How SmearCase is bringing FroCo to Consumers Searching for Frozen Protein – Think Ice Cream Made from Cottage Cheese
Innovation rarely comes from reimagining traditional products in the crowded ice cream and frozen dessert market.
Yet that’s precisely what Joseph Rotondo and his business partner Anthony Dispirito have accomplished with SmearCase—a frozen cottage cheese product (or “froco” as industry insiders now call it) rapidly capturing market share and consumer imagination.
Their journey offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs looking to disrupt established categories.
Rotondo’s Journey: From Kitchen Experiment to Dairy Disruptor
Joseph Rotondo’s path to becoming a food innovator wasn’t linear.
He grew up in the food business. His father owned an Italian restaurant. The kitchen was always a lab, and his dad would instruct Joseph and his siblings to make food come alive and to experiment.
Passionate about health and wellness, Rotondo, a former nutritionist passionate about fitness, stumbled upon his frozen cottage cheese concept almost by accident. While training for a marathon, he wanted a frozen treat that he could enjoy that was better for him than traditional ice cream.
He experimented with cottage cheese in his Brooklyn apartment kitchen.
“I was eating cottage cheese daily for the protein content, but I was getting bored,” Rotondo explained during our recent interview. “One hot summer day, I threw some honey and cinnamon in the freezer just to see what would happen. The texture was surprisingly amazing—creamy yet structured, with little curds creating these delightful pockets of flavor.”
What started as personal experimentation soon became Rotondo’s obsession. He spent months perfecting his formula, addressing the crystallization issues that typically plague frozen dairy products with high water content.
The breakthrough came when Rotondo reconnected with Drew DiSpirito, a former college roommate who had built a successful career in food manufacturing. Dispirito brought production expertise and business acumen to complement Rotondo’s product vision.
Together, they refined the manufacturing process, developed flavor profiles, and launched SmearCase in 2024 with three initial flavors: Honey Vanilla, Wild Berry, and Chocolate Chip.
Three Critical Brand & Marketing Insights
Here are three key insights from their success that should guide aspiring food entrepreneurs:
1. Embrace, Don’t Hide, Your Product’s Uniqueness
Many startups make the critical mistake of downplaying what makes them different, fearing consumer resistance to unfamiliar concepts. Rotondo and Dispirito took the opposite approach with SmearCase—they leaned into the unexpected nature of their product, starting with the brand name itself.
“SmearCase” directly references the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch term for cottage cheese, immediately signaling authenticity while creating intrigue. Rather than hiding that they were selling frozen cottage cheese, which market research might have advised against, they made it their unique selling proposition.
The German term for cottage cheese that Pennsylvania Dutch people used is schmierkäse, which translates to “spreadable cheese”. The American term “smearcase” is a phonetic spelling of the German word.
Their packaging prominently features the words “Frozen Cottage Cheese” above the SmearCase logo, with an appealing image of cottage cheese curds swirled with flavor ingredients. This transparency builds trust and curiosity simultaneously.
The lesson: Don’t mask your product’s true nature to fit existing categories—celebrate what makes it different.
Early focus groups revealed mixed reactions to the concept, but those who loved it became instant evangelists. This polarization worked in their favor, creating strong brand advocates who felt they’d discovered something special. SmearCase embraced its position as a conversation starter rather than trying to please everyone.
2. Solve a Real Problem with Authentic Storytelling
The most sustainable food brands address genuine consumer needs rather than creating artificial ones. SmearCase has succeeded, so far, because it solves multiple problems simultaneously: protein-seeking consumers wanting dessert options, sustainability-minded shoppers looking for minimally processed foods, and adventurous eaters craving novel experiences.
Rotondo and Dispirito built their marketing narrative around this problem-solution framework, but importantly, they grounded it in Rotondo’s authentic personal journey. Their social media doesn’t feature polished, corporate messaging. Instead, it showcases Rotondo’s original kitchen experiments, with early failures and genuine excitement over breakthroughs.
This authenticity extends to its product development transparency. When formulating their third seasonal flavor line, they invited early customers to participate in tasting panels and documented the entire process. This generated valuable feedback and created a sense of ownership among their customer bases.
The takeaway for entrepreneurs is to resist the urge to create a perfect brand narrative. Let consumers see the real challenges and passion behind your product. Today’s consumers can detect artifice instantly and reward genuine stories with loyalty.
3. Design Your Distribution Strategy Around Experience and Community, Not Just Convenience
Perhaps the most counterintuitive move in SmearCase’s strategy was its distribution approach. While most food startups rush to secure retail shelf space, Rotondo and Dispirito initially focused on creating tasting experiences through pop-ups, farmers markets, and fitness center partnerships.
“We knew people needed to taste it to understand it,” explains Dispirito. “No amount of marketing copy could convey what happens when someone experiences that first spoonful.”
This experience-first distribution model allowed them to refine their messaging based on real-time consumer reactions. They carefully observed which flavor descriptions resonated, which nutritional benefits sparked interest, and which objections needed addressing. Only after building a devoted following did they approach specialty retailers with data demonstrating strong repeat purchase rates.
Their packaging was designed with this sampling strategy in mind. Each pint features a QR code that links to short videos of first-time tasters’ reactions, extending the communal experience to retail purchases.
This strategy transformed skeptical shoppers into curious experimenters willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar concept.
The lesson here is powerful: distribution isn’t just about product availability—it’s about designing touchpoints that convert curiosity into conviction. For innovative products, convenience should follow experience, not precede it.
The Future of “Froco”
SmearCase has expanded to national distribution through premium grocers and direct-to-consumer channels. Its product line has grown to include eight permanent flavors and seasonal limited editions. Most impressively, it sparked a new category, with several competitors now entering the “froco” space.
Rotondo and Dispirito’s vision extends beyond building a single successful brand. They’re actively working to establish frozen cottage cheese as a recognized dessert category through industry partnerships and educational marketing.
For entrepreneurs looking to disrupt established food categories, SmearCase offers a masterclass in turning product uniqueness into market advantage. Their willingness to embrace their product’s distinctive qualities, tell an authentic development story, and prioritize experiential marketing has transformed a kitchen experiment into a dairy case revolution.
If you’re developing an innovative food product, remember that sometimes the most powerful marketing strategy is simply letting your product be precisely what it is and finding the consumers who will love it for those reasons.
Author note:
While I haven’t tasted SmearCase, I hope to visit the metro NY area on a future trip. I love frozen desserts, and one of the joys of my career was the first time I ate sushi with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, AKA Ben & Jerry’s. This was back in my Rachel’s Brownies days when we attended our first Specialty Food Show at the Javit Center in NY. By the way, Ben & Jerry’s is contemplating acquiring its brand from Unilever.
This is my second article this month on cottage cheese-related products. I wrote about Good Culture and how much I enjoy this brand in my daily diet. It shows that protein is one of today’s superstars in the food industry.
If you know of an innovative, highly disruptive, and distinctive food or beverage brand, please reach out to me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com I’m always curious to write about foodpreneurs.
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