A newsletter on upcoming food and beverage trends that offers a curation of brands and aesthetics written by Andrea Hernández.
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Turning on the heat for you
Oracular Spectacular, new brands
Spoonful of News
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Welcome back congregation, pending announcement on whether or not we’ve completely switched out gluten-free for THC communion wafers, though both pair excellent with Ruby —we’ve officially moved on from activated charcoal refreshments, more like deactivated, amirite? Here all night folks! For our newest members, reminder that we host welcome rooms on Wednesdays, we are looking for more volunteers for our “Pantry Makeover” program so if you’re looking to rack up more hours, sign up sheet is in the kitchen, by the stacks of mini OffLimits cereal.
The year is coming to an end, but don’t be saddened snaxboi, as it brings along the promise of fun food and beverage with it, please reference our Food in 2025 issue to see exactly what we are talking about. Now, we’re about to begin with our daily snax,
In the name of adaptogens, nootropics and THC —AMEN
Today’s sermon “Prebiotic seltzers: are the Millennial Metamucil and other trends of note” find our celebratory hymn on page 36, “Snax is my salvation.”
Gut Health
Like previously mentioned, gut health is the new bliss, we all know that prebiotic seltzer boom can be directly correlated to Millennials aging and needing something cooler than Metamucil, right? Water kefir has been booming in UK, Tesco saw a 400% increase in demand last year see brands like Agua de Madre, a trend certainly picking up in US, consider brands like Good Wolf and Kif, and most recently the craze reached Mexico, see Tibi.
Kombucha has officially plateaued, there’s a lot of vagueness around it in terms of alcohol %, sugar concerns, and not to mention Health Ade hasn’t really helped getting sued multiple times for being sketch with their labeling. So it should come to no surprise that Tepache is passing right by it shouting BING BONG and fuck you while it takes its place. You will also see the rise in snacks that are catering to low FODMAP diets (see Belli Welli) catering to the growing number of people who suffer from IBS, a trend that is not going away anytime soon.
Insert Samuel Jackson’s Capital One voice, “What’s in your colon?”
Fiber, it’s so hot right now.
RTDs
We foresaw the RTD boom last year and gave you an extensive curation of brands to keep an eye out for, hard seltzer’s growth has stalled though, blame it on every brand including your local dentist, (hello SNL spoof) trying to capitalize on the trend. What hasn’t shown any signs of stopping is canned cocktails, hard kombucha is out here booming with brands like June Shine raising $24 Million, similar to a raise that a more senior brand, Flying Embers, did back in 2019. Ranch water also had a moment in 2021, Austin based Ranch Rider saw explosive growth, beating out legacy brands on the likes of Drizly, and some brands like Lone River Ranch getting bought out by beverage giants like Diageo.
Canned convenience is very popular amongst our generation, not only do cans make a great post-2020, pandemic life drink (no need to share) as well as not having to prepare a drink all while offering “perceived” health benefits as “less calories” not to mention it’s “single serve” —whether it’s non-alcoholic, or low abv canned wines, to the surge of RTD soju and sake, the B2C (bottle-to-can) movement remains hot.
Fun things to watch out for, hard yerba mate, hard aguas frescas and spiked milk, have you heard of Panther Milk?
New Age Escapism
No shock here that tequila has been the fastest growing spirit of the past decade, we’ve seen brands trying to reinvent the look of tequila shots, think El Rayo and ripple glass and look to the explosion of tequila seltzers —it’s so mainstream now that Mezcal has gone along with it, sparkling and all (see Elenita) Sotol, Pulque and Raicilla have become the new “mezcal”. Our generation is not only looking to clean up pantries but bar carts as well and we are focused in wanting more “premium” ingredients, Haus and Good Vodka (distilled using upcycled cascara) partnered to help us unpack alcohol labels through knowyouralcohol.com and good to know that just because Kendall Jenner poses on a horse in braids trying to fit a “Mexican aesthetic” doesn’t mean there’s anything authentic behind her tequila, lol. In the last couple of years, celebrities have gone through a major existential crisis, are you really famous if you haven’t launched a spirits brand?
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Sober curiosity continues on the rise, not just in the US but around the world, “dry bottle shops” are popping up everywhere from Los Angeles, London to Melbourne both IRL and URL, distilled non-alcoholic spirits are everywhere. It has been fascinating to see ingredients used to emulate both taste and sensation of "spirits” take for example, wine proxies (see Acid League) and brands like Caleño, a NA version of popular Colombian spirit, agua ardiente)— the first issue of Snaxshot explored the growing interest in “sober curiousity” a key finding being that sober drinks have finally come of age, options are less infantilizing, where as before you were probably stuck with two extremes, virgin Daiquiris or plain seltzer, even down to the grown up branding and product photography these brands use.
