VoyageAustin featured BEEST Snacks in its Hidden Gems Series, sitting down with co-founder Lucas Prado for a long-form conversation about the brand's origins, the move from Bolivia to Austin, and what it took to build a high-protein snack that actually crunches.
The piece traces BEEST from a family recipe in Bolivia, to a university thesis on healthy snacks industrialization, to a home-kitchen operation that Lucas and Nicole Ruiz scaled across the country before COVID hit. It covers the moment that stuck with the founders: walking in on a diabetic family member quietly hiding a bag of chips because there was nothing on the market she could have.
VoyageAustin also covers the decision to relocate to Austin in July 2023 after a pivotal trip to Natural Products Expo West, the year-long search for a US co-manufacturer, and the candid retailer feedback that pushed BEEST back to the kitchen. The product that worked in Bolivia did not translate to the US shelf, so the founders iterated for months until they landed on the chip-like format that became BEEST Snacks Crunchy Beef Jerky Chips, BEEST Snacks Crunchy Pork Jerky Chips, and the Charcuterie Trail Mix.
The interview also touches on recent milestones: winning the 2026 KeHE Trend Finder Golden Ticket, being named to the RangeMe Top 50 Food and Beverage list, and the patent BEEST filed on both the process and the product. The conversation closes with where to find BEEST in Austin today: Wheatsville Co-op, Royal Blue Grocery, and Parker and Scott.
We are grateful to VoyageAustin for the feature and for the chance to share the full story behind BEEST.