Tasters kept saying the same thing about OnSwitch 2.0. It's the closest a natural sweetener system has come to sucralose. NNB Nutrition and Sensapure Flavors ran out of both flavors by day 2 at SupplySide Global 2026.
SupplySide Global 2026 is in the books, and the drink everyone wanted at Mandalay Bay came out of NNB Nutrition's Booth #5952. NNB and Sensapure Flavors brought two flavors of their OnSwitch 2.0 concept energy drink to the show's first-ever three-day expo hall, and by day 2, Cherry Limeade and Crisp Apple were both gone.
That's an incredible result for a can carrying five NNB ingredients and no sucralose. As we covered in our NNB SupplySide 2026 preview, the novel ingredient developers would let attendees vote on the flavors, and it came down to the wire.
OnSwitch 2.0 Full Send Edition: The Closest Vote of the Show
Last year's original OnSwitch was one of the most talked-about samples at SupplySide Global 2025. This year's version, which NNB calls the Full Send Edition, went a step further. Sensapure's recap video captures the taste tests, the tally, and the tiebreaker:
-
Crisp Apple Wins by Three!
Voting at NNB's booth ended in a dead heat, with Cherry Limeade and Crisp Apple at 111 votes each. That sent the decision to the ballots cast at Sensapure's booth, and even with those counted, Crisp Apple won 128 to 125. When Sensapure posted the results, the flavor house thanked NNB, TSI Group, and PricePlow for helping make the collaboration happen.
NNB Nutrition hits SupplySide Global 2026 at Booth #5952 with the VasoRush launch, an OnSwitch 2.0 flavor vote, SweetVantage Reb M9, and a high-purity GAA.
We were happy to play a small part. Before the show, we joined NNB's Chief Science Officer Shawn Wells and Chief Brand Officer Dustin Elliott for flavor testing at Sensapure, the flavor house we first visited on Episode #149 of the PricePlow Podcast. That's where the "red versus green" matchup was born.
-
Team Cherry vs. Team Apple
The industry insiders and flavor testers who stopped by didn't hold back. Crisp Apple fans called it "crisp and clean" and "nice and tart", and one simply declared "crisp apple all day." Cherry Limeade had its loyalists, too, including NNB Marketing Manager Cass Wang, who proudly announced she was "Team Cherry" after the show.
One comment in Sensapure's video noticed a pattern at the tasting table: "All the guys liked apple, and all the girls liked cherry." That tracks with what we see on shelves, where energy drink brands like Celsius and Alani Nu already play to flavor and branding preferences that split along those lines. Any brand building on the OnSwitch 2.0 concept now has a ready-made reason to launch both.
Five NNB Ingredients, One Can
Shawn summed up the booth experience as watching people taste five NNB ingredients together in a finished beverage. Here's the lineup Sensapure shared (without doses):
NNB Nutrition revolutionizes natural sweeteners with SweetVantage. A 3-year, $2.5M project delivers clean-tasting stevia that covers the entire palate. Perfect for beverages and powders.
- VasoRush™: NNB's new peptide-bonded di-citrulline and di-arginine for pumps (more below)
- SweetVantage®+: The natural sweetener system that made the whole thing taste good (also below)
- GeniusPure® alpha-GPC: NNB's beverage-stable alpha-GPC for focus
- SalidroPure: Fermentation-derived salidroside, the key active in Rhodiola
- enfinity® paraxanthine: Caffeine's primary metabolite, distributed by TSI Group
Taurine and N-acetyl L-tyrosine round out a pump-and-focus profile. Getting all of that to taste good with natural flavors is a tall order, and in Sensapure's video, one taster asked how anyone could pull it off before answering the question: Sensapure did.
For a lot of attendees, the moment of the show was simple. They named tasting OnSwitch for the first time, ice cold and straight from the can, as the highlight.
No Sucralose Required: SweetVantage+ Steals the Show
The most impressive thing about OnSwitch 2.0 is what's missing. There's no sucralose in the can. Its sweetness comes from SweetVantage+, which combines NNB's SweetVantage stevia system with Reb M9 and brazzein. Reb M9 is NNB's improved form of Reb M, and brazzein is a sweet protein from West Africa's oubli berry that NNB uses to cover bitter actives stevia alone can't fully mask.
Most natural sweeteners lean on marketing. NNB Nutrition ran the actual benchmark instead. SweetVantage Reb M9 went head-to-head with 6 sweeteners across water, green tea, EAAs, and sparkling water in a trained-panel sensory study. It matched sugar and tracked closest to sucralose.
