[00:00:00] SPEAKER_03: This episode is sponsored by PacTec, delivering beverage multi-packing you can trust. PacTec's handles are made from 100% recycled plastic and are fully recyclable, helping beverage brands reduce waste and support a circular economy. With a minimalist design, durable performance that prevents product loss, waterproof functionality, and custom color options, PacTec keeps products secure while letting your brand shine on shelf. Trusted by leading beverage brands globally. Learn more at Taste Radio.com forward slash PACKTECH.
[00:00:52] Ray Latif: Hello, dear friends, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-hosts for this episode, the admittable John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. Admittable. How about that? Yeah. You like that word? You know, who called me that once was Ken Sadowski, our dear Ken Sadowski. No, admittable. Isn't that what it is? Yeah, you're right.
[00:01:23] John Craven: He did call you also fickle, I think.
[00:01:25] Ray Latif: He did. He called Fred fickle, too. Yes, Ken Sadowski, the beverage whisperer on stage as one of the judges for the New Beverage Showdown final round, as he always is. I don't know. He's got a permanent seat there, does he? Almost at this point for the L.A. events, or at least for the L.A. BFNET show. Yeah, so he did call Mike and the semifinal judges a bit fickle. To be fair, I asked for it. That was his secret word. We're not going to do a behind the scenes on the game that you and Ken play every event. It's kind of weird. Mine was miscreant. Well, this is day eight for me and Marina Del Rey. I think it's day nine for a couple of you. And we are in the midst of Brewbound Live 2025. It's pretty buzzing upstairs. We're downstairs in the Taste Radio studio. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. Like, I thought I would have crashed at this point. This is usually the time when I'm just like, ugh, I left it all upstairs, Nosh and BevNET, but I think, you know, both events just brought so much inspiration, so much energy. I just, I'm still feeling it. I hate to inflate your head more, Ray, but we, uh, you know, we just hear over and over again how professional, how professionally the contests are run and just how great you are. Yeah.
[00:02:33] John Craven: And you have one more this afternoon too.
[00:02:35] Ray Latif: We have little throw up in our mouth moments, but it's, it's, Seriously though, you were fantastic again, as always. Thanks, I appreciate that. Someone, by the way, legit yesterday asked me where we hire Ray from for the competitions. Not even joking. Well, you know, I I think that's that's a good thing. I also wonder if that impacts my editorial credibility Perhaps perhaps a little bit but no, it's always nice to hear that and I mean I did tell them that it was because Pat Sajak was unavailable So now you're really dating yourself because the half the room here Yes, so No, the events are so well run. And honestly, I feel like I have to be at the top of my game to meet the level at which everyone is performing. And, you know, shout out to our team. Of course, our AV crew. We've got Joe Cratchy and Joshua Pratt in the room with us. They really are. I say at the end of every episode of Elevator Talk, I say, you know, the best in the business. They really are. Anything we ever ask for, anything we need, It's just yes, yes, yes, and done at the highest level. So thanks so much, guys. Really appreciate it. Our events team, our editorial team, our operations team, everyone was just so on point. And they're still on point because we're still in the midst of Event 3, that is Brewbound Live. We're still in the marathon. Yeah. But we heard some really good feedback from the attendees. And I mean, we could be biased and pat ourselves on the back and just, you know, try to BS everyone on the podcast, which we do occasionally, but. A little bit. A little bit. No, but really I heard consistently great feedback and it felt like the events delivered on that inspiration, that high energy that we always talk about, that people want. Really the best in the industry when it comes to these wide-eyed, ambitious entrepreneurs. The insights on stage and in the networking sessions from seasoned, experienced founders, you know, whether it's Bill Creelman or an Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, it was just really impressive that they were willing to take the time and sit down with people I mean, Alison was just out, you know, when she was outside the ballroom, Alison from Poppy. And Steven as well. And Steven. For a good half hour, at least, maybe more. No, it was 90 minutes. Was it 90 minutes? Yeah. You know, and Alison's a judge on Shark Tank now. And so, but I think they're just such humble people. They're like, we were here once. We were on stage once on the New Beverage Showdown. And, you know, even though they are, you know, mega successful at this point, they're like, you know what, we're going to pay it forward. So. I was like, you have to go back up to the stage now after she won her Person of the Year award. And she's like, wear it off again. Yeah, really, really. And yeah, just to just to point out, we did announce Nosh's Best of 2025 and BevNET's Best of 2025 awards at each event. If you want to find out who won, head to Nosh.com or BevNET.com. Also, all the tactical guidance that you got from retailers, from distributors, from service providers, all the amazing best-in-class service providers that we had here at the shows, and then the meaningful connections that people made in the one-to-ones, especially with the investors. We had early-stage investors, we had growth-stage investors, we had strategic investors here. We had industry legends doing peer one-to-ones. Yeah, and they were champs.
