Have we reached peak function?

0:00Welcome back to another episode of the Express Checkout podcast. Jenna, it's been a minute since we yapped about the news. I know. We've had so many fun interviews and we continue to have a stacked interview schedule. Oh yeah. It's super exciting. But we were like, shoot, like the people need to know what's going on. And there's some good stuff going on, like across the board, good and maybe less exciting, but still exciting news. There's always something to like be excited about and something to maybe criticize a little bit. And that's what we're really here for. Have you tried anything recently that you like that's not one of the things we're going to talk about i oh i finally tried joyride candy i got some so funny because i like you talk about it a lot i know i think it's a very impressive brand i've talked about the brand side i've never actually tried it it's very good they're good the sour strips which i'm assuming are their best seller were my favorite product from them that i got a rainbow one i got a like a blue raspberry one that was really good they were fun they were great and like i finished the bag and i was like oh is that bad and obviously no because there's no sugar in it it's great love that's not no sugar my problem with those is always like all of the better for you candies i love them but they all have a really high fiber and i forget and my tummy is like never happy like for someone who doesn't get any fiber that's probably a good thing but i have like a naturally high fiber diet and it's never a good move it's i'm a bean girl through and through and so i shouldn't be having the high fiber products but that's a fun answer for sure on honestly also on the better for you candy train hall pass oh my god hall pass you mean this one that's in front of me i'm shocked you still have any in front of me because they sent us three of each skew and i'm done uh it took less than a week i guess we should give some context hall pass is the next brand under the umbrella of Medici brands, which is the parent company of David.

2:02So it also uses that fat ingredient called EPG, which basically is like not digested by the body. So it feels like fat, it tastes like fat, but then it doesn't have the calories of fat. And so Hall Pass is the candy version of that. And there are peanut butter cups, like an M &M dupe, and these peanut wafers. They're kind of like a Kit Kat with peanut in them. It's the best product. It's so good. That one's so good. You're right. It is the best one. Although I really like the peanut butter cups too. They are so good. They're no sugar. They're 70 calories for two full size peanut butter cups, which is a serving size I can get behind.

2:42They're just amazing. If you don't like artificially sweet stuff, it's probably not your vibe. If you do like me, then they're really good. I'm upset how much I'm enjoying them. It's very good. It tastes like a Reese's peanut butter cup. Yeah. It's like exactly like a Reese's peanut butter cup. It's insane. So that's what I have been liking this week. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. Oh, I was also sick this week. Oh, yeah. And I really enjoyed, we got samples of something called Subi soup. Oh, yeah. T-S-U-B-I. They're like instant soup blocks. They're mostly miso soup, but they have like, it's like a freeze-dried thing that you just put hot water over and they have like actual it's not just the broth there's also mushrooms in them and tofu and it's so good i think that's gonna be a weekly pickups this week so spoiler oh that's a good one yeah yeah it's really good many of them i'm planning on trying riff which is a new chef driven effectively like a like a better hamburger helper you know kind of so yeah they're they're meal kits and the base is pasta with some like sauce situation and they give suggestions of protein you could add or produce you could add are you gonna try it with stuff or are you gonna have it on its own i'm gonna make one on its own because i want to just try it i want to like experience just the product and then i'll probably get like i might get like some chicken sausages i like i like just sort of grilling up some chicken sausages in a thing it's really easy see what they suggest it's on the box it's on the box and it's suggested by one of the co-founders which is daniel hum aka the chef of 11 madison park it's crazy really cool it's gonna be so good i if it's not that'd be so disappointing uh you'll have to report back i will report back and if it is bad we will be yelling at somebody we'll go to we'll go to 11 madison park knock on the door.

4:44Anyways, Jana, we should talk about some of the missed news from the past few weeks. Some of the launches that we're excited about, that we're a little bit more curious about. But I would love to start with a brand we actually just mentioned, David. So the infamous David Protein. Indeed. They have launched protein milkshakes in two different flavors, chocolate and vanilla. And I think they are their best product by far. I think it is a wildly impressive protein shake, which is kind of crazy because there are an ungodly amount of protein shakes on the market from all different brands, from brands you wouldn't expect to brands you would expect.

