The drink that's fueling young New Hampshire campaign staffers
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire For the young political staffers of New Hampshire, the 2016 campaign doesn't run on Dunkin'.
Instead, the drink powering the small army of operatives, field organizers and volunteers fanning out across the state before Tuesday's primary is a blended concoction of peanut butter, espresso, almond milk and chocolate, doing brisk business at the understated but always-packed Bridge Cafe on Elm Street in downtown Manchester.
There's no nutritional data published on the menu for the Peanut Butter Power smoothie, but on-the-go campaign staffers don't seem to care much -- for months, the caffeine-packed meal replacement has become a cult favorite.
As one Republican campaign staffer with an office nearby put it, Peanut Butter Power is "an elixir that fuels me long after the nicotine from my Marlboro Lites has worn off."
The national media and political tourists pouring into New Hampshire in recent days are flocking to well-worn Manchester haunts for food and drink. The bar at the Radisson Hotel is overrun with out-of town pundits from Washington and New York, as is Strange Brew, the nearby beer bar, and The Foundry, a newly-popular gastropub that opened last year in the city's Millyard district.
But Bridge Cafe is a better place to find the 20-something staffers working in the trenches of the New Hampshire primary campaign.
On a recent frigid Sunday morning, one could look around the busy cafe and see small groups of 20-somethings from the campaigns of Bush, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders prepping to go out in the cold and canvass area neighborhoods. All of them had at least one or two Peanut Butter Powers -- always a size medium, never a small -- in their morning and midday food orders.
"I probably drink a smoothie three or four times a week, sometimes more," said Erica Borsack, a communications fellow on the Clinton campaign. "Peanut Butter Power gives me the energy to do all I can to elect Hillary Clinton."
Bridge Cafe owner David Perry said he has "no idea" who came up with the recipe. But he said it's the restaurant's best-selling smoothie by far - especially with the presidential campaigns. "Tons of people from campaigns come in here every single day just for that," he said.
"They are all in here," he said. "Hillary's campaign comes in here the most - they've been coming in here since April. There's probably 30 regulars from their campaign. Right now, we are also recognizing a lot of PACs from out of town.
Perry said they also regularly deliver smoothie orders to local campaign outposts: The offices of Clinton, Sanders, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina have been putting in bulk orders of late.
Elsyie Raymer, formerly Martin O'Malley's New Hampshire field director, discovered the smoothie while working on a Congressional campaign in the state in 2014.
"Peanut butter power and a few red bulls and I'm set to go!," Raymer said recently, just before O'Malley ended his presidential bid.
No one on staff at Bridge Café can remember a candidate ordering a Peanut Butter Power, though Hillary Clinton popped in to the restaurant last fall, and her staff has placed orders for her off and on throughout the campaign.
"She just got an iced tea," Perry said. "She usually gets a greek salad."