[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello friends, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. This episode features an interview with Lexy Prosszer, an Investment Principal with UK based venture capital firm, Btomorrow Ventures, which holds stakes in ready to drink beverages, Moment and Hopwater. Mike Out had an opportunity to sit down with Lexy while you were in London. I assume, well, she told me you guys had a great conversation.
[00:00:48] John Craven: That was a good conversation. We talked a little shop, talked about the future, you know, investment climate, had a good chat. Always good to speak. Then I went to jail, apparently. Oh, right.
[00:00:57] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:00:59] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes. We're glad you made it.
[00:01:00] Ray Latif: I made it out of jail.
[00:01:01] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:01:02] Ray Latif: If you tuned into last week's episode, Jackie, John, and I figured that Mike was behind bars because he wasn't home yet. So, I mean, that's the reasonable explanation for why someone isn't back.
[00:01:13] John Craven: Yeah, reasonable explanation.
[00:01:15] Ray Latif: They committed a crime and they're in jail.
[00:01:16] John Craven: It wasn't that I was at the Plymouth Soul or anything having having pints or anything. It's a Plymouth Soul? Plymouth Soul. It's a Gooner pub. Oh, why would anyone go there?
[00:01:27] Ray Latif: Well, even the name of it sounds awful.
[00:01:29] John Craven: Terrible. There's a fantastic odor in there, too. It's one of the dankest places I've ever been. It's amazing. I love it. You're really selling this place. I love it.
[00:01:37] Jacqui Brugliera: It's amazing. Is it like a basement? Like, what is the odor?
[00:01:42] John Craven: Next next time we go. I'll take you there, and you'll you know and vomit, but the it's I probably It's gooner tears
[00:01:52] Ray Latif: You would do well taking my seat because I think you've nailed the Ray questions What kind of odor is in there the question that nobody wants to hear the answer to but I ask it Your nose and your eyes just roll back and twist around and you're just like what is that smell and then the next thing You know, you're drinking great beers and looking around everyone's wearing Arsenal gear. Okay, you know, I I I planned this in my head and I had a really good plan and then I was completely thrown off because my plan was to go from, you had a great conversation with an investor in London to folks that attend BevNET Live, Nosh Live and Brewbound Live will have great conversations with the investors attending those events. That's a great transition there, right? No, it's a transition that took two or three minutes.
[00:02:42] John Craven: You were some kind of professional. Look at how you're just bringing it all back around. You're trying to get me to stop talking about the greatest football club of all time. I love it. Oh my goodness.
[00:02:50] Ray Latif: Okay. Anyway. All right. So good news, folks. There are going to be many investors attending our live events in December, beginning with Nosh Live, which takes place on December 5th and 6th. That is a Thursday and Friday, followed by BevNET Live. which is happening on December 8th through the 10th. And of course, Brewbound Live on the 11th and 12th of December. These events are, as we've talked about a million times, cannot miss events if you are in the food or beverage industry. I just feel like, you know, this is a time where people are going to be planning for their 2025 budgets and strategies and marketing, finance, operations, all these things. And there are going to be people at these events. There's going to be conversations on stage and off about how you can create a successful plan for the next year and beyond. You got to come.
[00:03:47] Jacqui Brugliera: Did you see who's coming into Nosh Library?
[00:03:50] Ray Latif: You know, Jackie, I did see, but for folks who are listening who may not have caught that news, it's big news. Who is coming?
[00:03:58] Jacqui Brugliera: Jennifer Garner from Once Upon a Farm and also John Forger, who is a very well-known industry veteran. He's a experienced operator that's going to be providing some insights into how he's grown Once Upon a Farm.
[00:04:17] Ray Latif: Absolutely. I'm not sure he's more exciting. Uh, that's a good question actually.
[00:04:22] John Craven: I mean, John Forker in our, in our industry is, he's like a celebrity.
[00:04:26] Ray Latif: Legend status. Yeah, legend status. The former president and CEO of Annie's or was he just the CEO? I can't recall exactly what his title was, but he led the company through his acquisition by General Mills, one of the most, prolific and respected authors on LinkedIn. I can, I guess I can call him an author, but he's always putting good stuff out there. And of course, Jennifer Garner, who everyone loves. She is going to be on stage alongside John. I had an opportunity to interview both of them for Taste Radio. That was back in, I think it was December, 2020. Fantastic conversation. And if you want to meet either of them, you got to come to Nosh Live. And I feel like this is one of those things where you can come to the event just for these two folks and then everything else is a bonus. But I mean, there's so much going on at the event. You all right there? Yeah, I'm okay. There's so much going on at the events, including our Nosh Pitch Slam, of course. There's plenty of stage content with investors, with retailers, and also folks that are very knowledgeable about how to build successful brands in the food industry. So once again, if you want to attend, head Nosh Live.com, sign up, and there's even more news that will be coming in the weeks to follow. Also, Just wanted to point out that if you think a particular food or beverage brand is the best of 2024, guess what? There's an opportunity for you to nominate them to be the best, or at least be named the best, via BevNET, via Nosh, and via Rebound. Our best of awards will be announced in December. But the end of this week is the last opportunity for you to nominate them. Last call, so to speak. Jackie, I mean, it's, it's pretty straightforward. I'm not trying to complicate this, but you just go to BevNET, you go to Nosh, go to Brewbound. There's plenty of information about the nomination process. And I mean, the categories are also pretty simple, right?
[00:06:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, they're pretty simple. You just go to our websites, you'll see it in the menu, submit award nominations, we'll be right there. And all the categories are listed, person of the year, company of the year, emerging brands, rising stars, you name it, we are covering it. And I mean, we also are covering package design, marketing campaigns. We're looking for everything, the best of the best of 2024. We want to hear from you. We want to know what the industry thinks deserves these awards.
[00:07:00] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Best Spirit Awards as well. This is something that we've introduced over the past couple of years for both RTD cocktails and non-alcoholic spirits. So if you are a PR rep, if you are an operator, if you're a founder, anyone can apply. Anyone can nominate. Just go to BevNET and ask for a brew bound. The deadline is this Friday, November 1st. We're not extending that deadline. So get your nominations in. All right. Big, big news. Another billion dollar deal, John Craven. Just raining billion dollar deals.
