Joe Rotondo & Drew DiSpirito - Smearcase, The World's 1st Frozen Cottage Cheese Brand

On this episode, we’re joined by Joe Rotondo and Drew DiSpirito, the co-founders of Smearcase — the world’s first frozen cottage cheese dessert, also known as FroCo.

What started as a post-run craving turned into one of the most disruptive frozen product launches in recent memory. Smearcase packs 40 grams of protein per pint, uses clean-label ingredients (no gums, no seed oils), and is now stocked in over 100 stores including Whole Foods and Sprouts, less than a year after launch.

In this episode, we dive into how Joe and Drew went from first prototype to shelf in six months, what it took to scale with a co-packer from day one, and why they believe “speed over perfection” is their greatest competitive advantage. We also talk product innovation, navigating frozen logistics, why they trademarked “FroCo,” and what’s coming next as they prepare for West Coast expansion.

Episode Highlights:
🍦 From marathon craving to product prototype in 72 hours
🧊 How they scaled straight from a NYC apartment kitchen to a co-packer
⚡ Why they prioritized speed over perfection
💪 Using collagen as a stabilizer (instead of gums)
🚚 The hidden challenges of frozen distribution
🛒 How they cold-pitched their way into early retail traction
📈 Why “velocity > distribution” is their growth philosophy
🏷️ The meaning behind the name Smearcase (and why it works)
🚀 Building a movement — not just a brand — around FroCo

⏱️ Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro & Founding Story
02:30 – From Post-Run Craving to FroCo
05:00 – Product Development & Ingredient Integrity
08:00 – Fast-Tracking to Shelf in 6 Months
12:00 – Scaling With a Co-Packer
16:00 – Cottage Cheese Sourcing Strategy
20:00 – Starting a New Frozen Category: Pros & Cons
23:00 – Velocity vs. Distribution
26:00 – Frozen Logistics & Operational Challenges
29:00 – Category Trends & Competitive Landscape
31:00 – Where to Find Smearcase & What’s Next

Links:
Smearcase – https://www.eatsmearcase.com
Follow Joe – https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephrrotondo
Follow Drew – https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-dispirito-pmp/

Follow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.

Transcript

Adam Steinberg (00:00)

Welcome to Shelf Help Today we're speaking with Joe and Drew who are joining us from New York City. Joe and Drew are the founders of Smearcase, which is the world's first frozen cottage cheese dessert, otherwise known as FroCo. Packin' 40 grams of protein, Smearcase is certainly a brand to watch, so I'm excited to jump into this. just to kick it off, whichever guys wanna take this one,

love to give a quick lay of the land in terms of...

The origin story, why behind the brand, core products you guys are offering, where listeners can find them. And then I think everyone would like to know the background behind the name as well.

Joe (00:37)

Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having us, Adam. It's great to be here. Great to provide some value to your audience. Yeah, Smearcase Case was born in July of 2023. I was training for my very first marathon and after...

an incredibly tough workout in New York City, the concrete jungle, super hot day. I'm drenched in sweat and I want nothing more than ice cream. And I find myself in my local grocery store in the ice cream aisle and that's when I sort of learned that ice cream is truly terrible for you. It's high in fat, high in sugar, high in calories and incredibly low in protein. And I just wanted an ice cream that didn't make me feel like garbage.

Drew (01:01)

Okay.

Okay.

Joe (01:21)

So I decided to go home and just eat my go-to dessert, was cottage cheese and honey. And I'm sitting on the couch realizing that, wow, this is not as fun as eating ice cream. And that's when it dawned on me, like, how has nobody cracked the code on high protein ice cream? And how is there

no such thing as frozen cottage cheese? And so I just decided to make it myself. I grew up around food.

incredibly passionate about health and wellness and ingredients and product branding storytelling. So I started making this stuff in my New York City apartment kitchen with my sister and just like found something that was too good to be true. Shared it with friends, got a lot of validation. And that's when Drew came in and you know, we decided if we were going to do this, we had to at that time it was like August, September.

