These aren't just any bags of sunflower seeds. These spits are called sum seeds, packaged at Dakota Farms in the small town of Willow Lake.
"If you notice there's a plus sign between the sum and the seeds and our concept is we take seeds and add something to them," said Tim Walter, President of Dakota Valley Products.
That something, is the same thing found in most energy drinks, including caffeine, taurine, and ginseng. Why sunflower seeds?
"A lot of people eat sunflower seeds to stay awake and a lot of people consume caffeine to stay awake and it just makes sense to put the two together," said Walter.
Walter, who grew up on the farm around Willow Lake and has an engineering degree from the School of Mines, admits it wasn't his idea, but rather two of his workers who have years of experience in harvesting and roasting sunflower seeds.
Walter buys the seeds from area farmers and has them delivered to his plant in 1,300 and 1,100 pound totes.
But the real secret to Sum Seeds happens behind this door where the process of roasting the ginseng, caffeine and lysine down into the kernel.
Walter says it is what separates his seeds from others currently on the market.
"We just don't coat it on the outside so it's into the meat of the sunflower seed and that is one of our patent pending processes," said Walter.
That's why we're not able to show you that part of the roasting process. The other unique part of Sum Seeds is the lysine that's added, an ingredient known for helping with canker sores.
"When you eat the salty snacks a lot of times the salt around your lips will help you irritate lips and we're the only product that has that in the seeds."
Sum Seeds are already on store shelves in KELOLAND and across the country. They are even sold at the Bird Cage during Canaries baseball games.
These supercharged seeds have cracked the big time and could get another boost from an endorsement from a pro baseball hall of famer, Tony Gwynn.
"It's really from some of the people we knew, knew some of the people who knew him and he was approached with this product and he just really said this is a great idea and I want to be a part of this," said Walter.
But do they really give you an energy boost?
"I feel like singing Elvis," said Hanisch.
Don Jorgensen: Do you like sunflower seeds?
Sweeny: I use to be addicted to them so, I had to give them up for awhile. So if these have caffeine, you could get really addicted? I don't know.
"Probably have to eat a bunch, I mean they taste like regular sunflower seeds, but I bet if you ate a lot of them, there might be a little energy in there," said Dan Dykhouse.
And that pretty much sums up this story.
Walter says he'll soon be coming out with three new flavors, dill pickle, honey barbeque and salt and pepper.
