[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. I was reading an article the other day about why people don't like to hear their own voices. I assume there are some people out there that love the sound of their own voice. Like you. No, I, I don't like listening to interviews I've done. I mean, I have to, because I have to consider content edits and whatnot, but I don't typically, do you guys listen to yourselves? Do you like hearing your own voice?
[00:00:49] John Craven: You have a great voice. I hate it.
[00:00:51] Ray Latif: And Jackie hates it. Okay.
[00:00:52] John Craven: I hate it. Like it makes me cringe, honestly.
[00:00:55] Jacqui Brugliera: But it's your brand and it's you and everyone loves you, so.
[00:00:57] John Craven: But I don't know. You like, you're also very critical of your own self. So you like notice a lot of things that maybe someone else doesn't.
[00:01:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, the fact that you two don't like your own voices doesn't seem to shut you up at all. Yeah.
[00:01:08] Mike Schneider: Geez.
[00:01:09] John Craven: You power through.
[00:01:10] Mike Schneider: All right.
[00:01:11] Ray Latif: All right. Wasting miles of tape here. All right. All right. Tape. Well, maybe we can move on to a subject that is much more interesting for Mike and John. And maybe the listener, how about them? And the listener, of course, yes. That is the topic of the Nosh Notables 2025. Nosh Notable List Nosh's list of some of the most influential and interesting people in our business, the business of food, that is. And so our Nosh Notable List was announced today, that is Tuesday, August 5th. And I'm seeing some pretty amazing people on this list as expected. We have grouped together the platformers, the crusaders, the trend spotters, the sisters, the trendsetters, the archeologists, the cleanup crew, and the can-do kids. It's a pretty interesting lineup of folks. If you want to find it, if your name is on the list, you should head to Nosh.com. I'm on my way. Somehow. For the fifth year running.
[00:02:15] Jacqui Brugliera: Why are you laughing, Jackie?
[00:02:17] Ray Latif: For the fifth year running, Mike Schneider was left on the list. You're a runner up. I knew it. He was an honorable mention. Yes. But not this year. He was an honorable mention in like 2021. So do you still have the plaque? I do. I do. I kept it. Yeah. To check out the full list, head to Nosh.com. And I encourage folks to check us out. I know that sounds weird, but it is weird. But we're going to be in Chicago next week for Taste Radio Chicago Meetup. It's on August 14th. That's a Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Hoste Cocktails event space in the Pilsen neighborhood. Very excited. We have a ton of people already registered for the event, including founders, retailers, investors, lots of investors, actually. and the consultants that can help you scale your business. I am very, very excited. It does look like it's a great opportunity to come and meet an investor in Chicago. I'm going to be sitting down with Molly Santulli, who is a senior associate with Springdale Ventures, which is an early stage venture capital firm or a venture capital firm that invests in early stage concepts, which is pretty awesome. I'm also going to be sitting down with Jordan Tepper, who's the founder and CEO of Hoste Cocktails. And of course, Rashid Ali, the co-founder and CEO of Chomps. Those folks and dozens, literally dozens of other folks are going to be attending the event. Thank you so much to our event partners, Hoste Cocktails, Source Technology, InvestBev, and Ingredion. Chicago is such a great town.
[00:03:46] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm looking forward to meeting with founders and just finding out what they're up to. I haven't been to Chicago in a while. So many new products to try and founders to talk to and find out what their innovations are.
[00:03:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, absolutely. Mike, you mentioned meeting founders. You and Jonna were at the UNFI show at Mohegan Sun last week. What'd you guys see there?
[00:04:06] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, we saw a founder from Chicago, Taylor Blue, who makes Little Latke, which is a really cool new idea. So, you know, everybody likes latkes, potato pancakes. The best part when you eat one is you get like a little crispy bit. And these are shelf stable latke crisps.
[00:04:24] Ray Latif: Yeah, we featured Little Latke in a past episode of Elevator Talk. She mentioned. Yeah, it's so interesting. It's a really interesting concept where you have basically a salty snack version of latkes.
