[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello friends and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for The Foot and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Melissa Traverse, and Mike Schneider. Loyal listeners, there's a way to have an even closer relationship with Taste Radio, one that includes free swag, exclusive content, and no newsletters. It's called Taste Radio VIP, and it's easy for you to become part of that group of very important people. Head to Taste Radio slash VIP, where there's a shortlist of questions, including your preference for favorite podcast swag. Fill it out and you'll be on your way to becoming a CFD.
[00:00:56] John Craven: You're already a VIP to us. We're just making it official.
[00:00:59] Ray Latif: What if we called it Taste Radio CFD instead?
[00:01:02] Melissa Traverse: Maybe that's what we should have done.
[00:01:03] Mike Schneider: That's a move.
[00:01:04] Melissa Traverse: I mean, it would need a non-offensive Yeah Friendly chill friendly, dude Chill favorite dude favorite. Yeah Can you even say dude dude is still on the table yeah, dude is a general my daughter calls her friend Yeah, chill friend apartment chill friend apart of a department not a program that sounds very old no offense, but it does yes
[00:01:32] Ray Latif: Melissa Traverse, great to see you.
[00:01:34] Mike Schneider: Great to be here, Ray.
[00:01:35] Ray Latif: How are you enjoying the fine velour couches that you're sitting on?
[00:01:39] Mike Schneider: This is a plush studio. This is serious business. This is no joking around.
[00:01:45] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, we had to spend, what, two to three million dollars on this place to get the kind of high quality content that people deserve. You know, I think everything in here very well spent, including these couches, which again, Wayfair's finest, right? Wayfair's finest. And look at that gold.
[00:02:02] Melissa Traverse: I think they were even on sale. I mean, I guess maybe there's bronze and some gold on the our shelf of tchotchkes We don't put that in the we don't talk about that.
[00:02:15] Mike Schneider: Okay, okay?
[00:02:15] John Craven: Yeah, that's behind the scenes out of yeah all camera angles and stuff Just like the vintage Bev net logo with the lightning bolt is out of camera range.
[00:02:26] Mike Schneider: Yeah Where did that go?
[00:02:30] Ray Latif: John designed that himself back in the day I like it out of the camera shot as well as a bag that John has next to his chair here. That's from go puff and We were chatting about online shopping.
[00:02:43] Melissa Traverse: Thanks for the sound effects I'm just gonna New Year's resolution or q1 resolution. Okay, making more pointless sound effects.
[00:02:51] Ray Latif: It works We're almost into q2 though, so what are you gonna do for q2?
[00:02:54] Melissa Traverse: Michael Bay style okay, I don't know set me on fire do it.
[00:02:58] Ray Latif: Yeah, let's go. Oh jeez oh So anyway, we were chatting about online shopping and I was shocked to hear that, Melissa, you're not an online grocery shopper.
[00:03:09] Mike Schneider: I have only purchased groceries once online. I'm the kind of person who likes to go and feel and really be there. You like the interaction. Yeah, I like the interaction and I like to be in the moment.
[00:03:22] John Craven: What's your favorite place right now?
[00:03:23] Mike Schneider: You know, I gotta say, I just love Market Basket. Market basket is a regional chain in New England. You won't find better price. I mean they're Maddox It's insane like when you're when you're thinking about Costco pricing you're looking at market basket, too So market baskets kind of like combat shopping, right? Oh yeah, you're heading down an aisle with your carriage and you see someone coming right at you, whoever flinches first loses. And let me tell you something, I don't often flinch first.
[00:03:55] John Craven: Do you go in there with like, you know, combat boots and spikes, you know, spike bracelets and things like that. You just level yourself up.
[00:04:02] Mike Schneider: I've got a full on helmet on. I'm not messing around, which does help, you know, win the game.
[00:04:08] John Craven: Market basket is awesome. And that's why it attracts so many people.
[00:04:11] Melissa Traverse: Alright, but we seriously need you to do like an online grocery order just to- I mean, I'm starting to wonder if you're like at home watching movies on a VCR too.
