The Startup CPG Podcast

#111 Twrl Milk Tea: Boba is the New Sprinkle & Twrling into Sprouts, Costco, & Pop Up Grocer

Oct 24, 2023

48:02

This episode was sponsored by RangeMe. Go to rangeme.com/startupcpg

I’m so excited today to learn from Twrl Milk Tea, a long time and very active member of the Startup CPG Community! We’re joined by co-founder Olivia Chen, and Twrl was recently a Shelfies finalist for their Ube milk tea. Twrl Milk Tea makes the world’s first canned milk tea made with pea milk and single-origin, non-GMO, organic tea, and they also make chewy cafe style boba toppings, which are the new sprinkles! Twrl is women & minority owned, and they were recently certified as a women-owned business by Women's Business Enterprise National Council. Twrl launched in 2021 and has accomplished so much in the last couple years that I can’t wait to dig into.

Listen in as Olivia shares about:

How Twrl got started and behind the scenes of starting a new category
Their recent retail launches with Central Market, Wegman’s, and in just a week, nationwide with Sprouts, and tips for standing out to retailers
Twrl’s marketing, press, and event strategies and how they leverage unique moments like Pop Up Grocer and getting an advertisement in New York City’s Times Square
Their test with Costco and tips for testing your team’s infrastructure and evaluating retail opportunities
And more!

Episode Links:

Twrl Milk Tea website
Twrl’s Cookbook Zine: Boba is the New Sprinkle
Olivia’s LinkedIn

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (15K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

RangeMe Links