The future of Red Bull is in a pouch.

Packing caffeine lips, New York restaurant news off the tip line, and more.

Good morning everyone. Per the suggestions from some of you plus friend-of-the-letter

Paul Needham

, I ate dinner at Cotogna last night. They had early cucumbers and first-of-the-season corn on their menu, both great copy choices that get everyone reading the menu a little excited about summer and California produce.

Some housekeeping.

• I spoke to Status about building Feed Me. If you don’t subscribe to Status, it’s Oliver Darcy’s daily newsletter about media news.“In some ways I was training and preparing for Feed Me for ten years before I started it. Navigating a newsroom at New York magazine. Observing how venture capitalists treated young female founders at Great Jones. Experiencing the inner-workings of Meta. Making a movie. Insert I studied the blade meme.”

• Puck’s Line Sheet covered the Apple campus trip that

  Rachel Karten
  and I wrote about yesterday. Specifically, they said Apple should’ve targeted younger “influencers” if the goal was to entice Gen Z (I’m 30).

• Richard Kern took a photo of me for the most recent issue of No Agency’s No Erotica 5. If that’s something you’re interested in.

• 🐚 Feed Me’s HQ is packing up and moving to the Hamptons for the summer. If you have events you think I should be covering, people you think I should be drinking a gin and tonic with, or stories I should be looking into, hit my line.

Today’s letter includes: why you might be packing caffeinated lips this summer, very hot restaurant news from the Feed Me tip line, non-Italians building in Italian spaces, and Dua Lipa’s new podcast.

---

---

You all know I like Zyn. I’ve written about nicotine pouches in this newsletter for years. I spoke to Tucker Carlson and Philip Morris International’s head of communications for this feature about Zyn for GQ. Sometimes at my parties, young men come up to me and hand me tins of Zyn, a similar gesture fans used to do with flowers and movie stars. Great product.

I also really like caffeine. I served hundreds of cans of Celsius at my wedding, and I have one from my bodega about every other day. Flavor doesn’t matter, but those un-carbonated ones are dark.

The global caffeine market is projected to reach $29B by 2030. Last week, I saw that a caffeine pouch brand called WIP launched. I got in touch with Richard Mumby, WIP’s CEO who was formerly an exec at Juul, to discuss the brand’s target audience and what role he wants caffeine pouches to play in people’s lives in the future. I also want to point out how impressive it is that the brand got the URL wip.com.

EMILY SUNDBERG: Why did you decide to develop a product in the pouch category? What are the benefits of WIP that other caffeine products don't have?

RICHARD MUMBY: With $120b in annual sales, caffeine ranks as the fourth-largest consumer category in the U.S.. $20B in energy drinks, $93B in coffee, and $7B in pre-workout/pills. Pouch formats (pioneered by brands like Zyn) have quickly won consumer trust and ubiquity.

In a survey of 10,000+ 21–40-year-olds, 84% of nicotine-pouch users, 56% of energy-drink consumers, and 50% of general caffeine consumers said they’d buy caffeine pouches. That’s huge when 85% of Americans use caffeine daily but are still stuck with messy, costly, ingredient-heavy options.

WIP fixes this with our “three Cs”: (quality) caffeine, convenience, and cost. Each pouch delivers 100 mg (or 200 mg) of natural green-coffee caffeine — about the same as a cup of coffee — without sugar or calories. Pocket-sized and portable, one WIP can (15 pouches) replaces dozens of cans, and at $0.53 per pouch we’re roughly 86% cheaper than a typical energy drink or café coffee.

ES: Who is your target market?

RM: There are a couple of ways we can look at this - and it’s exciting because the potential is so big. We know that people who already use pouches are excited to try this. Energy drink consumers keep begging and looking for better alternatives (mostly coming up empty handed - or with a huge can of something they’ll endure). And the rest of the caffeine consumers have said that they’re really into this product.

But from a functional standpoint, we want to stay focused, especially in our early days. Our team has been involved in sports and fitness for a long time. We really get the skate, surf, and endurance worlds. Our product works well for people in those moments, and so we want to support them - really be a part of those communities.