5:25And these shakes have basically the same macros as the bars, 140, 150 calories, 30 grams of protein, less than a gram of sugar. And they also, of course, have EPG, the fat replacement system that David, that Medici owns. And I think that is the key ingredient in this product that makes it so good. It tastes like melted ice cream. It tastes like a milkshake rather than a really good protein shake. I think that's the biggest thing for this product because it does have very similar macros to a lot of the Fairlife products. Like if you look at a Fairlife shake it has around 150 calories it has very little sugar uh and it has around 30 grams of protein the biggest difference is going to be i think the texture i mean i i think fair life is still really good but but these david shakes are are crazy in the texture it's it's it's kind of it's it's wild to me they are really good i agree and i was definitely skeptical we were writing about this for the newsletter before we tried them and I was saying how they're not competing on macros anymore because as you said like brands like Fairlife also Nuri Slate all have the 30 gram protein 150 calorie or somewhere around their nutrition label so they had to compete on taste and I was like how can it be that different honestly I will say upon trying it I agree that the mouthfeel is significantly different.

6:58And I almost would put it in a different category than the other ones we're talking about because those like ultra filtered shakes, the reason that they are able to be so high protein for such low calories is because they're made out of ultra filtered milk, which means that it's pretty much just milk stripped down to protein, like no carbs, no fat. And so they're not fatty. They're not rich or creamy. They're not milchic. These are milkshakes. These are milkshakes. They are really, really thick. These are 100 % milkshakes. I don't know if it's funny because, yes, that makes them a more enjoyable product, but it also makes them a product I wouldn't have that much.

7:35They almost feel too indulgent. Even though, obviously, there's no sugar and whatever, I don't want it in the middle of the day. It's like a dessert. Maybe put it in your coffee, but I wouldn't have a whole thing. Oh, it'd be good in the coffee. But, I mean, whatever they do, they better do it dang well, because the other news that I guess we didn't really cover in since we've taken a pause is that they raised 250 million dollars at a 2.2 billion dollar valuation crazy in what like 24 months too also notice two years yeah we're speaking in baby baby terms we really do speak in baby terms it's so bizarre um yeah no it was founded in 2024 like crazy that is wildly impressive it'll be the fastest any cpg company has crossed the two billion dollar mark yeah obviously groons was a billion dollar brand in a really short period of time wasn't a two billion dollar brand and i feel like medici brands is going to try to ride the wave solo a lot longer before they even 100 somewhat entertain being bought like especially because they own their ingredient manufacturer they want to be big they're not going to have like a unilever come in and and buy them i would be shocked no if anything like could see them really going the path that chobani is going down right now where they're building this bigger portfolio brands obviously david and medici in this case is is building these brands themselves rather than acquiring but i could see them going the acquisition route probably in a few years to just sort of extend the breadth of their their reach within this like better for you low good macro space and they could probably take some of these brands at epg or reformulate in a certain way to make them even more uh more macro efficient um so i could see them really being like alongside the Chobani just very different Chobani is obviously very just like hey we make dairy and that's well they make dairy but then yeah they acquire Daily Harvest and they acquired La Cologne so I do agree I think that they could do something really interesting if they start acquiring in like very different spheres that they could extend products from those brands lines into an EPG product as well like there's a lot of interesting stuff they could do I mean, right now they're just building an EPG platform brand, basically.

10:07Like, how can we make candy with EPG? How can we make bars, shakes, ice cream? Chips. They're coming out with chips. Yeah. So we're going to see them really just employ this fat ingredient, like, across the board in as many different ways as they can. But there will come a time when, like, their brand alone isn't enough. And, yeah, you're right. They'll probably start acquiring. So that's on that launch. It's kind of crazy. There's a lot going on there. But another, I guess, second time founder, you know, Peter Real, RxBar to David. And now Mike Cesario, who is known as the founder of Liquid Death.

