About Us

The Hard Bar Research Lab

Our story starts in the French Alps. Two friends, living, exploring and playing in the mountains around Chamonix and that made for hungry work. We couldn’t find anything that we could eat, day-in day-out, year-round, that actually worked. And after a season of guiding clients up the Mont Blanc and climbing and skiing every storied spot in Chamonix, we started making something that we could eat all the time. Production was pretty low tech. We used our ice axe hammers in the kitchen to crush spices. We kept the ingredients simple.  And our early recipes tasted fantastic, didn’t freeze in the cold, and had a great energy profile.

We started selling these homemade bars, wrapped in tin foil, to our friends because they asked us to. We figured we might be able to raise a bit of cash for a good cause along the way. By the end of that first winter, our kitchen was a mini factory, and we knew we needed to find another way forward. 

The Original Hard Bar

Part of the reason for transitioning out of the kitchen and into a fully fledged business was that if it worked, we could be a force for good on a more sustainable basis. It’s been instrumental in how we’ve operated since then. From choosing our factory partners, to working with specific suppliers and co-operatives, to using organic ingredients, to buying paper-based packaging tape with biodegradable adhesives, even though we get offered plastic tape for free.

We try at every step of the way to ensure that our product and supply chain either does some good to our planet in it’s own right or makes the most minimal impact possible. It’s why we are planting a tree for every bar sold. Another bonus is that working with great farmers and growers means that our Hard Bars taste even better than they did when we made them at home.

We’ve also been supported by an enormous group of friends right from the start. Everyone involved along the way has shared our vision of creating a business which is a force for good. From photographers, website gurus, athletes, family, friends, and especially our customers, people have been drawn together to create something which stands a chance of making a difference and benefiting the wider community that we are all apart of.