Hello, dear friends, and thanks for tuning into 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 and Jacqui Brugliera. Happy New year, John. Happy New Year, Jacqui.
Happy New Year. Schneider, Mike, who's not here, wherever you are. I think he's seen the slopes, isn't he or something? Oh, Mexico. Mexico. Good for him. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I wish I could be in Mexico right now 'cause it's, uh, it's actually, it's not too bad. It's temperate weather here in Boston, but I'm really looking forward to heading to San Diego.
I'm gonna be on the road tomorrow, which is Saturday the 10th because we're out there for a couple mega events to kick off the year. I, I call them mega events because for us seems like a maybe little offense to those events. Hyperbole. A little hyperbole, but that's, again, super Bowl is mega. They're gonna be great, you know, great events.
If we're there, it's mega, right? Sure. Okay. I'm referring of course. To the upcoming Winter Fancy Fair Show, which used to be called the Winter Fancy Food Show. And uh, it has since moved to San Diego, at least for this year. It's gonna be moving back to its roots in San Francisco next year, but really excited because Bev Net Wcbs located in San Diego, which means Jacqui and the team are gonna be able to attend the events.
And I think some folks for the very first time, right. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of our team will be there, which will be great. It's in our hood, it's down the street. We don't have to fly across country, which is nice for us. Fly down the five. Yeah. And of course, I recall the winter fancy food show was Jacqui's first big event of her Bev net career and, uh.
It has a special place in your heart. Good memories. Good memories. Yes, for sure. And for the very first time, I think at any trade show, at least on the food and beverage side, we're gonna have a booth. Yeah, this is crazy. We're gonna have a booth at the Winter Fancy Fair, which is at the San Diego Convention Center downtown.
Our booth is going to be number 42 49. I like that. 42 49. Yeah. It's easy to remember. It feels like a very memorable number for us. And so. The Bev net CPG media team, the Taste radio team. We're gonna be at the booth conversations, content connections on the show floor and beyond. They pay me to say these things, but it's gonna be a really fun event.
We have a lot going on in Bev net, CPG media, so if you wanna know how to partner with us, I think that's a good place to stop by. That's an excellent point, Jacqui. I think sometimes people know who we are, but they just haven't had that opportunity to connect with us IRL, face to face and this is a really good way to do.
So. I was looking at the attendee list, the exhibitor list for the fancy fair, and there's a lot of brands that I'm not familiar with and I'm really excited to meet. Certainly we're gonna come to your brew, but we'd love for you to come to our booth as well. So the fancy fair is happening January 11th through the 13th.
That's Sunday through Tuesday. Sunday night is the other mega event that I was referring to. Naturally, San Diego was partnering with Presto. Now we all know what naturally San Diego is. It is a industry organization that helps food and beverage and CPG brands in their community build scale and do things in a way that's going to help them be successful.
And pesto, Jacqui is. It's a regional Mexican restaurant that is very well loved in the San Diego community, and they have some amazing tacos and margaritas, and I know that those will be served for the two hours of the event, six 30 to eight 30, where we will be there to also chat with everyone that will be there.
It's at the Pesto headquarters location. So for anyone that's familiar with San Diego, that's. Right next to the convention center. It's right next to Seaport Village. It's walking distance if you're staying downtown. So we'd love to see you there. The Sunday night of fancy fair, so correct me if I'm wrong, unlimited tacos.
Unlimited margaritas. Is this, is this right? I have to, I mean there's gotta be a limit. Everyone has a limit. I have to send my notes. It says all that your heart desires. Wow, that's so whatcha you gonna go for maybe 20, 30 tacos Ray? I thought you say margaritas, but, uh, no. I, I'm working, I'm working that day.
That was, yeah. You forgot to mention the most important part of event. Well, I was about to get to that, right. Talking about Margaritas and taco who went straight tacos to tacos and margaritas. That was my fault. I led with that. No, it's, it's great. To be clear, there are, I think, are three amazing things that are happening at this event.
One, unlimited tacos and margaritas. Two, you get to engage with the naturally San Diego tv. Wait, hold on, let me tee up the third part. Which is after you have a crap load of margaritas or tequila shots as Ray is going to, then you can take part in the third part. Well, you skipped part two, which is to interact with the naturally San Diego community.
