Allergen Friendly Food Start-up Adds Woodbury, Middletown

Interest in Bare Life continues to grow with several new and exciting updates and events for the West Hartford start-up. Founder Ali Lazowski and her team will be hitting the road this fall for two out-of-state allergen-friendly food festivals, and Bare Life products are now available in two additional Connecticut locations.

Lazowski launched the company after being diagnosed her junior year of college with cancer and Lyme disease, which caused her to change her diet and inspired her to explore her love of food. She wanted something that was gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, organic, non-gmo, soy free, corn free, vegan, plant based and kosher pareve and would satisfy her sweet tooth. After experimenting in the kitchen, she developed a crave-worthy and innovative allergen-friendly coconut hot cocoa mix.

This summer, Bare Life has added two new locations where consumers can find and buy the delicious product: New Morning Market in Woodbury and Klekolo World Coffee in Middletown.

Bare Life Coconut Hot Cocoa can also be found in ShopRite in Canton, The Crown Market in West Hartford, Essential Health in West Hartford, Omar Coffee in Newington, CT Farm Fresh Express in East Haddam, and Liquid Nirvana in Avon and Glastonbury. Bare Life hot cocoa mix is also available for purchase online on their website, www.eatbarelife.com.

Later this month, Bare Life will also be a featured exhibitor at the upcoming Nourished Festival in Secaucus, New Jersey and at the Gluten Free New England Expo in Boston, the premier gluten free resource for the region. The Nourished Festival will take place on October 5-6 and the Gluten Free Expo will take place on Sunday, October 27.

Bare Life products are sustainably sourced and locally made in a gluten-free facility. Ingredients in the coconut hot cocoa mix 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.

“The wonderful growth and popularity of our hot cocoa mix has been fantastic. It’s inspiring to connect with people, hear their stories and share delicious food, that people living with allergies and sensitivities, like me, can eat and enjoy,” Lazowski said.

Since the company was established in 2017, Lazowski has been featured on CT Live on NBC Connecticut, Better Connecticut on WSFB, and was recognized as one of the notable “40 Under Forty” in 2018 by the Hartford Business Journal.

In addition to the increasingly popular hot cocoa mix, Lazowski also provides a variety of allergen-friendly recipes on the Bare Life website. The recipes feature an array of foods - from pancakes to smoothie bowls, French toast to fudgesicles. Lazowski developed the allergen-friendly recipes with the goal to make them super convenient and fun to make - and of course, delicious! These crave-worthy recipes and more can be found on their website www.eatbarelife.com.

Statistics show that many Americans live with chronic illnesses and food-related allergies:

• 133 million Americans, or 40% of the population, live with chronic illness, and even more are affected by them
• 15 million Americans have food allergies
• 22% of the American population have food sensitivities, tied for the highest food sensitivity rate in the world

For more information about Bare Life and details on local retail stores, visit www.eatbarelife.com/.