[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 Good Beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts for this episode, John and Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. Might I say it's very nice to see Jackie in person. One of the few times a year we get to do this. This is the second time we've recorded in person in a week's time.
[00:00:33] John Craven: Yeah. Are you getting sick of me? Are we getting sick of each other?
[00:00:36] Ray Latif: I don't think so. Maybe there's something you know that I don't, but I wouldn't say that. I'm like hint, hint. I'm just kidding.
[00:00:41] John Craven: Jackie wants to go home already.
[00:00:43] Ray Latif: Exactly. We are here at the Marina Del Rey Marriott. This is day one of Brewbound Live Winter 2024. While we're in the bowels of the hotel, there's really good content going on upstairs. You could say dungeon.
[00:00:57] Jacqui Brugliera: We're out by the dumpster. If we're in the bowels, what does that make us?
[00:01:01] Mike Schneider: Oh, for crying out loud.
[00:01:03] Ray Latif: Okay. Well, it's been really fun being here for the past, now, going on eight days. Even more to come. As I mentioned, this is only day one of Brew Brown Live. I just hosted the Brew Brown Pitch Slam upstairs. It began at 8 a.m. I thought there were some really good pitches up there. It was exciting to see the variety of brands, founders, concepts.
[00:01:23] Jacqui Brugliera: A lot of people enjoyed that Beer Girl and Girl Beer both. Bitched.
[00:01:28] Ray Latif: Yeah, that was really interesting that we had a Beer Girl, a brand called Beer Girl, and a brand called Girl Beer up on stage. I guess I can say at this point because they both made it to the finals. They did, they did. Yes, we don't know which brands that made it to the finals will be the ultimate winner because that happens tomorrow. Speaking of pitch slams, it feels like it was an eon ago that the Nosh pitch slam was held. That was held last week on Thursday and Friday. We saw some outstanding pitches from brands we know and a couple we just got familiar with, including Doosra, Mochi Love, Brune Kitchen, Chutni Punch, Harken Sweets, and Newish. The winner of the competition was Mochi Love. Congratulations to Brandy Miller, the founder of that brand. I have some here. I don't think, it hasn't been refrigerated though. I don't know if we can eat this. I'll still eat it. You can eat it. So unlike a lot of other mochi products, this can just be refrigerated. This doesn't need to be frozen and people seem to really love this.
[00:02:30] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:02:30] Jacqui Brugliera: It's super tasty and they optimize for The Squish. I think I was saying that, you know, mochi is product that you often see in Japan and they have a lot more words to describe the flavor, texture, the look and feel of the product that we don't have. And I think we need those words to describe Mochi Love. It's just that cool.
[00:02:53] John Craven: It's so fun. The packaging is really like just grabs you in. I love that they have fingers here just like squishing it. It's really fun and playful. And I know that like in the presentation too, she was talking about how like, like mochi flour can be used for a lot of different formats too. So there's like some runway for maybe potentially other products, but really delicious product.
[00:03:17] Jacqui Brugliera: Products in the Pitch Slam, I think this was one of the most difficult to judge Pitch Slams that we've ever had. The products were all very good. The packaging was good. And it had to be just impossible for the judges.
[00:03:33] Ray Latif: It was tough. The judges were deliberating for a while. But you know what? I think they loved that they hadn't seen a product or format like this before. These are mochi that come in a two-pack in this little plastic container. One of the things that kind of surprised me that Brandy was talking about is where they would merchandise this, where she's looking to retail this, and food service, and grab and go. I wasn't expecting that, but I think the judges appreciated that strategy.
[00:03:58] Jacqui Brugliera: I felt like I was the winner of the pitch land because I walked away with a box of broom kitchen.
[00:04:03] Mike Schneider: You looted your own competition.
[00:04:04] Ray Latif: Way to go.
[00:04:05] Jacqui Brugliera: I looted some, yeah.
[00:04:07] Ray Latif: Congratulations to all the finalists. Kartik, Brandy, Tanya, Sahithya, Katie, Sarah.
[00:04:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Kartik of Dusra, Sahithya of Chutni Punch, we had Harken Sweets. Katie of Harken Sweets, yeah. Oh my gosh, Katie of Harken Sweets, Wilhelmina, Wonka.
[00:04:21] Ray Latif: I got to mention, Katie actually put a quote of mine about Harken Sweets in her presentation. She told me she was going to do that, but I'm a big fan. And actually I shared some with a friend who lives out here in LA and they were like, where did these bars come from? This is incredible. How can these exist? They're such low sugar. They taste exactly like the quote unquote real thing.
