[00:00:10] Jacqui Brugliera: Hello, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a food or beverage business. I'm your host, John Craven, and I'm here with my colleagues, Jacqui Brugliera and Monica Watrous. Hello.
[00:00:24] Monica Watrous: People wouldn't even be able to know the difference between you and Ray.
[00:00:27] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, I rehearsed for so long just to get my Ray voice.
[00:00:31] Ripple Effect: It's uncanny.
[00:00:33] Jacqui Brugliera: It's as good as it's going to get. But yeah, Ray and Mike are off on vacation or doing whatever it is they do this time of the year. So we'll promise a soccer or English football free episode for once. Also, Monica, your first time on Taste Radio here.
[00:00:52] Ripple Effect: Yeah, I'm really excited to be here.
[00:00:54] Jacqui Brugliera: And I guess also we'll give a little plug for CPG Week, which apparently Jackie and Monica just recorded before this, I believe. So really epic episode coming soon.
[00:01:05] Ripple Effect: Two epic episodes coming soon. So I'm going to be in Utopia next week during our usual recording time. So we went ahead and recorded an extra episode so we can not miss a week.
[00:01:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Lovely.
[00:01:17] Monica Watrous: Yeah. And check out social media because there's going to be a great reel of Guy Fieri, I think, coming from one of those episodes.
[00:01:27] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, boy. One of you guys doing like an impersonation, I hope.
[00:01:30] Monica Watrous: You'll have to listen to figure out what we're talking about. But it was epic.
[00:01:34] Jacqui Brugliera: Nice. And I guess since you mentioned it, Monica, next week is Newtopia Now you're, I think, one of two people going from our team. So what are you expecting at that?
[00:01:45] Ripple Effect: Yeah, I'm not really sure. I know this is going to be a new experience for attendees and exhibitors alike. For those who aren't familiar, this is the show that is replacing Expo East. Oddly, it is in Denver, which is not on the east side of the country, but it's going to be, I think, a scaled down Expo compared to, well, definitely compared to Expo West. As far as I know, the booths are all about the same size. So there's not like a giant island booth in the middle that's competing for your attention. So I think it's intended to democratize exhibition space for folks and also allow for more one-on-one meetings with buyers. And yeah, I'm not really sure what to expect, but I'm excited to go.
[00:02:32] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, you'll keep us posted and obviously anyone who is there wants to talk to our wonderful Nosh managing editor, keep an eye out for Monica. She'll certainly just write about your company.
[00:02:43] Ripple Effect: Don't make any promises.
[00:02:46] Jacqui Brugliera: No, but hopefully it'll be a good event and yeah, curious to see what comes from it. Unfortunately, we'll not be there, but I guess I'll be probably creeping your Instagram or something like that. Oh yeah. One other sort of event housekeeping note, I think the applications for our pitch competitions that are Nosh Live and BevNET Live are open now, correct?
[00:03:10] Monica Watrous: Yes, they're all open. Head to BevNET.com slash events. You'll see BevNET Live and Nosh Live listed there. At BevNET Live, we have both That New Beverage Showdown and then we also have the Cocktail Showdown. So if you are a non-ALC beverage, head over to That New Beverage Showdown application. And if you are an RTD Spirits brand, head over to the Cocktail Showdown application. And then for Nosh, we have the Nosh Pitch Slam. And I believe both of you will be judges again this round. So they'll have to face, both of you for feedback, comments, questions, concerns about their products.
[00:03:43] Jacqui Brugliera: There you go.
[00:03:44] Ripple Effect: If you need a judge for the cocktail showdown, I'm also available for that.
[00:03:50] Jacqui Brugliera: There you go.
[00:03:51] Ripple Effect: I'm not kidding.
[00:03:53] Jacqui Brugliera: That's the dangerous competition to be a judge during. So yes, crazy to be talking about December, but it will be here before you know it. So pretty crazy to see people registering and stressing about hotel rooms and stuff like that. But yeah, don't delay, I guess the room block, especially for BevNET Live, always fills up super fast. So maybe not as bad as the Expo West room block, which Hoping our listeners who had marked their calendars for, I think it was this Wednesday, had success getting rooms, or last Wednesday, excuse me. Anyway, moving on, I think we have to talk about the mega deal of the week, I guess mega deal of the year, or probably past couple of years, of Mars acquiring Kelinova for You know, just some small change, $36 billion. Wanted to see kind of what the reactions were, especially on Monica's side.
