The Protein King Also Does Carbs: Musclesport's CreaM'D Rice with Jason Mancuso | Episode #237

Jason Mancuso, founder and CEO of MuscleSport, returns to the show alongside EVP and CMO Rob Oberholzer to reveal how CreaM'D Rice overtook Lean Whey as the brand's best-seller, plus savory flavor experiments, protein economics, and the revived Lifted brand on Episode #237 of the PricePlow Podcast.

Jason Mancuso built Musclesport's name on flavor-first Lean Whey, the protein line that turned cereal marshmallows and cannoli cream into a real category. He joined Ben for Episode #208 of the PricePlow Podcast to walk through that story, but this conversation is Mike's first full sit-down with him, alongside Musclesport EVP and CMO Rob "Franky" Oberholzer.

CreaM’D Rice Outperforms Lean Whey?! Musclesport’s Next Big Play

A lot's changed since that visit. The headline: Jason says CreaM'D Rice now outsells Lean Whey unit for unit, a strange turn for a brand built on protein powder. This episode covers how that happened, Musclesport's push into savory CreaM'D Rice flavors (bacon, egg, and cheese included, built on real egg protein instead of whATey), the wellness-minded Fiber Lean-AM, the revived Lifted brand's functional pouches and a possible energy drink, and a candid look at protein pricing, inventory strategy, and what Jason wants Musclesport to become next.

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https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/musclesport-jason-mancuso-creamd-rice-237

Video: Jason Mancuso and the Musclesport Team on CreaM’D Rice, Savory Flavors, and What’s Next

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:46 — 72.2MB)

Detailed Show Notes: Jason Mancuso and Rob Oberholzer of Musclesport

• 0:00 - Jason Mancuso Returns to PricePlow

  Mike opens by admitting he's wanted to podcast with Jason Mancuso for years. Jason jokes that nerves kept him off the mic until he broke the ice with Ben on Episode #208. This time, he's joined by Musclesport EVP and CMO Rob "Franky" Oberholzer for a wider-ranging conversation about where the brand has been and where it's headed.

  Jason sets the tone early: protein's gone mainstream enough that his own grandmother asks him which flavor of Lean Whey she should try. That backdrop carries into a conversation that ranges from his origin story to the business decisions reshaping Musclesport today.

• 1:15 - From McDonald's to the Supp Chef

  Jason's path started with a health-conscious childhood and a McDonald's job he lost over an unauthorized chicken nugget. From there: a health food store, the youngest store manager in GNC history at 17, Vitamin Shoppe's Northeast expansion, and years driving pallets of Detour bars up and down the coast for his own distribution company.

  By the early 2000s he'd moved into manufacturing, sitting alongside contract formulators on a brand called SNI, which is where he learned to build formulas himself. He started Musclesport as a side project in 2008, then broke away to run it full-time in 2012. Episode #208 has the fuller version of that story.

• 8:30 - Muscle Milk, Marshmallows, and Lean Charms

  Jason traces his flavor obsession to the original Muscle Milk, whose rich mouthfeel stuck with him even though he wasn't willing to load Lean Whey with the same fat content. The breakthrough came after he tried a fruity cereal creme brulee at a restaurant and went back to his office to recreate it, resulting in Lean Charms, one of the first proteins to include actual cereal marshmallows.

  The response wasn't universally positive. Critics said marshmallows had no place in a "healthy" product. Jason's counter, which he still repeats today: if a customer can't handle an extra gram or two of carbs from an inclusion, their diet has bigger problems than a marshmallow, and a protein people actually enjoy is one they'll keep using.

• 11:00 - Brick and Mortar, Then COVID Hits

  For most of the 2010s, Musclesport sold exclusively to brick-and-mortar stores. Staying off Amazon and other online channels was a choice, meant to avoid the race-to-the-bottom pricing that was gutting other brands at the time. Jason kept enough friction in the model (there wasn't even a real website) to keep customers walking into the local stores he wanted to support.

  COVID changed the calculus. With retail shut down, Jason built a real e-commerce presence for the first time. Our mutual friend Ryan pushed him to lean harder into flavor, telling him he had the best-tasting protein around and needed to prove it. Jason took that literally, dropping a new Lean Whey flavor almost every month from 2023 into last year, before recently slowing to a quarterly pace.