[00:04:45] Jacqui Brugliera: Those are the real thing. They're the real deal. That's why I think it was such a difficult competition.
[00:04:51] John Craven: Every single product was just delicious. So they all nailed that.
[00:04:56] Ray Latif: Absolutely. As I dig into my bag over here, I wanna talk bag of winners. Yeah, the Cocktail Showdown. Bag of winners, yeah. Which was held on Sunday, also a very competitive pitch slam, and I feel like we saw, like the variety of concepts was really impressive to see. Techio, Lixer, Gardenista, Yoju, Host, Good Bev. Good Bev in particular was really interesting in that this was the first time that we saw a pouch format in the showdown, and I think a lot of people saw Chad Twigg's presentation, he's the founder, and thought, wow, this really has some legs, this really has some opportunity, especially when you consider Buzzball, especially when you consider Beatbox. These formats hadn't necessarily been available for cocktails before. And again, you know, we've seen some cocktails and pouches before, but I think GoodBev really has something there.
[00:05:48] John Craven: And one of the judges was even talking about how, you know, you're a kid, you drink a lot of juice boxes, there's a nostalgic tie to Capri Suns, and maybe they'll just graduate into drinking good Bev. You know, it's cool to see, you know, package innovation.
[00:06:02] Mike Schneider: Hopefully with a little break in between.
[00:06:04] Ray Latif: You know, I'm going to do a little BTS from the judge's deliberation, which is that this is definitely a taboo subject, but Alcohol companies are having a really hard time reaching legal drinking age consumers that are on the younger side, from the 21 to 25. And so what was talked about a little bit, what was said in that room was that this is a good way, these are training wheels, this is a good way to reach some of these consumers. No, in all seriousness, if you're looking to reach younger consumers who are legal drinking age, you're not gonna give them scotch, certainly. You're not gonna give them a high-end cocktail. You're gonna give them something that they can something that's going to resonate with them. An alcoholic Capri Sun, you know, I think that might go a long way with some of the younger kids.
[00:06:46] John Craven: And speaking of younger consumers, Vivian on our team, she's Gen Z, she doesn't drink a lot, but she was obsessed with Yeoju. She's obsessed with like something that's like a little bit more sweet, more approachable, like you're saying, like younger consumers aren't going to be drinking straight whiskey, but they're looking for something like Yeoju, like a beat box, maybe like a good Bev that's, you know, tastes maybe a little bit more like juice or something more approachable.
[00:07:10] Ray Latif: And Yoju, just to be clear, Yoju was the winner of the Cocktail Showdown. It's a soju-based cocktail. So it's soju, drinkable yogurt, and fruit juice. And the judges loved it. So good. It's really good. The judges were particularly impressed with the flavor, the founder's story, their professionalism. And the package design has this beautiful tiger on each can. They have two varieties. There's a white peach and there is a mango variety. But yeah, these guys, Stephen and Ken from Yoju, absolutely slayed that presentation. And I saw them yesterday and I said, if there's one word I could use to describe you guys, it's professional. Everything about what they did, presented, and created with this brand feels really pro.
[00:07:58] Jacqui Brugliera: They're pretty measured dudes. They're excited about their opportunity, but they're not overly excited. They're all business-minded. They decided, oh, we should probably stay for Brewbound, too. And they were talking to Jackie this morning about getting some one-to-ones, which Jackie's working her magic on. I mean, there's all kinds of cool stuff happening for Yoju. I'm just really excited that they made it to the event.
[00:08:22] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Events. Events indeed. There's a lot of overlap between folks who came to BevNET Live and are here at Brewbound Live, which is so great to see. BevNET Live ended yesterday and we wrapped up with the winner's presentation for the New Beverage Showdown. Another tough competition, ultimately won by Recoup. Susan Buckwalter Hartman, the co-founder of Recoup, did a really good job up on stage. Her presentation was fantastic. Recoup, once again, is a maker of gut-healthy hydration beverages come in cans. Susan's been working on this for a while, and I think the judges, at the end of the day, really saw the market potential for this brand. You could tell Susan's won a few trophies before, too, because she's a heptathlete.
[00:09:08] Jacqui Brugliera: She pumped that trophy at the end.
[00:09:09] Mike Schneider: That was awesome. She knew what to do, right? She knew how to show it off. She knew what to do. Yeah, I think also just, you know, she of the founders that were up there kind of stood out as, you know, someone that seemed like they were sort of speaking the language of the room to definitely seem very buttoned up in her presentation. And, you know, I think we all felt that, you know, she has a lot of potential just as a founder. So always cool to see when, You know, you've got a product that feels like it has potential and you're feeling good about the founder too.
