[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Taste Radio, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my BevNET and Nosh colleagues, John Craven and Mike Schneider. As always, we would love it if you could review Taste Radio on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice if you do so. We will send you a brand spanking new Taste Radio t-shirt. All you need to do is send us a screenshot of your review, your address, and the size of the t-shirt you'd like, and we'll have that t-shirt to you as soon as possible. I gave out quite a few at Expo East 2021 in Philadelphia, where the three of us were last week, the three of us being John, Mike, and myself. Very exciting to be back at the show. Definitely not the same old, same old Expo East that we all know and love, but there were a lot of really great things that happened at the event. I can say personally that I was really happy to be back at an in-person trade show and seeing folks on the show floor. Seemed like the excitement was there and back and the willingness for people to interact with and meet face-to-face, mask-to-mask, whatever you want to call it, was definitely at a high level.
[00:01:24] John Craven: Yeah, I think you know everyone who chose to attend seemed like they were in a positive mood. I know there were a fair amount of grumblings online on social media before the show, but. You know, you don't really feel any of that when you were there and it, despite being a smaller show and you know, lower number of attendees, I I think it was really a great showing for the community and you know, I can't speak for everyone, but for me it was just awesome to see all these people that. I haven't seen in a long time and finally get to try some of those products that I suppose I've only seen online at this point. I think it was a success for New Hope and everyone who attended and props to New Hope for just dealing with all of this, I don't know, complexity, if you will, in a way that was really quite smooth. You know, it wasn't like I was honestly a little worried about having to wait in some super long line or whatnot. But, you know, everything went well. And yeah, it was a good first show back. Good to rip Band-Aid Off finally and get back out there.
[00:02:30] Mike Schneider: everything from registration to sampling felt pretty good. I mean, I thought sampling was going to be really tricky and, you know, Not Just seemed like it was one of those things where if you wanted to sample at the booth, they were really careful about it. And if you didn't, they just handed you, you know, handed you a sample to take with you and nobody really made any noise about it. It was definitely a show where everybody who was there had good energy and everyone wanted to be there. So it was a manageable show because it wasn't like the biggest expo we've seen, but I liked a lot of what was going on at the show and I definitely like the new Philly backdrop.
[00:03:15] Ray Latif: Yeah, you know, Philly was definitely a change from Baltimore, some similarities to the city, but at the same time, there's an interesting dynamic that's different about the feel of Philadelphia. And I think people appreciated that as well as just, you know, I mentioned it wasn't the same old, same old Expo East, but it certainly wasn't the same old, same old Baltimore either. And I think, you know, all in all, As you mentioned, John, there were a lot of worries, there were a lot of concerns, I think, at least that we heard from some folks in the community on LinkedIn, on Instagram, what have you. But the excitement, the enthusiasm really shown through in this event. I think one of the things that will be really important for Expo East 2022 is the feeling that buyers will be back, that investors will be back. You know, it was pretty interesting. I saw a lot of investors at this show. I didn't interact with a ton of retail buyers. You know, granted, I was very busy recording interviews for this podcast, so I didn't necessarily run into a lot of retailers. But from what I heard, there were a number of them there. And the investors, though, they were definitely there.
[00:04:21] Mike Schneider: Yeah. You saw a lot of green badges walking around Ray. That was the retail color badge. And, and, you know, they were there, Jon Landis was counting them. So he told us, he kept, he kept track of the number of badges there because, you know, we're just looking at who is there. And of course, um, you could tell the investors by their, by their Patagonia vests, mostly. So as you know, they're in vesters, so they wear those vests.
[00:04:45] Ray Latif: I thought Patagonia stopped doing that for venture capital groups. They stopped allowing their logo to be used on those vests.
