Brand New Beat: 2024 Remix

What did new in 2024 brands build beyond what you might expect to see? Here’s what kept me up at night over the last 12 months of studying a few thousand new brands:

• Nutritional Beast - spices, sprinkles, and crystals packed with hidden veggies, iron, and protein. Goldie’s boosted nutritional yeast, Protein SZN seasonings, Edggies Veggies kale sprinkles, Giant protein coffee (need to make tiramisu), Dr. Glitter nutrient crystals, Gramms clear protein, and the unexpected hidden greens in Gardenista’s bourbon cocktail. Kinda related: Ninja Creami creators on TikTok love to sneak a Jello packet in their recipes when making jacked gelato.

• Everyday EMEA - Making authentic flavors from Europe, Middle East & Africa approachable without watering down heat or heritage. Shuug hot sauce (lucky to have gotten a bottle from Air Milkshake), Lecca spice mixes, Ya Albi olive oil and Good Phats Spanish evoo in a can, Good Girl Snacks honey harissa pickles, Beituti shawarma marinades, Bezi labneh, Shooka and Saturday Sauce starters.

• A spike in New Americana with the launches of Not Beer, Ayoh! Mayo, Girl Beer, American Water, Freedom Fluid, Free Bird southern sparkling spring water, Easy Rider light beer from the team behind JuneShine, Jessie & Ben’s clean label fries made with avocado oil or tallow, and Oddball low-sugar jelly snacks.

• Continuation of Korean flavors across gochugaru peppers, spices and soju like VINKER vegan fried chicken, Potluck Market (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️), Algae Cooking Club’s gochugaru chili oil, and Hanju’s everyday put on everything sauce.

• All Things Italy - gluten-free pastina from Senza (I just finished a box), Sorry Nonna marinara (blending gochujang with grandma’s secret recipe), Good Twin dealcoholized Italian blanc, and pasta inspired snacks from Tantos and Cobs, and a French AG1 named after my favorite region in Sardinia, Nuoro.

• Jewelry for Your Little Gem Salad - Single serve dressings from LAV, miso ‘Grette in London, toppers and “crouton caviar” from Salad Sprinkles that’s now one of my most favorite products to put on everything. Lots of fun salad meal prep content opportunities as offices open back up.

• Giving You the Confidence of a Michelin ★ Chef - Jozo is barrel aging tamari for home chefs and Algae Cooking Club collaborated with the team at Eleven Madison Park on two flavored oils: shiitake mushroom and gochugaru chili. Spicy Boys in London said hi yesterday just in time to sneak in here, they’re making sir-fry starters in a tube to make dinner easier to get on the table.

• Design Your Own Dopamine Menu - The intersection of Dopamine Design, a trend coined by Joe Burns, and “I recently discovered the idea of a dopamine menu” sound on TikTok. Bright colors and dopamine inducing packaging paired with little treats and rituals consumers reach for when they need inspiration or support through the day. Can confirm, Nooish matzo ball soup, Lazzy’s cherry chocolate, and Spritzi dragonfruit strawberry cold brew checks all the boxes.

• The Glossier of Gatorade - Hydration for women like Unwell, Potion Mama, and Corpse Reviver that’s being marketed like multi-purpose beauty products - use it when she’s dehydrated, need a vitamin boost, as a mocktail, hangover cure, or an alternative to your daily energy drink.

• Drink Your Medication - This is another piece of content unofficially sponsored by Graymatter Lab’s cognition support powder perfect for anyone with a little ADD, it tastes like a nostalgic nootropic strawberry lemonade. I was also super intrigued by Dally probiotic drinkable konjac jelly, Belly Dance kefir soda, Pop Sips spiked prebioic soda, Sunny Within liposomal longevity sqeazy, Erha allergy relief seltzer, and menopause mocktails from Urmi and KooKoo.

• Subliminal Supplements - A pattern I noticed about this time last year - vitamins in disguise like ice pops, crystals, bars, fennel seeds, patches, mints, and candy, with a little something ✨ extra ✨ to add to your diet or routine.

• Pickles, Cucumbers & Self Preservation - How many of you made a cucumber salad after seeing Logan’s TikTok recipes that were so viral it caused supermarket stock outs? Or fridge pickles? How about Dua Lipa’s viral diet coke x pickle juice recipe? I tried growing cucumbers, won’t do that again.

Scroll down to support, buy & follow a few new brands that sound good to you 🎶

If your brand is in here, I hope it helps you find some new friends to collaborate with this year. And it should remind you that you don't need permission to exist. Keep building!!!

Yes I know some of these are table stakes vs. trends - like coffee, protein, pickles, and hydration, including a few brands that do more than one. I still think what they're building is cool and worth a second listen. Innovation comes in many shapes and sizes.

This is only 10% of the brands I discovered last year, but not the last post in the drafts about patterns of what emerged in the last 12 months. Part of the 2,000+ hours of research I do every year for clients and Indie CPG content is focused on new brands alongside studying new products, flavors, partnerships, M&A and the broader growth of what’s happening in food, drink & wellness aisles - which you can see some of in the Top of the Carts series on Instagram and just starting to archive the charts here too.

According to my original Brandelorean data, there are 200+ more things new in 2024 brands have in common. If you need custom CPG data for an upcoming new brand or product launch (or a thoughtful pivot) or if want to share notes about 2024 for your content, reply here or email [email protected]

Grazie to all the brands featured who said hello. I still think about our rapid brainstorms when seeing you on shelf or cooking with your products 😘

37% of these brands were discovered through the media, curators, friends, communities, retailers & tradeshows:

• Chloe Gordon’s weekly Shelf Life at The Dieline and more headlines from NOSH, BevNet, Green Queen, Print Magazine, BuzzFeed

• Express Checkout, CPG Wire, Carol Ortenberg's Modern Foodist newsletter

• Sarah Grosz (@goodcpg), Nate Rosen, Mark Gallo

• Pop Up Grocer, Faire, Happier Grocery

• CPGD, Thingtesting, Air Milkshake

• Superette in London, raye the store, DELLI, La Sobreria, BUBBLE bev

• Misfits Market, Whole Foods Market, Erewhon

• First time Specialty Food Association and Natural Products Expo exhibitors

• Many of the agencies with client work featured: Wonderkin, Moxie Sozo, supercult, Herefor Studio, Emma Gindy, Delaney Vetter, Isetta PR, Krupa Consulting Juicy Brick