Morning Brew Daily - US-Japan Team Up to Save the Yen & The Hugo Spritz, the New Drink of the Summer?

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

#903: The US and Japan work together to save the declining yen. Rumors of an AstraZeneca-Bristol Myers merger has analysts scratching their heads. People are making wildfire bets on prediction markets because…of course. Meanwhile, Toby dives into the newest Summer drink that’s popping up in bars everywhere: the Hugo Spritz. Finally, Palantir posts impressive earnings.  Submit your password guess! https://forms.gle/4EdBi3X8N4eMnBd56  Come to our August trivia! https://mbdtrivianight-august2026.splashthat.com/  Grab tickets to our Performance Revue show! https://www.morningbrew.com/events/brew-performance-revue-2026?utm_campaign=performance_revue_2026&utm_source=mbd Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you're hitting the road this summer or just parking for some peace of mind, AT&T connected car turns your vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot with fast, reliable, and secure internet access. You can connect multiple devices to stream, browse, play games, or get a little work done all inside or in proximity outside of your vehicle. To learn more, head to ATT.com slash morning brew. That's ATT.com slash morning brew. requires eligible vehicle, service, and coverage not available everywhere.

Good morning for Daily's show. I'm Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, why the U.S. made the shocking decision to defend the yen. Then move over, apparel sprits. A new drink of the summer has emerged. It's Tuesday, August 4th. Let's ride.

Anyone solve the password yet? Yesterday, we rolled out a puzzle that asks you to guess a word from a series of clues. Each day this week will share one new clue to get you closer to the password, and you can submit an answer once you have that aha moment. The earlier you submit in the week, the more raffle tickets you get to win the prize of MBD swag, and you can only submit an answer once. The first clue yesterday was this password has to do with one of the five senses. Probably not enough to go off of, though that didn't stop some of you from yoloing some guesses. Maybe today's clue will help you get on the right track. The password begins with a chemical symbol.

So so far the password has to do with one of the five senses, and it begins with a chemical symbol. Toby, I see the gears turning in your brain. Okay, so we got taste, touch, smell, hearing, and seeing. Those are the five senses. And how many chemical symbols do I know? Helium hydrogen. Hearing starts with H.E., which is the chemical symbol for helium, but that seems too on the

nose. feeling starts with Fee, which is a chemical symbol for iron, again, hard to know. And as I'm saying this, I just remembered oxygen and carbon exists. So that narrows it down to anything that starts with O or C, olfactory seems like a good guess. All right, the gears are turning too fast right now. Maybe I did just nail it there, but I think I'm going to wait until I get more clues before I lock in my answer. So finally answer, Neil, I'm holding out for more hints. All right. So how can people submit their answer. Go to the link in the show description.

Remember, you only get one guess, but I do admire Brave Souls who guess early, so go for it if you're feeling confident. I think we got a couple of answers yesterday that were smells like team spirit. Multiple ones like that, which I appreciate, but just to emphasize, this is just one word, not a phrase.

Okay, the US and Japan just made it more expensive for you to travel to Tokyo. The two countries linked up to buy Japanese yen, and stabilize the flag in currency in what Bloomberg called one of the most dramatic interventions in global currency markets in decades. President Trump framed the surprise move as supporting a key ally that's going through some market turbulence telling reporters, Japan's been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor. The yen has been in a deep slump over the past

year, falling at 1.264 against the dollar its lowest level in four decades. A number of forces have contributed to the decline, including Japan's super low interest rates, heavy government spending, and high debt levels. It's alarmed Japanese policymakers because a falling currency makes imports more expensive and boosts inflation, lowering people's living standards, especially now that energy has gotten so expensive from the war in Iran. Still, seems like a Japan problem, right? Why is America stepping in? Because just to put a point on it, this type of thing is extremely rare. Typically, the U.S. only gets involved in other countries, countries currencies if things get to like impending crisis levels, which they aren't here. And the answer is

we don't actually know the motivations. Wall Street is full of gossip as to why the U.S. deemed it necessary to scoop up yen. Toby, what's the T? One of the biggest reasons is that the U.S. is always looking out for the U.S. and they want to protect the bond market here. So Japan is one of the largest foreign holders of U.S. treasuries. If Japan tried to boost up the yen by selling treasurer, Treasury prices would fall and the U.S. bond yields would go up because the prices are inversely correlated. Trump does not want that. So we actually, the Fed has this thing called the foreign international monetary authorities FEMA repo. And that allows Japanese authorities to borrow dollars against treasury securities that they own without actually selling the treasuries themselves. So this helps

