[00:00:03] Ray Latif: All right, we're back for another episode of the BevMet podcast. I'm Ray Latif, the managing editor of BevMet, here with John Craven, the founder and CEO. And Jon Landis, well, as a brand specialist, you must have noticed the influx of bottled water brands coming onto the market. You're seeing all different types and all different shapes and sizes, some added with functional ingredients, a lot of sparkling stuff coming on the market. I want to ask John Craven, since you've been doing this for 20 plus years, I mean, have you seen such a wave of new bottled water products coming on the market or is this a relatively new thing?
[00:00:36] John Craven: I mean, bottled water has always had a lot of product introductions into it. I mean, I think for a long period of time, it was like functional waters, right? Vitamin water and stuff like that. And now it seems like the latest, well, not latest, but I mean the past, you know, probably five or so years, it's really been water trying to almost be like a replacement for soda as sales there have declined. So it's pretty interesting. I mean the lines are really pretty blurry almost to the point where you know something's a water if it isn't a soda, right? And in some cases it's a water because it doesn't have color in it or you know, whatever it might be. But the definition of what is a bottled water seems to be something that many companies take a lot of liberty with. And then, of course, there's just, you know, regular old bottled water, just that still stuff that, you know, comes out of the tap or from a spring or whatever it is that is being marketed at you. So You know, I don't know if we're at a point where we're seeing like really the deluge, as you said, or not. You know, there are a lot of them. It seems like something that just in terms of like the branding that we're seeing on a lot of these products, you know, this year's batch seems pretty, you know, pretty good in terms of just having an eye for branding. It's not like, you know, pictures of snow-capped mountains and all that generic stuff that you used to see. So anyway, that's my take.
[00:01:55] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to see some of the stuff that's coming out and in terms of how slick the branding is. Commodity water is commodity water. Everyone's going to drink it at one point or another. But some of these premium bottled waters that you're seeing pop up have some sort of niche, whether it be in terms of the pH content or oxygenated water. We have on our table here, we have a bottle of oxygen, oxygenated water. You know, all these brands are, you know, a lot of these brands are actually coming out from these, you know, entrepreneurs who are looking for some way to kind of crack or make their way into the beverage industry and find a niche. But Jon Landis, I mean, like, what are they telling you? I mean, you're talking to a lot of these folks. Are they finding some traction, you know, with people, with consumers and retail customers in whatever they're marketing and selling?
[00:02:39] Jon Landis: I think they are. I think that the entrepreneur side of bottled water is growing in a different way than it was a few years ago. To your point, the branding has really stepped up to another level. I think a few years ago, a lot of these pH waters were really technical. They're very technical in their branding. They were either going one way with like this private label type of mountains and another way with touting all of these health benefits that some can be somewhat dubious or whatnot. But yeah, I think from what I've been, I've even been talking to a couple entrepreneurial distributors on the East Coast that have smaller shops. And they start, at least the two of them that I'm thinking of, they started with water. They just had a portfolio of different premium waters and then expanded. So I think that the opportunities are growing. I really am trying for the life of me to kind of figure out what is shifting in the consumer mindset away from your legacy brands of the bottled water into these new ideas. That's the question, I think.
[00:03:50] John Craven: I mean, the thing is, we don't know if that's the case. I mean, the thing to always keep in mind with just brands that are starting out is, you know, it's like growing from zero is something that, you know, I mean, you're going to have a really high growth rate, at least in your own eyes. And, you know, at this point, still the bottled water category is largely still the same players, you know, private label. Nestle Waters and their host of brands and Coke with Dasani and Pepsi with Aquafina, all these little guys are sort of just finding little niche places to play. The branding aspect of it has always been one for entrepreneurial companies to get their foot in the door. And even if you look at, you know, a brand like Voss or something like that, it can be done in a big way or Accenture for that matter.
[00:04:32] Ray Latif: And I think that's what's changing the game. You know, you're seeing some of these brands like Smartwater, Essentia, even Aquahydrate to a certain extent, you know, just blowing up. And they seem to be attracting a lot of other interested parties to the table.
[00:04:45] John Craven: Well, and I think with, you know, all of those too, I mean, they're much like, you know, most beverages out there now. It's like, what else are you getting from it? Just selling a bottle of water that has, you know, the same hydration that every bottle of water has. I don't know, there's plenty of stuff out there, much like soda, that's telling you not to drink bottled water, right? So I think it is something that, you know, there has to be something else to it. That's, again, I mean, that's just an opportunity for entrepreneurs and startups to come in with whatever, you know, clever message they want to have. grab a little piece of the action.
