OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Tessa Porter has a sweet job.
The Nebraska native was always interested in food and how it's made. In high school, she worked for a caterer and then went on to earn a master's degree in food science.
"I studied sucrose crystallization and got really nerdy about spinning protons on sugar molecules," she said. "That just lead me down the hole of getting into the candy industry and have never looked back."
As a candy scientist, Porter is shining in a male-dominated field. She previously worked for a Chicago-based company where her work creating NERDS Gummy Clusters won awards including Product of the Year in the candy category and Most Innovative in sweets and snacks.
But Porter wanted to return home.
"There's not a lot of large candy manufacturing in Nebraska, so I knew it might be something we'd just have to create," she reflected.
She opened her lab, Sprinkk, in Omaha where she makes candy for other companies. It's also where she launched her own brand, Norma's, a few weeks ago. The brand combines Porter's expertise and her grandmother's passion for holistic health and wellness, and real, whole ingredients.
"We didn't plan on going into retail originally but putting it at Albion ThriftyWay gives (Grandma Norma) the ability to go to the store, see her name, see her story on the shelf."
"And I think there's a lot of pride in that," Porter added.
She plans to grow Sprinkk into a full-scale manufacturing facility in Omaha, producing candy for startups and larger name brands around the world.
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