[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 Be Beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm here with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider.
[00:00:27] John Craven: Are you sure we have Jacqui Brugliera here and not B-Ball Cutie 32XOXO? What are you talking about? She's trolling us.
[00:00:36] Jacqui Brugliera: In our bracket. So we're doing March Madness. That's my name. And I'm doing a throwback because that used to be my AOL name when I was like middle schooler, high schooler.
[00:00:47] John Craven: If you need to catch up with Jackie on AIM, there you go. We live in an age of nostalgia. That doesn't exist anymore.
[00:00:53] Ray Latif: They shut that down. Well, I also wanted to mention that in this episode we sit down with Dan Grim, who's the CEO of Functional Drink Manufacturer, Lucky To Be Beverage Co. So, yes, March Madness in full swing, and it's been exciting to watch some of the games. Unfortunate, though, that last night we lost Juju to an ACL injury. Poor Juju. Which, yeah, the star player for USC, All-American, that's a tough one because Well, it hurts the tournament and I think it's, you know, it's a tough road back. It takes time, but she will come back. She will be, she'll make her way back.
[00:01:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Thankfully, she has the off-season now to recover and have surgery and all that, but it's a tough time to get injured, you know? Just the second round into the tournament, and thankfully, I didn't have USC winning it all, but I still have hope for them. They really turned up.
[00:01:44] John Craven: I think somebody on our team who will remain nameless has USC winning it all, and also thinks Juju Watkins is the best. She is the best.
[00:01:52] Ray Latif: You ever have a knee injury like that, Jackie?
[00:01:54] Jacqui Brugliera: I had weird knee injuries, not in ACL though. I had like this like bone fragment floating around and get locked up and I didn't even know. I call it Jackson.
[00:02:04] Ray Latif: Did you have to take significant time off to play?
[00:02:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I had to take some time off. Okay.
[00:02:09] Ray Latif: For Jackie, it was like a day.
[00:02:11] John Craven: It was like three days.
[00:02:12] Ray Latif: Well, you still ended up as the MVP of the division three national championship. That's the season that Bentley won it all. He demoted them.
[00:02:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Division two.
[00:02:23] Ray Latif: Oh, two. I'm sorry. Division two, not three. I've been telling people all this time. Now I have to go back to every single person I told that Jackie won the division three national championship and make it clear that it was division two. All right. I'm expecting a list of those people by the end of the show.
[00:02:37] Jacqui Brugliera: All right. Oh boy.
[00:02:38] Ray Latif: I have to clarify. Okay, good to know. All right. Big, big news, folks. Taste Radio is going back on the road. We're going to be in the greatest city in the world, according to some, New York City. We'll be there on April 15th, that's a Tuesday, for the next edition of the Taste Radio meetup series that we're going to be conducting throughout the year. It's going to be happening at the Rethink Food Community Kitchen, which is located in Greenwich Village. We're going to be holding it in the evening as we did Miami from 6 to 8 p.m. Networking will be a plenty and we'll also have live interviews at the event as we have in past meetups. So very exciting stuff. Ray, I want to go. How do I Sign Up? You can Sign Up by going to- I mean, I think I should go.
[00:03:23] Mike Schneider: Should I go? You should go. Yeah, I think you should.
[00:03:25] Ray Latif: Okay, what's the link, Ray? The link is Taste Radio slash NYC. It's a pretty easy form to fill out. And guess what? The event is F-R-E-E free. So there will be food, there will be drink, there will be all kinds of great conversations to be had amongst the movers and shakers, the early stage folks, and of course, us.
[00:03:49] John Craven: We're basically on tour right now, Jack and I were talking about this. We need like a merch table and like some, you know, CDs and stuff.
[00:03:55] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I was saying we should make a record out of, you know, the cutting room floor and put a parental advisory, you know, little...
[00:04:03] Mike Schneider: note on it because I'm thinking orange looks like it looks like it Taste Radio orange I'm thinking a t-shirt that is like Al Pacino from Scarface but it's Ray I like that actually yeah that's pretty cool let's make that fifty dollars with like a fake gold Ray Latif autograph that's like printed on the shirt yeah yeah and it fades when you wash it and a pile of cocaine off or maybe on the back
[00:04:29] Ray Latif: Let it be known that cocaine has never been involved or associated with me. Ray's favorite merch.
[00:04:36] Mike Schneider: In any way shape or form.
[00:04:37] Ray Latif: I've seen you have a cocaine energy drink. No, I have had a cocaine energy drink. There you go. Yes, but yes, now the BebNet attorneys need to get involved once again. Can you believe this? The following month, which is May, because May comes after April.
