[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello 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 I'm with my co-hosts for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. I totally just felt like Ray Burgundy, by the way, because you know, in the movie Anchorman, when he reads from the script. He's an anchorman? Yes, he's an anchorman. I haven't seen that movie you speak of, Ray. Well, at one point somebody put something into his script and he said, he just reads it. Yeah. Yes. What does he say? F-U San Diego or something like that? He just reads it. And I have a typo in my copy here and I almost read it. It's the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food and business. I don't know why I have that in there. It could have been worse. It could have been F-U Boston or something like that.
[00:01:05] John Craven: Jesus. No, it's definitely not that.
[00:01:10] Ray Latif: All right, I kind of want to kick off this show by going back in time, back all the way to the year 2023. And it was one of our last shows of 2023 in which we talked about the potential for dry bottle shops to thrive in this year of 2024. I think We Had a little bit of a disagreement, slight disagreement, in terms of whether or not we thought dry bottle shops, those that sell non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails, would do well this year. And it just turns out that it might not be a banner year for these shops as it were. It was rumored, or it is rumored, that Boisson, which is pretty much the leading, if there is such a thing, the leading non-alcoholic shop in America, might be closing, might be shutting down. Our very own Farin Selnikar, wrote a story on Friday, the 29th of March, about this rumor, which began when a Boston employee or someone identified themselves as a Boston employee wrote on Twitter that the company was closing. And Andrea Hernandez, that of Snack Shot fame, followed up on it and spoke with suppliers of Boisson, tried to get in touch with the team, but to no avail. We did as well. Baron attempted to contact Boisson, but as of today, Tuesday, April 2nd, have not heard back. So this is very interesting, this development, especially because Boisson seem to be quite well-funded. From Perneau. From Perneau. They had brought on a $5 million bridge round led by Convivialité Ventures, which is a VC arm of Perneau, and also a investment group called Connect Ventures.
[00:03:03] Jacqui Brugliera: That's a lot of Bon Buzz and Maladi. What's going on? What? That's a lot of Bon Buzz and Maladi.
[00:03:08] Ray Latif: Oh, you're talking about two brands. Talking about some brands. Yes. You know, I think that, I don't know, I don't want to sound negative here, but the common sense reaction to this is, yeah, I kind of saw that coming.
[00:03:21] Mike Schneider: Well, I mean, it sounds like the business is refocusing on the wholesale distribution side of it and exiting the stores, which. I think, you know, in terms of like where that category is at, sort of makes sense to invest in, you know, being a wholesale business as opposed to being a retail business. But I think that's kind of what we debated in that episode in 2023. And, you know, I think I said back then that this seems like something that might work now. And there are obviously other retailers out there that are doing this successfully as sole locations. But building a business that's going to try to scale that at the retail level definitely seems pretty tricky. So I guess timing's a little surprising, but I don't know. I mean, obviously they know something we don't know. So.
[00:04:12] John Craven: Yeah, and during dry January we saw a lot of conventional retailers or natural retailers having sets for non-ALK. So maybe there was a lot of success in that. They saw a lot of success in maybe partnering with larger retailers and they're seeing that, you know, maybe we can just go this route rather than having their own retail fronts.
[00:04:34] Mike Schneider: I think the future for this category is still bright and there certainly are successful models for all sorts of niche retail out there. And, you know, if anyone out there is a retailer that does this, I wouldn't take this as a sign that what you're doing is not viable, you know, just because someone's exiting it.
[00:04:53] Jacqui Brugliera: We also haven't heard from Boisson either, so maybe they've cracked a coat and they're pivoting and they're just not ready to talk about it yet. So, I mean, if you want to look at the potential silver lining or sunny side of the street, that could have happened too.
[00:05:07] Ray Latif: The sunniest side of the street. I've never heard that phrase before. I like that. Yeah.
[00:05:10] John Craven: What's happening on the other side? Raining?