[00:07:34] Jacqui Brugliera: Did you say this? You predicted this. You're like, once there's one, they're all going to come.
[00:07:38] Ray Latif: Did I? Did I predict this or did John predict this?
[00:07:40] Mike Schneider: I John Craven predicted this. You know, you just got to break the seal, then the floodgates open.
[00:07:46] Ray Latif: I want to know, was it John that predicted this? It was John, yeah. Sorry, Ray. Darn. I was like, that would have been really smart of me to say that. Darn. My crystal ball's better than yours, Ray. Fine, fine, fine. All right. Last week, it was announced that Couric Dr. Pepper, also known as KDP, has agreed to acquire Ghost. a lifestyle sports nutrition business best known for Ghost Energy. Ghost, you've probably seen, is that brand with the yellow cans. Typically they have flavors that are inspired by or feature a particular kind of candy like Sour Patch Kids or Skittles. Actually, I don't know if they have Skittles, but Sour Patch Kids are the ones that are best known. Well done, Ray. You did it. Yeah, yeah. I tripped over myself a few times. Folks aren't going to hear that. That was awesome, Ray. Anywho, the deal is for 60% of the company, initially 60% of the company, for $990 million. They're going to acquire the remaining 40% stake in 2028. So pretty amazing deal. Ghost is currently doing just about a half billion dollars in sales right now. And what's interesting is that the brand itself had a strong relationship with Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch helped build that brand, get it distributed in retailers across the United States. So it's a little bit of a surprise that KDP is the one that's acquiring it.
[00:09:13] Mike Schneider: I mean, there's still just a lot of dollars that are in really two brands and energy of Red Bull and Monster. So, to some extent, brands have always kind of been fighting for the scraps that are left over. And, you know, certainly what Bang had done, which felt like, you know, one of the, along with Celsius, sort of first true, almost like threats to the big guys. And obviously, Bang is now part of Monster. Celsius is its own independent... publicly-traded company. Where's Rockstar in the mix? Rockstar is part of Pepsi, right?
[00:09:50] Ray Latif: Pepsi acquired Rockstar. Rockstar used to be the third leading energy drink brand, and then it became Bang, and now it's Celsius.
[00:09:58] John Craven: And there was Rowdy that was making a play, and that one went away.
[00:10:01] Mike Schneider: I mean, there's been a history of energy drink brands that come out of the gate, get a little bit of, you know, what they think is momentum, and in reality they're just getting, you know, the consumer is kind of like, not brand loyal, who's kind of cycling through whatever's new or convenient or on sale. But I think, you know, you look at brands like Ghost or C4, you know, those are some viable companies that I think if, you know, smart on KDP, if they want a dog in that race, then a horse in that race. Ghost is definitely a brand that's on the move and I think clearly has momentum. I mean, the brand's eight years old, so incredible what they've, uh, built in both the ready to drink and supplement form. So congrats to those guys.
[00:10:45] Ray Latif: Yeah. Interesting. You bring up C4 because Kirk, Dr. Pepper in December of 2022 bought a 30% stake in Nutribolt, which is a maker of C4 for $863 million. So no, it's not a billion dollars. Mike keeps putting that pinky up to his mouth. It's not. So yeah, interesting that KDP is sort of doubling down here on energy, although at the same time, they are pulling back on some of the lower performing brands, Ashock, which was a Lance Collins created product brand. They are discontinuing that product. So. A lot of interesting developments that are coming out of this deal. Of course, we'll continue to follow them on BevNET.com. I'm sure this is going to be coming up at BevNET Live as well. So stay tuned for much, much more on this news. Who owns v8 is it it's Campbell's Campbell Campbell is it Campbell's or Campbell?
[00:11:41] Mike Schneider: Campbell we talked about this Campbell soup company Campbell's the Campbell's new company didn't they rename are they renaming themselves or something? We should you should Google this real quick.
[00:11:49] Ray Latif: I just I think okay see on the press release I just pull this up, and there's a press release here They're gonna talk about the press release just describes it as Campbell for more than 150 years Campbell has been connecting people through food. They love yeah I think they dropped the soup company Yeah, okay. Yeah makes sense because they're not there because they want to pretend that they have other products they do They bought rails so first brands and all that I'm just saying it's still yeah, I know I'm just I'm just messing with you all right, so it'd be like if coca-cola got rid of the cola just wanted to be coca That's a clip right there. We're going to put that on the ground. Please don't. All right. So V8 has partnered with a local brand based here in Massachusetts. That's Grillo's Pickles. So V8 and Grillo's have come together to create the V8 Grillo's Dill Pickle Bloody Mary Mix. This is the best collaboration I've ever seen. The can looks amazing. It just seems like a no brainer. Everyone loves pickle juice in their Bloody Marys. Speak for yourself. You don't what I mean, I don't like Bloody Mary. So whatever.
[00:12:56] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, okay.
[00:12:57] Ray Latif: Well there you been a hater Are you so you don't like to major do you like tomato juice or no sometimes sometimes a lot us like? No, this guy does not drink much a lot Yeah But I feel like this is a long time coming. I think what it does for V8 is everything. It legitimizes V8 as, well, in my mind anyway, as being not that stodgy legacy, kind of bottom of the shelf, tomato juice brand, it really livens it up and makes it exciting. It makes it younger, I think. And again, the can looks great. You have the V8 logo in its familiar position on top of the can. The Gorillaz pickle logo, which is quite big actually in the middle of the can. And it's very clear that it's a Bloody Mary mix. So I love this collab. I just feel like it's a win, win, win, win, win.
[00:13:48] Mike Schneider: You know what I don't like about this collab? What? After all that. The pickle juice. No, I like, you know, I get the PR and it's like available exclusively online on Amazon. I click the link, like, I don't know, maybe I'm like the last person to click the link, but I'm pretty sure we got it early and I clicked the link quickly. And on Amazon it said delivery December 3 to 4. We can't wait that long? How can they expect us to wait that long? Sean Craven. Like Liquid Death has done those a couple times. Go to Amazon, it's like Delivery Tomorrow. Yeah, go to Postmates, get your vegan human meat. I'm thinking about this collab, and then I gotta wait, like a month? Like, come on. Like I'm not sure this thing really exists.
