What DTC Food and Beverage Brands Are Doing on TikTok in 2026

TL;DR: DTC food and beverage brands are diverging into two clear camps this week: brands that weaponize culture (movie parodies, absurdist collabs, creator-driven food movements) are exploding, while brands that lean on polished aesthetics alone are flatlining. Fishwife's Toni Bravo partnership is rewriting the creator playbook, Graza is winning with cinematic humor, Poppi is turning retail distribution into content, and Olipop's sensory-first launches keep compounding — all while Recess proves that being "pretty" without a hook is a death sentence.

The State of DTC Food & Bev Content: May 2026

The past seven days across TikTok and Instagram reveal a category in rapid creative evolution. The brands winning aren't the ones with the biggest budgets — they're the ones treating social content like entertainment, not advertising. Here's what's actually happening, brand by brand, with the patterns that connect them all.

Graza: The Movie Parody Machine

Graza is the smallest brand on this list by follower count (26K on TikTok, 198K on Instagram) and yet it's generating the biggest single-video hits of any DTC food brand right now. Their secret is dead simple: take a beloved movie scene, replace the luxury item with olive oil, and let the absurdity do the work.

Their Devil Wears Prada parody dropped April 30 and racked up over 1.1 million views with a 10.7% engagement rate — numbers that would make brands with 30x their following jealous.

This isn't a one-off. Their CEO-at-McDonald's video from March — where the founder squeezes Graza onto a Big Mac — hit 11.8 million views. The pattern is consistent: Graza's product is always shown in motion (being squeezed, drizzled, applied), never sitting passively on a shelf.

On Instagram, Graza's educational content performs strongly too. A Reel about their olive oil sommelier hit 273K views, and their announcement of a new glass bottle format pulled 159K.

The brand also launched a Graza x Panera "Not Soup" bread bowl collab and rolled out Graza Mayo at Whole Foods — each turning into its own content moment. Meanwhile, third-party creator @iamnicorojas turned Graza's origin story into a brand case study that hit 902K views — essentially free advertising disguised as business education.

The takeaway: Graza proves that a sub-30K account can outperform accounts 20x its size by making the product the verb of every video, not the noun.

Fishwife & The Toni Bravo Phenomenon

The biggest story in DTC food content this month isn't a campaign — it's a creator. Toni Bravo (@bonitravo, 1M+ followers) has almost single-handedly turned tinned fish from a niche pantry item into a full-blown TikTok food movement, and Fishwife is the primary beneficiary.

Toni's sardine videos consistently pull 200K-350K views with 15-17% engagement rates. But the real power is in the cascade: her content spawns imitation from other large creators who explicitly credit her.

@sharidyonne recreated Toni's sardine recipe and got 1M views with 20% engagement — tagging both Toni and Fishwife.

@coreymaglory tried Toni's sardine ceviche recipe and hit 379K views. The caption literally says "the icon herself."

Toni has her own Fishwife discount code (TONISARDINES), and her content this week includes multiple Fishwife unboxings where the product isn't just shown — it's worshipped. She reads ingredient labels, describes flavor profiles, and shows the product being incorporated into meals she'd make regardless of any partnership.

What makes this partnership work isn't the reach — it's the format. Toni's videos are warm, domestic, ASMR-adjacent cooking vlogs. She speaks directly to camera with genuine excitement. Fishwife's own content, by contrast, is more polished and brand-story-focused: factory tours, "best sellers" showcases, and sustainability messaging.

Both work, but they serve different purposes. Fishwife's owned content provides the why (quality, sourcing, craft). Toni provides the how (easy recipes, daily use). Together, they've created what amounts to a cultural moment for tinned fish.

On Instagram, Fishwife (274K followers) complements this with recipe-forward Reels — "7 Easy Ways to Use Tinned Fish" hit 109K views — building a utility library that converts the curiosity Toni generates into actual kitchen behavior.

Liquid Death: Culture Bombs, Not Content Calendars

Liquid Death (7.2M followers) plays a completely different game. They posted once this past week — a straightforward mountain water sourcing video that got under 2K views. And that's fine, because their strategy isn't daily content. It's infrequent, high-budget culture bombs.

The latest: a Liquid Death x Pop-Tarts "Carnage" Iced Tea collab that dropped in mid-April and is still generating creator content. The brand's own video is a surreal, chaotic commercial that shifts from mundane to heavy-metal in seconds.

