Turning Nature's Caramel into a CPG Brand with Juliette Clark of Daramel
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Juliette "Juju" Clark has always known how to build something people love. She just didn't know it would be a caramel sauce made from dates.
Dates have been a staple of Juju's table her whole life. When she started experimenting with turning them into a caramel-style sauce in her own kitchen, she wasn't thinking about a brand. She was just making something delicious to drizzle on her coffee and yogurt bowls. Then the entrepreneurial instinct kicked in, the same one that helped her co-found a surf brand with her family and earn a deal on Shark Tank, and Daramel was born.
In this episode, Juju shares how she went from home kitchen to market-ready in under a year, what the Food Business Bootcamp® Startup Accelerator taught her about building under pressure, and why she believes food founders should never do a stealth startup.
Subscribe to the Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and "secret ingredients" of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
Tune in to hear...
How Juju's Iranian heritage and love of dates became the foundation for Daramel
Why being a second-time founder with a surf brand and a Shark Tank deal shaped how she approached CPG
The surfer's mindset she applies to entrepreneurship and why not every wave is worth catching
What it was like to go through the Food Business Bootcamp® Startup Accelerator and build a business in eight weeks
How a single TikTok post got 40,000 views and forced her to throw a sampling event
Her advice for anyone sitting on a home recipe: get strangers to try it, and be loud about it
Juju's go-to-market plan: DTC first, local cafes next, and big retail by 2027
Why she went to Coachella and it had nothing to do with the music
If you're a food founder who's been waiting for the right time to launch, this episode is your sign.
To get more Food Business Bites right in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter at thehudsonkitchen.com.
About Juliette Clark and Daramel
Juliette (Juju) Clark is the founder of Daramel, a date-based caramel brand rooted in her culture and worldview. As a lifelong athlete shaped by overcoming spinal fusion, Juju prioritizes wellness and fueling for the activities that bring her joy. Daramel came to life in her own kitchen while looking for a fun, nutritious way to flavor her coffee and yogurt bowls. What started as experimentation with her favorite sweet treat quickly became a brand her community resonated with.
Juju studied data science and business at UC Berkeley and co-founded TANDM Surf with her family, a surf brand that makes it possible for anyone to surf. As a young CEO, Juju learned how to grow a brand through creative product design and social media, even earning a deal on Shark Tank.
Juju is excited to dive headfirst into the food industry to turn Daramel's vision into reality: reminding everyone that life is naturally sweet.
Connect with Juliette Clark and Daramel:
Visit the Daramel website
Follow Daramel on Instagram
Follow Daramel on TikTok
Connect with Juliette on LinkedIn
Stay Connected with Djenaba Johnson-Jones:
Visit Hudson Kitchen
Follow Hudson Kitchen on Instagram
Connect with Djenaba on LinkedIn
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Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:00)
Hi, I'm Djenaba Johnson-Jones, founder of Hudson Kitchen and host of the Food Means Business podcast. Today I'm joined by Juliet "Juju" Clark, founder of Daramel Hi, Juju. Absolutely. So please tell us all about what Daramel is.
Juliette Clark (00:12)
Hello, thank you so much for having me.
So, Daramel the word, the name comes from combining two words, dates and caramel. I have grown up eating dates my whole life because I'm Iranian and a way to drizzle that natural sweetness on everything. Dates are commonly referred to as nature's caramel. So, Daramel actually turns dates into a caramel sauce in a similar cooking process to a caramel except for instead, it is the natural sugar from dates.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:50)
a little bit about you kind of launching Daramel give us your background. Like did you do before you decided to start a food business?
Juliette Clark (00:57)
So before launching Daramel this is actually my second time founding a brand. So I'm a second time founder, but my first ever time in the food business prior to getting the idea for Daramel I have started a surf brand with my whole family, actually. So you can see by my background, I'm visiting my family now in California, which is where I'm from. And so during my freshman year of college, which also happened to be during the COVID pandemic, we
built our surf company called Tandm Surf I learned so much from building that brand and had a lot of fun doing it too and learned what it means to build something meaningful that brings joy to people. And I've always loved creating the science and business so I could have the skills it takes to bring my creative ideas in an entrepreneurial way.
I just saw a TikTok the other day talking about how like when boys are creative, they're told they're entrepreneurial, but when girls are creative, they're just told that they're creative. And so that's something that's my mind thinking about my background. Like I've always been artsy, guess, but wanting to share my joys with everyone through entrepreneurship.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:07)
Yeah.
to launch Daramel When did you come up with the idea and when did you decide you wanted to kind get it out into the world?
