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Functional health bars with Guy Morley, Co-Founder of Upraising
1.3k Plays1 year ago
Welcome to episode 067 of the Green Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hospitality. I’m you host Matt Morley and in this episode in in my home town of Barcelona, Spain talking to Guy Morley, no relation.
Guy is the Co-Founder of Upraising an organic coffee brand powered by nootropics and adaptogens (we’ll get to what these terms mean shortly).
He previously built the iced tea brand Kailani and before that worked as a music and entertainment lawyer in London, UK.
So before I bring Guy in, let me establish some context here.
The health and wellness industry has been witnessing a paradigm shift in recent years.
As more people become conscious of their overall wellbeing, inside and out, mental and physical, mind-body and spirit, the demand for hospitality concepts tailored to this shift to a quasi biohacking approach is slowly becoming more mainstream.
One such innovation is the emergence of a new breed of performance health bar, a unique wellness concept that focuses on offering a diverse range of health-promoting products and services.
The objective here is very specific:
1/ to help clients prep themselves for performance
2/ assist them in maintaining performance whilst in action
3/ promote recovery post activity, helping them get back out there, ready to go one more time.
The future of health bars in my opinion lies in incorporating cutting-edge ingredients and technologies, combined with biophilic design, to create a holistic wellness experience maximized for its positive impact on overall health.
This includes the use of adaptogenic mushrooms, nootropics, supplements, and nutritious beverages to support various aspects of health.
Additionally, the adoption of sustainable and eco-friendly interior design practices, such as biophilic design and a strict sustainable, non-toxic materials policy in the fit-out, ensures the aesthetic context is aligned with the concept. ensuring the health bar has been maximized for its wellbeing properties.
Today, I am joined by a man on the forefront of creating the type of functional beverage products that will, I believe, come to populate this new generation of wellness bar concepts that I’m betting represent the future of F&B offerings at premium boutique fitness studios, health clubs and wellness oriented members clubs.
Guy thanks for joining us on the podcast!
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Background
00:00:13
Speaker
67 of the Green Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the themes of well-being and sustainability in real estate and hospitality. I'm your host, Matt Morley, and in this episode, I'm in my hometown of Barcelona, Spain, talking to Guy Morley. No relation. Guy is the co-founder of Upraising. It's an organic coffee brand powered by Neutropics and Adaptogens, and we'll get to what those terms mean.
00:00:42
Speaker
very shortly. He previously built and sold the iced tea brand Kailani and before that worked as a music and entertainment lawyer for many years in London, UK. Now before I bring Guy into the conversation, let me establish some context here.
Holistic Wellness & Design Integration
00:00:57
Speaker
The health and wellness industry as I see it has been witnessing a paradigm shift in recent years. More and more people
00:01:05
Speaker
of overall wellbeing, so a version of wellness that is both inside and out, mental and physical, mind, body and spirit. As a consequence, the demand for hospitality concepts tailored to that shift to an almost quasi biohacking approach is slowly becoming more mainstream. One such innovation in that sense is the emergence of a new breed of performance-oriented health bar,
00:01:34
Speaker
That's a unique wellness concept that focuses on offering a diverse range of health-promoting products and services. The objective here is very specific, to help clients prepare themselves for performance, assist them in maintaining performance whilst in action, and thirdly, to promote recovery post-activity, helping them to get back out there ready to go one more time. So what we're not talking about is a longevity bar promising to help clients live to 150.
00:02:04
Speaker
So what does constitute what I'm calling a functional health bar? I think the future of health bars, in my opinion, lies in incorporating cutting-edge ingredients and technologies combined with biophilic design and wellness interiors to create a holistic well-being experience that is literally maximized for its positive impact on overall health.
00:02:28
Speaker
that includes the use of adaptogenic mushrooms, nootropics, supplements and nutritious beverages to support various aspects of health. And there you can see where Guy is coming into the conversation. Additionally though, I think the adoption of sustainable and eco-friendly interior design practices such as my own specialism in biophilic design and a sustainable non-toxic materials policy in the fit out of those spaces
00:02:52
Speaker
really ensures that the aesthetic context is aligned with the concept itself, aligned with the brand of health bar in question.