10:47He is partnering with Sazerac, which is a giant international spirits company, to launch Mr. Fancy, which is a ready-to-drink sparkling wine, and they're positioning it as America's bubbly. And this is a very, I kind of think it's a very boring launch from Mike Cesario, founder of Liquid Death, one of like the most interesting brands to launch in the past like 20 years that have had crazy marketing and very interesting positioning has sort of taken the CPG world by storm and is in every bar. it's in every I think they're in every Live Nation concert venue like Liquid Death's whole shtick was giving people a way to look like they're drinking without actually drinking and it's grown since then and it's become a lot more and it's become this whole platform around drinks but it was so vibrant and so exciting and this new brand is I mean it looks nice I bet it's good, but it's like, it's very generic looking canned wine.

12:04There's other wines out there that are a little bit more exciting. Um, and look, I said this in the newsletter, we were talking about this, like maybe this restraint on the branding and the positioning, maybe it was intentional. Maybe it was Sazerac's whole thing. Maybe he got a good payday out of this, but it's just a very interesting like next brand to come out with after doing liquid death for over a decade at this point yeah it's interesting that you're so like i don't want to say anti it but you're not that excited about it because i actually think this is a really smart launch um and that's what we love discourse yeah i okay i think it's smart for a few reasons.

12:52One is the liquid death playbook that he so brilliantly introduced to the world of having this really out there branding, doing these crazy marketing stunts. It's been played out so much now and by so many different brands. I actually think if he tried to come out with something that had that aggressive of a stance, we would be a little turned off by it because it's almost become too much of a trope in cpg that we're like oh another brand that's doing things differently than everyone else like okay i think this is a really smart brand in that it's like it is pretty basic it's a can canned beverage i don't i don't really think i've seen bubbly in a can i've seen canned wine but not there's hand champagne and this is there's um um femme wines has a canned champagne, a canned bubbly wine that sold nationwide, but it's also, um, they, they have an exclusive partnership with the United Airlines.

13:53I flew to Greece and there was like 20 honeymooners on the plane. And then me and my wife were just on it, but we pretended and they ran out of, they ran out of sparkling wine. They ran out of the cans. Wow. Okay. Well, they need some competition but there's some other yeah ones as well but i i do i do think the canned wine space is a very exciting category yeah and i think in particular i am excited by canned champagne well i know we can't call it champagne but like champagne per second unless it's from champagne uh yes and i think it still has the light touch of early days liquid death with it's called mr fancy like it's making fun of itself it's very like oh look at me mr fancy holding my cans bubbly i think it's cheeky i think it's smart i want to see how it tastes because i don't know the other thing i think is interesting about it is the timing and i don't think they did this on purpose but the champagne region of france where champagne comes from that you can actually call champagne is really struggling this year because as we all know everyone who pursued a euro summer came back complaining that they faced like the worst heat wave.

15:14The extreme heat waves this summer brought about lots of climate issues, including droughts. They also had to cut the grape harvest early because of spring frost. Lots of like weird climate change happening. The production output was really limited this year. So I'm like, okay, kind of a fun time to come in with something that is also meant to play in the same sphere as champagne when champagne is notoriously having a hard time and when consumers are learning more about all of the environmental conditions that have to be perfect for champagne to be produced. To be like, this is an American-made sparkling wine that you can have, I think is really interesting.

15:57Also, just fun fact, because I was getting a little nerdy while looking at the champagne problems, literally. Has someone written an article called Champagne Problems? They should. But while I was looking into the champagne problems, I learned that the grapes were so stressed by the heat this year that they had higher sugar concentration. And when you ferment a grape, you're fermenting the sugar in it into alcohol, which means that the champagne that will come out of this year's harvest is higher alcohol content. It's 15%, which is usually 13%. And that's pretty significant. So lots going on in the champagne world, which makes Mr.

16:42Fancy even more interesting of a launch to me. I'm excited to try it. I've been very impressed with a lot of the canned wine brands that have come out over the past few years. There was a time where they really weren't good. When you got something that like wine not in a glass bottle, like in a bag, in a whatever, It was like not known as quality stuff. But now there's a lot of really good canned wine companies that are doing really well as well. Like Archer Ruse has been growing and growing. Unfem Wine, Maker Wine. I have a spark. There's Pizza Wine, a canned sparkling red. Another great canned wine company.