[00:04:49] Jacqui Brugliera: It does?
[00:04:50] Ray Latif: It does, yes. Wow. This time.
[00:04:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Thank you for reminding me.
[00:04:53] Ray Latif: We're going to be in Austin, Austin, Texas for another Taste Radio Meetup. Stay tuned for all the details on that one. But I know a lot of folks in the Austin area have asked us to come back out there.
[00:05:05] John Craven: And if you want to support the event, get involved, email askatasteradio.com. Ray would love to talk to you about it.
[00:05:12] Ray Latif: Yeah, either event, New York City or Austin. If you're looking to become a partner, and we are looking for partners to help us produce these events, just let us know. You can email us at askatasteradio.com or ourlatifatbevnet.com. We'll put your name in lights or on a sign or something. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. Now, we'll be in New York next month, but we'll also be back in the Big Apple in June. June 11th and 12th, of course, for the Be Beverage event of the year, or at least one of them, because there's two of them. Two BevNET Lives a year, yes. Something like that. Something like that. BevNET Live Summer 2025, happening in New York City on June 11th and 12th. It is going to be an epic event. We already have some incredible speakers lined up, including Ralph Crowley, who is the president and CEO of Polar Beverages. My goodness. So for me, who grew up in the central Massachusetts area, and Jackie, you as well, I mean, Polar was this mainstay beverage company. Everyone was drinking Polar. That was just kind of specific to Massachusetts and New England to a certain extent. And now Polar has become this juggernaut. It is an incredible story. And Ralph is going to be sharing some details about that story and how Polar is working with a range of new and exciting and emerging beverage brands, supporting their goals, strategies, and journeys as they continue to scale. We also will have Ben Mand, who is the CEO of Guayaquil. Ben, brilliant guy. Yeah. Formerly of Harmless Harvest. Now he's taking the reins of Guayaquil and I think pumping some life back into that brand, which is exciting. How about Chobani? Chobani, yes. John Frost, the chief customer officer of Chobani, will also be speaking as well as Scout Brisson, who is the CEO of De Soi. Yeah, De Soi is one of the leading brands in the space of non-alcoholic cocktails. Now, of course, in addition to all these speakers, you're going to be rubbing elbows and mingling with hundreds and hundreds of the industry's finest folks. Entrepreneurs, retailers, investors, suppliers, and everyone who attends BevNET Live, of course, Is West in class. Oh, yeah. Be part of that best in class group. Sign Up today.
[00:07:32] John Craven: BevNetLive.com. You have hard questions that are keeping you up at night, bring them to BevNET Live, get the answers to those and more, move your company a milestone or two, just come join us.
[00:07:43] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, and if you're a startup too, we have the application open right now for Be Beverage Showdown, so you can come pitch on stage, become a little celebrity at the event. We also will have one-to-one meetings with retailers that are happening at BevNET Live, so there's a lot going on. Just check it all out at BevNetLive.com.
[00:08:00] Ray Latif: Absolutely. As everyone knows, I love the Be Beverage Showdown, and it is so exciting to see the brands that have been on stage and then build incredible companies. And some of the success stories are just unbelievable. Poppy poppy poppy poppies certainly one health aid Vive Organic mall mall. I mean these are really Incredible brand that started on stage can of course Liquid Death liquid. Well Liquid Death started when it didn't win but had their start on stage at Bev net live as part of the Be Beverage showdown and Your brand can become part of that list. I really believe that the sky's the limit I think and clearly Be Beverage brands, the rewards are really remarkable. And being able to pitch in front of a live audience, in front of judges who have been there, done that, the most experienced folks in our industry, if you can succeed, if you can present well, you might have a chance of going really far in this industry.
[00:08:58] Mike Schneider: I mean, I think a lot of times the early stage entrepreneur has that fire inside of them to succeed. And this is like accelerant for the flames, you know?
[00:09:07] John Craven: It's not even about winning. It's about getting up on stage, getting, you know, in front of the community, getting awareness and getting the feedback that you need to take your beverage to the next level. Do you think we can get Ben Stiller up there to pitch his new drink?
[00:09:23] Ray Latif: Can we get us in here as Audi isn't that funny so this came out in the news cycle we leave this last week Ben Stiller the famous actor who's been in such films What's your favorite Ben Stiller movie
[00:09:48] John Craven: Man, that's a favorite Ben Stiller movie is of course the Royal Tenenbaums. Okay.
[00:09:58] Ray Latif: Yes. I had a feeling you were gonna say yeah, the Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite movies.