00:03:00
Speaker
So really, I'm all about creating those experiences via design-led interventions in the built environment. Today, I'm joined by a man who is really at the forefront of creating the type of functional beverage products that will, I believe, come to populate this new generation of wellness bar concepts. I'm betting that the future of F&B in premium
00:03:24
Speaker
boutique fitness studios, health clubs and wellness oriented members clubs is going in this direction. That's enough from me. So here I'm going to
Market Entry & Functional Food Trends
00:03:34
Speaker
bring in Guy. Thanks for joining us on the podcast Guy. Thank you Matt and thank you for that introduction.
00:03:40
Speaker
I wanted to start by getting a sense of what you identified as being the opportunity here when you're launching Upraising. In a sense, I've tried to set the scene there, but what attracted you to the functional coffee market in particular? How long has that been a thing? And did you see it as getting in early enough on a new trend or almost trying to establish a new market in a new territory? Or where did you see your arrival in the sector on that timeline?
00:04:10
Speaker
So I think, as you said in your introduction, new topics, adaptogens, functional mushrooms, are sort of coming, having their moment. They're about, or about to have their moment. So that's a huge growth area. I think the idea of mixing them with coffee comes originally from the US, where there's been a company, a Finnish company actually, for there for about 10 years. And they've grown sort of rapidly over 10 years. In Europe, there was nothing similar.
00:04:34
Speaker
So the idea behind Outraising was to have a look at what they were doing in the US and do a more European and more suited version here. So we've taken European specialty style organic fair trade coffee, and then we've mixed it with functional mushrooms, adaptogens. And that's been our sort of
00:04:59
Speaker
I think it's probably exactly the right timing that we've launched, I think. What do you think is behind this trend? I'm almost reluctant to use that word. But clearly, it is having a moment, as you say. Like, this is now, it is a new hot topic. We're seeing the products coming onto the market. From my perspective, I'm seeing the F&B concepts adapted to this type of product coming onto the market. Like, this is the tip, it's the start of a wave.
00:05:29
Speaker
And why do you think it's happening now? I think it's part of a much larger movement, I suppose, of food as medicine. So people realizing that what they're eating and what they're doing is really impacting their health hugely. And it's preventative medicine. And there's perhaps a growing, I wouldn't say disillusionment, but a growing awareness that interventive medicine, taking pills, surgery, etc.
00:05:56
Speaker
is best avoided rather than, and doesn't really, is a band-aid rather than a solution to your health. So people are now becoming more aware of trying to avoid illnesses completely and using food, therefore, as their medicine. This is a way of enhancing something that people drink. I mean, the vast majority of the population globally drink and has its own health benefits as well, and making that even more beneficial to their both mental and physical health.
00:06:25
Speaker
It's interesting, I'm reading a book at the moment by Dr. Peter Attia. He's just published something called Outlive that's all about what he terms to be medicine 3.0. So whereas medicine 2.0 was really sort of preventive, this is about looking into the future and trying to do everything possible now to help you live a long and healthy life. I think there is a shift in perception.
Understanding Nootropics & Adaptogens
00:06:51
Speaker
Coming so perhaps we need to dig a little deeper into some of these this terminology then and some of the ingredients i guess we've used those two words adaptogens and new tropics so let's start with them what are their health benefits what are they and have you dug into the research behind them as you are building out the brand of appraising.
00:07:13
Speaker
So nootropics then are basically ingredients that help or boost and prove cognitive function. And they can be they don't have to be natural. So for example, Adderall, which people say for ADHD is a nootropic caffeine is one of the most commonly used.
