Amza Superfoods: First Everyday Tibetan Food Brand in the U.S.
For the 263rd feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with Amza Superfoods and Founder, Jolma Ren. Amza Superfoods bridges ancient Tibetan nutrition with modern convenience through nutrient-dense, clean-label, and sustainable foods. Handcrafted in Portland, Oregon, we are the only US brand pioneering a new functional wellness category utilizing climate-resilient, Pacific Northwest-grown whole grains, specifically heirloom Purple Karma Barley, organic Hazelnuts and Flaxseeds.
Our products feature NO added sugar and are rich in fiber, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids, offering a premium global flavor profile for modern wellness consumers.
OUR CURRENT LINEUP INCLUDES:
🏆 Purple Karma Barley Tsamba Bites (Award-winning functional energy bites)
🥣 No-Cook Purple Barley Breakfast Bowls
– Small-batch Toasted Flaxseed Butters
– Heirloom Purple and Black Barleys as whole-grain rice alternatives
WHAT SETS US APART:
✔️ First-to-market cultural food brand rooted in sustainability
✔️ Organic, 100% natural, no added sugar or additives
✔️ High in fiber, omega-3s, and plant-based protein
✔️ Shelf-stable and designed for the modern wellness consumers
We’re building a category at the intersection of climate-smart agriculture, cultural storytelling, and nutrient-rich convenience.
"Together Talks" feature 263: Amza Superfoods presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
What separates you from your competition? What have been the biggest challenges? Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
What led to your recent rebrand decision? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
Amza Superfoods began with something very personal: food.
I grew up in the Amdo region of Tibet, where food was never just about eating. It was about community, nourishment, family, and making the most of what the land could provide. Some of the foods I grew up with were simple—colored grains, seeds, dairy, greens—but they were deeply nourishing and sustaining.
When I moved to the United States, I began to see those foods differently. I realized that many of the ingredients and food traditions that had nourished my community for centuries could have a meaningful place in modern American life. But they were largely unknown here.
That question stayed with me: What if we could take these ancient foods and make them inviting and relevant to a new generation—without losing what makes them special?
That became the beginning of Amza Superfoods.
I started drafting a memoir cookbook, experimenting with traditional ingredients that felt true to where I came from but also fit naturally into the way people eat today. We began with turning Tibetan staples into snacks and no-cook breakfast foods, and over time the vision grew.Today, Amza Superfoods is reimagining ancient Tibetan nutrition through modern foods made with climate-resilient ingredients such as heirloom purple barley, flaxseed, and Oregon hazelnuts.
What I didn't fully understand when I started was that I wasn't simply creating products. I was creating a bridge—between an ancient food tradition and a modern food culture, between the foods that have sustained Tibetan communities for centuries and those we may need in the future.
That is what continues to excite me about Amza. We are asking what wisdom from the past can help nourish the future.
What separates you from your competition?
I think what separates Amza is that we sit at the intersection of culture, nutrition, agriculture, and deliciousness.
We are rooted in a Tibetan food tradition that has nourished people for generations, but we are not trying to simply recreate traditional foods or put an old story into a new package. We are asking how that wisdom can evolve and remain relevant to how people eat today.
Our ingredients are also an important part of that story. We seek out foods with a future—not just ingredients that happen to be fashionable today. Heirloom purple barley, flaxseed, and other climate-resilient crops give us an opportunity to create delicious foods while helping build demand for crops that can play a role in a more resilient food system.
And then there is taste. That may be the most important part.
We can tell people about Tibetan food traditions, ancient grains, nutrition, or climate resilience, but ultimately, the food has to make someone say, “Wow, this tastes amazing.” That is the moment when a story becomes an experience.
So I don't think of Amza as simply bringing Tibetan food to America. We are building a bridge between cultures and generations—taking something deeply rooted in where I come from and turning it into something people can discover, enjoy, and make part of their own lives.
That combination of cultural meaning, nutritional value, agricultural resilience, and genuine tastiness is what makes Amza uniquely Amza.
What have been the biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to grow something without losing the soul of what made me want to build it in the first place.
When you are creating something new, especially something deeply rooted in a food tradition that is not yet familiar to most people, you spend a lot of time opening doors. You have to explain, educate, experiment, adapt, and keep moving forward even when there isn't an established path to follow.
But as Amza has grown, the question has changed. It is no longer only, “Can we build this?” It is also, “How do we scale this thoughtfully?”