Drew (02:00)

Okay.

Joe (02:13)

And in order for it to be a reality, we had to get on shelf by next summer.

Drew (02:20)

you

Joe (02:20)

So we launched in July of 2024. And in less than a year, we're in over 100 stores. in Whole Foods and Sprouts. So that's just lay the land. The story behind the name, I love branding and just giving context to something.

so as I was researching, I was just looking for, you know, I was researching the history of cottage cheese and, I just saw this name that kept coming up and it was smear case and just kept drawing my attention and, capturing my curiosity. And I thought that it was such a cool name for an ice cream product because it wouldn't want it literally means cottage cheese. So it's an ode to our ingredient, our main ingredient being cottage cheese.

Drew (02:53)

.

Joe (03:10)

And two, like when you look at the ice cream aisle, it's all names. You know, you have Ben and Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs, Jenny's, what have you. And I just thought smirke's jumped out in a crowded space. And to me it says protein and it's bold and it captures your attention. you know, we wanted to come across as more than just an ice cream. wanted to come across as a functional,

Drew (03:19)

.

Joe (03:34)

functional product and say that we're ice cream but with nutritional value.

Adam Steinberg (03:40)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. mean, name definitely sticks for sure. You definitely have achieved that. I know when I was reading into the brand a little bit about the journey, it sounds like it took a few tweaks and iterations before you really found a recipe that worked, which makes sense, because this was the first time I didn't really create this product. So without just giving away any trade secrets, what were some of those key variables that you were playing around with or?

key tweaks that you made between the first version and that final version that you knew, like this one is right, and curious how many batches it really took to get it nailed.

Drew (04:11)

.

Joe (04:12)

Yeah,

I mean, to tell you the truth, it took way quicker than people thought. You know, I'm super familiar with the kitchen is my safe space. You know, I feel comfortable. And my sister played a huge role in that. But like, I'm all about the ingredients. I wanted to make it super clean. you know, no, I didn't want to have one ingredient on the ingredient list that had people question of why is that there?

You know, what purpose does it serve? So that's how ⁓ we stumbled ⁓ across collagen using collagen as our stabilizing agent and gum. was a happy accident and it also boosts the nutritional value of our product. So something that we did was like really instead of like trying to make it what we wanted it to be, we just asked ourselves like, does

Drew (04:38)

.

Joe (04:56)

What does cottage cheese and what does cottage cheese and ice cream want from us? And we just sort of designed around those constraints. And I think like being an outsider, not having a background in ice cream, but having a background in food, not having a background in food science, but having a background in, you know, health and wellness. those being able to think outside the box allowed us to create something truly new, innovative and unique.

Drew (05:03)

Okay.

Adam Steinberg (05:25)

you mentioned you guys got to market in like six months or so. What did that process look like and how did you guys make that happen and what was some of the most challenging parts about actually getting to market that fast?

Joe (05:38)

Yeah, for sure. You could take this one.

Drew (05:40)

Yeah, so it's a great question. It's one that we constantly get asked by other founders in the city. It's like, how did you move so quickly? And I think for someone new to CPG, like Joe and I, it's important to remember that there are several stakeholders that dictate your success and that you need to sort of get on board in order to be successful. And it's a little bit of a chicken and the egg scenario in getting them aligned.

Ultimately, you need you need a distributor unless you're self stable good and you're selling online. You don't want to be in retail, but assuming you do, you need a distributor. You need a retailer that that wants to take you on and ultimately the end customer needs to love you. And it's like, you you always start with the customer in mind, but in order for a customer to get to you, you sort of need to have a retail presence. And in order to have a retail presence, you need to have a distributor.

