What started as a joke in high school became a healthy snack brand for Louis Deas. The Atlanta native created Try Deas, which consists of pecans, almonds, and cashews, and can serve as the perfect snack for you and your family to enjoy. Whether it’s their Red Velvet Cake Cashews, Cinnamon Sugar Cashews, Honey Roasted Almonds, or any of their other flavors, you’ll fall in love if you’re a fan of a healthy snack.
Louis Deas sat down with rolling out to share the story behind Try Deas, the health benefits, and staying competitive with other brands in the snack market.
Where did the idea for this product come from?
I would always hear “These nuts” jokes in high school. Deas is my actual last name, so naturally with that name you’re going to hear jokes. My classmate would walk through the halls saying, “Deas nuts.” Where I work, we have an entrepreneurship segment. In order to learn how to write about our program, I went to start a marketing program. In that space between being awake and asleep, I believe that God dropped it on my heart to make Try Deas and there’s just so much joy in the product. That’s why we built it.
I come from a really big family. I’m the youngest out of 120 grandkids, and my dad’s the youngest of 11 kids. Our grandparents were sharecroppers in rural South Carolina, so naturally with the big family and being a sharecropper all your life, you don’t normally have a whole lot of money, but they did have access to some pecans. They’d box up some pecans and ship them down to Atlanta, and myself, my dad, and my brother would crack nuts over the trash can. That feeling of togetherness, that love, and that joy is something that I love about my childhood and love about my family, and it’s something I want to share with the world. It’s a funny background story with the name with my high school classmates, with my family, and it just brings joy to other people. Not only is the name funny, but it’s witty, it’s innovative, and that’s what you’re trying to be.
What flavors do you have?
We’ve got fun flavors like the Red Velvet Cake, Raspberry Spice, and Cinnamon Sugar, and we’re coming out with the Hot Lemon Pepper Trio, which is going to take the city by storm.
What are the health benefits of these snacks?
If you are going for a jog, if you’re out, if you’re on a treadmill, if you have just got done lifting weights, it’s a great way to not quench–because that’s for thirst–but to satiate your appetite. It’s just a good pick me up, and it can hold you over. We also sell almonds, and cashews are the number one selling nuts. They’re really good for your body and are good for your tastebuds.
How do you stay competitive with other snack brands in the market?
The great thing is that we are rock stars and superstars all by ourselves. We are proudly Georgia-grown and Atlanta-based, and the South has always had something to say, and we’ve still got something to say. There’s something special about this state. There’s something especially special about this city. With that, there are three key things that we like to put in the center: conversation, culture, and community. We are gathering people from different walks of life. We’re gathering people who share the same values that we have. The other barns have stardom, which is great, but we’re leading with our values. We know that our community is behind us. We know that beautiful things come from great conversations, and culture is a culmination of all those different things. We’re right there in the intersection, and we’re facilitating those conversations.
