Gummies, cookies, sodas, and endless other sweet treats and beverages line dispensary shelves— but where are the savory bites? This query is what sparked Robert Holland’s motivation to fill that gap with a new type of edible. “I was looking around at the assortment of products available and was confused to find that products didn’t really represent me as a consumer in terms of brand voice, or that excited me in terms of taste,” Holland shares. Thus Tempo was born, a savory THC-infused cracker created in Los Angeles in 2020.
Though developed in uncertain times, Holland was certain that the market needed a more versatile and intentional infused snack, a snack that is not only savory but also precisely dosed and meticulously crafted to achieve specific effects.
“I grew up in Plano, Texas, which is the headquarters of Frito-Lay and have been very obsessed with snacking from a very young age. I was looking for that same innovation in snacks and food science overall within the edible shelf, and really started with that initial thesis of how to develop a product that allows people to have the joy of snacking without always going for a high-sugar dessert edible SKU.”
Robert Holland, Founder of Tempo
Precisely-Dosed, Savory Tempo Crackers
Though the market is predominantly flooded with high-sugar edibles, Tempo isn’t the first savory option on shelves. But while chips and popcorn and even sauces may have preceded, Holland set out to elevate the infused snacking experience with consistent dosing and a versatility that sees his edibles atop salads, crushed and mixed in mac and cheese, and a must-have addition to any California charcuterie board.
Holland explains, “People have started to integrate it into their actual food consumption experiences, where you don’t really have that opportunity with gummies. It doesn’t actually get integrated into your diet. We aim to offer consumers the option of turning their existing food into something functional that helps them achieve specific goals, such as relaxation, energy, or focus.”
“Everyone I talked to was essentially like, ‘It’s not possible, we’ve tried it. It doesn’t work,’ which was really funny to find. I think the primary reason for this is that the manufacturing of snacks is actually much more challenging than you might expect. There’s a lot of science that goes into producing that level of texture and taste consistency,” Holland shares about the beginning stages of Tempo, adding, “When you mix that with dosage consistency, you get a lot of products that are not really capable of delivering the dosage consistency that the edible customer really wants. A lot of the existing SKUs on the market— popcorn, chips— flame out really quickly because consumers are looking for really consistent dosage experiences.”
This challenge fueled his determination as he set out to fill that gap with his round pita chips, which later evolved into the higher-dose, hex-shaped cracker available today. Across California, Tempo crackers are available now in eight flavors and three different doses, including vegan options.
“We went from a two-inch round to a one-inch hex. We switched from an olive oil base to a vegan butter base, and we increased our dosage on a variety of different SKUs because the primary feedback customers were giving us was essentially, ‘I don’t want a meal. I want a snack.’”
Robert Holland
Taste Testing, Food Science Principles, and a Passion for Snacking
Listening to customer feedback and the food science principles that permeated Holland’s upbringing form the foundation of the entire Tempo operation. Similar to his childhood days taste testing for Frito-Lay, Holland recreates his own on-the-ground consumer testing, emphasizing the importance of making sure “that the consumers are speaking and making the decision for us.”
Beyond customer satisfaction, Tempo leaves no detail untouched with its distinctive packaging, featuring vibrant designs decorated with motivational sayings on each box. On packaging inspiration, Holland shares, “A lot of edible consumers use cannabis to stay motivated and knock down all the challenges that the modern world presents to us. What these messages really represent are: how do we use cannabis to keep the motivation and keep that mantra so you’re staying on pace and finding your tempo.”
That coupled with the company’s dedication to inclusivity has rightfully cultivated a devoted following for the LGBTQ-owned cracker brand in just a few years. For Tempo, inclusivity extends beyond a dynamic product; it signifies a product that supports the LGBTQ+ community, offers a diverse range of options, and remains both affordable and highly effective.
“In the short term, our next product on the roadmap is actually single-strain solventless hash SKUs with Punch Extracts launching really soon. We are upping the dosage as well to respond to the people that are looking for 100 milligrams really quickly.”
And while this was all done with the help of plenty of others, like Tempo’s manufacturer Punch, Holland is the heart of the operation. His raw passion for his own crackers and snacks in general shines through as the driving force of Tempo.
“As we’re able to continue to research and develop the snack products to match consumer expectations, we’ll be able to deliver that same consistency, and consumers will be looking to us and saying, ‘oh wow, price-efficient, dosage consistency, and it’s actually something I want to eat.”
Learn more about Robert Holland’s lifelong passion for snacking and how it led to the creation of Tempo Crackers in this exclusive interview.
Respect My Region x Robert Holland, Founder of Tempo, Exclusive Interview
Tell me a little about the inspiration behind starting Tempo and how it has evolved since its inception.
