The Checkout: Eric Gonzalez, Founder of Tranquila

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A series exploring how the next generation of CPG brands are being built, from first batches to first listings.

Americans drink coffee at a 20-year high. 66% of US adults reach for it daily and the RTD segment alone is an $8.3 billion market in 2026. Yet almost none of that shelf space belongs to decaf. Eric Gonzalez is changing that.

Tranquila Coffee launched in April 2026. The only specialty decaf oat milk RTD on the US market. I spoke to Eric about the stigma he's dismantling, the brand language he's building, and why the bodega fridge is going orange.
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Tranquila is one of the first US brands to plant a flag on specialty decaf oat milk RTD as its entire identity. How has no one done this before you?

Because decaf is such a small percentage of the total coffee market that it becomes a distraction for the big players. We're talking 10 to 15% of coffee consumers. Selling a product that targets 90% of the market, and has a chemical in it that's addictive, makes far more sense for them to focus on. Decaf doesn't have that camouflage. So it gets deprioritised, again and again, by every company with the scale to actually do something interesting with it.

That's the gap, a lack of attention.

And the same is true for the big players specifically. Decaf is a minority of their customer base, so it gets a minority of their strategic attention. When you're optimising for the majority, which is what a public company has to do, you don't take asymmetric bets on 10 to 15% of the market.

Who designed the brand and what did you ask them to make people feel before they even opened the can?

I worked with a great designer who's done a couple of other CPG brands. The vision was simple: make decaf feel cool. Almost a little naughty.

Decaf has always carried this lame, apologetic energy, a very negative stigma. We wanted to completely flip that. The packaging should make you stop and think, I don't know if I should be doing this right now. That slight feeling of transgression. And underneath that, a feeling of slowing down, which is very much what the brand is about.

In the coffee aisle, where everything is dark roast seriousness or pastel wellness, we needed to break your scroll entirely. The doodles were intentional too, we wanted that nostalgic hit, like puzzles on the back of a cereal box when you were a kid. Nothing else on those shelves looks like it.

Coffee culture has always been about ritual. The morning cup, the afternoon slump, the post-dinner espresso. Where does Tranquila live in someone's day?

It depends on the customer, and we have two distinct types.

The first is the full substitute, someone like me, who doesn't drink caffeine at all. Tranquila becomes the coffee they reach for throughout the day, without any ceiling. The second is the caffeinated coffee drinker who reaches for Tranquila in the afternoon, that 2 or 3pm moment where they want coffee but don't want to wreck their sleep. Post-dinner is a big one too. The espresso craving is real; the consequences aren't worth it.

Both are underserved. What we're really selling is more occasions to drink coffee, not fewer.

Only 15% of US coffee drinkers regularly choose decaf. Is your job to convert the other 85% or to own that 15% so completely that scale takes care of itself?

Both, but in sequence. You have to serve the existing decaf drinker first, and do it better than anyone else has. That's the foundation. But the real opportunity is opening up new occasions for the other 85% giving them a reason to reach for coffee when caffeine would have previously stopped them. That's where the growth is.

You're selling a $60 pack direct in NYC and NJ. What are you learning about your customer right now that no amount of market research could tell you?

That people just love great-tasting coffee, and the idea that they can have it whenever they want is a genuinely novel feeling for a lot of them. That's what selling D2C and in stores has taught me so far. Way more people drink decaf than you'd think. They're just not loud about it yet.

Tranquila is live. You're at the very beginning. What's the thing about building this that nobody prepared you for?

Things take longer than you think. I knew this intellectually (everyone says it) but it really settles in when you're live and in the business. Getting into new stores takes longer than you'd expect. Getting vendors set up, getting production locked in, every step in the chain takes longer. The only real lesson is to plan for it and stay patient.

What does the bodega fridge look like in three years and where does Tranquila sit in it?

There's an orange strip across it. A run of Tranquila cans, sitting alongside the caffeinated options. And the packaging does the work, it's the bat signal for high-quality, great-tasting decaf. You know what's inside before you even read the label.

The founder CPG community is one of the most generous and most competitive in any industry. Who in it has been genuinely useful to you and what are three resources you'd send someone starting out tomorrow?

The community has been incredible, especially in New York. I'd send anyone starting out to Naturally New York and Startup CPG, both are genuinely useful, not just networking for the sake of it. Beyond that: find the founders and businesses you admire, consume everything they've put out publicly, and immerse yourself in that world. Proximity to people who've already made the mistakes is the best resource there is.

Where should we eat in New York right now?

Edith’s
Elbow Bread
Messy
Librae
Jin Mei Dumpling