[00:04:37] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, and all the nostalgia that goes with them just hits you when you have one little crunch of those chips. It's a really good idea.
[00:04:45] Ray Latif: You used to munch on some lockets back in the day? I mean, I like lockets. You like lockets? Who doesn't? John, you see anything interesting when you're at the show?
[00:04:53] Voice Nail: Oh, I brought some samples. Can I take them out now?
[00:04:55] Ray Latif: Oh, we wait usually wait to the end, but please go ahead. We're talking to you on a five show. Oh, yeah. Oh, these are amazing. Yes. I got some yaw. Yaw.
[00:05:02] Voice Nail: Yes. Y-A-W exclamation point. Yeah, so they're baked baguette bites. This one has no cheese if you'd like to sample. I'll take a look they also had a really unique.
[00:05:14] Jacqui Brugliera: They have a bunch of other flavors the crab the crab flavor Barbecue this one's a Cheese flavor and Ray has a tomato herb the founders super enthusiastic He's like you got to try my baguettes and of course we're down to try Like our eyes just popped out of her head like Roger Rabbit style because they're so tasty. They're like exploding with amazing flavor So I'm curious Crunch a baked baguette bite was that something that?
[00:05:42] Voice Nail: Makes sense to you. Yeah, I mean we maybe more commonly call that a crostini perhaps Yeah, that would kind of fit the bill. What's the use case for this is it just snacks? Yeah, you put in your mouth chew and
[00:05:55] Jacqui Brugliera: Look, look at it, right?
[00:05:56] John Craven: It's like a little, they're just flavorful.
[00:05:58] Jacqui Brugliera: It looks like a tiny piece of bread. And yeah, you could definitely break these up and put them on your salad or you can snack on them. They add a lot of flavor to whatever you're eating. Yeah.
[00:06:08] Voice Nail: And I think it's kind of like compared to common extruded snacks of the, you know, maybe like chickpea variety or whatever. Like these are a lot more crunch. I don't know if it literally is just like bread that they sliced up and turned into these, but I mean, it's pretty true to like a piece of toast almost.
[00:06:26] Ray Latif: I'm going to nitpick here. Yeah. So Long the front of the pack, it says non-GMO. There's a little box there that says non-GMO. Yes. Yeah. If I look at the ingredients here, I see the word, the words artificial flavors. Uh, artificial flavors.
[00:06:43] Voice Nail: Can you say non-GMO and have artificial flavors? You can't say non-GMO, or sorry, you can't say artificial and organic, but I think you can technically.
[00:06:54] Ray Latif: Oh, interesting. Okay. That's something I learned today.
[00:06:56] Voice Nail: Yeah, yeah, all right either way. They these things are very tasty Okay, and you got some you got some else by yourself. Yeah, we also got some Some Happy Candy.
[00:07:06] Ray Latif: Yeah, they're also really always love a random um lot so these look like they are Candy from Sweden or from Denmark perhaps?
[00:07:16] Voice Nail: Okay, this is Germany it says what's the flavor you have there Big Apple and Italian summer Nice. But they're basically just slightly less sweet. No junk. Gummy candies.
[00:07:32] Ray Latif: Yeah. Definitely seeing a pretty steep rise in the Better Sour you candy space, at least in terms of the number of players and new entrants into that space.
[00:07:43] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, I put these up there with some of the other great offerings. Better Sour, Behave being a couple of my favorites. And like, these are good. These are good. It's not going to ruin anything to have this one, you know, like, No, no one's gonna be like, oh no, I don't like Better Sour you gummies. These are amazing. Are they?
[00:07:59] Ray Latif: Yeah. Do they fit the bill? No compromise?
[00:08:01] Voice Nail: They're really tasty. Okay. Well, again, they're less sweet. So like when you taste them, they just also don't taste super chunky, you know.
[00:08:10] Ray Latif: Well, one thing I love to see on the front of the pack, because it says 70% less sugar, no fake sugars and no dyes. And on the back, It makes it very clear in big letters, it says NO. And then next to it has a list of commonly used alternative sweeteners, including stevia, monk fruit, allulose, and erythritol.
