Since childhood in South Africa, I’ve been a curious foodie, leading to my career in the natural foods world for the last few decades. My love of travel and cuisine has given me a unique view of predicting food trends and an innovative way to create superior products with the best ingredients worldwide – always believing that everything falls into place when the customer is the focus. Because of my genuine love for good food, I want others to enjoy it as well, and that desire for everyone to enjoy great flavor led me to create the World’s first-ever Sugar Free, Ketogenic Certified plant-based desserts – Simply Delish. And it feels like we’re just getting started.
Simply Delish is not just a dessert. It’s a health movement – a life-changing product that allows many people with dietary restrictions to sit back and finally enjoy dessert without guilt and concern. Many people with allergies, have diabetes, or suffer from celiac and can’t enjoy a sweet treat. They are missing out on a simple joy most of us take for granted. We supply problem-solution products that weren’t available before for everyone – and that is, they are so darn delicious that everyone can enjoy dessert every day. Simply Delish Jel reminds many of our consumers of their childhood days enjoying Jello as a treat or dessert, now they can enjoy Simply Delish plant-based Jels for themselves and their kid’s gelatin-free and zero chemicals.
There is so much delight in this job. We do it for every gluten-free child and can proudly take their chocolate pudding cup out of their lunchbox and feel like they can have dessert like everyone else. Or the 20 million Americans that suffer from digestive issues. Simply Delish is a worldwide company, so we know our desserts are helping people around the globe.
We are striving to impact the vast “sugar problem.” The American Heart Association says the average American eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day – and Americans, unfortunately, consume more sugar than any other country in the world. Sugar consumption has reached epidemic levels, and pretty much all experts agree that this sugar addiction is a massive contributor to disease.
But – sometimes you can have it both ways. The solution is in an all-natural way to create food that people can delight in and know that it’s healthy. In a world where sugar-free is often synonymous with artificial sweeteners made from chemicals, we needed to create delicious desserts with superior natural ingredients – which we did. At Simply Delish, our benchmark for success is the taste as well – we want people to enjoy desserts that are firstly delicious and then healthy. As we say, “Healthy never Tasted so Good.”
How it started
Simply Delish Naturals came about in 2011 and started from humble beginnings in San Diego, California. Before Simply Delish, I was an early believer in importing healthy, great-tasting foods from around the world in the natural foods import/export business. I was traveling the world for work, pleasure, and to visit family and would identify the next most desirable products for the North American market. My daughter became a natural food chef and a nutritionist at about this time -foodies run in the family. She developed an interest in the effects of sugar on the body, which put her on a mission to educate people about the evils of sugar and its enormous impact on health.
We launched Simply Delish with the primary objective to offer healthy desserts that all can enjoy – and we had a lot of fun searching for the finest ingredients around the world and working with our World Class R&D team we developed the most amazing delicious desserts with options for all diets from vegan to keto and beyond. It was a lot of trial and error with ingredients and recipes – what we ended up developing was a vegan range of sugar-free jels without gelatin and sugar-free instant puddings that are vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free, plant-based, Kosher & Halaal.
Initially, our natural jel flavors are made from real strawberry, raspberry, orange, and peach, while our non-dairy pudding desserts flavors are creamy vanilla, decadent chocolate, and strawberry. Simply Delish has since added jel flavors black cherry, lime, unflavored, and banana & butterscotch pudding dessert flavors.
With zero sugar and only six calories per serving, we realized we were catering to many individuals – from people on the Keto diet to people with diabetes to fitness enthusiasts who didn’t have to give up their sweet tooth once we came on the scene.
All our Simply Delish products are blended with the most amazing Stevia M natural sweetener which tastes like sugar and has made a tremendous difference to the taste and texture of our entire range of products.
We were thrilled to be the World’s first-ever Sugar-Free Ketogenic Certified dessert. It shows our customers they can trust our product with a World Class Certification.
From the beginning, we knew that we weren’t just developing delicious standalone products – but the gels and puddings could be very versatile and be used with non-dairy options such as oatmeal, coconut milk, and soy milk to create your own completely sugar-free Keto, vegan, plant-based health dessert using only natural flavors and colors.
The puddings and gels are delicious as the perfect grab-and-go snack, but they are perfect for adding other healthy ingredients to make truly decadent tasting desserts.
We’ve cultivated hundreds of delicious recipes on our website created and developed by our Simply Delish customers and influencers using our Simply Delish puddings and gels as the base which can be easily searched by customers’ dietary needs. Some favorites are Macha Coconut Pudding, Cookies, and Cream pudding pops, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Parfait, and Katies Key Lime Pie.
Simply Delish is now available on Whole Foods, Sprouts and hundreds of healthy, specialty and select supermarkets. Our 600 influencers have created organic online demand for Simply Delish on Amazon and our Simply Delish Website. In July Simply Delish will have 4 jels and 4 puddings in 1200 Kroger stores & banners. The accolades are rolling in Forbes; Veg News recently named our desserts one of “Eight Healthy Vegan Snack Swaps.”
Doing Good
My larger mission is to give back to the community. The Simply Delish brand has partnered with a local non-profit organization from Child Hunger Sucks, It’s all about the kids etc which are committed to feeding millions of meals to kids in need. We love being a part of it.
The Future of Food
I am trying to stay ahead of the trends. In the next five years, we will see a greater awareness of the effects of sugar on the body. There will be a greater understanding of how foods interact with the gut. We will be moving toward getting back to the basics of food preparation.
In the meantime, we will keep providing tasty options for all – and are proud to say that our Simply Delish products are:
- Ketogenic Certified
- Sugar-free
- Plant-based
- Kosher
- Vegan
- Allergen-free
- NON-GMO Verified
- Made with natural flavors, colors & sweeteners
For healthy inspiration, follow Simply Delish on Facebook and Instagram @simplydelishnatural and Pinterest and YouTube @simplydelish. Find out more at simplydelish.net
Martin Pamensky, CEO and President of Stanmar International Group of Companies and CEO and Founder of Simply Delish
Martin Pamensky is a South African-born entrepreneur and a veteran of 35 years in the natural food business. He is currently the CEO and President of Stanmar Group of Companies with operations in the US and Canada, a leading importer of high-quality food and beverage products. In 2021 he started Simply Delish, which is now the world’s first sugar-free, Ketogenic Certified dessert brand.
