Today, we mainly know The Organic Lab as one of the best producers of vibrant superfood powders. Their colorful vitamin-packed powders have been frequently seen on social media, where they are used to create everything from blue smoothies to cakes in all the colors of the rainbow.
But when The Organic Lab, or Kokosbowls as they were called then, was founded in 2018, they had a completely different plan. The company was founded by Juliana, who together with her husband wanted to contribute to positive change in Indonesia by using their good relationships with local artisans.
The idea was to purchase handmade coconut bowls from Indonesia, sell them in Sweden, and give all profits back to the artisans and communities in Indonesia.
But as their social media accounts grew, they noticed an increased demand for superfoods. It wasn’t long before every customer who bought coconut bowls also asked for the colorful powders shown in the pictures.
Juliana explains that superfoods had long been a part of her life for various health-related reasons. At ages 15 and 19, she was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo several difficult surgeries and treatments.
“The treatments often took such a toll on me that I couldn’t manage to eat any solid meals, so I started drinking smoothies. But the doctors said I wasn’t getting enough vitamins and that I would need to be hospitalized if I didn’t manage to eat more.
So I decided to fill my smoothies with even more vegetables and fruit, but in powder form, to boost them with even more nutrients.
Sometimes I could mix up to 10-12 different powders in each smoothie, which definitely helped me with my recovery.”
Juliana
Juliana herself is from Spain but grew up in Brazil, where superfoods like acai, graviola, and pitaya were part of the everyday diet. When she later moved around the world as an adult, she discovered that most people didn’t know about these superfoods, nor had the opportunity to buy them in their raw form.
So, driven by her own passion for superfoods and customer requests, the big project of producing the colorful powders began. But it’s not an easy job, and the amount of work behind each new product is perhaps what sets The Organic Lab apart from other brands. Sometimes it can take several months to find the right producer, Juliana says.
They may have switched from coconut bowls to colorful powders, but the passion for supporting local farmers and contributing to sustainable social development remains at the heart of the company. All farms in The Organic Lab’s network are small-scale and carefully selected based on their sense of quality, fair working conditions, and love for what they do. They work very closely with both farmers and local communities in, among others, Brazil, the Philippines, and Chile.
But it’s not just social sustainability that is the focus; environmental awareness is equally important. Since the beginning, they have worked with sustainable packaging, and very recently they succeeded in meeting the requirements to have their bestseller, Pink Pitaya, classified as organic.
In connection with the launch of the super powders in 2018, they also changed their name to The Organic Lab.
“Today, we are so used to stuffing ourselves with medicines developed in labs that we have completely forgotten the natural ‘medicine’ we can get from fruits and vegetables, which heal us from the inside. The name The Organic Lab was a way for us to show that it is possible to get all the important nutrients from nature’s own lab.”
Juliana
In just two years, they have managed to build a shining company that spreads health, creates jobs in the South American countryside, and inspires other companies to follow their sustainable path.
We at Glimja are proud to sell their products and look forward with excitement to following their continued journey.
