[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. In this episode, we're joined by Stephanie McGregor, the founder and CEO of Ringa, an innovative functional beverage brand crafted with moringa and apple cider vinegar. Love that brand. Ditto tasty yeah, we saw Stephanie in December I saw her recently, but we all saw her in December when she participated in the new beverage showdown Yeah, we had a debriefing show after that Not every contestant asked for one, but you want one you get one exactly good chat exactly yes Stephanie I really had a good conversation y'all be able to hear it shortly what I want to talk about right now is sort of a Recommendation I have for folks when they go out to dinner.
[00:01:11] John Craven: Oh, no. I know this one.
[00:01:14] Ray Latif: You recommended this to me. I told people this. Triggered by this now. I said, don't do this. And I did this. You did. You ate mussels. I ate mussels. I've always said, don't eat mussels. Anthony Bourdain talks about this or did talk about this back in the day. He's like, look, the last thing you want to eat on a dinner menu is mussels because they could be sitting out for a while. You don't know how old they are and whatever. On Sunday I went to the old show of anchovy shout out anchovies south end in Boston here With Adam our dear friend Adam Stern And I I called an audible because we were just gonna get the usual fries, and you know maybe some sausage Sausage is good there by the way wait a minute you looked at the menu
[00:02:03] Jacqui Brugliera: And you heard yourself internally saying, don't do it.
[00:02:07] Ray Latif: Yeah. In the past, I'd had these mussels and I'd never had a problem. So I figured, okay, let me just give it a try. And they have these lemon garlic mussels that are incredible. So while I was eating them, great. Let me be clear though, let me be clear. This is also, this is also, I want to be clear that I am not 100% sure. I'm not 100% sure that they came from the mussels. It could have come from something else. So no sin in anchovies. It may not have happened, you know, at anchovies, but. In the past when I've eaten mussels, I've had some problems. So yesterday I was in bad, bad shape. So, and yesterday being Monday, the day after.
[00:02:46] John Craven: How are you feeling now?
[00:02:48] Ray Latif: I'm feeling better. Much better. Yeah. Yesterday, fresh and clean. Yesterday I was in rough shape, but yeah, I'm as a result. I'm a little behind on things so thanks for bearing with me Folks cuz yeah, that was not fun. We're always bearing with you. Yeah, nothing new here. Oh Well, what is going to be fun is our Taste Radio Meetup, which is happening in Miami in 10 days. Folks in South Florida, folks in- It's February 11th. February 11th, that's correct. It's 10 days from the publication date.
[00:03:22] Jacqui Brugliera: No one needs to count. Let's not do math.
[00:03:24] Ray Latif: Yes, February 11th at Ampersand Studios in Miami. We're very, very excited to See The food and beverage community out there. First time for me in Miami. I've never been. So excited. Never? Yeah, never been Our Miami.
[00:03:38] John Craven: Do you have any things that you really want to do while you're there go to the club I?
[00:03:42] Ray Latif: Think the only thing I really want to do is get a Cuban sandwich In a strange turn of events.
[00:03:50] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm choosing the restaurant. I've got the perfect place for you, and I to get that Cuban no muscles Should we give people the link to sign up yes of course taste
[00:04:02] Ray Latif: radio.com slash Miami. That's where you can RSVP. We highly encourage you to please RSVP because that's how we'll know you're coming, how much food we're going to need to order, et cetera, et cetera. Folks who are of the food and beverage founder community, please bring samples. We want to see, taste, eat all of your products and everyone else there wants to as well. Exactly. All at once. Yeah, so John, Mike, and I will be there. Jackie is doing us a solid and holding down the fort because, you know, when John, Mike, and I, most importantly, when we're on the road, someone needs to run the show. That person is Jackie.
[00:04:43] John Craven: Gotta keep everything moving, you know.
[00:04:45] Ray Latif: And by the show, I mean the entire company, not just like Taste Radio. Yeah, we can't run the no we can't it's remote the technology is impossible possible. No I've always said this before no I I'm gonna praise Jackie one more time like seriously Jackie I don't know what we would do in this guy I seriously do not know because she does everything even though her title is director of marketing she does everything around here, so thanks Jackie Yeah, okay Let's not find out right now Thanks to our partners for the event New Water and Matriarch Wealth Management. Very excited to See The folks as well. So once again, if you haven't signed up and you are based in South Florida or going to be in The Real, head to Taste Radio.com slash Miami and RSVP. ASAP. ASAP. Yeah. So last week, in addition to being at the Fancy Food Show, we were at Naturally San Diego's pre-party for the UNFI show out there in San Diego. And they had a bunch of folks sampling and exhibiting, well exhibiting is kind of the wrong word, but you know, showcasing their items out there. They all mean the same thing, right? They do, they do. One of the brands I'm at out there is The Real Cereal Co. And this is a really cool brand. I first saw this At air one when we were out there in December out in LA that is The product I saw is organic cornflakes just corn and a touch of sea salt It contains no Sugar, it's non-gmo. It's USDA organic certified and certified gluten-free if you look at the ingredient label It says organic corn grits and sea salt. That's it this is comes in a pouch an 8.4 ounce pouch and It just looks terrific. I mean, I, I love cornflakes. This, this really speaks to me. Of course, you know, if it's at Erewhon, you know, it's, if it's organic and it's, you know, cornflakes. Are we going to open it up or what? Are we going to stare at this thing? Hold on. It's probably going to be a little on the pricier side. So this, I believe, retails for six or $7. So it's not your Kellogg's cornflakes, but it's, it's pretty, pretty good looking. And yes, we can open it now.
[00:07:02] John Craven: Yeah. I've been actually eating those the last couple of days for breakfast. Cause I maybe stole a couple of bags and brought them home and they are giving them out. Going back for more and putting it in a little corner.
[00:07:16] Jacqui Brugliera: She also didn't have to get on a plane. That's some quality looting. Hope you got some chef's life, olive oil too.