the yen get strengthened when it comes to global currency markets without the Japanese government it being forced to sell U.S. Treasury. So that's one idea. The other thing, too, is that the carry trade, you can't talk about the yen without talking about the carry trade. This is a very popular trade amongst hedge funds globally. The yen is one of the best funding currencies. And what that means is that you can borrow yen very cheaply because interest rates have been low for so long and invest in higher yielding assets elsewhere. And if all of a sudden you mess with the carry trade, that is part of the plumbing of the global financial system. If you mess up, with that, then you run the risk of contagion spreading and global financial markets panicking.

So maybe the idea was we don't want to screw with something that is just so important, like the carry trade. And so preventing a carry trade unwind is another reason. There are more reasons, but I'll pause there because those are two of the kind of the gossip that you've been hearing on Wall Street. And I can't wait to whip out the carry trade at Happy Hour Tonight and teach everyone. You can't look beyond who is spearheading this too, because I think that is a key part of this story. The leader for the United States in making this deal happen is Treasury Secretary

Scott Besson. And if you don't know Besson's background, it's literally as a currency trader. He made his name betting on currencies, specifically against currencies, working for George Soros' investment firm. He made a fortune betting against the pound in 1982 and then made basically almost over $1 billion in 2013. In the matter of months, by betting against the yen. So maybe he's married to the game and he just wanted to get that kick again. So Bessent has been the spearheading figure in the United States on making this deal happen. And he kind of telegraphed it in a very funny move back on Friday.

He was at this cabinet meeting and he had this sheet of paper and it was photographed that it said to-do list. And then there was only one item. And that item was said, buy Japanese yen. for about $5 to $10 billion. So we knew this was coming because he just had it rid now on a piece of paper. The other thing, too, is that, again, America is always looking out for America. In Japan has pledged roughly $550 billion of investment into the U.S. under a trade agreement signed last year.

That was one of Trump's biggest trade deals that he was prating around saying, like, look at this foreign country, he's investing so much on U.S. soil. But if the yen collapses, as it has been doing, it makes overseas investment for Japanese firms a lot more expensive. And so, again, it's killing two birds with one stone. If you can prop up the yen, then all of a sudden, those investments remain attractive to Japanese firms. So if the dollar is too strong compared to the yen, two, it goes vice versa.

It makes American exports more expensive overseas as well. So basically, there's a lot of birds and a lot of stones at play here, and hopefully it works out well for both of the parties involved. The problem is people don't think it will. And that's, I think, what was most perplexing to Wall Street, to investors. They're saying, Scott Bassett, you know better. You know that FX interventions like this don't necessarily work over the long term. So we did see a pretty dramatic move in the yen yesterday after this intervention.

It went from 164 against the dollar, which was the lowest level since 1986, to about 157. But unless Japan fixes those underlying economic dynamics with huge debt levels, with government spending, with all those forces that cause the yen to depreciate against a dollar in the first place, then this is going to be temporary and not solve the longstanding issues. But what it will do, and I mention this at first, is at least temporarily, make it a little more expensive for you, Toby, maybe to go on your honeymoon to Tokyo, because right now it is, you know, for the past couple of years, it has been very cheap for Americans to travel to Japan and spend money there because of this currency difference. With a stronger yen, it'll get a little more expensive.

Let's move on. One of the biggest pharma mergers of all time has been proposed, and one set of shareholders loves it, and the other hates it. AstraZeneca, with a market cap of around $260 billion, is in merger talks with Bristol-Myers Squibb worth $135 billion. The report that the two were chatting sent each stock in totally different directions, with AstraZeneca falling 7% while BMS jumped nearly 5% on the news. Should it go through, not only would it be one of the biggest mergers of all time,

but it would also create the largest pharmaceutical company buy revenue in the world. But AstraZeneca shareholders are looking at the deal like it's a moldy piece of cheese and diary of a wimpy kid. They see Bristol-Meyer Squibb as sort of a deadbeat boyfriend. Sir, it's got some redeeming characteristics