I joined the cannabis industry in 2019 and was looking around at the assortment of products available and was confused to find that products didn’t really represent me as a consumer in terms of brand voice, or that excited me in terms of taste.
I grew up in Plano, Texas, which is the headquarters of Frito-Lay and have been very obsessed with snacking from a very young age. I was looking for that same innovation in snacks and food science overall within the edible shelf, and really started with that initial thesis of how to develop a product that allows people to have the joy of snacking without always going for a high-sugar dessert edible SKU.
Everyone I talked to was essentially like, ‘It’s not possible, we’ve tried it. It doesn’t work,’ which was really funny to find. I think the primary reason for this is that the manufacturing of snacks is actually much more challenging than you might expect. There’s a lot of science that goes into producing that level of texture and taste consistency. When you mix that with dosage consistency, you get a lot of products that are not really capable of delivering the dosage consistency that the edible customer really wants. A lot of the existing SKUs on the market— popcorn, chips— flame out really quickly because consumers are looking for really consistent dosage experiences. I wanted to be the first. We really went with the thesis of how do we create individually dosed per unit snack products. We initially launched in 2020 in the height of COVID with a pita chip product that was a two-milligram, two-inch round with an olive oil base.
Also growing up in Texas next to Frito-Lay, I knew that the way to really develop a snack is all about getting feedback from your customers, and wanted to launch with that and really push it into the ethos of how the company was developed. We did so much consumer testing. We initially partnered with around 25 dispensaries and went out and got all this feedback about what people want in terms of texture, flavor, and dosage.
We really evolved from then. We went from a two-inch round to a one-inch hex. We switched from an olive oil base to a vegan butter base, and we increased our dosage on a variety of different SKUs because the primary feedback customers were giving us was essentially, ‘I don’t want a meal. I want a snack.’
We increased the number of units per package, and decreased the size, but we actually didn’t increase our price very much. We’re able to deliver a much more effective milligram per dollar ratio.
You might initially assume— and my assumption was there— that the average consumer’s dosage is five to ten milligrams. That’s probably correct if you’re using the median, but if you’re using the weighted average, that’s not correct because the high milligram customer has the most purchasing power in the market, and so you really have to adjust for them. Those customers were not excited to eat multiple bags of pita chips, so we switched. By updating our dosage and decreasing the size of the product, it allows people to get to that dosage that they need really quickly— especially medical patients, cancer patients, we have a lot of diabetes patients and customers who are looking for no sugar or low sugar products.
Since that change, it has really blown up. It’s been really exciting to kind of consistently change the market.
It definitely seems on the lower end for what it is. The market is so different over there. In New York, everything is so expensive right now. You buy a pack of gummies for like $40, and it’s only like 50 milligrams.
That’s actually a big part of our strategy. We know we’re up against gummies in a big way. A lot of the initial snack competitors or people who come from these niche baking goods categories take the approach of a lot of marketing. Then they overprice the products to pay for that in terms of operating costs.
We’re a really lean team. I’m the only full-time employee. We have a whole host of contractors. We have a dedicated production staff that works at Punch Edibles, our manufacturer. But we know that price is what’s going to really differentiate us because at the end of the day, consistent edible consumers who are going every week to look for something want to be able to get 100 milligrams for the lowest possible price.
California is where the industry is popping, but it is a very oversaturated market. Why did you decide to leave Brooklyn and head to California to pursue a whole new thing?
I actually moved to California to work at a different cannabis company. When I was in California already, I had some relationships with existing manufacturers who had capabilities. Part of the challenge with starting up any new product is the initial investment in like the oven, the mixer, the manufacturing machines. We’re really proud to be a part of the Punch family of brands. We actually share both an oven space and a lot of equipment with the Dr. Norm’s team, who makes cookies, rice crispies, and other baked goods. They’ve been a big inspiration for us. I think that was great about starting in California— yes, it’s a really competitive market, but it also gives us a big opportunity to start small without having to take a lot of outside capital, which can really aggressively distort your vision. Especially for a totally new market like this, I didn’t want to have to pitch someone on how we’re going to make 2 million in the first year. I really wanted to make sure we were iterating and growing with the response to the market. That’s why we started here.
Did you have a good response early on?
Really, until we launched our new formulation, it was a lot of back and forth. The initial snack product, while people were really excited about snacks overall, they were so accustomed to these perfectly designed magical moments in our mouths. You know, you go into the snack aisle today, and everything is like ‘zing,’ ‘pop,’ ‘crunch!’ And millions of dollars have gone into those products, and I think that’s what people were really looking for originally. If you think back to like 2015, 2014 when initially gummies were entering the market, people hated them. Absolutely hated them. In reality, they didn’t have the market share that they have today. Cookies and chocolates and a lot of those baked goods still have 40-50% market share up until about 2016. Now they’ve declined like 10% and gummies have like 85% overall.
