Energy drinks are for the girls

0:00Welcome back to another episode of the curious consumer. I still like the name. I hope you still like the name. I still think it's a really good name. Yeah, it's a good one. I'm excited about it. Me too. I have spent all week every time that someone's like, oh, my God, you launched a podcast being like, ah. I have no right. I think I have every right. And you're a man. And that's how the cookie crumbles. We deserve podcasts. We deserve podcasts. The people deserve podcasts. I'm just a girl with some takes. And you're just a guy with some takes. And therefore, we're sharing them publicly. And if you want to listen, you listen.

0:37And if you don't want to listen. You can watch. And if you don't want to watch or listen. You can read our newsletter. Listen to the new Lady Gaga. Okay. I haven't listened to it yet. You should. I'm a big Gaga fan, I will say. What about Bieber's new album? I like it. I don't love it. Okay. Well, it's not related to snacks. Everything's related to snacks, actually. Everything is related. Yummy. If we want to go down the... Yummy. or like honestly Lady Gaga's new song is like Halloween themed like that's a seasonal skew skew for those who don't stock keeping unit it's a stock keeping unit which is how we refer to like different lines not even lines um individual products yeah it's how you refer to different products so if you're like someone just launched a seasonal skew it would be like like Chobani He came out with a pumpkin spice skew unit.

1:31We have two energy drinks here, both from Bloom Nutrition. Not sponsored, but if you want a sponsor. Greg, hit us up. We're very new. Both of these would be considered different skews. Each of these different flavors. Yeah, they're different flavors. I have cherry lime. Strawberry watermelon. Jenna has strawberry watermelon. It's my first time trying it, and it's delicious, actually. I'm enjoying it a lot. God, I love that sound. Oh, that's good. It's really good. I've been really into cherry things lately. My favorite, one of my favorite seltzers is Howl's, their cherry one. You love Howl's. Oh, good.

2:03Well, the bubbles are right. The bubbles are the right size. They kind of hurt, but in a good way. So they're right for you. They're really punchy. I love how one of your favorite brands is the least brandy brand. Like Howl's, no one knows what that is. It's owned by a beverage distributor. Yeah. It's owned by Big Geyser. It's quite unsexy, but it gets the job done. It's great. But now cherry season's over. It's now PSL season. pumpkin spice latte season hence nate just got his livery we are at nate's apartment by the way hello this is the studio from magnolia bakeries banana pudding pumpkin spice banana pudding which is i'm so excited for this this product so magnolia bakery is known for their banana pudding they released banana pudding in like a store-ready version in this frozen ready-to-eat like frozen and banana pudding.

2:52And it took them three years to develop this. So this can, it comes frozen. You can thaw it. You can eat it. You can refreeze it, rethaw it, and it maintains its texture. That is amazing. It is so good. I'm really upset because we just unboxed it. So it's still frozen. It takes two hours. I was like, we'll try it on camera. And then we would have to wait two hours to try it. So we will eventually try it and we'll record trying. I love a seasonal flavor. We were just talking about this, like seasonal skews. I think pumpkin spice gets a lot of shit. I love cinnamon and so love pumpkin spice season.

3:28And I think it should be all year round. And I think it got a really bad rap because people just associate with pumpkin spice lattes, which like the girlies love a latte. I love a PSL. What are we talking about? They're amazing. I agree. But I think it was like associated mostly with Starbucks and like the Starbucks girly. It's like millennial core. Like it's... Chewgy. I think it ended up being considered chewgy. But there's a lot of good pumpkin spice products out there. We will be doing a roundup. We're getting a bunch of products from a couple different brands. One of my favorite pumpkin products, pumpkin spice products that I've had in the past few years.

