‘It’s more than just candy, it’s a lifestyle’ at Tria Frog Treats

Chris Rugowski

Contributor

January 9, 2024

GREENVILLE – Tricia Hermsen – owner of Tria Frog Treats, located at N1788 Lily of the Valley Drive, Suite G in Greenville – said when she started freeze drying vegetables for her family, it was meant to be just for that, her family.

A hobby of sorts that started with vegetables (onions, celery, carrots, etc.), progressed to eggs, cheese and eventually – with encouragement from her kids, Skittles.

Hermsen said she never intended to go beyond freeze drying food items for her family.

However, at the end of 2022, she said a friend reached out to her about Wisconsin’s cottage food laws, which had at the time recently changed to allow Wisconsinites to sell edible goods from their home.

A journey to here
With the new regulations in place, Hermsen – who said she always enjoyed trying new things – decided to start selling freeze-dried candies to friends and family to gauge interest. 

Initial success led Hermsen to purchase a bus in February 2023 – where she took her products on the road and began setting up shop in parking lots throughout the Fox Valley area – becoming the first freeze-dried food truck in the state.

Shortly after her first foray into selling, Hermsen said she joined the Fox Valley Food Truck Association – participating in her first event in April 2023.

However, Hermsen said that phase wouldn’t last long.

At the end of May, a change to the cottage law would require her to obtain a commercial license to continue making and selling freeze-dried products. 

“Everything as of that moment stopped, ceased to exist…” she said. “I have this food truck, and I’m looking at this brightly wrapped bus asking, ‘what are we going to do now?’ We couldn’t do anything with it unless we went commercial.”

Tria Frog Treats got its start as a food truck in April 2023. Chris Rugowski Photo

Though Hermsen said she has aspirations of transitioning the business to commercial and wholesaling, those plans were months off.

The plan, she said, was to get through a full summer using the food truck as market research and figuring out products before making the jump to a brick-and-mortar location.

However, in that moment, faced with the decision of shutting down or getting a commercial license, Hermsen said she made the leap to go commercial.

Getting a retail space
Initially, Hermsen said she intended only to rent the space she’s in now for the kitchen, so she had a space she could legally work out of.

Though there was initial sticker shock on the price of retail space, Hermsen said the support from her husband nudged her to go all in.

“He said, ‘you know what you can do with the business if you do it full-time – why aren’t you doing it?’” she said.

Armed with her husband’s support and her self-described go-getter attitude, Hermsen signed a lease on the space in Greenville June 18, 2023.

“It was a quick move,” she said. “By June 30, we were moving in. On July 5, we had our inspection, and were open for business by the end of the day.”

The license Hermsen obtained allowed the store to create freeze-dried candies and vegetables right off the bat.

In August, she said she was able to obtain a dairy processing license, which allowed her to expand her product selections.

Tria Frog Treats started with 10-20 freeze-dried products and now has more than 130 with more variations and products to come this year.

Hermsen said product expansion starts with customer requests.

For example, she said she had one customer ask about Hi-Chews, and after some testing, Hermsen was able to add three freeze-dried offerings to the menu.

Another product expansion, Hermsen said, came to be through a customer request for a dairy-free, banana-flavored option.

Through some research, she said she found the Laffy Taffy fun-size candies have no dairy in them.

That discovery, Hermsen said, added another five offerings, and opened the doors for those sensitive to dairy.

She said she has a limited selection of sugar-free candy, too.

In addition to the edible items, the shop has a small non-edible section with candles, mugs and more.

Community and business support
Hermsen said the support the shop has received – from the neighbors in its retail location to the many businesses that originally let her sell in their parking lots, to the whole community – has been amazing.

The success she’s had already, Hermsen said, she credits to the support she’s received thus far.

One of the first business owners to support her, she said, was Bulk Foods in Greenville. 

“(The owner) let me park my bus in the parking lot on Fridays to let people visibly see the bus to get familiar with it in the community,” she said.

In addition to the Greenville store, Hermsen said 11 stores in Wisconsin sell Tria Frog Treats products, as well as three locations in Kentucky, Minnesota and North Carolina.

Products can be purchased on Amazon as well.

What to expect
Freeze drying, Hermsen said, makes candy light, airy and crunchy.

In the case of Airheads, she said, think Cheetos-like texture, but the flavor of Airheads.

It’s no longer chewy because freeze drying takes about 99% of the moisture out.

Meanwhile, Hermsen said, flavors intensify, and as your saliva rehydrates things it intensifies even more.

Tria Frog Treats started with 10-20 freeze-dried products, and now have more than 130 freeze-dried products available. Chris Rugowski Photo

One of the main benefits to some of the freeze-dried candy, Hermsen said, is that those with dental appliances, such as braces and dentures, can eat the candies with far less impact on their apparatuses.

