What are the unique challenges and opportunities in powdered applications for functional beverages? Here's an in-depth dive into Tanner Isom's interview on powdered flavor profiles.
Watch his full interview
We’ve all heard the saying: lightning never strikes twice. We all know it’s a myth—shoutout NOAA1—but the saying lives on. It means that those “once in a lifetime” moments truly are once in a lifetime.
But in the world of functional powdered beverages, this can’t be true.
In this industry, lightning must strike twice.
That first strike moment comes when a functional claim piques the consumer’s interest. Whether the product promises focus, energy, gut health, or recovery, it’s the label, the claims, the appearance of the product that get that first-time buyer on board.
But that second strike—the strike that actually matters—is the moment they buy it again. And they buy it again because of one reason: flavor. As Sensapure Product Development Manager Tanner Isom puts it,
“Your functional label claim will make someone buy something once, but your flavor will make them buy it twice.”
At Sensapure, developing successful, world-class, functional beverages is not an accident. It’s a combination of sensory science, creativity, chemistry, budget awareness, and a willingness to experiment fearlessly.
Lightning doesn’t strike twice because of luck.
It strikes twice because developers like Tanner make it strike twice—on purpose.
Tanner didn’t start in a lab coat; he started in a warehouse. Back in 2011, he joined the food industry, working at Genysis as a warehouse picker. When a lab position opened, he jumped at the opportunity: “Oh, that sounds nice. I would love air conditioning.” But it didn’t take long for Tanner to discover something more meaningful:
“I thought, ‘Hey, this is fun. I like making stuff.’… With a 9–5, this is one of the more creative options.”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
That creativity, paired with discipline, shaped his trajectory. Tanner’s approach is precise, patient, and strategic. He blends his artistic instincts as a musician who toured in a band for 15 years with the methodical mindset of a formulation scientist.
Today, as a Product Development Manager in Sensapure’s Powdered Applications Lab, Tanner specializes in powdered beverages (RTM) across all functional categories: hydration, pre-workout, greens, nootropics, and more. He is equal parts artist and technician—a storyteller using acids, sweeteners, aromatics, and off-notes as his narrative tools.
But Tanner’s story isn’t just a personal narrative; it mirrors the transformation of the entire powdered beverage category. Just as he discovered creativity, precision, and possibility within a seemingly simple medium, consumers and brands are now rediscovering powders themselves. To understand why his skill set matters so much today, it helps to look at the world he’s formulating for.
Powdered beverages are experiencing a full-scale renaissance because of market forces and cultural shifts in how consumers think about wellness. Industry research projects the global powdered drink market to grow at nearly 10% CAGR through 2029.2
Why the surge? Powdered RTM drinks combine science with convenience and customization. As explored in Sensapure’s article “Pre-Workout vs. Post-Workout Functional Beverages,” the powder format remains the most adaptable platform for products requiring substantial active loads, long-term stability, or specialized delivery systems.
But the rise of powders isn’t just an industry trend—it’s a consumer movement. Modern wellness consumers are no longer passive drinkers; they’re active participants in their daily nutrition rituals. Powders support that behavior intuitively. They’re portable and gym-ready, lightweight to ship, easy to store, and customizable. Consumers can adjust concentration levels on the fly, adding more water for a light, refreshing experience or less water for a bold, flavorful hit. In a sense, powders let people become “home scientists,” tailoring each serving to their personal taste and functional needs.
This flexibility also explains why powders have become the backbone of key functional categories: hydration, pre-workout, adaptogens, greens, phytonutrients, protein nutrition, and a rapidly expanding nootropics segment. They provide a stable, scalable format for delivering actives that might otherwise be too volatile or too heavy for RTDs. And because consumers are now reaching for functional beverages multiple times a day, powders offer diversity and precision to support that rhythm.
But for a key segment of consumers, gym-goers, and disciplined dieters, functional powders are more than routine. They’re the reward. These are the people counting macros, skipping dessert, and choosing early mornings over late-night snacks. For them, a protein shake isn’t just nutrition; it’s indulgence. As Tanner puts it, “Consumers don’t get a cheat day… And this protein shake is their dessert. You have to take it with a grain of salt; it is not a piece of cheesecake; it is a shake trying to resemble a piece of cheesecake. But it's our job to try to make that as close and as pleasant of an experience as possible.”
