I named Dang after my mother, who inspired me with a classical Thai recipe that included toasted coconut, the precursor to our first product line, our famous Dang Coconut Chips. Almost ten years ago, wanting to reconnect with my roots, I opened a pop-up Thai restaurant in San Francisco. We have since evolved into one of the fastest growing snack companies in the US, and we are proud to announce our intention of being the first truly Asian-American snack brand in the world.
As Thai-Chinese Americans living between NYC & Bangkok, my brother and I grew up eating differently. Raised between cultures, we want to honor and represent the flavors and ingredients of our Asian heritage through our snacks. We do this by combining familiar American snacks like Bars and Chips with our favorite Asian flavors and ingredients like Coconut, Thai Sticky-Rice, Mango, Sesame and Matcha.
In addition, we demand healthier options without compromise. Our snacks reflect this contemporary outlook on how to eat: we believe a plant-based whole food diet with no fake stuff is the key to a healthy life. We’re committed to offering low sugar snacking options, and also reducing sugar from our existing products; you’ll see those changes continue to rollout over the coming months.
Our 20 million strong Asian-American community is the most educated, highest income group in the US and deserves greater representation in grocery aisles, too. We’re proud to share our culture in order to create the first truly Asian-American snack brand, and it’s time to get louder with this message.
You’ll see this represented in Dang’s new look: updated packaging with nods to our Asian heritage. Our chip recipes, formulas, and ingredients have not changed, however, we’ve been listening to your feedback and we’re improving our Dang Bar formula to give you softer and more consistent bars. The new Dang is better than the old; we’re getting a bit better at fully showing ourselves.
- Vincent Kitirattragarn, Dang Foods Founder