[00:04:23] Mike Schneider: I mean, you know, so I was collecting business cards from the show and Mike saw the stack on my desk. Is that really old school to take business cards? I like business cards.
[00:04:32] Ray Latif: Oh, Jon Landis loves you for that. Yeah. He wants all your business cards. He wants to take photos of your business cards and then keep them.
[00:04:38] Mike Schneider: It's a calling card. It reminds you of a conversation you had.
[00:04:41] John Craven: I just follow them on Instagram. That works too. Connect on LinkedIn. I feel like you can start, you know, having a conversation that way. People seem to like that.
[00:04:50] Ray Latif: Yeah, I've been going the LinkedIn route more often. I still collect business cards, but my primary way of connecting and staying in touch with people is via LinkedIn. Sure. I want to say something about online shopping. I was never an online grocery shopper until 2020. And then for just about a year, did not step inside a single grocery store. Everything was Whole Foods, online orders, Instacarts, et cetera, et cetera. And it's been great. It's really convenient. Nine times out of 10, there's some kind of promotion. There's like $20 off or you get a free bag of chips or something like that. I'm like, fantastic.
[00:05:21] John Craven: But I want to see how this stuff is merchandised. I want to see like all the brains together.
[00:05:28] Mike Schneider: Yeah It's the one kind of shopping I don't feel bad about spending money and And like when I'm in there, and I'm in the moment.
[00:05:36] Ray Latif: It's like We should note here that We should note here that Melissa is also a former Whole Foods employee too. So just being inside the store is very much a part of your, or has been a part of your life.
[00:05:51] Mike Schneider: That's exactly. I feel very at home inside a grocery store.
[00:05:55] Ray Latif: Yes. I like shopping too. I really like shopping, but online just makes everything really convenient.
[00:05:59] Melissa Traverse: I mean, I just want to point out also that this started with the GoPuff bag and just to put this in context, we got this nice delivery of a Little Sesame hummus. Nice. that I opened I think 20 minutes before we were coming down here to record and you know you kind of need something to dip instead of hummus so I ordered these pita chips and go puff and That's a single serving 14 minutes later. I got well. I got a bag I was gonna share with you guys Wait, I could have gotten one giant bag and put your grubby mitts in there right you guys John opened
[00:06:40] John Craven: Little Sesame 14 minutes ago, and there's still some left.
[00:06:43] Melissa Traverse: No.
[00:06:43] John Craven: I didn't know that's ridiculous, okay? I thought you said you opened it.
[00:06:46] Ray Latif: They sent a huge pile, and I brought three tubs down here so nice nice well appreciate that so by the time you Decided that you're gonna bring these downstairs these Little Sesame's the pita chips arrived Yeah, well for it took 14 minutes for gopuff. That's impressive.
[00:07:03] Melissa Traverse: That's all I mean I don't mean that as a commercial for gopuff because I don't know a very limited selection I
[00:07:09] Mike Schneider: Okay, now I'm determined to do an online shop. Where do I go? What's the holy grail of online shopping first you get your local newspaper? I have an accordion.
[00:07:23] John Craven: I'm just I don't care where you do your online shopping, but Amanda Huang to be there to capture it Okay, all right done and done.
[00:07:29] Ray Latif: I like this idea Uh, well, you can, uh, you can bug Melissa about her online grocery shopping and find out whether or not she's actually done it or not. On April 13th, here at BevNET headquarters, that's when we're having an open house.
[00:07:42] Melissa Traverse: Well done, Ray. Yes, move. The BevNET meetup, Ray.
[00:07:45] Ray Latif: I like it, yeah. Come on. I'm sorry, the BevNET.
[00:07:46] Melissa Traverse: Call it by its magnificent name.
[00:07:48] Ray Latif: Yeah. Okay. The BevNET meetup, where you can join BevNET, Nosh, Brewbound, and Taste Radio teams or folks from those teams.
[00:07:53] John Craven: The segment was so good that he got tripped up there on the name. Yeah, you shocked yourself by how good it was. Well, now everything's been tripped up.
