Pistakio is a pistachio spread brand that was created by two college students, Nicola Buffo and Francine Voit, in their dorm room. Through a Portland Community College course, they managed to land a spot in New Seasons Market and more.

What comes to mind when thinking about pistachios?

Is it the taste of freshly scooped ice cream on a scorching hot day, the struggle to break apart the shell to get a morsel of creamy goodness, or perhaps the memory of family setting out a bowl of them around the holidays. 

It’s a nut that often is associated with something special; it’s a treat. 

Nicola Buffo, co-founder of Pistakio, a pistachio butter brand, grew up with quite the contrary. Pistachios were the norm in his birthplace, Italy, used in day-to-day recipes or snacked on by the handful. 

Buffo and his partner, Francine Voit, took their shared love of the nut and turned it into a brand now available on the shelves of New Seasons Market and more with the help of Portland Community College. 

“Pistachios were considered something very premium and luxurious (in America) and we wanted to kind of take that stigma away from them and make them more approachable and more accessible,” Buffo said.

Pistakio officially launched in December 2023, going from concept to market in under six months. In less than a month they plan to launch a new product, and hope to have a new Portland warehouse.

But their journey started with making small batches in their dorm rooms. 

Buffo and Voit were studying at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and met during their freshman year. Buffo moved from Italy to the states to play tennis at SCAD. 

Working quarter-long projects that were dying on their portfolios during senior year, the two wanted to shift focus toward something with longevity post-grad.

It was nearing time to put on their adulting pants and find a job after college, but nothing spoke to them. Buffo and Voit pondered the idea to create a food truck focused on highlighting a single ingredient. 

Buffo, from Italy, and Voit, having spent a year in culinary school in Italy, leaned into that culture’s cuisine which oftentimes does one ingredient and does it well. 

The goal was to pick an ingredient and show people its full potential.

Right around the peak of the pandemic, nut butters and milks were trending everywhere, but what they hadn’t seen was a place for pistachios. And the pistachio products they could find were merely artificially flavored or weaseled pistachios a dozen places down in the ingredients list. 

“We wanted to play around with an underdog of an ingredient and really highlight its versatility and how it can be used in so many numerous ways,” Voit said. 

Her background in cooking and design made it feel difficult to find a job that melded the two until they started Pistakio. 

The Pistakio name comes from the pronunciation of the Italian spelling of pistachio — spelled pistacchio. It’s design, crafted by Voit, takes inspiration from the deep value of family in Italy, featuring a grandma and grandpa on the jar. The playful font is a way to make the product more approachable and feel less like a luxury, as many deem pistachios to be. 

Their first product was a pistachio mayonnaise. The idea was to pick a product that people would use on anything, so they thought, “What is a condiment that can go on a lot of foods?” 

Mayo seemed to be the best fit. 

Every Friday in their dorm room they’d produce a small batch to take to the local farmers’ market, where they’d sell out for months to come. 

The product was of interest, but Buffo and Voit didn’t know how to take it a step further — marketing it, getting it on shelves and the production process.

It’s what inspired their move to Portland in August 2023, where they got day jobs while taking PCC’s Small Business Development Center’s “Getting Your Recipe to Market” 12-week course that fall. 

Though the mayo had its spot in the limelight, it proved to have challenges. It wasn’t shelf stable, it was hard to make vegan — a goal for their final product — they lacked a manufacturer and it was costly. 

Buffo and Voit were in time-crunch mode as they had less than two weeks to create a product to pitch to New Seasons Market. 

“We could not miss such a big opportunity and just be left talking about the weather,” Buffo said. 

The sweeter spread of the two they made was still in its prototype phase, but they moved forward, sharing it with a food scientist and chef during their course, and were met with positive feedback. 

It was ready to start selling as is. 

Quickly, the two found a commercial kitchen, gathered labels, jars and ingredients, and had their first production run the day of their New Seasons Market pitch. 

“Everything kind of fell into place,” Buffo said.

Within a couple of months, the sweet and creamy spread was being sold on New Seasons Market’s shelves. 

In December 2023, Buffo and Voit soft launched their brand in the Portland radius, hosting coffee shop pop-ups, delivering each jar to people’s door, before opening pre-orders at the end of March 2024. 

At one point, they used Facebook Marketplace and online platforms to solicit 1-ounce jars for 50 cents as a means of spreading the word about their spread. 

A month later, Pistakio launched nationwide, allowing folks to order the treat all over the country. Still pretty “scrappy” they decided to relaunch once more in June 2024 with all new packaging.

“It was a lot of figuring out how to make it work. We had little steps here and there,” Buffo said.

They produce about 800 to 1,000 jars within two days, but with demand ramping up, Buffo, Voit and their newly welcomed intern, need better infrastructure and support. 

Buffo and Voit hope to move into a larger, more permanent warehouse in the coming months. They currently operate out of the Cherry Pit Kitchen, a commissary kitchen in Northeast Portland, and have a separate warehouse for ingredients, which is difficult traveling between the two. 

“I feel like it’s a rollercoaster,” Buffo said of owning a business. “There are some days I feel like I’m working 27 hours in a day, some ups and downs, sometimes you think you’re five steps ahead, and then the next day you’re three steps backwards, but it’s great.” 

Voit said what they value is the opportunity to do something they are both passionate about and don’t have to work for anybody else. 

“I feel like this is something we both have so much dedication to and that’s what makes it so fun,” Voit said. “That’s what drives us and keeps us going.” 

And by now, some might be wondering, how do Buffo and Voit recommended using it? 

Buffo said his favorite way to indulge on Pistakio is over a bowl of frozen fruit. The tartness of the berries blends with the creamy spread, creating an ice cream sensation. 

Voit loves both a simple choice — dipping strawberries right into the jar — and a more complex choice of using it in a pistachio tiramisu. 

For more, visit pistakio.co.