Functional mushroom-infused chocolate brand Alice has helped consumers focus and sleep. Now, it wants to turn them on.
In its first launch since 2022, it’s introducing unisex aphrodisiac Happy Ending, a dark chocolate bar packed with nine active ingredients, including maca, horny goat weed, cordyceps and cinnamon. All Alice chocolate bars retail for $29 per tin. Tins contain 26 doses.
“It’s the most actives we’ve ever put in a product because we wanted it to address all the different issues that can get in the way of intimacy,” says co-founder and CEO Lindsay Goodstein. Alice’s other offerings, focus-boosting Brainstorm and sleep-supporting NIghtcap, feature five active ingredients each.
Alice uses only the fruiting body—the visible, above ground part of the mushroom believed by many experts to be the most potent—in its products. Launched by Goodstein and COO Charlotte Cruze in late 2022, the brand’s standout branding and quality formulas quickly caught the attention of coveted retailers, notably its biggest partners Erewhon and Pop-up Grocer. Alice is currently sold in over 200 doors across the country, including natural grocers, coffee shops, wellness boutiques and fitness studios. Alice is also sold via Amazon.
Last year, Alice was among several functional mushroom ingestible brands that had issues with technology giant Meta suspending their accounts and barring them from selling on Instagram Shop. Alice is primarily a direct-to-consumer brand. The company shares that DTC accounts for 90% of its sales. Retail accounts for roughly 5% of sales, and Amazon accounts for the remainder. The brand averaged 20% sales growth month-over-month in 2023 and is on track to triple revenue in 2024.
Libido boosters have been a popular items for wellness brands. Goop, Dame, Maude, Wisp, Sexpot Apothecary and Lemme have launched sex drive support ingestibles recently. The idea has been on Goodstein and Cruze’s merchandise roadmap for Alice since its founding. Happy Ending took a full year to develop.
“Our formulation process is incredibly in-depth and starts with a team of doctors, biochemists and herbalists to collect research on every single natural aphrodisiac,” says Cruze. “Once that was in hand, we analyzed each ingredient and chose a select few to comprise a blend that achieved exactly what we wanted: a potent libido supplement for all genders that works immediately while also improving long term sexual wellness.”
The formulation process doesn’t stop there. On top of being efficacious, Cruze emphasizes that every Alice product has to “taste divine.” Alice turned to a team of fifth-generation chocolatiers to perfect Happy Ending’s flavor profile. Cruze says, “We’re thrilled with the decadent, spicy and extremely potent chocolate we created.”
Mushrooms have been darlings of the wellness and beauty worlds for years, and the mush rush shows no signs of slowing. According to estimates from market research firm Future Market Insights, the global functional mushroom market was valued at nearly $9.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to exceed $22 billion by 2033, advancing at a compound annual growth rate of 9% over the next decade.
Alice has ambitious plans for the year ahead. The brand plans to expand its retail footprint to larger natural grocer chains and is teeing up a number of collaborations to raise awareness. Goodstein teases, “We can’t share too much just yet, but think collabs along the lines of accessories, apparel, decadent treats and full-body well-being. If you’re in NYC, you can catch our first collab of the year at The Elk coffee shop, a limited-edition Brain Buzz Mocha using Brainstorm.”