Juliette Clark (02:29)
I came up with the idea around the time of summer of 2020, I've making Daramel for myself at home. And then in September, because I have the entrepreneurial mindset, I was like, wait a minute, I think everyone needs Daramel in their lives. And that this is something that I feel compelled to do because I just went surfing this morning and I was thinking about this, how
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:44)
You
You
Juliette Clark (02:58)
You know, when you're out there, you can't go for every single wave. You have to wait for the right one. Even if a wave looks really good, like sometimes you got to like think about it for a second and be like, no, I think the next one will be the right one to take. And I think that is what happens for a lot of people that are entrepreneurial. You get ideas like all the time, but you have to think about, okay, am I the right founder to do this? Do I know how to accomplish this? Because it's a...
big undertaking to start a business. And I'm really glad that I had the experience of starting a brand before before starting Daramel because it helped to like put it into perspective. And now I'm really, really excited because I know like this is the right timing for me and for the dates are becoming an upward trend. And I feel really empowered to want to like keep their
history and their symbolism that has been a big part of Middle Eastern cultures and that, you know, they are a healthy food, but they're also really symbolic and that natural sweetness is a, it's part of, like it's a cultural food. And so I'm excited to celebrate that with Daramel and have fun with it too, because I've always loved, like my love language is always, because I'm Persian or hospitality is like, you know,
When people come over, you say, oh, can I make you something to drink? Can I get you anything? And so that is what I would always do with food. Whenever someone comes over, I am like a little home barista. I'm like, oh, can I make you a coffee? And so I make them a coffee with the Daramel They're like, what is this? And yeah, I'm also really excited to be building it with my family, my sisters. That's something I'm really grateful for, to have that family relationship and also to be able to.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (04:42)
You
Juliette Clark (04:55)
build businesses together because it's also something that was born out of our family traditions, what we like to do. It's funny because like, Surf Q food company is very different, but they're just things that me and my family like to do and we want to share it with everyone at the end of the day.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:07)
Yes.
That's awesome. So you just finished our eight week food business bootcamp program. So what was it like building a business very quickly?
Juliette Clark (05:25)
It was
so awesome. my gosh. I haven't even processed that it's over yet. Because we're still like, you know, we have a little boot campers group chat. We're keeping each other updated. it just, it was really cool. Because what I loved about my experience building the surf company is we kind of gave ourselves a pressure cooker big deadline because we applied to Shark Tank and we had to get it ready in that amount of time.
And that's kind of a similar mindset when I signed up for the bootcamp is like, okay, this is going to be eight weeks to completely lock in, give it everything we have and to do it with a group of people that are on that same mindset, that same wavelength and with the support system too of you and the mentors and having the structure too was incredible. And it like the whole
underlying purpose of taking your home recipe to a business ready to launch. I was like, if this could happen in eight weeks, that is awesome. And then it did.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:34)
I know it seems crazy. It seems
so crazy. We twiddle around the time and I was like, no, need to, want people that are like ready to move and get in. You guys are all like extremely serious about getting it done. So it was fun for me to watch you all like kind of do this thing together.
Juliette Clark (06:50)
Yeah, it'd be so fun too. Like every week, I miss my Saturdays when I would get to eat everyone's samples. We'd be like taste testing things for everyone, giving each other advice. And it reminded me too of like, you know, being in college when you'd go to the study rooms together and you just get so much more done and like have other people to bounce ideas off of and to do it too, like in the kitchen. That was my first experience in a commercial kitchen. I have always.
watched like all the cooking shows growing up and on Chopped when they'd be like behind behind and then when I got to say that I was like this is so cool and yeah I just I loved the process of learning in that at that pace and with that intention with like-minded individuals with really good ideas too so it's the beginning.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (07:41)
Yes,
it is just the beginning. what do you think your next steps are going to be for Derma? What do you plan to launch? Give us a little bit of background.
Juliette Clark (07:50)
So I'm hoping to launch sometime in May. I've basically got into the point where, okay, I am ready to start making it and selling it. just, you know, the little operational things, the compliances, but I feel ready to, you know, get Daramel out there. Got to finalize a couple of label things, but
Yeah, it's super epic how whenever too I like see my other friends, which has been a little bit less lately because of how locked in I've been. But when I when I do get to see my friends, it'll be like they'll see me after like two weeks. I'm like, Juju, two weeks ago, you had you were completely different stage. Now you're like made this much progress. I'm like, yeah, it's that it's that boot camp.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (08:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
What did you learn about yourself? What was about yourself in the process of actually coming up with the idea and working to get the company off the ground?
Juliette Clark (08:59)
I learned and I've been learning this more about myself too is how much I love the creative aspect of brand building and like the content creation, the social media side. I think I forced myself to be a woman in STEM for too long. But no, still love, still love knowing all the, you know, numbers and stuff, but I have been having a lot of fun like making.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:16)
You
Juliette Clark (09:25)
the social media videos and it's been very empowering to use it as a tool for also just gauging feedback, the market response from my target audiences and building a committee. And I also have learned that, you know, when I give myself pressure, I do very well under pressure. And so I'm going to keep finding ways to like,
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:49)
Yeah.
