Must Love (the podcast): Recent Episodes
Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha
Follow along with best friends and co-founders Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha on the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Hannah and Mollie launched their company, Must Love in 2017 with the goal of bringing plant-based desserts to families everywhere. Must Love's first line of products is nice cream sweetened with real fruit - dates and coconut, and made either with an oat milk or banana base.
Although it seems like a dream to make ice cream with your best friend, it's serious business!
We made this during the crazy egg shortage, but here is our Recession Banana Bread.
1 ripe banana (extra ripe for Mollie)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix all ingredients in one bowl - easy cleanup! Bake in muffin tins or a donut pan - should yield 5-6, bake for about 15 minutes.
We make Chex Mix 3 different ways here. Classic Party Mix with Crunchy Wheat, Sweet & Salty with Classic Graham, and Chocolate Caramel with Chocolate Graham.
The main takeaway is that nothing should stop us from enjoying this snack mix today and that the golden ratio is:
7 cups dry cereal + other mix ins
6 Tbsp melted butter or other oil
Season with your heart
Spread mixture onto cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 250 F and bake for 1-1.5 hours until golden. Stir mixture on cookie sheet every 15 minutes to prevent burning.
You can customize by adding different seasonings, toppings, and our personal fave, maple syrup for a sweet & salty, crave-able version.
In which Mollie makes Hannah guess 100 types of dip before she figures out that they're going to talk about Onion Dip, but actually make a White Bean Dip.
A no recipe-recipe --
1 can of beans (your choice)
Olive oil
Lemon
Herbs (we used rosemary)
Raw garlic (can use roasted)
Salt & pepper
Measure with your heart and blend until smooth! Enjoy with Crunchy Wheat crackers.
Not everything we try is a winner. This one might need some work, but had a lot of fun trying to make it.
Grasshopper Pie:
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Chocolate graham cracker crust
-
Minty pie filling (see below)
Simply fill the pie with the minty filling and freeze for FOUR hours or more. Do not skimp on the freeze time (like we did so foolishly).
Pie filling:
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1 container marshmallow fluff (7oz)
-
1 container frozen whipped topping (8oz)
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1/8 cup creme de methe (do not use the 1/4 cup we did - big mistake, BIG)
Simply whip it together until smooth.
We also used to make ice cream bars, so another traumatizing trip down memory lane as we explore the history of frozen stick novelties - ice lollies - or as they are commonly known, popsicles. To make our Pina Colada-inspired pops...
Blend 1 can of coconut cream (not milk) with an equal volume of simple syrup. We were lazy and used the syrup that canned pineapple comes with. You can pour this into your molds and add pineapple chunks if you desire. Freeze for at least 2 hours, but ideally overnight. To de-mold easily, dip the molds into a bowl of warm water for up to a minute. Enjoy!
We promised we're not traumatized from making and selling our frozen dessert. In this episode we revisit some memories, but also share the history of ice cream while making banana pudding frozen dessert!
Relaunching the podcast with a twist on a classic graham cracker "recipe" - s'mores. Comes with a side of graham cracker lore. xo
S'mores Dip Recipe:
- 2 chocolate bars
- 1 bag of mini marshmallows
- 1 box of Must Love Classic Grahams
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. We put down a layer of parchment paper in a baking sheet for easy cleanup.
Then put down a layer of chocolate (milk, dark, dealer's choice) and then completely cover with marshmallows. We think using mini marshmallows is better than the jumbo sized ones.
Then simply bake for 5-10 minutes or until the top of marshmallows are nice and toasted.
Serve immediately, though be warned the dip will be HOT at first. We loved dipping with our Classic Grahams, but you can also use pretzels or fruit!
Where we share recipes and the stories behind them. We'll dish out delicious recipes, food history, and all the tasty tidbits you didn't know you needed. Let's get into it.
For anyone that’s new to Must Love, a little about what we make and why. Our treats are meaningful to us because we want to eat this way, but especially more so now that we’re moms of toddlers who want to snack all the time.
We’re back after a long hiatus of being really sick from toddler germs. On that note, we talk about what it’s like starting a business without kids and then now running a business with kids. It’s a whole new normal that never feels normal.
Fun look back on the two very different audition tapes we made when trying out for Shark Tank! Why the tape is important, why we changed directions, and our tips for success.
So did we make our ice cream in our garage when we first started? Short answer is an emphatic NO. LOL. But, we always get asked about our first couple of years and how we actually made our dairy free frozen dessert for retailers so diving into the details of how we did it! Deadlifting 40 lb boxes of bananas, driving our regular cars on lots with semis, etc.
Back this week chatting all things pitch contests. We’ve done our fair share of these pitch slams now and have another pitch competition coming up next week. So, thought this was a good time to share our best tips for success.
People always ask us if we are going to open our own store! Well, we had one, and it was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Sit back, sip a Mai Tai maybe and listen in to hear how we got this opportunity, what we learned, and how it inspired our launch of sprinkles!
In this episode we cover something pretty technical, but also essential for packaging design. Setting your messaging hierarchy. Important for anyone designing packaging for retail shelf!
Welcome back to our podcast! Why we took a break, why we’re starting it back up again, and discussing remote work vs in office.
Jumping together into business was one of the biggest decisions we've ever made. We talk through the reservations that we had, didn't have, and what steps we took to make sure the foundation of our partnership was strong. Honestly it was a relatively quick yes for the both of us, so this podcast episode is really short. So we had some time to go through our very first ice cream tasting pre-launch. We laugh, we cry, please enjoy!
A lookback at our earliest days figuring out how to go to market with our nice cream - farmers markets vs retailers, how we landed our first retail door, how we got into Whole Foods and Sprouts. We also cover some fun facts like how we figured out our sell through numbers, traveled with ice cream across state lines, and delivered ice cream out of Mollie's car. Note we recorded this at the end of 2021 so did not have ecomm set up yet, but we do sell our ice cream online now.
We recorded this in Q4 of 2021, a lookback on our business in 2020 and 2021 in the context of Covid. If you doubted that we are actually at heart huge nerds, give this episode a listen and you'll hear us diving deep into how global supply chain issues and macroeconomic trends are affecting us and a few other industries. Or maybe it's really obvious we are huge nerds and no one doubts that lol.
We taped our reaction to and thoughts on our Shark Tank segment airing immediately after viewing it. We go over what we wish they included, what we're surprised was left on the cutting room floor, and what we really think about Shark Tank. If you're a fan of Drunk History, you might like this. If not, next episode coming soon!
Finishing up our BTS series on our Shark Tank experience. Our episode aired last Friday (1/14). This episode goes from really serious to lighthearted, so something for everyone. We cover: our regrets (if any), thoughts on our valuation and ask (we got many questions about this across our platforms), and also how we chose our outfits (the real important stuff).
We can't believe the day is finally here, but our Shark Tank episode airs tonight, Friday 1/14. Look back with us on our initial reactions right after we filmed our segment. In this episode we cover: being two-time applicants, how we felt when we found out we would tape, and BTS on how we prepared for Q&A in the Tank.
We're Hannah and Mollie, best friends and cofounders of Must Love. And this is our podcast, Must Love (the podcast). It might seem like a dream to make ice cream with your best friend, but this is serious business.
Why are we starting a podcast? Who do we think we are? LOL. Find out answers to both these questions on our first episode where we cover:
- what we think about the role of content in the CPG industry,
- why this is Mollie's favorite medium,
- and setting expectations for future episodes.