[00:04:53] John Craven: doesn't mean you can'Not Just go buy one and do it yourself. DIY, right? Yeah. And it was also like 80 degrees out, I think. So vests, totally unnecessary. But look, I think in normal years where companies are hitting a handful of shows, there's definitely much more of a premium on retailers and meeting unique people. And here, right now, I mean, look, there's a premium Not Just in-person networking of any kind. So I think it definitely seemed like a more relaxed atmosphere at a lot of these booths. It wasn't like, oh man, we're not meeting retailers. No one was complaining about the people they met at all. And certainly, I think that was your point, Ray, probably by Expo East of next year, people will be back in the old habits of really just demanding retailers and maybe being a little cranky if they don't get the right ones. Totally get it. These shows are a lot in terms of resources and direct costs for the exhibitors. But yeah, this time, I think it was, again, quality over quantity, to use a cliche.
[00:06:01] Mike Schneider: And you didn't really need to Ripping The thunder to make an impact or cut through. Well, there wasn't a lot of clutter. Like I said, it was pretty manageable. And I think that was probably to New Hope's benefit too. And the fact that, you know, they changed cities and so having a smaller crowd there with a pandemic on top of that and having to implement, you know, all these safety guidelines. I mean, again, just big ups to New Hope. They did such a good job. But some, some brands did Ripping The thunder, like Kali Power, for instance. I mean, they had a psychedelic, crazy booth with, there was a pizza record player and a VW bus. Some brands did step it up. Pizza record player? Pizza record player, yeah. Pretty awesome.
[00:06:45] Ray Latif: I missed the pizza record player. But certainly a reason to go to Expo East is go see the old pizza record player.
[00:06:52] Mike Schneider: I tried to eat it and they stopped me quickly. So I thought it was a sample.
[00:06:55] John Craven: Do you want to see their sampling now? Got it right here. Coupon. Yep. That's actually a great idea. Well, I mean, frankly, you know, for a brand like Kali Bauer, to some extent, it's not the worst thing in Other World. It's frozen products or refrigerated products that I guess, to some extent, I'd rather just have a whole pizza to myself at home.
[00:07:18] Mike Schneider: tough for them to prepare at the event, but they definitely seem to have made up for it by bringing additional people. They had a lot of folks there just to chat with you about what was going on with Kali Power. I think it was the first time I ever understood what Other World vibe means. When it's a vibe, because Kali Power had that in its booth for sure. It was pretty cool.
[00:07:43] Ray Latif: It certainly sounds like it.
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[00:08:32] Ray Latif: It felt like the vibe in terms of the floor plan and the layout was actually pretty advantageous for a lot of brands in that there were less exhibitors, yes, but it felt like the booths really stood out. You know, sometimes when you're walking these two floors, it's just like, I don't want to call it a mess, but it's like, it's... Don't call it a mess, Ray. It's pretty congested is what I'm trying to get at, and it definitely did not feel congested on the show floor at Expo East. That being said, it also didn't feel congested at the industry parties, if you want to call them parties, get-togethers, what have you. one of them being the Startup CPG event on the first night of the show. And it was really great to meet a lot of early stage entrepreneurs who launched during the pandemic, launched this year, talking about their story. A lot of them, obviously, you know, were excited to talk to folks in the press, like ourselves, wanting to get their story out there. talk about their brand, ask questions about how to navigate the industry. And I think it was really helpful to meet these folks face to face. You know, we've been doing our Elevator Talk series for the past 18 months, and that's fantastic. And we've had such a great reception to that as well. At the same time, being able to sit down with these folks for an extended period of time over a drink, it was a way to have a more in-depth conversation with these folks.
[00:09:58] Mike Schneider: It was really good to have just somebody whipping out a secret vial or some product out of their backpack again. Like, you know, one minute you're having a conversation with someone and the next minute you're talking to, you know, some folks from TBH who have a new, better for you Nutella that you're just tasting and going, ah, this tastes just like Nutella. You know, things like that, that we just haven't been able to do for a while. That was, that was great to be able to do that again.
[00:10:25] Ray Latif: Yeah, absolutely. And then just to catch up with more established founders. I mean, I saw Paul from Ouroboros, I saw Bella from Shaka Tea, Catherine Smart from Not Just. And as we were catching up, I mean, it was great to hear all the things that were happening with their businesses. I think with COVID, a lot of folks just assumed that it was all gloom and doom in each case. there was an opportunity to expand their presence at retail, expand distribution, you know, rethink their product portfolio in all in positive ways. So again, just seeing these folks in person gave me that opportunity and I was really happy about it. And I'm really excited to do it again at BevNET Live, Nosh Live, Brewbound Live in December.
