Eat Your Flowers: Here's What Happened After Shark Tank

After a career playing and coaching tennis, self-taught baker Loria Stern found that the cooking and baking she was doing after work was actually bringing her the most joy. The first time she experimented with using pressed flowers in her own unique style was when she catered a bridal shower with a theme inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's floral paintings. She began regularly creating gorgeous cakes, cookies, pies, and chocolate bars adorned in edible pressed flowers and herbs. Any dyes and flavorings came from natural plant pigments and extracts.

It was not until the photos of her creations went viral on social media that she realized she had a legitimate business opportunity. Significant publications like Vogue, The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, Oprah, The Los Angeles Times, and Goop featured her work. Her budding baked goods company had the best of two different special occasion gifts — sweet treats and flower bouquets.

Despite the beautiful confections and noteworthy success, Stern still needed the support of a Shark to provide mentorship. She stumbled into the business and had taken it far, but lacked the professional guidance to continue to grow in the best way possible. She also needed funds to hire an operations manager and develop consumer packaged goods since the offerings at the time were all bespoke luxury products. That is why Stern took her company, Eat Your Flowers, on Season 14, Episode 15 of "Shark Tank" in 2023.

Founder Loria Stern entered the Tank smiling broadly, wearing a flowing and floral dress, and tossing flower petals from a basket. "My business is blooming," Stern exclaimed, "but I need help tending to my garden" (via YouTube). She asked for a $250,000 investment in exchange for 12% equity.

The numbers were certainly attractive. Eat Your Flowers had $2.2 million in sales since the start of the company in 2016, with growth each year. In 2020, sales were at $440,000. Revenues increased to around $750,000 in 2021 with a $330,000 profit. The revenue projection for 2022 was $1 million. With sales all online directly to consumers, Eat Your Flowers was able to keep costs down since the company did not have a storefront. When Stern shared the price mark-up, the Sharks' jaws dropped. A box of cookies that cost $7.50 to make was selling for $50.

Kevin O'Leary was the first to make an offer of $250,000 for 25% with the vision of keeping Eat Your Flowers in the luxury space despite Stern's desire to create more affordable product lines. Lori Greiner loved the cookies but did not feel the business aligned with her portfolio, and both Robert Herjavec and Mark Cuban decided not to invest for similar reasons. Barbara Corcoran understood Stern's need to invest in the right employees, so she made her an offer of $250,000 for 15%, which Stern quickly accepted.

Like many other similar products such as Coconut Girl, Deux, and The Cookie Kahuna that have appeared on "Shark Tank," Eat Your Flowers too saw a boost in sales. "Let's just say that the 'Shark Tank' effect is real," Loria Stern said in a video posted on TikTok. She shared that she received a huge amount of orders, email inquiries, and traffic on the website.

In addition to the vegan and gluten-free flower-pressed shortbread cookies that the Sharks got to try on the show, Eat Your Flowers also offers a colorful rainbow version in flavors like turmeric lemon, matcha alfalfa, blueberry, hibiscus, raspberry rose, and carrot ginger. Floral cinnamon rolls, customized cakes, loose edible flowers, and various branded merchandise items are also for sale. Eat Your Flowers also started selling a unique product called Cocktail Cubes, which are vibrantly colored sugar cubes flavored with ingredients like saffron, rose, butterfly blue pea flowers, or marigold that can be used to flavor alcoholic drinks, mocktails, teas, and more. 

Clearly, creating beautiful and delicious treats using decorations straight from nature is a passion for Loria Stern. In fact, she captured some of her most favorite recipes in her cookbook titled "Eat Your Flowers," which was released in April 2023. It has rave reviews and 4.9 stars on Amazon.

Stern pulls inspiration from her own book as she releases new products on the Eat Your Flowers website. Her rose buns — which Stern called "one of my most prized baked goods recipes" in a post on Instagram — were available for order just for a week. Many of her experiments — such as cookies topped with peppery nasturtium or cut into butterfly shapes — are incorporated into mixed shortbread boxes or sold for a limited time. This creativity keeps the buzz going around Eat Your Flowers. The company was featured for the fifth time in Vogue magazine in May 2023.

It also appears that Eat Your Flowers did find a way into the retail space despite the warnings from some of the Sharks. As of March 2024, the signature shortbread cookies will be for sale at Santa Cruz, California-based Verve Coffee Roasters. It appears that Stern still finds plenty of inspiration in the natural world around her to continue making all sorts of sweet treats.