[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 I'm here with my co-hosts, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. John Craven and Mike Schneider are in the usual spot of Newton, Massachusetts at BevNET HQ. Jacqui's all by herself in her usual spot of San Diego. And I am in an undisclosed location, which I will reveal in a few episodes of Taste Radio soon to hit the podcast. I don't want to reveal the surprise right now. It's not jail. Yeah. Looks a lot like a motel. Listeners are thinking it's jail, but it's not jail.
[00:00:50] John Craven: It looks like a safe house to me. You're in witness protection.
[00:00:53] Ray Latif: It is a safe house. And for those of you who... Who may have thought that I was indeed a secret agent or an intelligence agent of a unknown country. You are correct. Agent and provocateur.
[00:01:08] John Craven: Give me James Bond vibes.
[00:01:10] Jacqui Brugliera: They mistook you for having a title that has intelligence in it. Yes. Ray has like a Burner Apartment.
[00:01:17] John Craven: It records all his interviews.
[00:01:19] Ray Latif: Indeed, indeed. Well, I'll just say this. I'm getting some sunlight coming in through my window here. John and Mike aren't getting much sunlight in their studio, which might be the reason why they're looking a little pale. Or they could just be recovering from Expo West. I mean, that show is so difficult. And when we recorded last week, I felt like even though we recorded a day after we walked, you know, the show for two straight days, it was still I needed two, three, four days to recover. I don't know what it is. Something about Expo West.
[00:01:51] Mike Schneider: First of all, you said after we walked the show floor, Mike and I did a whole other day after you left. We did. We were literally there until they were like on the third. They went from the show's over, you should leave to like the get the hell out.
[00:02:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, we got kicked out. We've never been kicked out before.
[00:02:07] Ray Latif: Well, the show closes at two on Friday. So you guys did a half day essentially.
[00:02:12] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, we heard Tina Turner singing, We Don't Need Another Hero. It was Thunderdome. Thunderdome. Everything was starting to come down all around us. The snowplow was out to just, you know, to plow all the booths down.
[00:02:24] Ray Latif: Who was left? I ran into Matt Weiss. from Ryan, the founder of Ryan, and I ran into Purvi Patodia, the founder of Vienna at the airport. I figure a lot of people were gone by that point. I don't know who's manning the booths.
[00:02:37] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know. There were a lot of people there. Jay Carl's was not there. I tried to go to the Midday Squares booth, but it was a ghost town. The looting was incredible. Mike got some extension cords.
[00:02:46] John Craven: The real reason you guys stick around.
[00:02:49] Jacqui Brugliera: I got a Zoom recorder and a red camera. I looted so much stuff.
[00:02:53] Ray Latif: Yes. Okay. Well, we did meet a lot of interesting folks. with interesting brands and products at Expo West. It was good to see a bunch of early stage folks. And yes, I've had my say on early stage brands at Expo West. But, you know, a few of them, I think, had a really good event and came away with some good feedback, some good advice, probably some really good contacts as well. And, you know, shout out to those early stage folks, because it's not easy navigating a show for the first time and trying to figure out how you should be talking to people, who you should be looking for and so on and so forth. But I do want to note that for early stage brands that are looking to amplify their awareness. Of course, we have a fantastic show that helps you do just that. It's called Elevator Talk. You've heard us talk about this on the show. Elevator Talk is a bi-monthly video series that highlights new, emerging, and disruptive brands from across the food and beverage industry. Each episode highlights five brands, and each episode is either food-centric or beverage-centric. And so we've produced, oh geez, I think about 105 episodes since 2020, and great news, You're now going to be able to consume Elevator Talk via video, the regular video series, or on audio format. Elevator Talk's becoming part of Taste Radio, and the audio will be incorporated into our feed every week, or at least every other week. So you'll be able to stream Elevator Talk on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, whatever platform you listen to on a regular basis, all you have to do is subscribe to Taste Radio if you haven't already. That's actually a really good idea for listeners who haven't yet added Taste Radio to their regular stream or regular rotation of podcasts, now is the time to do so. But I'm really excited about this because I've heard from a lot of folks who are like, I love Elevator Talk, but I can't necessarily or don't necessarily have time to sit down and watch an hour-long show. So in your car, in traffic, on that business trip, now you have an opportunity. And it's great. I love, love the episodes we do because it really gets into the nitty gritty of what it takes to get started. to get some traction and to get scale in that first and second year.
