Snackshot's Andrea Hernández on the non-alc bust, protein overcorrection, and wearables reshaping what we eat

uh Gavin Newsome? We certainly can. We also have our next guest. There we go. Well, why don't we dive into our first guest of the show and we'll come back to that. Andrea from Snackshot, who was of course profiled Friday in the Times. Great to see you. Hi. Same. How's it going? It's good. How are you?

Congratulations on all the progress. Thank you. It's been 5 years in the making. Five years. Five years. What was the What was the inspiration? What was like the first post? Do you remember? Yeah. It was about the rise of this new wave of non-alcoholic drinks. And look at it now. Is now the time to go long alcohol?

Yeah. Yeah. The been seeing people, you know, fading the like non-alc trend, being like, "All right, everybody's laying off the alk. I'm going to go on heavy. " Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I I like Gen Z is into like buzz balls and like people are bringing back hypnotic. So, 100%.

We got to get some buzz We got to get some Unfortunately, some members of our team are not 21. So, we will not be bringing back buzz balls in this office, but I think Buzz Do you know about Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was that Was that around when you were Yes. Yes. some familiar buzz balls.

I don't think I've ever actually had one. I've seen them at the grocery store, though. But, uh, what Yeah. What were the biggest uh what were the biggest winners out of the non-alcoholic trend? Was it Athletic Brewing back then or were there other were there other like companies?

Yeah, I think the only one that I'm like like I can say like, okay, it makes sense is NA beer because it tastes it really does uh like taste like the real thing. Yeah. And then you have all these like any drinks that I'm just like, dude, it's [ __ ] just like a sugar drink.

And yeah, that's what I never I I never invested in the the non-out category despite getting a bunch of pitches because I was like, I can just have a Diet Coke. I could just have like a soda. I guess I get, you know, energy drink. There's just a lot.

You should be investing in like protein hard I mean there is already a protein heart shelter brand. There's food here. We have Yeah, we have We have nicotine energy drinks now. Okay, but we saw that. We I I don't think that's I don't Is it actually real?

It seems extremely I literally like I interviewed the founders when I wrote about they're doing Wow. Okay. They they hired one of the guys from Coco Vita. Okay. No, that's that's a Do they know Do they know it's it's illegal? So, they're operating Okay. Okay.

So, I asked them about this and they're operating under theratom category. Oh, I'm telling you guys like these guys. Wait, so so they're we're operating in a gray market, a drug market.

Yeah, they're operating in the like like uh smoke shop gray market area, but these guys are like from the redneck Riviera, like Dustin, Florida.

Like the kind of person that would be behind this brand and they don't give a [ __ ] They're like they literally told me we're building this for the LA people, the lower Alabama people. So lower Alabama target that's they know they're a target market. So yeah that's the bull. What about protein? Are we short protein?

You can get protein and everything now. You I I I and I've been reading studies about this. I think in the next 10 years there's going to be people with like severe kidney like uh problems. Um too much protein. Body Yeah.

Your body cannot process the insane amount of protein that American people are putting into their bodies now.

And so I joke when people are trying to push you like I you know I saw protein croutons the other day and I was like this ridiculous but I'd love to see people's blood work like no no I won't add protein uh I don't want to add like a meat or fish to my to my grain bowl. I'll just take protein croutons please.

Well, there's also now a brand that's doing protein greens and it's like a solid green. It's greens have some certain Oh, that's funny. I have no idea. But we're beyond parody at this point. Starbucks announced they're doing a protein foam matcha latte foam this month. Yeah, like cold foam.

You know those drinks that have like the cold foam on the top. So like Starbucks is long protein. So, I think we should be shorting it. Wow. Yeah. Now that you're having that, I feel like we're like, "Okay, we can start backing out a little bit about that.

" But it's beyond protein, you know, like now it's this whole like creatine snack trend and I came across like creatine, you know, man cereal is this creatine cereal that's launching, but then you also have things like Great job.

creatine muffins, uh, creatine croissants, and it's just that's what the the thing about what I love pastries that that that I don't science behind it. The science behind it is that carbs help our bodies absorb creatine better and faster. So, that's the science behind it.

But, yeah, that's kind of what I love doing what I love doing. It's like I come across like the most insane unhinged products, but it also is a testament of like the American consumers like Optimus. Like you will you can sell anything to Americans.