[00:07:22] John Craven: Yes, I did. But yeah, that cereal is tasty. And when I was a kid, I honestly ate super basic cereal. I was like the weirdo. I only like Rice Krispies and unfrosted flakes. And this is for me. It's like quality and delicious. And they do have Rice Krisps too.
[00:07:41] Jacqui Brugliera: Did you like your cornflakes to be like mad crispy, or did you like to let them get a little soggy?
[00:07:46] John Craven: A little soggy.
[00:07:47] Jacqui Brugliera: Me too. I used to like, I used to wait until they get to that perfect level of soggy and then just.
[00:07:52] John Craven: Yeah, you gotta mix it all in the milk and just let it sit for a second.
[00:07:56] Jacqui Brugliera: This is one thing I'll disagree with you all on. I mean, they're good both ways.
[00:08:00] John Craven: You might as well just chug it from the bag, you know, if you're not going to let it soak.
[00:08:05] Ray Latif: We just had a visit from sample captain Colin.
[00:08:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, yeah F and dude we call him Geez Wow, I didn't actually See The word can we also play like the breaking news sound?
[00:08:17] Ray Latif: Like the old-school Like So yeah, so The Real Cereal Co, our dear friend and colleague Adrianne DeLuca wrote a story about this brand. It was published on January 2nd, 2025. You can read all about it on Nosh, but yeah, I would say if you have an opportunity to check this brand out, definitely do so. And the one thing- Sounds like we might not get a chance to check it out.
[00:08:48] Mike Schneider: I know, you can open it.
[00:08:49] Ray Latif: Can we just open the damn thing here? Okay, I just want to say one other thing about this. This is, geez, John just like ripped that mother open. You're in rare form today. I don't know. So, you know, some of the expensive high end $10 boxes of cereal that have been circulating and sold all over the United States for the past, you know, three, four or five years and they're protein enhanced or they have some sort of functional benefit to them. And I'm thinking to myself, who's actually buying this stuff? And I really never met someone who's buying those brands. And I know you all know who I'm talking about. But this, on the other hand, this, you know, where it's just simple, straightforward, a return to simplicity, as it were. It is very simple, very straightforward. But that you know are made with good ingredients, no crap, no fillers, no nothing. This is what I'm talking about. And I think this is what most people want more than The Real complex. Oh, wow.
[00:09:49] Jacqui Brugliera: Heavily processed.
[00:09:50] Ray Latif: This is like a little work of art.
[00:09:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, but heavily processed food. Cereal, more specifically, that's out there. It's solid. I mean, I wish the I don't know the branding feels a little generic to me. I guess it'See The throwback though. It's Very nostalgic look. I get what they're going It does sort of match the simple and clean ingredients, but I don't know I mean it's one of these brands where I'm sure as it is out there and gets traction that will feel more branded than It does on your sort of first look where it just feels again very very simple.
[00:10:26] John Craven: Yeah. It almost like stands out because of that right now, because all the The Real brands out there are doing a lot.
[00:10:32] Jacqui Brugliera: Right. Yeah. I mean, what's also nice about this bag's like dense. This is not like, you know, the box full of air, like some of the mainstream cereal brands. So I want tasty stuff. The flakes to be slightly larger, but other than that, like baby flakes, they're kind of baby flaky and, but they're perfect though.
[00:10:52] John Craven: Yeah. The perfect crisp.
[00:10:54] Jacqui Brugliera: Perfect crisp they they don't feel like they have like some weird coating on them like a person like no sugar or anything no sugar or no just you know how Kellogg's cornflakes have the I don't know they have like some weird coating on them. It's a preservative for sure yeah These don't have that well. That's a good thing though.
[00:11:13] John Craven: No. It's great quicker by the way I Don't want that
[00:11:20] Jacqui Brugliera: I wanted to say crispy. That's probably what that code is. I don't really eat cereal anymore.
[00:11:24] John Craven: I wasn't either until this popped up.
[00:11:28] Jacqui Brugliera: There you go. It's a new reason to eat cereal. I mean, if it's not made by Jimmy Dean, I'm not eating it for breakfast. No, kidding, kidding, kidding.
[00:11:35] Ray Latif: Wow, you know sorry Jimmy Dean. You know Jimmy Dean was actually they're playing to have a huge presence at Nosh You just got canceled you and the company essentially well. Thank you. Yeah, you remember that movie point-break the original one with a key It'See The only one yeah, okay. Well. No. There's a there was the remake.
[00:11:53] Jacqui Brugliera: Well. That's a do we pretend that doesn't exist okay?
[00:11:55] Ray Latif: There was a scene where they were in, I guess the movie was showing the inside of the house where the crazy surfers all lived. And Tom Sizemore was like an undercover cop. I remember seeing this.
[00:12:12] Jacqui Brugliera: John watched it yesterday. It plays in my head all the time.
[00:12:15] Ray Latif: He had a bowl of cereal and he thought he was so cool, or they tried to make it seem like it was so cool, that he was actually using beer instead of milk for The Real. Oh God. Wow, and I saw Mike with his can of Live Soda over there And I was thinking Live Soda real Cereal Co this could work. I mean bring it. I'll do it Please don't know Live Soda I saw this in the cooler the other day that looks like another throwback kind of in terms of package design label design It looks amazing This is a brand that was brought back to life
[00:12:45] Jacqui Brugliera: by our friends at Better Booch.
[00:12:46] Ray Latif: Better Booch, yeah.
[00:12:48] Jacqui Brugliera: So Live Soda, tell us all about it, Mike. What are you drinking there? It's tasty. I'm drinking a Live Soda Fountain Cola, and it's organic Live Soda, gut-supporting goodness. It's on brand with Better Booch. You know, it's kind of another one of those that's better for you. Tastes great, great bubbles. Yeah, Ashley and Trey have done a great job just with the rebrand of this, and also the product's phenomenal.