[00:05:14] John Craven: It's also a great entry point for a lot of these brands to enter into the community. It's like a launching point for them to debut and be like, this is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it and introducing themselves to the industry. And a lot of the brands, a lot of early stage brands have kind of gone through Elevator Talk in the early stages as they launch. And then they start gaining traction, gain awareness and start connecting a little bit more.
[00:05:40] Ray Latif: It's not just an opportunity to gain awareness. It's an opportunity to get feedback and advice and insights from an industry expert. So every show has a co-host who is an investor, a retailer, a distributor, a consultant, who is an industry veteran, and who has been there, done that, seen it all. And they are typically, actually all the time, because I can't think of a host that hasn't been, amazing when it comes to offering some really, really good advice on scaling strategies, marketing, design, what have you. You know, certainly from the investment community, it's really good to get in front of someone. When we do have investors as co-hosts, it's good to get in front of someone and practice that pitch. So the way to apply and be on the show, and as Mike alluded to, typically if you're an early stage brand, one to three years in, we're going to say yes. If you're a little bit older than that, or if your brand's a little bit, you know, been on the market a little bit longer than that, it's possible we might say, you know, you might think of another platform, perhaps Taste Radio to apply. but Taste Radio.com slash Elevator Talk. That's one word, Elevator Talk. That's the way to apply. It's very quick. It'll take you three minutes and you'll be on your way to being part of the Taste Radio family. You're already part of the Taste Radio family if you're listening, but like, you know, being on the show. I mean, you're joining the community too.
[00:06:56] Jacqui Brugliera: You're joining the community and you're getting feedback. It's for you. It's for your brand, but it's also for you. It's a safe place to practice your pitch. You have a video that you can use after that. I mean, there's so many good reasons to do it.
[00:07:09] Ray Latif: It's definitely not an unsafe place. I'll just put it that way. It's a safe place to get good feedback. You're not going to get robbed. Damn. Ray guarantees it.
[00:07:19] Jacqui Brugliera: Are you sure you're not in jail?
[00:07:21] Ray Latif: I know. There's someone watching me right now, actually. Also, an amazing opportunity for early stage brands. Drum roll, please. Do we have any sound effects here? Drum roll. Actually, it's not just early stage brands. I would say it's every brand. And I teased this a couple of weeks ago. Here it is. NAMM Bass. We have launched Nambase, or should I say, BevNET and Nosh have launched Nambase. And Melissa Traverse, our director of community, runs the show over at Nambase. It is an incredible platform. I'm so enthusiastic and excited about this, I can't even explain what it is. Jacqui, please help me.
[00:08:01] John Craven: Yes, Ray, I will help you. And yes, Nombase is for everyone. So anyone that's in the CPG industry, whether you're a food brand, beverage brand, supplier, service provider, even health and beauty now, you can go to Nombase and it is at its core a hub for connection and community and insights. So we have a database featuring over 10,000, I think now, records of suppliers and service providers and partners within the CPG industry. You can go in there, you can filter, you can search, you can find people in your local area to help you build your company. We also have a central hub for a job board for press releases. Pretty much anything that's going on within our world, you can find it on Nonbase.
[00:08:49] Jacqui Brugliera: You can even request proposals through Nambase. It's pretty cool. Like it's a, just look at it as a directory, a place to start when you, you know, you're trying to find your next partner.
[00:08:59] John Craven: On top of that, we do have AI integrated into it too. And it's a really great tool that combs through all of our archives across all of our sites, BevNET, Nosh, Brewbound, and gives you very quick answers to your burning questions. And it also gives you links to articles to read more.
