A line of vegan gelato by Wonderlab's Doozy Pots, a Cleveland Heights food startup, won the Best Plant-Based Dessert-Confectionery award at the recent Plant-Based World Conference and Expo.
The brand was recognized for existing products and the low-sugar innovation of a prototype judged and sampled at the December trade show in New York City, said Karl Sutaria, who cofounded Wonderlab's Doozy Pots with his wife, Kirsten Sutaria, in 2019.
The expo "was right before the fourth or fifth wave of Covid," Kirsten Sutaria said about the mid-December trade show.
"It was good to be out and in front of people, sharing samples and getting amazing feedback," she said. "It was a great opportunity for us to kick-off 2022."
Doozy Pots are pints of hemp- and oat-based gelato that come in four flavors — Chocolate Mint Chip, Chocolate Raspberry Swirl, Smooth Coffee and Banana Cinnamon Date Swirl. The Sutarias work out of Central Kitchen, the accelerator and food hub in Cleveland.
The couple uses organic, regenerative, and fair- and direct-trade ingredients for their vegan gelato, which are lower in saturated fat than dairy or dairy-free ice creams, they say.
The award is "recognition of a lot of hard work that’s come before," Karl Sutaria said. "The judges for the award were all plant-based foods people. So recognition within the industry you are trying to be a part of is great."
The world conference award is not the first for Doozy Pots, which won a Best of Cleveland award from Cleveland Magazine in 2020.
But the worldwide award carries a bit more clout.
"We will certainly be using it as part of marketing, going forward," Karl Sutaria said. "It’s a great help to persuade people, 'Hey, this is something worth trying.'"
Doozy Pots are sold locally at Heinen's, Market District and Buehler's grocery stores as well as specialty food shops.