[00:10:02] John Craven: So, of course Yeah, I think my favorite one is that there's something there's something about Mary every time he fights that dog in the kitchen I Fell out of my seat my wife was like what's wrong when he body slams the dog on the counter and breaks other That's one of the funniest scenes ever
[00:10:26] Mike Schneider: All right.
[00:10:26] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, what are we going to be talking about?
[00:10:28] Mike Schneider: What's our favorite flavor? What's this drink called?
[00:10:30] Ray Latif: So Ben Stiller, according to a lot of sites, is setting his sights on the soda business. Ben Stiller's 59, by the way. He is exploring plans, according to Bloomberg, to launch a low sugar soda named Stiller's. And a trademark application for Stiller's it was filed in November and it describes Be Beverage as a fruit flavored carbonated beverage So yeah, very exciting last time according to Bloomberg Ben Stiller was involved in the soda business he was pitching Pepsi zero sugar in a 2023 Super Bowl ad so I guess everyone's getting into this jumping into this soda pool.
[00:11:12] Mike Schneider: I mean, 1.65 billion dollars motivates a lot of people. Yeah, but I mean, this probably was existing before that.
[00:11:20] Ray Latif: But yeah, he filed for the trademark in November. So yeah, we'll see what happens. I'm sure he filed for it. I mean, you know. I'm sure he's just like, oh, my list of things to do, file for trademark check. Ben, as far as I know, does live in New York City, or he might be in LA, but I always see him at the US Open, so I assume he's got some sort of place there. So hopefully we can get Ben at BenNetLive at some point.
[00:11:45] Jacqui Brugliera: That'd be cool.
[00:11:46] Ray Latif: BenNetLive. One can dream.
[00:11:49] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know, is Ben Stiller still relevant, though?
[00:11:52] John Craven: Like, with younger generations? He's the director of Heat. He's responsible for Severance.
[00:11:58] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, yeah, but how many people, like, actually know that?
[00:12:00] John Craven: Lots.
[00:12:01] Mike Schneider: I think lots.
[00:12:02] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, like, the younger generation, though? Like, does Gen Z know who Ben Stiller is?
[00:12:06] Mike Schneider: Yeah, I think so. I think Meet the Parents has had a Little Saints of a resurgence as, like, my kids have seen it and stuff like that, you know?
[00:12:14] John Craven: Okay, so that keeps them alive. The kiddies like the Wes Anderson too, I'm just saying.
[00:12:19] Ray Latif: Well, clearly there's a time when kids of today don't know the stars of yesterday. I hope there is a time when kids of today and tomorrow never have to think about whether they are eating or drinking artificial ingredients in their food Be Beverage. And I think we are kind of hitting a turning point here, very exciting news in that West Virginia, it was announced yesterday, is banning most artificial food dyes, and two preservatives in all food Be Beverage, citing the potential health risks of these ingredients. The legislation was signed into law on March 24th by Governor Patrick Morrissey, and it's going to go into effect in 2021. According to The Newton York Times, at least 20 states are considering similar restrictions on all food chemicals, but West Virginia is the first to ban virtually all artificial dyes from foods sold statewide. And, this is really exciting, The Newton law will prohibit products containing the dyes from being served in school meals starting in August. That is progress. That is progress, I would say, for sure. So at a time when there's not a lot of good news in the news cycle, at least the world news cycle, that is, I think this is great. I'm really happy about this. And I think it will spur other states and as i mentioned twenty states are considering similar legislation but i think it will spur other states to uh... take greater action and i think this is one of those things this is one of those ideas that no one unless you are a manufacturer of said artificial ingredients can say is a bad idea this is a really good thing is it going to make companies change or just exit the uh... no offense to West Virginia
[00:14:11] Mike Schneider: maybe not so important market of West Virginia, which would have a negative impact of prices and whatever else.
[00:14:19] Ray Latif: Well, I think it's kind of an experiment. We'll see how much of an impact it does have at least early on, whether or not, you know, major food companies will say, okay, well, we'll just, you know, spend less time and effort on West Virginia. West Virginia, that global microcosm that it is. Anywho.
[00:14:36] Jacqui Brugliera: Hopefully it's a domino effect though and then there's like multiple states that are doing this and then the companies have no choice but to make change rather than just ignoring it.
[00:14:45] Ray Latif: As we've talked about in past episodes, look, I mean, they do this in Europe. They don't have artificial food dyes and artificial sweeteners and artificial really anything in food, packaged food or otherwise. And it is something that is really irked a lot of people. It's really irked me. I just don't understand why we can't be better like that.
