The real estate manager who quit her job to put a healthier latte in the grocery aisle

From caffeine jitters to a kitchen-counter blend

The origin story is unusually ordinary, which is part of why it works. Karen Danudjaja was working in commercial real estate in Vancouver, the kind of job that runs on coffee meetings. Several café lattes a day left her jittery and weighed down by the sugar that comes with them, and the alternative, the supplement aisle, felt clinical and intimidating. So she started making her own: a powdered blend of superfood ingredients you could stir into hot water and milk to get something that tasted like a treat but did not drink like dessert.

In 2017 she sold her first blends to a single coffee shop. The response was strong enough that, less than a year later, she left the real estate job to run Blume full time. As Canadian Grocer reported, the brand grew first through cafés and a few dozen small retailers, mostly in British Columbia, before it ever tried to win a grocery buyer.

“We do a ton of surveys, customer interviews and phone calls. We’re always listening, and that’s what’s been key to our success.”

That listening habit is the part worth stealing. Blume did not lead with a clinical health pitch. It led with flavour and packaging that looked good on a shelf, then let the lower-sugar, plant-based formula be the reason people came back. By the time it walked into a grocery buyer's office, it had real velocity data from cafés and independents to point at.

What they actually make

The latte blends: The core of the line is a family of powdered superfood latte blends in flavours like Turmeric, Matcha Coconut, Blue Lavender, Reishi Hot Cacao, Salted Caramel, and Vanilla Chai. You stir one to two teaspoons into hot water, add the milk of your choice, and you have a café-style latte. The brand positions the blends as plant-based, organic, low or no caffeine, and much lower in sugar than a typical coffee-shop drink.

The SuperBelly line: More recently Blume expanded beyond lattes into SuperBelly, a gut-health and hydration line of fruit-forward blends in flavours like Strawberry Hibiscus and Lemon Ginger. It is a sensible second act: same powdered format, same low-sugar promise, a different time of day and a different shelf.

The positioning: Across both lines the brand leans on the same identity, summed up in its tagline, A Kinder Way to Wellness. It describes itself as women-owned and proudly Canadian. The throughline is what the products leave out as much as what they put in.

How it compares to other Canadian wellness-drink brands

Blume sits in a crowded but distinct spot. It is more grocery-ready than most herbalist brands, more flavour-led than most supplement makers, and its packaging is built for a mainstream shelf rather than a health-store back wall. Here is where it lands next to other functional drink brands you might find nearby:

Categories and positioning reflect publicly listed information on each brand's site as of June 2026. Pricing intentionally omitted because it varies materially by retailer. See the live product links below.

The growth story operators should pay attention to

Blume is a useful example because it grew in the order most founder-led CPG brands should aim for. It bootstrapped for years, proved demand in cafés and independents, then landed grocery. The brand reached all of Whole Foods' Canadian locations, expanded into Loblaws-banner stores like Real Canadian Superstore, and later moved into Target in the US. Canadian Grocer reported it in more than 1,500 stores across Canada.

Only after that did Blume raise outside money. In 2022 it closed its first institutional round, an oversubscribed raise of about 2 million CAD that came together in roughly five weeks, as reported by BetaKit and Food in Canada. The cap table read like a who's-who of Canadian consumer brands, including Mike Fata of Manitoba Harvest and Judy Brooks of SmartSweets. That is the leverage a brand earns when it raises from a position of traction rather than need.

What the press is saying

Where to actually buy it

Each link below goes directly to a Blume collection or a live retailer listing, not just a homepage, so you can add a real item to your cart without hunting:

For the full range and the latest stockists, browse the bestsellers on itsblume.com or check current availability on Instacart Canada.

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

Blume is the kind of brand a founder can learn from before they ever buy a tin. A Vancouver real estate manager spotted a small, daily frustration, blended a fix on her own counter, proved it in cafés, and earned her way onto grocery shelves across the country before taking a dollar of outside money. The lattes are genuinely good. The playbook behind them is the better reason to pay attention. If you want to try it, the superfood latte blends are the simplest place to start.