[00:14:31] Ray Latif: These are first world problems if they're out there. Well, it says I'm on Amazon right now. It actually says temporarily out of stock. So it's good that you even got your hands on some. I mean, come on, Campbell. Get your crap together here. Get us some samples. God, it's a high demand product. Amazon's working hard Back as soon as possible. Come on. We we try these things. What did they do ship Amazon like one pallet?
[00:14:53] Mike Schneider: You know what, you know, you know what you could have done is you could email the PR contact easier by it I don't have to like explain myself, you know, okay. Well, I'm here's what I'll email the PR contact. I'll move we need proof of life here
[00:15:06] Ray Latif: I'll email the PR contact, I'm going to reference this conversation, and they're going to be like, wow, those BevNET folks are just, they are so needy.
[00:15:13] Mike Schneider: In fairness, we'll sample it on the podcast.
[00:15:15] John Craven: I was hoping to do that. Someone's going to come over from the PR company, open a can of V8, open a can of Gorillaz, pour them together and make us taste it.
[00:15:21] Ray Latif: Yeah, we could just make this ourselves. Well, once again, Gorillaz is not far from here. Isn't their office in Needham? I don't know. I think it's like it's right down the street. They're not far. Yeah. I'm sure we can get our hands on some. All I wanted to point out that I thought this was a no brainer collab. It looks beautiful. I feel like it does a lot more for V8 than it does, you know, certainly does something for Grillo's too. Grillo's tried to do an RRTD. Remember that when they were doing like pickle juice beverages? Oh yeah. Tell us how you really feel. Stick to pickles. Okay. Well, they're not. They're coming out with a beverage.
[00:15:52] Mike Schneider: Or they have somebody else making the beverage though.
[00:15:54] John Craven: Yeah, that's true. Makes sense. I mean, I like their collab with Ithaca. That was great.
[00:16:00] Mike Schneider: And that actually existed.
[00:16:02] John Craven: Yeah, it actually existed. We got to try it. That was new meets new. I don't know about this old meets new thing and whether this is great for gorillas, but have you looked at the ingredients of V8 lately? Is it... Is it pretty old school?
[00:16:16] Ray Latif: Do you want them to send us some product or not? Okay. I kind of want to try it.
[00:16:20] Mike Schneider: I want the old school. What was it like a, how big were those cans? I don't even know. How big was like the old school, like high C can.
[00:16:27] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Mike Schneider: And there was like a special, uh, you know,
[00:16:30] John Craven: Special thing on the can opener so you can make that little triangles in this either side right yes, yes, okay? Yes, you're talking nobody remembers that you're talking about like the you know your service can you know you're old no? Opener that has the triangle.
[00:16:44] Ray Latif: Yeah, they look like there's no idea what we're talking. I didn't yeah You could open olive oil tins with that as well.
[00:16:50] Mike Schneider: Yes, and I mixed up some syrup some minimade fruit punch in like a a
[00:16:54] Ray Latif: There you go or some Kool-Aid with like five cups of sugar and then every good old days Everything tastes like metal when you would pour it out. It tastes like metal because you got metal filing Okay, clearly We're divided.
[00:17:07] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm a fan.
[00:17:08] Ray Latif: I will there we go.
[00:17:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes, Jackie and I youngsters of the group I also like that like primarily the branding is grillos, you know, I
[00:17:17] Ray Latif: Yes, exactly, Jackie.
[00:17:18] Jacqui Brugliera: It's just like there and then it's like grillos and it looks cool, you know? I like that. I like it. I would try it.
[00:17:27] John Craven: I really hope it exists. Me too. We're just salty old men here who didn't get it. Yeah.
[00:17:33] Ray Latif: And here's the other thing we didn't, or I didn't point out, which is that the can, the V8 can is typically red, right? This is a green can, so it's very distinguishable from the other V8 products. Obviously it says Grillos, but it just has all the hallmarks of, I think, being a great option for people who are looking for something that's familiar, both in flavor and brand. So I like it. I like it a lot.
[00:17:56] Jacqui Brugliera: When I looked at the can too, I thought it was an RTD cocktail just because like the can, but it does call out that it's not alcoholic, but I would take, you know, an RTD cocktail version to just spike it a little bit.
[00:18:08] Ray Latif: I mean, everyone's doing it. I mean, you look at Coke brands and it seems like every day we're seeing a new beverage alcohol version of, you know, legacy brands, whether it be Coke or Fresca or Simply or what have you. I mean, everything seems to have a booze analog. Yeah. I know that everyone's been chomping at the bit to talk about products that they have.
[00:18:33] John Craven: I mean, I've got some stuff that I did. You guys went ahead and had an episode without me while I was in jail, so I've got a few things to talk about post... We probably talked about it already.
[00:18:42] Ray Latif: We probably talked about it, but I don't think... Let's go, let's shoot.
[00:18:44] John Craven: You do not talk about these things, you guys.
[00:18:46] Ray Latif: You weren't there. Okay, well, hold on here. I want to point out to listeners who are now watching the video here, Mike has a notepad. Talk about old school. Like, you got a notepad, you get scribbles all over it. I've never actually seen you write much down. I always see you at meetings, you know, either in front of a computer or, you know, you're like, I got it all up here.
[00:19:05] John Craven: I take them on my phone if I have to take notes and then I make summaries when I get back to my desk.
[00:19:09] Ray Latif: Well, it says Wonky Pad the bottom of your notepad. Oh yeah, that's because I visited wonky HQ.
[00:19:15] John Craven: I can see that.
[00:19:16] Ray Latif: It's in big letters.
[00:19:17] John Craven: What is that all about? I went to Wonky HQ, which is the headquarters of? Dash. Dash Drinks. And I got to hang out with Alex Wright and Jack Scott and their team. And those guys are really into, you know, just the team and organizational behavior in general and just trying to figure out, you know, great ways to bring people together. They've got their peachy posts where you can, you know, anonymously shout out your Colleagues, and then they you know they'll read them during the meetings.
[00:19:46] Ray Latif: It's all anonymous and cool And what if it's not cool if it's like this person stinks.
