Edible Cogitations
Edible Cogitations
of rappers and shrooms, rising rums, easy bake gen
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Peek into the Future 🔮
Spoonful of News
Today’s Snax Bites
Rolling with the Shroomies
Rum Rising: Cult of Casalú
Is Foxtrot the new Trader Joe’s?
Easy Bake Oven Generation
Curation of new products
PRIME has officially been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it has been purposely marketing its caffeine energy drink to children.
We wrote about the hypocrisy of PRIME panic, as other BigFood has run rampant for decades freely advertising to children.
We highlighted current government regulations that address this as industry whole, for example policies in Mexico and Chile that have seen success post implementation.
Zero Acre Farms oil has announced a partnership with Shake Shack, debuting their cleaner frying oil.
Will be tested at NYC Shake Shack locations specifically —
Battery Park
Hudson Yards
Last year’s $37M included some restaurant chain giants like Chipotle
Founded in 2020, their oil is made from rain-fed sugarcane plants.
Belli Welli made its official debut at Target, now available at the coveted retailer both online/nationwide as LOW FODMAP continues to rise in demand.
We wrote about this in our in-depth deep dive earlier this year.
DoorDash announced 8 new grocery partners—here’s a list of them.
It also announced extending partnership with ALDI to expand alcohol delivery
Mondelez has shutdown the brands it started via its own incubator arm, will redirect all efforts to invest in emerging startups it seeks to potentially acquire down the road. Hooray for consolidation of food systems!
Heineken UK acquires minority stake in ready-to-drink brand, Served.
Like we predicted back in 2020, the RTD boom is showing no signs of stopping.
Even in 2023, RTD remains king—we seem to have figured out, convenience cannot be un-learned!
Pepsi invest $175M in Instacart on its way to IPO—why you may ask?
Since pandemic, Pepsi has been doubling down on DTC as it seeks to have more control over their relationship with consumers:
Launched Snacks.com and Pantryshop.com
Experimented on logistics, investing in micro fulfillment.
Of course, Instacart also named Pepsi one of its biggest advertisers, so to be fair, they’ve already been investing via buying ad space.
In the French being the French—Carrefour is saying a big FUCK YOU to SnaxDaddy—think Pepsi, Nestlé, Mondelez etc. In favor of consumers, and ultimately the retailer itself, Carrefour has debuted product signs displayed next to items experiencing shrinkflation but simultaneous rise in price, in efforts to shame suppliers.
After news broke, Australians are sounding the alarm too, why aren’t ALL grocers adopting this behavior? There’s power in numbers?
Image via Reuters. We’ve discussed the rise of groceries as the new third space—but we could never imagine, grocers that double as golf courses? Golf grocers as a psyop to have more men do groceries—God is a woman!
FreshTake is set to debut in 2024 and will feature:
Five-hole golf green
Seating for 130, two outdoor balconies and a mezzanine
In-store café and BBQ smokehouse
In-store beer and wine bar
Think of this like an edible bookmark tab.
We’ve been obsessing about the non-sensical, nowstalgic content from the duo that is 2girls1bottl3 and The Face just released this incredible deep dive into what the account is really about.
May I present to you—the snackification of crème brûlée?
Obsessed with this Ghia commercial by Northdale Films—nothing is a bigger testament of a powerful brand than when others can replicate the message for you!
A food account posts daily meals using the same Y2K, teen desk vibes, equal parts chaotic and comforting.
The reason why so many UK pubs share the same name—retribution.
Rolling with the Shroomies
Wiz Khalifa’s long awaited Mistercap’s debuted today—making its “functional” mushroom growing kits available across the US, featuring shitake, oyster and lion’s mane. For those who are new here, we actually unpacked the shroom boom and said function of these mushrooms back in 2020, we even spoke to VICE about how they permeated everything from our meals to our wellness rituals and last year we predicted the rise of the homegrown mushroom kits like Smallhold in our Midyear Report. Paired with the celebrity boom across all categories of food and beverage, it should come to no surprise then that Wiz Khalifa would announce last summer the creation of Mistercap, a psilocybin and wellness company in partnership with Canadian co. Red Light Holland.