[00:05:14] Ray Latif: And some things they're doing are pretty obvious, adding fizz, and we'll get to that in a moment. But I think, you know, in a couple of podcasts ago, we talked about cause-based marketing and some of the things that brands are doing to attract consumer interest. Generosity Water, right in front of me, is one of these brands, you know, they'll say, what makes us different? And one of the things they do for every bottle of purchase, we give a clean water to people for one month. And I think that's also something similar. There's a brand called Give-In out there that does the same thing.
[00:05:42] John Craven: Yeah, there's a bunch.
[00:05:43] Ray Latif: Yeah, there's a bunch of those out there. And so, I mean, you know, good branding. Also, you know, an interesting charity, you know, sort of cause-based message. The runaway growth that's really happening seems to be in sparkling. LaCroix is really, really leading the way with that. And there's a lot of these LaCroix, you know, sort of, I don't want to call them wannabes, but sort of chasing the leader. We saw Talking Rain introduce a new sparkling ice product. I think it's called Sparkling. Where is it? Right here. It's a sparkling ice essence of, and it's a certain flavor. And this is just water with carbonation and natural flavors. Unlike sparkling ice, it's got no sweeteners and no color. It's just a clear liquid and it's good tasting sparkling water.
[00:06:22] Jon Landis: But that kind of goes to John's point earlier of blurring the lines. We have flavors added to it, we have bubbles added to it, but it's still water, right? Or is it?
[00:06:31] John Craven: Well, I mean, I think some of it is, you know, if you take LaCroix, I mean, the genius is really in the packaging. I mean, they packaged it up and made it look like a soda, which from a perceived value to the consumer, like if you look at a can of soda versus, you know, think of any generic brand of bottled water, like which one do you think is like, worth more? Which one do you think is more refreshing? Which one do you think has more like sustenance to it? And I think, you know, a can of soda probably looks like it has more of all of those. And I think sparkling flavored water is not in any way a new concept. I mean, you know, big brands like Poland Spring have had that for, I don't know, for how long? Forever, right? So I think some of that is just, you know, it's really just the branding and the packaging of it that have sort of taken something, you know, old and made it new again, to use a cliche.
[00:07:18] Ray Latif: And, you know, we talked a little bit at Expo West, it's definitely this, you know, soda fatigue or desire to cut calories or sugar, but keep that carbonation that people still love or seem to love. That's really showing off in the kind of success and the kind of numbers that we're seeing for sparkling water brands.
[00:07:37] John Craven: Yeah. And I mean, I think the other piece just from kind of what John was saying before about entrepreneurial brands too, I mean, playing in just the still bottled water space, like unflavored, I mean, that's like the ultimate pennies business, which, you know, if you look at the challenges for any startup brand and just who you're competing with, I mean, someone like Nestle or Coke or Pepsi, they have way more money than, you know, any startup brands. So it's just, you know, it makes it impossible to compete in a way that, you know, you can actually ever be profitable for the most part. And that is something that I think is steering a lot of these brands into stuff like, you know, flavored or sparkling or, functional for that matter. Right.
[00:08:18] Ray Latif: Now, one of the things that's been interesting, oh, and I got to bring this up before we move on. There is another new bottled water brand out there called Ounce Water, and it was launched by Sons of Anarchy actor Theo Rossi. And They have a couple different sizes. One is a 40 ounce, and it's intended to look like a 40 ounce of beer, but well, at least the package is, and then they have a 20 ounce too. John Craven, you're drinking the 40 ounce of water. Yeah, I'm drinking a 40 ounce of water here.
[00:08:48] John Craven: You gotta stay hydrated. I mean, you know, to me, this is a product that just, you know, having this in the office, it is, it's definitely, you know, a novelty, like, you know, it's funny to hold it and, you know, you kind of look ridiculous drinking this 40 ounce of water. You know, would I ever buy something like this? Probably not. I think it's something that, you know, this, this size format is, I don't know. I mean, it just is too big. Like I'd rather have their 20 ounce one than 40 ounce.
[00:09:15] Jon Landis: What I think is interesting about the brand is that the novelty aspect is like secondary to their message, which is we're making it easy for you to get the prerequisite amount of water that you need in a day, which is what they say is 80 ounces. So, you know, you, you drink two of them. But that's not obvious with this.
