‘Braspberries’ Are Coming to Grocery Stores Thanks to Justin Timberlake

Maggie Rossetti/Thrillist
Maggie Rossetti/Thrillist

Love him or hate him, there's no denying Justin Timberlake is a wildly talented artist who can command a stage just as well as he can deliver iconic dick jokes. But when you're that famous and powerful, people will blindly trust your ideas, no matter how absurd they are. Case in point: you could theoretically rave on social media about stuffing blueberries inside of raspberries and -- boom! -- one of the nation's biggest berry purveyors will unleash them on grocery store shelves. 

Actually, there's no need to be theoretical about this, because that's exactly what just happened.
 

Driscoll's, one of the biggest berry sellers in America, recently teased the launch of its newest product, braspberries, with an Instagram post of said blueberry-stuffed raspberries in their signature clamshell packaging. The post also included a message for JT, saying the singer should "be on the lookout in a grocery store near you." And while it was all clearly intended as a bit of a joke, Driscoll's is definitely making the "handstuffed" berries for real.

For anyone not up to speed on the whole Timberlake/braspberry backstory, the former NSYNC frontman took to Instagram late last year to proclaim his love for blueberry-stuffed raspberries, coining them "braspberries." The post went viral. Flash forward to last week, and a new commercial for Bai drinks dropped featuring the star assembling his beloved berry concoctions. That's when Driscoll's apparently decided the time was, uh, ripe (we're sorry) to hop aboard the braspberry train. 

“From a social media perspective, we saw the braspberry craze take off, and it was only logical that Driscoll’s as the berry market leader would innovate the opportunity,” Frances Dillard, the company’s director of marketing, global brand lead toldFood & Wine. “Driscoll’s commands 90% market share of raspberries and is the trusted brand for all fresh berries.”

You won't find braspberries at your local grocery store quite yet, though, since they're currently only being packaged for promotional purposes. However, the folks at Driscoll's do hope to scale up the operation to bring them into the retail market soon.

Until then, you'll just have to settle for stuffing berries inside berries yourself. 

h/tFood & Wine

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Joe McGauley is a senior writer for Thrillist. Follow him @jwmcgauley.