Our First Parcel: What Shipping Tempeh Taught Us

Quick answer: You can post tempeh, but our first attempt showed us that a foil envelope, an insulated bag and one freezer board weren’t enough. Our first customer’s frozen tempeh arrived cool rather than frozen. We’re now testing better insulation, gel packs and delivery options before we post fresh tempeh further afield.

There is something quite exciting about sending your first order through the post.

Until that moment, Calon had mostly existed close to home.

We had made the tempeh.

We had packed it.

We had taken it to markets.

We had stood behind our little table in Cardiff, talking to people about something many of them had never heard of before.

But sending a parcel is different.

Someone, somewhere, has found Calon online, decided to give us a try and trusted us enough to place an order.

And suddenly, your little box isn't just a box anymore.

It matters.

Our first online order

When our first Calon Bundle order came through, I was genuinely excited.

The order included three packs of fresh tempeh, each 200g, four packs of our Original Tempeh Crisps and a Duo Sauce.

I remember thinking:

Right. Let's make sure this arrives beautifully.

This was our first time sending fresh tempeh by post, so I wanted to protect everything as carefully as possible.

The fresh tempeh went into a foil envelope and insulated bag, together with a freezer board.

The sauce bottle was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap.

The crisps were packed alongside them.

Everything went into one box. 2.3kg. 

I checked it.

Then I checked it again.

It looked good.

It felt like a proper Calon parcel.

I was ready.

Off to DHL

I took the parcel into Cardiff city centre and walked into DHL feeling rather pleased with myself.

First postal order.

First proper shipment.

First time Calon was travelling beyond the local market.

I asked for express delivery.

One day.

Perfect.

I filled in the form and brought the parcel up to the counter.

Then came the sentence I wasn't expecting.

The lovely girl at the counter explained that although I was paying for express delivery, the parcel would not actually arrive the next day because the service did not operate over the weekend.

Oh.

That was not quite what I had imagined.

I looked at the parcel.

Then I thought about the fresh tempeh inside it.

And I decided not to leave it there.

I took everything home again.

Back to the drawing board

On Monday, I went out again.

This time, I decided to use DPD Gold with next day delivery.

It felt like we were getting somewhere.

Except there was another little lesson waiting for me.

When I went to pay, the postage came to £18.99.

£18.99.

That was quite a moment.

And it made me realise something very quickly.

I had spent so much time thinking about the product, the packaging, the website and getting the order ready that I hadn't properly worked through the reality of shipping a chilled food product.

The postage charge on our website wasn't right.

Another thing to fix.

Another note for the list.

Another lesson in becoming a real business.

And then came the wait

The parcel was finally on its way.

And I found myself thinking about it more than I probably should have.

Would it arrive on time?

Would the tempeh stay cold enough?

Would the packaging work?

Would the bottle arrive safely?

Would the customer like the crisps?

Would she know what to do with the fresh tempeh?

This is the strange thing about running a small food business.

When you make something yourself, you know exactly what went into it.

You know the beans.

You know the batch.

You know the kitchen.

You know the story.

But once that box leaves your hands, you have to trust the journey.

Then the email arrived

A little while later, I received a message from our customer.

And honestly, I will probably remember that email for a long time.

She told us the parcel had arrived safely.

She thanked us.

She told us the tempeh crisps tasted amazing.

She said the sauces looked great.

And then came the part we needed to hear.

The frozen tempeh had arrived cool rather than frozen.

There it was.

The thing we'd been worrying about.

The packaging had helped, but it hadn't kept the tempeh frozen all the way through the journey.

She very kindly asked what she should do with it.

And, importantly, she also said:

“I will look forward to cooking tempeh for the first time tomorrow.”

I loved that sentence.

Not because everything had gone perfectly.

It hadn't.

But because there was still curiosity there.

She was willing to give tempeh a try.

And that meant something to us.

Our first real shipping lesson

We’d hoped our first delivery would be perfect. Instead it gave us something more useful: a real test.

•     Careful packing isn’t the same as cold-chain packing. A foil envelope, an insulated bag and an ice block can help, but a perishable product travelling through a courier network needs more thought.

