Give us a little background on yourselves and how the brand came about?

We are passionate surfers, chefs, travellers and yogi’s who are grounded and immersed in the present beauty of the natural world. We are brothers, born four years apart and raised in the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa. Gavin, a passionate advertising photographer and Warren, a creative jewellery designer and art director.

So, what led you did you divert your time from your busy professional lives to create a product like Wazoogles?

Our vibrant passion is the product of adversity. While leading an active lifestyle in Cape Town, Warren constantly battled with his immune system; colds and the flu often forced him to sit at home while his mates tortured him with stories of epic waves and stand-up barrels. When western medicine failed and eastern medicine prevailed, he realised how vital food actually is to a healthy body and mind. After thousands of hours of reading, self-study and sharing good food with family and friends, Warren slowly, but naturally embraced a plant-based, whole foods lifestyle with an emphasis on superfoods and Chinese medicinal super herbs.

From visiting his GP every 6 weeks, Warren has not seen his face in almost 5 years, neither has he taken any pharmaceuticals. He doesn’t get sick anymore, he has constant energy, sleeps like a baby and always has a HUGE smile on his face. The proof was in the eating and life tasted amazing. Warren then converted Gavin to the world of superfoods and plant-based living after he experienced similar challenges with his immune system whilst battling an eight year fight against chronic fatigue syndrome.

Sick and tired of witnessing large food companies pull the wool over consumer’s eyes, we decided to develop our own product. Sourcing from the smallest and most ethical farms around the globe, the foods sourced for this product are some of the most nutrient dense foods on this planet. As two passionate brothers, we have developed something that is packed with all the essential minerals and nutrients, a product that not only makes us feel amazing, but is absolutely delicious, convenient and helps us to navigate this fast paced world with a healthy kick.

Who came up with the name Wazoogles? We would also love to know what the concept behind your unicorn logo and funky packaging…

As a nickname, Warren came up with the name Wazoogles. He was just having fun with his passion project and wanted to create something amazing, without having to take it all too seriously, hence Wazoogles Superfood was born.

The unicorn logo was the brainchild of our illustrator, Jade Klara, a long time friend and one of the most talented creatives in the country. Respecting Jade’s awesome creative mind, we gave her a blank canvas to work with. We illustrated to Jade, that Wazoogles superfoods are the most magical, unbelievably nutrient dense foods on this planet, affording the human body with energy, and nutrition in an almost magical way. She responded with a unicorn, the most perfect emotive icon to represent these magical foods.

We have tried to do everything in-house and the packaging is no exception. As a qualified art director and designer, Warren utilised his creative background and designed the packaging himself. We wanted something bold, colourful and fun, turning the health product industry on its head, by thinking outside the box and allowing our passion to effortlessly shine through our packaging. Our beautiful wallpaper design is inspired by and pays respect to the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilisations that revered these magical foods as their most valuable food sources, due to their powerful healing properties.

Can you tell us a bit about  ‘superfoods’?

Superfoods are the most nutrient dense plant-based foods on the planet, that are easily digestible and absorbable by the human body, often making the other foods we eat pale in comparison when compared side-by-side for their nutrient and mineral properties. All of Wazoogles superfoods are certified organic and we place a strong emphasis ensuring we source from farms around the globe that practice fairtrade ethics.

Why should we be choosing to add superfoods to our diet?

Superfoods are packed with many of the essential minerals and nutrients that are by large lacking in the in-organic mass produced agricultural food system of today. And as such, they satiate the body at a cellular level. We feel strongly that it’s time the mass produced processed food companies of today are shown up for who they are and what they do, and the only way to get that job done is to educate the public and at the same time offer them real health products, where the front of the packaging is as honest as the back, and that is what we are striving to do.

How would you describe your lifestyle / your food and lifestyle philosophy?

