Years before Matt Weiss started his own snack brand, he spent a lot of time with his great grandmother.

Helen owned a natural food store in Michigan—as Matt tells it—“before kale was cool.” She promoted whole-food eating and limited food waste, two ideas that remained in Matt’s mind decades later when he started RIND, a dehydrated fruit snack company with the tagline, “keep it real, eat the peel.”

Like many other founders whose snacks grace the airfare marketplace—including Ashley Stevens from Earthy Krunchy Snacks and or Kate Flynn from Sun & Swell—Matt started his career in the corporate world. 

After working in the finance arena in New York City for 20 years, Matt began scratching his entrepreneurial itch, spending time on his young snack company as a side hustle.

One day, his wife, a practical partner and seasoned attorney, came to see him operate at a tradeshow and said, “You’ve got to do this.”

“The brand was at a point that was very exciting, there was traction in the market, and I would have regretted it if I didn’t take my shot,” Matt told podcaster and marketing expert Kristi Bridges.

And so, he took it.

Why we like RIND

RIND prides itself on two pillars: sustainability and functionality.

On the sustainable side, RIND uses all parts of the fruit in its snacks, noting that fruit and vegetable waste makes up 40 percent of all food waste in the United States each year.

This method also relates to functionality. Keeping the skin or rind rather than peeling it preserves much of the fruit’s fiber and vitamins. 

And most RIND snacks satisfy an airfare non-negotiable—no added sugars, oils, or anything that isn’t a whole food ingredient. This is a rarity in the chip and crisp space.

Many snack makers try substituting regular potato chips with carrots, sweet potatoes or beets to create a “healthier” option. And lest we forget that potatoes—despite being Frankensteined into tots, fries, and hash browns—are still vegetables, making potato chips and “veggie chips” synonymous. But we digress.

Remember that potatoes and corn in their whole form are both legitimate, healthful foods. However, potato or corn chips are unhealthy because of the oils they are fried in and the syrups, sugars and nectars added along the way.

Veggie chips from most snack companies are fried in oil, and most fruit chips are covered in sugar, oil, or both. Not so for our new snack: RIND Coconut Crisps.

In our next post, we’ll discuss the health of coconuts and the big difference between coconut oil, milk, and meat like crisps or shreds. 

Until then, help us welcome Matt and the RIND team—and their awesome Coconut Crisps—by trying them for yourself. 

RIND Snacks Coconut Crisps

These have the true crispness announced in their name, and we love eating them alongside other fresh, sweet fruit to get a mixture of fat, sugar, crunch and chew.

RIND calls these “crunchy and keto-friendly” and notes that it shaves whole coconuts into crispy smiles to maximize flavor and nutritional power. Plus, coconuts are packed with healthy fats and essential minerals, including iron, copper and manganese and selenium.