[00:11:12] Mike Schneider: Yeah, we're looking forward to getting the industry back together at our events, Ray, in Santa Monica this December, you know, to have the brands be the attendees. They're not, you know, behind a booth, pitching, pitching, pitching. This is their chance to come and learn a bit about the business, find their next partner. We hope to see them advance a milestone or two after they come to our events. So check out bevnetlive.com, noshlive.com Brewbound Live.com for event details and get your tickets.
[00:11:38] Ray Latif: Absolutely. I can say for sure that hosting all of our competitions in December is going to be a doozy.
[00:11:47] Mike Schneider: It's going to be fun.
[00:11:48] Ray Latif: The New Beverage Showdown for BevNET, the Nosh Pitch Slam for Nosh, the Brewbound Pitch Slam for Brewbound, obviously. And of course, we're going to reprise, as we talked about on this show, the Cocktail Showdown as well. All the showdowns. Yeah, stay tuned for details on all the competitions and how to apply on BevNetNosh and Brewbound coming to you soon.
[00:12:11] Mike Schneider: We want you showdowning and slamming as much as possible, right?
[00:12:14] Ray Latif: You know? Showdowning and slamming, yes. It's a WWE event. Happening in Santa Monica.
[00:12:23] Mike Schneider: Read the rock latif.
[00:12:25] Ray Latif: Yeah. Mike, you mentioned Kali Power, and I know we're featuring a number of product galleries from the show on BevNET and Nosh, but, I mean, just recalling some of the things that you guys were showing on Instagram, I mean, there were, and perhaps surprisingly, a lot of new products exhibited at the show.
[00:12:43] Mike Schneider: There were, Ray. Standouts for me were Hum Energy, for sure. That was just like a cherry blast. And that's an energy drink I would definitely be able to get into.
[00:12:54] Ray Latif: And that came from the makers of Humm Kombucha, H-U-M-M. From the makers of Humm Kombucha, of course.
[00:13:00] Mike Schneider: We got to try Papa's Pops, which are a skinless popcorn that tasted like Honey Smacks. It was really nostalgic, so I figured people who like that flavor would probably be into that. Was Honey Smacks the guy, they had the mascot with the frog and the hat?
[00:13:17] Ray Latif: Yeah, dig him, Ray. Dig him. I'm sorry. I never ate Honey Smacks as a kid. That was banned in our household.
[00:13:26] Mike Schneider: We got them on occasion, but as you can imagine, too Honey Smacks made me a little bit hyper. Did you have some Stevia to counteract it? Also, we got to finally try the final Duh, the cookie dough, which has been all over Instagram with all the influencers. They've been doing pretty big campaigns, so that was interesting to try. That was D-E-U-X, Duh. D-E-U-X, Duh. which I had an interesting conversation about, you know, calling your brand two, number two. So that was fun. Won't touch that, no. You know, you got to think about these things as a marketer, right? You got to think about that stuff. And then also, remember a few episodes ago, we were talking about that smart sugar, that's cane sugar, tapioca syrup and monk fruit. Well, I got to try that in Miss Jones brownies and... Oh. I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, they still put sugar, obviously, because it's got cane sugar, but that stuff is good.
[00:14:27] Ray Latif: They sent me one of their cookie mixes, and it was phenomenal. I couldn't stop eating those things. And it actually felt better to eat more of them, because I knew I think each one only had five grams of sugar. They were doing some killer stuff at Miss Jones.
[00:14:43] John Craven: I was also pretty excited to try the, well, I guess they're not all that new, but the Dream Pops Bites. A little hard to get samples of ice cream lately, I guess, since I think they're all race house. Only half. And I don't know, what's the equivalent of a secret vial for a snack company? Secret bag. Secret bag? Silver pack, bro. It's true. Well, no, this was in a silver bag. It was kind of a clear bag. But anyway, I was going to say the, um, the secret bag that we tried over at the, uh, Ryan stacks booth. They've got some cool new stuff coming out that I guess I won't mention on here. Cause I don't know if we were allowed to mention that, but, uh, and also their, uh, their, their orange chips, those, uh, those were quite tasty. I think on the beverage side, probably the newest thing. I felt like there was a lot of stuff that was new, but it'd been on the market for a while, but I did get to try that St. James Tea, the one from John Farallito that we just wrote about last week, I think. It was cool to try something that was literally right off the production line. I felt like something I hadn't done in a year or two.