[00:08:29] Jacqui Brugliera: For those of you who are wondering, Italian summer is lemon and cherries. It's like, you know, Italian ice. Yeah.
[00:08:34] Ray Latif: Yeah. There you go. Okay.
[00:08:36] Jacqui Brugliera: Really nice.
[00:08:37] Ray Latif: Yeah. So I mentioned that we're seeing a lot of new Better Sour You candy brands come to market. And it seems like there is a good amount of consumer demand for lower sugar, lower calorie, great tasting candy out there. And every time I see a LinkedIn post from the team at Better Sour, it just seems like they're getting into new Retailers are getting more distribution, which to me sounds like there is quite a bit of velocity. There is quite a bit of consumer demand and people pulling these products off the shelf.
[00:09:09] Jacqui Brugliera: Great to see, just fantastic product, fantastic people.
[00:09:12] Ray Latif: Yeah. And I was wondering the same thing about frozen dinners and frozen meals. It's interesting to me because, you know, all of us in one way or another grew up on Stouffer's, right?
[00:09:22] Mike Schneider: Like when you thought about like frozen lasagna.
[00:09:27] Voice Nail: Exactly which one had the crappy dessert with it Hungry Man. Yeah, okay? I just feel like I just ate dessert through the rest away, but anyway
[00:09:42] Ray Latif: Well, I wouldn't be surprised, because that's what a lot of people do, because typically all that stuff was really bad for you. Yeah, the meat was nasty. And it just didn't taste good. And, you know, Sofra's Pot Pies, I think they had a pizza. They had, they were called TV dinners way, way back in the day. But nowadays, it feels like we're getting new frozen meal brands, samples of these brands coming into the office on a pretty regular basis. And so I pulled a couple from the freezer. We have Vital Pursuit. They had a few meals, they sent a few meals. This one is their teriyaki chicken. It promotes that it's an air fryer meal, so you don't have to put it in the oven. 23 grams of protein, portion of line, essential nutrients. So that's that. They also have a cauliflower crust pepperoni pizza. Scott and John's, now we talked about Scott and John's a few episodes back. Seafood. Jackie had this for breakfast actually. Scott and John's. Scott and John's is a maker of premium seafood meals. So these things you can stick in the microwave and you'll have a pretty delicious meal pretty quickly. This is their shrimp and mushroom risotto. And then Blue Zones Kitchen, this is another product that I saw in the freezer. Blue Zones is a maker of frozen meals that you can also stick in the microwave. Those are really tasty. Yes, clean ingredients, high quality ingredients. This is their sesame ginger bowl, carrots, edamame, broccoli, brown rice, and garbanzo beans. Now I'm wondering, All this looks really cool and good and So Long and so forth. I gotta be honest. I'm not that consumer. I don't buy frozen meals very often, but is there enough demand? Do you see enough consumers wanting these products, buying these products? Jackie?
[00:11:20] John Craven: I do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think like, my generation and below are going to the grocery store and buying exactly what they need or just opening the freezer and pulling something out. Or I know a lot of my friends eat like factor meals, like they're looking for convenience and only using what they need. I think also we were eating the Hungry Man's when we were younger for a reason. So why not disrupt that category? Like there's still people growing up that are eating frozen meals because their parent just needs to feed them something. And that's convenient. I think there's a lot of different use cases.
[00:11:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, it's convenient, but it's, these are, I would assume these products that I mentioned, these brands that I mentioned have a higher price point, much higher price point than a Hungry Man a Stouffer. So I think that's the stumbling block. That's the, uh, the difficult part of whether there's a real future for these products or not, because people, low income, middle income, you know, folks that just can't spend $8 on one frozen dinner, they're probably still going to buy a Hungry Man Stouffers.