[00:19:52] John Craven: Yeah, literally you know bad feedback. They've got the They've got the rotten version in the back And then they've got this thing they call the wonky wheel where somebody who's, you know, been shouted out in the PG post gets a chance to spin the wheel every week. It's pretty fun. And, uh, yeah, no, just got, got a good chance to catch up with the team, try some new products. I think the cucumber mint is choice. They finally found a mint they like. So they're adding mint to the cucumber and I got to try some of these zero sugar flavors as well. So that was, that was great. That was, that was my visit to wonky HQ. It's cool. You should go there sometime.
[00:20:30] Ray Latif: All right. Yeah, I would love to. Just need to get back to London. John, any plans to send the team back over there anytime soon? Not you, Ray.
[00:20:37] SPEAKER_??: Damn it!
[00:20:38] John Craven: I also sat down with... Alexa from Chili Maven, who makes an amazing salsa matcha. We did talk about Chili Maven last week. And Amole. I know you talked about it. Obviously, I listened to the episode, because I know you guys said I went to jail. I mean, obviously, I do listen to the podcast. And then I slacked immediately when I heard that, guys, I did not go to jail. Then Mike oddly called me collect to tell me that he didn't like the podcast. But Alexa set up a meeting with Natalie Lee Joe, who's the head of brand marketing at Deli. And Deli is this cool marketplace that has all these new products that are coming onto the scene. And they're basically a marketplace for Gen Z. And it's a really cool operation. We get to go and check out the warehouse. And Natalie gave us the backstory. And definitely something to check out. How do you spell Deli? D-E-L-L-I. OK. It's really cool. And then, uh, well, Jackie and I, of course, got to sit down with the founder of Living Things, uh, Ben Veer, along with Lexy Forrester. So that was, uh, that was pretty cool. That was like early on in the trip. We went to, um, the official coffee shop of BevNET, Mike Fuckoffy, and, uh, sat down and had just a great conversation about what they want to do in the marketplace. And Living Things is a brand of? Living Things is a brand of? Better for you soda. I'd say gut health soda. There's a few of those that have popped up. We also met with the founder of XOXO, Rory Patterson and Miri to talk to them about how they're taking, you know, a place in the marketplace. They felt to me a little bit like, um, you know, Olipop and Poppy in the early days where they've, they've got a little bit different take and different flavors and, uh, but they're doing something similar. So they're trying to build up the category. There's also one called hip hop that we didn't get to meet, but. Yeah, that's pretty exciting. Pretty exciting stuff happening over there in the gut health space. And, you know, again, there's others that are popping up as well and that we met at, you know, Cheers the Drink Summit. So just exciting stuff happening in that category. And just thanks to Ben for sitting down with us and also to Rory and Mary as well.
[00:22:51] Ray Latif: Yeah, it's great that you had a couple more days to sit down with some folks. It was a whirlwind for me, and I'm sure it was for everyone else. So to having an extra couple of days just to be a little bit more
[00:23:02] John Craven: Yeah. Liberated with your time and schedule was probably great. I mean, that community is really special too. So, you know, founders would reach out and, you know, I had time, so I just made time. I also sat down with V Cutting from Feisty Soda. She wanted to talk about her brand and she wanted to talk about her messaging. And so we looked at her deck and, you know, our mission going forward and. I mean, it's just all that stuff, the way that it just pops up and the way that everyone's really pretty close together. And, you know, you can just hop on the tube and have a two hour meeting. It's no big deal.
[00:23:32] Ray Latif: Yeah. And I want to point out to listeners that obviously this is not specific to the UK. If you have questions, if you want to... riff on a business strategy, if you want to go over a potential rebrand, if you want to talk about pricing, anything, just reach out to one of us. We're happy to talk to you about this. We're not consultants, you know, certainly not folks that are going to be part of your advisory team. There's a church and state kind of thing there, but we're happy to talk to you guys at any time about anything to help you scale and succeed. So. Free opinions. Free opinions. Exactly. Free opinions. Free hot takes. Yeah, we got plenty of opinions about some of these products that we have here. I want to start with Jackie, though, because we never start with Jackie. Yeah, let's start with Jackie.
[00:24:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Thanks, Ray. We never start with Jackie. Thanks for thinking of me. I have Daily Crunch and I have their collab, well, one of their collab products because the other one I kind of garbage mouthed and it's gone already. Um, but this one is their fly-by-jing collaboration and it's their sweet szechuan. Yeah. It's really, really delicious. So it's pretty much like cashews and edamame and they use fly-by-jing. So yeah, you got your sweet and your spicy. And then the one that I already demolished is their collab with Cleveland Kitchen. It was their dill pickle. Awesome, and they have like these like freeze-dried or like dried dehydrated pickles in it. Oh as a pickle fan Top-notch.
[00:25:03] John Craven: Okay. So my surprise here is not that it exists. It's that we got it before us. Well, she also has We know very well it goes to Jackie first because Jackie's Jackie's so famous She's smarter than us, all of us combined. That's certainly true. You know how when I go to the trade shows and it's like, where's Ray? Where's Ray? Where's Ray? In UK it's, hey, what's Jackie like? What's Jackie like? Can we talk about Jackie? Jackie's legit. We knew that.
[00:25:35] Jacqui Brugliera: International. That was the goal. International superstar.
[00:25:40] John Craven: Oh, God, it's gone to her head.
[00:25:43] Ray Latif: Oh, no.
[00:25:46] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm just kidding. All right.
[00:25:47] Ray Latif: Oh, this is a perfect segue then.
[00:25:50] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes. Karma.
[00:25:52] Ray Latif: Karma cashew cookies.
[00:25:54] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. So karma known as like Karma Nuts. Usually they have, well, they still have a bunch of cashews and different varieties, different seasonings. I believe this is their first extension outside of just flavored nuts. And these are cashew cookies. They are delicious. They have these cashew date bites. and then the chocolate chip bites. And they're like soft, chewy, delicious cookies. And with the cashews, it makes them taste kind of like buttery and very, very simple ingredients. Like this cookie only has cashews, dates, coconut oil, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
[00:26:31] John Craven: That sounds awesome.
