Chia Smash was founded by Anna Peck and Steve Ford. Passionate about healthy food, Anna had grown up in Sydney, Australia eating tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. However, as she made her way to New York City for her job, Anna found herself with less time to cook and started frequenting the supermarket for shelf-stable foods. She began to realize that a lot of these foods contained hidden ingredients and unnecessary additives — especially when it came to the jam aisle. At the same time, Anna made the shocking discovery that a jam has to contain at least 55% sugar by weight in order to legally qualify as a jam. Horrified but confident that she could do better, Anna set out to create her own version.

Anna teamed up with co-founder Steve and began by creating countless small batches of her jam in her own apartment kitchen, filling her fridge with mini jars labeled with masking tape. They tested different fruits, sweetener options, and cooking techniques. Finally, the co-founders landed on the perfect iteration that would eventually become Chia Smash. While they encountered challenges in scaling Anna's kitchen recipe up for commercial production, they persevered through seemingly endless experimentation and tweaking, and Chia Smash officially test-launched in a few independent natural stores in New York City. From undergoing rebrands to launching new jam flavors, Anna and Steve achieved an industry-first with their chia-based jams with no added sugar, proving that jams don’t have to be half sugar to taste amazing.