Every year at Expo West, thousands of brands show up hoping to stand out.
And if you’ve ever walked the show floor, you know what that looks like. Big lights. Big claims. Big booths trying to be bigger than the one next door.
It can start to feel like a shouting match.
So this year we asked ourselves a simple question:
What if the best way to stand out… was to turn the volume down?
Why We Go to Expo West
Natural Products Expo West is the biggest stage in the natural and organic industry. It's where retailers discover new products, partnerships start, and the industry gets together to see what's next.
For a brand like MALK, it's also something else.
It's one of the few moments where you can show people who you actually are, not just what's on your label.
“Expo West is one of the most powerful moments for a brand like MALK because it brings everything together—people, conversation, and experience. It’s where we can introduce innovations like our Cleaner Creamers while also giving retailers, media, partners, and consumers the chance to actually taste the difference. You can talk about clean ingredients and simplicity all day, but when someone experiences MALK firsthand, that’s when the brand really clicks.”
— Jayme Brown, MALK Organics VP of Marketing
Designing a Booth That Felt Like Us
Trade shows have a pretty predictable playbook.
Bright LED lighting. Big graphics. Fake grass walls. Endless shelves of product.
We decided to skip most of that.
Not flashy. Just thoughtful. The idea was simple: if our products are built on the philosophy of doing less, better, our booth should feel the same way.
“As the MALK brand evolves, we wanted our new booth to reflect the world we’re creating. A pause from the neon and the pick-me energy, our presence was a deliberate shift in pace from the chaos of Expo West. Inviting, calming, and designed as a space you actually wanted to spend time in, it allowed us to reflect our core brand ethos in a sea of shouting matches.”
— Barrett Brynestad, MALK Organics VP of Brand & Creative
Two Spaces, One Experience
Rather than putting everything into a single booth, we showed up in two different places.
Our main booth was where people could experience the full world of MALK — the design, the philosophy, the people behind the brand.
But we also created something a little different outside Hall E: a Cleaner Creamer coffee bar. Because if you’re launching a coffee creamer, there’s really only one way people should try it.
In coffee.
So we served cold brew all day and let people taste the product the way it’s meant to be used. No pitch required. Just a good cup of coffee and a clean ingredient list.
Launching Our Cleaner Creamers
Expo West was also the first big moment for our new Cleaner Creamers — organic, coconut-based creamers made without gums, oils, or “natural flavors.”
In a category where ingredient lists can start to look like chemistry experiments, we wanted to show that something simpler can still taste really good.
Turns out, letting people try it themselves is the best argument you can make.
The Best Part of Expo
The best part of the show isn’t the booths or the launches.
It’s the people.
Retailers, founders, buyers, partners — all the folks trying to build something meaningful in food.
For us, it was a pleasure to shake hands, pour a lot of coffee, and spend a few days with some of the industry’s finest.
If you stopped by the booth, grabbed a cold brew, or just said hello — thanks for being part of it.
We’re glad you stepped into the world of MALK.
