Born in the mountains. Built for the moments that matter.
More life is the point.
Yama is for people who organize their lives around the experiences they care about: time outside, movement, food, community, adventure, and place.
Born in the mountains. Built for the moments that matter.
Yama is for people who organize their lives around the experiences they care about: time outside, movement, food, community, adventure, and place.
The drift
Modern life has a way of pulling us away from the things we care about. Convenience replaces nourishment, distraction replaces presence, and we arrive at the moments we planned for already depleted. You want to be in them: capable, energized, awake to the whole thing.
The empty start
The mountain-morning false choice: skip the meal, or blow the morning on it.
Up the lift on caffeine and air, already playing catch-up.
Out of gas by 11 a.m., the day you paid for cut short.
Too wiped for the part of the trip that’s about your people.
The day never really ends, so tomorrow starts on the back foot.
A bowl of udon changed everything
“We’ve been the guy on the chairlift running on coffee and nothing.”
In 2015 I sat in a tatami room at the Wadagoya lodge, 4,527 feet up at Kagura, Japan. Boots off, a bowl of hot udon, a cold beer. What struck me wasn't the food exactly. It was the feeling: satisfaction that made me want more of the day, not less of it.
Years later a burst appendix and a long recovery made the idea personal. Food stopped being just fuel and started being the thing that decided how the day went. The insight was never the udon. It was that food should help you feel good and perform better, and that almost nothing on the shelf is built to do both. Yama (山, "mountain") is where that began. The mountains are the starting point, not the boundary.
Dave Chen · Founder · Sugarloafer since 1991
帮忙
The helping-hand broth
Yama is the mountain. Bāng Máng is the cup. A warm, satisfying broth for the part of the day that needs it, from morning Spark to midday Flow. Food first.
Most portable nutrition asks you to choose between taste, function, convenience, and real food. Yama is built to bring those things together in one warm, savory cup.
The plan
Yama is being built alongside the people and places that inspired it. As we grow, we intend to put something meaningful back into the mountain communities that carry it. We’ll share the specifics when they are real.
Born in the mountains
Trailheads, tailgates, the drive before dawn, the water, the long week finally behind you. Anywhere hot water and a good moment meet.
Kickstarter early-bird access, first word on mountain tastings, and updates when Yama is available to try or buy near you.
Get Early Access