17:23So I'm excited to try this. We should have a wine party for the launch, Mike. DM us. But in non-alcoholic news, Tom Holland's Bureau, a really crazy, fast-growing brand, they launched their Kingston Gold Pilsner in a glass bottle. And they're the first craft MA beer in the US to launch in a glass bottle, which is really cool. I feel like Biro is just going to keep on growing. It's very, very impressive what they're doing. And one of the things we were thinking about when like, okay, why launch this? One, I think it gives them a little bit more of a premium feel and look to the brand. Beyond the gold, bronzy can that they have that does look very premium, glass is also very nice sometimes to have.

18:26It can look really nice. You get the amber color, you get the liquid coming through, it can look really nice. The other side of this is that this is definitely leaning hard into their push into on-premise opportunities. So they can keep growing the brand and getting more market share and more eyeballs on the product. So switching the glass feels a little bit more premium. It's offering distributors and restaurants and retailers and bars just like a new opportunity to sell this product in a different format. And really, I think, goes with the vibe that they're selling. And the category of NA beer, still relatively new.

19:06I think it's like the only part of the NA market that's really interesting to me. And we've talked about this before. There's athletic brewing, there's rationale beer, and all the big houses are also making their own NA concoctions. There's Corona, there's Guinness, there's Heineken 00. Every beer company has an NA beer. But domestic NA beer volumes are still projected to grow around 20 % annually over the next three years. But a lot of the brands are not really chasing that premium end of the market. A lot of them are doing more either low end or middle tier. I mean, athletic is a premium brand, but it's like it's very casual and nothing is really leaning into that premium market.

19:56And I think Biro can really take a lot of that market share and really own that space, especially with somebody like Tom Holland putting all of his weight and now all of his money behind it because he is currently the highest grossing actor of all time. That's crazy. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Tom Holland, I think, has grossed across all of his movies close to like$15 billion. Oh my God, and he's still so young. Yeah, it's such a smart brand, and it's a great point, too. I feel like every time a very interesting craft premium brand pops up, people are like, well, if a bigger brand could duplicate the product, why is it that exciting?

20:41And this is a perfect example. Like there's certain brand equity and premium, it is premiumization that cannot be done by the bigger brands. Like Heineken just can't do that anymore. They already have such an established cultural identity in consumers' minds. They can't reestablish just like suddenly we're the premium option for people who are looking to have a non-alcoholic drink. Like that's just not going to work. And so a new brand sometimes has to come in and shake things up and go for glass, even though not necessarily the easiest thing to produce or ship, not always the most sustainable, yada, yada, yada.

21:21But it makes a lot of sense in terms of premiumizing the brand and offering different distribution opportunities. So it should be really cool. Yeah. The one interesting thing about beer is you need to come out with a new brand to enter a new space. You can't just take a brand and elevate it in some capacity because there's so much, as you're saying, brand equity around these different brands that you cannot remove from the brand or elevate or you can downgrade, I guess. But you can't really shift where it is. Absolutely. Well, the next story I wanted to talk about is… Cookies. We're talking about cookies, Jenna.

22:05The next story I want to talk about is cookies. Woo! of the Girl Scout variety. Oh, fast. Because Girl Scouts, which very rarely innovate, honestly, are coming out with two new cookies for the 2027 lineup, which you can actually only get online. But they're really interesting, not because there are two new flavors, but because both of them are partnerships with other brands. One is a dog treat made with the company Bark. So smart. So smart. If you're like, you know, on a diet, on a GLP-1 perhaps, and you're using that excuse when a sweet, innocent Girl Scout comes up to you and you're like, I can't have this cookie, your dog can.

22:46Also, just the kind of person who maybe is spending on Girl Scout cookies might also be a dog owner who wants to spend a lot on their dog. That's me. For the listeners, I'm raising my hand. Yeah, and like, you want to participate in something with your dog, obviously. Yeah, I want to give Ginger Girl Scout cookies. That sounds amazing because I want to give myself Girl Scout cookies. I'm kind of shocked it took so long. Like, that is such a smart collaboration. And then the other one we're really excited about is a new allergy-friendly oatmeal cookie called Sparkables. I have some edits on that name.