00:07:30
Speaker
their nootropics, which obviously is found in nature as well. And because that boosts concentration. So then we use only natural nootropics. So things like lion's mane mushroom, which is a functional mushroom. So a functional mushroom, to use another terminology, is this, everyone knows the psychedelic mushrooms with psilocybin. These are probably the level below that with no psilocybin, but have very strong properties that are beneficial to humans, either physically or mentally or both.
00:07:58
Speaker
And Lion's main example of that is very good for focus. The other terminology that's thrown around a lot is adaptogens. And these are natural ingredients that are good and helpful for the body to relieve or adapt to stress. So that could be mental or physical stress.
00:08:19
Speaker
So Reishi, a functional mushroom, for example, is a good example of an adaptogen that helps balance cortisol levels, which is also one of the reasons we mix it with coffee, because coffee, in some people, when they get the jitters, it's because their cortisol levels are rising. So Reishi, mixing Reishi with the coffee will balance that out. And that's what our feedback has been, is that people have been having this just a free, crash-free coffee.
00:08:44
Speaker
So then you get into some combination of both physical and mental. And in terms of then, the parallel is interesting with wellness interiors and biophilic design, because so what are the benefits of designing a space in that way? And often we're looking at sense of what's often termed vitality or a connection with nature, so a mood-enhancing
00:09:12
Speaker
feeling better about yourself and the world around you to some extent feeling less stressed less anxious and just just a little bit sharper like your concentrations back you feel restored mental fatigue is alleviated so at least in terms of well what are these spaces doing those are the kind of buzzwords that I'm playing with when you came to
00:09:34
Speaker
to review all of those potential or afforded benefits around your tropics and adaptogens. How did you then start to slice them up into a product range so that one is perhaps offering something for cognitive or one's more about physical? How did you go about
00:09:51
Speaker
creating a proposition for each one of the products that you have at the moment, which I believe is three, and possibly there might be, I guess, more coming in the pipeline. So how do you see that piece around like the product proposition within that wider umbrella of functional coffee?
00:10:07
Speaker
So we started originally with what we're mixing with coffee, and that has obviously various health benefits. I mean, we use organic fair trade coffee, as I mentioned, so we use one with limited pesticides. Coffee is a good example of something that has multi benefits. As we mentioned, it's good for concentration. Also, some people find it as a mood booster. Some people can, it increases the metabolism and helps weight loss.
00:10:33
Speaker
It can also increase physical performance. It's also super high in antioxidants. It's also, we've just been speaking to a gut health expert in Norway, who's a real advocate of coffee and says you have to drink 450 to 1.1 liters, 450 mil to 1.1 liters of coffee a day to get the amount of polyphenols to boost your gut health. So we started with that and then we wanted to improve it even further.
00:11:01
Speaker
And we're thinking, well, when do people drink coffee? It's not something we're going to be putting in to help them get to sleep at night, although we can come into how actually one of our coffees people have been sending in their sleep trackers and showing how much it has improved their sleep. So then when people drink coffee in the morning, they might be going about their day. They want to focus better. They want it to be more productive. So we've got one coffee for that called Flow Stage.
00:11:26
Speaker
There's another where people might want a mood boost. All they might be coffee is often a very social phenomenon. The people go out to cafes. People have people around at their houses for coffee. So we've got one, and that's actually the one that seems to be helping sleep as well, called bright mood. And then we've got one that we're probably rejigging actually at the moment is live well. And that was the idea as a sort of immune boosting, energy boosting,
00:11:53
Speaker
product and which, again, people use coffee for. But what we're going to tweak it slightly with some of the ingredients is and make it much more into vitality and natural energy and stamina, resilience. So much more for people who are taking a coffee to go and do a long cycle ride, a marathon, a surf session, things like that. It would be very good for their body. All these ingredients are super good for the immune system anyway.
