Conscious CPG Voices: Rasa showcases high-performance adaptogen brews at Newtopia Now

How are “Conscious CPG” companies positioning themselves in today’s fast-changing consumer market—and how are they turning to the Newtopia Now as a vital new resource to advance their brand among key buyers and decision makers?

We asked the founders and leaders of 10 emerging brands who are exhibiting their innovations—many of them for the very first time at Newtopia Now—what factors drive their decisions today. Coming from diverse backgrounds, these entrepreneurs share at least one thing in common: The belief that gathering with peers, contemporaries, buyers, influencers, mentors, business leaders and others in an intimate setting is critical to learning about the marketplace, building relationships and growing your business and brand. Enjoy our conversation with Rasa's Lenny Chase.

Lenny Chase, CEO, Rasa

Boulder, Colorado-based Rasa was founded in 2018 by Lopa van de Mersch and Ben Levine Nahar. Combining an interest in Ayurveda with herbs, adaptogens, mushrooms and other functional ingredients, Rasa and Ben created a “dark, rich, roasty” coffee alternative. In 2021, Rasa announced it had become a Public Benefit Corporation, and in 2022, the company raised $4.1 million in a crowdfunding campaign. Today, led by CEO Lenny Chase—who as a marketing executive helped build Halo Top into a national brand—Rasa is expanding to offer a full line of high-performance daily brews designed to provide energy from adaptogenic ingredients, plus functional coffee, cacao, matcha and other beverage products. Here is the brand's story in Lenny Chase's own words.

When I joined Halo Top, no one knew who we were. A year and a half later, we were the number one ice cream brand in the U.S. I think of that experience as a crash course in the life cycle of a successful brand. After that, with a longtime interest in tech, I got involved in ecommerce through a wine subscription service. The company’s special sauce was that it analyzed wines based on a customer’s thumbs up or down preferences to send products based on liking. I want consumers to really enjoy what they are putting in their body. It’s how I talk about Rasa.

Rasa’s special sauce is that we have direct relationships with farmers in 16 countries from whom we source the best quality herbs and adaptogens to create performance focused blends that work better than existing products on the shelf. We’re looking for partners to bring Rasa to consumers, and are excited to meet the needs of retail buyers. They care that we are not just another mushroom coffee.

We consider Newtopia Now as a big unveiling for Rasa—Rasa 2.0, so to speak. We’ve been selling direct to consumers for six years and over that time people have enjoyed more than 15 million cups of Rasa. We took the best learnings to improve our product packaging and message hierarchy, and we’ve figured out how to speak to consumers with a wholesome brand voice. Now, we’ll be debuting a whole new retail lineup at Newtopia Now, including a matcha product, two coffee alternatives and a boosted coffee. The common thread is the inclusion of performance-focused adaptogens. We’re imagining that our products fit in a gradient in between the coffee and tea set with better-for-you products where we can squeeze on to the shelf set.

What is key during turbulent economic times is communication and consistency. We like to keep all our partners looped in on what we think the next few months and the next year are going to look like. Connection and product discovery are at the center of Newtopia Now. There, I am looking forward to building stronger connections in the industry. Successful partnerships are never a one-way street – they rely on trust and common goals. An intimate setting such as Newtopia Now can help you achieve that. It is among a number of unique opportunities in our industry that emerging brands can and should take part in.

Newtopia Now, New Hope Network's new trade show, is set for Aug. 25-28 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. For more information and to register, click here.