23:22Made with the cookie company Partake. And Partake is so interesting. So Partake has built its entire brand on being free of the top nine major allergens. They were founded in 2016. And that was kind of like a piece of allergy-friendly products coming out. All the gluten-free products, more of the nut-free products coming out. And it hit national retail in 2024. But since then, it's really brilliantly maintained relevance. They've been co-branding and supplying ingredients to other big brands. they made the oatmeal dream pie flavor with Ben and Jerry's in 2023 which is a permanent non-dairy flavor so a fully again allergen friendly flavor they have deals with JetBlue and Doubletree those Doubletree cookies you know them you love them they also have an allergy friendly version by Partake and so they're really like licensing their allergy friendly credibility to other companies and now they're doing that for Girl Scouts and I just think this is such a smart example of a brand that's creatively moving past that ceiling that we often think is there of you reach mass market retail distribution and then what, they're giving a lot of examples of what that then what can look like.

24:38Yeah. And I'm excited. Well, I could try the dog one. It's probably human grade. But I'm excited to try. I feel like it is. Yeah. I mean, if Shaggy can eat Scooby Snacks, why can't I? And these are the questions we have to ask. these are the most important questions. No, I'm really excited for this. I'm really excited to keep... I love that I keep seeing partake in the news. It's been so cool seeing this brand grow and be everywhere. And I will be buying Sparkables, which I don't mind the name. It's a Girl Scout cookie. It feels like they were like, what would Gen Alpha want a cookie to be called?

25:20And they asked ChatGPT and the answer was Sparkables. Gen Alpha's like two. Like, what do they know? No, they're not. They're not? Jen Alpha was born in 2010, right? Oh, my God. I think they were. Stressing me out. Sorry. They're at least 10. Maybe they're not 16. Whatever. Anyway. Well, do you know what doesn't stress me out? Do you know what does really excite me, Jenna? Ice cream? Ice cream! Cookies and ice cream? It's amazing. So Alex ice cream, it's your dairy ice cream brand, great ice cream brand. They have some damn good flavors like the honeycomb one. That one's really good. They have a single serve ice cream product, their culture cup that has been, they have a bunch of flavors and they just launched a collaboration with purely Elizabeth.

26:17So they made, it's gluten-free ice cream. It's clean label. It's prone prebiotic. it's a cereal ice cream base under a crackable strawberry shell sprinkled with some purely elizabeth granola clusters i think it sounds it does sound amazing we've tried it it's delicious yeah i'm like didn't you try it i did it's amazing and their culture cups are so good i mean they launched them back they launched it back in what early 2025 sold out went viral and And I think it's probably their, I bet it's their highest selling product. I really do think it was specifically that launch that helped them take off so much because the pints are fantastic, but pints kind of blend into a sea of pints.

27:04And the culture cups were actually this really innovative product. Like there aren't many single serve ice cream cups other than like those awful ones with the wooden spoons that I actually can't. I love those. I hate a wooden spoon. It gives me the heebie jeebies. I can't do it. Same. What if you get a splinter? right a tongue splinter no less but these uh were the first like better for you single serve ice cream that at least i saw in that cup format obviously there's like bars that are better for you like ice cream bars that are better for you but yeah i think that is really why they did so well yeah and especially now with like glp1 and people really thinking about the serving sizes of what they're having and wanting still indulgent treats that they can enjoy, but doesn't feel like they need to go beyond that single serving.

27:55This is a great product for that kind of consumer. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a hilariously good and bad product for me because I can't have one. You know, I'm not on a GLP one because I opened that box and I'm like, oh, I just finished one. I must go get my second one. I always have another one, which makes it bad for me and great for Alex. Those velocities are flying. Oh, yeah. You're a great customer. I'm a great customer. This is really good. Yeah. But this is also a really interestingly timed launch. Yes. Again, launches or like a collaboration product takes so long. There's no way this was planned.