We saw this reflected in our early consumer research – WIP breaks through typical segmentation. We had high-performance athletes love it because of the way it made them feel during a workout and because it didn’t require lots of liquid in their stomach during a training session. We had construction workers love it because they could keep the pouch under a dust mask while they worked – a better alternative to an open energy drink can collecting sawdust on the job.

ES: On the package, you suggest not taking more than two a day. What would happen if you did?

RM: Caffeine metabolism is highly individual. However, the FDA says consuming up to 400mg of caffeine a day isn’t associated with any adverse health effects for the average, healthy adult. So to stick to the guidelines, and help our customers have the best experience, we recommend not exceeding two 200mg pouches or four 100mg pouches a day. When used the right way, caffeine can have a ton of physical and mental benefits. When overused, folks can experience jitters or rapid heart rate, sleep problems, or digestive problems.

ES: What do you think are the biggest learnings from your time at Juul that you will be taking to WIP?

RM: You have to be incredibly intentional when bringing meaningful innovation to a stagnant category. Given my experience at Juul, and at other category-creating brands, I’m coming into this with a sharp focus on getting it right.

ES: Would you agree that caffeine is the last socially acceptable addiction?

RM: Caffeine occupies a unique place in our lives—it’s not just a stimulant, it’s a deeply ingrained ritual. For most of us, it’s the signal that the day’s begun. It’s also a source of motivation, confidence, and energy to make the most of a moment or to power through a long day. It’s equal parts emotional and functional.

The word "addiction" carries a heavy connotation, caffeine stands apart as something many embrace without stigma – woven into social norms and daily routines in a way that’s almost sacred. It’s less about dependence and more about belief in its ability to deliver. So, when people find a source of caffeine they can trust and rely on – it becomes their secret weapon to do more and be more.

---

📱 Have something to tell Feed Me? My hotline is open for (anonymous) texts: ‪(646) 494-3916‬ 📱

---

• HOT off the Feed Me tip line: “Danny Bowien, of Mission Chinese fame (/infamy), is partnering with Stephen Starr to revitalize the menu at Meatpacking stalwart Buddakan. Bowien’s past aside, its an interesting tack for a restaurateur notorious for not giving into the chef-driven playbook, rather relying on his ability to build a scene with pretty good-to-good food.” I emailed the Starr team to figure out if this is true. If it is true… there’s serious potential to make that spot the millennial vibe headquarters of America.

• The New York Times announce co-critics for their dining section for the first time, Tejal Rao and Ligaya Mishan. One lives in New York, and the other lives in Los Angeles (which feels noteworthy). I heard their interview process involved many people from outside of the company, so it was a surprise to some that they landed on two people who have been working at the paper for years.

• Jody Quon, who has been working at New York magazine since 2004, has been promoted to creative director. “No visual editor since the magazine’s co-founder Milton Glaser has had such a profound effect on the magazine’s journalism as Jody has in her two decades here.”

• What a fun piece of movie promotion that A24 built. I’m pretty sure we could build something like this for Feed Me’s hot single readers.

• Montauk Yacht Club is partnering with Italian coffee brand Lavazza. Take a wild guess as to what they’re adding to the menu for this summer. If you thought ‘Espresso Martini’, you’re right! The Ocean Club restaurant will also be serving a Lavazza Tiramisu and Mousse.

• Dua Lipa signed a podcast deal with Spotify for her book club.

• Jarred sauce brand Sauz just closed a $12mm round led by CAVU partners. Cavu’s portfolio also includes Oatly, Necessaire, Noom, and Vital Proteins. Earlier this year, the brand’s co-founder Troy Bonde said that Sauz has had 12x growth YoY, and it is already sold in 7,500+ doors. Huge day for non-Italians building in Italian spaces.

• If anyone reading is an AI expert/talent, or knows one, it’s time to chase that bag. I very easily get fed up with AI news as a result of scanning so many publications every day, but this is insane – Zuckerberg is offering $100M+ comp to convince talent to join his ‘AI Superintelligence Team.’

• Vaping really is out, sales stumble, and great alternatives are aplenty. Imagine someone vaping by the beach – ick.

• Also, people really like smoking.Social cigarette smoker till I die.

• Since the RTO mandate, JPMorgan’s staff’s morale has taken a hit.