[00:09:17] Ray Latif: What's really incredible about non-base is that, and this is my understanding, and I should have a good understanding of this, because we're talking about it.
[00:09:24] John Craven: It's free, right, Becky? Yes, it's free to explore. So anyone that wants to go to N-O-M-B-A-S-E dot com, you can right now and you can jump in.
[00:09:33] Ray Latif: NomNomNomBase. Outstanding. If it's not been clear, I really think that this is a game changer for our industry. And I'm not, this is not hyperbole. I feel like this is a tool that everyone will be able to use and probably use daily. So Nombase.com. And don't say we didn't tell you because it really is an amazing platform, tool, hub, whatever you want to call it.
[00:09:55] Jacqui Brugliera: It's your tool. So if you have feedback, send it to AskAtTasteRadio.com. We'd love to hear from you.
[00:10:01] Ray Latif: There you go. All right, back to Expo West for a sec. As I've penned on LinkedIn and Instagram, I did get some cynical comments when I was there at Expo West and folks were like, oh, you're here? I thought you hate Expo West. I thought you told no one to come to Expo West, which is not entirely true. I think I mentioned a number of times that I think Expo West may not necessarily be the best use of time and resources for some early stage brands. However, I think that there was a good amount of... Expo West 2025? Eh. And Expo West 2025? Eh, that wasn't worth it. And Expo West 2025? There was nothing really there that was particularly interesting. But John, actually, you put something on LinkedIn yesterday that I thought was poignant and helpful and put a good spin on the show.
[00:10:55] Mike Schneider: My Ray is delusional post to me? No, no, no, no, no. Oh, the other one.
[00:10:59] Ray Latif: It was, you know what, it was kind of, it was an anti-Ray LinkedIn post, but you didn't actually come out there and say that. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:08] Mike Schneider: Yeah, I mean, I still feel like if people are walking away complaining, then they're kind of, I don't know, not doing it right to a certain extent. You know, and I get like for brands exhibiting, there's costs that are associated with exhibiting, but You know, it is interesting seeing the gap between companies that have, you know, there have been a couple that I've seen, like posted literally how much they've spent, like putting their boot together and all this and that. And then there's others that are like, God, I can't remember what the brand was that was like, we made this booth from trash, like basically from stuff people were throwing away, you know? And there's a lot of like, you know, a couple of companies that I talked to where they're like, yeah, well, I'm not paying to like have somebody like load, my case is in, we like walked them over, you know, like it's free. A lot of it, again, is just how you choose to approach it and what you expect to get out of it. And I think, you know, for attendees who are looking for like, you know, this groundbreaking innovation, like, generally speaking, this is not what that show is about. This is not like discovery show. This is like, you know, commercialization, you know, sell stuff sort of show, right? So you're just always going to seek products that are, you I think more market ready than like, you know, really out there next generation ideas. Nothing wrong with those things, but like this probably isn't the place for that. So what I felt like I walked away with was a lot of products that just really have their eye on like commercial success, you know, like this wasn't an event where everyone's got I don't know, CBD or some unproven ingredient. Like, I think there was a lot of hate on like, everyone's got a better for you soda, but for a lot of beverage brands, that's a pretty complimentary thing that at this point, like demand is proven. It doesn't need massive amounts of explanation. They're pretty market ready in that sense.
[00:13:00] Jacqui Brugliera: The messed up part is that how long have you been waiting for that to be the trend?
[00:13:04] Mike Schneider: Well, I mean, it's been the trend before. It's always the trend somewhere in there. It's just not the fun thing to talk about, right?
[00:13:11] Jacqui Brugliera: I think the people who are complaining, a lot of them are people who really enjoy, you know, big news or they're first movers who wanted something a little different than protein and hot honey and dates or candy. You know, it's like...
[00:13:26] Ray Latif: Mike just named the four trends of Expo West. It took two seconds.