[00:13:11] Ray Latif: But the label looks like, I don't know, it looks like a 60s soda.
[00:13:18] John Craven: Oh, Jackie's drinking one too. Oh, nice job, Jackie. Yeah, I'm drinking the luscious cream, which is actually delicious. That one's excellent.
[00:13:27] Jacqui Brugliera: It's so good. So good. Yeah, and the flavors are throwback. You get exactly what you're expecting, and then you look at the back and you're like, really? Only seven grams of sugar?
[00:13:37] Ray Latif: Well, that's kind of where the prebiotic, probiotic, gut-healthy soda category is.
[00:13:41] Jacqui Brugliera: Right, right. I know, but just the way it hits, though, is like a full sugar soda.
[00:13:47] Ray Latif: I guess what's also interesting about Live Soda is that it feels like it's a bit more of a functional soda than what we're seeing from some of the other newer brands that are coming out there that are trying to, it seems like, move away from that type of positioning.
[00:14:03] Jacqui Brugliera: And this cola is really good too. It's hard to do cola. I wouldn't say it's like the classic Coke or Pepsi flavor, but it's pretty close. Yeah, it is definitely close.
[00:14:13] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, kudos to the team at Better Booch for resurrecting Live Soda, which was always a good brand. Resurrecting and rebranding. And yeah, it's always a good brand, but they've made it, I think, even better. They kind of just brought it under their wing, you know? It wasn't quite dead.
[00:14:25] John Craven: They used to make kombucha, right?
[00:14:27] Ray Latif: They still do. They do.
[00:14:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Better Booch.
[00:14:28] John Craven: They still do. Yeah, still do.
[00:14:30] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. And I mean, I think it makes sense.
[00:14:32] Ray Latif: Yeah, I saw Better Booch in my local Stop & Shop. I don't typically shop at Stop & Shop, but every so often I have to pop in there and I saw Better Booch in there.
[00:14:40] Jacqui Brugliera: Are they still doing cha? They have cha, too. I don't know. You'll have to ask. We'll have to catch up with them. Yeah.
[00:14:48] Ray Latif: You guys have just copious amounts of new products.
[00:14:51] Jacqui Brugliera: We do.
[00:14:52] Ray Latif: I have one that was literally, I just opened the box.
[00:14:54] Jacqui Brugliera: I got the care package from Kartik Das.
[00:14:55] Ray Latif: It was just sent to me. Talk about another brand that was resurrected. Slice again No, this is again. No, it's not again. So slice of sooja the brand of cold-pressed juices and shots Resurrected slice and resurrected it as a healthy soda Brandt Gehrs. Yes, so these come in several varieties. I have an orange soda there's a John's Cola Mike has a well, I mean our robbery orange slice was sort of like a classic.
[00:15:25] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes, orange slice was the classic Man tastes like orange soda. I don't know.
[00:15:28] Ray Latif: I don't remember what slice tastes like these now have probiotics and prebiotics They only contain 5 grams of sugar. It looks like the old slice branding. It looks like the old slice logo and whatnot Yeah, but it's described as healthy soda. Yeah, 40 calories. I mean, I don't know taste good Live Soda Live Soda Slice, healthy soda. Now, are they gonna get in trouble for calling it healthy soda?
[00:15:51] Jacqui Brugliera: I wouldn't call it that. That's a good question.
[00:15:53] Ray Latif: I don't know if they should. I'm not sure if they...
[00:15:55] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know if... Well, okay, by get in trouble, you mean like a class action lawsuit sort of thing? I don't know.
[00:16:01] Ray Latif: Well, they must have talked to their lawyers about this.
[00:16:03] Jacqui Brugliera: Who knows?
[00:16:04] Ray Latif: Who knows? Always talk to your lawyers. Yes. John talks to our lawyers three times a day. He's like, geez, okay, that is not true at all. You have to make that very clear. That's not true at all.
[00:16:20] Jacqui Brugliera: And then Ray talked about eating muscles and it was very graphic.
[00:16:25] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, good job Sujan bringing back Slice. Let's see how this goes. And hey, if there's a lawsuit about healthy soda, don't say I didn't tell you so. Can I throw up some non-beverage products here? Did you say throw up?
[00:16:37] Jacqui Brugliera: One more word on the slice before you do that, please John the strawberry is Very very strawberry good supposed to be it's kind of how strawberry drinks always are yeah I've got how do you say this is it sauce? So one thing I sauce sauce the spelling just gets stuck in my head of like you know But anyway, it's like yeah for horror movies.
[00:17:03] John Craven: I always want to say sows.
[00:17:04] Jacqui Brugliera: That's what I'm saying anyway I guess at least we're talking about the brand that's kind of the point, but the is how it's built. Yes This is the new miso garlic marinara sauce It's got, I think, some, well, I mean, it's got, like, basically this kind of kicked up umami flavor. Yeah. It's pretty darn tasty. I mean, these guys make really good quality jarred tomato sauce. I would drink that. It's so good. I think this is available nationally at Whole Foods. Nice. I don't know if it's limited time or what The Real is, but quite tasty. Highly recommend that.
[00:17:40] Ray Latif: Yeah. If I were a design expert and I'm not, I would say that I'd pump up the size of the brand. I wouldn't. No?
[00:17:49] Jacqui Brugliera: No.
[00:17:49] Ray Latif: Because the size of the brand, the size of the font that describes the flavor and the size of the font of the brand are the same.
[00:17:56] Jacqui Brugliera: I would take the size of the brand down a bit. I would etch the logo into the glass just to throw their cogs completely out the window. Who cares about that? I think the flavor is the hero here and also you can See The it's a sauce too, so. Okay. I also have these delicious Terranian brand. Let's see what they did to me. These are awesome. Just dropped the meta off the Terranian there. Zatar pita chips. Zatar. Whatever. That's how we say in Massachusetts. Zatac. Zatac. These are really, really tasty. Super good, fresh tasting pita chip.
