Wait! That's not sugar!
That is where this Origin Story begins…in the panicked shouts of well-meaning baristas.
Setting The Scene
Where We Are:
A bustling, delightfully aromaed coffee house with that classically inviting Everycoffeeshop vibe.
What We Are Doing:
We have just retrieved our artfully crafted coffee… “I have a [drink name] for [your name]!” from the barista.
The “Crime”…And Moral Outrage
Placing an eager hand on our coffee, we slide it to the side where - in full view of all of the rule-following patrons and employees - we proceed to skip over the “coffee accessories” and dive into the “food ONLY! Condiments”...selecting a packet or two of salt.
Catching the eye of curious bystanders, we tear into the packets and dangerously position them over our proudly barista-ed cup of coffee.
That's when it happens…
“Wait! That's not sugar!”
(Which, proximity depended, may also be accompanied by a quick, broad sweeping arm gesture with protective intent.)
The “Cycle of Horror” is completed as we, with seemingly careless disregard for these cautions, dump the packets into our coffee.
Completing the scene with all the dramatic license of your favorite sitcom…
We see the contents of those packets in excessive slow-motion falling, grain-by-grain, into the dark abyss of the coffee cup…
The “live, studio audience” utters a collective “gasp”…
We pan around to the customers standing in shocked disbelief…
One barista sheds a crystal-blue tear…
Another drops to their knees, throwing their hands to the sky in disgust.
Why This All Happened
Oversimplifying the journey (but we're pretty sure you do not have the saintly patience of “a story within a story”), our salt-and-coffee obsession was a result of two things:
Ketogenic Diet - and, based on our reading/research/personal experience, a need to consume more salt to balance hydration/electrolytes.
Intermittent Fasting - which, depending on what discipline you follow, allows for Fatty Coffee (butter/MCT oil) as part of your fasting routine and we found that salting the Fatty Coffee cut down on the “Thanksgiving Taste” (i.e. “turkey and gravy” flavor for non-Americans).
Performance - Movement is our lifeblood; to fuel that fire, we must stay hydrated. Salt became our secret weapon. Keto taught us the power of salt for electrolyte balance, keeping our muscles primed for action.
How Dusted & Salty Came To Be (nearly there.)
Oddly enough, the “NOT SUGAR” scene kept replaying itself in coffee shops all over the world (fine…how about “different countries”) from Starbucks to the “Local Craft Coffee” shop…and even included more than one “protective arm sweep” putting a coffee cup down hard.
It Gets Worse…
Trips to “grab a coffee” regularly included “scenes of apology”; letting these poor, innocent people know that we were truly sorry for causing so much anxiety and stress.
And, perhaps, worse yet “having any and/or decent salt” had become a key factor in selecting a coffee shop. (True quote, “That Starbucks doesn't serve food…so they don't have any salt. Can't go there.")
What to do?!
Naturally, we started carrying salt packets around with us (“Keys. Wallet. Phone. Salt. Ready!” 🤓).
One action with major, life-changing benefits: Innocent people were no longer subjected to traumatizing stress and we were freed to visit any coffee shop.
Fast-forwarding over many journeys and coffees and we came to the realization that, we were:
Still not happy with our “packaged salt” options.
At some level, contributing to excessive waste.
Like many-a-startup, those feelings led us to the overly confident statement, “Hey, I bet we can do this better!” And with that…
Dusted & Salty begins.
V 0.1 - We started as “Dusty & Salty”…