[00:13:32] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, like John said, it wasn't sexy. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, you have to understand cannabinoids and how they operate with the human body. It was more like, oh, everybody wants to try to do something that's easy to understand this year. Maybe they're getting the message that we pound into people's heads on Taste Radio all the time, which is that you should not be the educator. So innovation for us, is typically something that's easy to understand that's a little bit different, like true fruit. Chocolate on top of frozen fruit. That's innovation. That's pretty awesome. You know, it's easy to understand. It's insurgent. It goes into a category that already exists, but you see it and you're like, I get it, you know, and, and you didn't know you needed it. And then when you eat it, you do so. I think hot honey's, you know, hot honey could be that. Protein everywhere, you know, we're just trying to figure out where we want to get our protein. High protein, not just protein. That's true, high protein. At least 15 grams of protein or 12 grams. There's like, we saw that Sturdy Sauce that had 80 grams of protein in the jar, so that was pretty awesome.
[00:14:34] Ray Latif: You guys have referenced CBD a number of times. CBD was never a top of mind for me as, you know, an innovative ingredient. I think it was a very hot ingredient that a lot of people were using. But, you know, innovation for me and the way that Expo West has been presented in the past and in position was as a trend-setting show, a trend-setting opportunity for people or an opportunity for people to see trend-setting concepts and ideas. That's one opportunity, though. One opportunity. For sure. And I almost think that, and this is going to sound Like it's, you know, I'm talking about our own brands in a more positive light, but maybe I am. You know, on Elevator Talk this week, we highlighted a brand called Cobb, C-O-B. And it's a brand that makes corn-free popcorn. So they're making popcorn out of sorghum. And I think that is a really interesting and innovative product and concept that hasn't necessarily been showcased before. And I didn't see it at Expo West.
[00:15:31] Mike Schneider: You're kind of just saying a different version of what I was saying, which is that I think that, you know, this is also a place that you need to, like Expo West that is, like a lot of brands need to go prove that their idea is commercially viable before they do this show. You know, whereas in the heyday of anybody can raise money like for anything, yeah, you could just spend some money on Expo West and take an idea and, you know, launch it there. That's just not what the show is at this point. And again, I don't think that's like a bad thing. I don't think it really was ever like a trend-setting show. It was just people's place where they were launching their attempt to take some commercial advantage of a trend that was out there, you know?
[00:16:14] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, like for instance, Power Up, the company that we saw that has collagen powder, Collagen has been a trend for a while. Their innovation is eat the powder. I mean, that's a small amount of innovation. I was excited about that.
[00:16:31] Mike Schneider: I think that's a massive amount of consumer behavior change.
[00:16:34] Jacqui Brugliera: Sure, it is. But you can also use it the regular way, too. So sure, they made it so you could eat it, but you can also do it the way you... I put on my oatmeal, too.
[00:16:42] John Craven: I feel like there was like a lot of like incremental innovation and people like doing things in like small steps rather than just trying to be super buzzworthy and trying to make a splash like Blue Hour was there and this is literally instant scrambled eggs and the only ingredients are eggs, salt and pepper, but you can microwave them and they make scrambled eggs. I think like It's not as sexy, but we're going back to like basics almost because we went so far one way that we're like almost correcting a little bit because there was so many adaptogens and so many functional ingredients out there. And it's like, what does the consumer actually care about at the end of the day?
[00:17:23] Jacqui Brugliera: A dill ranch tortilla chip.
[00:17:25] John Craven: You just need that. It's delicious. Good eating. Did it well.
[00:17:29] Ray Latif: No, I think Jacqui, by the way, Jacqui, you're 100% right. And I think that, you know, maybe maybe this is a bit of a correction.