[00:26:32] Jacqui Brugliera: Really delicious. Love the packaging, too. Like they brought their branding from their Nuts line, brought it over here. Cookies front and center. Cashews are there. You know what you're getting into.
[00:26:42] Ray Latif: Yeah, I sense a theme here that Jackie is a fan of cashews pickles Are we all Cashews pickles, yes Yeah, I don't know cashews are also great like I make a lot of plant-based meals and you can yeah cream sauces out of cashews and
[00:27:08] John Craven: Yeah. Ray's probably more of a walnuts and Brazil nuts fan.
[00:27:12] Ray Latif: We'll get to it. Well, I probably say, what do they call them? Sprouted nuts. Sprouted peanuts in particular. I think I love.
[00:27:20] John Craven: Very specific. So you like Daily Crunch? I do like Daily Crunch a lot.
[00:27:24] Ray Latif: So they make spreaded almonds. Yeah. Those are phenomenal. Now, if they just sprinkled a little THC into the cashews. Well, then you wouldn't eat them. I wouldn't eat them, no. Yeah, that's true.
[00:27:32] Mike Schneider: But some fly-by-jing, I'm excited to try that.
[00:27:34] Ray Latif: Yeah, me too. That's a great club. I actually came across an interesting brand that I saw upstairs called Wonderlands, and they are a maker of, quote, a transportive... Is that really? Transportive? Transportive pecan mix. What does that mean? I don't know. Why don't we try it and find out? Let's find out how we get transported. I guess you get transported once you eat these. Hey, Ray, get transported.
[00:27:54] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm ready to watch it.
[00:27:56] Ray Latif: I'm breaking my own rules here. Oh gosh. They have three varieties that I saw. The flavor name isn't the name of the, I guess, variety. They have a Mineral Creek Wilds, a Mesa After Rain, and an Into Snowy Woods. Now the flavor names are next to the names of the products. So for example, Into the Snowy Woods, it's a Lapsang Tea, Black Cardamom Beets flavor. They also include tasting notes on the front. So you have for the Into Snowy Woods, you have some umami, there's no spice, a little bit of herbaceousness and some smoke. This is really cool, actually, I like this. The tasting notes, there's like a one out of five rating or scale for umami, spicy, herbaceousness and smoke. So, yeah, again, in this case, there's no spice, but plenty of umami.
[00:28:44] John Craven: Is that one spicy, John, the one you have?
[00:28:48] Ray Latif: Transported I'm still trying to get over this interesting beautiful packaging. It's like a pouch It's a wide project inside.
[00:28:58] Mike Schneider: That's cool. I mean, this is really good. I don't like that label copy though Which one transport transport a peek and tell me what it is. Tell me what it tastes like just awesome Like just call it a pecan mix Well, I mean, I feel like figuring out how to work, you know, get the words in here. Don't crunch in the microphone. Just say that it's a spicy umami, smoky snack. Just cut to the chase. You know what this is? I mean, this is great.
[00:29:23] John Craven: This is NLS Cracker Jack. It's a maze boss. This is great.
[00:29:27] Ray Latif: All right. Well, I'm glad I brought this.
[00:29:28] John Craven: This is really good. Well done, right?
[00:29:30] Ray Latif: Wonderlands transported. Wonderlands. Wonderlands. Yes. Wonderlands. Not Wonderlands. Excuse me.
[00:29:36] John Craven: All right. Since I teased you guys about Knack Snacks, the snack that's founded by former Buff Bakes CEO, Brittany Buckle, and I ate them all, I thought I should bring you some.
[00:29:51] Ray Latif: Here's the milk chocolate, airy bites, next level, so good. Knack Snacks, excuse me, crunchy protein balls. These are from the UK?
[00:30:00] John Craven: They are.
[00:30:01] Ray Latif: Okay. Uh, this is their milk chocolate variety. They contain 14 grams of protein per bag. That's good. Yeah.
[00:30:08] John Craven: Those are like, they sneak up on you. Are they really crunchy? They feel crunchy. No, they're not. They're not really crunchy. They're like bites of air and you, then the flavor hits you and they're just amazing. They're really good. They're really, really good.
[00:30:19] Ray Latif: Okay. So John's had them. I haven't had them.
[00:30:21] John Craven: I've eaten many bags. Yeah. John's eaten many bags. Did they send us some? They did. Oh, that's nice. But the office went nuts. Like they sent us dark chocolate, birthday cake. The milk chocolate. I held back the milk chocolate. The dark chocolate and birthday cake went so fast. I mean, I couldn't even control it. I'm trying not to crunch in the microphone. Crunch in the microphone.
[00:30:43] Ray Latif: People like to hear the crunch. Yeah, these are good. And they actually taste like real chocolate, which is nice.
[00:30:50] John Craven: Oh, they have to because they're UK snacks. So they have higher standards for chocolate than we do. Much higher. Oh boy. Oh, I'll eat those. Don't worry. Okay. At least you didn't get it on the laptop. So remember the Snack Shot event that we went to before Expo West and it was great and we met some great brands like People and Paro and one of the brands we met there was called Babo's Kitchen. She's been working on this Panjiri granola for quite some time. On the back it says, Panjiri is a traditional Pakistani superfood similar to granola. It's a popular snack known for providing energy, fiber, and essential fats. I don't need to read anything else there. I mean, I, that sounds awesome. And, um, so she finally sent us some to try. Who wants to try some?
[00:31:37] Ray Latif: Well, can I see the package for a second?
[00:31:39] John Craven: I want to try it.
[00:31:40] Ray Latif: I love this. I feel like the granola should be on the bottom because right now, in terms of the label hierarchy, you have Panjiri granola, and then you have the Bob's Kitchen logo and brand name underneath it.
[00:31:52] John Craven: I think there's a bit of confusion there, but I think it overall draws you in. And I don't know what panjeri is, but I know what granola is. Exactly.
[00:32:00] Ray Latif: And I also, I think she's doing a great job with that piece. Well, there's also plenty of people I'm sure who will be buying this because it is ghee roasted, but it definitely doesn't, it might limit, it might limit itself to, uh, to a certain audience.