[00:09:34] John Craven: I mean, look, there's a little, you know, shtick to this here. I mean, on the side, it's gluten-free and all this other stuff. I mean, it's tongue in cheek and that's totally fine. I'm not, you know, knocking that. Like I said, it's just something I personally probably wouldn't, you know, buy, but I'm not somebody who's walking around with like a mega bottle of water like all day.
[00:09:53] Ray Latif: You know, like the Olsen twins, you know, carrying their big bottles of water all over LA.
[00:09:55] John Craven: No, you know, I don't know. We have a water filtration system here in the office that's plenty good for me.
[00:10:02] Jon Landis: I mean, it did create quite a buzz when we opened the box in the office. Everyone kind of got a kick out of it.
[00:10:06] John Craven: No, for sure. I mean, I think what is cool about it is that, you know, if you look at brands that, you know, have this sort of natural, like, kind of marketing to it just because it is novelty, you know, to take the extreme, you know, the cocaine energy drink, right? You know, it's like that got so much press, but at the end of the day, like, who's really going to buy a cocaine energy drink?
[00:10:27] Jon Landis: Well, it comes down to the customer loyalty.
[00:10:29] John Craven: Like, are people going to be loyal for this? Sure. And I mean, the point I'm making is that this is like a non-offensive product, you know, so it's novelty, but it's a fun, you know, product. It is clean looking, it's not a bad looking package for what it is, so. It's good water. It's refillable. And we have a bar in the office with beer, actual beer, so. It's good water, it's very, very wet, the wettest of waters, you know. Wettest water out there.
[00:10:53] Jon Landis: I mean, let's not, let's not like, you know, we can joke about that, but there are plenty of brands out there that have touted like the best tasting water before.
[00:11:00] Ray Latif: That's pretty much what everyone does. I mean, the whole idea of hydration, this is hydrating. I wonder how long that's going to stick around. I mean, like this is a hydrating water. That's, I've never gotten that.
[00:11:09] John Craven: But anyway, well, I mean, it seems like for every one of these waters that we get that is oxygenated or high pH or whatever, you know, we have people who reach out to us who of course aren't generally people who are. on the record or are, you know, whatever. But they say, well, you know, that's that's crap. You can't put this inside a bottle of water. Right. And I think it's you know, it's funny because I don't think that anyone who I shouldn't say no one is doing this, but I don't think most people that are buying these like enhanced waters are looking at them as some like really super scientific, almost pharmaceutical product. They're just looking at it as like, to what I was saying before, it is a little better or it potentially has a value add over, I don't know, just a standard glass of water. Right. So, you know, poking holes in some of these products, you know, if you drink oxygenated water for like a month, like nothing's going to happen to you. Like, does that really matter to the consumer? Is that something that's dishonest in marketing? I mean,
[00:12:14] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, if it gets on the today show or, you know, it gets a little feature in people magazine or something like that.
[00:12:19] Jon Landis: I hear what you're saying though. It's like way too technical for an everyday consumer, like the parts per million of, you know, the whatever, everything that gets, when it gets filtered out through the rocks and the volcanoes and it's a story, it's cool. But most people don't have a problem with the way that Poland spring tastes or, you know, like how Dasani tastes. They don't, you know, it's water. Water is water.
[00:12:39] Ray Latif: And a lot of it does come down to the packaging.
[00:12:41] Jon Landis: Yeah, it totally does.
[00:12:42] Ray Latif: Like Voss, when they're a beautiful package, is something that really stands out. And the branding, too. I mean, that's really what got people drinking Fiji back in the day.
[00:12:51] Jon Landis: We mentioned oxygen water. We also have hydrogen-infused water. And I've been really dying to do a science project and mix them together and see if it creates more water.
[00:13:01] Ray Latif: You're a weird dude. You're a very strange person.
[00:13:04] John Craven: I don't think anyone else in the office would disagree. Let me remind you, it's H2O. So, you know, H plus O does not equal water. But I wasn't that good at chemistry either.
[00:13:13] Jon Landis: So I have to go over my calculations again.
[00:13:14] John Craven: There you go.
[00:13:15] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, it's been talking about a whole bunch of these entrepreneurs coming out with these new bottled water brands. You don't see too many of them launching their own facilities, filling their own bottles of water. You don't really need to do that. You can find a co-packager to do that for you. But in other beverage categories, you are seeing a little bit more traction when it comes to people who are willing to put the money up front to build their own facilities. And they're doing it for different reasons. It's happening a lot, obviously, in kombucha and cold-pressed juice. Jon Landis, you've seen and you've talked to a few other companies in different categories that are building their own facilities. Why?
[00:13:50] Jon Landis: Well, I have to credit craft beer a lot because there's a lot happening with finding facilities and putting the capital into the equipment to get a facility up and running to brew a lot of craft beer. I think it's translating with the consumers. And I think that they're, especially with kombucha, needing to brew their product in a very similar fashion. Maybe equipment's becoming a little cheaper. I don't know if that's the case, but it certainly makes a more authentic brand. When it's a handmade product and something that's a living culture like kombucha But what I think is really interesting too is we're seeing it with other like not brewed components Like cold brew coffee is brewed kombucha is brewed beer is brewed. There's people I guess brewing tea You don't really think of it in the same manner as brewing beer But there are people out there building their own small facilities to brew and bottle their own tea. And I think one of the more higher profile, not tea, but brands that we've come across doing this as a drink maple, is they're building out their own facility too. I think Neil went up to there to check it out recently.
[00:14:52] Ray Latif: Yeah, our colleague Neil Martinez-Belkin, who's a writer here for BevNET, writer and reporter. And yeah, he went up to Vermont, what was it, about a month ago, and went and visited the facility, which is pretty interesting. The interesting thing about brands that are building their own facilities is, you know, no matter what you do, you want to make as much as you can. And then you hit a point where you can't make any more. And then what do you do? And you have to turn to somebody else. I mean, we've seen that a few times. But, you know, John Craven and your history, I'm sure there are probably a number of companies that have said, hell yeah, we're going to build our own facility and we're going to spend a lot of money and do this. And it's turned out to be a little bit more difficult than they thought.
[00:15:31] John Craven: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's interesting. I have, you know, really mixed feelings on it. And, you know, even in the craft brewery sort of space, you know, I think it's really hard to successfully launch and grow, et cetera, consumer brand. And to be an expert in that takes, you know, a lot of money and a solid team and real focus to add on top of that, being a master of. manufacturing, I think is something that is even harder. You know, having been to countless production facilities of pretty much every kind, except I don't think I've ever been to like a meat packing facility, nor do I want to. You know, it's interesting when you see stuff that's really large scale and run by like people who that's all they do. Whereas I think for all the, you know, cold press juice facilities that we've been to, for example, There's very much people reinventing the wheel. I think in some cases we've even had people say, don't take pictures, or we're patenting this.
[00:16:29] Ray Latif: Certain types of equipment they definitely don't want you to take pictures of.
[00:16:31] John Craven: But it's like they all kind of look the same. And to a certain extent, there's only so many ways to like, and I'm really simplifying it here. I'm not an expert in this by any means. There are only so many ways to like skin the cat and that you have raw ingredients. You need to mix them. You need to put it in a bottle like you can't reverse that. Right. So I think it's something that for some types of products, it makes sense. Like kombucha, I totally get it in that there isn't a supply chain out there that you can just write a check to and pick up like finished cases for for other products that are made with things like, you know, flavorings and whatever nutraceutical type stuff. I don't understand why someone would do that. You know, it's always funny seeing that every once in a while, that Food Network show Unwrapped, where they're like making soda or something and they're like trying to make it sound, you know, sexy, but it's just like, you know, you see the flavor companies that we work with having their stuff put in and some sugar and you know, I don't, I don't really get that. But you know, to your other point, like scalability is always the issue. I mean, everyone who's doing this always has, you know, only so much capital and you know, some companies that grow fast, I mean, you know, Suja is a good example. And health aid. I mean, you know, both of those, it's like, you know, you go to one place and they're already working on the next and trying to, you know, health aid when we were there, you know, it's like they're building for like this capacity that right now seems like, I don't know, I guess somewhere in the future. And you don't know. I mean, brands grow fast. They could hit that. quickly. I mean, the Sujuana, use that example, like, you know, I think I've been there four or five times and literally like every single time it looks completely different. And this is over the span of, I don't know, three or so years. And that's just, you know, again, I mean, they have this whole new component, this whole new challenge of just figuring out how to do that.
[00:18:14] Ray Latif: Yeah. I mean, I mean, that was sort of built into their business plan and built into their sort of strategy, which is right. It was faster than anyone else. And, you know, cost be damned because we're going to do it.
[00:18:23] John Craven: Right. And again, I mean, there are reasons for doing that. And, you know, certainly if you can successfully do that and own your own supply chain, I think in most industries, that's better than, than not. Right. Right.