[00:05:13] Mike Schneider: Nice. Yeah. It's a storm on the other side. I personally am going to reserve judgment for right now in all of this. Yeah.
[00:05:22] Ray Latif: Well, what I would say is that the most important thing to do is to continue following this story, especially if you are in the business of non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails. The best way to do that is to follow the story. on BevNET and become an insider, because that story that we broke on Friday was only available to insiders. And the easiest way to become an insider is just to go to the website, go to BevNET.com slash insider, sign up. You'll be happy you did. Switching gears to, of course, a perfect segue. Plant-based milk Mike has in his hand Yes, it looks like some sort of countertop contraption With the word new milk on the front of it.
[00:06:13] Mike Schneider: So this is a countertop appliance called new milk which basically makes nut milks and oat milk kind of on-demand from these pouches. It kind of has a like blender apparatus on it that mixes it all together. If you haven't tried this yet, the output from the machine is like, it tastes amazing. Like no sketchy ingredients in these pouches here. Super fresh tasting.
[00:06:43] Ray Latif: We ready for demo? Not just yet. So NuMilk, N-U-M-I-L-K, originally they had much larger machines. I think I still have These are these are used in like cafes as well. I saw this in Whole Foods, right? They had much larger years ago at Whole Foods where you could make on-demand plant-based milk These versions are I assume intended for home office and I guess food right?
[00:07:11] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know about food service. This is the birch coffee latte
[00:07:16] John Craven: Oh, so you can make lattes.
[00:07:18] Jacqui Brugliera: You can make matcha lattes. We've got golden milk. What's the base of this one? I think this is oat milk, but I can't... Hold on, I'm having a... It's cold. How's it cold? Oh, I turned it off.
[00:07:29] Ray Latif: Cold water. It's because of cold water. Oh, okay. So I'm on the NuMilk website and this NuMilk home machine is what they call it.
[00:07:37] Jacqui Brugliera: This is the Birch Coffee Vanilla Oat Latte. Ingredients are milled oats, granulated dates, coconut oil, coffee. Yes. Ground vanilla bean and Himalayan salt. And it is drum roll, please.
[00:07:55] Ray Latif: Yeah, it's really smooth the machine itself is It's relatively expensive. It's $250 the pouches are approximately $4 per pouch so this I'm seeing this on their website the unsweetened almond variety which contains only almonds and Himalayan salt and Sells for a 4-pack of $15.96 a 12-pack will run you $47.88 how many ounces is that thing how many ounces 32 ounces?
[00:08:28] John Craven: So it sounds like it was $4 for about two servings because I mean you split it three ways. I mean I think I
[00:08:35] Ray Latif: Eight ounces is what I would typically drink for plant-based milk. I guess you could, we could say two to four servings.
[00:08:41] Jacqui Brugliera: If you're making lattes, I think you make five or six. Yeah.
[00:08:45] John Craven: Okay. So yeah, not bad. Nice. And you can store the rest.
[00:08:48] Ray Latif: All right, well, that was a pretty good demo there, Mike. Well done.
[00:08:50] John Craven: Thanks, Ray.
[00:08:51] Ray Latif: We'll post a reel of the demo on the Instagrams and the TikToks and the LinkedIns, I'm sure. But yeah, the output is pretty darn good. I like it.
[00:09:00] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I'm going to have some more.
[00:09:01] Ray Latif: It's tasty. You know what I would like in this, though? I feel like there's just one thing missing. Chili crisp? Some booze? No. Well, maybe booze. I think I just need some sort of functional immune ingredient. I feel like there's something out there that could just improve the functionality of this beverage. And it is out there. It's an ingredient called Immuse, I-M-M-U-S-E, which is a dietary and food ingredient that is clinically shown to stimulate immune function at the cellular level. Incorporate Immuse into your innovation strategy and help your consumers optimize their health throughout the year. Learn more at immusehealth.com. That's I-M-M-U-S-E, health.com. Immuse is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Taste Radio. Hey, Ray. Yo. I found that segue very amusing. Oh, well, you know, I got to tell you, As far as dad jokes go, that was top notch, Mike.