like strong footprints in neuroscience, cell therapy, and cancer drugs, as well as a larger U.S. footprint than a Z. But it also has major red flags, namely key patents it owns are expiring soon. Analysts are confusing. are confused as to why AstraZeneca, who has been one of Farma's strongest performers over the last decade and a half, sees in BMS. Given the strength of AZ's growth in innovation profile, we are a bit

perplex, Jeffrey Analysts said of the potential merger. Investors worried that the merger would slow innovation lead to layoffs and bring unwanted antitrust scrutiny, arguing that Astrozenica would be better off just staying in its single era. Neil, it's not often you get a merger of this size that is this hated by industry watchers. bristlemyer scrip is like the two-headed monster from sesame street and it has two drugs that bring in 50% of its revenue one is the blood thinner eloquist and the other is the cancer drug updevo and so together they account for half of bMS's sales the problem is that in the coming years just like most drugs across the pharmaceutical spectrum this is the big problem that you have to look out for is you lose your patent protection then other other folks can make generics and then you lose so many profits from having that protection that you have had for many years for developing the drug. Investors don't think that BMS has a pipeline that is worthy of AstraZeneca spending all this money to buy to scoop up BMS because they just said, you don't need it. You have a very strong pipeline. You need one of the best pipelines in all

of pharma. BMS is losing the patent protection for two of its blockbuster drugs. So we don't quite understand this. And then you look at the forward projections. AZ is expected to grow earnings per share at 10% over the next five years. BMS earning per share. is expected to grow, not even expected to grow, it's expected to shrink throughout the next decade. So that's one of the reasons why investors Wall Street are a little confused about this. So why did AstraZeneca even want this in the first place? The big thing here is a bigger U.S. present.

Right now, 42% of Astrosdenica's sales in the first half of 2026 came from the U.S. 69% of Bristol-Myers Squibbs revenue came from the U.S. So ostensibly, there's a little bit of a gap there in that they can close. the gap there. The U.S. is the largest pharma market in the world. But again, a lot of people are saying that is not enough of a gap. You already are making almost half of your revenue from the U.S. I don't understand this geographical expansion argument. It's worked potentially in mergers in the pharma industry in the past, but that was when there was a, you know, a Japanese firm that wanted to make inroads into the U.S. that had no sales there. So that is confusing a lot of people because

you also just invite so much antitrust risk, because when you combine these two very large oncology businesses, that is a warning sign for regulators as well. And also, the innovation piece is where a lot of people are scratching their heads. Because when you combine these giant research organizations, that takes a lot of time. And during that time, your development timelines are going too slow because you just can't be as nimble because you're doing a lot of administrative work of putting these two giant farmer organizations together. So, yeah, lots of head-scratching decisions here and the market did not like it. Still, it would be unwise to doubt Pascal Sorio, who is the CEO of AstraZeneca. And he has been probably,

he's been a stud. Over the past decade and a half, he has taken AstraZeneca from a struggling pharmaceutical company that was getting, that Pfizer wanted to take over in 2014 to New Heights, where it's in the position to buy this American rival. And it's, you know, become just like absolutely, cancer powerhouse. Everyone looked at him a little weird back in 2014 when Pfizer wanted to take it over for 70 billion euros. And he was like, nah, we got this. And he's been just an absolute rock star in the pharmaceutical space. So maybe he's cooking up something that maybe that analysts don't realize and BMS is a prize that, uh, that Wall Street is just sort of overlooking at this point. But yes, it is a perplexing deal. That's why you saw some of those pretty dramatic moves in the

stock market yesterday about AstraZeneca shareholders essentially rejecting this. concept. Moving on, firefighters are battling blazes in eastern Washington state that have forced the evacuation of 65,000 people in the Spokane area and destroyed 700 structures. They're among the 99 active large fires burning across the U.S. in what is a busy wildfire season above the 10-year average in terms of acres burned and number of fires. On top of that, major cities across the United States have been periodically blanketed and smoke this summer from fires raging in Canada. So your first thought is probably, how can I bet on that? Prediction markets are coming under pressure for wildfire trading with at least one new app dedicated specifically to trading on fires.