In Sensapure's video, the general sentiment is that everyone who tried the drink agreed it was "the closest any drink has tasted to something with sucralose." Anyone who's heard a flavor chemist explain how hard sucralose is to replace knows that's a big statement. Sensapure's Tyrus Sciarra walked us through that exact problem on Episode #179 of the PricePlow Podcast.
The data lines up with the tasters. At the booth, NNB shared new sensory research conducted with Eurofins, comparing Reb M9 and brazzein against other natural sweeteners, sugar, and sucralose across a range of beverage flavors. In the trained-panel results we broke down in our SweetVantage sensory article, Reb M9 matched sugar's sweetness in plain water, and Reb M9 + brazzein tracked closest to sucralose of any natural option tested.
OnSwitch 2.0 then put that system in a finished can full of actives, and attendees drank through two flavors' worth of samples in two days. We have more SweetVantage+ coverage on the way, so stay tuned.
VasoRush Launches, and GeniusPure Research is on Deck
NNB Nutrition's VasoRush™ is a peptide-bonded di-citrulline and di-arginine ingredient built for pumps. It absorbs faster via PEPT-1 and drives more cGMP per unit of nitric oxide, meaning more vasodilation, not just more NO.
VasoRush made its official debut at the show. It pairs di-citrulline and di-arginine in a 2:1 ratio, each delivered as a peptide-bonded dipeptide, and NNB built its pitch around cGMP (the signal that tells blood vessels to dilate) instead of raw nitric oxide output. Human trials haven't been published yet, so our VasoRush introduction linked above is the place to dig into the mechanism and NNB's pre-clinical data. One answer from NNB's booth video summed up the excitement: VasoRush will change the market because of speed and "how fast it hits you."
NNB also shared new GeniusPure research on mood and motivation, which Shawn says kicked off another round of conversations about where the cognitive performance category is heading. We'll be covering that research soon.
Inside One of the Busiest Booths at SSG
NNB's team put together a quick booth video asking people to describe the company in one word. The answers came back "Integrity", "Disruptive", "Unicorn", and "Innovative". Asked why brands come to NNB instead of anyone else, people pointed to innovation, pricing, and what one person called "the coolness factor." And who should have visited Booth #5952? "Everybody."
"...this was truly one of our best shows yet!"
-- Eric Reyes, US Sales, NNB Nutrition
Eric credited NNB's leadership for the week, including Shawn, founder Kylin Liao, Chief Executive Officer Jake Mulder, and Dustin. He also shouted out the behind-the-scenes crew of Cass Wang, Danielle Lloyd, Mandy Zhang, and Hannah Bryant, who make shows like this run. NNB talks a lot about growing 2X every year, he wrote, and he left Vegas more excited than ever about where the company is headed.
Alexandra Kiene, working her first SupplySide Global with NNB's sales team, said what she heard across the floor was that SSG 2026 was the best one yet. Kylin's mid-show take was that the best ideas come from conversations about real needs, and Booth #5952 had no shortage of those.
The Real Bottleneck: Taste at an Effective Dose
Shawn's post-show takeaway was that his notes from Las Vegas were full of formula problems, which he called a good sign. Attendees brought NNB questions about:
- Bitter actives
- Alternative sweeteners
- Performance beverages
- Cognitive formulas
- Delivery systems
Almost every item on that list comes back to the challenge Shawn named directly: products that are difficult to make taste good at an effective dose. OnSwitch 2.0 was NNB's answer at the booth. It put VasoRush, alpha-GPC, salidroside, and paraxanthine in one can, sweetened it without sucralose, and gave attendees something they kept coming back for. That's the case NNB has been building since it started pushing low-dose, precision-fermented ingredients into beverages.
"We came to Vegas with new science. We are leaving with new products to build."
-- Shawn Wells, Chief Science Officer, NNB Nutrition
What's Next for NNB Nutrition
Cass promised there's much more coming from NNB, and we already know some of it. SweetVantage+ and the new GeniusPure research are both on our list, and NNB told us before the show that a GAA drink concept is on its 2027 roadmap. Its Ready to Consume concept is also taking small-dose ingredients beyond the can and into gummies, shots, and snacks.
"NNB will always be bringing great innovation and good vibes to this industry..."
-- Cass Wang, Marketing Manager, NNB Nutrition
Congratulations to NNB Nutrition, Sensapure Flavors, and TSI Group on OnSwitch 2.0, and thanks for letting us be part of it. Crisp Apple took the crown this year, but with a 128-to-125 finish, Team Cherry has a strong case for a rematch at SSG 2027!
Want to know when our SweetVantage+ and GeniusPure coverage goes live? Sign up for NNB Nutrition news alerts below:
