My journey creating this brand started during the Covid pandemic in 2020, when I lost my sense of taste. My symptoms were mild and I felt better after a few days of rest, but my taste was nowhere to be found. This lasted for months. I visited multiple doctors and they all gave me the same answer: "This is a new disease. We haven't studied it long enough to know the lasting effects. We don't know when, or if, you'll get your taste back."

Around month three or four, I gave up and accepted it might never come back.

My diet completely changed during this time. There was no more eating for enjoyment since everything tasted the same, bland and metallic. I shifted toward whole foods, and the only thing I actually enjoyed drinking was water.

Slowly, about eight months after my positive test, my smell and taste began to return. It was gradual, but every single day I was grateful for the progress. As I started reintroducing foods I used to love, something felt off. That occasional Diet Coke I used to enjoy now tasted like pure artificial sweetener. The pastry at a family gathering burned my tongue from the sweetness. The occasional burger gave me a stomach ache.

That's when it hit me. After months of eating purely for nutrition, with no flavor to chase, my body had adjusted. The foods that once brought me joy were now hurting me.

So I decided to change my path for good.

I kept eating whole foods, learning more about what our bodies are actually supposed to run on rather than the processed junk lining supermarket shelves. Eventually I found myself searching for a replacement for the chewy gummy snacks I grew up eating. What I found on the shelves was discouraging. The average fruit snack was made from about 5% actual fruit, with the rest being syrups, gelatin, artificial flavors, processed sugar, gums and seed oils.

The ones claiming to be healthy were too chewy and sticky, more like fruit leather than anything else.

I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to make it myself.

After months of testing, the answer turned out to be the simplest one: just use fruit. Mother Nature's candy already has everything we crave. The soft clean chew, the perfect natural sweetness, the beautiful fresh aroma. Nothing needed to be added.

I bring you Chewly's. A real fruit snack gummy made from organic, non-GMO, regeneratively sourced fruit and nothing else.

You deserve a gummy that's actually just fruit. Now you have one.