Wildfire, spelled like wildfire, but with wise instead of eyes, recently launched as a play money only platform that encourages you to wager fake cash on the scope of California fires. Their tagline, you can't predict fire, but you can trade on it. While it's play money only for now, the site says that betting with real money is coming. soon. Some lawmakers want to extinguish this flame before there's a spark. A group of Democratic senators send a letter to the CFTC, which oversees prediction markets, to crack down on wildfire trading, claiming it creates perverse incentives where someone could place a bed on a wildfire to take place, go and set that fire, then reap the profits. Toby, it's clear that this wildfire season, in more than one way, is highly unusual. So the difference between a hurricane or an earthquake on which

there are actually prediction markets when it comes to those weather events and wildfires is that humans can directly influence wildfires. Most California wildfires are actually human cause. A lot of them are accidental, but you are right, and lawmakers are right, in that there is a meaningful financial incentive now to go set a wildfire, which is why they want to crack down on it. There's also just an ethical argument against this, because it is part of the growing, you know, part of the financial system where you are turning disasters in your country.

to entertainment and a lot of ethicists say that devalues human lives and you are creating psychological distance between the actual victims because people are dying when it comes to these wildfires. Homes are being destroyed and yet maybe the only thing you're thinking about is oh, I can make a quick profit off of this. One psychologist says that it makes people begin viewing disasters like video games rather than real tragedies. So not only is there an argument against the fact that these markets can be manipulated, but there's also just a very big ethical component to this as well. Put some respect on Storm's name. With a little mutation, you can create hurricanes and tornadoes. This really came to the four in 2025 last January when Pauly Market, one of the

biggest prediction markets, did have about 20 questions, 20 markets related to the wildfires in Los Angeles, like how many acres will the palisides fire burn by Friday? You know, will the Palisades Fire reached Santa Monica by Sunday, and people spent $1.2 million betting on those markets. And I think what these lawmakers want to do is get out ahead of this and say, well, we're not, we don't want that to happen anymore. And then they're looking at this new platform called Wildfire and saying, we need to stop this in its tracks. Right now, it's only play money, but they clearly have desires to add real money to the equation. And they're talking about things that you mentioned and saying, we can't really have this.

Prediction markets defend themselves by saying that actually by aggregating all this information and tapping into the wisdom of the crowds, you improve forecasting. And while they love putting that argument forth, if you look at what organizations that are in charge of tracking these fires actually do, they do not use prediction markets. Cal Fire does not use prediction markets. US Forest Service also does not rely on them. Maybe it's just early innings and they haven't figured out how to integrate them into their systems. if the very people in charge of who want to prevent these from spreading don't see it as a useful

tool, then maybe that argument falls a little flat. But maybe they should because recent studies out of academia and Wall Street show that these prediction markets, even for fires, are actually useful and change people's minds. So one analysis from Patrick Brown, who's the head of climate analytics at interactive brokers, said that prediction markets may already be outperforming traditional weather forecast because they quote better incentivize human judgment, that wisdom of the crowds. And then there was this very fascinating research out of Columbia University that found that taking part in climate prediction markets like hurricanes or wildfires actually increases concern about global warming. The head

researcher there said that climate change is the perfect problem for the brain because the brain is very bad at thinking about its own future. Prediction markets are a mechanism that allows us to bring the future into the now. By holding a stock in the future, people became more up aware of and worried about climate change. Regardless, this debate is happening during one of the country's worst fire season, so I hope everyone stays safe out there. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Toby's trends right after this. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this.

Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Every day, shareholders meet to discuss important matters about the companies you invest in.

Now you can easily make your voice heard too. Vanguard investor choice makes it easy to set your proxy voting preference for your eligible Vanguard index funds. In just a few clicks, you can have a say on important shareholder topics like executive pay and director elections. Visit vanguard.com slash investor choice to learn more. It's your shares, it's your voice, it's easy. Vanguard investors own shares of their index funds, and those funds own shares of the companies they invest in. Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. So Toby, after starting the workday at 5 a.m., how much energy do you have left at the end of the day to figure out dinner?

Toby, wake up. I'm awake. was just making my point here. Like so many busy, hard-working professionals, the decision fatigue has fully set in by dinner time. That's why forkful is so helpful. Forkful partners directly with chefs to create fresh restaurant-quality meals

that are delivered right to your door. There's no chopping, cooking, or cleanup involved. And there's no getting bored with forkful meals either. Their chefs incorporate global flavors using premium clean ingredients. Check out their menu and get 50% off by heading to forkful meals. slash discount slash mb50.