Here, too.
In many ways, it’s a follow on what’s happening in the California market. The long-term expectation for us is that if you look at the overall food and beverage market and how people actually consume products, snacks and savory products are more than 4x the size of candy. Consumers actually don’t like candy. It’s not for me. I don’t like chocolate. I will have Sour Patch kids, but more for the zing than the sugar. I will down an entire bag of pretzels any day of the week.
We’re looking for that long-term trend as we’re able to continue to research and develop snack products to match consumer expectations of what they see when they open a bag of chips or a box of Cheez-Its. We’ll be able to deliver that same consistency and consumers will be looking to us and saying, ‘oh wow, price efficient, same dosage, consistency, and it’s actually something I want to eat.’
What’s your favorite flavor?
The Buffalo Cheddar is super good; it has a little kick. The Chili Limon is very spicy. My current favorite is Salt & Vinegar. We tested 14 different types of seasoning, and the one we ended with I’m so obsessed with because it’s a little bit sweeter but it gives you the same zing. Part of what we’re looking to create in each of the snack experiences is this little positive reinforcement loop where the beginning and the end of the taste are opposite. You’ll initially get that acidic hit at the beginning of the Salt & Vinegar and then it becomes sweeter as you eat the cracker, so you want the acid again.
That’s really deep.
I’m deep on snack science.
I can see your passion for snacks. So, are you the man behind all the flavors? Are you the one deciding the flavors, coming up with the formulations, and doing the market research?
I’m doing a lot of the market research. I wouldn’t say 100% that I’m the man behind the flavors in that I really want to make sure that the consumers are speaking and making the decision for us. I’ve done a lot of consumer testing; what I’ll do is essentially present our top 20 flavors, and then I’ll invite like 50-100 people to come test all these different seasoning options or all these different non-medicated options for us and do a blind survey on what was the most effective.
When we started to narrow down our final three flavors— we just launched the Buffalo Cheddar, Truffle Parmesan, and Salt & Vinegar— we had them all like Buffalo one, Buffalo two, Buffalo four. Everyone was testing from there. I’ve been guiding the process. I’ve been surprised to find that some of the flavors that I love, like Cool Ranch, for example, are not a consumer favorite. Or at least we weren’t able to achieve a consumer favorite for it. So they got shelved, which was sad but interesting.
I actually recently attended a taste-tasting event for a big chip brand.
That was my whole childhood. They invite every single person in the neighborhood. You get a call from the research center that is connected to them. And once a month you can go eat chips and they pay $40 cash. Then, I would go directly to GameStop next door and buy Zelda or something.
I see where the passion comes from. Do you plan to introduce any sort of sweet flavors?
We have gotten a lot of requests for sweet flavors. I think as we go forward, we’ll dabble with some seasonal flavors. The requests that are interesting are like the graham crackers or cinnamon pretzel twists. The most likely scenario is that we end up with a salty-sweet combination. I know a lot of people are looking for that as their sort of midnight snack.
It’s really fun because we definitely have a big opportunity to collaborate with our partners at Punch either through dipped chocolate kind of products or with Dr. Norms on working with something like a cinnamon sugar SKU.
In the short term, our next product on the roadmap is actually single-strain solventless hash SKUs with Punch Extracts. We are actually looking to launch that really soon. We are upping the dosage as well to respond to the people that are looking for 100 milligrams really quickly.
Do you have any plans for allergy-friendly or gluten-free options?
We have been R&D’ing a rice cracker and are definitely looking for that. The biggest challenge for us is really about dosage consistency; you have to achieve this consistent uniform sheet. Non-gluten products more frequently rip in the rolling process. I’m deep in the Xantham gum world trying to figure it out because we have gotten a lot of requests for that. It’s definitely on the road map for us. Originally, we were looking to make a product that was super inclusive in terms of inviting in customers that aren’t able to consume gummies. Our initial launch, we focused on vegan flavors. We’ve now expanded to have non-vegan as well but 50% of our lineup is fully vegan. We’re at least checking one box and going to the next one soon enough.
I heard that your crackers are a must on any California charcuterie board. I wanted to ask what kind of other flavors and foods you like to pair with the crackers?
We’re actually working on a recipe book. Each cracker has its own pairing. For example, I love the Chili Limon with cream cheese because it balances so much of the flavor. The Sour Cream & Onion is absolutely excellent with a cheddar-like flavor. It’s actually our most popular flavor with men. The most interesting— we have a whole contingent of people that love to take our Truffle Parmesan or Black Pepper and crunch it up on a salad as croutons. It’s a really interesting way people have started to integrate it into their actual food consumption experiences, where you don’t really have the opportunity with gummies. It doesn’t actually get integrated into your diet.