Beer has been on steady decline, so much so that breweries are now pushing out their own hard seltzers, but also for the first time in almost a quarter century, bottled wine sales declined, as RTDs and canned wine take over. Low ABV, skin contact and upcycled wine have increased in popularity in the last couple of years, see brands like Ditto (piquette made using upcycled grapes) and upcoming Fallen Grape. This trend is all about having our cake in good measure, and also in line with our generation’s interest in cleaner and more environmentally safe options.
What’s in a drink, that consumed in any other way would taste just the same?
Adaptogenic Everything
This year we have posed this existential question, are we humans, or adaptogens? It seems that everything is infused with adaptogens and for those who are still unfamiliar with the term, it’s concerning to herbs or mushrooms that help our bodies adapt to stressors. Is it any shock considering that our generation grew up with indoctrination into stress, America runs on Dunkin they said, until Millennials became the burnout generation, and so something as old as our relationship to mushrooms, (we used to worship them) inherent human knowledge gets repackaged and sold to us at a premium to help us “adapt” to a nightmare of our own making. There are things like adaptogenic ramen because if you can’t yoga there, you can now slurp your way to zen.
Adaptogenic everything has taken over, it’s now in your cookie dough, baking mixes, ramen, water and more. A good way to remind us that food is medicine.
Thirst Quencher
We boldly predicted that cactus water (see Pricklee) was the new coconut water before it hit the mainstream, and turns out, we were right, did you know that even Vanessa Hudgens launched a cactus water brand in 2021, for fuck’s sake. Anyways I digress, the way we hydrate continues to change, we even drink water in droplets now, and what if I told you there was a brand that tried to bottle chickpea water, for drinking? Magnesium is a hot-ingredient to look out for, both legacy and emerging brands alike are betting on it, see Recess Mood. Aguas frescas, a mainstream drink in Mexico and Central America, is booming outside the region consider the success of Agua Bonita, who recently raised $2 million from the likes of bev giants like Pernod Ricard.
If you want more on water wars we did a deep dive on this here, wherein we unraveled the different water cults and where they stem from, what kind of H2ho are you? Get back to me.
Health Shots
Wheatgrass crawled so ginger and turmeric could thrive, immunity has become the ultimate goal, particularly post 2020, fuck 5-hour energy, just have Monfefo instead. This segment’s hot, brands like Moju have emerged contenders in this category, most recently raised from Danone’s venture arm. Apart from ginger and turmeric, there has been a rise in mushroom and prebiotic shots, as well as CBD and THC.
Uptick in Upcycled
You will see more brands like Moonshot and Akua on the rise as regenerative agriculture and kelp become increasingly popular considering there is no stopping global warming. Upycled snacks have been hot, and so is their branding, consider brands like Good Fish that use salmon skin as chips. For a more extensive curation of products in this category, feel free to refer to our previous issue in which we also make the case for Captain Planet as an actual villain, seriousy, what the fuck did he actually do, those kids and rings carried that show on their backs, anyways, would love to hear your take on this as well.
Functional Unwinding
Our non-fungible carcasses are tired, Millennials and GenZ alike want the ability to be able to exist within a spectrum, and we are here for more non binary. The term, coined by us, relates to being able to not have to commit to one state, we want relaxed but still the ability to be productive. The rise of adaptogenic everything falls into this, sparkling mushroom tea is upcoming, nootropic shots and micro dosing caffeine are the new means of production.
For more on this refer to our issue here.
Sexual Snax-duction
Last but not least, now that we have bottled botox in RTD drinks get ready for the sparkling, canned Viagra. Aphrodisiac snacks and libido boosters are coming out in the form of hazelnut spreads, Free Rain and orgasm inducing chocolate bars. Sex literally tastes good. For more on horny groceries and sultry snacks, check out our deep dive into it here, in which we trace back origins to foodie food porn and being the ‘Gram generation.
Oracular Spectacular
Shhhhh! My favorite show is on, “What’s new, you ask?”
Crispy Fantasy: A new UK based DTC cereal that is another example of blanding aesthetics and the DTC (direct-to-copycat) movement, agencies take note, can’t we bring this back instead?
Red Saint: Super sexy, canned boozy tea.
Disco Inferno: We are calling it, the drink serum is the upgraded drink enhancer.
Immorel: New sparkling mushroom tea launching this week.
Wild Folk: Canned, non alcoholic drinks based in Canada.
Tanica: Based in Australia, low alcohol botanical spirits.
Spoonful of News
Can we please stop dropping NFTs that don’t make any fucking sense? Here’s looking at you Pepsi.
When I tell you I legit screamed while reading this LA Times piece on Erewhon shopping as the new status symbol, like what have we been saying LMAO.
Big NGMI energy from Kelloggs, who is choosing to replace workers who have been striking for better pay.
SnaxDaddy $MDZ released a Barefoot x Oreo wine and we hate it.
Snax Concierge 🛎️
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