[00:10:01] Ray Burgundy: Thank you.
[00:10:01] Ray Latif: I appreciate that. I'll take that.
[00:10:02] Ray Burgundy: Yeah. Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit VibrantIngredients.com.
[00:10:31] Ray Latif: Did everyone see the video that the folks from Ginger Labs posted on LinkedIn yesterday? Oh, the mafia one. Yes, where they made it look like they were doing some sort of illegal deal. There was a suitcase full of ginger shots that they were selling to some sort of Mob, as it were. I thought this was fantastic. It actually made me think about- Yesterday being April Fool's, by the way. Yes. Well, yeah, but- We should explain what April Fool's Day is, too. Okay. Come on. No, but this was just a skit. This had nothing to do with April Fool's Day, you know, as it were. No, it was just the timing of it. Yeah, the timing of it. But it made me think. I was like, this video is really slick. We'll include a link of this in the show notes. It made me think, like, the investment that this company made into this video was well worth it. It got a lot of eyeballs, got a lot of reactions. Yes, you know, you can do the scrappy and quick and dirty content with your iPhone, but I really appreciated this. I appreciate the fact that they put a lot of work and time and probably money into this because it looks great. I mean, they just raised some money on the production of this video. Good for them. Well done. You know, I mean, they do make tasty shots. Their shots are fantastic. I really enjoy them.
[00:11:40] John Craven: It's fun that they like came up with a creative way to highlight how pure their product is. You know, like who would have thought that this like funny scene would have just really highlighted a feature of their product so well.
[00:11:53] Ray Latif: Yes. Jackie, you described it perfectly because the deal was supposed to highlight the fact that this wasn't, I think at one point in the video, somebody asked, Oh, is this Colombian? I go, no, it'Pure Peruvian. I'm not going to mention the C word.
[00:12:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Okay, good.
[00:12:09] Ray Latif: Don't do that.
[00:12:09] Jacqui Brugliera: We talked about bond buzz earlier and yes the founder of bomb buzz Faye, baby, honey She posted yesterday and bond buzz is a non-alcoholic non-alcoholic spirit. She totally got me on this, too She said she was taking time off from bond buzz to be on Love is blind season seven. Oh I Happening Like my wife watches it and I got kind of I got kind of psyched I was like, oh someone I know is gonna be hot. It's a crazy show and I was like I'm so relieved Yeah
[00:12:53] Ray Latif: Got me though alright, okay, so John has whipped out these new they appear to be samosas Yes, they are samosas.
[00:13:01] Mike Schneider: They are from a brand called Aji's based in San Diego met these folks at a meetup in San Diego I think a start CPG meetup, but these are basically Caribbean style samosas they've got a vegan one and and a chicken curry flavor. I don't know which one you guys got, but they're super delicious. Brands just launching. I think there's some, uh, sauce that's supposed to come with these two, which I did not include. But, uh, what do you think?
[00:13:31] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, I got chicken curry.
[00:13:31] Mike Schneider: I got chicken curry. Yummy.
[00:13:33] Jacqui Brugliera: Delicious. Now this is Aji's not to be confused with Aji's, right? This is spelled A-G-I apostrophe S. I mean, it might be A-J-I.
[00:13:41] Ray Latif: I don't know.
[00:13:42] Mike Schneider: My apologies for mispronouncing it.
[00:13:45] Ray Latif: It's also, um, I think Aji's or Aji's or however you pronounce it, I think Caribbean is part of the brand name as well. Yes, Caribbean, yeah. The one thing I would say, this is delicious, the one thing I would say is on the front of the pack, they might want to adjust the... They look like they're bleeding. Yes, the samosas have some sauce on them, but they actually... Murdered yeah, but we just murdered them.
[00:14:10] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean we are murdering. There's so good. This is it's a super tasty Brand you wouldn't like if somebody put this in front of you.
