it should be an exciting year!

Tom x