And so Joe and I were sort of pitching a cold calling retailers leading up to the fancy food show in June of last year trying to get some on board. And fortunately enough, the product's innovation sort of spoke for itself. And we were able to get some early yeses. And we collected enough of those and took it to a local distributor to say, hey, will you carry our product? These retailers want us in store.

really, really helped for us going into Fancy Food to have that distribution set up, have some retail traction, because that was sort of, that sort of got the flywheel going for us. And it was easy to say yes when the retailers at the Fancy Food Show that had an order of us that wanted to bring us on, they ultimately could. So I think you really need to be conscientious about sort of the order of operations there and be mindful of the interests.

each of those stakeholders have.

Adam Steinberg (07:29)

think typically when you're trying to bring something to market super fast or get something done super quickly, seems like oftentimes you have to prioritize what feels most important.

what were you willing to sacrifice or take the biggest risk on to get to market this fast if there was anything?

Drew (07:46)

I mean, we yeah, it's a great question. I would say we had inventory and not everyone does that. Like, maybe they make a very, very, very small batch, but we decided to make enough inventory to support some yeses going in. And I know that's something that I talked to other CPG founders about. They're super, I don't want to say scared or skeptical, but they're hesitant to commit to an order before having.

And I think the privilege of being in the ice cream face and frozen is notoriously tough. The one benefit that no one talks about is your shelf life. Because our shelf life is longer, can take that risk on that inventory. If you have a 30-day shelf life, I would say you probably want to have retailer channels and distributors teed up and know where that product is going before you place a big order.

Adam Steinberg (08:37)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense.

Joe (08:39)

Yeah, and I would also

add like, you're taking a risk in general by jumping into the deep end of entrepreneurship and starting a business, starting a brand. But I think you can de-risk yourself by moving fast. Like I prioritize speed over everything. You know, like we want it to be first to market. We want it to get on shelf for the summer. We didn't want to waste time.

We didn't want to wait for a better version of our product or a better version of our brand because we know that will come over time. We have a great product, but like we took that chance because we didn't want to miss our moment. So I would just encourage everybody to move fast and do it cheap because you don't want to waste your own time and you don't want to waste.

Adam Steinberg (09:18)

Yeah.

Joe (09:26)

cash right cash is king and i think you're taking a bigger risk if you wait for something to be perfect and you take a massive risk if you don't do things yourself

Adam Steinberg (09:32)

Yeah.

Yeah, totally. Yeah, I the faster you get to market, the faster you can get feedback from customers and retailers too,

Drew (09:37)

Yeah, I just want to.

Joe (09:41)

Yeah.

Drew (09:42)

I just want to share anecdotally, you know, I was not wired that way. Like I, I, and it's sort of against my DNA to ship something that's incomplete, if you will. And I would just say like, it is the only way to operate. You really have to remove perfectionism and you need to be okay with the idea that there'll be an iteration.

Adam Steinberg (10:06)

Totally. For maybe for some aspiring up and coming founders that are earlier than you guys in the process, the safe formulation or commercialization stage, what are two to three things that come top of mind that you'd recommend they keep in mind and plan ahead for, and they're saying, hey, we want to get to market this fast too and iterate quickly.

Joe (10:27)

Yeah, I think do it yourself. You know what I mean? If you are actually passionate about your products, you need to be emotionally tied to it. You know what I mean? This was a problem that I had in my life that I wanted to solve for. know, so selfishly I made it myself, right? And that's what keeps me up at night, also that's what wakes me up in the morning is that I am deeply intrinsically tied to the product and the mission.

so I have a sustainable fire, but, know, furthermore, like if you do it yourself, you learn how you want it to get done. And if you want it done the right way, you do it yourself. So I think it's important to like in the name of saving money and saving time, like, you know, don't cut corners, but also. I think when it comes to CPG, you need to really understand ingredients.

Adam Steinberg (11:07)

Yeah.

Joe (11:20)

You don't have to be a food scientist, if you understand ingredients, you know what works well together, you know what adds value. And I think we live in a day and age where people don't want BS in their product. So if you're making a new product, why are you making it and what are you putting in it? And can you justify every single thing that goes into that product?