[00:18:34] Ray Latif: They have two varieties. They have a za'atar and they also have a cinnamon sugar. They're described as twice baked. Interesting.
[00:18:41] Jacqui Brugliera: So they must be pretty crunchy. You should try these, Ray. I mean, there's, first of all, you get 14 chips for 110 calories and they're super crunchy and they're twice baked. I don't know if it's because they're twice baked or whatever, whatever their secret formula is. Maybe it's because they're twice baked. These are really, really crispy and good. And the flavor, of course. Because they are? Za'atar. Tastes really good dipped in the new single-serve Chipotle bitchin' sauce. Comes right at you. I'm gonna go for the cinnamon here, too. Have a bitchin' sauce.
[00:19:17] Ray Latif: Yeah, so I misspoke. The Turanian pita chips come in three varieties that we have at least. The spicy za'atar, the regular za'atar, and the cinnamon spice. There you go.
[00:19:26] Mike Schneider: There you go. The premium cinnamon.
[00:19:29] Ray Latif: Sorry cinnamon sugar Variety also quite amazing Jackie got anything over there cuz like our audience is gonna lose it. We're hearing all these crunching in the microphone Over here though.
[00:19:42] John Craven: I need my hands on those snacks In the Bitchin Sauce.
[00:19:46] Ray Latif: I love me some good Bitchin Sauce well Bitchin Sauce is based in San Diego, so hard time getting a hold of that stuff I
[00:19:52] John Craven: Yeah, they just have been rolling out their single serve and then also they have like squeezable bitchin' sauce, which is like amazing. You can put it on anything.
[00:20:00] Ray Latif: Squeezable is good.
[00:20:01] John Craven: Yeah. But yeah, what I have over here isn't necessarily as tasty or snackable, but it's functional. It is. I mean, I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say that. But dry water over here is another hydration drink powder. And they have this lemon lime and they have mixed berry. And what I really like about this is on the front of pack, they literally just have all of the ingredients laid out. So kind of like RX bar style, you can tell exactly what's in it. Like six key electrolytes, amino acid, five plus essential vitamins.
[00:20:34] Jacqui Brugliera: And then there's no added sugar either in these guys have been Instagram adding the hell out of me. I want to try that. Have you tried it yet?
[00:20:42] John Craven: I haven't tried it yet.
[00:20:43] Jacqui Brugliera: That's going to be tasty.
[00:20:45] John Craven: It's going to be really good.
[00:20:46] Jacqui Brugliera: You don't just drink it out of the. It's dry water, just go right for the stick.
[00:20:50] John Craven: I would probably inhale it and then just go everywhere.
[00:20:53] Ray Latif: So we featured dry water in this week's episode of Elevator Talks sat down with founder Brian Appio. And yeah, really interesting brand, really interesting to hear about how he developed it. They're in Walmart nationwide. Actually, they got into Walmart nationwide in October, so if you want to try the product, you can definitely go to your local Walmart. But yeah, definitely check out that episode of Elevator Talk. We sit down with some really interesting brands, including Dry Water, as well as Sip Herbals, Sacred Bev, and See The Elephant Amaro. And if you're interested in participating in a future episode of Elevator Talk, just head to BevNET.com slash Elevator Talk. I like how you said that.
[00:21:35] Jacqui Brugliera: Slash. Slash. Slash. I have a care package from our good friend Kartik. Kartik Das, the founder of Doosra. Doosra. The first one I kind of got into already, it's called Babu, and these are their chai biscuits, and there's some biscuits left, but they're amazing. It's a small cookie. It's like a square almost, or well, it's like a rectangular cookie, but it's, It's a biscuit, but it's extra thick, and it's got amazing flavor inside.
[00:22:04] Ray Latif: Babu's spelled B-A-A-B-U. Chai biscuits is how they're described. And it says supports digestion. There's a little button on there. You should chai it, Ray. All right, send them on over. Buttery cookies with toasted fennel seeds. There you go.
[00:22:17] John Craven: I like these, like, you know, new age digestion biscuits, because usually that's for, like, old people. But now they're kind of cool again.
[00:22:26] Jacqui Brugliera: Jackie, you know the thing, you want to hear something? This is ironic, Jackie, because I've been thinking lately, I'm really into biscuits lately.
[00:22:33] John Craven: Does that mean you're old? You know what I was going there Jackie.
[00:22:39] Jacqui Brugliera: That's what it means. I'm into biscuits lately, and I was like oh, yeah I really like biscuits these chai biscuits are hitting the right way for me, and then I was like yeah shit Yeah Okay, what else did our dear friend Karthik See You well? There's two snacks here from Rishi Snacks which are traditional Indian snacks made lovingly in South Florida this one's kale cranberry and this one Ray this one's describing you Sure Flavor says jerk so Rishi Snacks are I?
[00:23:14] Ray Latif: sh I Described as traditional Indian snack made leveling in South Florida, so I said it's describing you Jackie after that.
[00:23:21] Jacqui Brugliera: How are you old?
[00:23:25] Ray Latif: Pretty similar to do sir
[00:23:27] Jacqui Brugliera: Let's have a check. Let's have a check.
[00:23:28] Ray Latif: I didn't I didn't I didn't open the varieties are jerkin and kale cranberry Raven quite deucera, but in another sort of a variety neck along the same I mean, there's no kale and no cranberry and deucera right one of them has nuts one of them is not See The jerk hasn't has nuts the other one does not So does our show have nuts? This is really good it feels a little bit like to swear in that it's just like that if you want a snack of something and Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, pretty good flavor is good the the kale cranberry the if you look inside the the pouch the ingredients are beautiful and You can definitely See The kale leaves.