Well, whatever. We're just getting to the third part. Okay. The third part is. You can join us for an interview on Taste Radio. So we are gonna have a taste radio studio set up at the events and we're going to be interviewing folks for very short interviews, about five minutes at a time, just trying to get as many people in as possible and we're gonna highlight and feature those interviews.
In a future episode of the podcast, so three margarita minimum to participate. No, we want good engaging content here. There will be a signup sheet at the event, but when you get there, sign up immediately because the last time we did this last year. We had a lot of interest and not a lot of space. So unfortunately if you don't get there early, if you don't sign up early at the event itself, you might miss your shot.
So yeah. And you do have to register for the naturally San Diego event? Correct. And that link can be found@tasteradio.com slash fancy. Absolutely. Yes. So once again, we wanna see you at the fancy fair. We definitely wanna see you at the pesto and Naturally San Diego event on Sunday night from six 30 to 8:30 PM If we haven't made it clear, it's gonna be pretty awesome.
Oh yeah. Are you a margarita guy, John? Not once in a while, right? Spicy, maybe. Spicy? I'm spicy. Okay. Um, mescal one. Mm, you don't too sweet. Uh, I mean, I don't know. It's probably a time and a place that I would Okay. Yeah, I don't like the, the really saccharine margaritas. Not, and not too spicy either. 'cause that's just gonna mess with your whole day.
The spicier the better. Throw in all the jalapenos for me. Yeah. All right. All right. Fine, fine. We're all gonna feel, we're all gonna feel it on Monday morning and it may not be the alcohol. It's okay. Oh, boy. So I, uh, I was, as I mentioned, I was scrolling through the list of exhibitors for the winter Fancy fair, and, uh.
As expected protein pops up. In a lot of cases, it seems like the protein train will keep a running in 2026, and I think for some folks it might be surprising that we're gonna see protein, uh. In beverage categories that we haven't seen before. Also Gorge. So this is Gorge, as we know, is a female centric energy drink brand.
They today introduced a first ever, at least they call its first ever protein energy drink. So they are launching in target stores nationwide. I didn't see this in Target, otherwise I would've bought it. They have a strawberry pop and a power punch. So as their founder, Michelle Cordero Grant said in their press release, people want protein and formats that feel fun, energizing, and easy to incorporate into their everyday routines.
Now, energy meets wellness and flavors that are nostalgic, celebratory, and uniquely gorge. Here's my question. It makes sense, right? Like we've seen protein in smoothies, right? Like this naked double berry protein drink. We've seen protein in coffee, super coffee as an example, 25 grams of protein or Projo Projo Projo, the winner of the new beverage showdown at Benet Live.
Yeah, there you go. You go. Yep. There are power coffee, 25 grams of protein, 225 grams of caffeine. But I don't know, I mean, am I, are you gonna be reaching for. A protein soda. A protein sparkling water, a protein shot. This was interesting. I saw that our very own, Shauna Golden wrote about a new protein shot brand that's called Pure Genius, which contains 23 grams of protein in a 3.3 ounce shot.
I mean, I'm just trying to think about the occasion, the use case for these products. And just in my own personal life, I don't see it. I would go for it if it tasted good. I mean, I think there's so much like negative connotation around protein sometimes of like, oh, it's gonna taste like crap, or it's gonna taste like protein mix.
And unless you're like the bodybuilder and you just like eating chalk, you're not gonna wanna like drink that on the daily. I think that if you can like really. Make it taste good and it just tastes like a good soda, but it happens to have protein and you can have that incremental protein gain throughout your day because everyone's trying to like count how much protein these days they can get to, and you're just never hitting what you're supposed to be hitting.
Like I think it could be a value proposition, but I just don't think that people would be grabbing those drinks if they don't taste good. Yeah, I mean I think what probably will be challenging to figure out as brands kind of navigate this is also what stuff maybe appears as though it has momentum and staying power as consumers kind of try all these different things and which things actually do have staying power.