[00:17:36] Mike Schneider: The other thing is that we're still just chipping away at like all these categories that have seen, you know, mostly these sort of global flavors come to market where there were no brands doing, you know, dumplings, for example, like, I don't know, five or so years ago, not maybe none. not nearly as many as there are now. And the same could be said for the variety of just dips and sauces that are from other cuisines that now feel totally viable here. And I think those are sort of maybe just, again, not as sexy from a, like, pure, like, innovation perspective, because they're not, like, new ideas. They're just packaged commercially viable, like, versions of them. So I think there's plenty of runway out there for what we saw at the show, especially since I think a lot of these brands are just stealing share from legacy brands that are out there, as opposed to really out there innovation that's trying to truly blaze its own trail. So I feel better about what we're doing right now, which is a bit of a land grab of sorts. And I'd say that about... even the better for you sodas, like what is that doing? I mean, it's stealing share from like the big legacy diet soda brands. So that just seems more achievable than, hey, I'm going to convince you to like eat or drink in some new way and educate you on an ingredient that you don't know about, which is kind of why I use CBD as an example. I think, you know, that that particular year as a quick tangent, I felt like everyone had a CBD thing, and if you went to 10 booths, you got 10 different explanations about what CBD does and where it comes from and all that stuff.
[00:19:24] Ray Latif: Yeah, I think just to wrap this up, a lot of this depends on what your definition of innovation is and how you view innovative concepts. And based on everything I'm hearing and based on everyone's points in this conversation, I think they're all valid. It's not necessarily about trying to find the shiny new object. I think it's about trying to improve people's lives in a more positive way and doing it in a way that is as intuitive as possible. I think that is where that incremental innovation, making things incrementally better, does really shine through, and it did, you know, for certain brands and products at the show. But that brings me to another point. I didn't see a ton of new beverage products at Expo West. We have showcased certain categories on BevNET.com that reveal new products or introduce new products to the show, but it seems like there was a bit of a dearth. And upon reflection, listening back on our last episode, didn't seem like we talked a heck of a lot about beverages.
[00:20:25] Mike Schneider: There definitely were a lot of beverages and a lot of new beverages there. You probably just didn't go to the right place, but... I think this is another place where the invention of new, I don't know, I can't really say there was a lot that felt like it goes in that bucket, especially since I think the opportunities that are out there for beverage companies are pretty straightforward and it is better for you sodas. It's protein, it's energy. There are a lot of like, you know, alcohol alternative, N.A. cocktails, a couple of like N.A. beer companies. So, I think, again, we're just in one of those places where, you know, I think there's a lot of optimism in beverage for the categories that are out there that seem like they have opportunities. So, no knock on the beverage industry. I think to some extent, it's kind of nice that there's a couple of obvious places to focus right now.
[00:21:21] Ray Latif: Yeah, I was gonna say, I was in love with PKN, which is pecan, a maker of pecan milks. They came out with a new barista blend that was fantastic. They showcased that at their booth. And then I think Palmas was the other one that I really enjoyed. But again, that was at the Snack Shot event. And then Jubilees. Jubilees was at the Startup CPG event that we attended as a maker of organic flavored milk for kids, it comes in juice box format, and that is a fantastic looking brand and a fantastic tasting brand as well.
[00:21:56] Jacqui Brugliera: We also tried a specialty craft soda, they called it, specifically for golfers called Swinger. That was pretty tasty. You're not serious, are you?
[00:22:07] Ray Latif: Do I, do I look like I'm joking? I don't know. I can't see. I'm, I'm, I'm having a hard time.
[00:22:12] Mike Schneider: It was, it's a real product. We tried it and it was pretty good. Yeah.
[00:22:17] Ray Latif: It's tasty. Wait, is it, is that the target consumer? Really?
[00:22:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Okay. And the, um, the, the can looks like knickers. It looks like golf knickers. Interesting.
[00:22:31] Ray Latif: I guess the apocalypse truly is upon us.
[00:22:33] Jacqui Brugliera: You know who we missed? This is a big miss for me, because it's one of my favorite Na Na cocktails. We missed the founders of Ish. They were there. Oh, Ish, yeah. And they had left, and we missed them, and I'm so bummed about that. I mean, like, really bummed.
