Meet the Chia Charge team

Tim Taylor - Founder

We started Chia Charge out of our love for trail running, after testing and trying some of the products available.

Before starting Chia Charge I was starting to run multiple marathons per year, and found that adding chia seeds to my drinks seemed to help extend the amount of time I could run for (and reduce the amount of water I was running around with). After reading the book Born to Run I continued the drinks and energy bar experiments.

My exercise journey has changed over the years, but not my enjoyment of movement. From the years when I have done 10+ marathons, I’m now finding I enjoy 1 or 2 big races a year, such as the Lakeland 50, plus lots of time out on the moors together with the daily 7am WOD at Dominus Crossfit in York.

I was convinced that runners, cyclists, hikers and everyone were deserving of much better tasting and performing products. We created our recipes without any of the weirdly named ingredients that we had never heard of, we baked and shared our flapjacks which quickly became popular.

Having set the bar much higher, we have gone on to develop more flavours and sizes, including protein bars which are great for recovery.

In the early days we baked bars in our own kitchen, and quite quickly had to recruit a local baker to help with the successful growth of the brand

Now our energy bars, protein bars and chia seeds are all still produced proudly here in Yorkshire.

Lisa Clarke

Having played Field Hockey at County and club level and represented the North of England in Athletic sprint events, distance running was never on the agenda. However, after overseeing the Howtown checkpoint on the Lakeland 50 and 100 race for several years (usually in fancy dress), Lisa finally gave in and started running a few years ago.

From a few 5K’s she progressed to complete some Hardmoor events then took the plunge and her first ultra was the Lakeland 50 in 2018.

From being a reluctant runner / marathon supporter, she’s now definitely the more runny one in the team!

Lisa develops all of the new recipes for Chia Charge, and can often be found baking several different batches at once for one of our regular taste panels looking at future new product development. On top of this she is definitely the fastest and neatest packer of our internet orders and keeps everything shipshape at Chia Charge HQ. If she is not there, she’ll be running, spinning or doing Crossfit.

Anna Rigby - Online Marketing intern

I’m Anna, the online marketing intern at Chia Charge. I also study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York. I’ve been running on and off since I was 14. I’ve tried swimming and gyms but always come back to running because I love being outside and not quite knowing where my workout might take me (although a couple of times I have taken a wrong turn and found myself running into a crowded city centre!). I discovered chia seeds a couple of years ago around the time I became vegan. I now love them because they are so versatile and easy to incorporate into meals, even for someone like me who’s cooking skills don’t extend far beyond pasta and beans on toast.