Speaking of selling everything, the chat wants to know about psilocybin ice cream. I don't know if that's real or if that's just a joke. Mean I mean I' I've definitely seen uh like psilocybining obviously like the chocolates. Um there's some places in LA that I've do them the the the tees.

I've actually had some of those tees and they operate on the download. So it's like Yeah, it's and it has like it'll deal Yeah. But it'll be like micro do so it'll be like a little small bottle of them. The company is called Toasty Town. I'm obsessed with it. I actually smuggled some. Okay. Okay. You're live.

You're live. Okay. I'm live. But anyways, a great tasting uh silos tea. So, I'm not surprised. You smuggled it from the plate into your into your mouth. My mouth. Um, anyways, but yeah, I'm not surprised if people are doing that on a DL. I don't believe that ice cream would be the best way to ingest it. I don't know.

I would have to Have you seen anybody try to put uh cocaine back into cola yet? No, but I think at this point I wouldn't be surprised if coke just says like [ __ ] it, you know?

like wrote about this like so like push into like the cocaine induced opulence of the 80s and that's why we're seeing people you know want to do 300 milligrams of caffeine in one drink. We have the killer Panera lemonades. Starbucks is also doing Taco Bell doing energy drinks. Um so I don't know.

I feel like America wants to and it yearns to be stimulated and we're like kind of the reverse of the iawasa psilocybin kind of like brain dead. um vibes. Do you think we're seeing more new CPG companies formed than ever?

Because over the last few years there's been less early stage investment activity or at least from from the institutional side, but it seems like there's still like a fire hose of new brands.

Yeah, cuz like a lot of the barriers of entry of these categories are so low and it's really funny because people can just Kickstarter it like Fly by Jing which is doing really well. It's like a chili crisp brand and they started off with a Kickstarter.

You don't really necessarily need venture money to launch a brand um a CPG brand, but obviously we've I think it's VC came in to corrupt the CPG industry and trying to like grow it in 5 years and trying to get like those exits something like a poppy or a CITE to have been able to do it in less than a decade.

But that's obviously like not necessarily the norm for the industry itself. But yeah, there's I mean, it's certainly true. I mean, I I'll defend uh venture capital with my life.

Uh but, uh I would take a bullet for venture capital, but uh certainly certainly a lot of brands that I love were started decades ago and and didn't raise anything uh close to what venture capital looks like today. I wish there was like a way to short C like new CPG brands. Like someone could do a poly market for that.

Brutal. Brutal. You're supposed to be there. Yeah. But but isn't the Isn't the competition good? We just like, you know, we throw we a bunch of budget bunch of uh you see what sticks and every once in a while you get a great product that sticks around forever. I know.

But like the like I mean I've come across Polos Santo brewed water and like wood. It's just it's like a certain type of wood. Really? The description of the product is like you know polos is what you burn to like sage yourself. And so like the product describes itself as like something that can like elevate your vibe.

There's people who say like, "Oh, you can have like spiritual enhancement through like these [ __ ] $7 adaptogenic seltzers.

" And so at this point, I do think that we need to be more like like strict in what we allow to put out there cuz like none of that actually changes that there's Skittles water in the market, you know? Like wait, is there actually Skittles water in the market? Oh, there's actual Skittles.

I bet that raises your vibe crazy. Yeah, that seems pretty good. How uh do you do you still some something I like personally? I think uh the inst If if you're going to invest in uh CPG, it it the only criteria that really matters is the product truly amazing. Mhm.

How much how often are you surprised where you try a product and you're not impressed by it, but then it goes on to be successful? Oh god. Uh yeah. And I've I've spoke in my mind about how I don't believe that people are buying $12 protein cereal.

Um or, you know, I'm not going to say the name of the brand, but I there's a lot of things that I don't believe that make any sense to me. And I do believe that it's like VC enhanced growth. Yeah, it's distorted and it doesn't make sense.

And I I'm someone who does spend a lot of time in groceries really observing form of more anthropological POV. Like what are people people really wanting to spend like a lot more on or you know how groceries became this like way of status signaling that you didn't have before?

Like our parents were like showing pictures of Hines to their friends and being like, "Oh my god, I have, you know, this in my pantry. " And now you have to talk about the grass in their kitchen.

And even like the idea of what I call like a hype beast grosser like an arrowan or a happier grocery where it's like that it's so crazy that that actually exists and that our generation this form of affordable affluence where it's like oh yeah I'm going to go spend $30 on a 80 gram sugar smoothie for clout.