4:08It might be the Spagnolia one, but the one that I really liked, there's this Yerbe, which is an energy drink. They had a pumpkin spice energy drink. This was in like 2023. It was so good. I don't know if I would really want more than like one a week. I want my pumpkin spice to feel a little bit more robust. The dairy is nice, along with coffee and a pudding and a baked good. just like pumpkin spice flavored water effectively is a bit jarring but it did it did kind of scratch that psl well i used to work on orobora which is a sparkling water brand yes and they had and i'm forgetting what it was actually called but it wasn't pumpkin spice it was just like pumpkin flavored um which sound i mean essentially was pumpkin spice but like gourd flavored and i kind of like that take of something instead of being just like pumpkin spice which effectively is all spice like nutmeg cinnamon right being more like like tasting more like the actual pumpkin it only works for like very few items i'm not sure sparkling water was one of them although i actually did enjoy it but yeah i think that's a fun oh like a sweet potato marshmallow flavored thing would be good do you know who should do this you know equip food they have that um that bar that i won't eat because it's beef tallow isn't it no it's like every aspect of the cow is in that thing hard pass for me i personally like it i think the texture is kind of fun but i think that would lean itself really well to have like like like some fluff on top and then it's like a sweet potato beef extrusion but i think that'd be really good beef extrusion and there are so many words that don't belong together.

5:58Pitch it. Let's pitch it to them. I'll email the founder. But yeah, I mean, easy transition because on the PSL front, we have some news out of Starbucks this week, which should shock no one, but still is a little shocking. It's a little shocking, I think. Which is that Starbucks just launched protein cold foam. For those who don't know, cold foam is literally cold milk foam that Starbucks has been putting on top of their drinks for the past few years. And it grew a ton. It grew 23 % year over year. I think a big piece of that is it is very visually, like it's aesthetic. Yeah. Seeing the cold foam kind of like on top of whatever your drink is and you get like that nice swirl, but it's also very satisfying to drink.

6:41Yeah. They're launching a protein cold foam, which adds 15 grams of protein per any grande cold beverage, which is a lot. Wow. That's more than I would have assumed because I feel like cold foam is mostly air. I mean, I guess it's mostly milk. And milk is high protein, but it's so interesting to me that they are doing this. I feel like it makes a ton of sense, but I do feel like this would be the kind of thing that someone would say they're launching and it adds like five grams of protein, maybe. But 15 is substantial. That's like getting, you know, one of those protein shakes. A lot of them do have 15 grams of protein in them.

7:19Yeah. So now, because they have this, And they also have protein-boosted milk as an offering, which I'm assuming is like Fairlife, which on its own adds 12 to 16 grams of protein per grande. You can now have like a 30 gram of protein latte pretty easily because you get your base with the protein milk and you get the added cold foam on top. And it comes in fun flavors. Of course it does. The protein cold foam is going to come in banana, vanilla, sugar-free vanilla, chocolate, matcha, whatever. Matcha is actually kind of wild. Oh, I'm going to get that banana one. Banana sounds so good. Banana and coffee is so good.

7:59And they have two seasonal flavors. Of course they do. Pumpkin and pecan. Pecan. So, pecan. I say pecan on some days. I say pecan on other days. Is it a Philippine? I'm a multifaceted woman. It could be a Philippine. It could be a Philippine. I don't think so. I think what it is is it sounds nice to say pecan on its own, but I'm certain that it's pecan pie. Oh, no, it's pecan pie, but it's pecan on its own. Exactly. Yeah, 100%. There you go. It's interesting because, like, Starbucks has also had protein shakes for a while. Really? I remember they used to have some protein drinks at some point.

8:35I believe it. I used to get them. But essentially, I mean, they're not really known for smoothies. I don't know a soul going into Starbucks and ordering a smoothie. But you know where we can get smoothies now in New York? Sick transition, Nate. Erewhon. How are we getting smoothies from Erewhon, which is based in L.A. and is a luxury grocer based in L.A. in New York? Okay, so we're kind of getting an Erewhon here in New York. So what's happening is Ronnie Feig, pronounced it wrong on my TikTok, Ronnie Feig, the founder of Kith. I pronounced it Keith in my TikTok, and I got a lot of shit for that.

9:10Well, what is Kith? Kith is a luxury streetwear brand, clothing brand. So the founder of Kith is launching a members-only club. It's like$36 ,000 a year. That's like a salary, actually. Exactly. And part of the members club, there is going to be a Erewhon tonic bar. What's a tonic bar? A smoothie bar. They call their smoothies tonics. There'll probably be other drinks, but within the club, there'll be an Erewhon smoothie. Erewhon even posted on their Instagram saying, yes, we're coming to New York, and yes, you can get the smoothies on Uber Eats and Postmates, which will make it the most expensive smoothie in the city.

