In case you missed this week's Buy Local issue of the Scene, here's a profile of one local business making a national name for itself:
Monkey Brains
Try pushing oatmeal on a bunch of preschoolers and you'll get about as much buy-in as if you were serving Lavoris. But try calling it "Monkey Brains," and suddenly the baboons at your breakfast table are fighting over the first helping.
When a couple of veterans from Big Cereal found themselves living in the Nashville area, they teamed up to create their own brand of healthy oatmeal. Distinguishing their product from the rest of the instant-breakfast grainiverse with a catchy name and a dose of prebiotic fiber in every serving, Jack Slinger (a Kraft Foods alum), Chris Barroll (a Quaker alum) and Mike Robinson began manufacturing Monkey Brains two years ago in a facility near the Nashville airport.
Available in strawberry, blueberry and raspberry, Monkey Brains oatmeal is higher in fiber and lower in sugar and sodium than similar kid-focused hot cereals. But the playful branding and labeling save it from the dour demise of so many über-healthy products. The brand is available nationally in Toys R Us, Whole Foods and Smoothie Kings, as well as in local stores such as The Turnip Truck and Puckett's Grocery in Franklin.
This summer, the company extended the nascent brand with the addition of Monkey Bars granola bars. Also dosed with NutraFlora prebiotic fiber—promising to improve digestive health—and free of high-fructose corn syrup, Monkey Bars come in strawberry yogurt, blueberry yogurt and banana-peanut butter-chocolate varieties.
How do they taste? Remarkably natural, especially the banana-peanut butter-chocolate. The rolled-oat snack is coated with a chewy chocolate glaze that tastes like actual bananas—because that's what's in them. And with less sugar than most mass market brands, Monkey Bars won't leave little monkeys hanging from the chandelier.