That's forkfulmeals.com slash discount slash mb50. Breaking news, a new drink of the summer has emerged. The Hugo Spritz is passing its vibrant Aparol sibling like Jackson Storm passes Lightning McQueen and Cars 3, a trend I want to talk about on today's edition of Toby's trends. A Hugo Spritz shares the same Prosecco in soda water components that make up in Apparal Sprits, but substitutes in elderflower liquor like St. Germain in place of the iconic apparel. It creates a paler, more translucent green gold look, and when garnished with mint and lime, gives off a more garden-fresh vibe. And people are loving it.

Picardy, St. Germain's owner, said that Americans discovered it after traveling to Europe post-COVID, but sales have really taken off this summer. In the past three months, St. Germain's sales in the U.S. jumped 40%, while apparel sales have fallen 4%. Google searches for how to make a Hugo Spritz at home spiked 2,200% this summer, according to data shared with Axios, and it has now been searched more than Approl Sprits in 15 states across the country. One bar owner in New York City compared the Hugo to a sizzling plate of fajitas. When it's carried through the dining room, everyone sees it, and they're like, oh, I want that. Sale, it's going to be a minute before it becomes the true king of the summer spritzes. Kampari sold 8.8 million cases of Approl globally in 2025.

while Bacardi sold just 435,000 cases of St. Germain. Neil, what is it about this drink that has caught people's imagination? Why do they love it so much? Bitter is out, floral is in. So if you go back a bunch of years, bitter was all the rage. Negronies, everyone was getting negronies. Remember those hoppy IPAs that my friends used to drink in college and that I pretended to like?

Those were the big trends in flavor profiles and what people wanted to drink and consume. Now we're seeing more floral favors come to the floor, vanilla, things like that. And I can't think of a more floral flavor. Good job, me. That's a tongue twister. Then elder flour, it gets rid of some of that syrupy texture of the apparel that people may, and the bitterness of the apparel that people may balk at, even though it's a little

crisp and refreshing. And more toward these floral flowery flavors like elder flower, which really gives you that. It transports you to like a meadow in the Alps is exactly. what it's trying to do. Yeah, one bartender said it's a cognitive thing. The association of mint with better weather, people underestimate the power of a garnish. So again, an approll, you might get an orange, a hugo, you're going to get mint and a lime. So it is just a different vibe and people are digging that vibe right now. The other thing, too, it's just not that strong. You can drink in Hugo Spritz and not be put on your butt for the rest of the day. You can still go enjoy your

day. And it does seem like not only is it maybe stealing some market share from approll spritz, but it's also taking market share from beer. About two-thirds of new spritz drinkers are switching from beer. So again, beer might be out, as we have actually spoken about on this podcast before, and sprits are just in in general. So maybe it's a rising tide floats all spritz boats right now. And the origins are very interesting. First of all, I just assume every cocktail was invented like 100 years ago or 200 years ago or during prohibition or things like that. I don't know, you know, people invent new cocktails. Of course they do.

But this was invented very recently in the early 2000s by a bartender in the Italian Alps. And it really drew on this tradition of mixing homemade elixirs from local botanicals, from native botanicals in the area and creating these elixirs and then putting it into various drinks. So that's exactly what this guy did, Roland Gruber, to develop the Hugo Spritz, is by taking elder flour from that particular area. And then, you know, throwing in some soda water, throwing in some Prosecco. And there you go. You have a Hugo Spritz.

But it's interesting that the Apparel Sprits actually has a brand name attached to it, where the Hugo Sprits is just named after Hugo, which I don't quite understand. But St. Germain is probably like, eh, maybe we can change this to the St. Germain Sprits because they have to do the extra legwork in marketing and saying, okay, you use our appertee, you use our lique, you use our liquor to make this thing. it's, you know, it's Hugo in name only, but actually the key ingredient is St. Germain. Yeah, that was the CEO of Campari kind of downplaying the threat of Hugo. And he also cited kind of those sales statistics of Approl is still outselling St. Germain

by a wide margin. So even though my trend is that the Hugo is taking over, they still, you got to come at the king. You can't miss Campari and Apparel are still the kings of the summer. All right, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Has any company ever hyped itself up more than Palantir? The AI software giant and military contractor reported earnings yesterday that it described as otherworldly.

It's true, Palantir is crushing it. Revenue climbed 93% from last year, while commercial sales to other companies more than doubled. Plus, it jacked up its projections for the rest of 2026. Shares had slid about 29% year-to-date on concerns AI startups would eat away at its business, but the stock clawed back 15% after the improvement. report. CEO Alex Carp was pretty proud of himself. In a statement, he said such an achievement would be caused for astonishment in any business for one of our size, scale, and consequence.