[00:04:49] Ripple Effect: Yeah, so it is the biggest deal of the year. It's probably the biggest deal in the last maybe 20 years in food and beverage. For context, some of the big food and beverage deals that, well, Kraft Heinz obviously was a notable one, but Danone buying White Wave for $12.5 billion in 2016, General Mills buying Pillsbury for $10.5 billion in 2001, and PepsiCo buying Quaker Oats for $13.4 billion in 2000. This deal is still bigger than those three combined. So it brings together a number of legacy brands like Rice Krispies Treats, Pop-Tarts, Pringles, Cheez-It with Snickers, M&M's, Starbursts, Skittles, Dove, Twix. And that portfolio of businesses together would represent more than $63 billion in sales.
[00:05:38] Jacqui Brugliera: Pretty insane. I mean, I think also just some of the brands coming together. Hard to not imagine there being some potential product collaborations in there. I don't know. I feel like Eminem everything would probably sell well, but also just curious. I don't know what you guys think about maybe potential opportunity that this creates for emerging CPG. And, you know, one of the takes that I saw on LinkedIn that I really liked from our dear friend John Foraker of Once Upon a Farm, you know, who basically is calling this something That New thinks will start to move the investment M&A environment for CPG. I think his exact words were, often it takes just one big rock to fall to start an avalanche. Curious what you guys think of that. I definitely am pretty in agreement with his perspective, just to, you know, put that out there.
[00:06:30] Monica Watrous: Yeah, I would agree too. I think people love these big headlines. They love to see that there's movement, there's money flowing in, and it just opens the door, opens the conversation, makes people feel confident in the space to invest. And yeah, I feel like it's only going to be positive for emerging brands moving forward.
[00:06:49] Ripple Effect: I think it's an interesting departure for Mars because if we look at their recent transaction history, you see some premium and better for you brands like Kind, TrueFruit, Heaven's Natural Foods. And then to make this move into the more indulgent legacy mainstream acquisition, it's an interesting move. And I don't know what that means for emerging brands. I think it means maybe less money available for those kinds of bolt-on deals.
[00:07:18] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, I think it also, you know, I think I would agree with just what Jackie said of general confidence, right? But I do also think that, you know, when big companies combine to get even bigger, the other companies that are in the space that maybe, you know, by share now get a little smaller, I don't know, take like a Pepsi, Frito-Lay situation. maybe other companies need to acquire to keep up. You know, I'm curious if we'll see a wave of acquisitions from other players who weren't part of this That New again feel like they better move now or move soon or they're going to miss out.
[00:07:55] Ripple Effect: I think if you're looking at the deal itself, snacking is not going anywhere. Snacking is a huge opportunity, and it's really smart of Mars to enhance its exposure to the salty snacks category, especially as it competes with Hershey, which has been building its salty snacks portfolio for the past few years with its acquisitions of Skinny Pop and Pirate's Booty and Dot's Pretzels.
[00:08:19] Monica Watrous: Yeah, it's also interesting. There are some brands that I feel like overlap and play in similar spaces like RX Bar and Kind and NutriGrain and Nature's Bakery. So I think that just shows that there's opportunity, even more opportunity in those spaces. I'm curious what they're going to do with those brands too. how they're going to work together and how they're going to grow the space together. But I think in general, like Monica Watrous saying, they're, you know, investing in snacking and a lot of the brands That New're working with, they are healthier, better for you snacks. So that only bodes well for that category.
[00:08:51] Jacqui Brugliera: Definitely. Well, I'm sure, you know, this is only a week into this deal. I'm sure it's going to be a while before we actually can feel and, you know, maybe identify the actual Ripple Effect from it. But either way, I think it's, you know, it's pretty exciting stuff just to, uh, see a deal like that take place in this environment where there kind of haven't been a lot of big deals in a while. So again, maybe, maybe it'll just be wishful thinking. But I guess right now feel kind of optimistic that this will yield other M&A activities. So we'll see. Stay tuned to Nosh and BevNET, of course, on that front.
