A team of four graduate students from Chapman University won the $3,000 first place prize at the Mars Wrigley Product Development Competition for their dairy-based wellness beverage.
Their product, dubbed Spice of Life, is a vanilla chai-flavored wellness shot with a milk base that contains five grams of protein and 50 milligrams of caffeine.
The competition, held at the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago, was sponsored by Mars Wrigley, the manufacturer of M&M’s, Snickers and Skittles, among others.
The other two finalists included student teams from Cornell University who placed second for a frozen meal kit containing gnocchi made from nopal cactus pads, as well as California State University Polytechnic University, Pomona, taking third for an Asian fusion dessert combining mango sticky rice and Daifuku.
A Drink for Gen Z
Taylor Thompson, Nihaal Nagda, Cosette Pearce and Makayla Gallimore all met through Chapman’s food science program when they were approached by their professor, Dr. Anuradha Prakash, with the idea for a dairy wellness shot.
They settled on a vanilla chai flavor profile after surveying a little over 100 Chapman students around their age, aimed primarily at Gen Z and millennial women.
Unlike most wellness shots on the market, Spice of Life is milk-based and ultrafiltered to remove all lactose, making it a good source of calcium, Vitamin D and protein, according to Pearce.
Besides the cognitive benefits, the team said the milk base provides a “rich, indulgent texture” akin to a latte.
The team developed the drink over the course of nine months in partnership with the California Milk Advisory Board and received a travel grant from Chapman to attend the competition.