[00:12:24] John Craven: Yeah. And I think like Walmart, for example, does a really good job with like their better goods line and they have a lot of frozen food and their frozen pizzas are actually delicious and only like $7.50. So I think there's like opportunity for people and companies to get that price point maybe a little bit more to an accessible level.
[00:12:43] Voice Nail: I think it's, you know, it's complicated. A lot of the various attributes that people or retailers or the supply chain might want a lot like, you know, price, big portion size, long shelf life, even in a frozen meal, you know, the ability to actually like heat all the things at once when it's in a microwave all at the same, you know, time and temp.
[00:13:10] Ray Latif: But they've proven it can be done.
[00:13:12] Voice Nail: Well, I mean, it can, but I'm saying all of these things impact like what goes in the product and also the types of products that people buy and are stocked in like retail. And I guess what I'm getting at is that, you know, I think we've seen a lot of entrance into like the frozen aisle, like in frozen meals. And it's, it's challenging, you know, and I don't know, there's a lot of people who just go into a grocery store to like buy what they need for their current meal, either because that's what they can afford to do or because they just. aren't planners or whatever, you know, they're somebody who lives by themself. And, you know, there is a price point at which these products to become super clean or quality are competing with other stuff in the store, a la prepared foods and, you know, all the other things we talk about that are relatively easy to prepare. I don't know, the frozen aisle is, I think, really challenging. And obviously, like in most retailers, it can't take part in things like end caps or even product demos.
[00:14:12] Jacqui Brugliera: Have you ever tried just bagging your own frozen fruit, for instance? Yeah, of course. So it all sticks together. That's true. But when you buy a bag of frozen fruit, It doesn't. Is it because it's covered in olive oil or something? I don't know. It's usually they dry it. Anti-caking agents or something? It has to be dried so that when it's frozen it doesn't stick.
[00:14:33] Ray Latif: I don't think that's a sticking point for me when it comes to buying frozen fruit. I would say, however, that I've seen brands that have been able to compete on price point and have clean ingredient products and very delicious products. I can name one right off the bat, that's Mason Dixie Foods. which has done a pretty incredible job with their breakfast sandwiches, their burritos, their biscuits, and all at a competitive price point. I think the question for them going forward is how do you achieve broader distribution? How do you make sure that demand and production are aligned? And I suspect that Asha Balesha and her team, Asha Balesha being the founder, if anyone can figure that out, she will.
[00:15:18] Voice Nail: Mason Dixie, great products, but also eating a breakfast sandwich every morning for breakfast is probably not the best of ideas.
[00:15:26] Ray Latif: No, I think certainly moderation is probably what they would recommend too. I'm sure they're not advocating for people to eat a breakfast sandwich every day of the week.
[00:15:33] Voice Nail: Yeah. And look, with any of this stuff, yeah, we're just so far down a rabbit hole. Okay. Let's get back to reality here.
[00:15:42] Ray Latif: I think this is the reality we live in, unfortunately, where people have to choose between, and maybe this has always been true, but people have to choose between nutrition and price point, right? And I guess my point is, I hope... Cedar banana, Ray. Yeah, well, there you could do that too. For any retailers that are listening, any retail buyers, I would advocate and encourage folks to consider perhaps working with your suppliers to achieve a price point that is reasonable for people, such that, especially in this day and age, they can afford to eat better. That's all I'm saying. All right. Let's drink some booze. When I was at the Bar Convent Brooklyn trade show in mid-June, I came across a really interesting seltzer brand called Swirl, S-W-R-L. And they sell, I don't even know if I can pronounce this, a macgioli seltzer, spelled M-A-K-G-E-O-L-L-I. And it's described as a fermented rice brew and they have four varieties. They have an earl gray. They have a mixed cherry. They have a yuzu and pine needles. And John has a original, original. So I saw the yuzu and pine needles and I was like, I got to try this. Okay. Just don't, don't get those pine needles stuck in your throat. Yeah. Okay. I'm just going to pour this right over my laptop.
[00:17:13] Voice Nail: Classic Ray style. Classic Ray style. Ray's also the guy that when you get the little pop-up on your screen that's like, call Microsoft immediately.