Their house giveaway with Taylor Morrison (sparkling water from every faucet) is still the conversation piece — creator @tampa_bre's take on it pulled 473K views.

Looking further back, their Spotify streaming urn hit 3.2M views with 12% engagement, and the e.l.f. Cosmetics Lip Embalms collab hit 8M views. The pattern is clear: Liquid Death treats every piece of content like a product drop, not a social post. They'd rather post once a month and have it feel like an event than post daily and blend into the feed.

The creator ecosystem around Liquid Death is organic and self-sustaining. @mattrosenman's "make water look unhealthy" rebrand video hit 8.3M views — a creator using his own format to riff on Liquid Death's philosophy, with no apparent sponsorship.

Poppi: Turning Distribution Into Content

Poppi (879K followers) is running a different playbook from everyone above. While Graza does movie parodies and Liquid Death drops culture bombs, Poppi has discovered that retail distribution partnerships ARE content.

Their Subway partnership launched late April and has already generated a wave of creator content. The biggest hit: @janellerohner (5.1M followers) doing a "high protein Subway run + Poppi" video hitting 682K views. The brand becomes a natural prop in an existing eating occasion.

Simultaneously, Poppi brought back their Punch Pop flavor with a Love Island USA tie-in and a redesigned can. Their rollout was a textbook teaser campaign — community-listening polls, countdown posts, CGI-animated reveals — culminating in a 213K-view launch video.

On Instagram, Poppi is expanding internationally. They've launched in the UK through Pret A Manger, and @amberrosegill's activation Reel hit over 2 million views. Poppi's IG account (666K followers) leans into the same playful, summer-coded energy as TikTok.

The founder also appeared in @trwlsh's viral "What Do You Do for a Living?" street interview series, pulling 104K views — letting the brand's origin story live inside a format viewers already love.

Olipop: The Sensory Launch Playbook

Olipop (573K followers) just launched Raspberry Sherbet, and their content strategy is entirely sensory. No skits, no parodies — just ASMR-style pours, macro shots of fizz, and hyper-saturated pink-purple visuals.

The launch video hit 1.8M views. A second angle pulled 1.3M.

Their posting cadence is aggressive: nearly daily for the past week, all orbiting the new flavor. Giveaways, nostalgia-framing ("RS got us feeling nostalgic"), and simple sipping videos. The engagement rates are low (0.2% on the big videos), suggesting significant paid amplification — but the content is designed for that. It's "watchable ad" territory.

The creator content around Olipop is organic and voluminous. Olipop shows up as a background prop in grocery hauls, PCOS-friendly shopping guides, and Costco runs — often without any apparent sponsorship. The brand has achieved what every DTC brand dreams of: it's a default pantry item for health-conscious content creators.

Goodles: The Wild Wild Pesto Moment

Goodles (36K followers) just dropped a new flavor — Wild Wild Pesto — and wrapped it in a full Western/cowboy creative theme. The launch carousel hit 306K views, their best-performing post in months.

They partnered with a Santa Cruz artist for a custom painting, announced a NYC pop-up, and seeded creator content around the flavor. The owned content uses maximalist, neon-colored studio photography that stops the scroll — think mac & cheese as meme art.

Creator content around Goodles leans heavily on the protein/fiber angle. @therealmelindastrauss (1.5M followers) positioned Goodles Thrilled Cheese as kosher comfort food, pulling 33K views. @blairdietitian (552K) framed it as a "protein and fiber hack," getting 6.6K. The brand is succeeding by occupying a specific functional niche: mac & cheese you don't have to feel guilty about.

Fly By Jing: Creator Engine, Silent Brand

Fly By Jing (26K followers) is a fascinating case. The brand's own TikTok has been essentially dormant — their last video was April 29, and their engagement rates on owned content are below 1%. But their creator ecosystem is thriving.

@ally_wong's snack plate video featuring Fly By Jing chili crisp hit 756K views. A second video specifically about Fly By Jing sardines hit 98K. Multiple smaller creators are posting noodle reviews, recipe integrations, and PR unboxings.

The product has become a cooking ingredient that creators reach for naturally — it's in the same category as salt or olive oil for a certain demographic. The brand doesn't need to post because the product sells itself through creator kitchens.

