The drug-free secret to locked-in focus?
+ the plant-based protein you never knew existed
Happy Memorial Day weekend!!! Hope your weekend contains at least one fun new condiment and/or bev paired with grilled noms. If you’re looking for a snack to bring to the party, we’ve got a few recs in last week’s Weekly Pickups :)
Quick housekeeping: because of the holiday, our next newsletter will land on Tuesday instead of Monday. If you’re looking for some light holiday reading (by a pool somewhere sunny, we hope!), check out Monday’s deep dive on the whey protein shortage—I spoke with four founders to understand how this is actually playing out behind the scenes, and it’s full of fascinating insights. Check it out here!
And stay tuned for part 2 on Tuesday, where we’ll feature the plant-powered protein brands innovating around this shortage (one of them is featured in this week’s Pickups 👀).
One more thing—we’re running an audience survey and would love to hear from you!!! Takes <2 minutes, and we’ll send one lucky respondent a care package full of some of our fave brands as a little thank-you.
Now, onto the goods 👇
Nate’s Pickups:
AMA - a.k.a liquid focus
There’s a lot of products out there that make a lot of claims, especially claims about focus. Jenna wrote a whole deep dive on it the other week! We’re all looking to focus, to calm down, to get our work done in a timely fashion. As someone who runs their own business on top of having lots of generalized anxiety and ADHD….I’m constantly searching for something to lock me the f*ck in.
When I got AMA I was, naturally, skeptical. There are a lot of shots and drinks out there claiming focus and energy. I think a lot give you energy, but that locked in feeling? None. Except AMA. I’m serious when I say I love this stuff.
Quick Facts: A functional wellness shot formulated for focus and mental clarity, built around a blend of adaptogens and nootropics. The hero ingredient is 5mg of detoxified Amanita muscaria extract, plus 100mg of natural caffeine from green coffee and 150mg of L-theanine for smooth, jitter-free clarity.
Reasons to love:
It shockingly works. I really feel that with adaptogenic and nootropic products you run into an efficacy problem. Most simply do not work, or they at least don’t work for me. I’ve been taking this for a few weeks now and can confidently say these little shots work. I feel myself perk right up and my brain lock in. There’s no panic, I feel energized but leveled.
Doesn’t taste bad. So many times you have a functional product it tastes like shit, especially anything derived from a mushroom (I personally don’t like mushrooms generally). I think they did a great job formulating this to not only function well but taste good. Healthy and functional products can and should taste good. Especially if you’re trying to get someone to build a habit with your product. If they can’t get it down, they’ll churn. This is why Grüns is beating AG1.
An ancient ingredient, properly upgraded. Amanita muscaria isn’t new. It’s a red-and-white-spotted mushroom (like from Mario), used across cultures for centuries for its calming, “introspective” properties. In its raw form, yes, it is a psychedelic. What AMA did is detoxify it: they strip out the ibotenic acid (the problematic compound), preserve the muscimol (the GABA-modulating compound that helps with the calm-focus). The result is standardized, non-psychedelic, shot for daily use.
Where to buy: Online at drinkama.com.
Jenna’s Pickup:
Scoops Original Peanut Protein Powder
If you caught Monday’s newsletter, you know that there’s something of a whey protein shortage going on right now. With the absurd spike in protein demand, every brand reliant on whey is feeling it—and the brands building outside the dairy system entirely are looking smarter by the day.
But, as I alluded to at the end of that deep dive, constraint (famously) breeds creativity. And in the case of Scoops, that meant an entirely new protein source built on an ingredient hiding in plan sight: the humble peanut.
Quick Facts: Liz Lane, former Head of Operations at Magic Spoon and first US operations hire at Huel, left the world of whey-based protein to build high-protein powder made from peanut isolate—a brand-new, plant-based protein source with the macros to compete with whey and a sustainable, regenerative agricultural profile. It’s something of a cross between a peanut powder (PB2 or PBFit) and a peanut-flavored protein powder.
Reasons to love:
Genuine innovation. I’m a sucker for (actually) novel CPG, and this is the rare new launch built on an ingredient I’ve never seen at retail before. Peanut isolate has been a B2B curiosity for a few years, but the agricultural infrastructure and processing tech have only recently caught up to make it a viable consumer product. Scoops works with one of the very few suppliers globally capable of producing it at scale!!
Taste meets macros. The macros are mind-boggling on this one: 170 calories, 27g protein, 5g fiber, and 0g added sugar. When I spotted those figures, I immediately assumed it would taste like cardboard—and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it tastes fantastic. It also isn’t too sweet, which is something I’ve come to really appreciate in a protein powder.
And on that note, the ingredients are wildly simple: peanuts, sea salt, monkfruit, xantham gum. That’s it.
Peanuts are SO underrated. Because they’re actually legumes, peanuts are nitrogen-fixing—AKA they regenerate soil rather than deplete it. Farmers will often rotate peanuts with crops like corn or cotton specifically to restore the soil for the next planting.
The branding. The protein aisle is a funky place: it’s either hypermasculine, weirdly sterile +, or trying too hard to be fun in a way that reads as almost… juvenile (see: Ghost, FlavCity). Scoops’s branding, on the other hand, nails the fine balance of fun, inviting, and a smidge whimsical while still conveying that it’s a real-deal wellness product.
Where to buy: Online or Target
The other week, we featured our most fascinating interview yet: Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, SVP of Science & Innovation at Ritual, a supplement company known for its science-backed formulas. She answered some of our biggest questions around the most controversial category in CPG: supplements. →
Thanks for reading! Anything you think we should try for an upcoming edition of Express Checkout? Email us at hello@expresscheckout.co