9:55Of all time. Well, but that's the only way. So if you're not a member of this members-only club, you have to order it. You have to order it, yeah. So for those who are unfamiliar with Erewhon smoothies, which probably very few people are unfamiliar with. They are very, very popular smoothies that now are known for collaborating with celebrities and include like really funky, wild ingredients. But they're typically like, what,$18 to$25? Yeah. So then add on like the Uber Eats or Postmates. That's a$30 something dollar with tip. And you better be tipping for your freaking Air One smoothie because you know the condensation.

10:28Get everywhere. It's going to melt. It's going to spit. Yeah, you're going to get a$35 melted smoothie. Melted Hailey Bieber smoothie. but at least you can hold the cup and say that you did but it is interesting like i mean i do credit erwan a lot with bringing the cultural phenomenon of groceries to the masses like i think you're spot on i think one of the reasons we have curious consumers is partially because like erwan got so big and people were talking about erwan it became a scene it became a talking point and it became like a virtue signal too for these brands i think people got interested in it because of that but i i think you're spot on about about their one point that it's made more people more aware of all these new brands it put all of these brands that each individually had a bit of like an aura around them of like elitism or like performative wellness in all under one roof and by doing that like it grocery became an experience as opposed to just like an accessory of like one product.

11:31Yeah. So it did a lot. And like, you can hate on it all you want. I have been to an Erewhon. It was fine. Yeah. But I'm grateful for it in the sense that it got people talking about groceries in a way that's not just like, oh, this is food that I eat in my body. Speaking of brands, what's going on with Kraft Heinz? Tell me. So I got notes here because there's a lot going on. There's a lot. So Kraft Heinz, there was a rumor recently that they were going to be splitting up. They've only been Kraft Heinz for like a decade. since 2015. They joined forces and they're separating into two independent brands.

12:06So they're separating into two different companies, Global Taste Elevation Company and North American Grocery Company. This might be a dumb question, but like essentially Kraft and Heinz were both separate companies. A decade ago they merged and now they're splitting up. In my head that just means now they're Kraft and Heinz again. That's not what's happening. So basically there's the two companies that are splitting up they're breaking it up into sauces spreads and seasonings okay and then more staples and products like lunchables and Kraft mac and cheese and Oscar Meyer will be in the other company so North American Grocery Co will have those staples and then Global Taste Elevation Co that is a mouthful this don't go looking out for these names i don't think it'll be like no no like yeah publicly all of these brands will still exist heinz philadelphia craft mac and cheese lunchables oscar meyer they're all going to exist as they've always existed this is more of a operational strategy and um kellogg's is the same thing uh two years right they split up too they separated into kelanova and w kellogg co W.

13:20Kellogg Co., I believe, is their cereal business, which they're selling to Ferrero Rocher. So can you explain to me, like, why is this, like, a strategic... I think Legacy, CPG, look, they're all doing really fine. They're all still making billions. They're all still leading these categories. And they're still acquiring smaller brands. There's no world where these really disappear. But there's price sensitivity in the market now from consumers. There has been for many years. and now the economy is all over the place, people are very price conscious. And a lot of these businesses haven't been performing as well as the companies would like.

13:57So they're really trying to focus on optimizing each of these entities for the strengths that they have. So, you know, Kraft Heinz splitting up into this, just focusing on the sauces, condiments, spreads, just building that business and keeping it as strong as possible and focusing on what's working for those businesses and maybe not getting distracted by all this stuff. I wonder if it's a point of allocating resources because if Kraft Heinz, they have marketing budget. Yes, they split it up. But like now the marketing budget can be better dictated towards the right places. And same with R &D and acquisition budgets.

14:32And I would assume it simplifies supply chain a lot. But it's so interesting. It's like you work your way to becoming this behemoth of a company that can acquire so many different kinds of companies. is and then you get to a point where owning so many different companies it's actually a distraction i'm sure it's also mostly from like a public markets perspective where restructuring these portfolios creates a lot more financial focus so like maybe kraft times overall is not doing well but like just global taste elevation co can be doing well making right more from a public markets and stock trading perspective it makes it a lot easier and like other other companies have done this in the past recently too.