[00:14:17] Mike Schneider: You wouldn't know it was previously frozen These are I think just pre-release packaging mock-ups too, so maybe they can erase the gore but I would rate it R. I would 100% buy these. They're super delicious. So these are just air fried up. Nice. You can get some great feedback from us if you send us your product pre-release. Ray, you want something to wash it down? Yes, I do. Oh, man. I got this new Bully Boy. Bully Boy straight bourbon whiskey.
[00:14:45] John Craven: Like you're hosting a cocktail hour over there with appetizers.
[00:14:48] Mike Schneider: We'll say it's 3pm when we're recording this even though it's not. Bully Boy is a local distillery here in the Boston area. I'll pour you, as you like to call it, a scotch. And this is special because... So it's different because they're using malted wheat. That's their key thing they want to call out. This is delicious. Quite delicious. Yeah, this is really good pairs great with samosas too for the phone. Yeah, so well done Bully Boy This will definitely help me get through the rest of this podcast
[00:15:19] Ray Latif: Okay, can I shift to a non-alcoholic? Yes, please all right, so I Was in East Boston on Saturday, and I stumbled upon this store called Ebo and Co Apparently everyone in the world knows about Ebo and Co except for me. We need find it eventually it has Ray vibes Yes, it is very air one ish in terms of its product selection and On the exterior, it looks like a corner store that you would find anywhere in East Boston, which has quite a few corner stores. But inside, it's got several coolers of beverages and food. It's got a great wine selection. It's got a great snack selection. It's got records that you can buy. It's even got a secret, I think it's a cookbook room downstairs. So I walked in there and I was just like a kid in a candy store. And it's like, I gotta start looking at some things that I want to buy and things that I've never seen before. A couple of things I'd never seen before are these teas. from a company called Bahari Tea, which makes two varieties of canned tea, 8.4 ounces per can. One is called the Purple Iced Tea. It's made with pomegranate and orange. The other one is called the Iced Bloody Mary, which is a tomato iced black tea. Tomato iced black tea? Yes. So this is the one, the tomato one is the one that I saw and I was like, okay, I've got to bring this to the office. And I thought I'd share this with you fine gentlemen. Sorry Jackie. I'll save some for the next time I'm in San Diego, which will be the end of my sharing Yes At the end of month. I will be in San Diego hosting the naturally San Diego pitch slam on April 25th if you are not Already registered salute before the events and you live in the San Diego where you live in Southern, California You should definitely do so it's sweet. Yes, I would expect this week
[00:17:09] John Craven: So it's sweet, tomatoey goodness. Like what's the consistency? Watered down a little bit?
[00:17:15] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it just tastes like tea. You know what it is? It's like sweet, tomatoey goodness.
[00:17:21] Ray Latif: Perfect. You get a lot of the tomato on the nose, less so on the palate. Okay. It comes late. Wait for it. Still nothing.
[00:17:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Wait for it. Wait for it.
[00:17:32] Ray Latif: Do you want to try the pomegranate orange one? Okay, here we go. This is the purple iced tea. You guys got to crush your tea here.
[00:17:39] Jacqui Brugliera: I already did.
[00:17:41] Ray Latif: Just tasting to heal your darlings. All right. Bahari Tea. Hit me. There you go. This kind of looks like a, it looks like guava juice. It tastes like guava juice. It's yummy. Oh, it smells amazing. Yeah. That's really good. Yeah, and it's delicious.
[00:17:58] Jacqui Brugliera: It's definitely sweet tea.
[00:18:00] Ray Latif: Yeah, so the purple iced tea has 14 grams of sugar per can. The tomato one has 17 grams of sugar per can. Bahari Tea.
[00:18:09] Jacqui Brugliera: We have in my hand here the latest from Tash, which is a maker of pistachio milks. This is RTD pistachio milk latte.
[00:18:16] Ray Latif: Yeah, I saw that on the floor at Expo West and I didn't get to try any, but I was like, wow, because they had only sold just multi-serve pistachio milk. This is their first RTD product, Tesh.
