When Izzy Gorton first heard that her friend and fellow Washington University student Chiara Munzi was whipping up a brand new type of chickpea oatmeal in her dorm room, she thought Munzi was a bit crazy.
"I was a little skeptical at first," Gorton says. "But then when I first tried it, I was insanely surprised by the taste. I don't like oatmeal, actually. And the taste is just so amazing. It's like nutty and hearty, and it's not mushy, like oatmeal, which I really just can't deal with that texture."
With that bite, Gorton says, she knew they'd "hit gold."
That gold is ChiChi, the duo's chickpea oatmeal brand, which is scheduled to launch the results of its largest production run yet on July 20. ChiChi will go on sale on that date at chickpeaoats.com, and it will be in St. Louis stores such as Fresh Thyme, Straub's and one Dierbergs location.
There are currently three flavors of ChiChi that will be available for sale: apple cinnamon, dark chocolate blueberry and peanut butter banana. They come in single-serve pouches and only require the addition of water or milk, just like an oatmeal packet.
Munzi says that ChiChi is higher in protein and fiber than oatmeal and only contains six ingredients.
"Our slogan is, 'Oats are dead, long live the chickpea,'" Munzi says, noting that they hope to produce a kid-specific flavor, a chickpea breakfast bar, cold-flake cereal and more down the line.
But first, they have to make ChiChi a success, which is what this production run is all about. Munzi and Gorton are investing approximately $40,000 — raised through accelerators and startup competitions — in the product and marketing.
If all goes well, it will be a proof of concept that will lead to a bigger run in the winter.
"I'm feeling very excited, but also very stressed," Munzi says. "We just got our final samples. It tastes really good, way better than the last version that we were making. ... So I'm very excited to see how consumers react, and I feel like it'll lead to repeat purchases."
But before ChiChi was a product poised to sell on St. Louis' shelves, it was just Munzi mixing up concoctions in her dorm room during the pandemic. She'd long mixed protein powder in with her oatmeal to give it a boost. But it was a bit chalky and just not that good. Then, she moved on to chickpeas.
"When I was stuck at home, I was so bored," Munzi says. That led to her experimentation.
Then Munzi signed up for an entrepreneurship class at Washington University designed to help students launch businesses. On the first day, she met Gorton, and the two clicked and decided to launch ChiChi together.
The two began by developing the product recipe, testing upwards of 100 versions that they shared with family and friends for feedback. In December, they felt they'd nailed it and got certified by the FDA and health department to produce ChiChi in a commercial kitchen.
They then began doing samples and selling it at the Tower Grove Farmers' Market, United Provisions and through their website chickpeaoats.com. In April, they took all the feedback gained from those experiences to revamp the product, making the serving size larger and adding some more cinnamon.
Almost right away during that process, both say they knew this was going to be an effort extending past the end of that entrepreneurship class.
"I was always all in," Gorton says, who is juggling launching ChiChi with her junior year and running on the track team.
Munzi, who graduated last year, is so serious about it that its her full-time gig.
"I wake up every day feeling very grateful to be able to be doing this," she says. "I'm happy to be here being my own boss as a 22-year-old."
This story has been updated.
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