[00:15:55] Ray Latif: Yeah, interesting stuff from John Furlito, one of the co-founders of Arizona Tea, his first foray back into the beverage industry.
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[00:16:57] Ray Latif: While I didn't explore the show floor as much as you guys did because I was busy recording interviews, it was really cool to meet so many folks that are new to the industry Not Just finding their feet in the business as well, including the folks from Otherworld Foods, which makes a line of premium pancake and waffle mixes. They actually went to production the day before we record our interview. Look for that in a future episode of Taste Radio. Also, the folks from Oats and Coats. Oats and Coats? Yeah, Oats and Coats. They're cups of oatmeal. You pour water or milk, what have you, in it, and it's a great snack for, as I mentioned, breakfast or lunch. Also, it was great to sit down with Tyler Phillips from Hummie. Tyler's a big fan of the show, listens to it weekly, and I had a... It's always fun to meet someone with someone like that who actually knows the show almost better than I do, who can, like, recite lines and guidance and education from our show, like, has a down pat. And I'm like, man, you really do listen to the show all the time. So thanks, Tyler. Sat down with him. Hami is a maker of better for you snack cakes, think Entenmann snack cakes, but without all the junk and with all the high nutrients that you would want in your snacks.
[00:18:15] John Craven: I didn't even know Tyler was there until I saw your Instagram. I was kind of bummed. Would have loved to meet him. Love to meet a loyal listener, so.
[00:18:22] Ray Latif: Yeah, he's a great guy and it was really fun to sit down with him. Those are just three of the folks that I sat down with. I recorded interviews with a dozen entrepreneurs at Expo East. Look for interviews with all of them coming to an episode soon. In the meantime, I do want to call out one thing that really didn't go so well at Expo East. Now, New Hope had nothing to do with this, nor did anyone who put on any of these parties or events gatherings. But at one part of the trip, or during one part of the trip, I ordered a Negroni. And the Negroni, as we all know, is made with three key ingredients. John Craven, what are those three key ingredients in Negroni, in order of importance? Booze, booze, and more booze? Come on now. Well, I'll just do this.
[00:19:17] Mike Schneider: Gin, Campari, vermouth. Gin, Campari, vermouth. They're all equally important.
[00:19:21] Ray Latif: No, the Campari is the most important part of a Negroni.
[00:19:26] Mike Schneider: Sub to Campari with other things, but yeah, Campari is super important for sure. But what was the substitute, Ray? What did they substitute?
[00:19:34] Ray Latif: This is the big problem here.
[00:19:36] Mike Schneider: Okay. I want to hear it.
[00:19:37] Ray Latif: Never substitute Campari with Aperol in a Negroni. It might've been a blend. You know what the real problem with this is, the biggest problem? It happened either just, it happened during Not Just after Negroni week. Okay? Maybe they ran out of Campari. There is no one. In the beverage community, in the alcohol beverage community, that would ever tell you that it's okay to put Aperol into a Negroni?
[00:20:04] John Craven: Okay, maybe there's like a handful of folks. It'd get the job done. You could use a little blend maybe. But by the way, just travel tip, Ray, since you're in Brooklyn right now and you're such a hater on this no comparing Negroni. Go get yourself a Negroni made with some Fort Have red aperitivo in place of Campari. You're in Brooklyn, so you'll probably trip over this stuff out in the street. But you should try it. It's good. Okay. We'll change your mind.
[00:20:30] Ray Latif: That sounds fine. No, look. Okay. Ray's a purist. Listen to him. It's got to have Campari! I hear what you guys are saying. I totally hear what you guys are saying. The issue is that Campari is not comparable to Aperol. That's the issue here, okay? In fact, Campari's a red color. It's a dark red color. Aperol is more orangey in color. So as soon as you get the Negroni with Aperol, or the cocktail with Aperol called a Negroni, you realize immediately that it's not what you ordered. I'm not that guy who's gonna return cocktails though. I feel bad, especially when they're free. Yeah, it was a free cocktail.