I think that to me is sort of like still the question that's out there. Are these things that consumers will try for a little while while they're super conscious of protein? Or like, again, does this become a thing at a certain level for some beverage categories? It kind of changes, maybe consumption habits too, in that I think there are certain types of products, like let's take, you know, flavored sparkling water is like an obvious one.
You know, the entire sort of business model is predicated on consumers being willing to drink, like, you know, a pile of them in a day. Right, exactly. And like, you know, clearly some people can consume a lot of protein, but I think that's where like your average consumer just, they might be in a situation where it's, I'm gonna have one of these instead of like, I'm gonna have three of these.
On the other hand, you know, I think what's awesome about this regardless is that it, it does turn any product that does this into like, you know, at least sort of like a, a subtle, kinda low key functional product without really trying to try too hard to be a functional product. And I think that matters in a lot of categories where.
The risk otherwise is that consumers look at them as just empty calories, you know, or lacking in sustenance. So, I don't know, I, I still just feel like we're kind of early in the arc of where this all goes. Yeah. It's interesting to also look at the amount of protein that's being stated, like twenty five, ten five.
Like at what point does it even matter and. I mean, if you're drinking a soda and it has some protein in it, like great. It's better for me because I'm getting a little bit of protein. But that might, you know, not be front and center. But it might be a nice to have as it evolves. And like Craven was saying, it's based on the category and what you're looking for within that category.
Like coffee, there's always kind of been. This opportunity to have protein and coffee with like Bulletproof and things like that. Or you're trying to eat your breakfast in your protein in the morning, whereas like a soda you might be having towards the end of the day as like a treat. So you might not be looking for as much protein.
Yeah, I mean, I, I think that's a great point. It's how much and what kind and all these other variables that when you consider all, all of those things, despite the fact that there's just endless products that are marketing protein, again, I still feel like this is early. I think for me it's a question of does the consumer want incremental value or convenience in their use case?
If you think about the breakfast example that Jacqui brought up, I think if you're running late, if you've only got a limited amount of time. A throw in sport coffee, which has 150 milligrams of caffeine and 10 grams of protein. Makes sense. 140 calories. So it's got some sustenance to it. A Projo power coffee, a super coffee protein.
These all make sense a naked, even though I, I don't drink these types of smoothies, naked, double berry protein smoothies, honey grams of protein, all these I feel like are convenient options that deliver on a specific use case for consumers, the incremental value. That you're getting from saying drinking 20 grams of protein with your soda.
I'm just trying to figure out if there are enough people out there that are counting their grams of protein throughout the day that they're gonna be like, okay, this is just an easy way for me to, you know, add 20 more, or add, you know, even 60 more. I just, I'm trying to figure out if there are enough consumers out there right now.
And, and you're right John. It is still in the early, early stages. There's other trends too, like with GLP ones, I know people are really counting their protein because they're eating less and they're focused on having those macros. So there's like a lot of other trends that are also impacting this category that can influence consumer behavior, right.
For early stage brands and for emerging entrepreneurs, I think the question is how do you differentiate in a way that's going to. Be interesting or be exciting for a consumer. I think it's, it's really gonna come back to Jacqui, your first point, which is taste. So if it doesn't taste good, if there's some of that chalkiness, if you have to mask the protein flavor with just tons of sweeteners or other flavors, I think just you're just gonna have a hard time and you're not gonna be able to convince someone that.
They should be drinking something that they don't like. Just for the added benefit of a little bit of protein. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think the convincing someone part. Maybe the lack of the need to convince consumers or educate them about protein is another reason that I think we see a lot of brands getting behind this.
It's just kind of an efficient marketing approach as opposed to sometimes having some other hero ingredient that the consumer isn't aware of. So, you know, again, totally get why brands are doing it, but as we've pointed out here, a lot of variables to consider. Yeah. And as. Protein is more and more widespread in all these products.
I think people are gonna be looking closer at how clean it is and what it is. Is it plant-based? Is it whey? Like where is this protein coming from? Just to sort of cap this conversation. I, I think when we see the strategics or some of the bigger. Players that are not strategically aligned get into the protein space, and I'm talking about brands that are in the soda category or sparkling water category.
