The Great PNW, Spiceology founders to launch new food brand

The founders of two Spokane-based companies, The Great PNW and Spiceology, are launching a new food brand.

Joel Barbour, of The Great PNW, has partnered with Spiceology founder Pete Taylor to establish PNW Provisions, a company with a line of caffeinated energy bars, trail mixes, trailhead bars and locally roasted coffee.

“Pete used his knowledge as a chef to bring to life these very Northwest-curated products and their flavor profiles,” Barbour said.

Barbour and Taylor began working on formulations for the products in September of last year.

The products went through several taste tests before recipes were finalized in March.

“For the most part, it has been stellar with very small tweaks,” Barbour said .

Barbour and Taylor on Wednesday created a Kickstarter campaign to fund PNW Provisions.

The campaign exceeded its $10,000 goal within 24 hours. As of Monday, the campaign raised $11,985 from 77 backers, according to Kickstarter’s website.

The company’s products include Survey, an arabica-medium-roast coffee blend with notes of toffee, raisins and spice. They also created blueberry-almond, apple-agave-cinnamon, apricot-cherry and dark-chocolate-cherry trailhead bars.

The brand also features four trail mixes as well as golden chai latte, London fog, vanilla latte and almond-mocha energy bars, each of which contains an amount of caffeine equivalent to a cup of coffee, Barbour said.

A portion of sale proceeds will go toward Conservation Northwest, a Seattle-based organization that protects and restores wildlands and wildlife.

The Great PNW and Spiceology both got their start via Kickstarter campaigns nearly 10 years ago.

Barbour, a Spokane native and graphic designer, founded the Great PNW in 2013 to express his love for the Pacific Northwest through unique designs that include mountains, trees and lakes.

The company has collaborated with the Seattle Seahawks and Rainer Beer on apparel collections.

Taylor, an executive chef, founded Spiceology with food blogger Heather Scholten of Farmgirl Gourmet in 2013.

The company sells spices, salts, blends and herbs and well as fruit and vegetable powders.

Spiceology is among Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the nation.

The Kickstarter campaign for PNW Provisions is running through Sept. 30 with potential plans to roll out other products, such as beef jerky, depending upon fundraising efforts, Barbour said.

PNW Provisions will be available online and in the Great PNW’s retail store on Oct. 15.

Barbour and Taylor are looking to partner with other area retailers to feature PNW Provisions in stores.

Additionally, the creators say they have potential to expand the company’s product lines in the future, Barbour said.

“We want to roll out more coffee blends and flavors,” Barbour said. “We’ll definitely be expanding the brand into other snack categories and the current categories we’re launching on Kickstarter.”