From our founder, Marco Amselem

Like most Brazilians, I was first introduced to paçoca (pronounce Pah-sō-Kah) as a kid. This popular snack quickly became a special part of my childhood and has given me many sweet memories. I remember the times I would go with my friends buy paçoca after school from a candy stand in the neighbourhood, and when I'd devour as many paçoca as I could hold in my hands at Festa Junina, a folk celebration in honor to harvest that my family took me every year.

In 2010, I moved to San Diego to complete my MBA and pursue my dream to become a world champion adventure racer. Besides missing my family and friends, paçoca was the taste of home I most longed for. Whenever I visited Brazil, I brought back my favorite snack with me to soothe my cravings and share it with friends in San Diego. Everyone who tried it loved it and wanted more. That would soon become my inspiration to found Pasokin.  

From Skype to PB Bites

The first challenge was to figure out the recipe. I was very familiar with the taste of paçoca but never really thought about how to make it. So, I traveled to Brazil with the mission of finding the perfect recipe. My older sister connected me with several respected chefs she knew from her days as a food magazine journalist, and they all told me the same thing: "It's a straightforward formula. The tricky part is to figure out the right proportion between peanut, sugar, and salt."

Back in San Diego, I ran the first batches in my home kitchen. With the big support of my wife, Juliana, a bit of ingenuity and many trips to the local hardware store, we were soon in production. Our homemade paçoca press allowed us to shape small batches of my own cork-shaped, bite-sized peanut butter snacks and share them with close friends for feedback. After a period of endless and, at times, exhausting trials, we finally got the perfect recipe. Our PB Bites were officially born!

All-natural and protein-rich PB snack

The first batch of Pasokin was sold in September 2016. Since then, Juliana and I have been running production out of our facility in San Diego. Today have a small and highly dependable team. We still oversee each step of the operation—from roasting the peanut to packing and shipping, and we put a lot of time fine-tuning every aspect of our business. It's worth it!

We've come up with a no-frills, delicious peanut butter snack. Made without preservatives or chemical additives, Pasokin is a safe, all-natural, and protein-rich snack the whole family can enjoy. How great is that?