• 16:00 - CreaM'D Rice Becomes the Best Seller

  

  Musclesport had already branched into ten flavors each of Creatine +Hydration, aminos, and BCAAs by the time cream of rice entered the picture. Jason had watched European brands sell it for years and initially balked (his words: he wasn't paying twenty dollars for a bag of rice), but once a Canadian competitor started gaining traction in the US, he applied the same playbook that built Lean Whey: launch ten to fifteen flavors at once and let the assortment do the talking.

  It worked better than expected. Jason says CreaM'D Rice now outsells Lean Whey unit for unit, making it Musclesport's best-selling line, a genuine surprise for a company built around protein powder.

• 18:00 - Storytelling, Community, and Consistent Flavor

  Ben asked how Musclesport managed the shift from wholesale-only to direct-to-consumer without losing its retail relationships. Franky's answer centered on demand: building enough consumer pull online that stores started asking for Musclesport instead of the other way around, a flywheel he says never came at brick-and-mortar's expense.

  Story is the fuel behind it. Rainbow Italian traces back to Jason's first date with his now-wife Kate at a Little Italy bakery. Dipsy Doodle riffs on Dunkaroos. Huckleberry Cheesecake came from one of Kate's trips home to Idaho. Jason argues that a flavor built around a real memory does more for retention than any spec sheet, and that a shake people enjoy is one they'll keep buying instead of abandoning in a cabinet.

• 31:15 - Why Musclesport Waited on Clear Protein

  Jason held off on clear whey for years because he disliked the category's mixing problems, foam, and heavy acidification, and had already tried and shelved an early clear RTD. Lean Whey Clear ISO finally launched this summer in Pineapple Cooler and Orange Juice Delight, built around whey isolate, L-carnitine, and electrolytes that Jason says do double duty as flavor tools (a pinch of salt, in his telling, is what makes a light, juice-style protein actually pop).

  Two of the launch flavors reportedly sold through within a couple of months, with more on the way. Jason's candid that Clear ISO isn't outselling the dessert-style Lean Whey lines yet, partly because Musclesport hasn't marketed it as hard. He drinks it himself most mornings, mixed with fiber.

• 34:30 - Lean Whey Gourmet and Protein Economics

  

  Kyle Failla, Head of Commercial at Perfect Day, breaks down precision-fermented BLG protein, the whey protein supply crisis, and Perfect Day's new manufacturing plant on Episode #230 of the PricePlow Podcast.

  Lean Whey Gourmet exists partly because Musclesport locked in a year-plus supply of milk protein isolate at favorable pricing, and partly because Jason wanted a mouthfeel closer to early Muscle Milk. Blending milk protein isolate with whey concentrate let him push carbs up slightly (five to six grams versus Lean Whey's usual three to four) for a heavier, dessert-like texture. Peanut Butter Cookies & Cream and Strawberry Banana Royale stood out as favorites.

  Ben and Jason also unpacked why whey concentrate has climbed so much in price. Mike added a wrinkle from Episode #230 with Perfect Day's Kyle Failla: newer protein buyers, especially those who came to protein through GLP-1 use, have no memory of cheap whey and no sticker shock at today's prices. Gourmet gives Musclesport a lower price point without touching Iso Hydro's formula.

• 43:30 - Fewer Flavors, Smarter Inventory

  Stocking dozens of flavors at once got harder as protein prices climbed, so Jason's cutting back from roughly fifty active SKUs to about thirty, while adding six Gourmet flavors to the mix. Retired flavors don't disappear. They go into what the team calls the vault and come back strategically, often around Black Friday, instead of sitting in limbo indefinitely.

  Sourcing is the bigger headache. Jason says finding reliable whey supply is difficult enough right now that he's uninterested in formulating protein for other brands, even when asked, because every pound he can secure needs to go toward Lean Whey.