00:12:20
Speaker
So I think there's clearly one case for this type of functional health bar being present in really any kind of physical performance center, be that a tennis club, a fitness studio, where I think particularly around sports, I think you could argue that perhaps a class of yoga might require less
00:12:50
Speaker
in terms of the mental game although I think there's a lot around concentration and focus there so you know you could actually argue it both ways but I think there is something around sports performance and
00:13:01
Speaker
competitive games such as say a tennis club, you can imagine that being an easy win. But then in the process of doing a bit of research into these kind of brain cafes, you know, in the US, they're quite becoming increasingly common in co-working spaces as well, where clearly it's more than about mental focus and cognitive performance.
Sales Strategy & Future Trends
00:13:25
Speaker
So as you've been building out the brand, how have you gone about
00:13:30
Speaker
the sales strategy in that who's buying this beyond direct to consumer sales when you're thinking about the network of resellers or distributors, whatever setup you have. Are you seeing obvious markers in terms of, oh, it's all been co-working brands or it's all been health food stores. Like who's picking up on this? Like where is it currently being sold and why do you think it's going big there?
00:14:00
Speaker
I would say there hasn't been a very limited, it's been a very wide audience actually in terms of our business customers. I mean, we've sold in places from brunch. We noticed between these, we noticed which of the three sells better. So for example, in brunch places, which is obviously a social setting, the bright mood one sells better.
00:14:19
Speaker
We sell in a yoga studio. The Live Well one does well. We sell in a sort of deli where you would go and buy your nice cheeses and chocolates where they all sell pretty well. So I wouldn't say we've been limited in where we can sell them. It's more which one sells better in which type of place. Something we do need to work on, and as I said, we only launched six months ago, is that it's ground coffee we use because obviously the mixing process with the other ingredients
00:14:47
Speaker
is more complex if it's Holbein but we think we're working on that and we think we've figured out a way to do that which will then open up more business places and more gyms that have their expresso machines etc. I like it let's let's stick with that connection then between the product the
00:15:04
Speaker
proposition of each product and then the type of venue that ends up selling it. So if we think about other ingredients and linked to that, obviously the functional benefits that you could imagine Upraising doing in future product lines, I just wonder if that could perhaps give us clues about where else we might see the functional health bar concept emerging. So when you look at, you know, you've launched, you've got your first three products on the market,
00:15:31
Speaker
What could a sort of a version 2.0 in the next six months or a year look like? And where else could you go with the actual functional health ingredients and the benefits? In terms of selling to business because of the other businesses. I mean, I think in terms of a next product, we'll be doing one without caffeine as that's effectively what people have asked for.
00:15:50
Speaker
But I think in terms of the business customers, especially, we do need to move to Holbein just because you've got the coffee dilemma. That's how commercial places buy their coffee. That's the machines they've got.
00:16:01
Speaker
in stock. So I think we'll be doing that. And then then once we've worked, figured out the sorts of technologies, great whole beans, it's fairly easy to then for us to do it because we've got all the ingredients to adjust and make certain adjustments to the new tropics and adaptogens we use so that we can then tailor for specific places. For example, for example, a gym may want more of an energy one. A yoga studio, as you mentioned, may want more of a calming one. So we then could do different
00:16:31
Speaker
And I think that's probably where the future for functional bars and fitness is. It's going to be more and more tailored. I think at the moment, it's still in its infancy. So anything is considered good. And I think they are good, any of these ingredients. But I think it will get more and more narrow for what you want to do, which can only be a good thing. And as well as customize nutrition, customize blood tests, everything's becoming much more tailored towards you. And I think that's exactly what the functional bar future would look like.
00:17:00
Speaker
And then adjacent sectors that you might have your eye on, whether for the up raising brand to go into yourself or that are just near neighbors in terms of offering functional health benefits. You mentioned gut health.
00:17:18
Speaker
We haven't mentioned protein, but I imagine that could be something one fathoms as being a positive addition in terms of ingredients to help with recovery. You see brands like Endorph in the US doing functional mushrooms with an endurance trail running marathon spin on things, probiotics from brands like the Neuco, where again, it's about powders and drinks that have some immediate functional benefit on your health.