28:35But this was interestingly timed because purely Elizabeth was just in the news. I guess now two or three weeks ago because they got acquired by Ferrero. Sure did. This made a lot of sense because Ferrero also just bought W.K. Kellogg. Well, not just. Last year? Last year. Bought W.K. Kellogg. Recently enough, to be honest. Yeah, their entire cereal business. So clearly Ferrero is trying to get into the cereal and granola business. But yeah, purely Elizabeth was acquired. So interesting timing to be doing a collab product. Very interesting timing, but it's very fun. So that was a bunch of launches that we are excited about.

29:18And now we're getting onto a list of launches that we're a little critical of. And this is the fun stuff. So the first one is Beyond Meat has launched a few different things in the past few weeks, actually. And every time I've been like, what is going on? So Beyond Meat, as in the meat alternative that skyrocketed and then absolutely declined, it's seen six consecutive quarters of revenue decline, including a 15 % drop last quarter to its lowest quarterly total in seven years. And they have been threatened to be delisted on NASDAQ. There's so much going wrong. I sold my stock at the peak. I'm just saying.

30:03I bought an IPO and I sold at the peak, baby.

30:09Well, they're struggling and they clearly don't really know what to do next because the first thing that they did was they have partnered with Milk Bar and this has potential. So Milk Bar is a famous bakery chain by pastry chef Christina Tosi, who has one of the best chef's table episodes I've ever seen. Bakery chain known for its incredibly indulgent birthday cakes and truffles and they partner with Beyond Meat to launch their first savory products in many years. Two limited edition vegetarian obviously vegetarian items a sausage and egg spiral and a meatball parm roll. So these are two like baked goods with Beyond products inside of them sold at the milk bar stores.

30:55I do not understand this. I think that a viral foodie brand could do a lot to move a product and validate a product. But when that brand is known for its indulgent birthday cakes, I don't really understand what it's doing to help beyond communicate their messaging around health. No. I mean, like if they went to Starbucks and was like, we'll replace impossible at Starbucks, which at this point, the impossible branding at Starbucks is just like, people just know it as the the impossible egg sandwich it's like not a branded thing why not go to a starbucks why not go do do duncan why not do like blank street and offer breakfast sandwiches at blank street like i this is not going to affect milk bar at all like i don't think this is going to taint anything i think people are like what is happening i i think what is happening here because like it's it's a it's an odd partnership it's so weird i also i'm like if you're gonna do this just make it vegan and it's vegetarian oh yeah it's gonna buy like literally who is buying this i do not understand and i don't think people go to milk bar on an occasion when they want something savory like i i'm not going for breakfast to milk bar no i mean it's not even breakfast meatball parm roll what this isn't great i don't understand i don't know what's gonna happen there And then the same week that they announced that, they also announced that they are launching their Beyond Immerse sparkling protein drinks, which we have spoken about a lot, in Air One.

32:29Sure. Fascinating. All 14 Air One locations in SoCal are getting these sparkling protein drinks, which is the brand's first brick and mortar retail push past New York. The sub-brand, I guess. the the air one thing like really again i'm so confused because they're clearly trying to reach a more premium consumer but i just like again don't really understand who the sparkling protein drink is for beyond's whole thing was being mass they were mass market yes and now they're like let's go back to being as exclusive as possible with this protein drink that nobody actually wants uh it's i don't know we tried it maybe they reformulated but the last four they have reformulated they have reformed okay we got to try the new one because the last one we tried was bad bad like one of the really one of the worst things i've tried yeah i don't really see that getting off the shelves at air one and then this last week they continued on their roll of weird launches with their their star i guess i'll say their phytosphere portfolio uh so much ai generated imagery on that website by the way it's so the branding is so bad so this is a new portfolio a new line of products under beyond which includes beyond star matter which is their protein powder beyond star cut which is their jerky bars and a veggie burger that part makes sense beyond veggie they they gave up on the star on the star theme for that they were like just don't worry about it meteor any anything whatever beyond meteor that's pretty good oh that's good meteor but like meteor okay but this is the thing they're trying not to be needy and that but i'm so confused because they launched a jerky bar like just last year beyond ceo ethan brown said that he wanted to focus on quote producing food that doesn't imitate anything so he knows that trying to compete against animal-based protein was not gonna win for them and veggie the beyond veggie product seems like the right angle it's made with whole ingredients kind of reminiscent of the brand actual veggies which is one of my favorite veggie burger burger products but star matter and star cut both are imitating animal-based protein products star cut is literally marketed as jerky during the height of the meat stick craze also crazy time go watch my video so true star matter which is their protein powder also is competing with every whey powder on the market um i just don't understand this i think it's so out of touch I think phytosphere, phyto meaning plant, is supposed to be this galactical new age.