• 47:45 - Breakfast in a Bag and the Birth of Lifted

  Musclesport's bacon, egg, and cheese CreaM'D Rice swaps out whey (which turns oddly textured in a microwave) for real egg white protein, giving Jason what he calls breakfast in a bag. It's also the clearest signal yet that Musclesport sees itself as a flavor and food company first, not strictly a protein brand.

  That's why energy lives elsewhere. Lifted, an old Jason-owned pre-workout brand like the existing Lifted Preworkout Hyperdrive, is being revived as the home for anything Musclesport doesn't want to absorb into its own identity. Franky's leading a push into non-nicotine functional pouches built around caffeine and nootropics like GeniusPure, alongside creatine gummies in development, aimed at an October launch in a category he says could hit a billion dollars by 2030.

• 54:00 - Savory CreaM'D Rice Gets Weird

  

  Jason Mancuso, Kate Christensen, and Robert Oberholzer of Musclesport sit down at HQ in Long Island, New York to discuss Lean Whey's flavor-first origin story, the brand's evolution from brick-and-mortar distribution to a balanced omnichannel business, and what really goes into launching a new protein flavor on Episode #208 of the PricePlow Podcast.

  Sweet CreaM'D Rice flavors had a running start (the first five sold out within 72 hours of last Black Friday's launch, alongside a couple thousand units of Monster Cookie), so savory is starting from scratch. Jason built the first version, Nacho Cheese, by experimenting with cheese powders and eating it topped with beef or chicken. Nana's Pizza followed, inspired by Sunday pizza trips with Kate, and a stuffed bacon potato flavor (developed with Kate, who Jason calls the real Supp Chef) is finished but unreleased.

  Franky's candid that savory is growing slower than sweet did, since dessert flavors had an obvious reference point and savory doesn't. Stores have reordered, though, and the original Nacho Cheese sold out completely.

• 1:04:00 - MSG, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Cheeseburger Territory

  Mike pitched MSG as an umami shortcut, defending it as flavor-enhancing glutamic acid and sodium rather than anything to fear. Jason's open to it eventually but wants Musclesport's own savory line to find its footing first, before pulling in a larger collaboration partner. He teased a finished Fettuccine Alfredo CreaM'D Rice as one of six or seven flavors queued up, each waiting for the last one to sell through.

  A cheeseburger flavor already exists on the CreaM'D Rice side, and Jason's working on a standalone burger spice blend he admits might be pushing it. Mike floated savory collaborations as untapped territory next to the industry's usual candy tie-ins.

• 1:07:15 - Can CreaM'D Rice Reach Mass Retail?

  Jason and Franky recently pitched CreaM'D Rice to food, drug, and mass buyers at ECRM, the industry's retailer speed-dating event, and came away encouraged. Franky says roughly three-quarters of buyers told him they'd never seen anything like it, especially the egg-protein version, since most overseas cream-of-rice-with-protein products lean on plant or dairy protein instead.

  The pitch: a flavored, protein-fortified hot cereal for shoppers who never set foot in a supplement store. Franky notes protein fortification is one of the only growth pockets left in an otherwise shrinking hot cereal aisle, which is exactly the opening Musclesport is chasing.

• 1:10:30 - Fiber, Wellness, and Musclesport Mornings

  

  Jason says a brief, low-dose experiment with a GLP-1 medication left him bloated rather than leaner, which pushed him toward fiber and gut health instead. Fiber Lean-AM, Musclesport's newest wellness product, combines lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and ginger with SunFiber and Fibersol for fiber, plus bitter melon, which Jason includes for blood sugar support, and Bacillus coagulans. He points to a small study on apple cider vinegar and Bacillus coagulans suggesting GLP-1-like effects, while acknowledging it's early research and not a substitute for the drug itself.

  Jason's broader routine (what he calls Musclesport mornings) pairs protein, fiber, and CreaM'D Rice before coffee, on the idea that caffeine too early spikes cortisol. He saves stimulants for later in the day.

• 1:16:30 - An Energy Drink for Lifted?

  Franky's fielding interest from retail chains that want Lifted's pouches, and Jason says he's in early talks about a Lifted energy drink, hoping to have something ready around the Arnold timeframe. It's one of several ideas Jason's excited about, alongside protein popcorn and a possible RTD.