Of course, this freedom comes with complexity. A powder must taste great across multiple dilutions, mixing methods, water temperatures, and consumer preferences. That means flavor developers must think holistically: designing profiles that hold up when a customer uses eight ounces of water or twenty. It’s an inherently challenging task that blends chemistry, sensory science, and experience-driven nuance.
And it all starts with a good base.
In formulation, the “base” refers to all active components: caffeine, vasodilators, nootropics, botanical extracts, greens, marine collagen, amino acids, protein systems, etc.
And these ingredients often taste… really terrible.
• Caffeine is known for its strong bitter receptor activation3
• Nootropics like L-theanine and taurine carry sulfuric or vegetal notes
• Marine collagen peptides are subject to oxidation, yielding “fishy” volatile compounds
As Tanner explains, “Those are the things that taste gross… They’re bitter. They have off-notes. They have their own characteristics.”
So, how do we get rid of them? Well, the answer is: we don’t. Some off-notes simply cannot be erased.
New formulators often assume “if a little flavor is good, more is better,” but that’s not the case. High-intensity sweeteners have bitterness thresholds. Spray-dried flavors can create a chemical burn taste when overdosed.
“You might think… ‘I can still taste the caffeine,’ but you’re actually tasting too much flavor.”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
Mastery means restraint, balance, and knowing where the limit is.
A perfect example of an ingredient with off notes that can’t be covered up is marine collagen.
“Marine collagen… tastes like fish. You’re not going to make it not taste like fish.”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
You cannot fruit-punch your way out of a fish-based ingredient. So instead, you must work with what the ingredient naturally evokes. Tanner’s solution? Lemon pepper. It’s a flavor profile that actually makes sense with subtle fish notes.
Another example is when Tanner was tasked with flavoring a base with fenugreek. This ingredient introduces a “brown maple” note that clashes brutally with classic pre-workout candy flavors.
“We were really struggling... We were coming at it with our traditional blue razz, jolly rancher watermelon, sour green apple, fruit punch. All of them were gross.”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
The project stumped the team because they were trying to force one specific method to work. That is, until they asked the question, “How do we make that brown note make sense?”
Instead of covering up the brown notes and trying to outflavor the active ingredients, Tanner decided to use it to his advantage. With a little creativity and some trial and error, he was able to transform the naturally occurring flavor notes of the base into a great-tasting product:
• Blue Raspberry became Blueberry Muffin.
• Fruit Punch became Cherry Pie.
• Peach Mango became Peach Cobbler.
These flavors absorb and contextualize the brown note instead of fighting it. Functional ingredients have identities. They are not blank canvases—they are character actors. The developer’s job isn’t to erase them, but to build a flavor storyline in which they belong.
Functional ingredients aren’t the only thing affecting taste. Color is a huge factor when it comes to the perceived taste of a product. The human brain is a prediction machine; color sets expectations before flavor ever hits the tongue.
A classic example of color influencing taste is the blue Glacier Freeze Gatorade. The blue color tricks your brain into thinking it’s a “blue” flavor like blueberry or blue raspberry. But that blue Glacier Freeze is actually flavored orange. Next time you try it, close your eyes, don’t look at the blue color, and you’ll taste the orange. Sometimes, changing the color of a product can improve the taste of the flavor, for no other reason than visual expectations.
Recently, Tanner worked with a client who wanted a unique, fruity flavor. Nothing distinctly recognizable. He wanted something that no one had ever tried before. Well, that’s a tall order. How was Tanner going to flavor something that no one has ever tasted?
“So I made a watermelon and I colored it blue, and he was obsessed. He thought it was amazing. He finally asked me [what the flavor was], and I said, ‘blue watermelon.’”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
The client was astounded, claiming there were notes of lime, of coconut, because those are flavors commonly colored blue. No one would ever see a blue-colored beverage and automatically think it’s watermelon flavored. So it had to have something else in it, right?
“No. There’s not. It’s just blue watermelon.”
Color is a silent partner in the flavor system—one that can create coherence or delicious cognitive dissonance. Sometimes all it takes to create a flavor no one has ever tasted before is changing the color.
Flavoring a world-class product isn’t just a sensory exercise; it’s an economic one. Formulators walk the tightrope of delivering a memorable flavor experience and ensuring the final product is financially viable. In a category where ingredient costs can swing wildly based on global supply, agricultural volatility, and clean-label expectations, understanding the chemistry is only half the battle. The other half is understanding the budget.