We've already seen it in energy and coffee, but sparkling water and soda in particular, I think that's when we will really start to see a lot more attention being paid to these sublines. Like, are we gonna see an op protein? Are we gonna see a Sprite protein? Are we gonna be seeing like a spin drift protein?
I'm, I sincerely doubt we'll see a spin drift protein anytime soon. A multifunction beverage is certainly something that I think a lot of consumers understand at this point. They're getting more than just one benefit, but do they care enough to buy these products? Yeah. I'm not sure the consumer wants the kitchen sink beverage.
No. No. I mean, again, I, I just, there's a fine line that makes what seems like a really obvious thing of just chucking protein in something actually kind of complicated. Fair enough. Well. To be clear, we're rooting for everyone and we want everyone to do well. We're gonna continue to follow all the protein madness that happens in 2026 and beyond.
Uh, if you have a product that contains protein, a new soda, a new sparkling water. Frankly, any kind of beverage or food that has some fancy steaks, maybe fancy steaks, protein infused, uh, gold coins, we would take those as well. Ah, yes. Jeez. Call the lawyers. No, in all seriousness, we would love to try your products.
We'd love to highlight them on Taste Radio, on Bev Nets, on Noosh. Uh, just send us samples and you can find the addresses to send us samples to our headquarters here in Newton. Or our office in San Diego on bev net.com or na.com or as John always points out, you can Google, just Google Bev Net's address in Boston or San Diego.
It's not that hard anyway. Mm-hmm. It's not hot kids. Alright, moving right along. I was excited when I was in Target to see coconut cults. We haven't seen coconut cults. The coconut cults in target. This is, uh, their nationwide launch. It actually happened the day of this recording, January 6th. Coconut Cult, if you're not familiar.
It's a brand of probiotic coconut yogurts or USDA organic. In fact, I think we met the founders of the coconut cults. At a winter fancy food show in 2017. It was a while ago. It was, I guess, what's that? Nine years ago? Oh my gosh. Mike interviewed them for taste radio and so they have forever been in glass jars.
It's like these glass, are they mason jars almost? Yeah. Kind of like mason jars. Kinda like Mason. It's like something you'd get like a farmer's market. Exactly. And for the, they have multiple sizes. Well, for the first time, they're in single serve sizes. These are. New four ounce cups of Coconut Cult. They come in three flavors.
There's an organic berry basket, a banana cream pie, and a lemon meringue. Yu Yeah, I already had the banana cream pie one, eh, so freaking good. Each contains a hundred to 120 calories, depending on variety. Only two grams of protein. Sorry folks. The ingredient list is pretty limited. Coconut cream, coconut water, and then just added ingredients depending on the particular flavor.
So for example, this banana cream pie contains freeze dried bananas, beet root nectar, and custom probiotic culture. Alright, John, which one do you want? You already ate the banana cream? I already tried the banana cream. Yeah. Well, I didn't, not, not the one. This one, let me try some banana cream. Okay. It's been a bottle over here.
Okay. Here's the spoon. Yeah. Coconut cults. Their products are just delicious. They're really good. I feel like that's always just been, their claim to fame is just super delicious Yogurt. Okay. John's gonna try all, he's gonna take a picture for the grams. Uh, you're gonna get all, get all fancy here. Yeah.
Look at this. You wanna be in the background, right? No, I don't. By the way, you owe me $9, so I just, just for that. You are gonna be in the back of the, don't, don't, don't. You're gonna, you're gonna bem just gonna block my elbow is gonna be in shot. Shot. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Okay, good. Thank you. Actually, they're priced at 3 99 per cup.
I got these on sale. I think they were 2 9 9 on promotion just for the launch. John's trying the banana cream pie one, you didn't rip the cover off as well as you should have. Whatever. It's just. Okay. Good stuff. Yeah, it's really good. Like a tram all. Yeah. I just feel like it's a really good alternative.
Well, no, you're gonna eat all those right after. Yeah. Okay. Coconut Cult has been this just tremendous alternative to dairy-based yogurts. It tastes pretty similar to it. It has a little bit of a, a tartness to it because of the fermentation, but they just make such delicious flavors. Super good. Mm-hmm. So good.