[00:22:48] Ray Latif: Mike hasn't been able to stop thinking about it since last Friday.
[00:22:50] Jacqui Brugliera: Like, didn't meet Arsene Wenger, bummed.
[00:22:54] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:22:57] Ray Latif: couple more brands I want to shout out from the Snack Shot event, June, which is a maker of whole pistachios, whole roasted pistachios in the shell that are flavored with certain spices. Is that the one that Jacqui ate like a whole bag of? I saw her eating a whole bag.
[00:23:12] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:23:12] Ray Latif: June, J-O-O-N. They're just coming to market now. We're going to feature them in an upcoming episode of Elevator Talk. Stay tuned for that. We actually did do a live interview with one of the founders of June at Nosh Live Winter 2024. So if you want to get a head start, check out that video. It's free on Nosh.com. Also, Pistachio, someone else who was another brand that was featured on Elevator Talk, a maker of pistachio butters. They had like a pistachio fountain.
[00:23:42] John Craven: Pistachio butter fountain. Oh my gosh, it was incredible.
[00:23:47] Jacqui Brugliera: It was absolutely amazing. Why were they guarding it from you, John? They weren't guarding it from me.
[00:23:52] Mike Schneider: I was standing right there next to them the whole time.
[00:23:55] Jacqui Brugliera: John tried to lick the fountain. I did not. He did none of that. He did eat like seven eighths of a jar of the crunchy pistachio. Finished it today.
[00:24:03] John Craven: So good. Speaking of beverages, there was also high Q. I think that's how you say it. It's H Y dot Q. It was a canned electrolyte beverage that was like a better for you Gatorade. And that was actually really, really delicious as well. And they're just launching.
[00:24:18] Ray Latif: Nice. Well, Mike's been chomping at the bit. He's got products in front of him. He's been picking at him all hour here.
[00:24:24] Jacqui Brugliera: I can't have Pulpito in front of me for more than five minutes, in fact, without eating it and just having some of the mango. I mean, we talked about them on the show before and we'll probably talk about them again. Don't worry. Speaking of protein, I've got a new collagen product called Crushed Tonic here. It's strawberry milk collagen, banana milk collagen, there's also vanilla collagen as well. It's just grass-fed bovine collagen inspired by the Korean diet, and it's really tasty stuff. I like collagen, I think it makes me feel better, it's good for your joints and stuff. Also Mary from Power Up educated me on it as well. I mean that's just going to be playing on a loop in my head forever.
[00:25:08] Ray Latif: I feel like Power Up is going to be another, like, Honey Mama's.
[00:25:13] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know.
[00:25:14] Ray Latif: Mike's going to mention that brand twice in an episode.
[00:25:16] Jacqui Brugliera: It's partially love and partially I'm scarred for life. She's amazing. And then we got some new Onyx product here. And this one is one I wasn't expecting. It's Onyx Instant. And they've taken like some of their best, their best SKUs, Tropical Weather, Monarch, and Costa Rica, Las Lajas Natural, and they've turned it into an instant coffee that I'm excited to try. You just open it up and you've got like this little pack, make it instant. We gotta try this, John. Good stuff.
[00:25:48] Ray Latif: If Adam Stern were here, he'd be like, Onyx, legit hip hop group.
[00:25:54] Jacqui Brugliera: For sure. And then, you know, the other one that I have in front of me here is, it's an interesting name, dry water, but I mean, it makes sense. It's powder. This one's raspberry lemon. I tried it earlier. This stuff's really tasty and I really liked the packaging and quality. 10 calories for a stick and big flavor.
[00:26:13] Ray Latif: Yeah. Dry water also recently featured on Elevator Talk.
[00:26:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Elevator Talk. Yeah.
[00:26:18] Ray Latif: What does John Craven? John is also just like taking out something over there. Just drowning in hummus over here.
[00:26:23] John Craven: Oh, is that the Ithaca?
[00:26:24] Mike Schneider: Yeah, I got the Ithaca Graza.