[00:18:35] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, I think the general rule of thumb is don't build your own facility. But the interesting thing is, you know, you are seeing some success with, you know, brands or in categories where it makes sense. I just have a hard time believing that you're going to see successful companies or successful brands be able to accomplish building their own facility and making enough product to support, you know, for a return on investment that, you know, is worth the actual outlay of costs and the outlay of time and resources.
[00:19:04] John Craven: I think right now, the other thing that's just going on is that access to capital for these capital expenditures is pretty good climate for that. So a bunch of years ago, when brands were starting in the middle of a recession, that was probably a pretty damn hard time to do any of this stuff. But it's relatively cheap and easy to do some of that.
[00:19:24] Ray Latif: And in the case of Drink Maple, I mean, they're sort of supporting their own facility by getting into another beverage category. I mean, they're not just making maple water anymore. They're making watermelon juice. And, you know, talking to their founders, it sounds like, you know, they may get into other beverage categories and sort of have drink as the the sort of banner with all other beverage categories underneath it. So, you know, if you're just launching, I mean, if you're just in one category or if you're just selling one type of product, maybe it's going to be pretty tough for you. I would think it's going to be pretty tough for you to make that work.
[00:19:57] Jon Landis: I think that you're kind of automatically put in that position when you're making all of the investment in all of the equipment to say, we're going to do this X, Y, Z open ended thing because you never know, you know, how much line time you're going to have occupied. You never know what kind of downtime you're going to have. And every hour that those lines are down, you're losing money. So it's like a little weird type of balance between being a beverage brand and almost a co-packer itself, but just for your own brand. So it's a little sketchy. I think the ultimate case study on the thing is Honest Tea, right? I mean, hasn't Seth always said they invested in the facility and it was a huge mistake or something like that?
[00:20:37] John Craven: Well, they bought into a bottling company way back in the day, which is part of Seth and Barry's book as one of their big business lessons. I mean, another, you know, sort of similar one in this space is like starting your own distributors is one that has also created challenges for a lot of brands, but the ones that have managed to successfully do it, which that kind of hasn't happened in a long time at this point, but it's a pretty high risk, high reward situation, so.
[00:21:06] Jon Landis: So when an entrepreneur who doesn't necessarily have to bottle their own product in their own facility, so one that comes to mind was in the New Beverage Showdown a couple years ago was caffeinated club. I don't know if you guys remember the- Of course, sure, caffeinated club. It's a sparkling water. It's what we were talking about earlier. You can get that manufactured in a lot of different places, but he was very, very dedicated to his own line. And I think that was a lot of the criticism from the judges at the time. Is there any like authenticity gained by having your own facility that you make it in? Like, is there any for a sparkling water product? It doesn't seem like there's a huge benefit for it, but maybe for like a tea
[00:21:47] John Craven: Well, I think the kombucha thing is, is a good example. So revive kombucha, you know, they're having like, you know, a tasting room. It's very like craft beer style, which I think in that sense, like that sounds pretty cool. You know, like people do want to see like where the stuff that they eat and drink comes from, but a product like that, that is kind of artisanal has some kind of magic to it, right. Is different than something like a flavored sparkling, whatever. But, you know, it's interesting. I mean, the other thing I'll just kind of add to it too, is that a lot of times I feel like I hear or have heard, geez, well, you know, I can't find anyone to bottle this idea that I have or put it in this package. And a lot of times, unfortunate question is, well, you know, there might be a reason for that. There might be a reason that no co-packer exists that, you know, works with whatever type of strange model. And some entrepreneurs just keep pushing and pushing and, you know, they buy expensive change parts or whatever, or start their own thing. you know, they just waste a lot of money and get distracted. And I'm not trying to make a case for like, Hey, you know, you should just go in the standard stock bottle. But I think it is something that for all of these brands that are starting up, you know, they kind of just have to temper and have a little reality check of what they're doing. And that includes like, you know, the packaging, the function, whatever it is, as well as, you know, if someone's going down the path of starting their own facility, like you really got to like
[00:23:05] Jon Landis: It's great advice. If you're in the industry and you haven't been doing it for a few years, you're just entering, listen to what these guys are saying. Listen to all the things that have happened before you jump headlong into something. Listen to other people who know what they're talking about. Listen to this podcast, in other words. Well, I mean, I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about, you know, if you're a beverage entrepreneur and you go to a Copac facility and they tell you, yeah, nobody does that. Like you said, don't be headstrong. Ask your questions. Say why, you know, kind of be inquisitive. I think that that's the way to go.