Earlier this year, Red Light Holland launched their own line of “functional” mushroom kits, now available in over 120+ retail points in Canada, with the exact same product line, called “Happy Caps.” It’s safe to say that Wiz Khalifa’s brand basically took that same product whilst slapping on an incredibly trendy and colorful branding, on par with most Millennial DTC brands that have launched in the US over the years, genius! The question is— why even bother? Prior to its debut, Mistercap launched a line of merchandise, from caps to hoodies, all very much in line with that same psychedelic aesthetic, a nod to magic mushrooms, even when they are not, very much a tactic used by other products like “Psychedelic Water.”
Wiz Khalifa started Mistercaps as a psilocybin wellness company at a time where out of the 50 states, only Oregon and Washington DC have fully decriminalized its use, and just 5 other states with specific decriminalized locations. They also have specifically partnered with Fungi Foundation, the first global charity dedicated exclusively to the study and conservation of fungi—which leads us to believe, is he playing the long game? In the comments left on the his most recent announcement post, it’s clear that most folks are associating these products with magic shrooms, from the use of 😶🌫️ and 🔥 emojis, to psychedelic GIFs.
Like we reported last week, the State of California just took a step further to decriminalize psilocybin, a bill that if passed, would go in effect in 2025. Like mushrooms, Wiz Khalifa may just be the fun-gus among us, after all, spores are known for their thick walls, adapt for dispersal and survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavorable conditions—playing the long game.
Rum Rising: Cult of Casalú
Not since the days of Margaritaville or Corona’s “Find Your Beach” campaign has a brand been able to capture the essence of ‘tropical vibes’ like up-and-coming RTD rum seltzer brand, Casalú. Based in Miami and founded by a trio of immigrants, Gabriel Gonzalez, Ricardo Sucre and Gustavo Darquea, went from what started out as a keg experimentation, while trying to recreate a drink that felt more a representation of the modern Latin American, to bubbling up a cult cocktail in itself, effectively filling in a massive gap in between the White Claw and Modelo silos.
By the time Casalú had turned one, it was already finding itself in the hands of Latin American music sensations like Tainy, featured in music videos of hit songs by the likes of Alvarito Diaz, musicians like Feid and Manuel Turizo make appearances on their socials and even became the beverage of choice at the Billboard Latin Music Awards after party last year. To celebrate, the young brand took their loyal Tropicaleros (how they affectionally describe their community) to a tiny island off the beach coast of Miami—looking through the pictures, you can barely find any shots of pristine beach and relaxation which is a common trope in ads like Corona’s, instead you find groups of people enjoying the moments whilst sipping Casalú, their smiles are ear to ear, and they are all so close to each other, it could easily feel like they are pulled together with a string—a feeling they’ve dubbed as Tropicalation.
Rum and seltzer is a common scene in Latin America, good quality rums actually are favored by a little dilution, and it’s even becoming increasingly an notable combination in the US, to no surprise as Hispanic influences continues to manifest itself in massive shifts of consumer preference—consider how Modelo became America’s number one beer. But a simple search of “rum seltzer” exemplifies the problem with these RTDs by brands like Bacardi, Malibu and now Captain Morgan, their offerings continue to perpetuate the trope of “tropical” —its flavor pairings reading "piña colada” "strawberry daiquiris” etc, which all might as well be served with a complementary straw hat and talking parrot. Good quality rum wants to be tasted—not masked under sugary pairings like a Bahama Mama.
If the alcohol giants want to capture this new generation of Latin America—their old tropes will do more harm than good, you can no longer fake “cool” overly manufactured “vibes” are cringe as fuck. Though just starting, Casalú knows you don’t need to play on stereotypes if you speak Latin American, they know that if the essence is there, in their case, authenticity, there is no need for pompous displays of “tropical” —Casalú embeds itself in culture—music, artists, fashion and is able to leverage that feeling of Tropicalation to break through the noise in the current market, and attracting their fit demographic with ease.
For their PR kits, the founders sent Discmans curated with reggeaton classics, the imagery very reminiscent of early Daddy Yankee days, very in line with other young demographics’ Luddite movements such as the return of flip-phones, and of course polaroids. Casalú honors its generation by simply creating a product that fits the demand for this new wave of consumers—now that they’ve conquered Miami, they have been able to replicate their success in conquering New York over the summer, simply by tapping into that same construct—Casalù es cultura.
