Matt Lombardi and Kevin Moran on nightly cocoa and steady morning guts

More than 18 million bedtime servings around one cocoa tells a habit story as much as a formula story.

Beam links that count of 18 million nights to Dream, its evening cocoa, and that routine is the starting point here.

A training block brought Matt Lombardi and Kevin Moran back together after college sport. Lombardi played hockey at Boston College and later in the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins system before a concussion closed that path, while Moran played baseball at Boston College and was later drafted by the Chicago White Sox before injuries and surgeries closed his path. While preparing for the Boston Marathon and an IRONMAN they tried CBD for lingering injuries, pain and anxiety.

Store shelves left them недоверчивы about clarity. They saw oils with trace THC and undisclosed additives, plus labels with thin detail on origin or testing. Their response began in Massachusetts with Beam, at first a tincture and a topical lotion offered from a folding table on Boston sidewalks, inside CrossFit gyms and inside juice shops. The file points to organically grown hemp from Colorado, a THC free position, and an early hire with cannabis experience to guide innovation.

The present range is wider. Sleep, gut health, hormones and daily performance form the core, with Dream as the top seller and Biotic as the daily gut anchor. The notable turn is the founders step back from the CBD tag, describing Beam instead as a health and wellness company, and the later focus on powders, flavors, batches and repeat buyers rather than newness.

Dream now comes as Original Cinnamon Cocoa in 20 servings for 49.99 dollars and 30 servings for 64.99 dollars, plus Pumpkin Spice and Brownie Batter, built around 5 sleep ingredients for a nightly routine. Trace that cocoa from field to jar for us, and tell us where the record feels solid for a nightly habit and where it still feels thin.

Matt: Thank you for having us, and good morning to readers starting a routine. Cocoa begins the chain. Pods are cultivated on farms, beans are fermented, dried and roasted, then milled and pressed. That base reaches us with origin documents and a specification covering moisture and microbiology. The five sleep supporting ingredients travel separately, every one with its certificate of analysis and identity check. Validated mixing joins them, then we confirm uniformity before powder moves to jar filling.

The finished lot record is the firmest part. Potency for key markers, microbiology, heavy metals and label agreement sit in the batch file, and the code printed on the jar leads back to those pages. We can state contents and point to tests behind the Supplement Facts panel. The thinner part is complete farm mapping for each minor flavor part across seasons. Cocoa changes with harvest, and flavor houses blend to keep taste constant. Specifications and tests are held, yet every grower name for every minor part is not yet published. Showing that is the next task.

You began with a tincture and a lotion from a folding table on Boston streets, in CrossFit gyms and juice shops, after training together for an IRONMAN and using CBD for old injuries. What did those early sales show you about what busy people will actually read on a label before adding it to a routine.

Matt: Kevin and I first met at Boston College, where I played hockey and he played baseball. A bad concussion ended my professional hockey path and moved me toward tech work. Kevin faced his own baseball injuries. When we later trained together for an IRONMAN we tried CBD to manage our older injuries.

We sought something aligned with our own wellness standards, yet locating a product that was all natural and open on ingredients proved frustrating. We were far from CBD experts when we launched Beam, though we thought the market needed an option better for you than much of what existed. On sidewalks and in gyms, shoppers asked plain things. Where does this come from. What sits inside. Does it contain THC. The right partners from day one have been central to Beam success, because slogans could not answer those questions.

Kevin: Sport teaches full effort toward everything, plus how to handle the win or loss that follows. You act, you are often wrong half the time, and you watch the outcomes closely. That table trained us to listen and to print labels a person could verify.

Your early promise meant organically grown hemp in Colorado, processed to be THC free and pharmaceutical grade, when you called the market unregulated with trace THC, metals and pesticides. How did you build sourcing and testing so those words hold up for someone taking it morning or night with food.

Matt: Daily effort is the price of anything worth pursuing. To be the best or to build a strong business, steady work is required. For us that work began with the grower rather than the branding. Organically grown hemp in Colorado gave a named state, a system we could visit, and cultivation paperwork we could request.

Dangerous additives and THC were refused from day one, along with binders, dyes, excipients and unknown substances. Each incoming lot needed a certificate of analysis at arrival, followed by third party lab review for identity, potency and contaminants including heavy metals and pesticides. Fill weight and encapsulation were compared to the label so milligrams matched the panel.

Kevin: I met Matt Lombardi at Boston College while playing baseball, and he is now my business partner on Beam. That trust shaped supplier choice. Education mattered more than quick acquisition, and open ingredients mattered more than proprietary blends. A lot outside specification never shipped.

Your refuses list is exact, no THC, no binders, no dyes, no excipients, no unknown substances, no opaque ingredient lists, which helps with stacking. In practice, how do you judge what is needed versus extra in a flavored powder that has to mix well every night.

Matt: The screen is everything you need, nothing you do not. An ingredient stays only when it supports taste, stability or the labeled intended use. Flavor and sweetener choices create the debate. A bedtime cocoa must taste calm and familiar or the routine lapses, so we permit flavor parts that are named and tested, while dyes and hidden blends are refused.