Recess: A Cautionary Tale

Recess (66K followers) is posting nearly daily and getting 150-800 views per video. On a follower base of 66K, that's a roughly 0.5% view rate — far below what Fishwife (138K followers) achieves with individual posts hitting 24K-116K views.

The problem is visible at a glance. Recess's content is beautiful — soft pastels, studio lighting, lifestyle photography — but it's functionally inert. Hooks like "my summer non-negotiables" and "self care never sipped better" don't give viewers a reason to watch, share, or engage.

Compare this to Fishwife's "shoutout to tinned fish" carousel hitting 24K, or their "best sellers" video pulling 94K. Fishwife wins because their hooks are specific and utility-driven: here's easy protein, here's what to eat, here's how to make it. Recess's hooks are mood-coded but give you nothing to act on.

Their creator partnerships show the same issue. @wellnessbynaomi's Recess video hit 156K views but with only 0.23% engagement — a clear signal of paid amplification rather than organic interest. Meanwhile, Fishwife's creator content averages 8-17% engagement.

Magic Spoon: The Seeding Machine

Magic Spoon's TikTok strategy is almost entirely UGC-seeded. There's no discoverable owned brand account with significant activity. Instead, they've flooded the platform with #spoonofmagic partner posts from micro and mid-tier creators.

The content is nearly uniform: "Come with me to Target to get Magic Spoon" or "My favorite healthier cereal swap." The biggest creator hit this week was @cuttingwithcarlie (114K followers) making a brownie batter frappe with Magic Spoon cocoa cereal — 12K views.

The strategy is volume over virality. No single video breaks out, but the brand maintains constant shelf-level visibility across the "healthy swap" and "Target run" creator categories.

De La Calle: The Target-Seeded Campaign

De La Calle is running a targeted campus and retail seeding campaign, positioning tepache as "Modern Mexican Soda" at Target. Most content is tagged #DeLaCallePartner — small lifestyle creators making Target runs and taste-testing.

The biggest organic signal isn't about the brand at all: @lulugalaviz's homemade tepache recipe hit 185K views with 14.5% engagement. The cultural tailwind of tepache-as-category is real, but De La Calle hasn't yet found a way to ride it the way Fishwife rode the Toni Bravo wave.

Momofuku: The Protein Noodle Pivot

Momofuku's TikTok presence this week is almost entirely about their protein noodles — a product line extension rather than their original chili crunch or noodle kits. Creator content is functional and review-driven: "Finally found ramen that fits my goals" from @lanceshopfinds1 (8.8K views).

There's no viral moment happening here, but the brand has successfully repositioned in the macro/fitness content lane — which is a meaningful strategic shift from the "gourmet at home" angle they started with.

Five Patterns Defining DTC F&B Content Right Now

1. The "One Creator" Effect Is Real

Fishwife's Toni Bravo partnership generated more views this week than most brands' entire content libraries. One creator, consistently posting about one brand, creates a cultural association that no amount of seeding can replicate. The cascade effect — other creators copying Toni's recipes and tagging Fishwife — is the proof.

2. Movie Parodies and Culture-Jacking Outperform Everything

Graza's Devil Wears Prada video (1.1M views from 26K followers) and their CEO-at-McDonald's video (11.8M) share a trait: they use a cultural reference everyone recognizes and insert the product as the unexpected star. This format generates 50-100x the views of a standard product showcase.

3. Retail Distribution Is a Content Strategy

Poppi at Subway. De La Calle at Target. Magic Spoon at Costco. The most consistently produced UGC format across DTC F&B right now is the "I found [brand] at [retailer]" video. Making it easy for creators to film their "discovery" in-store is its own growth lever.

4. New Flavors Are The Highest-ROI Content Fuel

Olipop's Raspberry Sherbet launch, Poppi's Punch Pop return, and Goodles' Wild Wild Pesto all generated their brands' best-performing content of the quarter. A new flavor gives creators a reason to post, gives the brand a reason to run a multi-day campaign, and gives the algorithm fresh context.

5. "Pretty" Without Utility Is Dead

Recess's polished pastel content averaging 300 views vs. Fishwife's scrappy "here's easy protein" content averaging 50K-100K views from a similar follower base is the clearest lesson in DTC content right now. The audience wants to learn something, make something, or feel something specific. Aesthetics alone aren't a hook.