[00:24:12] Jacqui Brugliera: Real stuff in there. It's super vibrant. The peas, the cranberry, it's beautiful. It's not always this way, but like the outside of the pack and the inside of the pack are equally beautiful. Wow, this is super vibrant, the kale cranberry. You're right, Ray. We also got some mint, cardamom, and cinnamon fennel seed digestives from Chikka Chikka. which have amazing packaging and I'm sure these will taste great too. You know who's a big fan of these? Melissa.
[00:24:42] Ray Latif: Melissa Traverse, our director of community.
[00:24:43] Jacqui Brugliera: We have to give those to Melissa.
[00:24:45] Ray Latif: A fennel seed digestive. Chica Chica. C-H-I-K-K-A. And then again, they have a mint, cardamom, and cinnamon variety. But yeah, another digestive. What is Karthik trying to tell you over here? And not not pictured because I hammered the entire bag was a bag of deucer So when I when I saw you when I saw you pull he said I actually thought this was fish wife Because it has a fish wife does have that vibe Yeah, it's very flowery and when it's beautiful whimsical is the right word yes anything else that you got there I Yes. Well, stick with me for a minute. Okay. Now it looks like you've got a baby bottle.
[00:25:27] Jacqui Brugliera: So this is Hua, which is a H-U-W-A. H-U-W-A, which is a product of Palestine. And it's an extra virgin olive oil. And it's interesting. It has like this cool outside of the package and inside is like, there's a comic. That's cool. Inside. So it has a cardboard label that you can take off the bottle right and So I I grabbed this the other day, and it's it's pretty cool. I haven't tried the olive oil yet I I don't know I've been saving it for the show, but I got some interesting comments on the bottle itself in the comic and Madhu Sharaf who is our dear friend from Kimballa Makes an insanely good chai had an interesting request he wants to know how the bottle operates So this is for you my do ready so the bottle for listeners.
[00:26:20] Ray Latif: It does it does look like It does look like an oversized baby bottle It's plastic right. Yeah, it's plastic. Do you well? I just wanted to hold it squeeze bottle Yes, and there's actually a little there's a couple of ridges where you can kind of hold your finger and pour it out, but it definitely resembles Something that a child would hold in their hand, but yeah It's pretty functional like you can see how
[00:26:50] Jacqui Brugliera: easy it is for consumers to use. Very cool. Nice. Yeah. And I'll have to report back on how I'm See The alcohol is going to be amazing.
[00:26:58] Ray Latif: Yeah. It's described as ethically sourced, organic and GMO free, handcrafted, handpicked, hand washed, indigenous farming, using the same techniques for thousands of years. Very cool.
[00:27:08] Jacqui Brugliera: And the emojis on the bottle are cool too. You've got like question mark, you get confused in love and you know, they're pretty cool. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for sending these, Kartik, and to the founders of Hua. Thank you so much for sending your products.
[00:27:29] Ray Latif: All right, let's get to our featured interview for this episode. As I mentioned at the top of the show, Stephanie McGregor is the founder and CEO of Ringa, a brand of plant-based beverages that are marketed as, quote, holistic hydration. Launched in 2023, Ringa is made with all organic ingredients, including moringa, apple cider vinegar, and prebiotic fiber from agave inulin. The beverages contain no added sugar and come in three flavors, lemon and ginger, cucumber and mint, and elderberry and lavender lemonade. Based in Seattle, Ringa is currently sold at Earth Fair stores across the Southeast, as well as several independent retailers in the Pacific Northwest. Each 12-ounce can retails for approximately $4. Stephanie, a veteran food and beverage brand executive who has worked with Vitamin Water, Chips and Smashmallow, joined me for an interview at the 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show, where we spoke about her inspiration to launch a beverage brand, how she is attempting to align education about functional ingredients to a common habit, why she's not chasing demand for gut-friendly sodas, and what she's learned from taking a slow and sustainable approach to retail growth. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I'm honored to be sitting down with Stephanie McGregor, who is the founder and CEO of Ringa. Stephanie, great to See You.
[00:28:56] Adam Stern: Great to See You, Ray, as always.
[00:28:57] Ray Latif: Here in the sunny city of Las Vegas for the Winter Fancy Food Show, the final Winter Fancy Food Show, as it were. This is kind of a bummer, but you know, they're shifting into something new.
[00:29:08] Adam Stern: I feel like that's just our luck, to be honest. We launched Ringa at Expo East in 2023, which was the last Expo East. So it seems only fitting that this is the last Winter Fancy Food.
[00:29:20] Ray Latif: Because this is your first time exhibiting here.
[00:29:22] Adam Stern: Exactly. Yep.
[00:29:23] Ray Latif: Yeah. I actually met you, I think, for the first time at that Expo East in Philadelphia in 2023. I was blown away by your product. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is delicious. It'See The kind of functionality that I'm looking for. Your branding is great. I felt like, you know, there's a great runway for Ringen. I still feel that way. And part of the reason why I wanted to sit down with you today. And I think about your experience in the food and beverage industry, well, specifically the food industry. You know, what compelled you, what made you really interested and passionate about getting into beverages and why specifically a brand like Ringa?
[00:29:56] Adam Stern: Well, thank you so much for that. As you mentioned, I've been in the food industry for quite a while, actually got my start in beverages, so I should know better than starting a beverage company. But yeah, I actually was lucky enough to work with the Glasso vitamin water team before it was purchased by Coca-Cola. So definitely have a, you know, a lot of beverage experience, but that was many years ago. And after that acquisition, I did work for many other companies. I worked for a company, Popchips, Krave Jerky, Barkthins, and then most recently was working for Smashmallow. So I have a good amount of experience across different categories. And what led me back to beverages was somewhat not intentional. I actually thought I was going to get out of the industry. In 2022, I did have to help wind down the Smashmallow business, which was incredibly distressing, you know, very emotionally draining. And I just, I needed to take some time off and kind of reevaluate, you know, what I wanted to do.