[00:08:00] Ray Latif: Exclamation point all right 6 to 8 p.m. Networking beverages and light apps not heavy apps light apps you want you know what heavy apps are what are they heavy apps are one step above finger foods? One step below a full meal fun do yeah like beef wellington on the toothpick yes a drumstick entire turkey, huh, yeah, yeah skewer possible sushi bar Notice it possible because it's totally not happening Yeah, okay Um, we are encouraging folks to BYOS, bring your own samples. So, uh, if you are an entrepreneur and you, uh, have a brand and you have some products to share, please do so bring them. Uh, there is no cost to attend. We'd love for you to RSVP. Uh, Just Add to bevdenernage.com to find out how to RSVP pretty easy. Once again, we're at 65 Chapel street in Newton, Mass. Come one, come all, bring samples.
[00:08:53] Melissa Traverse: Good time for that long overdue trip up to Boston to if you're down there in New York And you know come on be decent weather by April Maybe yeah, it's decent weather now.
[00:09:04] Ray Latif: It's nice right now. Yeah. Yeah, I was in New York yesterday. It was beautiful fantastic I want to talk about New York, but before we do that. I want to give a shout out to our sponsor for this episode That's cognizant Cognizant is a clinically tested nootropic ingredient that delivers a patented form of citric choline to supply your brain and those of your consumers with the energy it needs to stay sharp. Learn more at cognizant.com. That's C-O-G-N-I-Z-I-N dot com. Clearly my cognizant levels are too low right now.
[00:09:34] Mike Schneider: I was thinking I could use some. Yeah.
[00:09:36] Ray Latif: I would love to have some cognizant. You know what? We just need like little packets because I would put some in this.
[00:09:40] Melissa Traverse: Can you do that or droppers maybe?
[00:09:42] Ray Latif: Don't know that's a good question.
[00:09:44] Melissa Traverse: I don't think they have a consumer product yet I think you can buy it in capsules like a supplement you could just crush them like open them up and really weirdly You know well crushers.
[00:09:54] Ray Latif: I think we need that five-gallon drum that we've been talking about Okay But yeah, I actually have a 32 ounce bottle of body armor here I guess this is one of their new flavors cherry lime if I had like a little stick pack I would definitely put some cognizant in here As I mentioned yesterday and the day prior, I was in New York City recording interviews for Taste Radio. It was kind of an insane 36 hours, but I did get a lot of really great content, met a lot of awesome folks, including Emily Schiltz, who is the founder of Pop-Up Grocer. Pop-Up Grocer, as the name suggests, creates pop-up experiences where you can find a lot of really interesting and innovative early stage and emerging brands on their shelves. To this point, they had not had a permanent location until recently, until late earlier this month. where they set up shop in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City on Bleecker Street. I went in there. It's actually bigger than I thought it would be. Right in the center of the store, they have a small cafe where they sell coffee and some pastries. Then on the perimeter is where they have all of the brands and they have specific sections for each. They have a snacking section, they have a refrigerated, a frozen pantry, beverage, and it was all really amazing. It's a limited selection. They only have about 150 brands in there. But just looking at all the packages, you want to take a picture of everything. And most of the stuff, I'd say 80% of the stuff in there I recognized, but I was actually kind of surprised. There were some, some things I had not seen before.
[00:11:27] Mike Schneider: I saw your post on Instagram about the criteria used to select those products. And I was so surprised to understand that taste is not a factor.
[00:11:37] Ray Latif: Yeah, that really surprised me. And our interview with Emily Schilt is coming out on a future episode of Taste Radio. So please look for that. But yeah, one of the things that did throw me for a loop in that interview was that there are three primary criteria for how they curate their selection. And I asked, you know, what role does taste have in that selection? And she said, it doesn't because taste is very subjective. If you want to find out what the actual three criteria are and how to get on shelves at PopUp Grocer, listen to the episode. But yeah, I was a little surprised by that.
[00:12:10] Mike Schneider: It's so interesting. I think that taste certainly is subjective, but it's the thing that gets people to buy a product more than once. So it's the most important factor in repurchase.