15:12ConAgra did it. Ferreira is now doing it. General Mills has also been doing this. I think it's all in the mindset of focus and stronger market performance. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Yeah, we'll see. It's a lot of movement. Great CPG shakeup is upon us. But interestingly, because we're talking about how Kraft Heinz is making itself smaller. At the same time, PepsiCo seems to be buying every brand that's out there and pouring more and more resources into brands that are already under their portfolio. So what's going on with Pepsi this week? So Pepsi just upped their stake in Celsius from around 5 % to around 11%.

15:55And also Celsius acquired Rockstar for around 500 million from Pepsi to roll it up into their portfolio. And there's also some distribution news alongside this that Celsius gets to be a part of Pepsi's distribution network and there's other synergies there. Right. I mean, and that's how Celsius got distribution in the first place. But Celsius existed 15 years ago. Nobody knew anything about it. And when Pepsi scooped it up, suddenly you can't go into a grocery store without seeing Celsius. Celsius is in like, I saw a stat that they're in like 90 something percent of stores. I think it was 98%.

16:33Celsius just bought up Rockstar, which if you had said that phrase like eight years ago, we'd be like, how did someone so small acquire someone so big? Like Rockstar was a huge company. Now nobody knows they exist. I would say at least Gen Z and younger have probably never really heard of Rockstar. And something like Celsius is everywhere. And it's so interesting to see how it's shaken up which leads us into our deep dive today energy drinks are for the girls this is an energy drink it's a great energy drink for sure i mean it's from bloom so bloom started as greens powder they're the number one greens powder in the country okay so they beat ag1 yeah exactly and now they have an energy drink because who doesn't and so we were thinking a lot about energy drinks and caffeine it's something that we're talking about all the time and we were like okay we gotta learn some more about this space because it's been around for a long time in fact there have been energy drinks since 1962 and obviously before that caffeine has existed in tea and coffee no way the stone age i don't believe you actually i what is matcha what is matcha an ancient beverage the contrary to popular belief i feel like people think that matcha is like this new thing i saw somebody post that they're like oh matcha was nothing three years ago.

17:54I'm so sorry. What do you mean? Matcha is like an ancient Japanese, like ritualistic beverage. Matcha has been really popular for a while. That's wild. Anyway, caffeine has existed forever. Yes. Energy drinks, as we know them. Relatively new. 1962. I did some research. They started in Japan post-World War II. We have a Japanese culture that, and I mean, this still rings true, is like very, very work focused. And it's like, how can we do more and more and more caffeine is a nice way to stay awake when you are working really really hard um so they had a perfect market for it and the main ingredient was something called taurine which you will still find in most energy drinks and taurine was originally from ox bile so people said bull semen i think that was like yeah this has taurine in it it has taurine in it so taurine don't worry we're not drinking ox bile or bull semen we are drinking a synthetic version of oct mile but taurine was discovered to be this like secret weapon of an energy drink ingredient and it's very effective it was originally bottled in like kind of like the og five hour energy i love those little bottles they still have small red bull bottles in japan now that still sort of look something like that yeah so that started in japan many many bottles not they were not enjoyed for like the experience it was like this is just for the purpose of more energy they didn't taste good apparently they tasted and smelled like cough syrup gross um but they got the job done enough that some guy from austria goes to japan discovers it and is like this cured my jet lag crazy brings it back to austria and he ends up launching red bull there so red bull is like the og branded energy drink and it's called that because taurine is in it ox bile slash bowl semen now we know it wasn't until 97 actually that red bull red bull entered the u.s market but they just blew up like they knew marketing so well i mean at this point it's a marketing company more than anything yeah i mean even in 97 it was a marketing company more than anything they entered really strategically through colleges.