[00:32:16] John Craven: You got plenty of you want to know another one that we love news. It's gonna eat granola for you guys know yeah Do some granola there, bro. I mean we didn't even try it. I know I want to try it Let's let's wait. What's let's wait and try it. Oh, let me have some of that Is it gonna make it ray you're gonna have to pass it hmm is it awesome? Buttery yeah, I think you're gonna try it smells good. No. I'll try them Some coconut milk all right. Sorry Jackie.
[00:32:45] Jacqui Brugliera: It's okay.
[00:32:46] Mike Schneider: I mean you're over there with garbage mouthing fly-by-jink very unique texture for granola not your typical
[00:32:52] Ray Latif: Yeah, it looks like a much smaller... Oh my god, it looks like Odie. Yeah, it's not Odie. It's very... Process is the wrong word, but it's very finely... It's a much finer granola than you would expect.
[00:33:07] John Craven: Okay, I see why she's calling this granola, but this is like... You know how I always talk about, you're supposed to, when you eat something, you're supposed to know kind of what you're getting and it's supposed to never surprise you in a bad way, only in a good way. This is good, good surprise. Yeah.
[00:33:21] Ray Latif: Okay. Okay. There you go.
[00:33:22] John Craven: Oh my God.
[00:33:23] Ray Latif: You got a whole bunch on your lips there. I want it all over my face so I have some for later. It's a dusty part. We're recording video here too. Let's open some snips. It's all over me. So Mike, while he'Keep Crunching on his granola here, I'm going to introduce the product that he brought. He brought this. It's Snoods. It's a new product from Snoods. Snoods, once again, is a maker of chef-crafted, globally inspired pasta snacks. This is their Sweet Kugel variety. It says on the back, this isn't your boobies, Kugel, but it's certainly boobie approved. Boobie is your grandmother, yes? We'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see. Inspired by a favorite dish in Jewish cuisine, our Kugel is a modern twist on holiday nostalgia. All right, let's just open this up.
[00:34:06] John Craven: I feel like that's the highest possible praise if you're talking about, you know, something that's a traditional food and your grandmother approves. So this, Ray's going for it. Ray, you got to try this. You got to try the panjeri. That is really delicious.
[00:34:19] Jacqui Brugliera: What does it taste like?
[00:34:21] Ray Latif: Cuckoo? It's very cinnamony.
[00:34:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Have you ever had cuckoo? No, I've never had cuckoo.
[00:34:25] Mike Schneider: Oh, you have to try it, Jackie. I want it to taste like what one would call like a churro flavor. Yeah, it's a little churry.
[00:34:31] Ray Latif: It's a little cinnamon bunny. It's good. I would eat that. All good flavors. I mean, I just did. I think it tastes like a... Imagine if you took a cinnamon bun and you sliced layers of that cinnamon into sort of thin layers and then you baked it.
[00:34:47] Jacqui Brugliera: That's what it tastes like. Sounds delicious.
[00:34:50] Ray Latif: And what I really love about this is that snooze. That's so good. I think it's still tweaking with the recipe and it's less crunchy than some of their other varieties, which I love.
[00:35:02] John Craven: You guys, that's really good. Yeah, this is delicious. Yeah, that's good. I love the texture. Snoods, first and foremost, is a texture thing for me. And then the flavor just is like icing on the cake. It's great.
[00:35:13] Ray Latif: It really is.
[00:35:14] John Craven: Jackie, to answer your question about Kugel, it's kind of, it's between like cake and apple crisp. It's hard to describe. You just have to try it. Get your hands on some Kugel. It's about that time.
[00:35:24] Jacqui Brugliera: I'll keep an eye out.
[00:35:26] Ray Latif: Okay. Yeah. I think we have time for one more brand here. What are we going to talk about? You got one brand.
[00:35:32] John Craven: Our good friend Adnan, who was just on an episode of Elevator Talk, is making these amazing fruit squares out of out of pulp. And this one. is mango. Okay. So this one is strawberry and there's, and there's a one called Falsa, which is, he's sourcing the fruit from Pakistan. So there's fruits that, you know, we don't have readily here in us like Falsa, which I guess is a blueberry. It's almost like a blueberry.
[00:36:00] Ray Latif: I don't think we're doing this brand justice. We're definitely not. In that the packaging is spectacular. These are dried fruit snacks that come in a cardboard package and inside that cardboard package is a pouch of squares that are made from fruit pulp. Yep. But the branding is just spectacular. So on the front of pack, you have the flavor name, which includes the fruit name. So for example, this one, which is a red package is described as sassy strawberry. And then there's a little cute figure that represents each one. So this is a, there's a strawberry with a cap and blowing a bubble and he has a skateboard. So it feels... And I just ate him. It feels mature, but also very young, you know, in a lot of ways. I feel like this is a package that appeals to a large number of people, a pretty wide audience. I mean, it's definitely sassy. That's, that's good. I thought this was Mango Stoner guy riding a bike. It does look like mango. That's the, uh, masala, is that the masala? No, it's the mmm mango.
[00:37:02] John Craven: It's mango, a masala mango, and the mmm mango has like... really sweet mango flavor. And the masala mango has a little bit of spice, but it's almost a caramel flavor. It's really good. The guava is insanely good. The peach is really good. I mean, they're all.
[00:37:16] Ray Latif: Yeah. Good stuff. Limited ingredients. So the strawberry one is strawberry puree, cane sugar, citric acid, absorbic acid, and pectin. They contain no gelatin, no artificial flavors, and no added colors. I feel like for someone like me who loves gummy snacks, With all the stuff that they put in them, this is a really nice alternative. Agreed. To heavily processed foods.
[00:37:43] John Craven: These are one of my favorite new snacks. And one of the things that's brilliant about it is that when you make a snack and you have different flavors, you want a little bit of a familiarity between the SKUs. So like there should be the same consistency or something familiar about like the sweetness or whatever it is. And somehow Pulpito has figured out how to do that. So, you know, you're getting, there's some level of familiarity in what you taste in the next one. And I like that. Pulpito. I'm going to get you some of this, Jackie.
[00:38:17] Jacqui Brugliera: See what I can do about Daily Crunch.
