How do you educate consumers on the herbological origins of chocolate while they’re standing in the store aisle, deciding whether or not to try their luck on a drink called “Cacao Water”?
Five years into his cacao products venture Blue Stripes, chocolatier Oded Brenner has yet to find the perfect answer. But he’s getting closer.
Brenner, an Israeli restaurateur, is one-half of the founding duo behind the international Max Brenner restaurant and chocolate bar chain. He launched Blue Stripes in 2019 as an independent retail concept before pivoting into CPG during the pandemic. Now, he says the company is bringing in around $10 million in revenue across all lines and channels, a signal that people are starting to embrace its unique positioning.
“I think there is still a very long way for people, I’m talking about consumers, to really understand that cacao is not chocolate,” Brenner told BevNET in a phone call. “Seventy percent of the cacao is a fruit, and this fruit has all these incredible culinary applications that can be done with it.”
Blue Stripe’s broad portfolio includes its leading line of Cacao Water drinks, as well as whole cacao chocolate bars, granola, trail mix, chocolate covered whole cacao beans and snackable dried cacao fruit.
Cacao Water – which is available in Just Cacao, Mango, Vanilla and Passion Fruit flavors – has gone through a few iterations since its launch, including transitioning from proprietary cacao fruit-shaped bottles to a generic 10 oz. clear bottle that showcases the liquid and callouts for “Superfruit Hydration,” both subtle touches intended to communicate that despite being the source of cocoa seeds, cacao doesn’t taste like chocolate.
The company has also emphasized sustainability, messaging around its upcycling certification and reducing waste in the chocolate industry as the cacao fruit is frequently discarded once cocoa beans have been harvested. The bottle itself is made from recycled materials and is certified as a Plastic Neutral product, and the drink is also Non-GMO Project Verified.
Today, Cacao Water is Blue Stripes’ best selling product and is available in around 2,000 doors nationwide, including retail chains such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, The Fresh Market and Central Market, among others, as well as online.
According to Circana, retail dollar sales in MULO and c-store accounts for Blue Stripes’ cacao waters was only around $45,600 in the 52-weeks ending December 31, 2023, but sales were up 481.2% as the startup has focused on driving trial and introducing new consumers to the drink.
Brenner views the drink as comparable to coconut water and kombucha, noting that it can be a polarizing flavor – even once consumers get past the initial chocolate expectation – but repeat sales among those who appreciate the complexities of the drink have been promising.
Still, education has been, and remains, one of Blue Stripes’ biggest challenges.
“Don’t get me wrong, a lot [of people] if they taste it, they love it,” he said. “They understand that it’s the cacao fruit, but that’s the challenge.”
Freshness Comes First
Blue Stripes is betting that a fresher product will help close that adoption gap with consumers. The company is transitioning from shelf-stable to cold-chain manufacturing and distribution, a move designed to improve taste and secure cooler placements better suited to trial and grab-and-go impulse purchases.
“We want to be in the fridge because we think that at least the first interaction with the consumer should happen in the fridge. It’s very hard to sell a beverage when it’s shelf stable.”
As Brenner recalled, the decision to introduce the brand with dozens of SKUs across different categories came largely from lack of experience. Coming from the restaurant world, he admitted being unfamiliar with the “rule” of founding a CPG brand that its best practice to start with a limited assortment of SKUs in one category; instead, he embraced his connoisseur’s impulse to showcase the unique ways cacao fruit could be consumed. Yet his unorthodox approach hasn’t hurt the company, which has grown to 10 current full-time employees, with sales solid across all lines.
However, Blue Stripes’ expanding portfolio hasn’t accelerated its growth strategy. With Whole Foods carrying food and drink SKUs while Sprouts carries 12, Brenner said he wants to go deeper in the natural channel retailers it’s already performing in rather than wider.
“We can be much more dominant in the places that we already sell,” he said. “Beginning in 2025, we’ll go deeper in natural, grow in other natural doors that we’re not in. But specifically where we’re at, we just [want to] increase our performance velocities, because we have so much presence in the stores, we just want to become a bigger and more dominant brand in these retailers.”
But building a category all alone is a mighty task, and Brenner hopes that the early promise in Blue Stripes’ growth can help inspire others to launch their own cacao fruit products and achieve a rising tide effect.
“At the end of the day, I’m a culinary creator. I’m a chef,” he said. “I found the cacao fruit, and I saw its immense potential, and I’m creating all these products, which … sometimes doesn’t make sense with CPG strategy, but it makes sense with a chef’s strategy.”
“Now we can see the incredible potential of the cacao fruit and upcycling all the waste of the chocolate industry, and I just hope that there will be way more players that will join.”