  Mike pushed back on-air, calling energy drinks a red ocean (something like 750 new ones launched last year, by his count) and arguing Musclesport's real edge sits in carbohydrates and protein, not another crowded energy category. Jason didn't concede the point, but agreed Franky needs to keep the project contained to one thing at a time.

• 1:20:00 - The Vanilla White Whale

  Mike followed up on Jason's old claim that vanilla is his white whale. Vanilla Waffle Cone, Jason says, is a genuinely good flavor, but it doesn't count, since leaning on inclusions is itself an admission he hasn't cracked pure vanilla yet. His bar: an unadorned, ice-cream-shop-level vanilla with nowhere for the flavor to hide.

  

  He suspects an eventual RTD will force the issue, since a clear liquid format can't lean on mix-ins the way a powder can. For now, he's still chasing it, one scoop at a time.

• 1:21:45 - Why Jason Won't Flavor Anyone Else's Protein

  Brands regularly ask Jason to formulate or flavor proteins for them. He always says no, and not for competitive reasons. Protein now requires serious capital (he cited spending around $200,000 per flavor on a single production run) and reliable supply, both of which he wants reserved for Lean Whey. He's done occasional flavor consulting outside the protein category, including a one-off collaboration flavor years ago.

  Jason traces some of Musclesport's slower early growth to running too many businesses at once, including a manufacturing operation and several side brands. Nearly thirty years into the industry now, he says he's finally focused on one thing: building Musclesport into what he considers his legacy.

• 1:27:15 - Protein Bars, RTDs, and What's Next

  Musclesport once developed a Barebells-style protein bar in Europe, layered with inclusions and a fiber component, before the project stalled when a manufacturing partner copied it independently and protein costs doubled. Jason still considers a bar or an RTD a likely next category within the next year or two, though he hasn't settled on what would make either genuinely different from what's already on shelves.

  The banter turned to a cheeseburger CreaM'D Rice (Ben lobbied hard for pickles and ketchup), which Jason floated as a possible April Fools-style limited run, not unlike Musclesport's earlier Maple Bacon Doughnuts flavor. Black Friday plans call for five new items and a reopened vault, with the rest spread through early 2027.

• 1:33:00 - Perfect Shaker and Closing

  Mike wraps by thanking Perfect Shaker, who's making Jason and Franky custom laser-etched shakers with the Musclesport logo as a thank-you gift. Jason and Franky close out talking about what's ahead: a lighter cadence of protein drops, a smaller Black Friday list, and the vault reopening for flavors fans have been asking to see again.

  It's a fitting note for a brand that's spent nearly two decades betting that flavor, not just macros, is what keeps people coming back.

Where to Follow and Learn More

Connect with Jason, Rob, and Musclesport

• Jason Mancuso on LinkedIn
• Jason Mancuso (The Supp Chef) on Instagram: @suppchefofficial_
• Rob "Franky" Oberholzer on LinkedIn
• Musclesport on Instagram: @musclesportusa
• Musclesport on PricePlow - Sign up for news alerts

Resources Mentioned

• Episode #208: Jason Mancuso and Team Musclesport - the previous conversation, recorded with Ben at Musclesport HQ
• Episode #230: Perfect Day's Kyle Failla on Protein Pricing
• Musclesport Lean Whey Overview
• Musclesport Makes April Fools a Reality: Maple Bacon Doughnuts
• Musclesport Website

Products Discussed

• Lean Whey
• Lean Whey Gourmet
• Lean Whey Clear ISO
• CreaM'D Rice Gourmet
• Creatine +Hydration
• Fiber Lean-AM
• Lifted Preworkout
• Lifted Preworkout Hyperdrive

Huge thanks to Jason and Franky for finally making this one happen, and to Perfect Shaker for keeping the whole PricePlow Podcast crew (and now the Musclesport team) shaking properly. Grab one of their cups at PricePlow.com/perfect-shaker or PerfectShaker.com.

CreaM'D Rice's savory lineup alone is worth checking back for, so subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on any platform, sign up for Musclesport news on PricePlow, and leave us a review on iTunes and Spotify!

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