Gen Z Loves Soju
Condiment Cookies and Walmart's Rom-Com
Good Morninggggggg. Is anyone hosting dinner parties for the holidays? If so, what are you making, I need inspo. Some news:
🍺Spirit of Gallo to Distribute Soju Stateside
Spirit of Gallo, one of the top three spirits suppliers in the US, announced that it will add a new category to its spirits portfolio: Soju. The Korean grain-based spirit has a mild flavor and a lower alcohol content compared to many Western spirits. Soju is the largest spirit category in the world by volume and has grown in popularity in the US as multicultural consumers and Gen Z (of age) consumers look for unique and diverse alcoholic beverage options. This new generation of drinkers is driving the stateside growth in the Soju category, which has doubled over the past five years.
🥛Ripple Raises $49M
The plant-based beverage company known for its use of pea-protein, raised $49M in its latest funding round. The round comes two years after its series E, which was led by S2G Ventures, Ajax Strategies, and Bloom8 and attracted $57M. The brand has raised an estimated $268M in total funding according to FABID, a food and beverage data aggregator. Ripple Foods is led by CEO Laura Flanagan, and the series F funding round is one of the larger VC investments in women-led businesses. Even with this newly raised capital, the brand is up against other well funded competitors in the alternative milk space such as Oatly, Califa, and NotCo.
🤝Cookies Meet Condiments
Fly By Jing, the modern Chinese food brand known for popularizing chili crisp, partnered with cookie maker Last Crumb on a trio of cookies with a kick. The sweet cookies are infused with bold, Sichuan-inspired flavors such as chili crisp, pepper and zhong sauce. Salt & Straw ran so Last Crumb could walk.
This isn’t the only condiment-cookie-collab we’ve seen this week. Viral olive oil brand Graza and Stuffed Cookies teamed up on an olive oil and mascarpone cookie topped with sage shortbread crumble. Any guesses for the third pairing of condiment and cookie? Truff and Insomnia? Brightland Olive Oil and Levain? Seemingly Ranch and Chip City?
🥦Great Jones x Houseplant
The popular cookware brand teamed up with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s cannabis company to release two gift sets. Baking sheets and a block table lighter as well as a vinyl set and a casserole dish. It seems a little weird to me that you’d partner with a cannabis company but not really offer cannabis-related products. Sure, the lighter counts. But if you’re going to announce that you’re doing the thing, why not just do the thing? I guess since the recent Magnolia Bakery and Incredibles partnership on pudding featuring THC didn’t go too well thanks to cannabis legislation, ensuring your product offering can sell nationwide makes sense.
🛒Walmart Made a Rom-Com You Can Shop From
Walmart just launched an entire TV series filled with shoppable ads. Think Hallmark Christmas movie but you can buy that engagement ring he just proposed with. The 23-episode holiday-themed series “Add to Heart” features over 330 different shoppable Walmart products. While this sounds absurd, I think we’re going to see more things like this. With the wild success of the Barbie Movie, which Mattel made sure to market their IP everywhere this summer, I think brands are wanting to find new ways to be front and center in productions. While “Add to Heart” and “Barbie” are two opposite ends of the execution spectrum, I bet there will be more shows and movies bridging the gap.
🧴Please Watch SNL’s Diet Coke by Olay Skit
It’s more of a comment on the insane things the skincare industry tries to sell you, but it’s just too good.
☕Top Chef Star Drops Coffee Line
This one’s for all you West Coast readers. James Beard award-winning chef Gregory Gourdet teamed up with Portland’s black-owned Deadstock Coffee to create Kann Coffee (named in honor of Gourdet’s celebrated Haitian restaurant, Kann). The blend consists of single-origin Blue Mountain coffee beans grown in Haiti as well as notes of vanilla, star anise, and cinnamon. It’s available for pre-order and you know I already secured that bag.
🥩What Your Charcuterie Board Better Not Be Missing
Mortadella. Sales are surging for this cold cut turned hot item. As a certified picky eater who never ate meat until college, I had no idea what this was until living in Spain and my host family ate it daily. New York Times wrote an interesting history on the meat and why with help from the European Union’s labeling laws and the rise of Instagram and TikTok (and their endless charcuterie boards), mortadella is getting a second act in America.
🥂Our Place Teamed up with Kin on Coups
Cute.
Enjoy the day!