Javier Guillan 10/10/19 Javier Guillan 10/10/19

Vendor Spotlight: Space Fruit Truck 👽🍊 (Interview)

The past two years, Space Fruit Truck has consistently been one of our most highly requested vendors. Curious to learn more, we reached out to Space Fruit Co-Founder Bri Schott to hear their story. It's an interesting one 😊

Hey Bri! Who makes up the Space Fruit team?

Yeah, hi! My business partner Kelvin and I own the business together. We have a few consistent employees and one trailer, so most of the time there's about 3-4 of us that run around. When we travel to a festival like Backwoods, we bring some friends and volunteers so there's usually around 5-6 of us.

What made you and Kelvin want to start the company?

Kelvin's father and his roommate from college invented the recipe for Space Fruit decades ago. They started a facility in Florida to start producing it a little over 3 years ago, and the whole idea was to supply kids in Florida public and charter schools with Space Fruit. That's something that we're still doing that to this day. Kelvin and I have a huge passion for music and the festival scene, so we thought it would be a cool idea to combine that love with this really unique product that we had access to. It really just started out as a fun concept that has since taken off.

That's amazing. So unless you are an elementary schooler or a festival attendee... you can't get Space Fruit anywhere else in the world?

That's right! There's actually only one machine in the world that is capable of doing what we do to our oranges, and it's located in Southern Central Florida. All of our oranges come right off the local farms, they are frozen at extremely low temperatures at our factory so when our customers get it the fruit is still really fresh and nutritious. If you haven't had Space Fruit before, you can think of it as a healthy fruit version of Dippin' Dots.

What does your menu look like?

You can order a bowl of Space Fruit as it is, or you can get it in a smoothie... we've gotten a great response from the smoothies since we started doing those. We're also experimenting with a new product called "Cosmic Cold Brew," which is coffee brewed with our frozen citrus... so stay tuned for that 😊

And the price typically?

Anywhere from $5 to $9! Depending on what you order.

When did you start touring music festivals?

When we started out, we really didn't have any idea how to get into the festival touring scene. We literally started out by handing out free samples at gas stations off the side of the road in Southern Florida. That was around three years ago, and around two years ago we began seriously traveling to festivals around the Country. This last year was our busiest year yet, so we're just hoping to keep the ball rolling and continue growing!

It's crazy that in only two years time you've been able to grow such a loyal fanbase. Why do you think people have become so attached to the brand?

It's really humbling because like I said, we started out literally begging people to try free samples at gas stations. It's hard to say, but I think being real with people, being open, and focusing on the community over the business agenda has been really important for us. Your customers can tell if you're honest, genuine, and if you care, so we try to be as authentic as possible. On top of that, having a unique product has helped us too. It took a lot of people saying "no, what the heck is that!" in order to get one or two people to say yes, but over time that is what's gotten us to where we are today. If Kelvin were here, he would agree that the free samples have been really crucial.

How would you describe the atmosphere at Backwoods?

We absolutely love it. Our first year was 2018. We got hit with a lot of rain that year, but that's partially what made us fall in love with the community. Seeing everyone smiling, and enjoying themselves through it all made us realize how amazing the Backwoods community is. Everyone is super friendly and full of good vibes, it's just like a big family. The festival is also a very eclectic: there's a wide variety of music, people, and art, so diversity is something that runs deep at Backwoods. There's a lot of curiosity and discovery and I think that fits well with our story and product.

Last question: is there anything else you would like to say to your friends at Backwoods?

Oh man, just thank you from all of us. It's so humbling and so rewarding to feel the love every year. We are so grateful for anyone who's even simply tried a free sample of Space Fruit. We hope to keep coming back with more fruit for people to enjoy.

We hope to see you again at Backwoods 2020!

Thanks so much! We can't wait to be back.