[00:15:05] John Craven: And bballqd32xoxo eats meat there too. So, I mean, because the food's just overall better.
[00:15:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it tastes better, better quality.
[00:15:12] Mike Schneider: Gravy lover of packaged pies and cakes. I don't eat that stuff.
[00:15:20] Ray Latif: In other good news, I think most of the samples that we have in front of us contain no artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. And that includes a brand that I think was the best one I saw at Expo West. One of the for sure. But it was, this is a brand I was not familiar with before I went to Expo West. It's a brand called True Dates. The parent company actually sells gum. It's called True Gum. But they just launched in the United States a line of dates that have candy or soda flavors. So the sour watermelon flavor is basically a date that is naturally sweetened with a sour watermelon. taste or flavor.
[00:16:06] John Craven: We got sweet peach, sour cola, creamy peanut butter.
[00:16:09] Jacqui Brugliera: Delicious.
[00:16:09] John Craven: All right, let me let me try some cookie dough. Two flavors that do not go together here.
[00:16:14] Jacqui Brugliera: The cookie dough is really good too.
[00:16:16] John Craven: Cookie dough flavored dates. These are made in Denmark? It's Denmark. Not a U.S. labeled product. Right. So these products were... Are these peanut butter flavored or do they have peanut butter in them? No, they're peanut butter flavored.
[00:16:28] Ray Latif: Okay. Yes, there are peanut butter filled dates out there, but these are not. These are flavored. Yeah. So they have a coating on top, like the sour watermelon has like a little sour coating and it's like, no, I'm not, I can't open all of them. Okay, this has peanut butter. I'm going to open this one. Don't, don't, don't, don't just, just don't dig in there.
[00:16:46] Mike Schneider: Hold on, I got to sneeze.
[00:16:47] Ray Latif: I'm going to sneeze in the back. I didn't dig. You dug. You think I dug? You dug. Just dump out. There you go. Oh, you want me to dump? I want you to dump nothing. They smell like Sour Patch Kids. They do. And they're really good.
[00:17:00] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. I remember seeing them at Expo West and they just, that was a thing that stood out to me because it's so simple, but packs a lot of flavor and does what it says that it's supposed to do is taste like cookie dough and tastes like sour watermelon.
[00:17:13] Ray Latif: In some ways, I feel like this is our cola. Here I go. Oh, I dug. This is the anti-innovation, right? They didn't do anything more than come out with a product that everyone knows, which True Dates, and add some familiar flavors that aren't necessarily associated with dates.
[00:17:27] Jacqui Brugliera: And yeah, it's a great product. Keeping it simple. I don't know about candy though.
[00:17:31] Mike Schneider: Sour watermelon is pretty good. Sour coal is pretty good too. I mean, if you make it taste like candy, I think it's pretty good. You got the texture of like, I don't know, it's chewable like a Sour Patch Kid, but it's a date, and the flavor kind of goes with it. Coding a date and cookie dough. I don't I don't need a sir. Sorry sugar so pretty good.
[00:17:51] Ray Latif: Yeah, well I mean talk about a satiating snack dates are great, and I think this is gonna get a lot of people into dates Who wouldn't consider dates in the first place so good stuff?
[00:18:03] Mike Schneider: I think the branding needs a little uh the branding needs to look like that's gonna appeal to people who really like dates I'm not sure that's gonna do what you just said
[00:18:11] Ray Latif: Well, I'm going to tell you something, John. Yes. And I probably should say not so much about this. And I think I actually mentioned this in our Expo West Roundup. There is another company out there that is planning a similar type of product.
[00:18:24] Mike Schneider: Yes, I'm aware.
[00:18:25] Ray Latif: Yes. We're not going to reveal the name of that company, but listeners can probably figure it out.
[00:18:30] Mike Schneider: Branding on that one felt like a little closer in the right direction than this one. The branding on that one was awesome. Yeah. We saw a sneak peek of said product and brand. This one says to me, like, do you like dates? Like if you like dates, here's a candy flavored one. It doesn't feel like a net new thing yet. How about, how about, uh, Senor Mango? Love this stuff.
[00:18:47] Ray Latif: Okay. So what do you think about this branding here? Cute.
[00:18:50] Mike Schneider: I like it.
[00:18:51] Ray Latif: I like the product. The folks behind it are great too. Senor Mango is a maker of dried fruit. They sent us a bunch of their products. We have their matcha variety, we have their natural, we have their dark, and we have their enchilada. What's the dark? I feel like Naturally San Senor Mango. It's just mango-ish. No, the dark is with premium chocolate.