[00:09:43] John Craven: Yeah. And we've seen her a bunch at our San Diego meetups. She's been constantly evolving her products, like tweaking the formulation, the packaging. So it's really cool to see with her full like industry debut that she won the New Beverage Showdown.
[00:09:58] Jacqui Brugliera: As Jackie was saying, this product continues to evolve. It's interesting to see that a product that still could use some work wins the competition. I think that's true for every New Beverage that was in the New Beverage Showdown. We tasted great liquids, we saw some great packaging, but always room for tweaks, always room for conversation, and that's just what this competition is all about. You get up on stage, you pitch to an audience of people, you hear from judges, and then the conversations just happen in the audience. Oh, I agreed with Mike, I can help you do this, or Mike's full of shit, and here's how I can help you.
[00:10:37] Mike Schneider: We always say that.
[00:10:37] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, we always hear that too. I just, that's what I love about this competition. It's just great. Whether you win or not, you become a celebrity at the show and you just get an opportunity to get a bunch of feedback that helps your beverage go to the next level. Even the winner's going to get that.
[00:10:53] Ray Latif: I gotta shout out to a brand that didn't make it to the finals, but I really loved Mas Energy and enthusiasm and just passion for the industry. Alan Garcia from Fruga, a maker of fruit infused or fruit juice infused soda. I really think he has something there. And from the second I saw him at the event on Sunday to when I said bye on Tuesday, he had a big smile on his face. And I feel like that's the kind of attitude and enthusiasm and just graciousness, I think, for the industry that is going to go a long way for him.
[00:11:20] Jacqui Brugliera: He sent me a DM just to thank for the advice. And we talked a little bit more about positioning. And I was telling him the whole time, you can use my advice if you don't. It won't hurt my feelings. He was just so grateful for all the feedback, the opportunity. And when he talked about it as, you know, a better for you Jarritos, I was like, oh, that's so exciting because we haven't really seen a lot of that positioning. And I think that like the liquid at least, you know, felt like that to me once he explained the positioning, even though before that I was just, I couldn't stop drinking it.
[00:11:51] Mike Schneider: It's really good stuff.
[00:11:53] Jacqui Brugliera: Can you roll your R again though?
[00:11:55] Ray Latif: Jarritos. I've got it today. I'd be remiss if I also didn't mention Jasmine Pineda from Mas Energy, the founder of that company, a Latino focused energy drink brand. I spoke with her on the Taste Radio studio during the event and just really like what they're doing. And as you mentioned, Mike, a few tweaks here and there, and I think they've got something that's more market ready than we might've seen.
[00:12:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, they went up. day one, gave their pitch, and then they ran the table on day two, getting all kinds of feedback, talking to suppliers. I saw them in the workshops. I mean, they really made the most out of BevNET Live.
[00:12:31] Ray Latif: Yeah, I would agree. And I think that's the game right there, is you come to BevNET Live, and there's just so much to do, see, network. And the folks that I talked to seemed like they got a lot out of it. Ryan Coleman, Jack and I were talking about him, who's the founder of Hike, which is a hop infused seltzer. You and I both had conversations with him and it seemed like he just ran the gamut of things you could do here.
[00:12:55] John Craven: Yeah, I mean he was taking one-to-ones and talking about Whole Foods and getting into their Virginia stores. He was even pitching stories to people.
[00:13:04] Ray Latif: He got into Whole Foods from this event. He did.
[00:13:06] John Craven: He had extra time to sit down with them and just really solidify that partnership. Yeah, he was pitching Forbes on a whole story on hops and got them to go to the workshop He was working the crowd and I love new suppliers that he's gonna work with So, I mean all the things that we've talked about on the on the show.
[00:13:22] Mike Schneider: He actually did Yeah, so quick one more thing that he did is in after our episode of talking about swag He actually made my requested item of toothbrush. No notebooks Good call
[00:13:36] Ray Latif: I told Christopher Lye from Marquee, we were talking about Swag, and I really like their logo and font, and I told him it looks kind of Supreme-ish, you know, like Supreme, that brand. I was like, you gotta do more merch and stuff. And he's like, yeah, what do you think we should do? $100 sweatshirts? $1,000 sweatshirts? Or whatever, I don't know what a Supreme costs. I don't know, but I was saying, you know, John Craven once suggested toothbrushes for Swag. To dispense your beverage's flavor into the toothpaste.