Kevin: Trust is built on the Other Ingredients line. We scan it like our buyers scan it. Every excipient must justify itself for flow, mixing or moisture control, with a specification and a test behind it. When fill weight, uniformity and shelf life hold without it, it stays out. That ordinary short label you can trace is what we mean by start your own wellness revolution and operate at your actual best.

By 2022 you were telling interviewers, however, we are really not a CBD company, we consider ourselves a health and wellness company focused on daily routine. What shifted in sourcing and timing when Dream and powders became the core habit instead of oils.

Kevin: Training showed us that daily routine and sleep outweigh any single ingredient. Dream rebuilt our chain. One hemp extract plus a carrier oil gave way to cocoa, five sleep supporting ingredients, flavors such as Cinnamon Cocoa and Brownie Batter, sweeteners and powders that respond differently to heat and humidity.

Powder work involves blending, particle size, moisture control and serving uniformity. A 20 serving jar must scoop identically on day one and day twenty. Validated blending, in process checks and lot based finished testing make that possible. The farm remains important, yet the blending suite and packing line matter just as much.

Matt: Athletics and business both reward perspective. Winners turn a negative into a positive, in our experience. Documentation came from the CBD chain. Flavor stability and routine came from the cocoa chain. Tools for reaching best possible selves are the goal, for an athlete, student, school bus driver, elderly relative and everyone in between, and that required a chain able to produce a nightly drink rather than only an oil.

Biotic is listed at 64.99 dollars as a gut health superblend with prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics and glutathione in flavors like Crisp Apple for morning use. Probiotics are living organisms, so sourcing and stability have to be exact if the morning habit is going to work. How do you manage strain, count and survival to end of shelf life so the routine still delivers in February.

Kevin: Biotic runs as our most demanding chain. Prebiotics arrive as dry fibers with straightforward specifications. Probiotics call for more. Every strain carries an identity, a deposit record and a count in colony forming units. The panel states counts at manufacture or through expiry depending on format, and our task is holding that count across blending, packing and storage.

Culture suppliers must provide strain level identification with certificates for potency and contaminants. The blend stays dry, the pack limits moisture, and storage follows temperature limits. Postbiotics are inactivated ferments and therefore more stable, while glutathione arrives as a tested raw with its own assay. Finished lots are reviewed so the Supplement Facts panel aligns with what was blended and what stability work supports.

Matt: Repeat buyers matter more than trends to us. Gut powders are judged across weeks on mixing, taste and tolerance, so steadiness lot to lot beats a new flavor. The same growers, same strains and same tests create that steadiness.

A 20 serving jar has to scoop and mix the same on day one and day twenty or the habit falls apart.

Matt Lombardi and Kevin Moran

Beam now covers sleep, gut health, hormones, performance and kids nutrition, co created in one case with Shawn Johnson, around better sleep and all day wellness. How do you keep sourcing records steady as the catalog grows and harvests change year to year for regular users.

Kevin: More products mean more farms, fermentation tanks and flavor lots, so systems carry the load. Approved growers, approved culture banks and approved flavor houses sit at the center. Each holds a specification, a duty to report changes and a test plan. A harvest shift still faces the same identity and contaminant limits, or the lot is rejected.

Matt: Provenance needs daily work, because nothing worth pursuing comes easy, as we both learned. Formulas stay stable, second sources are qualified before pressure hits, and the lot file remains the source of truth. Buyers keep a small shelf for years. Matching last year jar to this year jar, with papers attached, is our job.

Looking back to Boston College and those first street sales, what would it take to publish the full chain for Dream and Biotic, grower names, extract ratios, lab sheets, for a careful household to review.

Matt: Finished lot sheets are near ready, and primary ingredient grower naming is further along. Full release needs steady grower disclosure from each sub supplier plus permission to share audits, along with a site tool where lot codes retrieve the matching certificate. That build is underway.

Kevin: Sport teaches full effort in every pursuit. For us full effort means stating what is traceable now, stating what is still not, and completing paperwork to narrow the gap. The label succeeds when a household buyer enters a lot code and finds the farm, the extract ratio where relevant, the standardisation where claimed, and third party results for that batch.

Closing note from the desk

Pair Dream with lights low and a set bedtime, then keep Biotic beside the breakfast glass so the morning dose stays visible. Track sleep timing and mixing ease for two weeks before judging either jar, and take the lot code plus medication list to a pharmacist with questions. Talk with a clinician before use during pregnancy, nursing, or with a medical condition.

Lombardi and Moran still sound like log keepers. They describe blends, batches and refuses in plain terms and invite checks rather than praise. For a rushed Tuesday, that clarity helps. Put the cocoa where the kettle lives, put Biotic where breakfast happens, and let placement carry the habit.

Product spotlight

For night, mix Dream as the label directs with hot water or warm milk. Select Original Cinnamon Cocoa in 20 servings at 49.99 dollars or 30 servings at 64.99 dollars, with Pumpkin Spice and Brownie Batter also in 20 servings. Use it as a steady evening drink at the same hour.

For morning, mix Biotic powder with water each day as the label directs. It is listed at 64.99 dollars and sold in Crisp Apple and in Duo Packs that pair flavors such as Crisp Apple with Mixed Berry. Its mix of prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics and glutathione is studied for gut routines and may support regularity when paired with fiber, fluids and sleep.