Um, and I I think that I I saw the news about uh you know, Emily Sunberg posted about that like everyone being inside of like a Kith that members club. And so it's really funny cuz I think that's going to be like the clout chasing final boss. Like you dropped $6,000 on a membership to buy a $30 smoothie in New York.

Like you got to love it. I can't hate it. I mean badge value is real. People want to be seen with something. It's an accessory. Like there is something to that. I mean it it might be bizarre and distorted but it's real and monetizable and so it will it will come naturally.

I like putting they should put all air on inside members clubs because I don't like my only critique of my only critique is like the crowds. I I hate going in and you can tell on like on a on a summer on a summer Saturday that it's like tourists. I don't want to see tourists in my grocery store.

Who uh uh who who do you who do you write for? Like who do you think your do you think your audience uh you know do you write with the mind of the consumer in mind? Do you do you or is it more like the the industry participant, the investor, the business owner? I come from PR and marketing.

So like my POV was always like I can kind of dissect this for you and tell you what of this product is mostly BS and a crafted narrative. And so I started this publication based on the idea of no one's writing in this like CPG circle jerk of an industry.

Like everybody's just writing for the buyer or for the retailer or whatever or for the other investors, but no one was really talking to like your average person who eventually finds this at a Target and doesn't understand like how come we have like protein popcorn at Target? Where did that even come from?

So yeah, I write. It's funny because like a lot have you thought about putting protein like bundling it into the subs your subscription like protein subscription protein bundles.

Um well my audience skew is very young which is really funny like I've even been invited to give guest lectures at colleges which is interesting and my number one advice is like don't do it don't get into CPG. Um but it's it's interesting like I you know a lot but it's fun. It's it's it's people love it.

It's fun to make things that you can consume and and physic, you know, it's a very common story. Somebody's in finance, they're just in Excel all day long and then they start a a beverage company. Yeah. It's much less abstract. Like you are making widgets. It's a widgets business.

It's like you manufacture something, you distribute it, you see it and like and people think it's easy because they're like, "Okay, I just make a drink and I sell it a lot of times and then I exit for and the first time you see one of your products like in the trash out in the real world and you're like, "Wow, like this is a real thing.

" It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. So, I try to like write I started writing for myself as an audience, but I guess that you know there's so many people that can take what it is. So, like I you know there's I have a a popular Instagram account as well. It's not just a newsletter.

And I do a lot of memes there that have gone really viral. It's funny cuz like there's like celebrities like like BJ Novak and uh Kira I forgot what her last name is like and like all these random people and I'm like wait how did she even find out about this? Like it's a universal language universal experience.

And so yeah, I guess that is a very universal subject, but the way that I write it just makes it a lot more relatable and digestible to your average person. Are you long or short uh celebrity brands? Great question. Oh, super short. Like I'm saying like we someone needs to make Poly Market for CBD.

Maybe maybe I'll do it. What are you long like legacy brands then? Is long the American consumer? 100% that. Um, but I what I'm fascinated with right now that I I wrote a deep dive on this like uh 3 years ago, the inner like the influence of wearables on what we decide to eat and drink.

So, I'm very invested in not personally because I don't invest but I like I'm very fascinated with how you know there's the trend of people not drinking at a certain age because they're wearing the whoop, they're wearing the aura.

this whole like uh uh the new hot biometrics which is like cortis people wanting to know what their cortisol looks like. I I just talked to a company that um has uh cortisol strips that you put in your mouth and you they immediately like uh populate the information into your cell phone. I think that's crazy.

I love the idea of technology advancing enough that you can potentially have one one day a non-invasive glucose monitor that can tell you like oh uh you know you shouldn't be doing like drinking this or whatever how it affects you but there's brands now the guy from Otley he launched a brand called good idea and they developed this ingredient that counteracts your sugar spike if you drink it with meals so I think that's really cool it's important because oatley massively spikes your yeah he's trying to undo his like what he did in that whole company.

But I think that's fascinating. I'm like explaining to people explaining to people that your body like processes your your oat latte just like it's a a a Coca-Cola is mind-blowing for people. Yeah. But you don't have to be Brian Johnson at this point to be able to like understand your body in that sense.

But yeah, anyway. Awesome. Well, congrats on the recognition, the profile, and it's so nice to be here. I know. Thank you for all the support since day one. It's a great hangout and uh it's great watching you win. We'll talk to you soon.