Juliette Clark (09:54)
do that. For example, I posted a TikTok saying, if I hosted this sampling event, would anyone come? And it ended up getting like 40,000 views. like, okay, now I have to do this. I better do this. And so then I did. And then it's a lot of fun to I, I'm also learning that, you know, there, there's a way to have that, like, the
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:06)
You
Juliette Clark (10:23)
the grind set, but in a way that's not so like taxing on you when it is just harmonious with your way of life, with your connection to other people, connection to the world. And that's what I've really loved about building Daramel is it's so like seamless with just how I like to live my life that, you know, I could go a day where I was doing like, and that's the thing to you.
when you're in that kind of flow state, never really turn it off, like from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, you know, in some way, shape or form, I'm thinking about Darmel, but in an exciting way. So not in a way that's like toxic yet, but it's fun.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (11:04)
Hahaha!
So what is a piece of advice you would give to someone that kind of has this home recipe that they want to commercialize?
Juliette Clark (11:23)
My advice to anyone with a home recipe is to get as many people to try it that you don't know as possible. And if you can find a way for them to not know that you made it. like, to get their real honest reaction and to also like, their feedback on it of
ways that they would use it and to be open to changing your recipe if you do for different reasons and to think about too how your home recipe is like when you have it yourself and then what you envision it at a large scale many years from now what it could look like and to think about a good trademarkable, ownable name for your
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:15)
you
Juliette Clark (12:16)
for your product and your brand that will have that, you know, that equity down the line. And to put your dreams out there, just start telling everyone about it. You kind of have to like, like for me now, I'm the Daramel girl, girl, I'm totally cool with that. And if you'd ever know, like if you just, if you put your dreams out there, you're like, I'm in, like I posted my
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:33)
Yeah.
Juliette Clark (12:46)
I have one here, my Daramel latte in an Erewhon jar. I'm I'm manifesting a Daramel Erewhon collab, just putting it out there. You never know who might see it. And be like, actually I know someone at Erewhon. Let me tell them about you. So just be, be loud, be vocal. This is not tech. You don't need to do a stealth startup. It's all about the branding, the community. So just put yourself out there.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:47)
Hehehehehe
I love that. I completely agree. think even just telling someone that you know doesn't know anything about what you're doing because they probably know someone that could maybe help you down the line. That's happened to me many times. my friend told me about you or the person that some restaurant told me about you. So it's been, it's really good to share. People are always willing to lend a helping hand when they can.
Juliette Clark (13:32)
For sure. Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (13:34)
So talk about what's your plans for Dharma? I know you're only a couple months in, but what do you plan to do the next six months to a year with the brand?
Juliette Clark (13:47)
So my plan for Daramel, which I learned in the bootcamp, I got some great advice that I resonated with that this is a product and a brand that needs to scale fast because it is a kind of category leader has the potential to be as long as I can get distribution, scalable operations. so my goal for the first six months is to start out prioritizing
local direct-to-consumer. I've been building this community that's been following along the journey that's like, when can I buy Dharma? I want to make sure that they get it first because they've been patiently waiting and to really see how that plays out with the original direct-to-consumer launch, get feedback from customers, see how they're using it.
first initial couple of months, then start going into local cafes. That's what I'm excited for as a strategy, as a way to get people to be able to sample Daramel, say they don't want to commit to buying a bottle. Instead of me giving out samples at a grocery store, okay, don't know if you want to get a Daramel bottle yet. You could try the Daramel latte at so-and-so cafe in New York or wherever. And if you like it there,
you could support the cafe and maybe you could get a bottle of Daramel there. And I really want to build that relationship with the early adopters, the people that really get it. then from there, take it to hopefully after six months is up, be ready for some more big retail distribution. So the first six months is going to be really proof of concept, seeing how it
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (15:35)
Yeah.
Juliette Clark (15:42)
fits into people's lives and how it could look in a bigger retail setting and then at the start of 2027 looking at some bigger distribution.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (15:53)
Awesome. So we have our tradition at Hudson Kitchen where we ring a bell for something that we're celebrating. So I'm wondering what are you celebrating right now?
Juliette Clark (16:04)
I'm celebrating a Daramel went to Coachella. Daramel made it to Coachella.
I've been joking about that because it's like Coachella weekend right now. And as the traffic of people leaving Coachella to go back to LA was coming, I was going out to Coachella on Monday to go meet with a date farm, because there's a lot of date production in the Coachella Valley. And I'm seeing all like the billboards of like Justin Bieber and everything. And it was so cool. was my first time going.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (16:13)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nice.
You
Juliette Clark (16:39)
to Coachella, but not for the music festival.
And it was a really great meeting. I got to sample a lot of really good date products, date ingredients. And so I'm going to be keeping meeting with them as a good way to line up a possible co-manufacturer down the line. And it was so much fun. I got to see like the date farms too. And I was...
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (16:59)
amazing.
Juliette Clark (17:08)
I was manifesting next year Coachella, maybe there'll be a Daramel house, but not like an actual house, because those are like $50,000, but we'll do like a cool car glamping, Darmel car glamping at Coachella.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (17:23)
I love it, love it. Well, Juju, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Let everyone know what they can find about you and Daramel.
Juliette Clark (17:31)
Yes, thank you so much for having me and for the best eight weeks of all time at the bootcamp. And you can find Daramel at eatdarmal.com and at eatdaramal on TikTok.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (17:34)
you
Cool, thank you.
Juliette Clark (17:46)
Thank you.