Kiki Seed Crackers

"It all started in the COVID lockdown - the first one in Auckland," Sarah McLeay recalls, "Mum sent me her seed cracker recipe, handwritten in her recipe book."

But little would Sarah know that some mother-daughter bonding during a time of isolation would spark a seed cracker revolution. In just a few short years, Kiki Seed Cracker Mix, born from that handwritten recipe, has swept awards, impressed industry idols and attracted the allure of supermarket giants. At the 2023 Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards, Kiki flushed all four entries, with Sarah’s Chilli Cumin mix, Fennel Seed mix and Sea Salt mix all striking gold. Her Rosemary & Garlic mix won silver.

But in 2020, it was just another way to occupy time. Some of us got stuck into sourdough; others washed away the hours with watercolours. Sarah, meanwhile, packed jars full of no-nonsense goodness. "I started making them all the time," she says. “They were easy and delicious — a batch a day in lockdown."

The pace of this pastime presented an immediate and obvious challenge for Sarah. "The biggest faff was getting all the jars of seeds and ingredients out of the cupboard," she explains. “So I got out empty jars while making batches to make it easy for next time.”

This ingenuity inspired the ready mix model, designed for “busy, time-poor people who still want to have a hand in the food they eat and create.” The name itself, ‘kiki’, is slang for a social gathering where the purpose is to relax, gossip and have a good time.

As lockdown restrictions eased, Sarah's mixes had become a staple among friends and family. She had been gifting recipes, crackers, and batches to friends and decided that this jarred catharsis might be a business. It was when she was back amongst supermarket shelves that she discovered the opportunity.

"I saw how expensive gourmet seed crackers were and knew how easy they were to make," Sarah says. "I saw a gap in the market and started experimenting in the kitchen.”

With her daughter’s help, including some design nous for the first ever Kiki labels, Sarah's kitchen creations transformed into a brand. A Facebook post in November 2021 marked the birth of her business, where she first marketed the mixes as a perfect Christmas gift. As the year rounded out, orders started trickling in. Then they flowed.

For a year, Sarah carefully handcrafted each batch in her home kitchen, selling to friends and family, growing through word of mouth, all the time getting feedback. “It was just a side hustle," Sarah admits, who managed to juggle that first year with her full-time job.  But by mid-2022, she knew it was time to take the leap.

Scaling up production meant finding the right partner. This search led Sarah to Faine Alexander of Tio Pablo — a Mexican food company based in Auckland. This partnership seamlessly incorporated Sarah’s needs while retaining the handcrafted essence of her product. Importantly, Sarah could upscale her operation with the assurance that everything would still be measured, mixed, and hand-made.

With production secured, Sarah looked for other avenues to get her crackers out there.. "I started doing markets, not just the website," she says, starting with Smales Farm, then the Parnell Farmers Market, and others. Yet, she met a dead end when first reaching out to retailers until a familiar champion of our producers offered space on their shelves.

“Farro took me on quite quickly before I entered any competition,” explains Sarah, whose product also found a home on the shelves of Nadia Lim's specialty store in Arrowtown. “Little wins like that help you to feel confident that you’re on the right track.”  She reflects. “It's a long time before you see you're making any progress.”

Then came more than just little wins: gold medals at the 2023 NZ Artisan Awards for all four flavours, three of the same, in the same year, at the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards, plus a silver to complete the collection. "It is such an exciting moment," Sarah acknowledges. "Shiny stickers on products all over the place; you pay attention. I knew they gave the customer confidence to purchase.”

Bolstered by her successes and organic support from The Awards community, with even some judges purchasing the product, Sarah left her day job to focus solely on Kiki Seed Cracker Mix. "It’s still just me working," she says, "but I have learned to outsource where possible."

Sarah encourages customers to play with flavours and experiment; after all, it’s how she grew the brand from a single sea salt mix. And with four prosperous flavours pleasing palates across the country, more tinkering from Sarah will soon see fresh ideas grace shelves, stalls and her flourishing online store.

The product resonates with a health-conscious audience and has remained plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and allergen-friendly since the days of Mum’s recipe book. This asks the question as to what other niches Sarah’s crackers might pop up in soon.

 "I'm looking at specialty food stores, gift stores, hampers and gift markets," Sarah shares, but with customers coming into supermarkets and asking for Kiki, it’s the long and well-lit shelves of supermarkets that seem to beckon. Yet, Sarah remains committed to these roots that have helped make the brand successful. “I’m holding off going down the supermarket route,” she explains. “I want my product to stay special—be the sort of thing you would give to a fellow foodie.”

From lockdown boredom to show-stopping excellence, kitchen experimentation to national acclaim, Kiki Seed Cracker Mix is a nod to creativity, a willingness to take the plunge and the timeless importance of a quick kōrero with family and friends, of course, over food.

“I’m managing my time to make it all happen,” says Sarah. "I have a clear idea of where I'm going, what I'm doing, and how I'm going to get there. The most exciting thing is that the possibilities are endless.”

Fancy having a kiki with your friends? Visit their website here.