A great way to spice up your mornings: dD Manba's spicy peanut butter

It was during the souk @ sat, a few months ago, that we discovered this new local company. They produce a classic recipe of Haitian hot peanut butter that they have to offer in three levels of spiciness: mild, medium and hot. This new awesome product with a twist caught our attention and we wanted to share this discovery. So we met with dD Manba founders at the Atwater Market.

It all started with a trip to Haiti

Stanley and Jason are two former classmates from HEC, where they studied business and marketing. In 2013, they decided to join a group of classmates that had organized a volunteering trip to Haiti to help local entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Jason was struck by the poverty of the people and wanted to connect with them and do something to help. Stanley, a native Haitian, was already aware of these issues and really wanted to help out and do something for his country. This trip was a calling for him.

During their trip, Jason discovered the famous hot peanut butter, which is sold at every corner store in Haiti, and completely fell for the unique taste. “It was love at first bite”, he says. Stanley, on the other hand, was already a fan of the product because of his Haitian heritage. He'd stock up on this spicy goodness so that he doesn't have to go a day without his favourite PB&J with a kick. Peanut butter aside, this field trip was a true eye opener for both friends, and motivated to find a way to help out Haiti and its people, they got to brainstorming. Their business degree sure did come in handy, and after hours of flipping through ideas and letting their imagination go wild, one thought stuck. There was no spicy peanut butter in Montreal, so Stanley and Jason figured this has to be changed.

Initially, they attempted to import the product and market it here. However, few Haitian merchants were able to meet Canada's import requirements. So they tried to import the peanut butter in bulk and put it in jars themselves. That too did not work. In the end, they decided to make the traditional spicy peanut butter from scratch using peanuts from Haiti. They went hard at work on getting the recipe just right and to make this project into a reality. A year and hundreds of pounds of peanuts later, they found the key to the perfect balance of peanuts and creole spices.

dD Manba is a social mission.

Stanley was telling us that in terms of international help, thousands of dollars were being given to Haiti without any real change. That’s why he made it his calling to use a model that would differ from what was already being done. His solution is to help out the Haitian economy through Haitian peanuts export. It's very simple in fact, these guys are driven by introducing their awesome peanut butter to those who never tried it and bringing it here to those who grew up with it. There is nothing complex behind their name "Manba means peanut butter in Creole, and dD are the initials of our two last names”, explains Jason, but their ultimate goal is way more complicated. We love to see happy customers, says Jason. "Nothing tells us we're doing a good job than a smile on one's face after they've tried our Manba", they explain. But their ultimate goal is to educate people that sometimes, some of the greatest high-quality foods come from less developed countries, in contrary to what most believe. 

On our Marketplace, you'll find all of their three flavours ranked by spiciness. If you like spicy foods you'll appreciate dD Manba Peanut butter. Start with the mild one because they are spicy, but if you can handle it and ate it all your life then go for the hot one. Try a morning spicy pick me up PB&J.