Hebel & Co
| Private company | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Confectionery |
| Founded 📆 | June 2017[1] |
| Founder 👔 | Scott Hebel & Katie Gurgin |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Scott Hebel & Katie Gurvin |
| Products 📟 | Halva |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | Hebel & Co |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Hebel & Co is an American halva company that was founded in 2017 by husband and wife Scott Hebel and Katie Gurvin. Their halva is handmade in Los Angeles, California.[2], where the company is based.
Overview[edit]
Hebel & Co is only one of two companies making halva in the United States, and the only company to make organic sesame-based halvah outside Israel. The halva is made with Soom organic tahini from Israel which uses the prized humera variety of sesame seeds from Ethiopia.[1]
About[edit]
The company was founded in June 2017, by Katie Gurvin and her husband Scott Hebel, who is an Israeli American from New Jersey of Austrian Jewish, Bukharian, and Polish Jewish descent. Gurvin was not familiar with halva and was originally from the Midwest, formerly a Catholic, and the director of marketing and sales manager for the Brentwood outpost of Farmshop, a California-based chain of restaurant-markets. Hebel worked in the tech industry for 20 years as a software engineer, until retired in 2017 to focus on the halva startup full time.[1]
Hebel was frustrated by the halva commonly available in the United States, and inspired by his childhood to start making halva, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “Every Saturday morning when I was a kid, my dad bought bagels and halvah, it was our version of weekend waffles.” As he developed a passion for food, Hebel wanted a better version of his childhood treat than the “industrially produced stuff I mostly ate growing up.”[1]
“I just wanted better halva than I was able to get here in the States, I wanted good halva, the kind that hits you over the head with that beautiful tahini flavor, that melted in your mouth, but only after giving way to that slightest bit of bite, the strands, the molecular miracle that is halva. It’s surprisingly difficult to make good halva. Thus I spent my free time, over the duration of many years, reading the most obscure science journals—often in other languages—and old Arabic texts (Annals of the Caliphs Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraqs Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook), learning about hygroscopicity, the Maillard reaction, sugar molecule breakdown, the difference between all the various types of sugars, inversions, emulsions, the roots and barks of trees, etc. Just what the hell was going on with this seemingly simple food! It was quite an adventure, and yes I became obsessed. No sleep obsessed."[3] — Scott Hebel, Co-founder of Hebel & Co
For 7 years Hebel traveled to research sesame halva throughout the Levant in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey as well as in India, where he sampled varieties of Indian halva that were made without sesame. He tried recipes form various cookbooks and none yielded the results he desired. He finally adapted a recipe from an obscure text from the Middle Ages, and in June 2017 Hebel and Gurvin founded Hebel & Co. Their products were first sold weekly at the Hollywood Farmer's Market and also at Farmshop. In 2018 Erewhon Market and Gelson's began carrying their halva.[1]
Their halva is sold at Zingerman's Deli[4], Zabar's, Farmshop[5], as well as at Erewhon Market, Bristol Farms, Gelson's, and Whole Foods Market stores in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho[6][7]
Products[edit]
As of July 2021, Hebel & Co offers the following flavors of organic halva:
| Flavors |
|---|
| Vanilla[5] |
| Double Chocolate |
| Chocolate Chunk |
| Pistachio Nigella |
| Superseed |
Several former flavors which have since been discontinued include Hot Cocoa, Chocolate Hazelnut, Chocolate Hazelnut Potato Chip, and Deglet Noor Date Walnut. March 16, 2018
Notes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Saltsman, Amelia (March 16, 2018). "The addictive joy of the sesame confection halvah, made in Los Angeles". LA Times. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ "Hebel & Co Halva". Florence & Isabelle. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ Lurie, Joshua. "Hebel & Co Halva (Food of the Week)". FoodGPS. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ "MEET THE MAKER: HEBEL & CO FREE HALVA TASTING". Zingerman’s Deli. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Hebel & Co Vanilla Halva". Farmshop. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ "Hebel & Co Vanilla Halva". Whole Foods Market. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ↑ "Store Locator". Hebel & Co. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
External links[edit]
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