[00:23:34] Ray Latif: That's fair advice for sure. I want to do one more thing before we close off and I hope we can make this a regular thing at the podcast. I'm nervous now, Ray. Well, it's not that crazy. I didn't give anyone time to think about this, but I want to say, okay, it's the end of a month. Yeah. It's the end of April. We get so many samples in the office and, you know, we drink a lot of this stuff that comes into the office. You know, not everything gets consumed all the time, but what's your favorite thing that came into the office this week or the last couple of weeks? Do you have time to think about it?
[00:24:07] Jon Landis: Do you need time to think about it? I have it in front of you here. I have it in front of me. Yeah, you do. And I've been drinking them with lunch every day. It's a side road, the switchel. Oh, there you go. I typically stay away from beverages that are pretty high in sugar. I like to just drink water. And I think this is like 34 grams. And how many ounces is that? 20 ounce? This is 14 ounces. So it's pretty high sugar content, but you get the sugar from maple syrup primarily, and it's just so chuggable. It's maple syrup and ginger and apple cider vinegar and water, and then they add some fruits. like blueberry or cherry. And it is just, you can just chug that whole bottle. It is so good. It is so thirst quenching. Side Road, they're a great brand. Up Mountain has another great brand of Switchel. And there's just, I think one just called Switchel in Vermont. And there's probably a couple more that I'm not terribly familiar with, but I love that product. It is so good. There you go. John Craven, do you have an answer yet?
[00:25:09] Ray Latif: Because if you don't, I can go.
[00:25:11] John Craven: I'll go. I think the two things, well, the two things I've enjoyed drinking this past week, one is the Modern Alchemy, which, you know, I just really like kind of the low sugar and the spice to it. The second thing, which we didn't get at the office, but was drinking nonetheless, was the juice that I picked up over at the Juice Press location that opened up here, which, you know, we're still a little devoid of cold press juice places up here. So great to see that opening up around here.
[00:25:38] Ray Latif: Yeah, interesting about Modern Alchemy, launched by one of the real housewives of New York, I believe, and it's dubbed the Clearing Tonic, and Earth's most potent detoxifier is packed into a little black bottle. It's made with coconut water, matcha, lemon, ghost pepper, reishi mushroom.
[00:25:53] John Craven: All sorts of stuff. I don't know, it tasted good. Does it? I just picked it up out of the fridge and... You weren't going for function. You just said, this looks interesting. I did not watch The Real Housewives. Nothing against that, but yeah, I mean, it just, I saw a ghost pepper on there and, you know, look, I mean, in here, in our office and in our world, we try so many different things. It is, you know, kind of neat to see stuff that has a lot of flavor without, you know, kind of like John said, a lot of sugar to it.
[00:26:21] Ray Latif: Right.
[00:26:22] John Craven: And, you know, I think spice in beverage is still something that, you know, there isn't that much of it. And it's, I think, a really good, like many cases, like efficacious ingredient, too.
[00:26:33] Jon Landis: So I thought that ghost pepper, too, was so unique. It was more of like a lingering back of the throat type of a feel to that product instead of like kind of on your tongue heat. I thought that was a really nice touch.
[00:26:45] John Craven: But they only sent us six bottles. Yeah, and they were gone really fast. Send more, please. All right.
[00:26:50] Ray Latif: My favorite thing that I drank this week was the Gundalo juice that came in. We got a bunch of products from that brand. It's a cold-pressed juice brand. And the one I really liked was the one Watermelon Waves. I'm a big watermelon juice guy. And yeah, there's a healthy amount of sugar in watermelon just from the fruit itself. But I really liked the taste of it. And then the branding was good. It's just a straight black label. Ingredients are watermelon, lime, and mint. And then it says underneath that in italics, nothing more. which really is all I want. I don't want anything else more than watermelon, lime and mint. So good stuff from them.
[00:27:22] Jon Landis: Awesome, awesome Gundalo and Modern Alchemy and SideRoad for sending us those products. Yeah. That was Kevin and I know Kevin at SideRoad. I don't know the other guys, but Kevin sent us a bunch of shirts too. So thank you very much. If you're listening, Kevin. If you're listening, Kevin, and if you're listening, you know, other brands that, you know, you wanna get products reviewed or, potentially featured on the podcast, send them to our office.
[00:27:46] Ray Latif: Yeah, good beverages, good podcast. Thanks again for listening. Hopefully you're liking what you're hearing. If you're not, or if you have some comments, criticisms, ideas for future topics, please let us know. Send us an email at news at BevNET.com. We'll see you next time.
