TRUBAR, the female-founded plant-based protein bar brand available at more than 32,000 retail doors, is entering the specialty café channel through a limited-time collaboration with Cha Cha Matcha, the matcha-focused café concept operating across New York City and Los Angeles. The partnership introduces a new LTO SKU — Love You So Cha Cha Matcha — alongside exclusive menu items, giving TRUBAR a live foodservice occasion to complement its existing retail and e-commerce footprint.
The Product Mix
The Love You So Cha Cha Matcha bar carries 12 grams of plant-based protein and 12 grams of fiber under a white chocolate coating with sweet green tea matcha notes. The SKU will be sold at all Cha Cha Matcha café locations in NYC and LA, as well as on TRUBAR.com and Amazon while supplies last. At the café counter, operators at participating Cha Cha Matcha units can add two incremental items to the menu: a limited-edition PB&J Matcha drink — built around TRUBAR's existing Get in My Belly, PB & Jelly flavor — and TRUBAR Protein Cold Foam, available as a paid add-on to any beverage. Cold-foam upsells have become a reliable per-ticket driver across specialty coffee and tea dayparts, and the TRUBAR integration gives baristas a functional, on-trend option to recommend.
The retail velocity data behind the product selection is notable. The PB & Jelly flavor grew 113% year over year and now accounts for nearly 10% of brand sales year to date, according to the company — figures that signal strong consumer pull before the café trial even begins. Translating a top-performing retail SKU into a beverage expression is a channel-extension play that a growing number of better-for-you brands have used to build trial in foodservice without requiring operators to take on significant inventory risk.
Channel and Category Context
The move reflects a broader pattern in the functional-snack segment: brands with strong off-premise, retail-first identities are increasingly using specialty café partnerships as a low-friction route into foodservice. Unlike a full distribution agreement with a broadline distributor, a café-native LTO limits SKU complexity for the operator while generating consumer impressions in a high-dwell-time environment. For TRUBAR — which competes in a crowded better-for-you bar set alongside established plant-based and whey-based players — the Cha Cha Matcha association also reinforces wellness and lifestyle positioning at a moment when protein-forward snack innovation is one of the fastest-moving categories in both grocery and foodservice.
Matcha itself has followed a trajectory similar to cold brew a decade ago: a specialty ingredient that migrated from independent cafés into chain menus and, eventually, CPG aisles. Cha Cha Matcha has been a brand-building vehicle for that shift in the DTC and specialty-café tier, making it a commercially logical entry point for a bar brand targeting wellness-oriented daypart occasions.
Activation and Outlook
To launch the collaboration, TRUBAR and Cha Cha Matcha are hosting an event at the Cha Cha Matcha Flatiron location in New York City on September 19. The first 50 guests per event receive limited-edition merch and product sampling; a golden-ticket mechanic offers one winner a year of free TRUBAR — one box of bars per month. The activation extends to The Bar Method fitness studios in Cobble Hill, NoHo, and Williamsburg through September 27, where a promo code unlocks a complimentary drop-in class for two, linking the snack and café occasion directly to a fitness-studio daypart.
"We loved bringing their beloved matcha flavor into the world of TRUBAR, giving our communities the chance to experience familiar flavors in a totally different way," said Erica Groussman, Founder and CEO of TRUBAR. The café-channel test, if it drives meaningful attach rates on the cold-foam add-on, could inform how the brand structures future foodservice partnerships and co-branded LTO strategies going forward.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
