Our Story - About Zippilicious

Even Whey Protein Balls and Nut Butters have a story...

Curious, I tore into the shiny foil wrapper to reveal a perfectly molded and speckled log of brown goo. It looked like a wet brownie, of the store-bought variety, and those specks may have been peanuts.

I took a bite and chewed slowly. It was sweet, sticky, and strangely, a bit metallic. It wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t very good. It tasted a bit manufactured.

My boyfriend ate these things before his workout every day.

Obviously, he needed some help––post-haste. I committed myself to the task.

Behold Zippicilcious… The smart snack with nothing to hide.

Every great idea starts with a problem.

For me, it was how to reconcile taste with nutrition in the formidable attempt to make all-natural, snackalicious energy balls.

It is truly a rewarding task. I make them for busy, like-to-move kind of people, like trainers, who want to eat well. 

Why do I care about quality snacks and energetic people? Well, for starters, who doesn’t care about good-tasting food, and who doesn’t want to feel great? That starts with smart snacking, where less is so much more.

Smart snackers know what’s in their food––simple, natural, whole-food ingredients.

Hi, I’m Zippy, and my friends call me the smallest biggest foodie they’ve ever met. I like to think of myself as a selective eater. I discern good taste from not-so-good taste. Authentic from trying-too-hard. Exceptional from mediocre.

I care because I like wholesome food. 

Food that’s hand-shaped into tasty nibbles you’ll want to make your way through slowly. Or, by the mouthful in hasty succession between sets at the gym and standard life-stuff, so you can keep going.

I like food that has life grown into it.

Like roasted cocoa and chopped nuts hopped up on super seeds and whey protein isolate. A delectable, fill-your-mouth snack made from carefully-selected 100% natural ingredients.

That’s why I created Zippilicious energy balls. And so my boyfriend could have healthy protein snacks to power his CrossFit training (nice girlfriend, right?).

Then his friends wanted some, and his friends’ friends wanted some too. Eventually, Zippilicious energy balls rolled their way into local businesses, like CrossFit Chiang Mai.

I’m incredibly grateful for having tasted some of the best food in the world, made by top chefs. Everything insight inspires a better ball.

So, through Zippilicious, I started feeding a community of trainers and folks wanting healthy, wholesome protein snacks.

No-B.S. Nut Butters Live Here Too…

But there’s more to Zippilicious than the ball. I make almond butter and peanut butter, Hazelnut butter and Macadamia nut butter too, which, incidentally, pair wickedly with the energy bites. I call these “fat bombs” because of the high, good-fat content in pure nut butters.

I use only 100% natural locally-grown peanuts and California-certified almonds. There’s no added oil, sugar, salt, or fillers––just veritable stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth goodness from a single wholesome ingredient.

Some people ask, why no salt? Salt can overpower the flavor of nuts. Many brands use salt to mask poor-quality ingredients or as an attempt to artificially enhance flavor. It doesn't work. The taste speaks for itself. 

Behind The Ball:

What Goes Into Signature Zippilicious Bites

Goodness you can see and nothing else.

The Choice

Feeding ourselves well is a decision. Besides time, it takes patience, some basic know-how, and a willingness to be curious about food. But rather than fumble around with it, it’s good to go into it with grace. The stuff we put in our mouths becomes our bodies, so we want to be kind and intentional about it.

But most of us are time-pressed to eat at top-form every day, so we need top-form snacks that are also quick and tasty. Snacks with awareness, energy, and good intention rolled right into them.

The Stuff

We start with a powerful base: 5 grams of protein in every ball. Plus, a healthy dose of carbs, fat, and fiber from real food.

But it’s never just about protein. We want something that tastes good too. That’s why we use pure, simple ingredients. There’s no cornflake, rice puff, or syrupy stuff, just wholesome goodness.

Fresh dates and meaty nuts like cashews and crunchy roasted almonds. Rich, dark cocoa and rolled oats. Supercharged seeds chock full of fiber, minerals, and omegas. And pure whey protein isolate serving up all 9 essential amino acids. They’re a hefty bite without the bulk. 

Why Whey Protein Isolate?

Isolate (versus concentrate) is a pure source of protein with less fat, carbs, and lactose. We consider it the right whey to build muscle.

The Source

We’re committed to ethical trade and minimizing our impact on the environment, so we source our ingredients from reputable farmers and suppliers and craft our products in small batches.

The Stack

We have a rule - no more than 8 ingredients. Too many confuse things (and may cause bloat). Too few feels like you’re getting ripped off. And ingredients have a way of working together to bring out each other’s best, so some diversity is good too.

So 8 is perfect; 4 is good too.

But there’s an exception - nut butter. Pure, unadulterated almond and peanuts ground down to a thick heaping spoonful of goodness requires but a single ingredient: the nut itself.

The Process

A little elbow grease serves an essential purpose - to infuse each piece with energy.

Rolling is the mechanism by which food just tastes better, and energy snacks are no exception. It somehow extracts the wholesome goodness. Have you ever noticed that we roll or fold so much of what we eat?

Hand rolling = imperfect balls.

We don’t strive for a perfect form (who wants a crumbless piece of pie?), so no two balls look the same, yet they are equally nutritious, delicious, Zippilicious.

The Ready State

How to preserve and package wisely?

Both our Brownie and Super Seeds balls have shelf lives. Taste and potency live in freshness, so eat them now for full reward.

We use brown paper wrap to seal in freshness, and we house our nut butters in reusable glass jars. As we strive to be better, we also offer reusable, compressible containers to reduce waste.

Why Balls?

• Balls are smaller than bars, so they’re easy to pack up or grab and go.

• Macros are easily calculated in ball form so you can measure your protein requirements in a snap - or a bite. For example, if your diet requires 25 grams of protein, then five balls will cover it. In contrast, most bars contain 20 grams. Just try calculating your protein requirements via bites per bar (it will at least distract you from the mystery metal taste).

• Snacking should be fun, like when you were a kid. We find it far more enjoyable to eat one yummy ball after another than to slog through one boring bar.

• People first eat with their eyes. Who wants to eat a shiny, painted, dyed protein bar? Au naturale is where real taste is at - and it’s sexier.

It takes balls to train hard.

Zippilicious energy balls are a quick and delicious way to get your energy and macro count:

The Brownie Ball = 94 kcals

Protein … 5 g

Carbs … 12 g

Fat …  5 g

Fiber … 2 g

The Super Seed = 110 kcals 

Protein … 5 g

Carbs … 10 g

Fat … 6 g

Fiber … 2 g