Desert Desserts

Austin home decor store opens a health-conscious bakery on wheels

Desserts by the Maaribu bakery truck in Austin.

Maaribu owner and pastry chef Serene Warren developed a health-based menu of beautiful treats for outside the showroom.

Photo courtesy of Maaribu

What many Austinites may not realize when passing by Maaribu on Guadalupe Street is that the home goods store has a perfect name. A combination of Marfa and Malibu, the chic little showroom and café offers decor in desert tones, eclectic desserts made without gluten and with lots of buzzword ingredients, and the feeling that pursuing little luxuries is part of wellness. Speaking of those truly little treats, Maaribu’s new bakery truck, which feeds the South First Street café, is now open at the Guadalupe Street showroom.

The truck carries a diverse menu of classics (chocolate chip cookies and brownies), savory snacks (rosemary parmesan and cheddar scallion dill scones), and several vegan offerings (matcha cheesecake and dark chocolate mousse). A mysterious golden spice sandwich cookie — nodding to turmeric — beckons with a piped swirl of frosting, while banana and lemon loaves stand by for instant, miniaturized comfort.

A press release shares that Maaribu’s lemon blueberry scones and dragon fruit confetti cupcakes contain “superfoods and adaptogens” and are “full of antioxidants and prebiotics.” While it likely doesn’t matter that the star ingredient in your cupcake could keep you relatively more alive while lost in Big Bend than a boring old strawberry, dragon fruit confetti is an undeniably happy concept.

Other treats available at the café, like the Iced Immortality Mocha with adaptogenic mushrooms, are meant to deliver a tangible boost to energy and resilience to stress. Like anyone with experience in herbs or CBD could tell you, it’s a long-term process, but a little variety is a fun way to break up your usual routine.

Everything on the menu is by pastry chef Serene Warren, who trained in part at the Culinary Institute of America. Despite taking two decades of full focus as a stay-at-home mom, Warren is back in the culinary game, and has created two restaurant concepts before Maaribu, which has taken up most of her eight years in Austin so far.

Maaribu has stores at 3402 Guadalupe St. and 1413 S. First St., with the bakery truck parked at the former. Maaribu stated in an Instagram comment that the truck is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 9 am to 4 pm, and Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm. More information about the brick-and-mortar stores is available at maaribu.com.

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Beverage news

Austin-based Poppi acquired by behemoth soda brand for $2 billion

Facebook/Poppi

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PepsiCo is acquiring the Austin-based prebiotic soda brand Poppi for $1.95 billion.

The acquisition, announced Monday, March 17, gives PepsiCo a fast-growing brand in the popular functional beverage category.

“More than ever, consumers are looking for convenient and great-tasting options that fit their lifestyles and respond to their growing interest in health and wellness,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a statement.

PepsiCo said the transaction includes $300 million of anticipated cash benefits, bringing the net purchase price to $1.65 billion.

Allison Ellsworth, the Austin co-founder of Poppi, said the combination with PepsiCo will expand Poppi’s reach.

“We can’t wait to begin this next chapter with PepsiCo to bring our soda to more people — and I know they will honor what makes Poppi so special while supporting our next phase of growth and innovation,” Ellsworth said in a statement.

Ellsworth developed Poppi — then known as Mother Beverage — in her kitchen in 2015 because she loved soda but was tired of the way it made her feel. She mixed fruit juices with apple cider vinegar, sparkling water and prebiotics, and sold the drink at farmer's markets.

The brand took off in 2018 when Ellsworth and her husband pitched it on Shark Tank. An investor on the show, Rohan Oza, took a stake in Mother Beverage and undertook a major rebrand. Poppi, with its brightly-colored, fruit-forward cans, was born.

“We’re beyond thrilled to be partnering with PepsiCo so that even more consumers across America, and the world, can enjoy Poppi,” said Oza, the co-founder CAVU Consumer Partners, which has also invested in beverage brands like Oatly and Bai.

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Poppi. Last summer, multiple class-action lawsuits were filed against the brand by consumers who said its products don’t improve gut health as much as their marketing suggests.

Poppi denied those claims, and noted that it removed references to “gut health” from its packaging in late 2023. But according to a court filing last week, Poppi has agreed to a settlement that includes an $8.9 million fund for payments to consumers. A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for May 8.

PepsiCo shares rose nearly 2 percent in morning trading Monday.

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