One thing. I'm gonna sound a little controversial here, and I love the folks from the Coconut Cult. They're great. These cups are plastic and they have plastic lids. The Coconut Cult has forever been known to be a brand in glass jars. Do you think this is going to impact how they're perceived by their consumers?
I mean, maybe to that core OG consumer, but mm-hmm. I don't know. This seems like one of those moves where going for broader commercial availability is a lot of times gonna require some changes, and I'm okay with this one. This seems really smart. I don't think the target consumer is going to care as much.
I would be curious though, just about the price point. You said it was like 3 99 a cup? Yeah. Every day is $4 per cup. Okay. Each cup I think is four ounces. Yes. Yeah. It seems a little high for like yogurt if like the target consumer's looking for a cup of yogurt, but. Also it's premium. You're getting plant-based.
Yeah. It has the gut health. So I think with that, like people would be spending a little bit more on it. I mean, I feel like the taste of the product and just the consistency of it, I mean, it does not feel like they compromised mm-hmm. In any way to make this. And if you're a brand that's trying to sell to people who wanna live their life, only consuming products from glass, I mean.
Good luck. Go operate at a farmer's market. That's just not viable. So I think this is a pretty exciting move for this brand. Yeah, I think it's just gonna open so many doors. Yeah. Good stuff. Alright. Speaking of Oli Pop, where I mentioned Op John's got a can in his hand. I do. I've got their new Shirley Temple flavor.
Right. Shirley Temple. I know you're fond of a Shirley Temple and I brought you your own can. Thank you very much. Did you wash the top? No. Okay. I just sneezed all over it like 50 times. I This Kleenex here. There we go. Oh, I love a good Shirley Temple. I haven't had a Shirley Temple in a while. I remember.
Um, what is it, the still or soda? Don't they have a Shirley Temple? There's a bunch of brands, like Boylan has one. It's definitely one of those soda flavors that is, it's still around and kicking, so, but yeah, this stuff's stuff's really good. I think. Um, oh yeah, Lollipop's always kind of had these, I don't know what seemed like limited time offerings that they put out, but just another one of these brands that with each year, you know, the, the quality of them and the flavor of them just gets better and better.
This stuff's really good. It is really good. And what color is that Liquid. It's pinkish. Yeah. So not like the total bright stain. Your mouth kinda of red. Oh yeah. Okay. I see where you're going with that. Okay. Syrup B. Cool. So more stuff that I got from Target and an interesting new product that I saw. I get that hoodie at Target.
Ray, I didn't get this hoodie at Target. I got it. Uniqlo, if I'm pronouncing it right. Did I pronounce that right Jacqui? I don't know. Okay. I don't know if I could either. I didn't get Uniqlo. Uniqlo. Oh boy. You got a boomer clo. Anyway, so good. So you. Is a fabulous brand of wellness shots. I love their brand.
Yeah, those are good. Mm-hmm. They're differentiated by their large caps. They have these large white caps as opposed to the large and wide white caps. They really gotta chug those things. Yeah. I'm pretty sure, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm pretty sure they copack for the shots that you see at Trader Joe's.
They come in the exact same bottle. So if you see the ones at Trader Joe's, they are probably made by so good. So you. So when I was a target, I saw a so good. So you sparkling energy drink. I think this is their first foray into a beverage category that is not wellness shots. Uh, they have four varieties. I got two of them.
They're raspberry lemonade and they're tangerine berry. Now everyone knows that people have been trying to come up with better For you Natural energy drinks forever. So I'm excited to see how these play out. The entire line is USDA organic zero grams of added sugar, and they come in the classic 8.4 ounce slim cans, 50 calories between nine and 10 grams of sugar.
And how much caffeine? 120 milligrams of natural caffeine from green tea. John, you wanna try one of these? The tangerine berry is the one that I really wanna try. There's so many beverages today, Ray. Yeah. Lots of liquid over there. Is this yours? Sure. Pour me. Pour me scotches. What they say. Oh, look that, look at that.
