Singapore-based F&B startup, The Kettle Gourmet, recently launched their new range of corn stick snacks – YUMI, in Singapore in 3 flavours – original, cheese, and chicken. 

Founder and CEO of The Kettle Gourmet, Zac Chua has seen success in the past few years since he started the company in 2017 with less than $100 to make quality popcorn. Wanting to explore the possibilities of snacks beyond popcorn, Zac drew upon fond memories of childhood snacks. The recollection of the corn sticks he used to enjoy in Primary school sparked the inspiration for YUMI.

YUMI stems from a name of Japanese origin that means reason, cause, friend, or beautiful. The pronunciation of YUMI also borrows from the Mandarin characters, “玉米” which translates to corn.

YUMI corn stick is made with real corn grits. Vegetarian friendly, YUMI is baked, not fried and uses only non-GMO corn.

The initial batch of YUMI flavours – original, cheese, and chicken, have been refined in development and chosen from their proven track record. With a working product, Zac reached out to his existing network and international partners to get the first taste of YUMI.

The corn stick snacks proved a hit and have already gained significant traction overseas. The snack has been exported to China, Thailand, and Mauritius.

YUMI retails for a pack of 20 sticks at $5.90 or 6 packs at $35 and is available in leading physical and online outlets such as Fairprice Finest, Lazada, Shopee, Grabfood, FoodPanda, Redmart, and Qoo10, and is also available at The Kettle Gourmet’s site.

Moving forward, Zac and his team will be working on porting their renditions of local flavours from their popcorn snacks which have represented Singapore at the Dubai 2020 World Expo to critical acclaim. In the near future, customers can enjoy bestselling flavours such as “Nasi Lemak”, and “Kaya Butter Toast” with their YUMI experience.

Our Personal Review & Thoughts

Corn was first domesticated by the native people in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago and with such a long history, corn snacks have likewise been around for a long time. Will The Kettle Gourmet’s new range of corn stick snacks be able to stand out in an already saturated snack industry? Well, we are pretty sure they will find a way to stand out; after all, they started with making popcorns and they stood out because of their unique flavoured popcorns.

Having tried all 3 of the initial batch of YUMI flavours, we were honestly unimpressed by the taste because the original and cheese flavour was too milky for our liking and we found the chicken flavour a little salty. However, this is really more of a personal taste and preference than anything else, and folks who enjoy dairy products will probably enjoy YUMI more than we do.

Even though this might be a miss for us, we still enjoy the popcorn from The Kettle Gourmet and who knows, maybe new flavours will be introduced and we might find ourselves trying new things again!

A point to note though, we are not entirely sure if the chicken-flavoured corn stick is vegetarian-friendly because chicken seasoning is listed as one of its ingredients but we reckoned it should be.

Nonetheless, do check out The Kettle Gourmet and have a look at what they have to offer!