[00:12:20] Ray Latif: Yeah, and as Emily noted, she listed those three things and she said taste isn't a factor, but she did say that everything at Pop-Up Grocer tastes amazing. And, you know, based on what I purchased and based on what I saw, I would agree. All right, I know I said I wasn't going to say what the three pieces of criteria are for getting into Pop-Up Grocer, but One of them is your brand has to look good. Your packaging has to be great. And Project 7 recently did a rebrand. I didn't get to see it yet because it was mentioned or discussed in a recent episode of Community Call that you moderated and continue to moderate, Melissa. Does it look good?
[00:12:56] John Craven: I wonder if you saw it at Expo West like Melissa and I did.
[00:12:59] Melissa Traverse: It's a very different brand.
[00:13:01] Mike Schneider: It was Project 7.
[00:13:02] Melissa Traverse: I had no idea it was the same product. I saw my dear friend Tyler Merrick at The Foot though. Yeah, I saw him there. There it is. There he is.
[00:13:09] Mike Schneider: It looks completely different.
[00:13:11] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:13:12] Mike Schneider: So Project 7 rebranded as Joyride. Historically, they've had a white background on their packaging. And Jeremy from Becks Brands was talking about how they moved to a design that's more suited to the competition on shelf. So sometimes standing out and being so different doesn't work in your favor.
[00:13:36] John Craven: It definitely looked like a project before. It looked like something that they were experimenting with, trying, and it fit with the brand of, okay, this is something different. It's Better Sour you. It's the next generation. And now they're just ready to be part of the generation.
[00:13:51] Mike Schneider: They played a little bit with how they posed the nutritionals on The Foot of the package, which was interesting. And one of the factors that changed that I absolutely appreciated was the fact that they showed you the red licorice twists on the licorice, for example, but they're actually showing you the product on the package, which I think is always helpful.
[00:14:12] Ray Latif: Yeah, I'm on their website right now. It's JoyrideSweets.com. They have gummy bears, they have sour gummy bears and worms, peach mango rings, licorice twists, guppies. Oh, Swedish fish, essentially. But sure, they can't say Swedish fish, because I guess that's a trademarked name, isn't it? Correct, yeah. What do they call them at Trader Joe's? Scandinavian swimmers, I believe.
[00:14:33] John Craven: Those are so good.
[00:14:34] Ray Latif: Scandinavian swimmers. I do like those. Delicious. Stop talking about those.
[00:14:38] John Craven: I can't put those down. I'll eat a whole bag, just like I ate that whole bag of Better Sour. Scandinavian swimmers, Better Sour, you know, I'll just take them all down.
[00:14:47] Mike Schneider: My kids preferred the Better Sour candy to the Fruit By The Foot analog that was at Expo West.
[00:14:56] Ray Latif: Well, if kids like the taste of a Better Sour you candy, you know, you have something because I think that's, that is really where taste comes into play. You can have the nicest packaging, you can have the coolest swag, you can have the most interesting advertising and marketing, but if you don't taste good as a candy, you're not going anywhere.
[00:15:13] Mike Schneider: That's a success in R&D.
[00:15:15] Ray Latif: It is for sure have you guys had a chance to try the banana cream flavor of Ollie pop you know I think it was a limited time With the minions you don't get too many banana flavored sodas no no it's pretty good How many times would a person drink a banana flavored soda? How many times?
[00:15:34] Mike Schneider: I mean, is it something you try once for the novelty factor?
[00:15:38] Ray Latif: I mean, that's a fair question, though.
[00:15:41] Melissa Traverse: I mean, it's a fair question, but it's also a question that, like, I don't know, when Red Bull launched in the U.S., people were like, who's going to drink this again? Yeah. And it's kind of hard to just guess sometimes what stuff is going to stick and what isn't. And I do I do think the banana cream lollipop, at least the one that they did last year, I don't know if it's been tweaked at all. It was good. It's like an unexpected flavor that kind of works. I don't know. I mean, am I going to rush out and buy it?
[00:16:10] John Craven: Let's ask Steven Vigilante. He'll know.
[00:16:12] Melissa Traverse: Yeah. Steven Vigilante of?
