SPIRULINA VOICES PRESENT

Katie Kohlstedt

Founder & Owner • Spirulina Viva

video recorded November 30, 2022

Summary: Katei Kohlstedt founded Spirulina Viva in 2010 near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This spirulina farm has doubled in size since our last visit in 2015. Spirulina Viva products are distributed all over Mexico, direct to customers, retail stores, restaurants and juice bars. Fresh frozen spirulina squares are good everyday for mixing in drinks. Also snack cookie, spirulina super hero juices and probiotic drinks, and freeze dried Astro bar with just spirulina and mango. pirulina Viva has been a leader inspiring spirulina microfarmers in Mexico and Central America for the past decade.

Katie Kohlstedt (KK)

Hi, I’m Katie from Spirulina Viva.

We are fortunate to be celebrating 12 years of growing spirulina in Mexico.

I think they are 42 meters long, and we have 4 tanks. We are probably going to harvest until the December winter equinox. And take January off. We are fortunate it’s been pretty hot in Mexico, so we’ve had a good season.

Mexico is a great place to grow spirulina. We have amazing weather. Unfortunately there is not enough water.

Spirulina uses a lot less water than a lot of other cultures, farming and animals. Now we are using less water than we ever have.

In our 12 years, we’ve had a lot of challenges. It’s about solving problems, day by day, and figuring out the best way to do aa lot of different things.

Because spirulina originated in Mexico, we are so lucky to be able to promote this superfood it its place of origin.

In Mexico, there’s not enough spirulina. We need a lot more spirulina, we have a lot of health issues. So many chronic illnesses. We’ve really been able to see how people benefit from eating spirulina. There are so many ways spirulina can help you before you have health problems.

You can vary how you eat spirulina so you enjoy it every day. If you want to make a super guacamole, incorporating spirulina into your drinks. I give all of our our employees spirulina every day. We don’t have many sick days. We do make cookies with it, and make chocolate, but really we are drinking a smoothie every day and a juice in the morning. Kept us really healthy.

We ship in coolers to any part of Mexico, on ice. We harvest spirulina and keep it as cold as possible during the dat until DHL comes by. We are shipping all over Mexico and we have stores in all major cities, other distributors, restaurants for spirulina. Because it really is better than anything else you can get.

I think getting kids used to eating green things is very important. Being a good example, that’s the example they are going to follow, incorporating spirulina into your drinks as a family.

Kobe West (KW)
Where is the green spirulina?

Robert Henrikson (RH)
We are going nest door and have spirulina treats.
Are you ready for a spirulina treat?

KW
Yes! Yes!

Narrator RH:
Katie showed Spirulina Viva products.

Katie Kohlstedt (KK)
This juice I really like. Has a 3 month shelf life, because it’s done with HPP which is pressure, not heated. Jugo para Superheroes. It’s just orange juice and a square of our spirulina.

We just developed a shot with probiotics.
This is a super shot. It’s so evident that probiotics are so important. Probiotics and pineapple and spirulina, that’s it.

Our cookies are basically like a granola bar. Pumkin seeds, sesamee seeds, sweetened just with bananna.

So we’re going to promote putting SpiruSnacks and Astronaut food in your pinata this year, so you can have a healthy holiday.

And the other thing we make is Mexican chocolate, 80% Mexican dark chocolate with crunchy spirulina it it. gives a lovely crunch to it.

And the Astronaut bar is freeze dried, just mango and spirulina. I really like it as a healthy snack for kids. It’s very light so people who run, who bike, find it really practical.

Kobe West enjoys Astro bar. Voice: That’s so good!

Katie Kohlstedt (KK)
I would like ti thank Jean Paul Jourdan, because he has been a great inspiration to us, and we would net be here today if if it were not for him. Because we knew it was possible, and we said “He made it happen, we can make it happen.” We are so blessed and so fortunate to be able to something we love, and that doees good for the world, every day.

Katie Kohlstedt • SpirulinaViva.org • spirulinaviva@gmail.com
Produced by Spirulina Source • Robert Henrikson • © 2022.