[00:19:13] Is West: Chocolate?
[00:19:14] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:19:14] Is West: Interesting.
[00:19:16] Ray Latif: Yeah, and they come in these beautiful 2.12 ounce pouches the pouches.
[00:19:22] John Craven: They're like shiny, which is nice and they have a drawing of a mango It looks like a young kid drew the mango in each Yeah, well the enchiladas like a chill rabbit mango So dude, and it's there's so many good words on this pack. I mean I They probably could have had fewer words, but that said, the words are great. Enchilado. Organic mango. Vegan. 100% natural. Kosher. Mucho gusto. Come on. How about Mango Kent Cheeks? They don't describe them as slices. They call them cheeks. From Mexico with love. I mean, these are, yeah. Good stuff. Get these cheeks in my belly. Okay.
[00:19:58] Ray Latif: I love Senor Mango. All right. Now John has some pouches of his own there.
[00:20:02] Mike Schneider: I mean, not of my own. That implies like I'm making my own beef jerky or something weird. But anyway. These are Purely Sprouted. They come in a bunch of different flavors. I've got the sweet and salty and the chili and black pepper Self-described as a sprouted snack mix. It's basically like granola clusters type of thing Yeah with sprouted nuts and pumpkin seeds. Yeah, I mean really good I don't know I took the two that I like the best this one's got like sweet and salty's got like a maple flavor to it and And this chili black pepper is like, you know, just straight savory flavor.
[00:20:37] Ray Latif: Both are really tasty Is it just me or our granola clusters everywhere? Like all of a sudden there's a new granola cluster brand like everywhere. It's Rayland. You got to shop at a different store, Ray.
[00:20:49] Mike Schneider: It's not stores!
[00:20:50] Jacqui Brugliera: I've been seeing a lot of granola too. Ray, have you seen the Truman Show?
[00:20:54] Ray Latif: The Truman Show?
[00:20:55] John Craven: The movie Truman Show? Yeah. Truman. I'm Truman. Yeah. Okay.
[00:20:59] Ray Latif: It's just you. All right, that's about a podcast. All right, I'm getting it from two sides here I'm not gonna be me with Jackie. So please no.
[00:21:06] John Craven: No, no, you guys are done for the day I got a drink to wash it down with We'll go to you Jackie, what do you got?
[00:21:18] Mike Schneider: I have this product called Broda, which is a lemon, honey, ginger vodka. Wow. This came from as the result of someone at Expo West doing the classic, like, just go around, hand out samples. It's a big sample. Well, no, he had a 100 mil little nip size, which is what I've actually tried. This is still sealed, but I've tried the little sample and a spritz, quite good. I could have sworn it was kombucha. It has a kombucha look and feel to it. It does. It's a, I want to say, God, am I going to get this right or wrong? I think it's a Polish sort of background product. A Polish sort of background product? You know what I mean a Polish origin excuse me, but it's it's really tasty. I like the guy on the front label He's a chill dude. He's a chill dude. He's chill dude.
[00:22:05] Ray Latif: I was like it kind of actually might look like you and 15 years his hair is a Little Saints longer. He's wearing like a quasi tuxedo.
[00:22:13] Mike Schneider: It looks like a cartoon it Looks like a I mean you probably need deep in a conversation with one Adam Stern about I don't know what airline lounge Is West or some sort of nonsense I want one extra day without shit. I mean, thanks.
[00:22:25] Ray Latif: Thanks for putting Ray on the bottle one thing I will say about that is he's it looks like he's sipping not a cocktail, but Just a swig a swig a scoach of the vodka on its own So it seems like you don't really need a cocktail you can just drink it like that
[00:22:41] Mike Schneider: Yeah, I tried it straight. It's it's pretty tasty do nice. I don't really like vodka things, but You know lemon honey ginger you got you have flavors.
[00:22:49] Ray Latif: I like you know if you're ill, but still want a Little scotch or something. I think that's probably your best option. Yeah Yeah, yeah, and I will say this just to follow up on last thing on this flavored vodka Was that big thing that happened like 10 and 15 years ago now? I feel like this well That's much more in line with consumer trends today.
[00:23:08] Mike Schneider: I Yeah, I mean, that's flavored. You're talking about flavored with flavoring like whipped cream flavored vodka that I know you were a big fan of. But yeah, this is like legit stuff. Yeah, looks like it.
[00:23:17] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:23:17] Mike Schneider: All right, Jackie, please take it away.