[00:17:22] Ray Latif: Is that what that?
[00:17:22] Voice Nail: I've never seen that. That was a test. I'm glad you didn't react to that.
[00:17:26] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:17:26] Voice Nail: That's what folks, you know, like boomers kind of.
[00:17:29] Ray Latif: Oh, I see. Anyway. Okay. So this is 3.7% alcohol by volume and it comes in these 12 ounce cans. They're white. Mike, would you like to try any? I'm going to pass. I've got something. Okay. So when I tried this, I fell in love with it. Let me try it again. It's really delicious. And I love the fact that it's under 4% alcohol. I know hard seltzers seem to be on a decline. Does it have body? What's it like? Yeah, it's got some weird body to it.
[00:17:57] John Craven: What do pine needles taste like?
[00:18:02] Ray Latif: I'm not getting a ton of pine needles. I'm definitely getting the yuzu. Yeah.
[00:18:05] Voice Nail: I don't know. I don't know where the pine needles come in.
[00:18:07] Ray Latif: I feel like that's probably, they're probably in the bottom of the can. It's the fiber. Yeah. Perhaps.
[00:18:12] Voice Nail: Swirling around in there. I want to try the Earl Grey. It's an obstacle course. You know, I normally hate brands that like just ditch all the vowels, but I don't know. Swirl, you want to ditch the I? That's fun.
[00:18:25] Jacqui Brugliera: It's a swirly logo. It's pretty cool.
[00:18:27] Voice Nail: It kind of, I don't know. I mean, it does almost taste like a, Sake like in a way. It's different. It's different.
[00:18:36] Ray Latif: Yeah, like I don't I don't know if this is for me personally, but I believe if I recall this is a relatively common drink in Korea a fermented rice brew like this and But I haven't seen anything like this in the States. And I feel like this, just the, the branding, the different kinds of flavors. I mean, when was the last time you saw a hard seltzer or really any kind of alcoholic beverage that had yuzu and pine needle flavor or an earl grey flavor? So well done in my opinion on Swirl or by Swirl on creating this, um, pretty outstanding brand in my opinion.
[00:19:13] Voice Nail: So you'll be knocking a few of these back instead of your normal white claws this weekend?
[00:19:17] Ray Latif: I'm done for the day after this. I'm just going to be crushing these.
[00:19:20] Voice Nail: Perfect.
[00:19:21] Jacqui Brugliera: All right, Mike, what do you got in your hand there? I've got a brand out of Oklahoma City called Afropop. Afropop. Which is, you know, a craft soda, a cultural craft soda founded by Jamel Stevens. This is the black or the berry. It's blackberry cream soda. Have you tried this yet?
[00:19:43] Ray Latif: I have not, but I assume it's a pretty sweet product? It is, but it's 7 grams of sugar.
[00:19:49] Jacqui Brugliera: So it's 30 calories, 7 grams of sugar.
[00:19:51] Ray Latif: You didn't get that, did you? It went right over your head. The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice?
[00:19:55] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. And of course, when I've been Instagramming this, I've been playing that song. It's a great song. Is that a song? It's a Kendrick song.
[00:20:05] Ray Latif: Oh, okay. I have not heard that one.
[00:20:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Love that song. Oh yeah, this is really tasty. I mean, didn't know I needed blackberry cream soda, but I do. This is really good.
[00:20:16] Ray Latif: Outstanding. Well, I love the branding on that. Afropop on the front of the can and very large fonts. And it's got some cool artwork on the side.
[00:20:24] Jacqui Brugliera: It's got some cool artwork on the side. There's also a butterscotch soda. With a picture of two people making cookies, grandma and kid making cookies. And like, I think there's, you know, it's a cultural nostalgia brand and yeah, it's exciting. Nice.
[00:20:38] Ray Latif: Super tasty. Jackie, what do you got over there in the San Diego?
[00:20:43] John Craven: Well, you were talking about Better Sour You candy earlier, and I have Froot Thief's Real Fruit Whips. Oh, nice.