[00:38:20] Ray Latif: And the V8 Gorillaz that you have behind you, the palette. All right, it's time to get to our featured interview for this episode. As I mentioned at the top of the show, Lexy Prosszer is an Investment Principal with Btomorrow Ventures, a UK-based venture capital firm born out of global conglomerate British American Tobacco. I sat down with Lexy during the Taste Radio meetup at the TRIP office in London, where she and I discussed the firm's investment strategy, how she assesses a brand's potential for international distribution and success, and whether global trends influence how she evaluates brands. And now on the stool is My Order friend, Lexy Prosszer, who is an Investment Principal with Btomorrow Ventures. Lexye, great to see you.
[00:39:15] Lifestyle and: Good to see you in London.
[00:39:16] Ray Latif: I know you've been saying like over and over, when are you coming to London? When are you coming? And I'm here. And then I was badgering Lexye. I'm like, you got to join me for an interview. People want to hear from you. You got to join me. And she's like, oh, OK, fine. So I'm really lucky and I'm really happy and I'm really honored that you're here with me. So thank you so much.
[00:39:32] Lifestyle and: I'm honored to be here.
[00:39:34] Ray Latif: Yes. So Be Btomorrow Ventures, tell us all about what you guys do.
[00:39:38] Lifestyle and: So Be Btomorrow Ventures is the corporate venture fund of British American Tobacco. I know what is Be Btomorrow Ventures doing here, but with a mission of investing in well-being and stimulation and building the second core for what could be the alternative to nicotine, cigarettes, healthier, better for you, functionality. basically in the same way that nicotine stimulates you and the senses. That's what we're looking for in terms of product.
[00:40:03] Ray Latif: A functional benefit as it were.
[00:40:05] Lifestyle and: Functional.
[00:40:05] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:40:06] Lifestyle and: Big word.
[00:40:07] Ray Latif: Talk about your investment focus in terms of stage, region, size of the company.
[00:40:12] Lifestyle and: So FundOne that we had and deployed money out of was focused on really early stage. We've done pre-seed investments moment, but FundTwo as of last year, we're looking at much more established brands that really we're looking to partner with and scale and help them scale in retail. So it's more of a synergy, but marrying the startup with the corporate powers that we can leverage to just help them build to the next level of like their journey and then acquire them maybe, maybe not. So not everything is really like an acquisition target and not all of our companies, like we don't look to necessarily acquire everything that we invest in, but We do want to sort of partner up with the next innovative brand company that we can then somehow integrate and not really integrate into BAT because I think this is something that people might not know. BAT has launched their own kind of functional drink and it's part of that second core and it's really integrating it together with the business that we're building.
[00:41:16] Ray Latif: What's the typical check size for your investments?
[00:41:19] Lifestyle and: We're pretty flexible. I think now we'd be looking at like 10 to 30 million? Yeah.
[00:41:27] Ray Latif: I know. Who couldn't use 10 to 30 million here? I mean, so don't worry. People need that. Yeah. Speak to her after. OK. With Moment, it was a smaller. You mentioned Moment, which is a brand of calming beverages that actually won BevNET's New Beverage Showdown competition in 2020. It was a virtual competition. They did quite well. What were the brand attributes? What made you really excited about that brand as having a long runway for success?
[00:41:53] Lifestyle and: So I think it's not just moment, but my general rule is look to invest in people because they're the ones that are making the decisions. They're the ones that have to turn a business around if like times are hard. And I always look to see who am I investing in and what are they about, like their personality, their grit, their tenacity, the sort of don't take no for an answer from anybody. And like, that's really My Order kind of I don't know, I guess sheets that I look at. It's the personality, the character, the sort of purpose, what they're trying to build. Why are they building this business? Where do they want to go? What's their vision? And for a moment, actually, they're still a very small team. So I don't think they've grown very much in the past three and a half years that we've been invested. they've literally turned every single dollar in the most efficient more dollars that I've ever seen. And they've done it predominantly like online, so direct to consumer, and they just nailed that model. That's kind of like, I know I keep banging on about people, but it really is the sort of the people that I look to sort of back. And then, of course, the brand, is it really like speaking to the consumers? Is it on trend? Is it something that like, I don't know. I'm not that type of investor that looks at things like I know it all because I don't, nobody knows it all. I think it's more following instinct and gut. And that's also something that I look in founders, like how much are they driven by their inner genius versus like the race to kind of get to the next thing. Right. But going back to sort of the more practical stuff, of course, like you look at the numbers, traction, does it work for the market? Is it scalable? I know that we're looking to sort of touch upon that. And that's actually like a really, it's hard to tell whether a brand is scalable or not, really. But going back to sort of the character and the tenacity of the founder, what I've seen works really well is like, do you have the foresight to understand the market that you're looking to scale in? Do you understand the consumer in the markets that you're looking to scale in? Does it fit? What's your competition like? The legal stuff is really big. I mean, I'm sure Tripp can talk all about the legal, because it's, I think marketing and speaking to the consumer and your brand positioning in one market will be very different to a different market. And I've seen Moments, one of our brands, do sort of licensing deals in Japan and they've had to do certain changes, but that grit that the founders have in terms of really being obsessed with the consumer and speaking to the consumer and they read everything that comes through, like all the feedback, every single piece of like information that they can get and then turn into sort of bettering the business again. I think that is magic, right? Because we are all figuring it out, so we don't know everything, but it's that being obsessed with the details and the consumer, and then being on top of like, what are the Living Things that could stop you from being successful, which I really do think it's the regulatory environment and the challenges.
[00:44:56] Ray Latif: You're based here in London, you invest in US based brands. For folks here that are based in the UK, just from an experience perspective and what you've seen, how would you assess the two different markets? I mean, how do you think about a brand's potential to be able to scale here in the UK versus one in the United States? And how much crossover do you think there could be between the two countries?