Adam Steinberg (11:42)

Okay, so eventually you guys, at some point you moved out of your home kitchen into some more commercial scale production environment. Did you guys move into a commercial kitchen where you guys were still producing in-house but at a larger scale, or did you guys go straight from your kitchen to a co-packer?

Joe (12:00)

We just went straight to the big leagues. Yeah, we wanted to scale aggressively. We wanted to just shoot our shot. To do a commercial kitchen is like for ice cream is really tough to find. And the, you know, to get the inventory and the quantity that we needed to justify having a business, like it wasn't just, it wasn't going to cut it. again, like Drew said, like we took the risk to have inventory.

Adam Steinberg (12:02)

Okay, yeah, I think that's smart in lot of ways. ⁓

Joe (12:25)

and put it in storage. then again, by having that inventory, we then had like a window of time to get distribution, to get retail, and then just like make a quick move to get on shelf in the peak summer.

Adam Steinberg (12:38)

Yeah.

So in terms of transitioning to a co-packer from your kitchen, what was that process like, especially with a first of its kind product? I imagine that was a bit of a learning curve with them or teaching them. Yeah. What did that process look like?

Joe (12:55)

man, we have an incredible advisor that is like an ice cream vet.

So he's had his own ice cream brand, he's had his own scoop shop. So he took a lot of his knowledge and adapted it to where we were and met us. And he just opened up his network. And just like having him in the room allowed us to ask all the right questions to make sure we check the boxes and to make sure that like one of the rules early on is like, we weren't going to take the next step unless we can confirm that we could take that next step.

because we knew we were taking a massive risk by purchasing all this inventory upfront to meet that MOQ, the minimum order quantity. So we wanted to confirm every step of the way, is this viable? Is this scalable? Can an ice cream, can our product be manufactured by a traditional?

ice cream co-packer because we weren't looking to reinvent the wheel in a way. We were looking to find a partner that we just slotted right into and we didn't have to purchase, you know, special equipment or, or, or, you know, mess up their operation. We wanted to be easy to work with.

Adam Steinberg (14:04)

Did you guys have any challenges in getting that time of day with co packers? And, and if maybe not, that's great. But if so, what did you find that was key to getting that

commitment from them?

Drew (14:14)

like Joe mentioned that he like is passionate about this because it was born of his own need. And I think that is contagious. Like it's what got me excited, not being a marathoner who eats ice cream, you know, in the same way Joe does, like that passion is really infectious. And the same is true for working with comans. Like if you, if they see your passion and

Ultimately, that's not going to be the only thing, but it's going to open up their ears to hear if you lead in this transactional way, it's like, okay, here's why you should open up line time and that's fine too. So I think the passion and having that be at the forefront is key. think the other, like I said, it was infectious for me. I think it's infectious for all the stakeholders that we engage with, frankly. think the other piece is, and this is something as a founder, if you're starting a product or if you're about to start it,

start a business, think about what differentiates you and why that differentiation is going to be valued in that. So you don't want to be too unique to the point where you have no customer base, but you want to be unique enough where you're not just in the sea of sameness. So threading that needle is really important. And I think we, by way of the product, just

Adam Steinberg (15:19)

Thank

Drew (15:35)

is everyone loves ice cream. Everyone wants to eat more ice cream. If you can get away with eating more ice cream, it's better for you, people will. And at the same time, no one's cruising cottage cheese and serving it up. So we know the market is huge, but the product itself is small. I think finding that story of differentiation but broad appeal is gonna be key in getting that line time.

Adam Steinberg (16:00)

Is it accurate that the cottage cheese manufacturing capacity is fairly limited overall in the US and especially when it seemed like this category is growing really quickly,

is that making things complicated? And then guess if so, how and how are you guys planning ahead? Assuming this is projected to be the case for the foreseeable future as you guys grow.