It’s simple, it really is. We believe fad diets and big companies have totally complicated what should be a simple and healthy diet. There is a huge difference between setting your goal to lose weight as opposed to obtaining a healthy body. We simply bring it all back to the basics. We live a predominately plant-based diet, placing an emphasis on nutrient density without ever compromising on taste. We keep active, surf when we can and pursue our passions. We believe balance is the key to everything, and one should never stray too far in either direction. If your great grandparents wouldn’t recognise it as food, it probably isn’t. Stop following fad diets in the desperate hope that you can achieve your goal in 5 minutes. There are no shortcuts in life and certainly not in nature. Treat those as you wish to be treated, eat unprocessed whole foods from the earth, move daily and drink lots of water. Your body and this planet will smile upon you for all of it.

Can you give our readers 5 easy tips on how to kickstart a change to a healthier lifestyle?

Absolutely!

• Start by reading the ingredients of all the food products you buy, if you can’t pronounce it, it probably isn’t healthy for you. If it has a letter (usually E) followed by a few numbers eg: E5104, don’t eat it – it’s not really food, it’s simply a food-like by-product, and it surely isn’t good for you.
• Try cutting down or out processed foods (eg: fast food or pre packaged non fresh food), sugar, wheat and dairy from your diet. Do this for 2-3 months and then start slowly introducing them back into your diet and notice how your body feels when you do this. At the same time increase plant-based foods like fruits and vegetables into your diet, if it comes from nature, it’s probably packed with the good stuff. PS: your new favourite colour should be green!
• Shortly following point two, listen to your body! Your body is more intelligent than you will ever be able to comprehend. Stop ignoring symptoms of deeper cause or repressing these warning signals with medication. If your body feels off, it is communicating with you and you ought to listen to it.
• These days we are stuck at desks, sitting under fluorescent lights for minimum eight hours a day. We aren’t designed to do this and research has shown it lowers our life span. Try do some exercise every day, if you don’t have time take the stairs on all your meetings, by the end of the year your body will be thanking you for this.
• Don’t take life too seriously. Don’t sweat the small stuff, life’s too short. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Be grateful for all the good in your life, lead with your heart, and act with out reaction. Live your life by these basic simple, and easy principles, and your positive actions will literally manifest a better environment around you.
• We know you asked for five tips, but this one’s on the house… start every day with a smoothie!

On that note….Do you guys have a favourite smoothie combo?

Wow… that’s the toughest question so far! I wouldn’t say we have an exclusive favourite, but our current top-spot holder is:

• 1-2 servings of Wazoogles Unicorn Berry flavour (launching soon and packed with the most nutrient dense and anti-oxidant rich deep purple plants on this planet).
• half a frozen avo.
• half to one whole frozen banana.
• a handful of frozen blue berries.
• 1 medjool date.
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) tahini (sesame seed paste)
• A handful of fresh green leaves (kale, baby spinach, watercress, swiss chard etc. De-stem the kale and chard).
• Approx 300 ml spring water or almond milk

Optional: Top with crunchy cacao nibs, dried mulberries and activated buckwheat. Blend together drink with a straw and eat the crunchy bits with a spoon… or simply guzzle the whole thing down!

Quickfire Questions

Best foodie destination… Hawaii. (Ed’s note: Are you guys sure thats for the food and not the waves?)

You can only eat one fruit for the rest of your life, what is it…?

Gotta be watermelon. Gotta be living in the tropics!

Favourite Saturday morning ritual…

• One litre of room temperature lemon (and possibly cayenne) water.
• A cup or more of our favourite tea combo, which is currently an energising blend of organic yerba mate tea brewed with some raw wild honey, and mixed with a tablespoon or two of chia seeds.
• Followed by a long and energizing yoga class or a surf if the waves are cooking.
• Finished off with one of our favourite Wazoogles smoothies with all the toppings one could think of, or a summery Wazoogles smoothie berry bowl with fresh slices grapefruit segments, almonds, goji’s and toasted coconut.

If you could read anyone’s diary, whose would it be?

Probably the editor of Crush Mag… otherwise how else would we know what foods are trending in this beautiful city? (Ed’s note: haha!)

To read more and to order online visit wazoogles.com | Facebook | Instagram