Growth brings its own kind of complexity. There are more customers to serve, more systems to build, more daily decisions to make, and more people depending on those decisions. I've had to learn when to hold on tightly to what matters and when to let go of how things have always been done.
That has probably been one of my greatest lessons as an entrepreneur: scaling a company also means scaling yourself.
I've had to become more comfortable with uncertainty, more willing to ask for help, and more trusting of the process. I've learned that I don't need to have all the answers before taking the next step. I need to stay clear about what matters most and keep learning along the way.
For me, the challenge—and the privilege—is to build a company that can become much bigger than it is today without becoming disconnected from the values, food traditions, and sense of purpose that gave it life in the first place.
That is something I think about constantly.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
Our goal for the next phase is measured growth.
We've spent the past several years proving the concept, learning from our customers, building our product line, and building the infrastructure to grow. Now, we want to grow thoughtfully—adding a few new products while making our existing products easier for more people to discover and enjoy.
We're exploring two additional products, including a pea-based snack inspired by something I grew up eating. I love that possibility because it brings us back to the same question that started Amza: What foods from my own food traditions might have a place in people's lives today?
At the same time, we want to deepen our online business, presence on Amazon, and expand into a select number of natural grocery stores. We'll continue showing up at farmers markets and other community events, too, because that's where we hear directly from people—and where some of the most joyful moments of building Amza superfoods happen.
I'm less interested in growing for the sake of being bigger than I’m in building a strong foundation for the next chapter.
For me, success in this next phase means more people discovering these foods, more farmers having markets for resilient crops, and Amza becoming strong enough to carry this vision much further.
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
What I think about most is how we grow.
I want Amza to grow in a steady, meaningful way—sourcing responsibly, supporting and creating new opportunities for local farmers, keeping our premium products accessible, and building a sustainable business.
As we grow, I’m also very aware that our infrastructure needs to stay aligned with product demand. Production capacity, equipment, facilities, people, and sales all need to grow together. If one piece gets too far ahead of the others, it can put unnecessary pressure on the business.
So I’m trying to be thoughtful about the pace. I don’t want to grow simply because we can. I want to grow in a way that strengthens the company and lets us keep doing things well.
For me, the transition is really about finding that balance: building the capacity to go farther while staying true to how we want to get there.
That’s the kind of growth I believe in.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
I’ve learned that being an entrepreneur is really an education in how much you don’t know—and how much you can learn along the way.
When I started Amza, I knew about food. I did not know nearly enough about food manufacturing, regulations, labeling, or, especially, food safety. The first couple of years involved a lot of learning, asking questions, finding people who knew more than I did, and being willing to ask for help. I’ve learned that asking for help isn’t a weakness. It’s part of building something well.
I’ve also learned to let some things go, trust my instincts, and make decisions even when I don’t have all the information I’d like. You learn, you make the best decision you can, and then you keep going.
But what has surprised me most is how much I’ve learned about my own cultural food through building Amza.
The deeper I’ve gone into the foods I grew up eating, the more I’ve discovered about their history, their nutritional value, and the ways they have sustained people for generations. Purple barley, flaxseed oil, even the bread I grew up eating—foods that once felt completely ordinary to me—now look very different.
In some ways, building Amza has allowed me to see my own food culture with new eyes. Foods that were simply part of everyday life for me are now recognized by many people as “superfoods.”
What led to your recent rebrand decision?
The rebrand really began with a simple realization: the old branding no longer captured the breadth of the vision for Amza. In fact, it never really had.
Amza was accepted by the Downtown Portland farmers market very quickly, before we were really ready. We needed packaging, so we moved fast—kraft brown bags, a label, and a logo that was essentially a two-hour logo. It got us into the market and helped us start selling, but it was never meant to be the brand identity we would grow into.
And, as a designer, I have higher standards than I probably should. 😊
But the bigger issue was the messaging. We kept hearing the same question over and over: “What’s tsamba?” After answering that question about a hundred times, I realized we needed to make the brand do more of that work for us.
As Amza evolved, I also realized that the vision was much bigger than one traditional food or one product. We were building a modern food brand rooted in ancient Tibetan nutrition, and the identity needed to communicate that breadth—to make the unfamiliar inviting and give people more doors into Amza.