00:17:48
Speaker
What else do you see going on around you and where could it go from here? Yeah, I mean, all of those things you mentioned are possible. There are some sort of limiting factors for us. For example, probiotics, we have to use probiotics that are resistant to heat if we're going to put them in a hot drink. In the end, we also want to be very, this is an industry with perhaps a lot of
00:18:12
Speaker
less credible products. We can say it diplomatically. There's a lot of Instagram based, slightly scammy products and we want to be very focused on what we do is actually effective and it's the best product quality ingredients that we can use.
00:18:31
Speaker
So we're speaking to, as I mentioned, the gut health specialist is also another specialist here in Spain, how we can create the best products. We're also tied, as you mentioned, for example, things like protein, like cordyceps mushroom is a really good mushroom for the cardiorespiratory system, but it's actually, uh, there's two types, but, um, one is impossible to farm and the other one you can farm.
00:18:56
Speaker
But the one you can't farm, the price is more than in its weight than gold. So the other one which people use in the US and UK, the EU is behind actually on this and it's not actually been approved for use, which is one of the issues in a growing sort of area in its infancy. But I mean, that's an ingredient we would love to use as well.
00:19:16
Speaker
But we're also, unlike other brands, not tied to mushrooms. So we can use other new tropics and adaptogens. Altheanine is a good one that helps ignition that we take from green tea. We're mixing with the caffeine to replicate the more balanced caffeine high that you get from green tea.
00:19:33
Speaker
So in terms of other products, I think, I mean, probably in the for the first year now, because we stick with hot drinks, but then I think things like protein powders, chocolates could be whichever is whatever our goal is to get people these benefits in as the most successful way for them. So I think that's what we'd look at is how to keep these effective and accessible. Because there is clearly, although we're talking about being
00:20:00
Speaker
present on the current wave of functional drinks. It's almost as if one can see the next wave coming on the horizon, right? Then the next set is already swelling up. And I think that could be around concepts that perhaps for now feel quite out there or on the verge of acceptability in terms of both societal perception and
00:20:30
Speaker
legality. But microdosing, you're seeing brands like Earth Residence now seemingly selling 30-day packs of microdose psilocybin mushrooms via websites out of the Netherlands. You've got a lot of talk around longevity, which I think, again,
00:20:54
Speaker
is susceptible to hype and a lot of woo-woo and so much of it is difficult to pin down in that particular market as I see it because to do randomized controlled trials on longevity factors you need a lot of time and it's just hard for the brands to get that type of data. I think it's crucial the idea of coming at this from a data-led
00:21:21
Speaker
perspective and trying to be as honest and transparent as possible in terms of how you've you've gone about that around say marketing and communication. How do you try to
00:21:32
Speaker
First of all, established in the minds of customers, what the heck all of this is about, and that it's legal, it's natural, there's no chemicals involved, it's a natural high, essentially. But then beyond that, how it's also, yeah, those individual benefits. How do you try to create that brand image of authenticity and honesty? Is it something you've had to actively focus on, or is it more just, yeah, consistent
00:22:01
Speaker
communication around the theme? Are there research studies that you're able to cite?
00:22:09
Speaker
How we created the products, we've always had that at our forefront. So we have used the best quality products and we're very open about where we get our coffee from, where we get our mushrooms from that are from Scandinavia rather than China, where they can have issues with contamination and heavy metals and also things like labor laws in Scandinavia are much higher. So you might be buying an organic mushroom or what you think is an organic mushroom in China. But if it's been produced in a farm where people are working 18 hours a day,
00:22:36
Speaker
in harsh conditions, you're not particularly helping the world improve. So we've been very careful about the products we've used in terms of
00:22:48
Speaker
communicating what they are and what they do. That's sort of part of the privilege and responsibility of being a sort of first mover in a space like this. And that's what we use our Instagram for, is a lot of informational content which people have highly valued. And we explain, for example, what our only job is, what are adaptogens.
