Written By, Dara Wilson

What a delight it was to interview Neuman Alkazemi. The 21-year-old college student claims, “RED is the only real low calorie chocolate bar.” RED chocolate bars have been his sweet tooth’s happy place during his (successful) weight loss journey.

We are always excited to meet fellow RED chocoholics. Let’s be honest—2020 wasn’t exactly the year of making new friends. Yet, here we were, a new brand in a sea of chocolate choices trying to find our seat in the lunchroom amongst flooded social channels and blogs seemingly consumed with COVID updates and political news. As most of us scrambled to restructure our daily routines safely, there wasn’t much room in our content consumption thresholds for a “new chocolate that’s now available in our local market”. After all, a lot of our mental space consumed with when the next shipment of toilet paper, antibacterial wipes, and paper towels was going to restock depleted shelves—hardly any of us cared what was happening in the candy aisle. (Well, outside the candy industry, that is.)

COVID world or not, RED was on a mission. We were focused on safely getting our chocolate into the hands and bellies of those looking for a guiltless way to indulge. Being the new chocolate on the shelves, we couldn’t merely hunker down and wait for the culture of casual aisle browsing, product sampling, and online brand discovery to return. We had to keep talking, posting, sending coupons, running contests—and this is how we met Neuman.

Remember, RED has only been on shelves in the USA for about a year. That’s right, this time last year, right before all of our lives changed dramatically, we here at RED were excitedly launching our social media channels. We were mentally prepared to launch and start posting without fans and followers because in the pre-COVID world gaining followers wasn’t the tallest hurdle for a challenger brand. We had no worries about attracting chocolate lovers—everyone loves chocolate! Only, our pre-COVID-world-window wasn’t open very long. No matter how important chocolate was to you, other conversations took priority. We feared that the excitement building about RED across social media would come to a screaming halt—we feared our posts would sit like-less, share-less, comment-less.        

Only we weren’t alone. Neuman was there almost from the very beginning, liking, sharing, and commenting on our posts. We were incredibly grateful. A fan! A friend! A reassuring thumbs-up on days where our boosted communications weren’t performing to our predicted level of success. As silly as it may sound, his engagements empowered us to keep going even when COVID was all-consuming our professional and personal lives.

Once things calmed down a bit, we wanted to know who this consistent supporter was. It’s not common for someone to want to share their story of brand discovery with the brand. We knew it was likely Neuman would shun away from the idea of us interviewing him. But, he didn’t.

Low Calorie Chocolate Bars

Howdy RED fans, meet Neuman, a Business Management major with endless valuable advice to offer about RED–you would think he invented delicious chocolate himself. 

R: How/why did you come to love RED chocolate so much? Was there something special you saw or heard about it?

A: I started eating RED because I was losing weight. I went from 250 lbs. to 118 pounds. I was looking for a chocolate low in calories. RED is the only true low calorie chocolate bar. And, it’s very tasty.

R: If you could describe RED with one adjective, what would it be?

A: Unique.

R: Let me guess, because of the diamonds?

A: Yep! There is nothing else like it.

R: Have you gotten anyone else hooked on RED?

A: Oh yes! All of my friends and family. My friend came over just yesterday and he loved it. I told my family about RED, and my friends share it with their families.

Low Fat Candy Bars

R: What is your favorite RED chocolate flavor? (Mine is dark chocolate with orange and almond and the pralines are seriously to die for.) 

N: The hazelnut pralines. It’s amazing that you can eat three per serving. They are so low in calories and super delicious.

R: Have you tried all our flavors and variations?

N: Not all, yet. I haven’t tried the coconut. It’s just a personal preference.

R: Do you get fancy with your chocolate love and make any recipes? Have you seen our blog, including our online recipes?

N: Yes, I actually make my own chocolate, but RED is always my go-to healthy choice. I have gone on the blog but I want to go back on and see the RED avocado chocolate mousse recipe.

R: What’s one product or flavor you would love RED to have or create?

N: Cookies and cream.

R: We know we’re not the only no-added-sugar chocolate out there. Have you tried others? (Lily’s?)

N: No, RED is the only low calorie chocolate bar I eat. It is the only really healthy brand that’s truly delicious.

R: On an average Tuesday night, what happens in your world? What about the weekend?

N: Just hanging in with friends and same on the weekend.

R: Except RED chocolate, what are your other guilty food pleasures?

N: Candy, any confections. Rainbow Twizzlers. I love.

R: What do you eat during the week?

N: As healthy as I can. Here’s my advice: make healthy choices and keep your calorie content low, but healthy low, not dangerously low. The worst thing is to deprive yourself of what you love. Seek out healthy and  low calorie alternatives for things you love. For me, it’s chocolate and that’s why I found RED. You can lose weight and still eat delicious things, like RED.

R: Where do you buy RED?

N: Amazon, it’s very convenient.

CHOCOLATE TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT

Move over Hershey and Mars. Clearly, RED chocolate is making its mark on the younger generations. Full of flavor, high-quality cocoa, and protein, without added sugar, your taste-buds deserve a RED low calorie chocolate bar. Above all, your health will thank you. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, pralines, oh my! Gift the gift of RED this Valentine’s season. We trust our fans, and you should too.

More than feeling good about choosing a chocolate that delivers guiltless indulgence, feel good about selecting a chocolate that truly appreciates its supporters. Neuman was our first Number One Fan and we’ll always be grateful for his support through our introduction to the US. However, we’re grateful for all our RED fans. You reading this article, yes, you who’ve made it all the way to the end of this piece, we love you.