[00:23:20] Jacqui Brugliera: I have something I think Mike has as well, which Mind Garden. This is a line of functional beverages promoting calm and clarity with adaptogens and nootropics. This is their Strawberry Rose, and they describe it as a sparkling elixir made with brewed hemp and fruit juice, which is interesting. I don't think I've seen like brewed hemp. called out really. It uses fermented hemp brew, as well as a bunch of functional ingredients, including L-theanine, ashwagandha, ginseng, gaba, and rhodiola. A lot going in there.
[00:23:54] John Craven: Yeah, there's a cocktail of awesome in here with panacea, ginseng, ashwagandha. Mine is, I don't know what gaba is, but it's supposed to be for anxiety reduction. So I'll need that. L-theanine and rhodiola rosea and for fatigue reduction. There's a lot going on on this can. It's pretty cool, though.
[00:24:09] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:24:10] John Craven: I like the like your like flowers coming out of your head.
[00:24:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. That's the calm.
[00:24:16] Ray Latif: Every time I hear GABA, I think of the Ramones, you know, GABA, GABA. Well done.
[00:24:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, that's tasty. It's interesting because I don't know what the functional benefit of hemp juice is in particular, but it does say that there's no CBD or THC in Be Beverage.
[00:24:32] John Craven: Yeah, there's an awful lot going on in this beverage. Mine's mango hibiscus, by the way. And you know, once you get someone to try it, it's pretty tasty.
[00:24:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's really good.
[00:24:40] John Craven: It's like 16% juice. Yeah. 16% juice.
[00:24:43] Jacqui Brugliera: Just 25 calories in this one.
[00:24:46] Ray Latif: That is actually surprising for Be Beverage that has 16% juice, that the calorie count is that low. You just need low-sugar juice, Ray. Low-sugar juice. That's it.
[00:24:55] John Craven: Don't Senor Mango juice. Probably some of the juice is hemp juice. Oh, the hemp juice, yes. John's got something great over there, too.
[00:25:00] Mike Schneider: Yeah, so you know how Ray has, like, random Wegman shots in his pocket? I do, yeah. It's really good, by the way. I've got Little Saints flasks in my pocket. My kind of flask. Okay, I didn't really have these in my pocket, but Megan Klein sent these over. She's had and what is Little Saints?
[00:25:16] Ray Latif: It's Non-alcoholic cocktails, but this is not a cocktail.
[00:25:24] Mike Schneider: No this I think is more designed to be like a Cocktails and spirits a drink enhancer.
[00:25:30] Ray Latif: No, I think it's actually intended to be a gin kind of replacement.
[00:25:34] Mike Schneider: Oh Right, but I think, but the flask size, they've had this sort of viral TikTok moment where Megan is kind of adding these two drinks.
[00:25:43] Ray Latif: Oh, interesting.
[00:25:43] Mike Schneider: Okay. And I think it's pretty neat. I mean, it's kind of like a cool, you know, I think anything in a flask always kind of catches the eye of like, what the heck's that? Why is it in a flask? I've made a phony Negroni with that before and it's pretty great. The St. Juniper tastes great too. So, um, but yeah, that was, uh, if you haven't seen the, uh, TikTok of these, go check out the, uh, Little Saints TikTok account. It's, it's pretty cool. Sweet. All right.
[00:26:08] Ray Latif: And, uh, we've got some sweets to wrap up our, uh, banter here. Yeah.
[00:26:11] John Craven: Yeah. On a whim, I brought these, uh, I brought these whims. We've got, uh, which is a maker of better for you indulgence. Oh, I just got it. Ha, ha, ha. Good one, Ray. So I've got dark chocolate peanut butter cups here, oat milk chocolate peanut nougat bars, oat milk chocolate peanut butter cups, and then also Ray has the caramel cookie bar, which is kind of like a Twix, kind of like a Reese's cup. Yeah, give me some of those, Ray.
[00:26:38] Ray Latif: So these also come in pouches, but there's five pieces individually wrapped per pouch. One gram of sugar. These must have allulose. Is that what this one is? I don't know if I've tried these. No, it is made with monk fruit extract. And I don't see any other sweetener that I can recognize. Interesting.
[00:26:58] John Craven: Nougat bar.
[00:26:59] Ray Latif: There you go.
[00:26:59] Mike Schneider: This just in. It's a Snickers. Yummy. It's a Snickers. I mean, this is perfect for you, right? Because I can stick my hand all over this bag.