[00:20:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Which, by the way, Jackie was mowing down before the show.
[00:20:56] John Craven: I've been eating at least one a day. I was a huge Twizzler kid, so these hit that. Yeah, they're like fruit snacks, but they come in like these long like Twizzler like strands. And it's literally just fruit. So if you look at the ingredients, it's just apples, strawberries, apple juice, black carrot extract and strawberry flavor.
[00:21:16] Jacqui Brugliera: When you were a kid or now, did you ever just take the whole rolled up thing and just pop it in your mouth?
[00:21:21] John Craven: Oh yeah, I definitely did that. And you can do whatever you want with it, you know, like you can eat it like a piece of spaghetti or just in one nostril out the other. There's so many options.
[00:21:34] Jacqui Brugliera: She wasn't even listening. No, she was listening.
[00:21:37] John Craven: No, I would try that. Oh, gosh. I love Jenkins so much.
[00:21:44] Mike Schneider: That sounds horrible.
[00:21:45] John Craven: But these are delicious. And I am not a huge fruit fan, actually. Like, I prefer vegetables. So I'm getting my, like, daily vitamins.
[00:21:53] Ray Latif: That is a great product. We had some of those in the office. They went fast. And Froot Thief is spelled, well, the fruit in Froot Thief is spelled F-R-O-O-T. And they do taste amazing. That is a no compromise or an extremely low compromise product. I think they did an amazing job. getting that texture right, getting that sweetness level right, and actually not having that chemical taste that Twizzlers typically do. So really well done, Froot Thief.
[00:22:22] John Craven: Yeah, and the packaging's awesome too.
[00:22:24] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:22:25] Jacqui Brugliera: We had Froot Thief in the office. Ray likes them. They went fast. I think we found our Froot Thief thief solution.
[00:22:33] John Craven: He is this guy. This is Ray.
[00:22:36] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm the raccoon.
[00:22:38] John Craven: Trash Panda on the front of track is Ray.
[00:22:42] Ray Latif: That's a raccoon. AKA Trash Panda. I've never heard that term. All right. Now, if you're watching the video, you've probably seen all these tall bottles of what seemed to be liquor and wine on our table here. And that's because a brand called Undone, which is a non-alcoholic alternative or an alcohol alternative brand that makes non-alcoholic versions of spirits and wine. They're based in Europe and I guess pretty well distributed in that continent are making their debut stateside and they sent us a bunch of their products and the branding is pretty phenomenal. Agreed. It's very standout. They come in these 700 milliliter bottles. They look like custom bottles, actually. They don't look typically like, or they don't look like typical bottles as you'll see in the spirits category. And they're very clear about what they're not. So Long the front of the bottle, it says Undone. It has the logo. Describes itself as non-alcoholic. And then it describes what the product is. So this one I have in my hand is their American blend. And right underneath it, it says, this is not whiskey. So this is their whiskey variety, but it's not whiskey. They also have a, what looks like a Campari type product, an Italian bitter aperitif, but it says this is not orange bitter. So there's a number of them. Mike's opening up the Aperol alternative. I want to make, You're going to make a Negroni? I'm going to make a Mezcal Negroni.
[00:24:16] Jacqui Brugliera: This is not Vermouth. This is not Orange Bitter. This is not Mezcal.
[00:24:21] Ray Latif: I'm going to try the This Is Not Whiskey because this has always been the biggest or the hardest spirit to mimic, I think. I like so much about this brand. I don't think a custom bottle though. Maybe not a custom bottle. Just a bottle you don't typically see in this industry.
[00:24:37] Jacqui Brugliera: Can I have a plastic cup?
[00:24:39] Ray Latif: I don't know. I don't drink as much booze as you do, John.
[00:24:41] John Craven: I don't drink that much booze. I don't know if that's true. I don't think that's true, to be honest with you.
[00:24:46] Jacqui Brugliera: Ray, wow. Wow, everybody's jumped on that pretty fast. Geez. Fact check.