One of the quiet heroes in cost-sensitive formulation is salt. It’s inexpensive, highly functional, and remarkably versatile, yet many brands overlook it. Salt can brighten citrus, deepen chocolate, sharpen berry notes, and amplify sweetness. Tanner manages to work this secret weapon into every conversation, because its uses are so versatile. Laughing, he recalled the familiar rhythm of troubleshooting:
“Most of the time it ends with us looking at each other in the lab wondering, ‘Did you add salt?’ ‘Well, yeah, I have a little—' ‘Add more.’ You do, everyone's high-fiving. It's like, ‘That was it! That was perfect.’”
—Tanner Isom, Product Development Manager in the Powdered Applications Lab
In a world where brands feel constant pressure to stretch every dollar without compromising taste, salt offers an elegant and cost-effective way to elevate flavor without bloating the formula.
But not every ingredient is as accommodating. High-intensity sweeteners, especially those favored by clean-label consumers, can dramatically inflate the cost of a blend. As the market moves away from traditional options like sucralose, and leans into stevia and monk fruit, the price difference can be surprising to new brand owners. Many early-stage brands are surprised to learn that sweeteners—not active ingredients—can become one of the largest contributors to formula cost.
This economic reality forces formulators to think strategically. Creating a great flavor isn’t just about balancing acids and aromatics; it’s about balancing value. It means knowing when to invest in premium components, when to lean on cost-effective tools like salts or acids, and when to steer a client toward flavors and formats that naturally support both taste and budget. In this way, formulation becomes an exercise in creative constraint—crafting a beverage that delights consumers while still making sense on a spreadsheet.
In the end, the myth about lightning never striking twice is a pretty good metaphor for how easy it is to misunderstand success in functional beverages. From the outside, a hit product can look like a happy accident: the right claims, the right trend, the right moment.
But repeat success is anything but random. It’s the result of doing a hundred small, unglamorous things right—understanding bitter bases instead of fighting them, turning “brown maple” into blueberry muffin, using color as a silent co-author of flavor, and knowing when a few cents’ worth of salt will do more than a dollar’s worth of flavor. It's creativity anchored in chemistry and constraint; indulgence built on top of some very unsexy spreadsheets.
For brands, that’s the real takeaway: you don’t get a second purchase on label copy alone. You earn it in the glass. For the athlete who treats their protein shake like dessert, for the wellness consumer dialing in their perfect scoop-to-water ratio, for the customer who actually finishes a 30-serving tub instead of abandoning it after two tries—flavor is the moment of truth.
First Purchase vs. Repeat Purchase — Functional powdered beverages need to win consumers twice:
(1) the first purchase driven by label claims (energy, focus, gut health, recovery), and
(2) the second purchase driven almost entirely by flavor.
Why Powdered Functional Beverages Are Rising — Powdered RTM beverages are growing at ~10% CAGR due to convenience, portability, stability, and consumer desire for personalization. Powders allow consumers to become “home scientists,” adjusting strength, flavor intensity, and function.
The Challenge of Active Ingredients — Many functional ingredients taste objectively bad: bitter, sulfuric, vegetal, fishy, etc. Not all off-notes can be removed; often the key is reframing the flavor (e.g., turning “brown maple” fenugreek notes into baked-good flavors like blueberry muffin or peach cobbler).
Color as a Flavor Tool in Functional Beverages — Color shapes flavor perception before tasting. Changing color can give consumers a completely different perceived flavor, like a fantasy fruit “blue watermelon.”
Cost Matters as Much as Creativity — Formulating must balance taste with budget. Clean-label sweeteners (stevia, monk fruit) can drastically increase formula cost. Salt is an underrated tool that will enhance flavor inexpensively, provide electrolytes, and much more.
1 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “5 Striking Facts Versus Myths About Lightning You Should Know,” NOAA.gov, August 19, 2020, https://www.noaa.gov/stories/5-striking-facts-versus-myths-about-lightning-you-should-know. NOAA
2 Straits Research, Powdered Beverages Market (Straits Research, 2025), accessed December 3, 2025, https://straitsresearch.com/report/powdered-beverages-market.
3 Russell S. J. Keast, “Modification of the Bitterness of Caffeine,” Food Quality and Preference 19, no. 5 (July 2008): 465–472, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2008.02.002
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