[00:27:07] Ray Latif: Yeah, you can get ready. You can dive in day and night because each one is individually wrapped. These are amazing. I'm going to. We have lunch coming. Just take that away. I'm going to take that for later. All right, let's get to our featured interview for this episode. As I mentioned at the top of the show, Dan Grim is the CEO of Lucky To Be Beverage, San Diego-based provider of private label and co-packing solutions for functional beverage brands, as well as gummies, capsules, and tablets. I sat down with Dan at an event hosted by industry organization Naturally San Diego, where he shared his expertise on the booming functional mushroom trend and the intricacies of the co-manufacturing business. From scaling beverage brands to ensuring the right partnership fit, Dan dives into some of the key elements that drive success in the ever-evolving wellness space. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm honored to be sitting down with Dan Grim, who's the founder and CEO of Lucky To Be Beverage. Dan, great to see you. Good to see you, Ray.
[00:28:14] Ben Stiller: Thank you for having me.
[00:28:15] Ray Latif: Thanks so much for joining us here at this exciting, fun, lively NSD, standing for Naturally San Diego. free party for a UNFI show that's to begin tomorrow, and you're here right in the midst of all of it.
[00:28:26] Ben Stiller: How's it going? It's great. You know, I come from the cannabis and then the hemp space, so I haven't been to a lot of wellness events.
[00:28:34] Ray Latif: I don't know if I'd call this a wellness event as much as it is a fun event for the food Be Beverage community. Whatever you want to call it, I'm digging it. There's a lot of wellness brands here for sure, but Naturally San you is great and just bringing the community together. Sure.
[00:28:48] Ben Stiller: Yeah.
[00:28:48] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, this is my first Naturally San Diego event and I think you guys are doing a great job. Absolutely. Thank you so much again for being here. Lucky To Be Beverage. When I first saw your name on the list of folks that were coming out here, I thought you had Be Beverage brand, but that's not what you do.
[00:29:04] Ben Stiller: No, we're a co-manufacturer, contract manufacturer, manufacturing partner, where we take all of our facilities, our infrastructure, and we help other brands get off the ground, manufacture their product, formulate their product in a variety of different products, variety of different segments.
[00:29:21] Ray Latif: Yeah, so a lot of different categories, package formats as well, or is it a specific package format?
[00:29:26] Ben Stiller: I specifically run Be Beverage division. So we focus on shots, Be Beverage. The company as a whole does gummies, stick packs, tinctures, topicals, a wide range in an NSF certified, CGMP, organic, non-GMO, over-the-counter medicine certified space. So we have all the certifications that allow brands to knock down the biggest doors and get into Walmart and Costco and Walgreens and CVS and a wide platform of products that we can make. But I specifically focus on shots and Be Beverage with a extra focus on functional mushroom because we have access to some really amazing technology that allows us to make and this is going to sound like hyperbole, but the best functional mushroom shot on the planet. You know, functional mushroom is a really hot space. For sure. Right? You know, the BevNET show a few weeks ago was all functional, right? And there was a ton of mushroom there. You know, I wasn't there. My buddy was there. He was like, you would have killed it. Right? The thing about functional mushroom is mushrooms are, water solubility is not a zero sum game. There's levels of water solubility and people say mushrooms are water soluble, but that only goes so far. So if you want to put a small amount of mushroom in a 12-ounce vessel, it will generally disperse no matter what the extract is, because it's not a lot of mushroom in a 12-ounce vessel. But if you want to put enough mushroom for you to feel it, thousands of milligrams in a 12-ounce vessel, it's a Little Saints harder, but still the extracts on the market generally work. But if you wanna put a lot of mushroom, enough for you to feel, in a small two ounce form factor, things become challenging. So, this is an example of a product on the market. This is sold at a major health grocery store. And you can see, this darkness is essentially mud.
[00:31:32] Ray Latif: It doesn't look very appealing.
[00:31:33] Ben Stiller: It doesn't look very appealing. And then, when it settles, there's a whole thing of mud here, and when you drink it, There's a lot left over, and a lot of the active is left there. This has 1,500 milligrams of lion's mane. Lion's mane is what you would use for focus in the functional mushroom world. This has 2,000 milligrams, but we've gone up to 6,000 milligrams, and as you can tell, it's clear, it's translucent. So we have a proprietary extract that essentially doesn't use ethanol or CO2 to do the extraction. That is, those are the traditional methods to extract materials. This uses water and electromagnetic waves. And using that process, you can create an extract that creates a clearer, cleaner, more effective, better tasting extract and therefore product. And as you can tell, you can put way more material, way more mushroom material into the shot. I got to ask, Dan, because this sounds expensive.
