Is there a way to make cottage cheese sexy?
That was the mission Jesse Merrill aimed to prove when he sought to bring excitement to a stale grocery category. Nearly a decade later, the founder and CEO of Good Culture cottage cheese not only proved that thesis, but managed to create a phenomenon, and maintain its appeal, by having clear foresight into consumer trends like eating single-source dairy ingredients.
By changing the negative lens that many people viewed cottage cheese through, and demonstrating how it’s an exceptional source of protein, consumers young and old are simply obsessed with cottage cheese in a way that hasn’t been seen in decades. Good Culture has now become the top-selling cottage cheese at grocery stores including Whole Foods Markets and just surpassed $200 million in sales this year.
Disrupting Dairy
Merrill was not fond of cottage cheese before creating his own cottage cheese company. His first real introduction to it was when his wife was pregnant and ate a ton of it. When he would buy it for her at the store, he primarily noticed only legacy brands on the shelf–the same ones that casually sat there for as long as he could remember. Having already worked in the food and beverage industry, he could tell the category was craving innovation. “Cottage cheese was bigger than yogurt in the seventies and then completely fell off,” Merrill says. USDA data shows an average American consumed 4.6 pounds of cottage cheese per year in 1975 with a steady decline through 2021 when it dropped below 2 pounds for the first time.
The former VP of Marketing for Honest Tea, Merrill knew what it would take to build a brand for modern consumers. “You have to tell a story in a really compelling way and say it in a way that is going to resonate with the consumer so that they actually want to be a part of your tribe,” he says. He began to research the world of cottage cheese and felt he could meaningfully disrupt it. He came to realize that most cottage cheese consumers “were on a diet…kind of choking it down, but they didn’t enjoy the experience.”
He felt presenting cottage cheese more like yogurt was one way to disrupt cottage cheese. That includes serving it in a single-serve cup. Finding a co-packer was difficult, because most do not produce that format, Merrill says, but finally found one in Wisconsin. “They believed that cottage cheese had the opportunity to grow at an explosive rate given the nutritional profile,” Merrill says. “They agreed that it wasn’t being presented in the right way.” Good Culture now has nine co-packers across the country.
A New Taste And Texture
Merrill taught himself how to make cottage cheese and began to create both sweet and savory versions in his own kitchen. He would take live and active cultures to separate the curd from milk, and then chop it up finely to create lots of protein-packed small curd, limiting the amount of cream added to make the product more homogenous. “A lot of what you saw in the marketplace was large firm curds floating in a pool of cream,” he says. Savory varieties were the focus at this early stage, so he would experiment with ingredients like sriracha, salt & pepper, pesto and olives.
Good Culture launched in 2015 in Sprouts Farmers Markets and Whole Foods Markets’ SoPac region. In addition to an original variety, the initial lineup of Good Culture included kalamata olive, sundried tomato, strawberry acai chia and blueberry acai chia. Although Merrill thought the flavors tasted amazing and felt that there was a hole in the market for a savory cottage cheese, he ultimately decided to pull the savory ones because they were not selling well enough. “Consumers perceived [them] as a dip,” he says. “I was bummed…but you need to listen to your consumer.”
Good Culture has since released a large lineup, including the multi-serve 16 oz containers, which have since become the largest sector of its business. Consumers have consistency options too–from 6% double cream, whole milk, low-fat, and lactose-free, all of which have pillowy curds and are an airy yet politely creamy experience.
Going Viral
In 2015, a dairy product like cottage cheese would not be seen as a new product that would particularly succeed as consumers largely switched to plant-based dairy, but it was a risk Merrill was willing to take. “We continued to believe that folks would return to real food,” he says. The first few years of Good Culture’s business saw consistent growth. “Going into 2017 is when we started to scale more widely into conventional retail and you saw really healthy jumps in sales growth year over year.”
But in March of 2023, the business exploded when a TikTok video of a creator incorporating Good Culture in an ice cream recipe went viral. “It just spread like wildfire,” Merrill remembers. “That kind of started this whole movement behind using cottage cheese in really creative ways.” The company tells me that it predicted a 35% growth that year but ended with 80%. In 2023, the amount of cottage cheese eaten by the average American began to climb for the first time since the USDA collected data. Data is not yet available for 2024.
It’s likely not happenstance that the video went viral when it did, but rather years of slowly latching onto habits that matter most to consumers. As Nicole West, Principal Global Category Merchant for Dairy at Whole Foods Market, tells me, “A lot of what we’ve seen in this past year is a focus back into single source ingredients. A heavy focus on getting protein from that single source ingredient. And we have seen a huge swing back into dairy, specifically whole milk dairy–” quite on the nose to what Merrill predicted a decade ago.
For the first time in years, plant-based milk alternatives are down this year, according to Nielsen IQ data. Sales of almond milk, in particular, are down 7.4% from last year.
The creative recipes have gotten consumers to understand that cottage cheese is a protein powerhouse. A 16oz container of whole milk classic Good Culture contains 56 grams of protein. Creators are getting endlessly creative by adding it to items like baked goods, pasta sauce, eggs, smoothies and sandwiches. They’re also explaining to their audiences why it’s so healthy. “That’s where the protein story, the clean label story, and the taste experience came out.” Merrill says. “Folks are looking increasingly for high quality proteins that are more bioavailable. You get high-quality complete proteins through products like dairy.”
Not only is Good Culture a booming brand, but it has caused a resurgence in the entire cottage cheese category. “They were one of the leaders to bring consumers back in on the dairy side,” West says. “If you weren’t a cottage cheese fan before, I think that Good Culture had a way of bringing in new consumers. It just had a different texture that was not polarizing…It’s not your grandma’s cottage cheese anymore.”
While the boom occured in 2023, 2024 was the year that proved that Good Culture cottage cheese has staying power. According to SPINS multi-outlet data ending the week of November 3, 2024, the cottage cheese category has grown nearly 16% compared to the previous year. Good Culture has doubled its revenue from $100 million in 2023 nearly two years after it began going viral.
Path To Pasture
Responsible sourcing is sexy. Merrill knew that any company he built would require a mission around sustainability. “Our mission is to reinvent the food system from the actual ground up,” he says. All of the farms that Good Culture sources its milk from are small family farms with no more than 100 cows each.
Some of those farms are also regenerative farms, which plays into Good Culture’s partnership with Dairy Farmers of America, the largest dairy co-op in the country. Together, they developed a program called Path to Pasture, which helps farms transition from conventional to regenerative farming. “We are currently building a model for change that aims to prove that regenerative agriculture is beneficial to soil health, animals, and potentially can enhance profitability for the family farmer,” says Jackie Klippenstein, Senior Vice President and Chief Government and Industry Relations Officer for Dairy Farmers of America.
Since 2019, the program has focused its efforts on farms in Kentucky, impacting more than 2,800 cows on 1,700 acres of land. Getting even this far has been no easy feat, reflecting the difficulty of increasing the number of regenerative farms. “A lot of these small family farms are doing everything they can to keep the lights on. So when you talk to a farmer who’s been doing something a certain way for decades, and you’re proposing something that could potentially result in less profits during a transition period, that’s a hard sell,” Merrill explains. Transitioning to a regenerative system could also help recruit younger farmers.
“Whenever I meet with a family that’s running one of these farms, it just continues to inspire me to do better,” Merrill says. “…to create more positive change, to work really hard to create a regenerative model that does yield a more positive business.” Another way of saying that would be that Merrill personally and through his company is creating a better culture.