[00:45:23] Lifestyle and: I think it's tough. I mean, like Ray said, I probably spend my life on the plane and I spend a lot of time in the States. The two markets are very different and not at the same time. I think the UK is sort of a little bit behind on kind of the US in terms of where the consumer is, but catching up very fast. I don't know. I know I'm maybe repeating myself being obsessed with understanding what the consumer wants and understanding the market is easy to say. I think my biggest advice is partner with someone who can help you make that transition at the right time. You can't do it alone. No one can do it alone. There's no way. The UK is such a small market versus the US. But It's probably not a bad time to sort of look at who is a good partner. Be careful who you take money from. It's like a marriage. So who do you want to get in bed with and spend the rest of your life with. That's kind of how you should treat your investors too. And then just see what they can bring to the table. I think I really think that to answer your question in the most honest way, if you have an investor on your cap table, make them accountable for why they're sitting in your board meetings. And like, what are you bringing to the table? Don't just like present to them, but like ask them to sort of bring value to you and what your ambitions are and timing, right? Like don't just take any money at any point in time because you need it. Yes, you will need money, but be careful where you kind of commit yourself. Where could it trip you over at what point in time in your journey? But yeah, I would totally just advise partner up with someone who's got the power to just help you make that transition because Even with our brands, even with Moment, we're very invested in their success and we want them to do well. But there's so much that not even I know that I had to learn from teams in big corporate that that's their job. That's what they do day in, day out. And you can't do it alone. Ask for help. Don't be ashamed to ask for help. The worst thing that can happen is you get a no, right?
[00:47:29] Ray Latif: Yeah, absolutely. And I think speaking to entrepreneurs on Taste Radio, the ones that have built the best teams are usually the ones that have the highest return on their own personal investments and some of the biggest exits that we've seen in the industry. Just going back to international expansion for a second. Do you see any parallels? Do you see any common threads? between brands that can successfully scale internationally, whether it's the United States or otherwise. And, you know, specific brand attributes. I mean, so for example, a trip, you know, what is it about a trip that would interest you as an investor at a brand and product level? Again, fantastic founders, amazing team, but there's still that component of the physical product.
[00:48:15] Lifestyle and: in all transparency, we wanted to invest in Tripp and we were very keen and have been kind of courting Tripp for a long time. I was joking that Daniel keeps playing hard to get, but no, on a serious note, even with Tripp, right from before, I don't think we ever even got to the stage of looking at a deck. So going back to my initial point of, I think they nailed their branding. nailed. It speaks to everyone. It's simple. It's easy. You can understand it. And you can make, I think, the right kind of adjustments to speak to sort of wherever you're looking to scale if you need to. And secondly, when I spoke to Daniel about the brand, it was like their obsession around making it taste good. So again, having it available so that everyone really can relate to the product. The sense that I got from the team was an absolute passion and dedication with the detail. It's like nothing would go past it. I could sense it from the conversation. In fact, he was talking about you and how absolutely adamant you were about everything being perfect. And that is something that founders need to do because that's what makes you guys special. You've got that inner genius. Let it come out. Let it be driving you when you're creating your product and you're looking to make decisions, big decisions, risky decisions. And I think, like I said, regulatory, if you're mindful about the kind of ingredients that you have in your product, You've got to be, again, obsessive about what you put in there because the regulators would look for any kind of opportunity to just say no or to come after you and just kind of destroy anything you've built at the point where you're scaling. Is that helpful?
[00:50:05] Ray Latif: It is very helpful. I'm sure we're going to get a very loud applause at the end, but I do have one more question.
[00:50:09] Lifestyle and: Oh, dear.
[00:50:10] Ray Latif: That's related to global trends. And, you know, we were doing some store visits earlier this week. We were at Whole Foods. We were at Sainsbury's. We were at a few other places. And, you know, I saw some things that I see in the United States. I saw some things I don't see too much of in the United States.
[00:50:23] Lifestyle and: Like what?
[00:50:24] Ray Latif: Well, brought this up. Magnesium waters, for example. Magnesium is a hot trend in the United States, but I don't think we've seen too, too many RTDs come to market in the US. And maybe that's just we're a bit behind on that. Or maybe I'm just not in the right places or shopping in the right places and ready to drink super bottled soups, for example. Less of that in the US, more of that here. But aside from that, you know, how do you perceive or what's your perception of global trends that we're seeing that have legs, that have long-term value versus ones that are sort of Fly By night?
[00:50:56] Lifestyle and: I'm going to give you a very me answer. Sure, that's why you're here. Sorry if this is not what you guys want to hear. I fundamentally believe from what I've observed is that our generation today is like looking for, is in the race of like longevity and just health and it's like we're so We're so obsessed with like being healthy, feeling good, because like before it was more like adding the sugar and the caffeine and like, you know, staying on top of it. And I think our generation and the generations below, definitely, they're looking at how do we go back to basics and what products can we use? to essentially enhance or rebalance what's going on in life and in our bodies and dealing with everyday life, right? So trends, trends are driven by consumers and consumers drive those trends from experiences. I mean, every founder that I've spoken, almost every founder that I've spoken, there's that drive from a passion of wanting to do something better, right? So that's I think like the two are interconnected and I know I'm not answering your question and I'm deliberately not answering your question because I think who am I to say like what trends work, what trends don't work. The trends that work are the ones that the consumers want to kind of get on board with. So be obsessed with your consumers and what you're seeing because everything changes so fast. You've got to innovate all the time in the sense of what you're doing, but your product has to have a stickiness to the core of like something authentic that your mission is kind of looking to change, to drive, to sort of serve yourself because you're a consumer, but also like the people around. And like I said, I think it differs in every country. It's different because it's culturally also driven. And what I have seen is that there's a lot of there's that drive for founders to look to sort of more Eastern ways of like remedies, taking that, my point going back to basics, but how do we innovate those things so they're in a format where it serves a society that's very fast paced, that makes decision, consumers that are fickle, that, you know, consumers switch very quickly. Like you make one mistake and that's it, you're out. Does that answer your question?
[00:53:20] Ray Latif: It does. It does. You said you didn't answer my question intentionally, but I feel like you did answer my question. Lexy, thank you so, so much for joining us today. I really, really appreciate it. I highly recommend if you're going to stick around, don't take up all Lexy's time because I have a feeling everyone is going to want to talk to her, but just give her your business card, maybe follow up with a conversation down the line. Thank you so much again, Lexy.
[00:53:42] Lifestyle and: Round of applause.
[00:53:49] Ray Latif: That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Kratchy. 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 a 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. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:54:39] Lexy Prosszer: you