[00:32:40] Ray Latif: And yes, there are some expensive beverages out there and people are willing to pay for them. But how do you think about price point when you are formulating beverages and making it affordable? Yes, to a natural general consumer, but, you know, to those who might be thinking about, to those founders who might be thinking about conventional as well.
[00:32:58] Ben Stiller: That's a great question. We find that the extract is on par, price-wise, with the other extracts that are on the market. It's just, it uses different technology, and therefore, in our opinion, is a superior product, and allows us to make superior shots. And, you know, we do this mainly in shots, but to give you an example, we were working with one of the biggest canned functional mushroom products, beverages, in the country. We gave them the extract, and they replaced their extract with ours as a test. And they came back, they also said, not my opinion, theirs was like, this was superior. The fruit was more vibrant. The taste was better. It felt different. So we've got this great combination of all the certifications to open up the biggest doors proprietary extract that allows us to make a better product and the infrastructure to help a brand launch and scale, manufacture from soup to nuts, formulate and manufacture. And we do that white label, private label. So if a brand wants to just get started, we'll formulate the whole thing. We have locked and loaded formulations. So this, for example, is a 2000 milligram mushroom product with 75 milligrams of caffeine. a Little Saints of L-theanine and B6 and B12 vitamins. So it's perfectly, this is kind of the formulation that like a group like Odyssey Elixirs uses that is working really well in the mass market. To your point though, mushroom extract in general isn't particularly cheap. So if you scale this and you start using a lot of mushroom, that's where it gets kind of expensive. But we've got ways to make the formulas both effective and cost effective. And that's really important, obviously, because the brand needs to sell it into DSD and that price needs to make it all the way to the consumer at a price point that's going to be good for them.
[00:34:48] Ray Latif: It definitely helps to have a good looking beverage. It definitely helps to have the ability to put a lot of functional material into Be Beverage, into a shot more specifically. But when it comes to efficacy, how do you evaluate, how you measure, how do you assess true efficacy for that end consumer? When it comes to caffeine, everyone knows how caffeine is going to affect people. But I think functional mushrooms might affect different people different ways. And the claims you can make, you know, it's all really important when you're considering the whole package.
[00:35:19] Ben Stiller: Yeah, it's a great question. So we started with, this is the caffeine version. We started with a product that was 2,000 milligrams Lion's Mane, 2,000 milligrams cordyceps, no caffeine. And I was just getting introduced to it. We had an NFL or a former NFL football player in the building. And he tried it, and he wound up calling us a couple hours later, he was like, holy cow, what was in this thing? And what I've noticed, which is interesting, is when we were baiting this out, was giving it to everybody that we could to try to get a sense for the efficacy, about 50% of the people that tried it said, whoa, okay, I feel this. Focus and energy, this works.
[00:35:59] Ray Latif: And was this a focus group, or was this a clinical trial at all?
[00:36:03] Ben Stiller: No, this is all anecdotal. This is all anecdotal. So about 50% said, I feel this, this is good, I like it, this is cool. About 25% of people were like, wow, this feels like Adderall. And then, in all transparency, there was a whole nother 25% who didn't feel a damn thing. Because that's just our body chemistry, that's just the way it works. Some bodies get it. Some people get it. Sometimes it feels amazing and other people, not so much. Right.
[00:36:31] Ray Latif: The last question I have for you, Dan, is when you are evaluating the potential to align with a particular brand and they're saying, OK, well, we want to make sure we're working with a partner that's going to see our vision and that's going to help us scale. And then you're also evaluating them, too. How do you determine the right fit, so to speak? Yeah, another great question.
[00:36:51] Ben Stiller: You know, The manufacturing partnership is a really intimate relationship and it needs to make sense on a lot of different levels. But really at the core, I think you need to find good people and you need to find people that have ideals or somewhere in the version of your ideals. We really look for brands that are really committed to what they're doing. So if they have passion, if they've got a good story, when we're talking to brands, I want to hear their business plan, their vision. And if it makes sense to me, it makes sense to our business partners. That's where we get real synergy and the real magic happens. Outstanding.
[00:37:30] Ray Latif: Dan. Lucky To Be Beverage. Lucky To Be Beverage. Folks, check it out. In the meantime, can I have one of these? Absolutely.
[00:37:36] Ben Stiller: I might need some focus. That's right.
[00:37:38] Ray Latif: There you go. Dan, thanks so much. Thank you, Ray.
[00:37:40] Ben Stiller: Appreciate it, bro.
[00:37:44] Ray Latif: 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.
[00:38:34] Is West: you
