Lunar Lifts brings Asian flavors to the powdered protein market

As the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who owned bubble tea shops, Michele Chen grew up on Asian desserts. When her family visited her grandparents in Taiwan every year, she’d explore Taipei’s night markets, reveling in their myriad flavors and textures.

As she grew older, Chen began weightlifting, then competed in powerlifting throughout college at Cornell. When the pandemic hit during her junior year, quarantine forced her to get creative with her health and fitness routine, staying active with backyard workouts and preparing food that was both healthy and enjoyable at home. But one thing was missing.

“I missed my bubble tea and eventually experimented with mixing my mom’s milk tea powders with unflavored whey,” says Chen. “When it actually tasted good, I knew I was onto something.”

Turning passion into a business

Chen set out to formulate protein powders that tasted like her favorite bubble teas and Asian drinks, but with clean ingredients that supported her healthy lifestyle. After graduating in 2021 with a degree in computer and information science, she went straight to graduate school, where she worked on a business plan to bring her newly crafted concoctions to the masses in her spare time. For the initial launch, Chen wanted to highlight some of the most popular Asian drinks.

“Classic milk tea and taro ube are without a doubt the two most popular bubble tea flavors—and my personal favorites—so that was a no-brainer,” she explains. “With the popularity of matcha booming in the past several years, I also wanted to create a high protein matcha latte flavor. We developed the coconut mango cream to round out the flavor options.”

With so many protein powders and supplements out there, Chen says Lunar Lifts’ flavors and ingredients help the brand stand out in a crowded market. Most protein powder producers use artificial ingredients to mask the protein taste, improve texture, and keep costs in check, but Chen refused to compromise on quality.

“It was super important that we kept our ingredient list to things people would be comfortable consuming on a daily basis,” she says. “Our ingredient list is as clean as it gets for a protein.”

Asian-inspired flavors are another factor that helps the brand stand out. For Chen, it was imperative that Lunar Lifts powders taste just like her favorite Asian drinks. She wanted consumers to enjoy sipping on these beverages regardless of the protein content and other health benefits.

“Boba and Asian flavors have been on the rise in the past decade, and bridging these with the health and fitness industry is something that’s really disrupting the protein space,” she says.

This image was modified via computer technology to fit the space requirements.

Creating the perfect blend

With only grass-fed whey isolate and real ingredients for flavor, Chen had to experiment with many iterations to ensure Lunar Lifts powders tasted as authentic as her favorite Asian drinks. This, and keeping the product affordable, were the company’s biggest challenges.

Chen worked with one of Taiwan’s most respected bubble tea product manufacturers to source ingredients across their origin countries in Asia. To further ensure sustainability and ethical practices in the production process, she sourced grass-fed whey isolate from ethical farms in New Zealand.

“Sourcing the highest-quality ingredients ensures our powders taste just like our favorite boba flavors,” Chen says.

A sweet success story 

Lunar Lifts launched its product line in February and quickly snagged an Editor’s Choice NEXTY Award for its Nutrition Classic Milk Tea Protein Drink at Natural Products Expo West 2024 in March. Chen says she anticipated classic milk tea and matcha latte to be the company’s most popular flavors; however, taro ube and coconut mango cream have proven to be the best sellers.

“This showed us that people are excited about our unique, Asian-inspired flavors and that there is definitely a gap in the market,” she says.

Eventually, Chen plans to expand the product line to include vegan proteins and other fitness supplements. She also wants to expand into retail and continue to build a community of boba-loving fitness enthusiasts.

From a power-lifting college student to becoming a personal trainer to helming a business that has little to do with her major, Chen advises aspiring entrepreneurs in the natural products space to take risks and think outside the box.

“Doing something different can be scary, and you can never guarantee what the result will be,” Chen says. “But I think people are looking for authenticity in a nutrition brand.”