Joe (16:19)

Yeah, cottage cheese is incredibly hot commodity right now. So that that is true. We have incredible partners, though, that have advocated for us and have helped us and have helped us navigate the the competitiveness of securing this ingredient. So we have people in our corner that really go to bat for us, because again, like Drew said, like people believe in our mission.

and people want to see us succeed. People believe in the potential of this market, right? You have ice cream, you have frozen yogurt, you have plant-based alternatives, and now you finally have frozen cottage cheese, which we call froko. So right now, consumers can only get cottage cheese in a tub in the refrigerated aisle. It's very antiquated.

That's why Gen Z rebranded it because they were sick and tired of having this old clumpy, you know, not appetizing food.

Right. But we noticed the consumer trends to take it out of that tub and put it into something new and fun and easy to consume. So right now we're the first brand to use cottage cheese as an ingredient, but we won't be the last. We just paved the way for others to disrupt other parts of the grocery store using cottage cheese as an ingredient. So I think we're going to see an explosion. Like cottage cheese is already exploding, but we're going to see that compound effect in the future.

because we're paving the way. Good culture is rebranding it to be fun and not as old, right? So.

I think, with that being said, like we're giving dairy processors a reason to invest in increasing their capacity, right? With the help of advocates that are fighting for us. We as brand marketers are advocating at large for the dairy industry and the cottage cheese processors to say, Hey, wow. Like, you know, it's grown this X amount, these past few years, but we know it's going to grow even more.

because of brands helping us push this incredible source of protein.

Adam Steinberg (18:29)

Yeah.

And on the topic of sourcing and production, it sounds like you're in the process, if you haven't already, of moving sourcing and production to California. If that is true, like when, as I grew up in California, and people think of my home state from a business standpoint, California is not often thought of as the most business friendly in terms of costs, regulations, et cetera. So I'm just curious the reasons, like I thought process behind the move and what's that experience been like thus far?

Drew (19:01)

I'll jump in. at the end of the day, like Joe has hammered ingredient, ingredient, Like California is the premier source of the best dairy in this country. They produce more than any other state and they ship globally. And as a result, it carries brand equity. also carries no-

They work with brands and start to finish the biggest in the world and the tiny players and they have an accelerator dedicated to that. And we were fortunate enough to be not only a part of that accelerator, but the winner last year named one of the last year. So we're incentivized to use it from the perspective of it being the best ingredient, but we're also being ushered and courted to some degree to use it.

Um, know, it unlocks a better product that is scalable, it's, it's a no brainer. I mean, that solves the equation of feasibility and desirability. Like, it not just solves the equation, but puts greater emphasis on that.

Adam Steinberg (20:11)

Would it be safe to say that starting a new product category like you guys are with this frozen cottage cheese concept, like assume it has both benefits and drawbacks. I'm curious from your guys' perspective at just a few things that come top of mind. Like what are the pros and cons look like there?

Joe (20:32)

of the pros is like, it's incredibly difficult to start a CPG brand. It's incredible. It's incredibly difficult to start a frozen CPG brands. but it gets a little easier when you're truly disruptive, unique and different. You stand out.

Drew (20:45)

you

Joe (20:50)

Right? People love the novelty of something new and different and exciting. And we're hitting all the trends of cottage cheese. Everybody knows that cottage cheese is good for you. Protein, people are prioritizing protein in their diets, especially with the influx of GLP-1 and just like the macro protein prioritization.

And then we also are boosted with collagen and people are learning the benefits of needing more collagen after the age of 30, how great it is for your hair, skin and nails. So I think we have a lot of those tailwinds working for us. And I think, you know,

being a small guy in a huge vast ocean, again, you have to do something to stand out. So I think the pros are, you know,

You, you drive that innovation, you capture attention. The cons are, you know, the big players have their eyes on us and they're watching our every step. They're watching every move. They're probably, they probably have pints in the food labs at big Co's and they're probably reverse reverse engineering it as we speak. So, you know, they have the purchasing power and the weight behind them to launch, you know,

a nationwide product to compete. But I think, you know, to our advantage, like we trademark the term froko, so nobody else can use it. We're going to own that. We're going to own that space. and then additionally, like what big co is missing is that they don't know how to authentically speak to customers. Like a small brand can, we see the rise of founder led content and authentic authenticity is, is the loudest speaking.

