School teacher is disrupting the protein powder market
I remember being the classic 98-pound weakling in high school (as opposed to the 198-pound weakling I am today. Anyway …) Anyway, my dad took me to Herman’s (memba that?!), I bought a bench press set, and with it, some protein powder. Now I can’t speak as to what protein powder tastes like today, but back in 1986 or whenever, it tasted like my puberty-ridden armpits after knocking out three sets of 40-pound bench presses.
As you might imagine, my protein powder and weightlifting days were short-lived.
I only wish Jack Schrupp had invented his product back then. Of course, that would’ve been impossible, as Jack Schrupp was about a decade away from being born, but nonetheless: It would’ve been helpful.
Schrupp, a 24-year-old French teacher at the Lawrenceville School, is also the founder, owner, chief food scientist, and taste-tester for Drink Wholesome, a protein powder company he created in his college kitchen.
“The idea came to me while I was ski racing in college. I also rowed in college, so I was training year round, and always looking for good clean recovery products, made with ingredients I wanted to put into my body but also ingredients that tasted good,” Schrupp told me. “After years of looking, I just couldn’t find a product made with real food, or at least real food you could pronounce.”
Fair point. After all, xanthan gum doesn’t sound particularly appetizing. Sounds like something an alien would use to glue me back together.
“I didn’t want to compromise on either, the taste or the ingredients,” Schrupp said. “So I started making my own, in my kitchen, with a blender. The first iterations weren’t very good, but over time it got better and better and I started sharing with people. And the feedback got better and better, and so I decided to turn it into a consumer packaged good.”
Hence, Drink Wholesome, available at www.drinkwholesome.com and featuring items such as PB Coconut, which consists of egg whites, oats, peanuts, coconut, maple sugar, sea salt, and monk fruit. And the final ingredient, listed on the packaging? “Nothing else.”
Want something simpler? How about Peanut Butter. Ingredients there are egg whites, coconut, peanuts, monk fruit. And nothing else.
“It started out as a hobby that became a business at a really inopportune moment,” Schrupp said.
Why inopportune? He launched in February, pre-coronavirus. Not ideal, as his big marketing plan was to head to events, like marathons and the like, in an effort to drum up sales. While the pandemic nixed that, he went online and started hustling there. Additionally, he’ll be entering the retail space this year, with plans to get into local health food and specialty stores.
In the meantime, he’s grinding out product at a Cape Cod manufacturing plant and creating new flavors, some of which will be launching in a matter of days.
“From a food science perspective, I’m pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished,” he said. “It’s hard to make a protein powder that tastes good, that is soluble, that is stable, and all without food additives. Almost everyone uses additives because they help with the function of the product. But I created a functional product that tastes good, doesn’t compromise on the ingredient list, and I’m excited about that.”
He’s also excited about getting out into the local community, as the New Hampshire native moved to The Lawrenceville School just this past August. He had previously taught at boarding schools in the Boston area, but his girlfriend was living in New York City, so …
“So I made the change,” Schrupp said. “It was the most bizarre time to move here, to start work at a new school, especially with all the precautionary measures in place. It’s been hard to meet people, get a feel for what life is like in a normal world here in Lawrence. But so far so good. I’m having a great experience all things considered.”
So if you see Jack around town, keep the xanthan gum in your pocket, m’kay?