[00:16:14] John Craven: Of Ollipop.
[00:16:15] Melissa Traverse: He knows a lot about the velocity of Ollipop more than anyone. But banana is one of those, what I was going to say, I do think it's also one of those kind of polarizing flavors that just in general, some people like really don't like it. It's not a launch flavor. No, I mean, they have a whole line of products.
[00:16:33] John Craven: It's definitely good for their special edition minions. And now it seems to have lived on. But I think initially it was one of those that were kind of putting the feelers out there. So maybe more people drink banana soda than we think.
[00:16:44] Ray Latif: Well, I also think it's Just Add flavor, as you pointed out, John, it's not commonly seen in any kind of beverage. Interesting note here. I was typing Ollipop into the search bar of my chrome browser here And the results came back as Ollipop just number one Ollipop soda number two Ollipop versus poppy three Ollipop flavors for an Ollipop banana cream as five.
[00:17:09] John Craven: Oh it might be a cult classic.
[00:17:10] Mike Schneider: They're owning that space Yeah, see
[00:17:14] Ray Latif: Now, John, you mentioned you haven't seen many banana flavored beverages in your time, and you've been covering this industry for a very long time. And it reminded Game Of when I first joined BevNET many, many years ago, and someone in the office told me that you were anti blue colored beverages because it just screams artificial. There's nothing natural about a blue colored beverage. Although there's blue spirulina, which we've come to seize. Or red cabbage juice. Red cabbage juice, for sure.
[00:17:40] Melissa Traverse: Yes, definitely. I mean, like right now at home, I have three giant jugs of blue-colored liquid on my front porch that I got from GoPuff, by the way. They're windshield washer fluid.
[00:17:50] Taste Radio: There you go.
[00:17:50] Melissa Traverse: Yeah, I don't know. I don't think that's, generally speaking, a good color for beverages from emerging brands. If you're Gatorade or somebody like that, fine, but it's not an overly appealing color.
[00:18:05] Ray Latif: Yeah, I can't remember.
[00:18:06] Melissa Traverse: I think Powerade is the only one I can think of. Yeah, sports drinks all have it. I mean, like Electrolyte has, I think they just launched a blue raspberry.
[00:18:13] Ray Latif: Oh, really?
[00:18:14] Melissa Traverse: I guess it is what it is for a sports drink product, but it's a color that's been used in lots of other stuff throughout the course of my time in the beverage industry. Yeah, fine. You want to use blue spirulina? That's cool. That's like a whole other thing, though. That does not look like windshield washer fluid.
[00:18:31] Ray Latif: No, it doesn't. Remedy Organics has a great blue spirulina. Sure. I mean, there was a GT's.
[00:18:36] Melissa Traverse: There's, you know, been plenty of juices that have done that.
[00:18:38] Mike Schneider: Heroin smoothies.
[00:18:40] Melissa Traverse: Yeah. $40. I'd like a good $40 smoothie.
[00:18:44] SPEAKER_??: Who doesn't?
[00:18:45] Ray Latif: But in general, blue colored beverages, not a good idea.
[00:18:49] Melissa Traverse: What are you making faces the $40 yes? Side note on that one of my friends was in LA for work And she was like I'm gonna go to this air one place cuz you know she's in my Instagram She text me. She's like what do I get and I'm like there's this hype like $40 movie Because I just wanted to see like she'd buy it she bought it and she was like she was like I don't get this
[00:19:12] Mike Schneider: I would be so mad if I spent $40 on a smoothie and didn't think it was the best smoothie I'd ever had.
[00:19:17] Melissa Traverse: I was kind of like jokes on you, but you know.
[00:19:19] John Craven: You should fly around Erewhon if you're paying $40 for a smoothie. You should fly around it? Literally.
[00:19:25] Melissa Traverse: Oh, from its magical benefits. Gen X literally. Gen X literally.
[00:19:29] John Craven: Yeah, like you should come off the ground, fly around the Erewhon if you paid $40 for a smoothie and land.
[00:19:36] Mike Schneider: When Gen Xers say literally, they mean literally.