35:38All it's giving me is metaverse. It sounds like the metaverse to me. It sounds like, I don't know, it's just really out of touch to me. Yeah, it's giving that... It sounds like SpaceX. I just don't like it. It sounds like a tech company. Yeah. And the branding is just not matching what they're putting out there. It's so bad. It's a literal black box for starters. And if the whole point is supposed to be transparent ingredients and more whole ingredients and emphasizing the vegetable, then why aren't you showing the product on the box? Maybe they'll send us some so we can try it and see what's up.

36:20Or who knows? I don't know if I want it. I'll try it. I'll try it for us. I'm a little concerned. I just think like when the biggest critique of the alt-meat craze has always been that people are like, what does lab made mean? And like, I don't even know what's in it. Then why would you further literally alienate the product by having this like celestial theme? Yes. You're right. And literal black boxes where you can't see what the product looks like. Like, this is just taking the consumer farther away. I wish that they launched something that looked like a line that was more like actual veggies line of whole veggie products.

37:03Honestly, look, instead of trying to innovate, which maybe will work, you know, jury's still out on that, maybe go on an acquisition spree and, like, combine the various other actual veggie type companies out there. And for our listeners, actual veggies, the brand actual veggies, not the phrase actual veggies. Well, both. And well, both. Yeah. But like there, there has to be like a good collection of these brands that could just be under the beyond portfolio that would make sense for sort of the direction that they're trying to take it now. But this just doesn't feel like a fully thought out plan.

37:45It almost. and i i don't know how they'll take this but it does feel like you you put it into claude and this is what it spit out both from the visuals and from the the positioning and i know real people worked on this but like it it doesn't feel we don't know maybe we don't know i mean i don't imagine they have the most luxurious budget to work with right now when they're close to bankrupt. So it's just upsetting to see that such... It was a company that was so innovative for its time and had so much potential and I still believe in alternative me as having potential in the future. Yeah. Just to see them kind of like truly crash and burn.

38:27This is coming from someone who is rooting for them. I'm just sad. Me too. I wouldn't advise them to do this. Me too. In news that's less depressing though. Yeah, this is not depressing, but this is, I think this is, this is out of left field. So we've reached peak function, people. Yeah. Not peak protein, not peak, no, peak function. All the functions. Because Folgers, a jam smuckers brand, um, aka the coffee that's been in your grandparents' cabinet since the late 1960s, is launching. Wait, literally. Literally. and they haven't really changed their branding too much um they're launching their first ever instant functional coffee blends in november including protein focus boost boost is apparently they add b12 to it sure jan um and prebiotics and i've been like going back and forth about like does this mean we've reached a peak of all this stuff or does this mean we've actually reached a point of saturation in the market where these functions are sticking around that the legacy players are like oh we don't need to acquire we'll just build this ourselves because like we're going to make money off this we don't have to worry we don't have to have somebody else do it we will do it ourselves maybe who knows i do kind of feel like this is peak if all the legacy players are doing these kind of functions um well it's also worth interrogating especially before you get into the next piece of news here like what does peak mean true i feel like we throw that around all the time does that mean that it's like when we say there's a war going on i think that's a little more serious sorry not not a not a like pew pew war but like like a like a peanut butter oh like a peanut butter and jelly war it's jenna not not the war in the middle I was like, um, I don't know about that one.