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[00:09:58] Jacqui Brugliera: All right, well, now I think it's a good time to talk about some of the products That New're all snacking and drinking. And I feel like it is only fair since Monica is a first timer here, we've got to start with you.
[00:10:11] Ripple Effect: Okay, well, I was at Whole Foods this weekend and I picked up That New Chia Smash products. They've expanded into snacking. Chia Smash is known for its flagship lines of low or no sugar jams that are made with chia seeds. And now they're doing smash bites, which are these poppable cashew or peanut butter based bites that are filled with like a gooey jam. And they're positioned as superfood snack bites. I know the term superfood is something that you've talked about on Taste Radio before. I don't know what really makes it super. I guess there's dates and chia seeds and fruit. But The products are really tasty, and I think it's a Whole Foods exclusive right now.
[00:10:57] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think we did sample those a few episodes back, but interesting to know that they're out there at retail now, since I'm pretty sure ours were maybe pre-production. But yeah, Chia Smash stuff's pretty darn tasty.
[00:11:11] Ripple Effect: And the folks there are so nice.
[00:11:14] Monica Watrous: Yeah.
[00:11:14] Ripple Effect: And you said one of them has peanut butter in them, or all of them have peanut butter? One is peanut butter with grape jam, and the other is cashew butter with blueberry jam. Cool.
[00:11:25] Monica Watrous: Well, speaking of peanut butter, I actually have some peanut butter over here. Something that I feel like I haven't seen a lot of innovation in, haven't seen a lot of new peanut butters coming out, maybe other nut-based butters. This one's called One Trick Pony, which I kind of like. you know, the name, they're just doubling down on the fact that they're just doing something really simple that, you know, might not be as thought of innovation or innovative as other things. But their big point of differentiation is that they are sourcing their peanuts from Argentina. And that's supposed to make these taste even tastier, which I guess, just is the question, you know, whose peanuts is the best peanuts? That's my question.
[00:12:07] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, do you give that like a PB and J test or what's the, what's the way to figure out if it's actually good?
[00:12:12] Monica Watrous: I mean, you have to just eat it plain first. I mean, I'm going to definitely do like a taste test. Like maybe this is a real idea. Have like Jiffy have some other peanut butters with like different peanuts from different places and just really do a blind taste test. Cause I personally can't notice a huge difference, but they do have kind of crunchy peanut butter. They have unsalted peanut butter. They have silky smooth and they also have these like little to-go squeeze packs. So they hit the nail on the head with all the, you know, traditional versions that people are expecting.
[00:12:45] Jacqui Brugliera: What else is in it?
[00:12:47] Monica Watrous: It's literally just peanuts.
[00:12:48] Jacqui Brugliera: Just peanuts, no added oils or anything.
[00:12:51] Monica Watrous: Uh, just on this one, a little bit of sea salt, but yeah, just peanuts, a little bit of sea salt. So I guess that's another great thing that has no added sugar. It has no palm oils. It's gluten-free and they say it's Bread Certified, which is interesting. Bread Certified. Yeah. Bread Certified. So the bread is happy when it has the One Trick pony peanut butter on it.
[00:13:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Nice. Well, I love that brand name. I mean, that's kind of amusing. I would love to try that stuff. Hopefully we'll get some out here at some point.
[00:13:21] Ripple Effect: Hint, hint.
[00:13:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Hint, hint. I guess I'll bust out some refreshment here. We just got That New Liquid Death Hot Fudge Sundae flavor, which is a collaboration with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Give this a little test here. This one has 20 calories, so it's not just flavored water, which I guess, I don't know, would you have a hot fudge sundae without a little bit of sweetener in it?
[00:13:46] Monica Watrous: I don't think you can.
[00:13:48] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, you'd need a lot of bit of sweetener to be clear, but I mean, it tastes Dove Chocolate soda. I don't know if this comes in a 19.2 ounce can.
