Second Helpings: Homemade With Love
- Dec 18, 2015
- 5 min read
Second Helpings original flavours
Photo by: Tannie Tang
Between their occasional bickering and teasing, married couple and founders of local peanut butter brand Second Helpings – Tannie Tang, 29, and Ezra Nicholas, 30, continues to demonstrate their unwavering support to each other.
A health enthusiast and a hardcore peanut butter fan, Ezra was rather particular about his diet and the type of peanut butter he savours. He recalls, “One day Tannie saw me eating really hardcore peanut butter from a jar, the type when you look at the ingredients that says peanuts and that’s it...it didn’t taste very nice and she’s someone who feels that life is so short, you’ve got to appreciate what you put in your mouth so she actually decided to come up with her own recipe.”
Previously a civil servant, Tannie left her full-time job last year to focus solely on the brand while Ezra helps out occasionally. Today, the duo are in the midst of fulfilling their dream to open a cafe and have started by setting up their first food establishment, HIVE.
It’s All About The Bees!
“[HIVE is] basically our entire relationship. Our home is called the beehive, he is the one who looks after everything so he is the beekeeper...” Tannie smiled. “In the first place, Tannie and I call each other is B. B was short form for baby...but somehow it mutated into bee. So then we decided to call each bees,” Ezra continued.
For A Golden Home Campaign at Hive
Photo by: Xiang Yun
Coincidentally, the couple also decided to concoct peanut butter with honey and named it “Beenut Butter” before they even came up with HIVE, thus completing the whole concept of the physical space, which also includes several other brands such as Ette Tea, Bee’s Wrap, Spatula & Whisk, etc.
“[It’s] as if we were in a hive and the bees work...When you have multiple people working together towards a common goal, it becomes successful. It’s a very similar concept to beehive,” Ezra explained.
“The bees all work together towards a common goal, resulting in a happy life and forwarding their own species. It’s the same thing for us as well, it’s a space where brands will collaborate together to work together to achieve success.”
A Labour Of Love
Having commenced their business on Valentine’s Day at Pasarbella, Ezra revealed, “We opened on that day because we [wanted to] start on a sweet note and the second thing being that we knew we would be able to reach out to the kind of people we want to reach out to.” Tannie continued, “It’s nice, I mean, it didn’t occur to us that the anniversary of the business was always going to be on that day.”
Tannie manning their booth at The Local People x Movember art market in 2014
Photo by: Ho Si Hui
Although it hasn’t exactly been a smooth-sailing journey so far, Tannie admitted, “The thing is, at the end of the day, it is motivating when we have repeat customers.”
“We’ve had repeat customers since the very first time we started. When they’re leaving the country, they’d go ‘Can I order like a whole lot before I go, because I’m not gonna see this in that country. I need to have this much of it there.’ So they order like six litres or something, and that really helps.”
The Joy Of Eating Well
Tannie and Ezra with their Beenut Butter
Photo by: Tannie Tang
After many experiments, Tannie eventually came up with three flavours of beenut butters – Original, Cocoa and Coconut Vanilla. Thoughtfully crafted, they contain no preservatives or artificial flavouring, only quality ingredients like honey, sea salt, olive oil, and vanilla beans. “We didn’t want to use cane sugar or refined sugar, or sugar from any other source basically...because honey is a natural sugar. Sport Science is actually something that I studied, so there’s enough positive research for honey to indicate that it’s something you could consume on a daily basis,” Ezra remarked. “We love what we do because we are putting food into people’s tummies, that’s an awesome thing to do.”
The Bonds That Binds
“We are not millionaires or rubbing ourselves with money when we go home,” jokes Ezra, which made Tannie and Jin Le, their assistant gasped, leaving them amused.
Deco of Hive
Photo by: Xiang Yun
Having started working at a young age, Ezra shared that he has always been providing for himself and his family while Tannie agreed that her growing up years were simple and not very extravagant, thus making them really appreciative of the things they have right now. “Everything that we’ve done, everything you see over here and in terms of funding, it was really out of her pocket, mine, and my mum-in-law,”Ezra revealed.
“Coming to this door represents Tannie and I. This is Tannie’s full-time job. So she can’t give up on it, it would be like giving up on herself and me. This place was literally blood, sweat and tears put into this place.”
To Provide A “Second Help”
In the hopes of contributing back to society, Tannie and Ezra pledged to provide job opportunities to single mums or low-income families who are in need of a ‘second help’ with earning income. Although this little wish of theirs is still a work in progress, Ezra mentions that they do have one or two such needy individuals working for them, and he hopes that this opportunity will help them take their minds off their worries for the moment.
Working Towards A Common Goal
Being the sole distributor of Bees’ Wrap in Singapore and supporters of Ette’s Tea and Spatula & Whisk, they bring those brands, together with Second Helpings to places like The Providore and Robinsons in order to raise awareness. In future, they hope to be able to supply their products to overseas cafes and departmental stores.
“It's always darkest before the dawn. When you get into a zone of over thinking and questioning yourself again and again whether or not you're doing the right thing, don't forget to take a step back, breathe, and remember why you decided to pursue your dream in the first place” are helpful advice from the pair.
CINNAPRETZ (Cinnamon and Pretzel) and Tak Kiu (Milo) Beenut Butters
Photo by: Tannie Tang
Recently, they have started creating peanut butter jelly cakes as well as two new flavours – CINNAPRETZ and Tak Kiu in lieu of the upcoming Christmas season with CINNAPRETZ staying as one of the permanent flavours in future.
You can grab their beenut butter at Envy Coffee, The Providore, Open Farm Community, SPRMKT, koskos, The Robinsons Heeren B1, as well as their own store, HIVE which opens on Saturdays from 10.30am - 4pm.
This article was first published on http://thelocalpeoplesg.com/blogs/goforit-stories/81813828-second-helpings-homemade-with-love
Comments