Morning Rituals: Golde's Trinity Mouzon Wofford and Issey Kobori

February 08, 2022

Shortly after starting Canyon back in 2016, we started noticing these fun, brightly colored bags on the shelves of a lot of our friends’ shops around California. It was Golde’s original product: the Turmeric Latte Blend. We quickly fell in love with the product, and then the people behind it!

One of our favorite parts of owning a business is the instant camaraderie felt between fellow business owners. With Golde, it goes a step further. Both couples, both starting our first businesses together out of our apartments (within a year of each other, no less), both bootstrapping and learning the ropes as we go.

It’s been so much fun watching Golde’s success, and today we’re excited to share a Morning Rituals feature with the couple behind it all: Trinity and Issey. We're inspired and motivated not only by their leadership and what they've built, but by the groundedness, integrity and sweetness they carry as people.

Do you have a morning ritual? Does it (or has it) changed over time?

The first thing we both do in the morning is drink a tall glass of water from our Berkey filter. We've had the Berkey for about 4 years now and will never be without it! It's so important to rehydrate in the morning, otherwise, it's easy to get caught up during the day and not drink enough water.

We’d love to hear about your story in starting Golde and any philosophy or notable approaches you took in the process!

We co-founded Golde 5 years ago at the age of 23 — we were both just young and hungry and excited to do something creative together. Our process was very intentional and we didn't set up for rapid growth overnight. We started with one product (our turmeric latte blend) and worked hand-in-hand on formulation, packaging design, wholesale strategy, and marketing. We taught ourselves how to do everything because we didn't have the budget to bring on any big agencies. We were lucky to have a couple of friends help out in the early days, but by year one everything was just us.

Since starting Golde in 2017, have your ideas about growing a business changed? Or not?

We've seen a lot of growth in the business in the past couple of years, so we've started to lean into that strategy quite a bit more. It was definitely a change of pace from being this 2-person indie brand, but we've loved the challenge and feel so gratified by the process of building the team.

We really love the way Golde makes health and wellness approachable. How do you introduce health and superfoods to people who are new to it?

We try to focus on just making the brand and product experience feel-good from end to end. There has to be great packaging that you'd want to see on your shelf or pantry, and the product itself can't be like $100 for a month's supply. Typically price or confusing marketing are two of the big things that overwhelm folks when they're considering a wellness product. From there, we prioritize creating products that are actually easy and fun to use, and don't skimp on the benefits. The problem is that most people consider wellness or healthy choices to be this chore they have to suffer through, so we kind of have to reorient them to the idea that superfoods can actually be a part of this really positive daily ritual that they're looking forward to.

What has been your favorite part about having Golde?

We're really grateful for the opportunity to work creatively together. Sometimes that's very literal — looking at packaging design, for example. But other times we're having to creatively solve a problem in supply chain or marketing that we've never seen before. Sometimes it's so stressful, but in the end, we learn through it and remember to keep it fun.

Lastly, what is your favorite drink to make? Do you have a Golde coffee recipe you would like to share?

So many great superfood beverages in our routine! For coffee, we looove to boost it with something chocolate-y, so either Shroom Shield (our mushroom cocoa) or the Cacao Turmeric latte blend. For a Cacao Turmeric Coffee, here's our recipe!

- Mix 2 tsp of Golde Cacao Turmeric with 1 oz of hot water, stir or whisk to combine.

- Sweeten with honey or maple syrup if you like!
- Top with Canyon Coffee (and a touch of foamed milk if you're feeling fancy)
Sip and enjoy!