[00:19:40] Ray Latif: Yes. Okay. As opposed to Gen Zers.
[00:19:41] Melissa Traverse: There's also the British, like, literally. Literally. Which is kind of overused. I mean, it's fine.
[00:19:49] Ray Latif: We skipped over one thing and I don't want to miss this. Blue raspberry. What the hell is blue raspberry, by the way? This is somehow the industry has gotten away with this flavor. I'm getting mad now. Blue raspberry. What is this? Good question, I mean, there's no talk about things that don't exist. No blue raspberries. I mean, what is this?
[00:20:10] Mike Schneider: Trying to make black raspberries more interesting.
[00:20:13] Ray Latif: No, we're gonna start I'm going to start a petition. I'm going to go to moveon.com, right? And that's where you can... I think it's a .org. Moveon.org. I'm going to start a petition that says we need to eliminate the flavor, the quote unquote flavor of blue raspberry. Talk about the tyranny.
[00:20:30] John Craven: It's incorrect. What you don't know is that raspberry and blueberry started Netflix and chill.
[00:20:35] Ray Latif: What? Think about it. I have no idea what you're talking about. I know. All right, we've spent too much time on this. Way too much time. We've got founders to talk about. We've got products here. We do have lots of products to talk about. Let's do this. Where are we right now? I don't know. All right, Mike, you've got so much stuff on your little side table here, it's almost impossible to figure out what it all is.
[00:20:55] John Craven: I've had an incredible week of talking to people. Well, first, at the Mina Meetup at Expo West, I got the pleasure to interview Mateen from Seedly, and he sent us some Seedly bark. We had a few, what is it, barks of seedly? What's the unit?
[00:21:12] Mike Schneider: Nibbles.
[00:21:13] John Craven: Nibbles of seedly before the show. It's really tasty, but I want, I kind of want one with raisins.
[00:21:23] Mike Schneider: It was giving me chunky vibes.
[00:21:26] Ray Latif: Better Sour you chunky? The candy bar.
[00:21:29] Mike Schneider: The candy bar.
[00:21:30] Ray Latif: Yes, I haven't had a Chunky in forever.
[00:21:32] Mike Schneider: Me neither.
[00:21:33] Ray Latif: But wait, what was that? Oh, it was from Seinfeld. Remember when Jerry found a Chunky wrapper in his couch and he's like, Who brought this into my who was in my apartment? He's like Newman Because that's how he got fleas, right? Wondering how he got fleas in his apartment That's right, and he found a chunky wrapper in his couch and he's like who gave me fleas It was Newman and Newman had fleas and that's that is a red herring. Yeah, there you go Well, back to seed bark.
[00:22:03] Melissa Traverse: Yes, please. That's pretty damn good. I gotta say.
[00:22:06] John Craven: I mean, it's 70% chocolate seeds. The seeds include hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.
[00:22:12] Melissa Traverse: It's kind of weird for like a dark chocolate product. It, thanks to the seeds kind of like takes the edge off it a little bit, you know?
[00:22:20] John Craven: Willy Wonka vibes here. I mean, like it's kind of next level chocolate action here. I like it.
[00:22:25] Melissa Traverse: I'm going to go take the rest of the, they sent us like a giant box of these. Nice. Yeah. Sorry, you guys.
[00:22:31] John Craven: Thank you, Mateen. It's really tasty. Yeah. And he sent it because we said we didn't have a chance. We forgot. We were so excited to talk about it that we forgot to try it while I was interviewing him. So thanks so much for sending it. That's our move, you know. Yeah. We forgot to try it. So send us some to 65 Chapel Street, Newton, Massachusetts, 02459. We can talk about it again. Yeah. Is that cascara? It is. This one's up to good. And I've got three flavors here. I've got hibiscus berry, lemon ginger, and one that is cascara mint. Now, it's tasty. There's some interesting things going on here because it's branded sort of like a soda, but it also says sparkling energy. There's a lot going on on the pack. There's this cool bird. The package really pops. The hibiscus berry is pink, and the cascara mint is like a minty green, and the lemon ginger is a lemon ginger color, so that's all good. The thing that's kind of confusing me is, you know, the whole cascara thing. This one has cascara in the flavor, the other two don't. They all, when you turn to the side of the can, there's a lot of education going on here. Brewed from the coffee fruit, cascara tastes like tea.