[00:26:26] John Craven: I can see it from here in that bright yellow green.
[00:26:28] Mike Schneider: Ithaca Graza, we talked about that last week. Delicious stuff. And then also got this pile. Oh, there's more flavors of Cedar's Reserve Hummus.
[00:26:38] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, yeah. Oh, wow.
[00:26:40] Mike Schneider: Flavors like harissa and Lebanese za'atar and tahini. I have a red pepper one. They've got a bunch of different flavors. These look pretty good.
[00:26:48] Jacqui Brugliera: Za'atar? Za'atar. I don't know. Whatever. You made me do this super late.
[00:26:53] Mike Schneider: I like when Ray corrects you. Anyway, these look quite nice. So I'm going to go have a whole pile of hummus after this.
[00:27:02] John Craven: Nice. Nice. I want to call it a product that isn't here because I ate it as soon as I got home.
[00:27:08] Mike Schneider: I can't even say it anymore.
[00:27:15] John Craven: But yeah, I wanted to call it a product that I ran into the founder at Expo West Gasmin from Cookie Chachi. And she makes delicious cookies. It's micro bakery in San Francisco and I had her Dubai pistachio Knafeh cookie and it's like a cookie with pistachios and in the middle is like the Knafeh like it's like a hard to explain but it's like it's a Middle Eastern dessert and she puts it in the middle and it's delicious. It's so good. So everyone definitely check out her cookies.
[00:27:50] Ray Latif: Yeah, can offer I think is shredded phyllo dough with like a cheese. It's like a rose water in it.
[00:27:57] John Craven: Yeah, yeah, my friend makes sense. Oh, sounds delish. And then I have a beverage from the snapshot event to Charlie.
[00:28:07] Ray Latif: Oh, charmly, nice.
[00:28:07] John Craven: Charmly, yes. They had multiple functional beverages, and this one I have, because I feel like I just have these random beverages always, I call them out, but this is their libido. Libido. And it has Horny Goat weed in it, as well as maca and ashwagandha. So we have a drink.
[00:28:25] Jacqui Brugliera: She was trying to get me to drink that, and I was like, is this going to make me have to use some kind of fruit or vegetable emoji? And I do not want to do that. I was scared. Please don't.
[00:28:34] Ray Latif: The way that Jon just looked at Mike. And I could read your mind, John. It's like, DevNet attorney's got to make the call. DevNet attorney's got to make the call.
[00:28:45] Mike Schneider: No, actually the face was because, you know, the energy drink category has been around for like over 20 years at this point. And I can't tell you how many times been pitched a drink with Horny Goat weed in it. The position is like an aphrodisiac or something along those lines. It just never works.
[00:29:03] John Craven: Not its time yet?
[00:29:04] Mike Schneider: Never works.
[00:29:05] John Craven: I don't know. Never works. Maybe it can have its moment.
[00:29:09] Mike Schneider: Okay, thanks for pouncing on my words there, Ray.
[00:29:11] Jacqui Brugliera: Don't you remember when John tried...
[00:29:13] Mike Schneider: I'm saying that marketing pitch never works. That's all. He tried Fuqua.
[00:29:19] John Craven: I don't know.
[00:29:20] Mike Schneider: It is tough. How's there? People aren't going to the beverage cooler for that. I'm just saying.
[00:29:25] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm not going to be invited back to the office. I mean, that one, it's a, it's an apothecary in can. It looks like an heroin beverage. Are they an heroin? I don't know, but I'm going to guess they should be.
[00:29:35] John Craven: I mean, they're, they're definitely on brand for heroin and I could see people picking it up. Curious, you know, and libido is tied to happiness. So you could just be like, this is a happy drink.
[00:29:47] Ray Latif: Happy fun times. That's why I love his radio. There's just so much good content on this show. You can't say enough about the contributions that everyone brings. I really do mean that. It's really fun doing this show. 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. 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, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:30:53] Mike Schneider: you
