Left Hand Agency CPG High Five: 5 Standout Products from Expo West 2026
- Mar 9
- 3 min read
Natural Products Expo West is the Super Bowl of CPG Expos. Natural products brands from across the globe descend upon Anaheim each year with innovations and product launches, and lots and lots of samples! Left Hand Agency’s Maia Brusseau attended in my place this year (see previous updates about my foot injury) and reported back with a few of her favorite discoveries.
Maia's Expo West Standout Product List
This list does not include everything I tried and loved. I’ve been a natural products purchaser for decades, so I was seriously nerding out over meeting some of these brand leaders and founders. Just ask the co-founder of JOJO’s Chocolates (who was sampling their new and delicious coconut pretzels and chocolates)—I was fangirling big time!
Here are five brands that I have been following for a while and finally had the chance to sample at Expo West:
I started following this brand a few years ago. At the time it was mostly a food truck operation that was getting a lot of attention in Utah, where Scott Porter founded the company. Today, you can get frozen Take & Bake Churros filled with dulce de leche (OMG SO GOOD) and their newest innovation—Itty Bitty Churros, which are stellar as a snack or ice cream topper. I was so excited when I bumped into their booth I forgot to take a picture!
Speaking of being so excited, I forgot to take a pic, let’s move on to number two…
Lauren and I have been fangirling the brand’s founder Jia Liao on LinkedIn for awhile. Not only is she super supportive of fellow CPG founders, but she has an amazing product! The Wild Mushroom Chili Sauce was one of the first things I tasted at Expo West. And, it was so good, I went back the next day to try her other products. They were all delicious, but that mushroom chili was unique and incredibly tasty. Aaannnnd, now I am craving it!
Jia also gets bonus points for her fun and spicy bags!
Dumplings, Bao Buns, and Lo Mein—Oh, My! Expo West had a lot of great Asian flavors and I was there for it! Laoban stood out to me because it was all so tasty and flavorful, you forgot they were frozen foods!
And now that I think of it, most of their products would pair quite nicely with HotPot Queen Chili Sauce!
You know when you dip french fries in ice cream and wonder if anyone else does that? Well, apparently they do, so much so that GoodPop created Fudge ‘N Vanilla French Fry Pops. When I can get salt, ice cream, and chocolate all in one ice cream bar, I’m a happy girl. It was such a fun and unique product!
I first heard about Katie’s from a friend who lives in St. Louis. She recommended her restaurant for delicious pizza and pasta. Now Katie’s pizzas, pastas, and sauces have been packaged up so you can experience those flavors without heading to STL! The pizza samples were gone as soon as they came out of the oven and the fiori arrabiata that I tried was one of my favorite bites at Expo. The only thing missing was a crusty bread and a good glass of red wine!
If you were lucky enough to attend ExpoWest we’d love to hear which products stood out to you!
We are Left Hand Agency, a strategic CPG media agency. We help CPG & retail marketers strike the right balance between performance & brand advertising. Our memory-driven growth strategies compound over time & deliver results your finance team will champion.
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