•     Postage is part of the product. Shipping cost is easy to miss when you’re focused on beans, labels and packaging. A chilled product’s delivery becomes part of the customer’s experience. They don’t separate the tempeh from the box it arrived in.

•     We need to test, not hope. There’s a big gap between “I think this should work” and “we’ve tested this and we’re confident it works”. We want to get to the second one.

Here’s what we’re looking at now: the type and amount of insulation, the size and type of packaging, cold packs, how much product goes in each box, how long a parcel spends in transit, which days we dispatch, and what happens if a parcel is delayed. We’re looking into more suitable insulated boxes and professional gel ice packs, reviewing delivery options and correcting our postage charges.

There was another lesson too.

The £18.99 postage was another little wake up call.

When you're starting a food business, it is very easy to focus on the obvious things.

The cost of soybeans.

Packaging.

Labels.

Ingredients.

Your website.

Market stalls.

But there are all these less obvious costs quietly sitting in the background.

Shipping is one of them.

And if you're sending a chilled or frozen food product, shipping isn't simply a matter of putting a label on a box and handing it over a counter.

It becomes part of the product experience.

The customer doesn't separate the tempeh from the packaging.

To them, it is one experience.

They order.

They wait.

The parcel arrives.

They open the box.

And that first impression matters.

We asked. She answered.

After the parcel arrived, we asked our customer if she would be kind enough to tell us how everything went.

She didn't have to.

She could simply have opened the parcel and got on with her day.

Instead, she took the time to tell us what worked, what didn't and what she thought of the products.

That is incredibly valuable to a small business.

Especially one that is still learning.

We were delighted to hear that the crisps had gone down well and that she liked the look of the sauces.

But we were equally grateful for the feedback about the tempeh.

Because that is how we improve.

Not by pretending everything is perfect.

By listening.

And then there was the part that made me smile

She had never cooked tempeh before.

So somewhere, after receiving our very first postal order, there was a person opening a packet of Calon tempeh and preparing to cook it for the first time.

I found that quite special.

Because that's really what Calon is about.

It isn't just about making tempeh.

It is about introducing someone to something they may never have tried before.

Perhaps they discover they love it.

Perhaps they need to cook it a different way.

Perhaps the first attempt is a little uncertain.

That's okay. 

If you’re in her position and want a place to start, our beginner’s guide to cook tempeh has a simple way to cook it.

We didn't know everything about making or shipping tempeh when we started either.

We're learning too.

What happens next?

We're not going to pretend that our first postal delivery solved everything.

It didn't.

But it gave us something better.

A starting point.

We now know that we need to improve our cold chain packaging before we can feel completely comfortable sending fresh tempeh further afield.

We're looking into more suitable insulated boxes and professional gel ice packs.

We're reviewing our delivery options.

We're correcting our postage charges.

And we're learning that sometimes the most useful business lessons arrive in a cardboard box.

There is something quite humbling about that.

You can spend hours planning.

You can make spreadsheets.

You can compare packaging.

You can read about delivery services.

But eventually, you have to send the parcel.

And then you learn what actually happens.

A small business is built one lesson at a time

This is probably the part of the Calon journey that I want to remember.

The first market.

The first customer.

The first online order.

The first parcel.

The first shipping mistake.

The first customer feedback.

None of these moments feels particularly important when you look at them individually.

But together, they are building something.

A little business in Wales.

A food we care about.

A brand that is learning as it grows.

And people who are kind enough to come along for the journey.

So, to our very first postal customer, thank you.

Thank you for trusting us.

Thank you for being patient.

Thank you for telling us honestly what happened.

And thank you for being willing to cook tempeh for the very first time.

You probably didn't realise it at the time, but your order became part of Calon's story.

And we are grateful for that.

There will undoubtedly be more lessons ahead.

More things we get right.

More things we get wrong.

More parcels to pack.

More boxes to open.

And hopefully, many more people discovering tempeh for the first time.

We're learning as we go.

And if you've been following Calon for a while, thank you for coming along with us.

The journey is still very much underway.

Calon.

Protein with a place.