20:14I think a lot of people are familiar with their ambassador program. So it was Red Bull took off. Monster comes later. And this is so crazy. In 2003, Monster's annual revenue was$50 million. That was like when they launched. Then eight years later, it's$8.7 billion. Like what? That is crazy. Rockstar launches in 2001. Five-hour energy We launched in 2004. So this was like early 2000s. It was like energy drinks. We're caffeinated. We're caffeinated. And we're taurined. And Red Bull's success kind of created this like template of caffeine plus taurine. Especially geared towards a male audience in particular.

20:55For male audience, for performance athletes, there was a lot like Red Bull gives you wings, obviously. They sponsored a ton of athletes. Very like more premium positioning. And that was kind of how energy drinks took off. It's crazy. Which is so, it's so wild. It's not that long ago. No. Brands are still around. Yes. Basically the same. Red Bull really hasn't changed much. No. I would say like the biggest change is, and we'll get into this more, positioning one. Yeah. And somewhat formula as in sugar-free is like one of the biggest call-outs now because Red Bull had a ton of sugar. still has a ton of sugar in their like normal format.

21:39Other thing that's interesting, if you go to any convenience store, you can, you see that there's like the Red Bull can is that like 8.5 ounce, like little guy monster came out as a monster. And this was like their positioning giant, the big, Oh my God. 16 ounce, like big boy. And then we have something like this, which we can think, we can thank Celsius for this one. We can think Celsius for this one. And what I think is so interesting is 12 ounces is actually standard for like a normal soda can. But this like tall skinny is communicating to us skinny. Yeah. And that's a lot about the messaging that had Celsius take off.

22:21So I'll let you go in there. So yeah, Celsius was starting in 2004. And pretty much from the start, it was really positioned as a weight loss drink. It said in big letters, burns calories, boosts metabolism. It wasn't really positioned as this healthy energy drink. It was positioned as a weight loss drink. Right. They say that it was specifically formulated to turn on thermogenesis, which is a process that boosts your body's metabolic rate. They've gotten rid of all this since then. But Celsius for a long time, they've been through a couple owners. They went public. They went public in 2017. So they actually, they pivoted before.

23:04They pivoted in like in 2012 is when they pivoted more from broad energy drink, where they were just getting absolutely lost in this like mix of competitors to specifically like the fitness community, not extreme athletes, like the gym goer. And around this time, too, is when like the soul cycles and let's say a lot of the girlies were going to these classes. And it was all a lot of this was positioned, especially towards younger women. And Celsius was fitting in very nicely. And it was around. I have the here it is. I have the sale data from 2012 to 2024. In 2012, they were doing eight million in annual revenue.

23:47By 2015, they were doubling that. Insane. By 2019, they were doing 75 million. And then in 2020, this is when things really took off. They were doing 130 million in annual sales. And today they're doing well over a billion. Well over a billion. Well over a billion. They are doing over three. 52-week dollar sales. They are the number three energy drink brand in the country right now. Under Red Bull and Monster. Which is crazy. Crazy. And it's only growing. And I think that's really interesting, too, because I know I think it felt like a boom. I think it felt like 2020, which we're going to keep coming back to.

24:25COVID is so tied to every trend we see in wellness. That's when energy drinks, I think, kind of like started to have their second wave, I would say. Like, obviously, early 2000s is when they all exploded. It was huge. Second wave energy drinks. I kind of think we're in our third wave right now. But second wave is like beginning of 2020. Some of the like Celsius, I would say, is one of the first to kind of come out of the woodworks and be like this more for your fitness and well-being. Not like not just you're on your truck driving, you're on the road for hours, like not as much about like the grind, the work grind, more about like fitness.

25:03And COVID has a lot to do with that because people just cared a lot more about their general wellness. But what's interesting is I think it's only continuing now. And I would say what that really is also still goes back to Red Bull, which is I don't know what it is about energy drinks, but they are so tied to influencers and social media. And like in a way that I don't think other snacks or bevs are. And I think one of the main reasons is because it's so habitual. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. This is why coffee is such a big thing. I mean, coffee is the one of the coffee and tea, the OG energy drinks.