[00:13:57] Monica Watrous: Would you be able to drink all of that? Like, is it too sweet?
[00:14:00] Jacqui Brugliera: Do not think I could drink an entire can of this just because Dove Chocolate flavor is pretty, uh, pretty rich. Not for me personally, but, um, yeah, one can has 20 calories. Let's see four grams of sugar, agave and stevia, as I mentioned. It's interesting. I mean, it definitely tastes like Ice Cream.
[00:14:21] Monica Watrous: Hmm. I wonder if anyone's going to try pouring That New top of their Sunday.
[00:14:25] Jacqui Brugliera: I think Liquid Death did some videos to support this product launch that had people doing all sorts of insane things. Although, you know, in fairness or credit to Liquid Death, the bar for insane things relative to their campaigns is pretty high. So this is really kind of mild for them. Yeah, there's no cannibals or, I don't know, coffins death.
[00:14:51] Monica Watrous: Very kid friendly. I feel like product for them.
[00:14:53] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I mean, you know, this is this is fun. Again, I don't know if I could drink a whole one of these. I kind of wish it were like a 12 ounce can. But yeah, it's pretty cool.
[00:15:02] Monica Watrous: Are those hitting stores or are they like limited release online?
[00:15:05] Jacqui Brugliera: I think it was a limited release that was on Amazon.
[00:15:08] Monica Watrous: OK.
[00:15:08] Ripple Effect: You could also get it at the Van Leeuwen scoop shops.
[00:15:12] Jacqui Brugliera: Could you? OK. Yeah, I didn't admittedly read the complete details, except that it had an Amazon link. So I'm like, I'm going to get some. So.
[00:15:21] Ripple Effect: I think they sold out on Amazon like the day that they announced it. It was a pretty quick sellout. But yeah, it's interesting to see Van Leeuwen partnering in this way because we've seen that company do some interesting partnerships with its Ice Cream. They've done like a Kraft mac and cheese inspired Ice Cream. They also partnered with Hidden Valley Ranch. to do a ranch-flavored Ice Cream, and they've done pizza-flavored Ice Cream, as well as a Grey Poupon Ice Cream. So it's kind of fun to see them partnering in a different way, and also to see Liquid Death partnering with a company, which is a first for that brand, if I recall.
[00:16:00] Jacqui Brugliera: I think so. But, uh, yeah, I mean, Van Leeuwen, you know, makes great Ice Cream too. So I think a good brand to partner with. It's honestly like my favorite sort of widely available or I don't know, relatively widely available, like Ice Cream brands. So, uh, I was pretty excited to try that, but yeah, I mean, never, never a dull moment for Liquid Death either. Moving on, I think at least Monica and I both have That New Diamond Brew Craft Espresso, which is a new take on instant coffee. Comes in these little kind of pods that you dump out. I was pretty impressed by this. I mean, we've had a lot of instant coffee come our way over the years that promises to be just as good as the real thing. I guess I did not try this as a replacement for espresso and like a latte or anything, but it's a pretty darn good cup of coffee, I'll say that much. What do you think, Monica?
[00:17:00] Ripple Effect: I agree. It was really tasty and I love the convenience, but the unboxing experience too is pretty premium. And a lot of folks already know the founder of this brand. It's Douglas Yu, the Forbes contributor who has covered a lot of CPG news over the years. And this is his first stab at launching his own CPG brand. I think he did a really nice job.
[00:17:24] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, no, I mean, this definitely has, again, the unboxing experience of this is very different than, I don't know, I feel like a lot of instant coffee has just gone into like stick pack type things, you know, copying the Starbucks via and, you know, they just kind of feel like a commodity, like something that just doesn't have a good experience to it where, you know, this seems like a nice alternative, you know, it does feel like something that has a little bit of a, I don't know, almost ritual to it, which is kind of funny to say for an instant product. So yeah, I guess, you know, props to Douglas for this. Maybe he'll focus on coffee instead of writing. That would be okay by us, too. But just kidding, Douglas, super nice guy. Lots of respect for his work, both on this and as a journalist, too.