[00:31:04] Ray Latif: And just for some context here, you were basically running the Smashmallow brand.
[00:31:07] Adam Stern: Correct.
[00:31:07] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:31:08] Adam Stern: Yeah, I joined as the brand manager, and then through the twists and turns of five years, plus the COVID pandemic, did end up working with the Sonoma Brands team. We did have to take an equipment manufacturer all the way to a jury trial. So the end for that brand did end with a positive judgment. But sadly, just with the capital needs, did shut the brand down. So went down with the ship, so to speak, but felt that was really important. I believed in what we were doing there. I believed in that brand, and I believed in that product. And I knew that if I was going to join another company with the amount of energy and effort required, that it would need to be something that I had full conviction in and I just hadn't had that opportunity to let the dust settle. So part of my own journey of just recharging the battery was to take a trip. We ended up taking a trip, my husband and I, to Baja, Mexico, where we rented an Airbnb. And the Airbnb host was growing a plant called moringa on her property that I had never heard of before. But she shared with me the host of both personal and planetary benefits. around Moringa, which is the fact that Moringa is one of the most nutrient-dense plants on the planet. It's fast-growing, drought-tolerant, a complete plant protein, and so it solves a whole host of personal and planetary challenges. Needless to say, I became inspired by learning about this ingredient, did some research, and decided to launch a product inspired by Moringa.
[00:32:53] Ray Latif: How long did it take you to figure out what you wanted to do with this plant and in what beverage form?
[00:33:00] Adam Stern: We returned home from Baja in September of 2022. By January of 2023, we had our first formula. Oh, wow. So the benefit of spending 20 years in the startup space, even though it hadn't all been in beverages, is just the sheer amount of experience, And the growth of my career over that time, you know, became much closer to operations and R&D. As you mentioned, I was pretty much a one-woman show at Smash Mellow towards the end, which meant I was thrown, you know, into the trenches of ordering ingredients and dealing with suppliers and, you know, things that were very interesting, you know, specifically as a brand person, but obviously, as I would find out later launching my own company, so pretty much knew what we wanted from a flavor profile standpoint. But because we do need to pasteurize and obviously a kitchen recipe versus a thousand gallon scalable recipe, two totally different things. So did work with the lab, they helped us, you know, pick and choose the right ingredients and pHs and process authorities and all sorts of those things. But we walked Expo West 2023 with our first flavor, the Lemon Ginger, and then we launched officially as a brand in the summer of 2023.
[00:34:21] Ray Latif: The other part of the brand that I know well is the apple cider vinegar that is included in all of your three SKUs. Apple cider vinegar can be kind of divisive. Why did you feel like that had to be part of Renga?
[00:34:38] Adam Stern: It was not intentional at the beginning. One of the brand standards from a product and formulation standpoint, and this was coming from a very sugar-forward product, Smashmallow, which was, you know, a marshmallow.
[00:34:55] Ray Latif: Marshmallows have sugar?
[00:34:57] Adam Stern: Pretty much an integral part of the product, for sure. But, you know, sugar in all forms at that point in time, 2022, and certainly, you know, up until now, sugar is the main contributing factor to chronic health conditions. You know, the statistics are staggering in terms of 50% of the people in this country suffer from a chronic health condition. Added sugar largely contributes to those chronic health conditions. We knew we didn't want to have added sugar. And so when we started to do the formulation, you know, when you take out sugar, you take out fat, you take out salt, you have to have something that tastes good. I mean, obviously people are consuming this. We want to be an everyday product and it needed to taste really good. So apple cider vinegar became something from a flavor profile standpoint that had viscosity. It had weight. It had mouthfeel. It obviously had the benefits of the mother, if we were to See You know, the unpasteurized form. When you do pasteurize it, all vinegars, not just apple cider vinegar, you're left with acetic acid, which has its whole host of gut friendly benefits as well, too. So we really liked this idea of apple cider vinegar. It helped us create something that felt very palatable. And we have chosen to sweeten with just the fruit juice. So the challenge now becomes finding those flavor profiles and ingredients that pair well. And Our Miami goal is to not just be a beverage brand. It is, you know, we'd like to commercialize more products with Moringa. And apple cider vinegar isn't necessarily a through line in all of our products. But in the beverage, we really felt that it delivered the functional benefits we were looking for. It delivered that mouthfeel. And it's something unique and different. As people are leaving sugar, you know, certainly tart is a flavor profile that pairs well, especially with food. And so we really felt like we could lean into it in a way that not a lot of other products are.
[00:36:58] Ray Latif: I think people are probably a little bit more familiar with apple cider vinegar, or at least vinegar in general, than say, Moringa. And even though there are a few brands out there, Cooley Cooley obviously has been spreading the word and talking about Moringa for a number of years now. It's still one of those ingredients that's pretty unknown. It's not of the household term. If you asked someone what Moringa is, I doubt that even know, or a lot of people wouldn't know it's a plant. So you're kind of battling two things at the same time. One, just getting your brand out there, getting your name out there and letting people know that, hey, this is awesome. You should try it. On the other hand, you're trying to explain what Moringa is. How do those things work at the same time? How do you approach the challenges of introducing a new brand and introducing an ingredient or at least educating consumers about an ingredient they are not necessarily familiar with?