[00:18:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, that's nice and creamy and pistachio-y. I really like their products. I mean, I remember just back in the day when Roxanna brought the gallon jugs in and we made lattes and the product has just really progressed nicely. I mean, just wish them all the best.
[00:18:48] John Craven: I also have a couple of beverages over here, but this first one I thought was interesting because we've seen a couple of brands use ketones and their beverage, and this one's kinetic. So this is like the latest beverage I've seen that uses ketones. And it says, says 12 grams of ketones for clarity and focus. It's a sparkling ketone refresher. This one's blackberry lemonade. I guess like my question is, do you think people know what ketones are? Cause I still don't really understand why someone would drink ketones. I know there's ketosis and it helps with weight loss.
[00:19:24] Ray Latif: It's the sound that comes out of a keytar.
[00:19:27] John Craven: Those are ketones.
[00:19:31] Jacqui Brugliera: The major, the number one in a, in a major scale, but okay.
[00:19:36] Mike Schneider: Yeah. I think the answer though, is that that is something that doesn't have the same awareness as. I don't know, caffeine or alcohol or something like that, obviously. So, you know, that's going to be part of what that brand needs to do is build awareness for, you know, that ingredient and function.
[00:19:55] John Craven: Yeah. So it's mainly energy or weight loss, I guess, for ketones. And then I also have Jupa cacao tea.
[00:20:05] Ray Latif: Oh, nice. Yeah. I love that brand.
[00:20:07] John Craven: So this is a brewed cacao husk beverage. They have a couple of different varieties. This is original. They also have an unsweetened and they have one with cardamom. This was also interesting and I think it, this is another beverage that's going to need a little bit of education because I even didn't really know that you could brew cacao husks and what the benefits of that is. But it does say on the back of pack that it's really high in antioxidants. It kind of tastes like a little chocolatey. You get like the chocolatey notes.
[00:20:38] Jacqui Brugliera: It's supposed to be like a coffee replacement, isn't it? Did they put any caffeine in it?
[00:20:43] John Craven: I don't see any call out for caffeine, but it does call out that just that it's in the antioxidant club and it has more antioxidants than blueberries and goji berries.
[00:20:55] Jacqui Brugliera: That's maybe a good play for it because all these, you know, these brands that have tried to be a coffee replacement, there's very few that have found that as a message that resonates aside from perhaps Mudwater. There's a lot of like, you know, date seed coffees and things like that. I think maybe the play is to try to be your own thing. I like the antioxidant play there.
[00:21:17] John Craven: Yeah. It's cool. It tastes really good too.
[00:21:20] Ray Latif: Yeah. That was the thing when I tasted that product at Expo West, I really enjoyed the flavor more than anything else. I myself need to be a little bit more educated about what it is and what the ingredients are supposed to do for you functionally. But the taste for me was out of this world.
[00:21:34] Jacqui Brugliera: Mm-hmm in my hand. I have the beverage of the week. It's KC. Thanks, Ashley Kyle K a CE This is their jasmine tea apple and one of the things I really like about KC's I mean the packaging is really cute this it's an art project on the front does this remind you of mr. Do What's mr. Do? Mr.. Do the video game come on with the apples and the those monsters that chase you. Oh, mr. Do a hundred years ago a hundred years ago Yeah, vintage video game. It's so cool. I like their little yin and yang to write you should you should definitely try this later Okay, we're good.
[00:22:05] Ray Latif: Oh, it's this juice box. That one's got juice box.
[00:22:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Is that what it tastes like it's jasmine apple Okay, the jasmine is unmistakable. It's really good nice. I also have a care package from our friend Kartik Oh Kartik who is now taken to sending us other people's products. She'll dude Kartik who was the founder of doostra, which makes I think everybody knows that by now Well, you know if you missed an episode we are our fifth host But um, he sent this I think it's probably pronounced Diablo, but it's DJ a BLO It's a Filipino hot sauce with a punch it says and I'm really excited to try this check this out. Nice.
