Healthier Treats with Hype Functions
Review #15 - Deux 🍪
The age old question: can good-for-you really taste good? I’ll be the judge of that.
Review #15 - Deux 🍪
What Is It
Deux makes “treats you want, with the ingredients you deserve.” They’re best known for their line of good-for-you, functional cookie doughs that contain ingredients like Reishi and collagen, though their newer exploration into donut holes seems to be a big hit as well. Guess I’ll have to try both.
Brand / Aesthetic
If I could choose one brand to encapsulate the Gen Z Girlie Pop aesthetic, this would be it. Whether it’s a Stanley or the big ass straw cup that Tinx made bank from, this girl is drinking her water out of a straw and eating her Deux out of the jar while she watches Love is Blind. It’s very, Hot Girl Walk 🤪✌️.
In theory, I love this girl — she keeps me young. But in reality, does anyone actually talk like this? Or — better yet — want to be spoken to like this? I’m not sure anyone who self-identifies as Gen-Z engages in “bestie-speak” (a term I wish I made up) to this degree of intensity. Perhaps Deux’s voice is just the millennial ideal of a Gen-Z character.
Either way, I can understand that this tone of voice is a choice, and it’s one that’s not necessarily meant for me. But even in my best attempt to be objective, I cannot and will not get behind texting talk in inappropriate environments. Call me a boomer, but some things are better the old-fashioned way.
I need to address the elephant in the room. They use the font that gives me a visceral reaction. I’ll leave it there before I make it part of my personality, but just know I’m on record as anti-Recoleta.
I’ll attempt to keep the dough puns to a minimum; they seem to be better at them than I am. I’m pun-ambivalent (I like them when I do them, but I find them annoying when other people use them at high volumes. Long live hypocrisy!). Unfortunately, puns are also completely un-sexy, which creates a strange irony since “raw” tends to be their main theme.
Here’s my free idea of the week: they should go all in on the raw thing and do a collab with Julie’s plan b. You’re welcome.
They’re mostly silly-cheesy-girly vibes, but sometimes they throw in a little spice. I like that they’re pushing boundaries and testing the limits of what they can say, and that’s when they’re at their best, IMO (IDK why I feel the need to say this, this whole thing is IMO).
They’ve got Barbie-core visuals on lock, and for the brand identity, and consistency, that pairs with the product-market fit *gag*, I must tip my hat.
Marketing
Actually, this is the REAL elephant in the room: Deux has me blocked on Instagram. No idea why, I’ve never interacted with them before. I happen to know that my blocking occured prior to this newsletter, so it has nothing to do with my whole review shtick. If anyone has any leads here, lmk. I just wanna talk.
So without access to their Instagram, we’re gonna wrap this review up right here…
Obviously not, don’t worry. Like any good investigative journalist, I figured out a way to get my hands on the information. We’re talking FOIA baby!! Just kidding, my sister gave me her log in. :)
It’s a damn shame I’m blocked from their Instagram, because I have nice things to say about it too! I’ve been known to give brands who post memes on the internet a lot of shit, but an important distinction needs to be made. Let me be clear, luxury brands should not be posting memes (once again, with the exception of SSENSE). Gen-Z girlie pop healthy cookie dough brands, on the other hand, absolutely should.
And Deux does — thank God — and unique ones at that! Well actually, you could say the majority of their content is meme-adjacent. Nope, wait stick with me the thought is forming. Memes are actually just an integral part of their identity. For some reason that sentence felt negative coming out of my mouth, but it’s not at all. They own their humor-laden voice and stick with it, so much so that even their genuinely useful content somehow feels like it should be delivering a punchline.
Apparently, their big thing is limited edition flavor collaborations with influencer/brand partners, a page out of The Coconut Cult’s book. My same rallying cry rings true: more flavor accessibility! Stop with the DTC-only limited editions!
I don’t fault them for it though, I know how difficult production cycles are and blah blah blah but my hope is that one day I can walk into a Whole Foods and pick up a Summer Fridays Lip Balm Cookie Dough flavor. Now that’s a country I want to live in (Biden, get off TikTok and call me, this is how we appeal to the youths).
Their Gen-Z-drenched voice and bright color palette feels like it’s made for TikTok (a la Poppi) so it makes sense that they do relatively well on there. Now add a founder that’s comfortable on camera to the mix, and you’ve struck the modern-equivalent of gold — virality.
