Bachelor party must-haves (besides beer...)
+ the new wave of canned coffee
Happy Friday friends!
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With that, let’s get into this week’s pickups →
Nate’s Pickups:
So this week I don’t have anything specific to share…because I’m currently at my friend’s bachelor party just outside of Austin!!
But, of course, I couldn’t come empty handed. I am the snack guy after all. I decided to test out a new service called Onbrand (*not sponsored*)
Basically Onbrand is a two-sided platform that matches hosts with brands. Hosting a bachelor party, a baby shower, a run club, a corporate offsite, a sorority rush, a hotel pop-up? All you do is build a profile and apply to the brands you want and products will ship right to you. This is especially a great opportunity for brands. You get product into real-life moments with target customers. And you can get some incredible UGC content that feels organic, because it is.
For 15 guys eating and drinking through four days on the lake, I think we landed a pretty perfect lineup:
Grüns for some semblance of nutrition between beers
Ryse (Frosted Lemonade and Root Beer) for the morning fuel
Dude Wipes, need i say more??
Taste Salud (fruit punch Jarritos collab) so we can actually make it to day four
Slate Milk (Vanilla Ultra Protein Shake and Classic Chocolate shake) to keep us satiated and our muscles strong
Other things we got that brands didn’t send
Garage Beer Lime: I had to see what Jason and Travis Kelce were up to. (The boys liked it a lot)
FUN BRAND FACT: Garage Beer is currently Ohio’s largest craft brewery by volume and ranked the 12th largest nationwide!!
Two full carts!
A metric ton of Diet Coke: nothing like a fridge cig!!
Lots of snacks: Kettle chips from HEB, Doritos, Hint of Lime tortilla chips, Like Air popcorn (Cinnamon roll), pretzels, a big ass bag of popcorn
Candy! Jolly rancher chews (the best candy ever) and a giant bag of Sour Patch Kids.
Tteok Bokki from bibigo. AN INCREDIBLE LATE NIGHT SNACK
Nowadays bottle (10mg), because not everything can be beer.
And like +/- 10 cases of beer….sorry mom
Let us cook!
Jenna’s Pickup:
Esprizio - Tangerine Chocolate
Editor’s note: Please mentally prepare for a stark transition from bachelor party shenanigans to a boujee bev described haughtily :) - J
There has been SO much innovation in the ready-to-drink coffee space lately, and I am so here for it. Newer brands have kicked off a wave of craft, culturally-inspired coffee bevs in RTD formats—like Sang Coffee and Nguyen Coffee (Vietnamese), Cafe Bustelo (Latin American), and Yeri Coffee (Indian). These brands are spanning beyond coffee origin, introducing entirely new flavors and mouthfeels, whether that’s a creamy rich deliverable (Sang and Nguyen) or a fruity, light flavor (Yeri’s Coffee Shandy), or even Nate’s recent Weekly Pickup, Esspo’s espresso soda. Are we officially in the fifth wave of coffee yet?
This week, I tried a brand-new ready-to-drink coffee innovation that got me extra excited about this category. It blends Italian flavors and rituals (espresso in the morning, spritzes in the afternoon) into a gorgeous ready-to-drink that will easily earn a spot in my summer coffee rotation.
Quick Facts: Sparkling espresso spritz made with organic ingredients, real fruit, and fair-trade coffee.
Reasons to love:
Tastes like vacation. I often find myself craving an afternoon “treat” coffee, something a little sweet with a kick of caffeine. But my go-to sweet, creamy latte just doesn’t quite suit a warm afternoon; it feels too heavy, too rich for a sunny day. Esprizio offers a new, incredibly refreshing way to drink coffee that still feels like a treat. The tangerine chocolate flavor blends rich espresso with subtle notes of smooth chocolate and pronounced, zippy tangerine—all emphasized with light carbonation for that summery, Italian-inspired “spritz” effect. It’s such a perfect summer bev, I swear it tastes like vacation.
Barista-quality. Other ready-to-drink coffees or at-home coffee options often feel like a second-best option, a budget replacement for the better, barista-made alternative. But Esprizio feels luxurious—from its classy, gorgeous packaging to the thoughtful ingredients.
Where to buy: Online
Because we spent the week on our ~ offsite ~ in Austin, we paused on recording The Curious Consumer for a week! Excited to come back next week re-energized with a fun interview. In the meantime, enjoy our last episode.
We sat down with Mark Rushmore, co-founder of Suri (short for Sustainable Rituals)—the UK-based electric toothbrush brand that caught Gwyneth Paltrow’s eye organically before landing in Erewhon, and now Target stores nationwide. (Check out our piece on UK brands entering the US!)
We also covered the week’s biggest CPG news—new updates to the THC regulatory saga, Beyond Meat’s pivot into beverage, Gatorade’s biggest refresh in 60 years, and the Finnish Long Drink’s $325M acquisition by the makers of White Claw. Let’s get into it! Check it out here →
Thanks for reading! Anything you think we should try for an upcoming edition of Express Checkout? Email us at hello@expresscheckout.co