[00:37:52] Adam Stern: It certainly can be challenging. What we have found, though, is that it's a conversation starter a lot of times. I think people are always looking for something that's new and different. And when they don't know an ingredient, it almost makes them more curious about what it is. Why haven't I heard of this? What is unique about Moringa is it's used a lot of times in a lot of multivitamins. and plenty of people take a multivitamin. So if we can attach it to a familiar habit that consumers are already doing, it's not that far of a departure. And actually Moringa was selected by the World Health Organization a couple of years ago as the next superfood, somewhat around the time when Ashwagandha emerged and Ashwagandha just ended up taking off faster than Moringa, but Moringa not only has a lot of those benefits, but it does have a climate-friendly footprint with it being fast-growing, drought-tolerant, those sorts of things. So we try to compare it to a lot of things that people are familiar with, which then also allows us to highlight the differences of it. And certainly Cooley Cooley and brands like True Moringa have been out there. you know, helping to drive that awareness. And at shows like Fancy Food or Expo East, you have a higher level of awareness around natural ingredients and, you know, supplements and those sorts of things. So the conversations in two years, honestly, are getting easier. I'm actually surprised when we have people come up to us when we're at these shows and know that we're a Moringa brand and want to share their stories about Moringa with us. It's very cool.
[00:39:27] Ray Latif: It is. I'm really surprised about ashwagandha because ashwagandha, I'm sure there are plenty of people here at the Fantasy Food Show or probably even at Expo West, you're like, hey, what's ashwagandha? They're like, I know it's a healthy ingredient. It's an adaptogen, isn't it? But The Real don't know where it comes from. At least you know that moringa comes from a plant or at least it is a plant. Where does ashwagandha come from? I don't even know.
[00:39:47] Adam Stern: I don't know, but somehow it's more popular. I think it's just more interesting to say.
[00:39:53] Ray Latif: So maybe that's what it is. Yes. But Moringa is more fun to say, too, I think. And, you know, you named your brand essentially after Moringa. I've heard people say different things about that. Don't be tied or at least don't tie your brand name to a particular ingredient. And now you're not necessarily doing it. You're not calling the brand Moringa. But how did you think about brand name? Because that's such an important part of a brand's potential success.
[00:40:17] Adam Stern: Well, we knew that we wanted to be a platform for Moringa. It doesn't necessarily have to be the star, which is why I like to say we're inspired by Moringa. It certainly will be a component of every product that we launch. But immediately when I started to do research on Moringa, one of its nicknames is the tree of life. And it kind of has this very circular, holistic connection. And, you know, a circle or a sphere is literally like the most holistic, round, perfect shape in the universe. And, you know, Ringa kind of has that nice round shape. It can stand on its own without people knowing what Moringa is. It's also fun to say more Ringa products, please. And our branding and all of the design is really an homage to Moringa being the tree of life. We lean into sacred geometry and the flower of life pattern on our product. And again, we want to be inclusive. We want to be universal. And everything that we're doing is meant to just kind of honor the fact that, you know, this conscious consumption, we all play a part in that. And our choices matter in terms of what we choose. and how we lean into those ingredients and the processing. So it's really, when we say holistic hydration, that's what it means. It's meant to kind of bring about this whole full circle type of conversation.
[00:41:42] Ray Latif: As you mentioned, Stephanie, you've been doing this for two years, but you've been in the food and beverage industry for a couple of decades. Is that right? I'm not trying to date you, but I think, I think you mentioned. Yes. Yes. So when it was first coming out, I think it was like 2005, 2005. Yeah. So insane. Yep. So you've heard the good and you've heard the not so good from consumers and the feedback can sometimes present an opportunity. Sometimes it can be kind of devastating to hear certain kinds of feedback. And when we were downstairs at your booth and we were referring to some of that feedback, I think you were talking about your mother-in-law and having some debates about the flavor of the product, or at least the ingredients.
[00:42:23] Adam Stern: Yes, Barbara, my mother-in-law, is not shy about providing feedback, and we love her, but we have chosen a tart, not sweet, and I like to now say unapologetically tart. Some of the feedback I'll get from people is that, oh, it tastes like vinegar, and it's supposed to. You know, I think one of my frustrations as a consumer with some of the ingredients, I'll just pick on natural flavors for a minute, is when I look at a product and it says cucumber as an example, and I look on the back label and cucumber shows up nowhere on the ingredient panel, I get frustrated by that.
[00:43:02] Ray Latif: I think literally half our audience is just like, hell yeah, that's exactly what's going on. Why do they do that? I'm feeling that inside right now too. If it says cucumber, why is there no cucumber on the ingredient panel?
[00:43:13] Adam Stern: Yeah, exactly. And so when I get the feedback that we taste like apple cider vinegar, I kind of chuckle to myself because that's what apple cider vinegar tastes like. Now, it doesn't mean that it appeals to every single consumer, but I think we've not done ourselves any sort of service by trying to cover up some of these ingredients. Masking the taste with things like natural flavors or even sugar, as an example, like using a sugar substitute isn't necessarily helping people wean themselves off of sugar. It's just helping to mask that taste. So we do use a half a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. So if anyone's ever done the full tablespoon and you kind of plug your nose and gulp it down, that's not what we're going for. I always find that people who have done that because they know the very positive effects of apple cider vinegar are always pleasantly surprised that we're not that bad, which I find to be a win in those situations. And those are the types of consumers who clearly they know the health benefits. They're consuming something that they don't think tastes good, but they keep doing it because they know how important it is. So if we can bridge the gap of making these healthy, you know, habits and ingredients actually taste good, then I think we're heading in the right direction.
[00:44:31] Ray Latif: Well, I think for better or for worse, this is why people created better for you sodas, right? I mean, an Ollie Pop, a Poppy, a Culture Pop. I mean, there are two or three brands that are downstairs exhibiting. And I said for better or for worse, because there is some debate about whether or not the functional ingredients in these products actually have any real benefit. There's some debate about whether the natural ingredients that you referred to are actually natural. I mean, if you talk about, I don't know, a lemon lime flavor, does it have actual lemon? Does it have actual lime? But guess what? Those products are selling and they're selling a lot. There's a lot of traction. There's a lot of interest behind them. We just reported about, I don't know, two or three weeks ago that Coke and Pepsi are launching their own prebiotic and probiotic sodas. So, When you have all this buzz and you have all this excitement and you have so much energy behind a trendy category, how much does that factor into your strategy and thought process when it comes to positioning Renga?