form of communication. And customers recognize that they want to be spoken to. They don't want to be marketed to or sold. Right. So I think like we have that to our advantage, but it'll be fun to see how it's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when a competitor comes in. But we're seeing a ton of high protein ice creams, which is amazing for the category. Right. It's a subcategory, but we're building again underneath that by being frozen cottage cheese. So

We were adding to the conversation in a variety of ways. And we're not just putting protein in ice cream. Like our product naturally has protein in it from the cottage cheese.

Adam Steinberg (23:13)

it seems like you're

pretty focused on a methodical growth plan. I think I read, you have talking about going deep versus going wide

I talked a lot of other.

CPG operators and it seems like the more experienced ones I often see them talking about along the lines of you should focus on velocity vs getting into as many distribution points as as quickly as possible some I'm curious Is it safe to say you're kind of on the same page there and if so you know for up-and-coming first time CPG operators, maybe help them understand why they should focus on velocity versus just expanding distribution points as fast as possible

Drew (23:49)

That's a really important part. Like if you're new to this game, this is like you need to know the growth levers. And this was talked to us pretty early on. And it's easy to understand. You only have three really. It's door count, view count, and velocity.

I mean, you can argue that there's bottom line activities you can do to drive growth, right? Like, trade efficiencies and drive cars down. But ultimately, you know, the top line opportunities are almost three and you don't want to go to market with 12 SKUs because no one knows what you're good at or what you're for. Right? So SKU rationalization is the only here line you use is like, don't get too down the

to create a SKU for everybody. And then the door count thing, you know, the comment we hear all the time is, is crawl walk run. Like you don't, you don't want to open up several regions all at once and a full population of a retail store unless you're, everyone downstream is on board, right? Like if your co-man is ready to go, you have the capital.

Everyone that supplies the ingredients are ready to go and then and you have no reason not to. I guess go for it. But if you're a small first time CPG founder and I grow a business, the last thing you want to do is get out of your seat and over it. You know, there's nuances to every region and the value proposition might fit a little bit differently and you want to be really intentional about.

understanding your customers, understanding where they are, opening up where they are and on the channel they expect to be at. Like you were talking about pros and cons earlier. I was just, I was thinking to myself, you know, it's not necessarily a pro or a con, but knowing where you fit in store is just like a subtle thing that you want to take the lift out of it, the equation. You need to know who your buyer is at the retail level.

Okay, is it the frozen manager? Great. And what are they buying? What shelves do they have? What door and what shelf do you want to be on? You know, they're not going to answer that for you. You have to have a point of view on that. I want to hit on the copycat stuff too, because I have a lot of thoughts there, but I'll stop.

Adam Steinberg (26:13)

I'm in the, um, the CPG angel investing group called The Angel Group and there's a lot of investors in there and something that they often, it's kind of a pattern that a lot of the other people in the group talk about is something similar. You said as one of their main things in their checklist is, is there a clear place where this brand sits in the actual store? And if a buyer says it has is going to ask, where do I put this? It's going to be a lot more uphill battle. So I think you're,

you're speaking the same language for sure. You spoke a bit about the frozen category a bit, but I know this category definitely presents some pretty unique challenges, even in the context of all the standard challenges that come with growing a CPG brand.

What was the most challenging to figure out, and what have you really figured out how to dial those challenges in, I guess?

Joe (26:59)

That's a good question. People say it's so tough. I don't know, I face that head on. I love challenging things. It keeps me stimulated, it keeps me engaged. I love doing hard shit, just straight up. And honestly, don't...

Drew (27:00)

That is a good question.

