Happy Pop is a new line of organic energy drinks enhanced with adaptogens. Launched by Koia co-founders Maya French and Dustin Baker, Happy Pop is launching with three 8.4 oz flavors, including Lemon Zing, Rainbow Drip and Tangerine Dream. 

Each SKU has its own unique functional twist, but is built around the same core flavor. This starts with 10% juice, which is used for both flavoring and sweetening (there are no added sweeteners). From there, they’ve added 100mg of organic caffeine from green coffee beans, which substantiates the energy function.  Finally, there are added vitamins (C and D3) and adaptogens in the form of mucuna pruriens (Happy Pop claims that the adaptogens are dopamine-inducing, which ties back to the “Happy” part of the brand.)

When it comes to the nutrition panel, each of the different SKUs have 50 or 60 calories, 10 grams of sugar from the added juice, over 100% RDA of vitamins D and C, and trace amounts of calcium and potassium.  This makes for a product that should be viewed as mid-calorie with a pretty clean list of ingredients.

Happy Pop’s flavors are approachable and enjoyable, with fruit- forward blends that taste clean from start to finish.  As an experience, they’re more like mid-calorie sodas than energy drinks, which is a good thing in terms of giving the brand a broad base of consumers. 

Plus, they’ve created some nice variety with the three flavors. Rainbow Drip, which is made with pineapple, tart cherry, apple cider vinegar, and orange juice, has a light tropical fruit flavor with a touch of acidity to the finish. Tangerine Dream has tangerine, orange, apple, and apple cider vinegar and a clean citrus flavor.  Finally, Lemon Zing, which is made with apple, ginger, and lemon, has a sweet and spicy flavor profile. 

On the outside, Happy Pop uses a matte finish shrink sleeve label that has a very vibrant looking design and an aesthetic that we’d describe as upbeat and positive. The Happy Pop logo sits front and center while the background includes cartoonish illustrations that tie back to the flavor.  This includes rainbows for Rainbow Drip, cartoon lemon characters for Lemon Zing, and cartoon tangerines for Tangerine Dream. It’s definitely something that catches the eye and feels like it has its own unique appearance.

That being said, we do feel that there’s a bit of work to be done on the arrangement of the rest of the label copy and the messaging. This starts with the somewhat disjointed product descriptors that might leave consumers confused as to what this product is trying to be. 

“Pop,” which has been used for mid-calorie CSDs, is baked into the name, while the tagline of “functional energy” feels like it’s competing with the “sparkling juice beverage” and “made with real fruit juice” callouts that are on the lower portion of the label.  Regardless of what they do with the messaging, we think that these different elements should be more visually unified.  Finally, given the design of this product, which might appeal to kids, a more prominent callout for the caffeine content (it’s currently noted in the ring near the top of the can) would be a good idea.

Ultimately, this is a very nice first effort for Happy Pop. The branding stands out, the liquid is enjoyable, and we think that caffeine is a meaningful way to differentiate from the other mid-calorie CSDs out there.  Tightening up the messaging and its visual presentation would be good next steps, but we think this product should be able to start building a foundation even with their first version.