And then there was the visual side. I wanted a gorgeous design that represents a gorgeous culture. Tibetan culture has so much beauty, richness, color, and depth, and I wanted our packaging to reflect that while still feeling modern and welcoming on an American grocery shelf.
So the rebrand wasn't simply about making Amza look better. It was about bringing the visual identity, messaging, cultural story, and larger vision into alignment.
The new brand feels much more like the Amza I see today—and the Amza I believe we're becoming.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
What I appreciate most is the freedom to create something I truly believe in.
There is nothing quite like watching someone taste an Amza product for the first time and hearing, “Wow.” That moment means so much to me because it tells me that something I grew up with can become something new in someone else’s life.
I also love connecting with people and sharing my story. Every conversation teaches me something, and sometimes it leads to discovering another piece of the history or nutrition behind the foods I grew up eating. In many ways, building Amza has deepened my own relationship with my food culture.
I love seeing Amza on a shelf, too. There is something very satisfying about taking an idea, turning it into a real product, and then seeing it sitting there where someone might discover it.
And I appreciate that entrepreneurship gives me the freedom to make decisions about food based on what I believe matters—not just whether something is tasty, but whether it can be clean, nourishing, good for people, and better for the planet. It also gives us the opportunity to create new markets and opportunities for farmers growing the kinds of crops we believe have a future.
So perhaps what I appreciate most is that Amza gives me a way to bring together so many things I care about: food, culture, people, agriculture, creativity, and purpose—and turn them into something tangible.
That feels like a pretty wonderful kind of freedom.
What is your why?
My why is rooted in food—and in the belief that some of the food wisdom we need for the future is already rooted in the past.
I grew up eating foods that were simply part of everyday life: barley, flaxseed, grains, seeds, and other foods shaped by the land and the culture I came from. I didn’t grow up thinking of them as “superfoods.” They were just food.
It wasn’t until I began building Amza that I started looking at those foods differently. I discovered more deeply how nutritious they are, how much history and knowledge surrounds them, and how people have adapted food traditions to the environments where they live.
That made me wonder: What if some of these foods have something to offer the way we eat today—and the way we need to eat in the future?
That question is at the heart of Amza.
I want to help bring ancient Tibetan food wisdom into modern life in a way that is delicious, accessible, and respectful of where it comes from. I want to create new markets for underutilized, culturally meaningful, climate-resilient crops and, in doing so, create opportunities for farmers.
But ultimately, this is about more than ingredients or products.
It is about sharing something that has nourished my people for generations and giving it a new life. It is about building a bridge between where we have come from and where we are going.
And if we can make that journey delicious, nourishing, and good for people and the planet, then I feel like we are doing something worthwhile.
That is my why.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
I love being at farmers' markets. I love watching people stop by out of curiosity, try a sample, and then seeing their faces when they realize they like it. I enjoy talking with people, answering their questions, and sharing the story behind the food.
But there is one day I will never forget: April 1, 2023.
It was our very first day selling Amza products at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, which happens to be my neighborhood market. It was a typical rainy spring day in Portland—except it seemed to rain especially hard that day. Several times during those five hours, it poured.
I was already nervous before we started. With all that rain, I remember thinking, “What if no one buys our products? What if no one likes our food?”
But people did stop.
And whoever stopped and tried our food loved it.
At the end of those five rainy hours, we had made $210 in our first day of sales. I remember thinking, “Maybe this could work.”
That little moment of possibility has stayed with me.
Three years later, I still love those moments when someone walks up out of curiosity, takes a bite, and says, “Wow.” There is something incredibly rewarding about watching someone discover a food that means so much to me—and realizing that it can mean something to them, too.
That is one of the joys of building Amza.
Piece of Advice
“If I, an immigrant and someone for whom English is a third language, can build a business and realize a dream in America, then I truly believe anyone can pursue theirs, too.
I’ve learned that you don’t have to know everything, have perfect English, have all the answers, or have a perfectly mapped-out path before you begin.
You learn. You ask for help. You make mistakes. You keep going. And somewhere along the way, you realize you’ve come much farther than you thought you could.
So my advice is simple: don’t let what you don’t know—or what makes you different—convince you that your dream is out of reach.
Sometimes, you just have to begin.”
– Jolma, founder of Amza Superfoods
Community Callout
Livelihood NW is a non-profit organization that provides free and low cost business development support to small business owners throughout Oregon and SW Washington.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Amza Superfoods and Founder, Jolma Ren., for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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