FoodStuff by Kevin Ryan
The Democratization of Optimization: Why Everyday Consumers Are in Performance Mode
Here is what’s in today’s edition (and the last edition, in case you missed it):
Democratization of Optimization: Developing products for today’s optimizers
Luxury Experience Arbitrage: Today’s consumers want luxury without the cost
Multi-Dimensional Experience: New launches push texture and customization
Brand-Truth Innovation: Innovation that makes sense
Gut Reaction: My hot takes on new offerings
Tidbits: The latest in food industry news, from the profound to the funny
Mind Garden has introduced a line of sparkling elixirs crafted with brewed hemp, fruit juice, and a proprietary blend of adaptogens and nootropics aimed at enhancing calm and clarity. Flavors include Quince Rosemary, Mango Hibiscus, Grapefruit Bergamot, and Strawberry Rose. These beverages are vegan, gluten-free, and contain no CBD or THC.
Genius Shot has launched a 2-ounce protein shot delivering 23g of β-lactoglobulin (BLG) whey protein isolate per serving. Each shot contains 90 calories and is free from sugar, fat, carbohydrates, and lactose. Flavors include Orange Cream and Blue Raspberry.
B-Sides has introduced Upcycled Crunch Puffs, a snack made from oats rescued during oat milk production, aiming to combat food waste. Each bag offers 10g of plant-based protein and is free from gluten and dairy.
UK brand Oat Cult has launched a line of vegan, gluten-free overnight oat mixes (Gut Oats) infused with over 1 billion live probiotics per serving. Flavors include Cinnamon Mix, Cacao Chip, and Strawberry. Each 60g single-serve sachet requires the addtion of milk, water, or yogurt. Available for purchase on their website.
Reprise Health has introduced the Super Focus Bundle, a trio of herbal gummies formulated to enhance mental clarity and productivity without inducing jitters. Each bundle includes Reishi Mushroom, Panax Ginseng, and American Ginseng gummies, all made from full-spectrum herbal extracts. These plant-based gummies are vegan, non-GMO, gluten-free, and contain no artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors. Each serving delivers the equivalent of one cup of herbal tea.
GHOST has introduced an updated lineup of Hydration RTD beverages, featuring flavors like Kiwi Strawberry, Orange Squeeze, Strawbango, and a collaboration with Welch's for a Grape version. These drinks are formulated with optimized electrolyte levels and natural minerals such as calcium and aquamin, designed for both active and everyday lifestyles.
Starbucks is launching two new RTD lines this spring: Iced Energy, a zero-sugar sparkling drink with 160mg plant-based caffeine (Tropical Peach, Watermelon Twist, Blueberry Lemonade), and Frappuccino Lite, a 100-calorie coffee drink with no added sugar (Sea Salt Caramel Gelato, Creamy Vanilla Gelato, Double Chocolate Gelato). Rolling out nationwide.
oHy has introduced a line of hydrogen-infused sparkling waters, promising a smoother carbonation experience. These zero-calorie, unsweetened beverages are enhanced with magnesium for “clarity, calm, and balance.” Available in 5 organic flavors: Cherry Lime, Lemon Lime, Pure, Raspberry, and Strawberry Lemon.
The Democratization of Optimization: Why Everyday Consumers Are in Performance Mode
Once upon a time, “optimization” was the domain of elite athletes, CEOs in cryo chambers, and Silicon Valley types measuring ketone levels between standups. But something’s changed.
Today, the language and mindset of optimization (e.g., improvement, efficiency, performance, resilience) has gone mainstream. They’ve been pulled out of biohacking forums and high-performance labs and into the grocery aisle, the drugstore shelf, and TikTok feeds. The average consumer isn’t just maintaining their health anymore, they’re managing their life like a system. They’re optimizing.
This is what I call the democratization of optimization, and it’s reshaping how we think about food, function, and the future of consumer behavior.
Optimization, Now in Every Aisle
You see it everywhere once you start looking: sleep gummies promising “REM cycle support,” adaptogenic coffee marketed as “brain fuel,” hydration powders built to “restore cellular balance.” These aren’t fringe products anymore, they’re front-and-center at Target.
What’s key is that the end goals have broadened. Consumers aren’t optimizing for a single metric (weight, cholesterol, gains). They’re optimizing for how life feels, more energy, better moods, stronger immunity, faster mornings, slower aging.
And it’s not limited to health. Optimization thinking is creeping into beauty, parenting, productivity, and even grocery shopping. It’s the idea that better living is possible, and increasingly, purchasable.
The Multi-Dimensional Optimizer (aka Your New Consumer)
Today’s consumer isn’t optimizing in one domain, they’re doing it across the board. It’s not about a singular health goal but about tuning multiple aspects of life at once. That could mean stacking a greens powder with collagen in the morning, tracking sleep recovery at night, and reaching for mushroom coffee instead of cold brew somewhere in between.