[00:45:38] Adam Stern: Yeah, I mean, you can ride the wave of that excitement. And, you know, five years ago, if you said prebiotic soda, people would look at you like, what are you talking about? I mean, prebiotic soda is now, you know, kind of an everyday conversation. The challenge with that is that there's so many players, it's hard to stand out. And that usually becomes a race to the bottom in terms of You're either competing on price, you're competing on availability. If you do get a Coke and a Pepsi or any sort of, you know, large manufacturer into this space that has way more capabilities than a small brand, I just don't See The as a battle that we can win. And we're definitely not trying to be a soda. You know, we're in a 12 ounce slim can. We're much more positioned to compete with a kombucha or kind of other fermented beverages. So, you know, coffers or even other apple cider vinegar drinks. But I think that clearly people are listening to the science behind it. But again, we've trained our, you know, U.S. palate to crave sweet. And moving away from that, I don't think is going to be by the manufacturers who are making the most money and, you know, the most successful. So we try to play into it when it makes sense, but we also try to highlight where we're different. But it is definitely a challenge because sweet is something that is just universally appealing. But I think the more information that comes out on how either some of the sugar alternatives may not be good for us either, or just continued sugar consumption, I think people are interested in looking for other taste profiles.
[00:47:22] Ray Latif: I think that's true. And I think in particular in the natural channel, you have consumers that are a bit more educated about what they're putting into their bodies. They might be a little bit more educated about trendy ingredients. I think that'See The gift and curse of the natural foods industry, which is that you have a devoted audience, but how big is that audience? It seems like Ringa's positioning lends itself to the natural channel specifically. Am I wrong in saying that?
[00:47:50] Adam Stern: I think as a whole, that's definitely true, but you do have pockets of the country where even some of the conventional accounts lean a little bit more towards a natural consumer just based on geography. I think for us, we've been trying to figure out what we want to do with the business. I mean, it is competitive, it is expensive. We are self-funded right now. You know, if you hop on that train of growing distribution, that's obviously very expensive, So Our Miami goal is to go deep in the accounts where we know our consumer is, that's yes, largely the natural and organic channel in The Real of the country where we resonate, kind of even outside of that channel. So if we do end up launching in a more conventional account or we launch into, you know, some of these non elk stores or other like mercantile kind of maker market type stores that we're not just relying on the natural customer to pull us off the shelves. But yeah, I mean, we're trying to go slow. We're trying to grow sustainably. It's a tough funding market, and we already know we're not going to appeal to everybody probably right now. So we need to find out where our consumers are, kind of go deep, not wide, and then let the rest of the kind of country, and I'm poking fun at Barbara, the rest of the country, and you know, I grew up in the Midwest, which is just, you know, not necessarily a pocket that's probably quite ready for what we're doing on the tart flavor side and just build where our customers are.
[00:49:23] Ray Latif: I think you can just say the fact that you've been in business for two years in the beverage industry is also a win. I think there's a 90% failure rate for first year beverage brands. And then out of the 10% that are left, I think it's a small percentage of those make it to the next year after that.
[00:49:39] Adam Stern: Yeah, it's hard to have patience, but we have gone slow. We only launched with one flavor. It was our Lemon Ginger. It is the most tart of the bunch, and we spent, you know, essentially a year sampling it, getting feedback, dropping it off at events, and really just trying to understand if there Was it there there? Like, is this something worth pursuing? Are there enough people to continue to invest, you know, resources into it? And what we learned and why we were very strategic, we feel with the flavors we launched is trying to make products that are both familiar but unique at the same time. But for those folks who are half a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar might be too much. We wanted to make flavor profiles that were a little bit more accepting of that. I like to call our cucumber mint kind of the gateway. Both cucumber and mint do a pretty good job of overpowering the apple cider vinegar, mint in particular. You know, if you're not a mint fan, you're probably not going to reach for that one.
[00:50:46] Ray Latif: This is a delicious flavor, by the way.
[00:50:48] Adam Stern: Thank you.
[00:50:49] Ray Latif: Folks listening, if you have an opportunity to get your hands on some Ringa, the cucumber mint variety, definitely do so. Hey, and guess what? There's cucumber juice and organic experiment extract.
[00:50:58] Adam Stern: Actual cucumbers, you know, and this one's actually a funny product because we do source real cucumbers. And the first batch that we made and the second batch were from two different cucumber harvests. And you can actually tell the difference in the bricks and the sweetness of the cucumbers. When we are truly talking about natural products and natural sourcing, you are going to have a little bit of variance, which I think is interesting and unique, but you're not going to get that with a natural flavor. You're going to get the same experience every single time. But we do use real cucumbers. We like to describe that one as spa water because it literally just tastes like infused, delicious, fresh water. And then the elderberry, elderberry is quite tart as well, but we wanted to have that like kind of fruit punch flavor that people are looking for. I think sometimes people do get, they assume that it's sweeter than it is just with the word berry. We added a little bit of lavender in there, which really rounds out the flavor profile. And it has a beautiful elderberry color. So we found that people really like to put that one in a glass. They use it as a red wine replacement. And it's exposing people to different flavor profiles that maybe they don't even know what they taste like anymore because their palates have been used to either a natural flavor or again, Maybe they can't really taste the differences in flavors because there's a sugar or sugar substitute in there just kind of taking over the entire flavor profile.
[00:52:27] Ray Latif: No matter what happens, Stephanie, I know you've got something and I know you have the passion and drive to see it through. So thank you so much for sitting down with me today and good luck with everything going forward. If we can be of help in any way, let me know.
[00:52:40] Adam Stern: Thank you. Thank you always for being a supporter and a champion of emerging brands and always appreciate the chance to talk. Thank you.
[00:52:47] Ray Latif: For sure. 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.
[00:53:40] Stephanie McGregor: you