[00:14:03] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Well, here's the thing. Not to replace the toothpaste, just to enhance it.
[00:14:09] Ray Latif: Yeah, well, you know, Loverboy, the brand created by Kyle Cook, when I sat down with him, he was talking about how much of their business is merch. And it's pretty high. If I recall, it was like 20% to 30% of their revenue is coming from merch. And they can go a really long way. I think Marquee kind of has that as well.
[00:14:25] Jacqui Brugliera: You know, BevNET Live, Nosh Live, Rebound Live, they have workshops. The technical content is phenomenal. I want to give a shout out Bay State Milling, who did a great technical workshop. And so did the California Walnut Board. They had everybody who came to the presentation rethinking the way they think about ingredients because you know, it's one ingredient Okay, you put it into a formula and that's it right? No, it's not like they showed us all of the different ways that you could use walnuts and they had us like biting into it in different ways. And they had like this meter where at different parts of the bite, you'd get different sorts of flavor. So they showed like how chunks of walnut could be different from like, if you skin a walnut, the walnuts like super creamy. And I'm just encouraging everyone to think about all of their ingredients this way as you're putting a formula together. So you really appreciate, you know, these scientists or, you know, chefs who are helping you formulate your beverages. And this is also a reason why it's difficult to take what you do in the kitchen and do it at scale and why you need these partners.
[00:15:27] Ray Latif: Yeah, and there were some good takeaways in terms of data and research from that presentation as well. I actually took a photo of this slide. It said that 25% of shoppers seek brain function benefits from their food, which is kind of shocking to me. I didn't realize that. And of course, they're noting that daily walnut consumption has been associated with positive cognitive performance supporting brain health.
[00:15:48] Jacqui Brugliera: And there was a slide in there that blew us both away. And if you get a chance to see this presentation from the Walnut Board, which I hope you do, because it's on Nosh.com. Insiders can see these presentations. I think this is one that we might also give away for free. There was this slide in there that showed this flowchart of all the uses of Almonds, and Ray and Mike were just like, it was pretty cool.
[00:16:13] Ray Latif: It almost seemed like your head just did blow up. That was a real wishing. Great sound effects there, you guys. I have this in my hand. I got to shout this out. So I sat down with Kaylin Rexer during the Taste Radio studio. She's the chief marketing officer of Ilegal Mezcal. She's been with the company since the beginning, and she has just launched a new brand of her own called Como No. And it is a brand of caffeinated sparkling waters that come in a couple different varieties. The one I have in my hand is their Prickly Pear E-Lime. And she was talking about how this is a brand she wanted to create because, like a lot of colleagues of hers, they're drinking a little bit less. And they're looking for something that they can consume all night, not give them a hangover or anything else like that. So, I tasted this product during our conversation and I was really impressed. I love the name Komono. Komono, like why not, exactly. And it comes in this matte black can. There's a guy on the front who apparently is some sort of deity, is the way she described it, but I figured maybe you guys want to try some. So, here we go. In our metal cups here provided by Steel chill cups. All right, someone put water in my cup Thanks for sponsoring brew bound live still chill cups still chill cups calm Yeah, I mean There's so much flavor in this and to the point where you can't really taste the caffeine, which I really thought was impressive I like how three chill dudes are drinking from chill cups and chill chick children.
[00:17:42] SPEAKER_??: I
[00:17:44] Mike Schneider: I think he counted you in the chill dudes. Ah, well done. Yeah, three. Three chill dudes in life. Who's the one? Probably me.
[00:17:54] Ray Latif: Yeah, so I think I was, like I said, really tasty. I encouraged her. I was like, I know you're based in New York. I was like, maybe you're going to consider to apply for the New Beverage Showdown at Bevanette Live summer 2025. And she's like, yeah, I'm already thinking about it. Awesome. I picked this product up from Erewhon over the weekend, Optimist Botanicals, which makes non-alcoholic spirits. I believe this is their first RTD, which is described as a Cali spritz, a non-alcoholic NMRO spritz. Shall we try this?
[00:18:27] Mike Schneider: Yes, please.
[00:18:28] Ray Latif: All right, that means we have to drink all the water.
[00:18:29] Mike Schneider: Yep. Yes, we do We've already had this one right have you yeah, we had this back at the office I can't recall now if you actually came in once or not. Oh, I refuse Yeah, this stuff's pretty good. I can sense it.
[00:18:44] John Craven: Pass it over.
[00:18:45] Ray Latif: It is really good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I feel like Mike is in love here.