Perfect Private Label
There’s no denying that private label has been proving to be a lucrative business for grocers of all kinds—from Target to Walmart, Kroger to Costco, but none are more iconic than Trader Joe’s, a grocer that built its entire business around its own line of private label brands (or dupes) one that has is own cult following. For older generations, private label was pretty easy to distinguish, items were centered around the concept “value”—the whole off brand vs. brand debate, which was easy to make once it came down to pinching pennies. Trader Joe’s of course being one of the earliest to realize, private label can also feel “on brand”—even if its a dupe!
Foxtrot’s only been around for a decade or so, an infant in comparison to other grocer behemoths, but its this novelty that is helping them establish their pristine private label as the new cult following—taking established playbooks and improving upon them by filling in the gaps where BigGrocer is unable to—there’s riches in niches! Foxtrot’s of course not just banking on “aesthetics” they’ve been strategically expanding this line up ever since they hired Mitch Madoff, ex-SVP of Whole Food’s “exclusive brands” —a fancy term for PL. Long are the days where private label is deemed as a trade down—Foxtrot market may just be able to pull a Trader Joe’s one that doesn’t feel as tone death or relies on “tropes” to market itself, only snacks will tell.
Easy Bake Generation
From Our Place ovens, to Great Jones cookware, there is no escaping the Millennial pastel brands hellish grip on Instagram—but stumbling upon Seoul based Better Finger led to posing the question—if this is truly a generational qualm, where did this obsession with toy-like kitchen utensils stem from? Is now-stalgia the biggest psyop of all time—a way for us to keep playing pretend even well into adulthood (for some into middle age) considering how grocery items easily resemble the pantries inside a Barbie house, preventing us from ever thinking about the future long enough to realize how truly fucked we are?
This is not something I can resolve—just yet. The way I approach every thesis on here, is by trying to trace its origins, for example, it would seem obvious that growing up with Little Tikes and Fisher-Price kitchen’s in the 90s would influence our delusional obsession with matte prime colored cookware, and certainly Easy Bake ovens influence can be seen manifested in pastel portable burners. Perhaps no one can express this dark sentiment—which I’ve yet to form a word around, more than the Instagram account, Shampoooty, “Kid Toys, Adult Issues” which features its 3D printed, Little Tikes inspired, nihilistic items and settings like funeral homes and AA meetings.
Have aesthetics been weaponized against us to somehow keep us fixated on the items themselves and not the actual rituals—deepening the gap between what nurtures us, we’ve become so mindless that at times eating does feel like playing pretend, almost like swallowing air. Perhaps the illusion may have even become a form of self-soothing, like an opium at a time where we are so over-stimulated, we have become desperate for vacuous pots and pans to sustain us?
A vintage ad for Little Tikes kitchen reads, “grown-ups want but can’t have” —they’ve been telling us all this time, so we might as well keep playing pretend.
It’s your favorite fucking day of the week, time for “Oracular Spectacular” part of Snax, INC Broadcast Television Network. Today’s episode is brought to you by the LETTER Q, the color TURQUOISE and viewers like you.
“What’s New, You Ask?” Gather around snaxers, the oracle has descended from her chambers, what has she seen? Open your third eye, prepare for her divine downloads, light your incense and prepare to bear witness!
Good Luck Seltzer
Obsessed with this retro style that’s a breath of fresh air from blanding.
Onion Kid
Is onion about to have a glow up movement?!
Fresh Black
Always here for a trippy coffee brand!
It’s Olio
No one tell Graza!
Drizzle
Here for fennel and chili.
Noh Co.
Noh-t another functional, NA cocktail.
Final Boss Sour
Here for fruit’s sour era!
Puff Cookies
Snax Social Network
Our best resource is our community—you can join in on the fun, FOR FREE!
No it’s not another fucking Slack group, one because you can’t build culture on what’s basically work spyware, looool, two because that’s just not the vibe, we love our beautiful garden, where we can choose to wander at any time, without any FOMO, and really use it as a break from doomscrolling.
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Are a fucking government psyop disguised as a pretty packaged good?
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