There are a few things in life that never fail to invoke a childlike joy in everyone, young and old -- a mother's hug, winning a raffle and ... a tall glass of delicious chocolate milk. But one Boston startup thinks it's time chocolate milk was redesigned for adults.
It may seem to fall under the, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. Not according to the founders of Slate Milk, Josh Belinsky and Manny Lubin, who are working on a sleeker new option for adults.
Belinsky, who worked at a dorm-room company while at Northeastern University selling a caffeinated energy bar called 'Eat Your Coffee,' was quick to enumerate problems with the dairy industry and chocolate milk as sold in supermarkets - specifically, products' taste, brand, lactose and sugar content in chocolate milk brands today.
"Not a lot of people are buying milk anymore," Belinsky said."But interestingly enough, flavored and lactose-free milk was growing."
Their observations are not unfounded. According to the National Institute of Health statistics, "approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy."
Their solution? Using a process called ultra-filtration to remove natural water and sugar from milk that would essentially turn it into "liquid protein," making it a product with more nutrition.
Thanks to this process, Belinsky claims that Slate Chocolate Milk has 50 percent less sugar than white skimmed milk, 75 percent less sugar than regular chocolate milk and 50 percent more protein than both of those.
Slate's promise is to deliver much-needed lactose-free milk for adults is not completely unfounded.
The company is based in Boston, but it sources its milk from 30 family-owned farms in upstate New York. It is then shipped along with other ingredients to the Midwest where it is pasteurized, packaged and shipped to the warehouse in Massachusetts.
How else is Slate Chocolate Milk tailored for adults? "It comes in cans, just like Red Bull," Belinsky noted.
The company is debuting on Kickstarter where customers can start pre-ordering Slate Chocolate Milk beginning Feb. 7, and the company will start fulfilling all orders by June. As for the founders Belinsky and Lubin, entrepreneurship is a known devil. Belinsky was the on the founding team of tenant experience platform HqO, and Lubin co-founded brand marketing firm, Reppr.