[00:18:51] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, the bitter flavor is amazing, but this is Good Beverage that's interesting because it doesn't start with the bitter. Smells good. The first thing you taste is sweetness, and then bitter comes. It's really nice.
[00:19:00] Ray Latif: I gotta tell you, I have a confession to make. I enjoyed what I had from Optimist's spirits. I really love this. I feel like this is where they need to go. This is like, this RTD is fantastic. I think it's what people want even more than the large format spirits. So just my take, just my opinion, one person's.
[00:19:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Speaking of spirits and other functional beverages, could we have had better greeters than the Mellow Tea? Yes, Mello, the maker of sparkling kava drinks. They leaned in pretty hard from the beginning and they decided to do the registration activation and their team was just greeting everybody on the way in the door, you know, handing out kava, making everybody feel mad chill. Even other contestants were drinking kava before they went on stage. Yes, Mello was a participant in the New Biblical Showdown. Amy Bett. At first I thought it was weird, but then I thought it was Really cool. I mean, they're just a really fun team. That's an inside joke, the weird thing. Oh, I see, because they're Australian?
[00:20:03] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:20:03] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay, well done. They were super cool. Thanks so much for doing that, and just thanks for being a participant in the New Beverage Showdown.
[00:20:09] Ray Latif: Yeah, and thanks to everyone who came to the events. I mean, I had so many great conversations with folks and, you know, what's awesome is that people were coming in with a really positive attitude. They wanted to learn, they wanted to make good connections. They're all in, you know, almost every single person I spoke with, it just felt like they're ready to be Great. And in some cases, they're already great. But as we've talked about on the podcast a number of times, we're here to help. We're here to answer questions. We're here to make connections. So for folks who attended the events and maybe didn't get to meet everyone they wanted to meet, just reach out to us. Let us know LinkedIn, Instagram, email, and we'll follow up with folks that you may not have been able to talk to or a supplier that you're interested in or just get our take on a particular Brand or retailer that you might want to align with so we'll do we can to help you as you continue to grow and scale and perhaps You will operate one of those brands. You will own one of those brands that wins one of our best of awards and It was so nice to see everyone sharing those best of rewards on LinkedIn and Instagram It's just every time I open up LinkedIn. I just see a new message and new notifications all these folks being like You know, this is such a great honor. Thank you so much. And all the comments of congratulations to those brands. It's really nice.
[00:21:31] Jacqui Brugliera: All of them joking about collaborating. Right, right.
[00:21:34] Ray Latif: We might see a wild wonder, Taika. We'll see. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, you know. it's nice to think that we've been a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny part of that and just being able to do what we can to help these brands grow and scale and be successful. So, yeah.
[00:21:50] John Craven: And it was even cool to see, I know the founders of Happy Pop. Sure. They won this year and they were posting a throwback to when they won for Koya, which they also founded. So they're like, we're coming full circle. I guess we make really great beverages. Totally.
[00:22:04] Jacqui Brugliera: I sure do.
[00:22:05] Ray Latif: Well, once again, just love seeing everyone. It's a bittersweet moment in some ways in that We've been spending too much time planning and preparing for these events and executing, and everything went really well, I thought. But now it's back to reality in some ways, at least on Friday, and back at it again for New York. But it'll all be fun.
[00:22:23] Jacqui Brugliera: I was going to say, what is that like for you, Ray? Because Jackie and I are already planning for the next one.
[00:22:28] Mike Schneider: OK, well, I guess I'm already thinking.
[00:22:30] Ray Latif: It's already in the back of my mind, too. Yeah, yeah. Cheers to everyone. And I'd be very remiss if I didn't mention our superstar AV team, which has just been taking punches left and right and eating them as it were. All I do is yell and scream about what I want and what I need and stuff like that. And they're like, OK, OK, OK, we'll make it happen. We'll make it happen. It's all cool. And they cry in the corner. Yeah, but truly, they kick the relative voodoo doll.
[00:22:59] John Craven: Yeah, you're so mean, Ryan.
[00:23:00] Ray Latif: I know. Truly the unsung heroes of our events the AV folks Joe cratchy Joshua Pratt Ryan Galang Ian. What's your last name? What is it ramp rig grump romp rig And Ian. AV Ian is what we'll call him. No, Ian Kronprig, I can say it. Video Bob, Ed, thank you all so much for all you do. And thanks so much to our amazing events team. If they were listening, I'm sure they're not. But to our events team, they really went above and beyond this time around. I guess we'll talk to you next Friday. 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 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 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. Ask Away, 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.
[00:24:31] Mike Schneider: you
