GATSBY Chocolate 2024: “Nobody Does it Better Than GATSBY”
Ryan Bouton is the co-founder of GATSBY Chocolate, a brand known for its innovative, low-calorie chocolate available at Walmart. With half the calories and 75% less sugar than traditional chocolates, GATSBY offers gluten-free and dairy-free flavors like Fudge Brownie and Sea Salt Extra Dark. Under Ryan's leadership, GATSBY has become the top-reviewed chocolate on Walmart.com, delighting customers who can enjoy an entire bar for less than 200 calories. DeliveryRank finds out more.
What inspired the creation of Gatsby Chocolate, and how does it differentiate itself from other chocolate brands on the market?
I was actually the first employee at Halo Top Creamery, the low-cal ice cream that grew to outsell Ben & Jerry’s one year. We knew the chocolate category was positioned very similarly to ice cream before Halo Top in that there were no low-cal chocolates (literally, none) and felt the “healthier” options that were out there lacked in taste/texture. So we got to work and created GATSBY Chocolate: the first ever low-calorie chocolate, with half the calories and ~80% less sugar than premium chocolate brands.
Can you explain the process behind developing a chocolate that has half the calories and significantly less sugar compared to traditional chocolate?
While we knew the lower calories, sugar, fat & carb call outs would appeal to consumers, the most important thing to us was creating a product that people actually enjoy eating – that literally blew their minds and that could taste so good for such few calories. Who wants to feel like they are punishing themselves with an inferior product just to eat better? So we spent over a year in R&D testing the recipe & ingredients before bringing the product & brand to market.
With Gatsby Chocolate being gluten-free and dairy-free, especially in flavors like Fudge Brownie and Sea Salt Extra Dark, what challenges did you face in maintaining taste and texture?
Taste & texture is usually coming from fat & sugar, so when you want a product that has less fat & sugar (and, in turn, calories) the main challenge becomes how to find better ingredients that can still provide the same taste/texture.
How do you ensure that the ingredients used in Gatsby Chocolate are clean and premium, and what benefits do they bring to the overall product?
We find replacements for ingredients like sugar while avoiding ultra-processed junk. For example, we use allulose, which is a naturally occurring sweetener found in things like figs & raisins. It’s also virtually calorie-free. Through our recipe development, we’re able to provide a chocolate bar that meets the expectations of a consumer in taste/texture with ingredients like allulose over too much sugar.
Given that Gatsby Chocolate is the #1 reviewed chocolate on Walmart.com, what feedback from customers has been most impactful, and how has it influenced your product development?
The most impactful feedback has simply been the overwhelming positive reviews of the chocolate. Hearing things like “I can’t believe this chocolate tastes this good” every day goes a long way for giving us confidence that our bar meets the indulgent chocolate experience customers want. Seeing people buy 20 bars at a time is crazy cool & you need that as a small business!
If you would like to find out more about GATSBY Chocolate, please visit https://www.gatsbychocolate.com/