It's very viscous. Chunky. It looks, yeah. More viscous than I, than I thought it would. Chunky Well, the way he poured it, I, I don't think there's any chunks in that, so. Well, it's made with real fruit juice, so I think maybe I, okay. Okay. That makes sense. You can see the juice in here. Hmm. That's good. Tasty.
That is just absolutely delicious. Hmm. This is really good. I mean, it's got like a little grapefruit, little bite of caffeine to it, but you barely taste it. Yeah. It tastes like a real fruit drink. Mm-hmm. It tastes like a, a slightly more involved, for lack of a better word, spindrift. Mm-hmm. Is just more fruit juice in there for sure.
But man, that flavor is amazing. Let's try the, uh, raspberry lemon. Oh, we're going for more. Okay. Yeah, I just, this one also looks, it's slightly less viscous. It looks a bit more. Spin Drifty. Hmm. Equally excellent. Really, really good stuff. Well done. So good. So you I've, yeah. I've been a big fan of this brand for a long time.
Love that they're getting into this space. And it seems like it's a Target exclusive too, 'cause they haven't been advertising this product. I haven't seen it promoted. It was just on the shelf at Target. There's a bunch of new brands that it, that launched at Target. In fact, midday Squares, did you guys see this?
Midday Squares has a new. Bread list. PB and J Bar Target. Yeah, we need some of that. We're gonna get some of that too. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. I have a couple beverages over here. Well, I have one beverage and they have a variety of flavors. It's called Snow Monkey and it's line of sake, RTD cocktails. On the bottom it says, SAKE remix.
And this is their dragon fruit, key lime. They have a yuzu hibiscus, mandarin grapefruit and then also mango and GU guava 4.5% elk. So pretty low for uh, RTD cocktail. And it's cool 'cause on the label they're mentioning, you know, gluten-free, vegan, sulfite free. So loving the trend of sake based beverages.
I'm definitely seeing just in my group of friends, people. Drinking more sake. There's like a health angle for sake. Sure. So, yeah, it's cool to see this brand. They got a monkey on the front 'cause the snow monkey. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned that, Jacqui, because I was looking at some Nielsen numbers recently, specifically for the alcoholic beverage industry and where revenue is increasing, where sales are increasing, and these are relatively small categories, but it was in non elk and in sake.
So, mm-hmm. It seemed like most other categories were in decline, but those are the two that popped out for me. And again, relatively small in relation to say whiskey or bourbon or wine or what have you. But yeah. Interesting that, uh, sake seems to be. A beverage of choice for a lot of consumers or a lot more consumers these days.
Yeah. I feel like before it was like you're just drinking sake when you're, you know, at a Japanese restaurant or Exactly. Eating sushi. But there's actually a lot of bars also that use sake as a base to mix cocktails when they don't have like a liquor license. So Yep. It's kind of like a cool couple things coming together to make our tds now.
Yes. 'cause to be clear sake, is rice wine. Mm-hmm. Rice based wine. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Alright. People are gonna think I'm being paid by Target here, but I'm not. One last, uh, beverage brand that I saw at Target that I haven't seen before is called Raw ra. It's Mhum Coconut Water, a hundred percent organic. I believe the RA brand name stands for Raw, like as is.
This is Raw Coconut Water. It's Raw bra. It comes in a 60 an ounce plastic bottle. The label is just all black and white and yeah, I wanna give this a whirl. It's very clear. Typically with coconut water, you see this hint of pink? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Especially with, uh, coconut water from Thailand non coconuts.
Those are the, uh, supposed to be the good ones. Well, this bottle cost me $19. Thank you. Be Wow. So a what? I was just kidding. Didn't cost me. I think this was actually 6 9, 9 6 9, 9. Fancy. You wanna, you wanna scooch there, John? It's really good. I'm actually surprised we don't see any hint of pinkness in this because the, uh, coconut water from Thailand in particular raw has developed, I think these like pink coloration over time.
Yeah, it looks like glass water. I like that. Yeah, it really does. Pretty, yeah. Good stuff. Raw. And thank you Target for introducing me to all these new brands. I feel like you're like moonlighting as a Instacart. Driver at Target and you're wearing.