Hermsen said her favorite thing to do is watch people try the products you wouldn’t think to freeze dry, such as pickles and cheese.

The pickles, she said, become like chips, while the mild cheddar tends to taste like a Cheez-It, with the texture and crunch of a cashew.

In addition to cheddar, Hermsen said Tria Frog Treats also has various other cheese flavors, including bloody mary, buffalo wing, Jamaican jerk and cajun-flavored.

“We are from Wisconsin, so some people can’t get their head around that it’s not squeaky,” she said. “It’s one of those things you love or hate.”

Another popular item for those with dental issues, Hermsen said, is the flavored corn.

“Think corn nuts but not going to break your teeth,” she said.

One of the most popular items at Tria Frog Treats, Hermsen said, is the Stuffed Frog Legs – which is a Fruit Roll-Up stuffed with Skittles.

Though ironically Hermsen said she isn’t much of a candy person, rather a savory person, she admits that is one of her favorites.

Another major benefit of freeze drying food, Hermsen said, is its shelf life – which she said is estimated to be up to 25 years in some cases depending on storage methods and the particular items being freeze dried.

Word-of-mouth advertising
And in some cases, Hermsen said, the sales pitches for Tria Frog Treats happen in the most unexpected places.

“Here I am drinking my coffee at 6 a.m. and I see one of our customers reviewing Tria Frog Treats on TikTok – it was so cool to see that,” she said. “It’s organically grown. We’re not paying for big marketing or anything like that.”

One of the best surprises, Hermsen said, are customers who come from far distances – one even making a detour on their way to Upper Michigan from Weston to load up on candy from the store. 

“I was so humbled, I was in tears,” she said.

Reflecting upon the choices of the last year, Hermsen said, “never in a million years would I thought I would have quit my full-time job to freeze dry and sell candy.”

“That was not on my career path map,” she said.

The proof, however, she said is in the pudding, or in her case the freeze dryer.

“I’ve never had a crabby customer,” she said. “So, I must be doing something right.”

The freeze-dried market
Hermsen said the freeze-dried product market is “competitive and growing.”

“Right now, we’re dealing with the people who aren’t familiar with the laws and are still doing it out of their homes,” she said.

Knowing that, Hermsen said, her No. 1 concern is customer safety.

Tria Frog Treats is located at N1788 Lily of the Valley Drive, Suite G in Greenville. Chris Rugowski Photo

Beyond licensing, she highly suggests anyone, even those at home who freeze dry for themselves or if they plan on giving things away to others follow simple, and easy-to-maintain safety protocol. 

This matters when you get into things like dairy, which requires its own license.

Hermsen wants to remind customers it’s okay to ask someone for their food processing license number and their dairy processing license number. 

“Just like any business, if people get sick from it, it gives the industry a bad rap,” she said. “And I’m here to protect it.”

As for the trendiness, she does recognize there have been some naysayers who say “you’re just freeze drying, it’s a trend.”

“Candy stores have been around forever,” Hermsen said. “It’s just a different type of candy store.”

One has to only look at her original 13 events turned 101 events by the end of summer, retail space, plus an Amazon store all in 6-7 months during 2023 to show she’s here to stay.

A former life’s lessons
Before taking the leap to start Tria Frog Treats, Hermsen said she worked as a business intelligence analyst.

Describing herself as a data dork who speaks in spreadsheets, Hermsen said the skills she obtained through her previous career – such as managing projects and collecting and analyzing data – have come in handy in her new venture.

“(One of my mentors) taught me a lot of things that stuck with me,” she said. “I hear him saying ‘I wouldn’t do it that way,’ or ‘you might want to rethink that.’ This has lent itself tenfold to how fast we can expand and how flexible we can be.”

Additionally, Hermsen said she uses the 5S and Lean mentality, which focuses on creating a more organized and productive workspace.

“A big part of the 5S manufacturing is making the not obvious, obvious,” she said. 

Lofty goals for 2024
Beyond the continued expansion of products, looking ahead to 2024, Hermsen said one of the goals for Tria Frog Treats is to have products shipped to all 50 states.

As of December 2023, she said they had reached 40 states, and they even went international with Guam and Germany. 

The smaller goals for the future, Hermsen said, include getting better at what the shop does and making sure it doesn’t grow too fast to effectively support the different revenue streams.

Hermsen said she also wants to keep meeting new businesses and making new connections within the realm of her business as a retailer and a wholesaler.

Contrary to what some might think, she said she thinks supporting your competition is healthy.

“Your competitors don’t have to be your enemy,” she said. “There’s plenty of business to go around for everybody.” 

For Hermsen, she said it’s more than just candy, it’s a lifestyle. 

More information on Tria Frog Treats and its offerings can be found at triafrogtreats.com.