[00:18:15] Monica Watrous: Yeah. I like the, I like the name Diamond Brew, definitely premium. It looks like the box almost looks like a box Dove Chocolate, like opening it. And then it has each the individual, you know, pods. I've actually been drinking more instant coffee. Weirdly. I've been camping a lot and drinking a lot of instant coffee. And then I just started doing it at home because it's just so convenient. So I can have a premium experience, you know, even better. So I'm going to have to try that too.
[00:18:41] Ripple Effect: I'm looking forward to traveling with those little pods. I think that that'll be a nice thing to have in the hotel room.
[00:18:46] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's, it's, it's funny how if you do travel a lot, it's sometimes pretty difficult to get decent coffee.
[00:18:55] Ripple Effect: Yeah.
[00:18:56] Jacqui Brugliera: Just not a K cup fan. So yeah, I'd rather have no coffee, but this would certainly be something I would maybe chuck in my bag and take with me. We'll see. Got some travel coming up. So any other products that you guys have that you're excited about lately?
[00:19:12] Ripple Effect: So there's a local company here in Kansas City called Ruby Jean Juicery. They have an on-premise locations, but they also bottle and distribute their juice mostly regionally. They're in some Whole Foods and some other specialty shops as well as coffee shops and things like that. But I did my first ever juice cleanse because they offer a special regimen for that. And it was not bad. It was actually quite enjoyable. The juices are really good. And I have learned that they are a favorite of Travis Kelsey. He gets them sent to him at his house and he was drinking it at training camp recently. Nice. Yeah.
[00:19:53] Jacqui Brugliera: Interesting. Yeah. You don't hear a lot about juice cleanses anymore.
[00:19:58] Ripple Effect: Or Travis Kelsey. Oh, wait, no, no, no. I hear a lot about him still.
[00:20:02] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, definitely. I was going to say, even we're not in Kansas City, but hear plenty about him.
[00:20:08] Ripple Effect: So yeah.
[00:20:09] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. I've seen those on your Instagram though. They look pretty good.
[00:20:13] Ripple Effect: Yeah. They're cold pressed and fresh produce. And one of my high school friends is the COO there. So she's the one who was like, Oh yeah, we've got a cleanse. You should try it.
[00:20:25] Jacqui Brugliera: Did you go like hardcore green juice with like no sugar, uh, no sweet fruit hit or. Oh, no, no, no.
[00:20:33] Monica Watrous: That New's intense.
[00:20:35] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:20:35] Monica Watrous: And what's your, what's your Instagram Monica for people that want to follow along to your new products that you're spotting.
[00:20:41] Ripple Effect: It's a what's Monica eating. Uh, the handle is at Monaco watchers. Great.
[00:20:46] Jacqui Brugliera: There you go.
[00:20:47] Monica Watrous: I'm also excited to see just what's going on in San Diego recently. I know a lot of people have been on vacation. They're going to be coming back after Labor Day. And we have a meetup coming up in San Diego. So we'd love to, you know, re-engage, see people in person again. That is on September 25th. So that's Wednesday, September 25th from 5 to 7 p.m. All the information is at BevNET.com slash events. I know you Craven and the rest of the Taste Radio team will be there. And we'll have some samples, new products, networking, some pizza, delicious pizza. And then I think we might be doing some content as well. So definitely check that out.
[00:21:24] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, should be a fun time. Always good to get to our BevNET San Diego office. Those meetups have been a pretty good hit, you know, usually I think get, I don't know, 150 people show up or something like that. Lots of good new samples to try and should be fun. Looking forward to it.
[00:21:43] Monica Watrous: Yeah. And for people in San Diego, we're right off of Marina Boulevard near the Costco. Everyone knows where the Costco is. So I always use that as landmark.
[00:21:50] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. Should be fun. Don't miss it. If you're in the San Diego area or feel like making a drive down from LA, we always get some of those folks. So should be good. All right, that brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'm trying to be Ray Latif here, but we're just going to go with it. I like it. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cratchy. 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'd 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. And as always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thanks for listening and we'll talk to you next time. you