Here’s where optimization is showing up:
Cognitive Performance: Nootropic supplements, functional coffees, and amino-acid-laced drinks are all promising sharper thinking, faster processing, and sustained focus.
Longevity: Everything from NAD+ boosters to high-protein meals for muscle preservation are marketed as tools to “age actively,” not passively.
Time Efficiency: RTD protein shakes, sleep gummies, hydration tablets, products that shortcut wellness rituals without sacrificing perceived benefit.
Emotional Equilibrium: Magnesium chews, adaptogen blends, and functional chocolates all promise a little more calm, clarity, or resilience when the world feels too much.
Aesthetic Tuning: Collagen peptides, ceramide-enhanced waters, and skin-support supplements position beauty as another vector of optimization, not just vanity.
Optimization isn’t happening in one aisle anymore, it’s happening everywhere. The consumer isn’t just buying a supplement, they’re assembling a stack.
What’s Driving the Shift?
So how did we get here? Several forces have conspired to normalize the language of personal performance:
Wellness Culture’s Creep into Functionality
The wellness movement has softened the edges of functional ingredients. What used to live in performance bars or clinical-looking supplements now shows up in pastel powders and friendly gummies. This aesthetic shift has made optimization feel less intimidating, more “everyday.”Post-Pandemic Self-Reliance
COVID didn’t just elevate health concerns, it handed people control. Consumers today feel personally responsible for building resilience. Optimization is now a DIY project, and people are hungry for tools they can manage without a doctor’s visit.Life Is Getting Harder to Navigate
Routines are out the window. Meals are fragmented. Stress is ambient. Attention is scattered. In response, consumers are assembling micro-strategies to function, nootropics to focus, protein to fill in skipped meals, magnesium for sleep. Optimization becomes a coping mechanism for living in a frayed system.
What It Means for Your Brand
This isn’t about elite performance anymore. It’s about everyday optimization, products that help consumers fine-tune how they eat, think, move, look, and recover.
For CPG brands, the opportunity lies in reframing your product not as nourishment, not as indulgence, but as a tool. A tool for focus, for energy timing, for sleep quality, for stress buffering, for graceful aging. In a world where consumers are self-designing their own operating systems, your product needs to earn its spot in the stack.
Louis Vuitton has introduced a limited-edition collection of chocolate Easter eggs, crafted in collaboration with Pastry Chef Maxime Frédéric. The centerpiece is the Chocolate Egg Bag, a 70% dark chocolate shell with 40% milk chocolate handles, replicating classic LV bag designs. Accompanying the bag are three chocolate eggs engraved with the LV monogram, available in dark and milk chocolate options.
On their website, OREO has introduced Pistachio Kunafa Cookie Sandwiches, blending their classic cookies with Middle Eastern flavors. This recipe features OREO cookies topped with crisped kunafa dough, pistachio cream, and crushed pistachios. OREO encourages fans to recreate this treat at home by following the recipe available on their website.
Marks & Spencer has introduced the Outrageously Chocolatey Custard Cream Biscuity Egg, a 320g Easter treat featuring a milk chocolate shell embedded with crunchy biscuit pieces and filled with white chocolate and custard truffle. Priced at £12, it has gained viral popularity, leading to stock shortages in stores across the UK.
Belgian chocolatier Tucho has introduced the Angel Hair chocolate bar, a handcrafted white chocolate confection filled with Pişmaniye (Turkish cotton candy), pistachio cream, and hints of vanilla, pomegranate, and raspberry. Each 185g bar is priced at €21 and is available for purchase on Tucho's website.
Dutch Bros has introduced the Poppin' Boba Hyperchrome as part of its Spring Fever Dream mixtape lineup. This beverage combines the Dutch Bros Rebel energy drink with orange, pomegranate, and passion fruit flavors, topped with a choice of Strawberry or new Blue Raz Poppin' Boba. The mixtape theme reflects Dutch Bros' fusion of music and innovative flavors, aiming to create a nostalgic, sensory experience for customers.
Luxury Experience Arbitrage: The New Economics of Food & Beverage Innovation
In the last few years, we've seen viral trends like truffle ketchup, caviar-topped potato chips and Dubai-style chocolate (creamy/chunky pistachio paste stuffed into dark chocolate) go from internet oddities to the norm in social media marketing. While these ‘over the top’ premium experiences are still thriving, I see them as merely the first wave of what I call ‘luxury experience arbitrage,’ a concept with profound implications for the future of food and beverage innovation.
Decoding Luxury Experience Arbitrage
In financial markets, arbitrage is just a fancy way of saying that you are exploiting a price disparity between markets (e.g., buying $40 Levi’s when you visit the US and selling them for €120 in the EU). Similarly, luxury experience arbitrage provides consumers with the emotional value of exclusive, premium experiences for a much lower actual cost (e.g., you may not be able to afford a $10,000 Louis Vuitton purse but you can get some of the same emotional satisfaction and social cred from buying their chocolate egg). The Dubai chocolate trend demonstrates this perfectly: consumers receive the emotional and social payoff typically associated with premium luxury experiences (e.g., exclusivity, status signaling, sensory indulgence) at a fraction of traditional luxury goods' cost.