They’re giving a new meaning to the devil’s lettuce.
That’s amazing.
We have a lot of people who use it as breadcrumbs on mac and cheese. People have used it to bread chicken and then fry it. It definitely denatures a little bit of the THC, which I don’t think they realize, but whatever they want.
The messages on the packaging— was that an original idea or did something spark the idea to add those to the boxes?
There are a few different motivations for it. For me, building a brand, especially a brand that doesn’t have a lot of large institutional marketing support, is about developing layers for the customer to continue to explore within, so that they feel like they’re discovering you on an ongoing basis and discovering the brand voice. A la Snapple, we were looking for a way to really create the product experience where people actually liked keeping the box. The second main reason is that most of the products on the market today are really marketed towards high-dose men. As a result, the brand messaging and the brand voice are almost exclusively really aggressive or really dark in terms of the brand imagery and not extremely positive.
A lot of edible consumers use cannabis to stay motivated and knock down all the challenges that the modern world presents to us. Especially as we were developing the brand in COVID, part of the reason we chose Tempo and what these messages really represent are: how do we use cannabis to keep the motivation and keep that mantra so you’re staying on pace and finding your tempo.
Each of them is a little motivational mantra. It matches the brand voice of that specific flavor. Our two sativa SKUs, for example, Chili Limon and Salt & Vinegar, the messaging is kind of aggressive but kind of a challenge. Like, ‘let’s get up and go.’ The first one says, ‘If you feel the wind is at your back, start sprinting’. The other one is like, ‘If not now, when?’ Truffle Parmesan is a more relaxed SKU; it says, ‘I hope you know how loved you are.’
So, really wanting people to be stoned then flip the box and have that moment of like, ‘Oh my god, it’s speaking to me.’
How do you envision the future of cannabis edibles both in California and the broader industry, and how does Tempo plan to stay at the forefront of that?
I imagine that cannabis edibles will continue to be further integrated into the normal food & beverage consumption experience.
We’ve already seen this with drinks, which is why they’ve been so successful. People enjoy drinking, regardless of whether it contains THC. You’ll notice this trend with adaptogenic drinks and products, as well as functional foods in the larger market.
I see edibles jumping into that space of functional food, as opposed to their current position as more of a luxury dessert. Bridging that gap remains a priority for us, as we aim to offer consumers the option of turning their existing food into something functional that helps them achieve specific goals, such as relaxation, energy, or focus, which is also why most of our products are marketed with specific effects.
I really like that the crackers all vary in dosage and experience because a lot of edibles are just like, okay, here’s 10 milligrams. And I’m like, what’s it going to do to me? Put me to sleep? I don’t know.
Exactly, and I think as people go forward, they’ll start to become a little smarter about understanding that some of the edibles that are marketed in that way actually have no backing behind them.
Some of the gummies will just be like, ‘Sleep!’ and I’m like, is there really any difference between these two? So for us, we pair THC:CBD ratios with naturally occurring terpenes that enhance the effects. So the Sour Cream & Onion, for example, is made with black garlic which is really high in the terpene myrcene, which is what you find in an indica garlic strain to really relax you.
As a newer but established brand, what advice would you have for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the California cannabis industry, specifically the edible sector?
I would say, go deep, don’t go wide. There are shops in California that are specifically edible shops. Where the edible customer knows that they have a really broad selection, they know they have the opportunity to speak with a budtender about that functional dosage from different products and then there are shops that are almost exclusively flower.
So as a newer brand, it doesn’t really make sense to spend all your money trying to get into every store. It makes more sense to develop a deep partnership where your retail partners are actively showcasing your brand and doing so in a way that helps grow your brand voice with the customer long-term.
Before we part ways, is there anything you would like to share about the future of Tempo?
I won’t share anything about our new solventless edible on the way, but you can hint at it. It’s going to be really exciting and single strain with Punch Extracts launching in November.
I think the fun and exciting thing for us is that next year, after we’ve now stabilized and grown our market share in California, to look outside of California, and so they might be in a shop near you pretty soon.
Definitely something that’s on the top of mind is understanding that California is crazy, and a lot of newer customers in other markets are looking for other options, and don’t have that mindset that gummies are their only option. The earlier we can get there, the faster we can grow snacks as a category overall.
If you were stranded on an island, what two cannabis products and what two accessories would you bring with you?
I would bring the Elevate Jane Mimi, which is a long, slender, highly functional bong. I would bring a Puffco Peak 2 Pro with a 3DXL chamber because I’m an extract consumer, and I would bring the Limeade batter from Punch Extracts and a box of Chili Limon. And, of course, I would figure out how to grow weed on the island.
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