"My relationship with All American Seasonings began in the spring of 2004 over a cup of coffee at a Whole Foods Market in Boulder, Colorado. Andy and I met to discuss my business plan of combining established household national brand ingredients with snack food products. At that time, my newly-formed company, THANASI Foods, had just commenced a licensing partnership with Jim Beam® Bourbon, which provided a platform from which to foster our business. My challenge to All American Seasonings’ R&D team was to develop the perfect ingredient combination to produce the boldest, most-delicious and craveable sunflower seeds on the market. A major challenge to this project included using Jim Beam® Bourbon as a recipe ingredient. The tremendous response Thanasi Foods received from our Jim Beam® branded sunflower seeds over the initial 3 flavors (Original, BBQ, and Jalapeño) that year, inspired my brothers and me to later launch BIGS®, a new seed brand that would bring innovation and excitement to sunflower seeds and pumpkin seed snacks like never before. In April 2009, the BIGS® brand was launched. Our line-up of co-brand flavored sunflower seed SKUs has expanded to include Vlasic® Dill Pickle, Hidden Valley® Ranch, Heinz® Salt & Malt Vinegar, and Old Bay® Seasoned seeds. Again, I called on All American Seasonings’ R&D experts to help create the most dynamic, lip-smacking tastes by using the flavors from these major brands as a foundation. Today, BIGS® Seeds are sold in over fifty thousand U.S. retail locations. As BIGS® & Thanasi Foods continue to expand, we continue to rely on our friends and partners at All American Seasonings to create newly-imagined bold and distinctive flavors that are the core of our brand. Our consumers tell us that BIGS is the “King of Flavor” in seeds, and All American has only helped us convert our vision for this position into reality. "