[00:24:53] Ray Latif: Right on the show.
[00:24:54] Jacqui Brugliera: Can I have one of those plastic cups there?
[00:24:56] Ray Latif: I'm just trying to open it. Oh, yeah, of course. These are difficult to open. You might need to stab it with a knife. Stab it with a knife. Okay. All right. I managed to get the, this is not whiskey, the American blend variety. American blend, I assume it's going to hopefully taste a little bit like bourbon. And here we go. John, you want to try any of this?
[00:25:15] Voice Nail: Yeah, sure.
[00:25:16] Ray Latif: There you go. Maybe with a fresh cup. I don't know what that's all about. Oh shoot. That is filthy. Sorry about that. I was about to give John some backwash. Yeah.
[00:25:27] Voice Nail: All right. That's no good. No thanks. Pray over the laptop. Perfect.
[00:25:33] Ray Latif: Okay, it looks a bit more scotch ish than it does bourbon ish, but let's see Okay on the nose I want to try the red one a mess counting the grass coming your way.
[00:25:46] Jacqui Brugliera: Hang on straight
[00:25:48] Ray Latif: No, the nose is actually slightly reminiscent of a low proof whiskey or there aren't really many low proof whiskeys out there. I think most of them are 80 that the lowest you can.
[00:25:56] Voice Nail: Yeah, it's like what's a low proof?
[00:25:58] Ray Latif: Yeah, 80%. But let me try this.
[00:26:00] Voice Nail: God, that's a really.
[00:26:01] Ray Latif: How much of this do you think I'm drinking, Mike? Come on. The whiskey isn't bad, which is pretty high praise for non-alcohol whiskeys.
[00:26:08] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm going to taste the mezcal first before I make a Negroni. I'm actually going to go in for another sip here. Yeah, no burn, but the flavor's there. It's super, super nice.
[00:26:17] Voice Nail: Yeah, I mean, I feel like this is liquid that's comparable to other brands that we've seen in the category.
[00:26:23] Jacqui Brugliera: I like the Un and the Zero. Yeah, the brand's cool. I like that. The Zero for non-alcoholic is pretty cool on the branding. Let's see how this Negroni is.
[00:26:31] Ray Latif: Well, I think the reason why we're all praising these products is because Undone de-alcoholizes actual spirits and wine. So they start with real spirits and they start with real wine and they remove the alcohol. So they have what appears to be a proprietary process in doing so. Pass this to John. I'm passing the Campari type product to John here. And he's going to actually let me try it. Let's go.
[00:26:58] Jacqui Brugliera: I think I'm, how was it Mike? Good? Yeah. The Negroni is pretty good.
[00:27:03] Ray Latif: Oh, you made your Negroni. Yeah. I made a Mezcal Negroni. Okay. I'm just going to try the Campari type product straight. Yum. Yum. It's actually very good. This is a very good product. Jackie's over there wolfing down her fruit strips, or what's it called? Froot Thief. Fruit whips. While we're... You look like a bunch of degenerates. Undone also makes canned cocktails. So they have a pina colada and a smoky paloma. This pina colada looks really good. That's good. Smoky paloma is very good. Yeah? Yeah. John, you want to try some smoky paloma? I'm out of cups ray. Okay. Here's some more. That's the those are not the backwash cups just to look great I don't know that yeah, thanks for clarifying and let's try this pina colada. Oh The pina colada is his neon yellow Coconutty yeah plumas smoke smoky plumas nice and pink Yeah, pina colada is quite good. It's delicious actually yeah, I feel like I could use a bit more rum, but otherwise it's great. Oh
[00:28:03] John Craven: Sounds like all the flavor is on point, it's just maybe the bite that's missing.
[00:28:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Exactly. Yeah, that pina colada could really use some alcohol. Some rum? It does. It has the flavor.
[00:28:15] Ray Latif: It has all the flavor you want. I'm really impressed most, I think, by the Campari or the Italian aperitif. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, very good. 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. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:29:13] Mike Schneider: you