This opportunity exists because:
Social media has transformed the fleeting and often personal experience of eating into a shareable moment (e.g., posting your purchase or eating experience on IG).
The production costs to make dramatic, high-end looking content has become relatively cheap (i.e., for little money you can introduce a high-end snack with a YouTube video that looks like a Chanel ad).
The cost of adding "luxury signifiers" to food experiences (e.g., gold leaf, elaborate presentation, branded rituals) is minimal compared to the price premium they command.
The Second Wave: Multisensory and Personalized Luxury
While the initial wave relied on obvious luxury signifiers like gold leaf and truffles, the next evolution will be even more nuanced and more sophisticated. The next frontier of luxury experience arbitrage moves beyond visual appeal to engage multiple senses and offer personalization:
Interactive Experiences: Foods and beverages that change color, texture, or flavor based on user interaction (think beverages that transform when exposed to sound waves or desserts that reveal hidden patterns when touched).
Personalized Rituals: Products that incorporate customized elements based on consumer data (such as beverages with flavor profiles algorithmically matched to individual taste preferences, delivered with a personalized preparation ritual).
Ephemeral Luxury: Limited-time experiences that create urgency and exclusivity (e.g., seasonal products with proprietary ingredients available only during specific astronomical events or digital-physical hybrids that unlock special culinary experiences).
First Mover Advantage
The first brands to leverage luxury experience arbitrage in these new categories will capture disproportionate value. The ultimate arbitrage may lie in transforming life's most ordinary food moments into opportunities for luxury signaling. The brands that understand this will transform not just what we eat, but how we experience, share, and assign value to everyday consumption.
GUT REACTION
TIDBITS
Food Industry
Chobani makes biggest plant investment in its history by spending $500M to expand Idaho facility
Nvidia and Yum Brands team up to expand AI ordering
California man wins $50 million in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea
Yellow Tail changes its branding for the first time in 20 years, as Gen Z rejects cheap wine
Elon Musk Gets Ready to Enter the Restaurant Business
Are Pop-Tarts on the Chopping Block With GOP Cuts?
Billions wiped from UK supermarket stocks as Asda gears up for a price war
Klarna partners with DoorDash allowing you to pay for lunch in 4 easy installments
Move over Beyond Meat: McDonald’s Canada is testing another veggie burger
Trump admin looks to allow meat processers to permanently run faster line speeds
Target’s DEI pullback and tariff threats hurt sales. Now employee bonuses are being slashed
Chinese bubble tea chain Chagee files for U.S. initial public offering
Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar, ending its disastrous merger
Stephen Curry teams up with Michelle Obama to launch sports drink
Chili’s is opening a retro restaurant in Scranton, PA that celebrates ‘The Office’
Former executive of Mars candy subsidiary charged with stealing $28 million from company
To Save Hooters, Founders Plan to End Bikini Nights and Bring the Family Out
Coke refreshes ‘Share a Coke’ to reach Gen Z with digital experiences
Luxembourg-based Global Eggs agrees to buy Hillandale Farms (one of the largest egg producers in US) for $1.1 billion
Unilever to sell The Vegetarian Butcher to JBS-owned Vivera
Retail data company Crisp acquires AI demand planning startup Shelf Engine
Interesting
The snacking recession: Why Americans are buying fewer treats
Graphic: Track grocery price trends
What Does Lent Have to Do With Crispy Fish Sandwiches?
AI made its way to vineyards. Here’s how the technology is helping make your wine
Netflix Confirms Willy Wonka Competition Series ‘The Golden Ticket’
Cow Wearables Help America’s Dairy Farmers Detect Bird Flu and Other Illnesses
The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing
The forgotten story of the woman who invented the dishwasher
Scientists Are Breeding a New Grapefruit That Won’t Interfere With Your Medication
Are Prebiotic Sodas Actually Good for You?
Egg prices are slowly declining, but banana prices are going up
The business of Erewhon: LA’s trendiest grocery store
Brach’s Candy is offering a service that will hide Easter eggs in your yard for you.
Can Climate-Resilient Chickens Help Fight Poverty?
Fruits and vegetables aren’t as nutritious as they used to be. What happened?
Study casts doubt on gluten as cause of gut ailments among non-celiacs
Fun & Odd
Pirate’s Booty Founder Attempts a Seaside Coup
Volkswagen sells almost as many currywursts as cars (the company also sells a signature spiced ketchup)
Coca-Cola’s new hydrogen-powered vending machine doesn’t need a power outlet
A Snickers Coffin Was This Man’s Dying Wish—and He Got One
Baking a pizza inside an active volcano