25:36But the reason like energy drinks in particular, not everyone likes coffee, not everyone loves tea. But energy drinks, they're fun, they're bright, they're colorful, they're fruity. That's why a lot of Starbucks drinks are cold and have a bunch of inclusions in it because people don't really want dirt, water. I think we all just crave juice, actually. And I love juice. And we just want a different way to drink juice. Yeah. We're like, oh, this is juice, but it has zero sugar and it makes me have more energy and whatever it is. I think the habitual nature of the energy drink, the fact that you drink it every morning or multiple times a day, makes it so easy to tie to influencers.

26:12Also, I think, again, thanks to Red Bull, it ties it to like energy gives you a better life. It makes you perform better. It makes you happier, whatever it is. I think something, too, about, like, Celsius positioning and Bloom's positioning is that I feel like it's also made it more, made energy drinks more accessible to a wider audience, too, who might be put off by. Like masculine branding. Masculine branding. Or even, like, this will burn fat branding. I actually think Celsius was the this will burn fat brand. No, it was. But that wasn't working for them. Right. Yeah. More accessible could also reframe, be more exploitative.

26:51Like, yes, now women feel represented because there are pastel colors in the energy drink aisle. But also, I kind of think it's just like exploitative. Like, it's like, oh, here's another audience we can try and capture. Yeah. It's the same thing. And that's what's really interesting is like Alani New, which we actually haven't even really touched on, other than mentioning that Celsius bought Alani New. Yep, a couple bill. For a couple bill. And actually, a lot of Celsius's growth has been attributed recently to Alani New. Their retail sales surged 129 % in your rear in the past year, which is crazy.

27:25But Alani still only controls about under 5 % of the market right now. But it's going up year over year. It's going up. And Alani knew, I think, reached women even more than Celsius did and continues to reach women. I do think that that was one of the biggest shifts in energy drinks is, hey, we're going to position this for a much bigger audience. that was a that was a huge turning point and it's it's been really interesting like watching that trickle down from like these energy drinks are catering to women for the most part to now catering to young women specifically i would say yeah like if you look at a lani new again it's not just feminine it's like very playful it's youthful and you're seeing it in like if you are at all on tiktok and watching like girls in college do get ready with me they are drinking But what's really interesting to me is it's just positioning.

28:21Like I was trying to get granular with this and be like, okay, maybe the ingredients are different because they're claiming that they are more suited for women or they're not claiming that, but like that's the positioning. Right. And I'm like, okay, so maybe it's more like a certain ingredients. No, it is almost identical. The ingredient label to, to sugar-free Red Bull. I will say it's sugar-free for some reason. The aesthetic gives this vibe of like more natural. It's not. I actually discovered Alani knew a few years ago from a fitness YouTuber I watch and love. Her name is Whitney Simmons. And like she was talking about them a lot.

28:54I think she has her own flavor with them now. That's how they took off. They were actually started by a female fitness guru and it was marketed. And this is also an interesting part of the energy drink like timeline, I guess, is switching from being just like, as we said, like for truck drivers, whatever, to specifically not just for fitness, but for as a pre-workout. Like this like rebrand is like, this is a pre-workout. Alani New definitely catered positioning wise to younger women. Gives this like aura of health, but it is a Red Bull. They have way more fun flavors. Yeah, all of these are the same.

29:29Way prettier colors. Effectively. I think like Celsius did a good job of being like, this is more than just an energy drink. It's also all of these vitamins. Red Bull also has vitamin B. Like Red Bull also has pantothenic acid, which is another kind of vitamin B. like they all they all have almost the same b6 and b12 yes because that's b6 and b12 also are energizing ingredients um so they've been included on the labels of like the og og energy drinks but they weren't advertised like red bull wasn't saying this is also a like micronutrient supplement in some way but they but the alani news and the celsius's of the world are and And it's really effective.

30:11Yeah, I kind of feel like Celsius buying Alani New has allowed Celsius to go back to more masculine positioning. Because they were reaching women, were reaching women. And then acquire Alani New. They're like, okay, that's the one for the girls. Now we're going to go back to our more masculine branding so that we can own the whole market. Right. If they want to better compete with Monster and Red Bull. They need to be masculine. They need to have some part of them be a little bit more of that masculine energy. I just never thought I would be thinking this much about gendered packaging. But it's very real.