Top Innovative Brands from Expo West 2025

Expo West always delivers a burst of energy, fresh ideas, and visionary entrepreneurs. 2025 raised the bar. Hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center, this year’s event brought together trailblazers in natural products, wellness, and sustainability. Below, I highlight the standout businesses that truly impressed me.

Wellness with A Purpose: Functional Mushrooms Take Center Stage

Many brands this year leaned hard into functional ingredients. Not much different then 2023, the last time I attended the show. Think adaptogens, nootropics, and gut-health boosters.

Since mushrooms became part of my business this year, one brand that stood out was Green Root Elixirs, offering sparkling tonics with prebiotic fiber and botanicals. These beverages weren’t just trendy. They delivered benefits and were delicious. After a few days at the show, that says a lot.

Another variation on the mushroom theme was Yi Foods, under the company name Yesma Foods out of Taiwan. They had a huge both. Very impressive. I think they had mushrooms of every variety. They had them dried and in tea bags. It was great and I learned so much from them. They mostly were offering blends for soup but I was interested in the single ingredients. Sally Wong was very helpful.

There was one mushroom product that knocked my socks off. It was the The Coo Coffee. They made me a capuchino that knocked my socks off. It was mushrooms with coconut creamer and MCT oil. Incredibly delightful. Chaga, Lion’s Mane, Reishi, cordyceps are the rest of the ingredients. Really incredible stuff. It was an actual better cappuccino then coffee.

Other Great customer Products From The Show

Walnut Burger is a small startup. Their vegan burgers were incredibly tasty. I believe they are made with eggplant and walnuts. The samples were so damn tasty.

Granola bites are a favorite snack of mine. Berry Nuts has such good granola. They have these little bites that are great. They also sell the bags of granola for breakfast.

At the show, I met Issac Cohen with Simply Snacks. They do all the candy, nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and sesame snacks. They make some good trail mixes. Just tasty stuff. They are out of New Jersey.

As for the new beverage brands, there were two that caught my interest. First was Yerba Madre. Making cans out of yerba mate. They gave me a great looking refrigerator magnet. The other one is Mountain Rose Herbs. North America’s Native Caffeinated Tea. It also does not contain tannins, so you don’t have to worry about bitterness or over-steeping like you do with Camellia sinensis teas. Their medium roast yaupon is excellent.

Looking Ahead. Come To The Next Expo West

Expo West 2025 proved that the future of wellness lies in innovation, transparency, and impact. From scalable tech-meets-wellness products to ultra-personalized nutrition, the natural products industry is shifting in powerful ways. The best way to learn is to speak to the companies that attend and learn about what is bringing the customers to them. I learn so much whenever I go to the show.

Matthew Baron, President, Wholesale Nuts And Dried Fruit.