Bare Life’s Hot Cocoa Mix Added at ShopRite Canton

Local start-up Bare Life’s first product - an innovative instant hot cocoa that is organic, non-GMO, dairy free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, kosher, paleo, and vegan – is now on sale at ShopRite of Canton.

Founder Ali Lazowski will be leading a special “community tasting” on Sunday, December 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at ShopRite, 110 Albany Turnpike, in The Shoppes at Farmington Valley. The allergen-friendly food startup began with a crowdfunding campaign just a year ago, and launched retail sales this fall. Bare Life was also recently featured on WFSB’s Better Connecticut program.

“I’m thrilled that ShopRite of Canton is making my Bare Life hot cocoa mix available, and I greatly appreciate the Joseph Family’s commitment to high quality products and to their customers,” said Lazowski. “It is a wonderful family-operated business, with a tremendous commitment to the local community.”

The ShopRite of Canton is owned and operated by Joseph Family Markets, a locally-owned business founded in 2010 by Chuck and Debbie Joseph. The mission of Joseph Family Markets is to positively impact its associates, customers and community while upholding its core values of integrity, self-realization, family, service, enjoyment and sustainability.

Lazowski, of West Hartford, began conceiving of her business in a doctor’s office – many doctor’s offices, in fact. It was her simultaneous battles with cancer and Lyme disease that inspired her to explore her love of food and launch a business. She began by creating Bare Life's coconut hot cocoa mix — organic, Kosher, vegan, gluten free, Paleo and produced locally — and by writing Bare Life's first sweets-centric cookbook, coming in Spring 2019.

Bare Life products are sustainably sourced and locally-made in a gluten-free facility. Ingredients in the coconut hot cocoa mix, Bare Life’s inaugural product, include organic cacao powder, organic coconut sugar, organic coconut milk, organic ground vanilla and Himalayan salt. Bare Life is also committed to responsible sourcing, from sustainable and organic farms that are either fair-trade certified or provide fair wages and working conditions in line with the fair-trade philosophy. Bare Life’s hot cocoa’s glass packaging, not only keeps food safe from chemicals like BPA, found in plastics, but it is also recyclable.

More information about Bare Life is available online at www.eatbarelife.com.