Leftovers is our look at a few of the product ideas popping up everywhere. Some are intriguing, some sound amazing and some are the kinds of ideas we would never dream of. We can’t write about everything that we get pitched, so here are some leftovers pulled from our inboxes.
Kind softens its stance on granola
Kind is aiming to take a bigger bite out of granola.
The snack maker that became a household name through its popular bar is debuting Soft Baked Granola Clusters. The product, available in Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Chunk, is made with 100% whole-grain oats and ingredients such as dark chocolate, creamy peanut butter and chopped nuts.
The clusters offer a softer and chewier experience compared to the crunchy classic, the company said. Kind noted the new granola is targeted for breakfast or as a snack.
“To build upon Kind’s long standing granola portfolio, the brand is innovating granola that offers a new, unique chewy texture that many consumers have been waiting to find on the market,” the company said in an email.
The Soft Baked Granola Clusters are currently available at Target, Kroger, Ahold and Wakefern, and will soon be available for purchase on Kindsnacks.com and Amazon.
Since carving out its niche with bars, Kind has moved into other food categories such as refrigerated items, chocolate, energy bars, frozen food, cereal and snack mixes. In 2011, it rolled out granola clusters, but these were harder and differed from the new ones that prioritize a softer texture.
According to a study by Future Market Insights, the market for granola is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% through 2033 as consumers gravitate toward its portability and better-for-you mantra. The industry is expected to rise in value from $3.8 billion in 2023 to nearly $6 billion in a decade.
—Christopher Doering
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Courtesy of Hippeas
Hippeas chips are nacho average snack
Better-for-you snack brand Hippeas has an iconic PepsiCo snack in its crosshairs.
Hippeas Nacho Vibes Tortilla Chips are triangular and dusted with reddish-orange seasoning — a flavor with “the crunch and taste of mainstream nacho flavored tortilla chips,” a press release about the launch states.
And while Hippeas doesn’t mention the similar snack that starts with Dor- and ends with -itos, it’s apparent that the brand is seeking to make a healthier version of the favorite snack chip. Hippeas’ tortilla chips are made from chickpeas. Each serving has three grams of dietary fiber and three grams of protein.
“This product more than stands up well next to its mainstream competitor from a taste and texture standpoint, but that’s where the comparisons end because HIPPEAS® Nacho Vibes™ Chickpea Tortilla Chips are vegan and contain the nutritional benefits of both protein and fiber as well as no artificial colors, flavors or ingredients of any kind,” Hippeas Chief Marketing Officer, Julia Hecht said in a statement.
Hippeas was founded in 2016 as a brand to fill the white space for a better-for-you puff snack. This category has become more crowded through the years, but Hippeas has persevered. In 2021, the company raised $50 million for innovation and expansion from The Craftory Limited.
Last year, Hippeas branched out beyond its signature crunchy puffed curls, launching a Veggie Straw line made from yellow peas and an improved version of its Tortilla Chips.
Hippeas isn’t the first better-for-you snacking brand to target Frito-Lay’s popular offerings, though Hippeas is definitely more subtle. PeaTos, another snacking brand, has outright attacked Frito-Lay brands since it launched. In 2018, Frito-Lay sent a cease-and-desist order to PeaTos for its product and name that it found “confusingly similar” to Cheetos. (CEO Nick Desai said in a statement that this was dropped in 2019.) PeaTos launched its own take on Funyuns in 2020 with its crunchy Rings. And in 2021, PeaTos put out Crunchy Chips in bags, flavors and colors that look extremely similar to Doritos.
PeaTos Crunchy Chips are no longer on the market, so Hippeas Nacho Vibes are the only better-for-you option currently mounting a head-on challenge to Doritos. It remains to be seen what consumers prefer, though the solo launch of Nacho Vibes puts this flavor in the spotlight.
—Megan Poinski
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Courtesy of Rasa
Rasa taps adaptogens for coffee and alternatives
Colorado-based coffee brand Rasa has launched two new adaptogenic beverages. One contains coffee, while the other is an alternative to the morning (and afternoon) brew.
Classic Rasa — a coffee alternative — taps chicory and burdock root and features notes of coffee taste without actually containing the bean, according to the brand. It contains six different adaptogens: red Asian ginseng, cordyceps, rhodiola, gynostemma, shatavari and maca.
Meanwhile, Café Rasa combines freeze-dried coffee beans with adaptogens. The brand said softens the jitteriness associated with coffee while retaining its benefits, like combating fatigue.
Rasa said it uses a complex process of drying and granulating the adaptogens and crafting new beverages around them, rather than just adding the ingredients to its existing blends.
“What this entailed was far more complex than ‘powdering’ our existing Rasa Brew products that our customers have been loving for 5 years,” Rasa Chief Herbalist and co-founder Ben Levine said in a press release. “It took us years of development to crack the code on the trifecta of flavor, function, and form.”
Adaptogens have expanded as an ingredient in the West in recent years, especially among wellness-minded consumers. While there is significant disagreement about what constitutes an adaptogen, they are typically understood by researchers as herbs and plants that have shown to lower a person’s stress level. The global adaptogenic products market is projected to be worth $20.3 billion by 2031, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 7.3%, according to Allied Market Research.
Rasa isn’t alone in bringing the ingredients to the coffee space. Finnish-American brand Four Sigmatic sells coffee made with functional mushroom adaptogens. In 2021, the brand’s CEO Tero Isokauppila told Food Dive that while Four Sigmatic’s coffee contains a high dose of the herbs, it still tastes like regular coffee, not mushrooms.
Other coffee alternatives have also begun to percolate, pitched at consumers who want the taste benefits of the beverage without its other effects. Atomo, which uses upcycled date pits and chicory, promotes its beverage as a sustainable alternative for the future, given the impact of climate change on coffee-growing regions.
—Chris Casey
