Hello hello!
In case you haven’t heard, we’re hosting the second edition of In Season this Tuesday, October 6th, in NYC! So if you’re local, in town for Adweek, or just passing through, we’d love to see you there!
In Season is Express Checkout’s quarterly event exploring the season’s three biggest trends and the brands bringing them to life. For this edition, we’re transforming a downtown gallery into a museum of trends—with plenty to taste along the way. Think a little Willy Wonka (wink wink), a lot of snacks, and a room full of people you’ll want to meet.
A quick note: The event is reserved for select brands, investors, media, and tastemakers. If you’re a B2B platform or service provider interested in joining us or activating, hit reply to hear about our remaining sponsorship opportunities.
Getting this community together is one of our favorite things we do. Want to host a highly curated private dinner for our network of CPG professionals or partner with us on a future event? Just hit reply.
Now, let’s get into our picks of the week →
Nate’s Pickups:
Legit Queso
Hey, so you like cheese, right? You'd be crazy if you didn't. Honestly, even if you're lactose intolerant, you should still like cheese. Cheese is one of the main food groups, it's near the top of the pyramid, it's all over MyPlate. I'm just trying to say cheese is amazing and should be part of everyone's diet, especially in liquid form. Queso is one of the best ways to enjoy cheese if you ask me, and I know you were thinking it too. You can dip into it, coat a sandwich in it, and drink it if you so please (I wouldn't, that's too far). In my opinion, queso is best enjoyed with a nice tortilla chip, like these from a brand I'll cover soon, TOZI Superfoods (they have incredible products!). Let's get dipping, folks!
Quick Facts: Chef-crafted, small-batch queso from Kiersten Bartlett, a Kansas City native turned Napa Valley chef who wanted a cheese dip made with whole ingredients and no preservatives. Comes in three heat-and-eat varieties: Queso Dip, Buffalo Queso, and Queso Mac.
Reasons to love:
Scratches the dip itch. I don’t know about you, but when I think of queso, good or bad, I picture the store-bought Tostitos version. It has the right texture, the right taste, and even the right color, though that color isn’t exactly found in nature. I bring this up because most of the healthier, cleaner quesos I’ve tried over the past decade just haven’t been good. They’re grainy, or thin, or they taste like someone described queso to a person. The only other queso I’ve truly enjoyed has come from a restaurant or a bar. These are excellent. You won’t get the neon orange glow, because they’re made with real ingredients. And taste-wise, sorry Tostitos. It tastes homemade. Plus, the texture is perfect. It has that slightly thick, slightly loose consistency you picture when you imagine queso.
It’s legit. The name really does check out. These use real and fresh ingredients. Bartlett grew up on the classic Velveeta, then spent time at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa and got deep into farm-to-table cooking, which raised her standards for everything she cooked and bought. So she rebuilt queso from scratch. Getting the right queso texture with natural ingredients apparently took Bartlett a while to nail, and you can taste that effort. It also ships refrigerated, which tells you a lot about what’s inside (and what isn’t).
Refreshing founder story. This one doesn’t feel as buzzy or growth-hacky as a lot of new brands do. Bartlett has about 30 years of entrepreneurial ventures behind her. The queso idea came when her Kansas City catering business was asked to put together a football party pack. She later moved to Napa and opened a shop called Legit Provisions, which sold the queso until it closed in 2022. She planned to retire, then decided to bring her queso to a broader market instead. She started by selling to local specialty stores, wineries, and the farmers’ market, and she’s now picking up East Coast momentum launching soon in Gopuff and Pop Up Grocer.
Where to buy: Online (ships cold) and in select retails
Jenna’s Pickup:
NUFS Hot Honey Drizzled Crackers
This week, I had the absolute privilege of flying out to Austin with the wonderful Whole Foods Market team for a sneak peek at their (very exciting) 2027 Trends Report, which we’ll be sharing more on in an upcoming newsletter. 👀 During the trip, the WFM team introduced us to multiple brands, including some of the successful graduates of their LEAP Program, an incubator program that discovers and develops promising local and emerging brands through mentorship, a 12-week curriculum, and investment opportunities.
One of those brands was Austin-based NUFS, and I got to chat with co-founder Jessica Tran at length. Jessica started the business with her sister, Kristine, after their father was diagnosed with diabetes, and they struggled to find low-sugar, filling snacks made with clean ingredients. After dabbling in a few different formats, they landed on the humble cracker—and have produced one of the cleanest crackers on the market, without sacrificing a single hint of culinary excellence.
Quick Facts: Gluten-free, simple-ingredient crackers made with extra virgin olive oil and hand-drizzled with delicious hot honey (real honey).
Reasons to love:
Bold statement alert: This is the perfect cracker. The base is like a gourmet, better-for-you Wheat Thin (slightly sweet, snappy, craveable), and the drizzle adds the most satisfying textural note and spicy-sweet decadence. I love the concept of a drizzled cracker; it adds some textural variety and a pop of flavor that makes these ridiculously satisfying on their own, but also perfectly primed for any cheese board they may grace.
Super simple, recognizable ingredients. The whole impetus of this brand was to create something really “clean”—a term I often take issue with, but can appreciate when it’s done right. NUFS uses a base of almond, rice, & cassava flour, tapioca starch, and EVOO, plus spices and a drizzle of real honey.
A hosting hack. NUFS should be a pantry staple for any frequent host. They’re naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, so they’re a safe go-to for any entertainment occasion involving crackers (every good one does) and diet-restricted partygoers (again, every good one does). I love an option that everyone can have, but also everyone loves—it doesn’t feel like a cardboardy diet-friendly copout cracker. The packaging is also elevated enough that you could put out the whole box, but the drizzled cracker also stands on its own aesthetically.
Where to buy: Online, Whole Foods Markets, or another store near you!
In case you missed it… 🎧
This week, we're sitting down with Aaron Butterworth, Senior Specialist in Product Development at Häagen-Dazs, who's been developing flavors for the brand for over 20 years!
She walks us through the entire journey of making ice cream for a massive brand, from brief to shelf—including the "ice cream charcuterie" brainstorming process (as dreamy as it sounds), why some great flavor ideas can never survive a factory, and how Häagen-Dazs's commitment to a clean label shapes everything about the product.
Plus, we're tasting two new flavors on air (!!!!), getting the inside story on Häagen-Dazs's discontinued non-dairy line, and learning how the brand thinks about trends.
Catch the full episode below 👇