Joe (27:16)

I don't think it would be any easier than beverage or a chip brand. You know what I mean? Like I think the biggest challenge for us is what we're going to learn is distribution, warehousing and storage, right? Like how will our product, like it transfers hands so many times. So there's risk there. Like does every single partner know how to handle ice cream? Do they remember that they can't just leave it out in the sun?

for five, even five minutes or it gets frostbitten or it gets melt and then refreezes, which is just the worst thing ever. So making sure the cadd, like the stockers at the store level, are they handling it appropriately? So I think that will be interesting to see, like as we grow in scale, making sure that we have an iron clad logistic operation. But like Drew said earlier, like,

being frozen, have the advantage of long shelf life, you know, so you can make big production runs. Yes, you need to store it and that's overhead. But you need to make sure you sell through it. So it's not just sitting around. So there's pros and cons there. You tie up a lot of cash and inventory, but you have it to your advantage. Like you have product on hand that you can really dial up expansion marketing efforts for.

Adam Steinberg (28:27)

I assume this category is also a bit of a, it creates a bit more of barrier to entry ya

Drew (28:33)

Yeah, definitely,

definitely a barrier there. The other piece that isn't talked about is like, it resonating in a demo. Like, when you're when you're creating a new product demoing is the trial is so important. If your thing isn't inherently exciting to try, you know, you have a kind of a barrier hurdle.

Like, there's nothing more exciting than a free sample of ice cream. So it's kind of like with every hard thing, there's one benefit, there's one added benefit maybe. So it's hard to foresee all the nuances across all the categories within CPG, but they all have, like, I would love to be able to have a direct to consumer channel, right? Like, we don't have that as frozen.

Adam Steinberg (29:21)

Any other brands specifically in this, I guess let's say, frozen category that you're like,

excited about at all?

Drew (29:29)

Yeah, of course. So, um, protein pints as you launched, um, there's a small company out in California called Buffmo. Um, and it's just exciting to see that people are revisiting ice cream as a means to getting nutritional value. I think there was a lot of excitement about it a decade ago, but there are options out there just what satiate in or we didn't really meet the mark and we learned that consumers aren't going to compromise.

on taste and quality for the sake of nutritional value. And we're now in a state where companies are solving for that. And it's just, I think it's gonna drive way more people back into the ice cream aisle. I think if you look at the growth rate of ice cream, you're.

the large percentage of that growth is attributed to price increase, not consumer demand increase. And I think with higher quality, more beneficial ice creams coming out on the market, we're going to see people go back to ice cream more and more. And we're really excited because at the end of the day, we're caught in cheese, which is associated with breakfast and lunch. And we think that, like, I haven't had breakfast more than I have any other time of day.

blended as a smoothie in morning or I'll throw vanilla in my espresso and make myself an affogato. So we're just genuinely excited to see other companies that are sort of championing the category of better for you than frozen in general.

Adam Steinberg (31:06)

Well yeah guys, this has been awesome. Anything else? Feel like you guys want to share about the brand, about the journey before we wrap up here?

Joe (31:14)

geez, mean the biggest question is where can you find us? So we just launched in Whole Foods. Yeah, we just launched in Whole Foods in the Tri-State area so you can get us at a select number of Whole Foods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. If you're in New York, you could also order us on GoPuff. If you use Instacart, you know, look up where you can get us on Instacart. It's just...

Adam Steinberg (31:18)

Yeah, that was my next question. can people find you guys?

Joe (31:37)

great for delivery service. If you're in Florida, you can find us in Sprouts. And yeah, we're working on getting into more stores as we speak. We're working on watching the West Coast every day. We have someone reaching out on social media asking when they could find us in California. So it's high on our list. But yeah, the best thing you can do right now is shoot us a follow at Eat Smearcase Case on Instagram and go pick up a pint of froko and tell your friends about it.

Adam Steinberg (32:02)

Awesome, perfect. Well, yeah, we'll definitely make sure to call it out where people can find the product when we start sharing these clips and whatnot. But this has been great, guys. Really appreciate the time. All righty.

Joe (32:10)

Thanks for having us out.

Drew (32:11)

Yeah, Adam,

thanks for having us.