They’ve done pretty well on the app, with a few standout moments in particular. Sabeena, like the rest of her CPG founder class, was on Shark Tank a few years ago*. The episode made headlines for the misogynistic comments about her pink suit, and in a character-building moment that would make Greta Gerwig proud, she turned it into a TikTok. Multiple TikToks, actually. Good work.
The test-the-limits mentality also translates to non-traditional tactics for DTC sales, which I applaud. Like this lil video in the corner. I noticed Crown Affair has it too, and while I find the TikTok-ification of websites pretty corny, I predict this will be a big hit for higher-than-average price point brands as a way for consumers to justify the purchase with a feigned IRL experience in lieu of the physical interaction they’d get in a store. Some might say food + bev retail is in a shaky place with the Foxtrot chaos and Boisson closure and this is a brand’s way of adapting to IRL experiences on our couch. My take: let’s either 1) go full Oculus-mode, 2) be okay with taking a gamble on a product that you buy online, or 3) just go into a store and purchase your adaptogenic cookie dough there like the good old days.
Ending this section on a high note: I want to talk about the “free stuff” section of the website. This is pretty genius. I personally love some free samples with my online purchases, and I think they’re a very smart play for increasing future AOV (I told you I speak marketing bro 😏 - that’s average order value for the rest of you) and I think this is a very cute way that Deux makes the concept their own, staying true to the brand and giving the girlies what they want. Big points for originality.
*For the uninitiated, Deux exists in my cult-following content trifecta. If you’ve been a long time reader, first of all, thank you, but you have permission to scroll past this part.
If you want to read about the DTC Founder - Shark Tank phenomenon, here’s a quick brief. For my visual learners out there, I’ll equip you with this diagram:
Efficacy
Here’s the deal: do we need our cookie dough to have functions too? No.
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how wellness is getting really annoying, which is probably an ill-advised statement from the girl who writes a newsletter called Plant Based.
But as I get older — and become increasingly jaded — my view of wellness revolves a lot less around powders and a lot more around the things that make me feel good. And that’s not the immediate satisfaction of a cigarette, but nice try. Unless it’s fostering meaningful friendships, in which case an argument could be made otherwise. I mean things that nourish your body, mind, and soul (why must I get so earnest on here). A beautiful pasta dish shared with your friends, a long walk with no destination, and a reformer pilates infrared sauna double hitter. And in this case, Toll House cookies when I get a real craving for them are part of the equation, more so than some Vitamin D infused whatever-the-hell.
Moral of the story: live your life with joy and treat everyone, including your body, kindly. Everything in moderation. Balance. All that good stuff.
Anyways — does this cookie dough improve my skin’s elasticity? No, but that’s besides the point. More importantly, does it taste yummy? Meh. I’ve been known to enjoy “healthy tasting things” (I think this was intended as an insult), so I recruited a small team of taste-testers to give these a fair shake. Here were the key takeaways:
Donuts: By far the best item we tried. They were a tad dry, but overall we really enjoyed these. Would definitely try other flavors, especially now that they’re just a few bucks at Whole Foods.
Deux (raw): Out of our group of four, I liked this the most. The texture was a bit too “tacky” for the crew, which we decided would be more suitable for a brownie batter varietal. What’s interesting is that we all picked up on some floral notes which we deduced was from the Jasmine Tea Extract. Hm.
Deux (cookies): I begrudgingly turned my oven on to bake these (The people need to know! my sister claimed) and they were fine. Better than the raw dough (deux? Has it surpassed proper noun territory in this context?), but certainly not worth the 8 minutes, especially since the inside remained uncooked.
Overall Thoughts
Again, I am not the girly pop this is meant for, and while I’m personally exhausted by the aesthetic / tone of voice, I can appreciate what they’re doing. They’ve got the edginess, they’ve got the POV, they’ve got the Barbie pink, they’ve got the food porn, but will this demographic pay $15 for cookie dough online?
That’s not my problem. But maybe they’ll pick up a bag of Emma Chamberlain-inspired donut holes for their silly little treat. I might, but only if they unblock me.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️/5
In Other News…
Kiehl’s is rebounding from their Equinox divorce with a new billionaire boyfriend.
The makers of my favorite candle have a new fragrance.
Did this collab make Under Armour cooler, or Balenciaga, well, the opposite…
LMK if you read this piece in Dazed about wellness culture instigating a health-anxiety crisis. I have thoughts, per usual.
That’s all for now. If there’s a product you want reviewed or just want to chat, reply to this email. :)
The block made me gasp
Very new to Deux but first thoughts is that it reminds me of those jars of slime you desperately want to eat (but mustn't)