[00:23:46] Ray Latif: I think at this point we should just say it's a tea. So you're saying it has cascara in the flavor name? One has cascara. One has it in the flavor name. But they both contain cascara.
[00:23:54] John Craven: All three of them do. Okay. They're all a cascara beverage.
[00:23:58] Ray Latif: Just Add a reminder folks, cascara is coffee fruit. It is the fruit that surrounds the seed that you use to make coffee beans. Once you roast those seeds, they become coffee beans.
[00:24:08] Melissa Traverse: Literally make a joke about Ray saying that exact thing in the last episode Yeah, except the reverse of explaining what Nam Coffee bean was and then it comes inside the coffee fruit Yeah, whatever cuz I was trying to explain to listeners what blue bottle was and you're like right shut up Yes
[00:24:27] John Craven: I'd like to see him do what Wise is doing, which is basically just leaning away from the whole Cascara thing and calling it an iced tea. And by the way, Wise's new Honeycrisp Apple Sparkling Iced Tea, off the charts. Good. You might have missed it because they were right next to the Flyby Jing booth and there was a lot going on there. So, you know, sometimes you just go down that aisle and things were happening, but that is next level. It was really tasty. Wise, W-I-Z-E-E-T. Good stuff.
[00:24:56] Melissa Traverse: Yep. Can I disagree with Mike's advice before we move on? Of course. Um, on cascara, I sort of feel like, you know, cascara is still finding its way here. So, you know, I think it's, it's sort of important to mention the ingredient just so it's clear that you're not black tea and people are expecting caffeine and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. I do think, you know, the naming convention of it is something that, you know, it's going to be important wherever it lands. I mean, I don't know, for me, like, cascara tea seems sort of like the best thing at the moment. You know, don't just go cascara. Don't just go tea. Don't go coffee fruit.
[00:25:32] John Craven: Don't go.
[00:25:33] Melissa Traverse: There's too many.
[00:25:33] John Craven: There's still too many.
[00:25:34] Melissa Traverse: Don't say the word coffee.
[00:25:35] John Craven: Variables. Don't Nam Coffee. And I think, you know, Wise has sort of leaned away from it and into like, we're a tea.
[00:25:40] Ray Latif: Don't you open yourself up, though, to like those crazy class action attorneys who might say, hey, it's not tea. You owe people $5 million.
[00:25:46] Melissa Traverse: Okay, well first of all no that's not gonna happen until you get bigger And you could probably change it before then if you're really worried about that but for right now I would say there almost would be benefit to like some of these brands having consistency. You know Yeah, cuz there is there is confusion around it. You know for sure. It's been a little bit of like false starts of You know I don't know Starbucks is gonna get super behind it, and then it kind of gets I don't know now We're talking about olive oil coffee or something right so
[00:26:14] Ray Latif: Right yeah, no, I mean no one's really had any kind of traction less significant traction with Cuskara Or coffee fruit except for by BAI and they don't call that yeah, they don't mention it But it feels like there's something there, so that's yeah, just to end on an encouraging point tasty stuff so for sure
[00:26:32] John Craven: One of the best things about BevNET is that, you know, we get to talk to founders and we get to hear their stories. And last episode of Taste Radio, I talked about, you know, missing meeting Vince Nguyen at Expo West. And we since got together on a Zoom call and talk about somebody who has a wonderful story and loves, loves, loves coffee. Vince Nguyen is that person. I mean, We talked about how when he was a kid, he used to make coffee with his mom at a cart in Da Lat, Vietnam, his hometown. And he loved everything about the process of making coffee. And when he came to the US, he just couldn't find Nam Coffee that was the same. And he wanted that experience. And so he built this brand. You know, he uses Robusta beans and he uses Arabica beans, and he's named the varieties for, you know, the different places that he lives and that he's passionate about. So there's one called The Foot. This one I'm holding in my hand is called District One. This is a 50-50 blend. And he also has one called Orange County, where he is now. And the way that he talks about coffee was so passionate that I had to call Amanda up and say, hey, you have to meet Vince. That was like definitely one of the highlights of my week so far. So thanks Vince for sending us product. Can't wait to try it. We still got to get Nate to take some photos. He also sent us a fin filter. So thank you so much for that.