It is simply staggering. I want whatever he's smoking. Yeah, Palantier CEO Alex Carp really says stuff. That's just kind of like the general vibe of all of these earnings report. And another kind of tangent he launched into on his quarterly shareholder letter was attack on Frontier AI Labs. He argues that if you are a business, you should not trust them. His argument is that these labs are positioning themselves to eventually own their customers' intellectual property rather than serving them. This is a argument that a lot of people in the industry actually at you, but he took it a step further.

He went ideological with it, writing that many of the AI labs intend knowingly or otherwise to capture the means of production of their purported partners. If that sounds like a reference to Karl Marx, it is. He said, there are Marxist overtones and undertones to our business. but then he also noted that the company generated more profit in one quarter than a year earlier. So typical Palantir quarter, you get some inflammatory stuff, you get some great results, and then you'll see us all again next quarter. Moving on, after crashing out of the round of 16 at the World Cup, U.S. soccer is sticking with its coach,

Maricio Pocitino, or rather, Maricio Pocitino is sticking with U.S. soccer. Pachitino has signed a new contract to remain manager of the U.S. U.S. men's national team through the 2030 men's World Cup, giving one of the sports most accomplished coaches a full four-year cycle to build on this summer's electrifying and disappointing World Cup run. The extension comes after speculation that Pachitino would jump ship to sign for a big European club like A.C. Milan, but the former Tottenham and Chelsea manager is committed to the U.S. and will also help oversee youth development, coaching education in the broader national team pipeline. Neil, put on your Navy Hugo Boss overshirt. We got our guy for the

long haul. And you'll never guess who's underwriting his salary. Okay, maybe you will because his name is seemingly attached to everything these days. Yes, when he's not bailing out 25 year old investors named Leopold, none other than Ken Griffin is helping pay for a large chunk of Pachitino's salary. He sheld out previously for the two-year deal. That was the main catalyst for bringing Pachitino over to the United States to coach the men's national team. And now he's doing it this again for the next four years. Ken Griffin, Fuddy Guy. I'm pumped. Because the signs we saw in the Paraguay game, I'll never forget. I'm just going to forget Belgium ever happened.

I trust in Potch. I'm glad that he wants to have a larger, you know, influence over American soccer because I think he's our guy. Finally, many Americans are suffering through a devastating breakup with their Danin coffee yogurt. Earlier this year, Danin discontinued its coffee yogurt known to its cult-like fan base as DCY. And people are distraught. One lawyer told the Wall Street Journal, it's what I got out of bed for after starting his day with the creamy treat for nearly 40 years. It does sound pretty decadent.

Danin's 5.3 ounce coffee yogurt cup contained about 32 milligrams of caffeine, a third of what you'd get in a cup of coffee, plus 11 grams of added sugar. Despite a petition signed by hundreds of fans and complaints littering Facebook and Reddit, Danin said that the coffee yogurt in its original form would never reappear on shelves. The company wrote, Dan and coffee yogurt will come back in ways that reflect the taste preferences, flavor, profile, and nutritional benefits many consumers seek in the yogurt aisle today. I don't know, Neil.

It doesn't sound that good. I've never tried it, so I can't knock something I've never tried, but coffee in yogurt. It's just not doing it for me. The only thing I can think about is, like, people put milk in their coffee, creamer in their coffee, so I guess it's just another version of that. And the one thing that made me open my mind a little bit more is one person interviewed by the Wall Street Journal said that they put, crust pretzels or ritz crackers in their yogurt too.

And now we're getting a little bit of a sensory play right there. And I do kind of like that. But it has opened my eyes to this category, and I do want to go try it now. Okay, that is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you at our trivia show with Maxonomics last week. If you missed it or just want to hang out again,

we're running back our standard free trivia night at a regular old bar, week from today, Tuesday the 11th, you can secure your spot at the link in the show notes. To share your thoughts on the episode or anything else, send an email to Morningbrewdaily at Morningbrew.com or DM us on Instagram at Embedley Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our supervising producer. Raymond Lue is our senior producer. Our producer is Olivia Graham and our associate producer is Olivia Lake.

Technical direction by Nina Miller. Hair and makeup had won too many Hugo Spritzes last night. Devin Emery is our president and our show's a production of Morning Brew. Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.