00:23:06
Speaker
What does this ingredient do? And then we are now, when we did the research and formulate the products, we obviously had a huge in-depth review of the studies and that's where we're going. Once people are aware, you probably don't want to from a marketing end, just from a human perspective, you don't overload people with studies right at the beginning. I think as that
00:23:26
Speaker
they go on, we'll be focusing more and more and giving more and more information about the studies that are done. For example, L-theanine with coffee, there's a study that shows that it prolongs concentration and avoids dips. So all our claims and stuff are backed up by studies, but it's also a hugely growing area. I mean, just this morning, I was reading an article about taurine, which was found in, you know, probably...
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. More than more and more done market energy drinks. And it's not to have a very good name. But then this morning, there's there's articles in my studies in my saying how it's very good for longevity in humans and anti aging and slow the aging process. So it's a huge it's a constantly changing atmosphere. And we're just keeping at making sure we keep up to date and we make sure that we communicate as much of that information as we can in a reasonable way to our consumers. And when you
00:24:19
Speaker
look down the pipeline, say, five years into the future around this niche of functional performance drinks, and to some extent, the type of hospitality concept that they're best suited to. How do you see this sector evolving? It's clearly a dynamic space to be in. Where do you see it going? How far can this thing go? I think it can go very far, but I think there will be certain levels. I think there is going to be, and there already are, say,
00:24:50
Speaker
more mainstream companies that are doing it there, putting it there. And that is a danger for a new category. Terms get overused, functional, everything's functional.
00:25:01
Speaker
And that's what I think already happening. But I think the sort of places that you're talking about, the functional bars, et cetera, will get more and more specialists. And the people who know about this will know exactly what they're doing. Because it does make a huge difference, the origin, the quality of the product. And the synthetic versions of lots of these ingredients, if you're not taking the best and you're taking it for a result, then you are unlikely to be boosting your chances of getting that result when you're taking an inferior product.
00:25:32
Speaker
And that's that's part of the danger. I think I think there will be the way of the future. There'll be different levels. There'll be some and a lot of these ingredients are expensive. So there's going to be the sort of elite but with much more better quality products at a much higher price. And then there'll be the more mainstream things, which is not necessarily bad as long as they are good quality and thoughtfully
00:25:52
Speaker
Prepared these functional drinks. You don't want people because that gives the whole category a bad name. People just randomly mixing stuff together of low quality and giving it to customers. And I would say that which was also say as a word of warning to anyone is people react differently to all this stuff.
00:26:08
Speaker
So I think the best way is to test things and work out what works for you the best. And especially as the functional bars going to a more customized drinks, that's probably the, you know, some people might not agree with Lion's Mane, but they might like Chaga. It might, you know, so that's the way the functional bars will go in the future. The interesting thing about those
00:26:27
Speaker
Testing new things out is certainly from my experience having tested a whole bunch of things over the last five years or so is that often the first hit can be can be the most productive you know it often over time the the impact can slowly weigh in as your body gets accustomed to it but i think there's a potential for
00:26:46
Speaker
having really quite a powerful impact on how people feel especially when they're able to try something new for the first time because the body just sort of wakes up. It's like, oh wow, what was that that I've just taken on? You get sometimes it's never quite like that first time, but other times obviously there's no immediate response. It just hasn't particularly worked for you, right? That's a curious aspect of this whole functional drink space.
00:27:09
Speaker
Exactly. And it depends on the function. If the function is, for example, to boost your immune system, if you're going to be taking that for a certain amount of time and you've got to notice that hopefully over months, you're going to notice you're getting ill less often, or if you do get ill, your symptoms are less, but it's not something you're going to notice as soon as you've had a cup of coffee. But that's also where the science-backed research studies comes in, so that they're not just claims to help your immune system over the next few months, but there's real substance behind it.
00:27:35
Speaker
I think it's great. It's a really fascinating space to be in. So if people want to learn more, follow along. Where are you most active online on social media? We're probably most active on our own website, UpRaising.co and our Instagram is UpRaising.co as well, where we post all this information that we've been talking about. Very cool. Thanks so much for your time. It's been great. Thank you.