Our Story

A small business story with a happy ending

In the summer of 2005, Antonio DaCosta, his wife, Krishna and their 4-year old daughter, Tulasi moved from Tallahassee, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia in search of a special school for their daughter. Tulasi, a bright and beautiful little girl, is a cochlear implant user, a surgically implanted electronic device that provides sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. She needed a special school to help in her journey to learn spoken language, and Atlanta was chosen.

They had no desire to move from Tallahassee as they were partners with another couple in ownership of a successful vegetarian restaurant, The Higher Taste, had many friends and felt established. But, as fate would have it, the move to Atlanta was necessary.

Antonio was a business owner at heart and having already had one good experience being in a partnership, he was interested in finding someone who was like-minded to go into business with again. Jon Morgan had been to their restaurant several times and really enjoyed the food as well as meeting the owners. Antonio didn’t know Jon very well, but felt instinctively that he would be a good partner. Jon was also attracted to the idea of being in business with Antonio and told him if he ever came to Atlanta maybe they could do a business together.

Jon and Karen Morgan were married in 1995 and lived in Atlanta, GA. He worked as a sales person in the art and design field and she worked as a secretary and then later as a nanny, but they always dreamed of owning their own business. Jon always enjoyed cooking and experimenting with new recipes and Karen enjoyed eating what he produced. They often talked about doing something like a sandwich shop or a small restaurant – always someday. Being vegetarians, they wanted to offer something that would be more nutritious and tasty than what they found offered in the area.

Two Couples Meet

After the DaCosta’s moved to Atlanta, Antonio approached Jon about doing a business together. Jon was interested. They were informed through mutual friends that there was a small granola business for sale that was based in North Carolina. The business was called “Shooka’s” after the owner, Lila Shuka.

Shooka’s Bakery

Lila Shuka, a young college-grad, began by making granola for her teachers and friends. It was delicious and people kept telling her, “You should sell this!” She rented a bakery on the weekends and began to make her granola and market it to the bulk sections of natural health food stores and even got a couple of Whole Foods to carry her two flavors. Two years later, she had 9 different stores carrying her two granola flavors, “Pure & Simple” and “Cherry Almond Vanilla”.

While this was successful, it was not what she really wanted to do with her life, and although she wanted to sell her business, she needed to find someone with the same passion for nutrition, health and taking care of the environment. Several people were interested in buying the business, but after she and her partner met with the two couples in Atlanta, she was convinced that they were the right people to take over her company.

Just three short months later, the business was purchased and moved to Atlanta. Within one year, Shooka’s had grown to have over 50 stores in the Southeast and  3 new flavors were introduced to the market.  In addition to Pure & Simple and Cherry Almond Vanilla, there was Naughty But Nice (chocolate-peanut butter) and Banana Bliss, created by Jon, and Pina Colada, created by Krishna.

For over a year the two couples rented an existing bakery and worked on Saturdays and Sundays when the bakery was closed to keep up with the demand. It was exhausting work, but at the same time, rewarding. They also did demos in several of their local stores to generate interest. People loved the granola and sales began to grow even more.

Since they are very interested not only in nutrition, but also in preserving the environment, going organic was the next natural thing to do. Of course, renting the bakery as they were, that would be impossible. Also needing more access to a test kitchen and with the increase in sales, it became apparent that they needed their own place.

In January of 2007, Shooka’s opened their own bakery in Marietta. It was still a wholesale bakery and only sold to stores, but they also began doing several of the local weekend farmer’s markets around Atlanta and many new customers were introduced to the incredible goodness of Shooka’s granola. By April of 2007, they had completed all the steps needed to be certified organic and got their certification. Hooray!

Ever since buying the business, a constant conversation seemed to always be about the name of the business. Many meetings between the four of them centered around this dilemma. Shooka’s was the name given by the original owner, but did it really express what the company meant to them?

Finally, in May of 2007, they arrived at a decision to re-name the business. The name chosen was Pure Bliss Organics. This name exemplifies all that they believe in. Pure stands for the purity of the ingredients and the purity of the hearts that are involved in every aspect of the production from cooking to selling. Bliss is how you feel when you eat these wonderful products and how they feel about the opportunity to offer these products to the public. You can even taste the bliss!

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