[00:27:58] Ray Latif: Yeah, really cool branding. Love this. And it smells really good too.
[00:28:01] John Craven: It smells amazing. And I just, I can't wait to taste it because he's been doing this since he was a kid. And he seems to know a thing or two about coffee. Speaking of people that are so nice, uh, at Expo, got a chance to catch up with Olivia Chen, who is one of the co-founders of Twirl and also Pauline as well. They now make boba. They make two varieties. I have one in my hand. That's the brown sugar boba. And they did what I thought was pure genius. Combined it with kombucha. The only kind of thing that made it not work for me was I didn't have And Boba straw. So I kind of want a reusable boba straw so that I can enjoy boba and other beverages now, but they now make packaged boba. So, uh, and it's really good. So what did you do instead of a straw?
[00:28:48] Ray Latif: I Just Add to drink.
[00:28:49] John Craven: I just kind of had to guzzle it and hope I got the boba. And then, and then I, I did go to a spoon eventually. Did you TikTok yourself doing that?
[00:28:56] Ray Latif: Cause you should have.
[00:28:57] John Craven: I should have, but I didn't. I should have John Craven myself with the head bob.
[00:29:02] Ray Latif: Please don't do that. When I was at Pop-Up Grocery yesterday, someone walked through The Foot door and they were like, Ray. I was like, I don't know who you are, but you seem like a nice guy. What's up? He's like, Oh, I'm the founder of this brand called Original Sin, which is a hard cider company that's been around for some time. And they just introduced a new non-alcoholic variety, which I'm holding in my hand. The founder's name is Gidden Cole, G-I-D-O-N-C-O-L-L. I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Anyway, this is a non-alcoholic white widow cider. It's sparkling blackberry with apple cider vinegar. It comes in this white matte wrap can. Only 35 calories is the callout on the side. I'm excited to try this. I love the idea of a cider that doesn't have a lot of calories and this only has eight Game Of sugar. So appreciate this. Thank you, Gidden.
[00:29:54] John Craven: So going back to the Snack Shot event, where we got to meet a lot of awesome people, got to meet the founder of Babo's Kitchen, Babo herself sent us a handwritten note to talk about, you know, that interaction. And that was really, really touching. And she sent us some Panjiri, which is a sweet that I've never had before, a traditional Pakistan sweet. And I tried it and it's like nothing I've ever had. And I'm just so grateful that we got to meet and now I've tried Panjiri and thanks so much, Babo.
[00:30:24] Ray Latif: Well, I've never seen this before. You should try that. Yeah, it says Panjiri is a superfood. Has been a superfood for generations in the subcontinent. For on-the-go, it's an energizing snack. It's made with organic sugar, ghee, almonds, lotus seeds, melon seeds, lentils, gond, g-a-u-n-d, I don't know what that is, and coconut.
[00:30:41] John Craven: It says you should warm it a little for the best experience, so I don't- and I don't know how to eat it, so I did, you know, what any- You ate it like your boba tea, just kind of- I didn't guzzle, no, I put it in a little bowl and I microwaved it, and I don't know if that's the right way to do it, but I wanted to try it the way that, you know, it's meant to be tried, I guess, and- You microwaved it? I totally failed. All the nutritional value gone. Just for like 15 seconds and then I ate it. But it's really tasty. And it's really not like anything I've had before.
[00:31:11] Ray Latif: Yeah, very cool stuff. Sounds delicious. It does sound delicious. Well, thank you so much for that, Mike. And thank you so much to all of our listeners. We really appreciate you tuning in. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Inc. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci, our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just Add reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Be sure to check us out on Instagram. Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. And as always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askatasteradio.com. on behalf of the entire Taste Radio team. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