[00:21:10] SPEAKER_??: Come on now.
[00:21:12] John Craven: Also, I'd just like to point out, I got you this Negroni from a bar. I brought it to you.
[00:21:19] Ray Latif: That is correct. That is correct. I left that part of the story out because it sounded weird that I asked John to get me a Negroni. Those were a little sweet. I thought it was tasty anyway.
[00:21:29] John Craven: It's fine.
[00:21:29] Mike Schneider: It wasn't like, you know.
[00:21:31] John Craven: It was better than the alternative, aka no Negroni.
[00:21:34] Ray Latif: Exactly. I do want to call out a couple things. Number one, if you are making a Negroni, I recently had one with a bottle of sweet vermouth made by Boissier, which is spelled B-O-I-S-S-I-E-R-E, and it was phenomenal. I would also recommend that perhaps you try a couple of gins as well. I really enjoyed the Bottega Bacur gin. It's spelled Bottega, as maybe everyone knows how to spell Bottega Bacur Bacur, I believe is how you pronounce it, is B-A-C-U-R. And I used both, along with Campari, to wash the Aperol Negroni out of my mouth. And you know what? People are going to think I'm hating on Aperol, which I'm not at all. And Aperol spritz is one of the most refreshing.
[00:22:22] Mike Schneider: You are a big Aperol spritz guy. Aperol spritz are good.
[00:22:25] Ray Latif: Aperol Spritz is phenomenal.
[00:22:26] Mike Schneider: Just don't put it in Negroni. But Ray, you should also, when you're out and about, try a white Negroni sometime, because then you'll also be surprised what a Negroni can be made with.
[00:22:36] Ray Latif: I have had a white Negroni. The Don Ciccio & Feely white Negroni, actually, the folks at the distillery in Washington, D.C., they make a really good one. Yes, they do. So how was that? I just said they make a really good one. Right. No Campari. It wasn't red. Oh, boy. See, this episode is going to air. I'm going to get lots of hate mail sent to askatasteradio.com.
[00:23:01] Mike Schneider: You're probably going to get lots of Negroni alternatives sent to you, right? All right, the jig is up, you guys. You figured this out. We're trying to make alternative Negronis and we want you to send us samples.
[00:23:12] Ray Latif: I'm going to be hosting the cocktail showdown in December and people are going to get up on stage and be like, Well, Ray, thanks so much for having me on, but you're a complete idiot. You don't know anything about cocktails. I heard that episode of you on Taste Radio talking about Negronis. And anyway, to bring things full circle, some of the folks I was talking to at Expo East were planning their next trips, visits to retailers in the Northeast. And they asked if they could stop by to BevNET headquarters. And the answer is absolutely yes. Just let us know when you're coming. We'd love to have you. We'd love to host you. We'd love to hear about what you guys are doing. Bring product. We'd love to try it with you. Hear the story behind your products, behind these line extensions, and just be able to report on news that's out there. There is a lot of news out there. There's a lot of news that we'd love to report on. You just got to tell us about it.
[00:24:08] Mike Schneider: Even if you're not ready for news, though, we will jam with you on your product, too. We'll talk to you about what's great, what might need a little bit of improvement, what we suggest to tweak. Take it for what it's worth. You got to obviously take all the advice and do what you're going to do with your product, but we're happy to clunk coconuts with you, so to speak.
[00:24:27] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Now you can, if you are coming to the Boston area, email us at askatasteradio.com. If you have news, you can send it to news at BevNET.com or news at Nosh.com as well. Either way, we'd love to host you in the office. Come by, even if you can't come to the office, drop us a line, let us know how you're doing. Until then, thank you all so much for listening and thanks to our amazing team at BevNetNosh and Taste Radio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askattasteradio.com. Signing off for our amazing team at Taste Radio, I'm Ray Latif, and we'll talk to you next time.
