South San Francisco ingredients startup The Every Co. wants to help you get the party started without compromising your health (or vegan mission) via a new "better for you" booze product that features Every Co.'s animal-free protein.
The collaboration with Los Angeles-based purveyor Pulp Culture+ is a 120-calorie "super juice" that blends together every buzzy ingredient of the food-and-bev space of the last five years not called CBD: fruit-fermented alcohol, live probiotics, cordyceps mushrooms, adaptogenic ashwagandha (a.k.a. winter cherry) and, of course, vegan protein alternatives. It's called Build.
The target consumers, per a company spokesperson, are wellness- and fitness-minded folks (read: young) who want a complement to their active lifestyles. For now, while the product is available on DTC channels only at Pulp Culture's website before an eventual retail rollout, target consumers are also those willing to pay $16.99 for a four-pack.
The emerging "functional beverage" market was estimated by firm Insight Partners at a $8.5 billion cap in 2021 with a 7.8% compound annual growth rate through 2028. What Every Co. is calling "the world's first protein-boosted hard juice" also seems a natural evolution from the deluge of hard seltzer products that themselves made the "better for you" argument compared with the usual booze.
The actual protein level in one 12-ounce can of Build is a modest 5 grams — on par with a six-ounce cup of regular yogurt. But with a 4.9% ABV, the drink provides the equivalent buzz of a White Claw with (presumably) less chemical aftertaste and infinitely more rhetorical cover for drinking at the gym.
There's also no sugar, Splenda-like workarounds, sodium or cholesterol (or for that matter, Vitamin D, Iron, or Calcium). Disclaimer: I haven't had the chance to taste it yet, but ingredients likely contributing to the overall flavor profile include pineapple, coconut, and vanilla (marketed, in this case, as a "potent anti-inflammatory," for what it's worth).
The Every Co. was founded in 2014 as Clara Foods by David Anchel, Isha Datar and CEO Arturo Elizondo, a member of the Business Times 40 under 40 class of 2021. The ingredient startup has raised at least $255 million to date, per PitchBook, and entered the consumer market for the first time last fall in a smoothie product from Pressed.
Every Co. has also entered the baked goods space via a macaron collab, and says it is scaling up production of its egg white substitute via production partnership with Anheuser-Busch parent company AB InBev.
As has been the case with Every Co.'s previous product releases, collaborators have noted the advantages of the company's protein additive — so molecularly similar to the traditional, it requires egg allergy warnings — while nearly invisible, taste-wise. Pulp Culture noted in press materials that latter quality allowed it to enter the protein-added drink space for the first time, because the neutral taste required no masking agents and its solubility and texture played well with their live-culture lineup.