[00:22:42] SPEAKER_??: I
[00:22:43] Jacqui Brugliera: He also sent what he said is his favorite chili crisp. It's called Crystal Jade. And, uh, I tried it before the show and it is, it's legit. It's super hot and it's got just all the bits you'd want in a chili crisp. And it's, it's, it's super tasty. Should have had that with the samosas. I suggest that earlier, but, uh, John didn't really want to kick it up to you. Mixing flavors. It's that. Gotcha. It's that good. And then, so thanks Kartik for sending that. And then, finally, he also sent this product called Droosh, which is in this really cool little, what would you call that, Ray? Container? Little cylinder container. It's yellow. Droosh is in like this cursive font, and it says it's the Icon Spice, spicy, fierce, aromatic. It's really a striking packaging on the back. It says 100% women owned, and I can't wait to make something.
[00:23:36] Ray Latif: with this. The packaging looks like the kind of product that you would use like to powder your face. Is that? It does look a bit like makeup for sure.
[00:23:46] Jacqui Brugliera: But it's, I assure you that unless you use organic garlic powder, organic chili powder, garam masala, and other good things to powder your face, then turmeric.
[00:23:56] Ray Latif: Masala, yes. Garlic and chili, no.
[00:23:59] Jacqui Brugliera: Garlic and chili on my eyes. My eyes. Oh, my eyes. The goggles, they do nothing.
[00:24:06] Ray Latif: Well, I have one more thing to share and I'm going to share it directly. Thanks Kartik. Yes. Well done Kartik. I'm going to share this directly with John Craven because I know you talk a lot about this. I've seen you talk about Churn. Churn is a maker of flavored butters that just underwent a package revamp that looks amazing. It definitely feels like it's a very millennial, hold on, Gen Z type of product or packaging that is. I think you just caused a fight there by saying Millennial Gen Z. Okay, it feels a little bit more Gen Z than Millennial, I would say. Here is the bruschetta variety, John Craven, that you can have. I believe there are five varieties that churn markets.
[00:24:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Is that a snacking butter, John Craven?
[00:24:46] Mike Schneider: It isn't all butter. No. I just like to grab a stick and, you know. It's made with grass-fed and pasture-raised milk.
[00:24:53] John Craven: And they were at a Snack Shot event, I believe. I think that's where I tried their butter, and it was really, really delicious.
[00:24:58] Ray Latif: How did you try their... Did they give you spoonfuls, or was it on bread, or...? Stick fairy.
[00:25:03] John Craven: You would have hated this, but they had a big piece of bread. I think it was hollabread?
[00:25:10] Mike Schneider: Oh, the holladay guy.
[00:25:11] John Craven: Yeah, and then you just pulled pieces and put the butter on it. Can you imagine?
[00:25:16] Ray Latif: Can you imagine if I had seen that? I probably would have walked out and gotten a taxi back to Anaheim that moment. Can you believe that? They would have passed out on the spot. How many people touched that piece of bread?
[00:25:28] John Craven: Yeah, that's how you start Expo though, you know, you got to get the germs going so that you're immune.
[00:25:35] Ray Latif: Okay. Well, you know what there's germs and then there's really bad germs. I mean, I was never, I mean, where was the, where was the, you know, the sneeze guard on top of that bread, like they have, you know, with the face and just nowhere.
[00:25:49] Jacqui Brugliera: The Snack Shot event just makes me want to give a shout out to the founders of NARA who They just made that event super fun. They're so cool with their plant-based lattes, and they make matcha latte and black tea lattes, and it's so good.
[00:26:04] Ray Latif: An original DNS product. Original DNS product. But I gotta say... Shout out. This is probably my last thing I say before I get kicked off this show. that if I had seen that challah bread, I probably would have Instagrammed it and said, I'm at the snack snot event. Oh, come on. Cause you ain't no challah. Cause you ain't no challah. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:27:20] John Craven: you