[00:05:49] John Craven: You had Rebecca Milstein and Jing Gao and then we had Nicole Dawes and... Jamari Pinkard and also Aaron Hint from LifeAid.
[00:05:58] Ray Latif: Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna try to... Fishwife, Fly by Jing, I'm forgetting... Nixie. Nixie, oh yeah, Nixie Sparklewater and Late July. Nicole Dawes is the founder of both, yeah. Cave Cod Potato Chips. Yeah, amazing stuff. Not a legend or anything. Circling back to the competitions, we had such a great group in both Nash and BevNET. BevNET I think in particular was just, that was a really tough one. I mean, the semi-final judges always have a really difficult time because they got to whittle it down from 12 to 6. And then the finals this year, I think Ken pointed out, and he's been doing, he's been a judge for 14 years, 14 times. He said this was the best finals group he's ever seen. Yeah, and the winner of the New Bayward Showdown finals or the entire competition was Projo. Projo, a maker of protein coffee, they call it Power Coffee. Each 12 ounce can, excuse me, 11 ounce can of their coffees contain 25 grams of protein and 225 milligrams of caffeine. And I think Charbel Mouad, who is the co-founder, did a great job with his presentation. But what's really interesting is when you come across protein drinks, and especially protein coffee drinks, they can sometimes taste not so great. This one tastes phenomenal. It's collagen protein. There isn't really any residue at the end. It's a great tasting product. Yeah. Yeah. And again, a really tough competition with some really great brands. But his co-founder was also spectacular.
[00:07:27] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes.
[00:07:27] Ray Latif: He had a cutout that he brought with him. His co-founder and fiance Lisa was with him.
[00:07:32] John Craven: She was very soft spoken. Not much to say, but her presence was felt for sure.
[00:07:40] Ray Latif: I sat down with Charbel after he won the showdown. We sat down here at the Taste Radio Studio for, I can't say that, with Cardboard Lisa, who again is his co-founder and fiance, and he shared a really touching tribute to her and said this would never be possible without her. She's my inspiration, so on and so forth. So it was really great. If you want to watch that interview, head to BevNET.com. I just want to shout out the other finalists we had. Rhinestone, which is a maker of non-alcoholic brew.
[00:08:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh my gosh. Fantastic brand.
[00:08:10] Ray Latif: Yes, Dustin Johnson had a really great presentation. I think everyone was really enjoying hearing him on stage. Of course, No Cap, the Gen Z, Gen Alpha, Soda Brand, Tiz, the Orangina, I guess Orangina for a modern generation. I think we can call it that. Motion and Sturzy, really great stuff. Sturzy being a brand of non-alcoholic cocktails and Motion a brand of clean energy drinks. So great stuff. On the Nosh Live side of things, Rotten Candy. Rotten Candy was the winner of the Pitch Slam. Congratulations to Michael Fisher and his team, Rotten Candy, maker of Better For You. Gummy worms and gummies in general, they're crunchy gummy worms, were a really big hit at this show. And I think what really impressed the judges, and Jackie, you can speak on this because you were a judge for the Pitch Slam, just the fun nature of what they're doing. The fact that Better For You Candy doesn't necessarily need to be old. Like if we're an older audience, it needs to be catered to a younger audience. I think, you know, building a brand that feels like the liquid death of candy really came through.
[00:09:13] John Craven: Yeah yeah I feel like he's trying to be like ironic and have that shock factor and be fun and he was like saying he wants to bring back like the day of the slime for you know adults that want to eat candy and he was saying he's not even really going after children he's going after adults that just want to have candy and have fun and I think he's doing a really great job with the branding But all the pitches were amazing, like the presence that these founders brought to the stage and the ideas and the concepts, like there was some really, really tasty products and some really cool brands and personalities and some really, you know, great global flavors that are coming through.
[00:09:55] Ray Latif: Yeah, we had two brands from, you know, Philippines we had. Jablo the hot sauce, which I haven't inspired by Philippine cuisine or inspired by Philippines Yeah, and then also oh so easy. Yeah, and both of those presentations. I thought were spectacular We had you know, we had Natasha from Shuka who was a last-minute alternate who gave this incredible presentation that I was like, oh this this this might be able to find its way into the winner's circle and and then Cynthia from Shinka did a phenomenal job and she told me after she's like, you know, I'm I enjoyed this experience. I was really happy to meet the founders, but I'm not really here for you." I was like, oh, who are you here for? The hotel staff, all from El Salvador. And they were in the back like rooting for her. She's famous in the community. She's got more customers and they came out to take selfies with her.
[00:10:48] John Craven: It was really great. Yeah, those pupusas were
[00:10:50] Ray Latif: Yeah, Zinka Foods is the maker of Salvadorian pupusa, and they were delicious. She has a great backstory, too. She was Gary Vaynerchuk's intern, and she's just got, like, a really great business that she's building there.
[00:11:03] John Craven: Mm-hmm, and then Kaya Snacks.
[00:11:04] Ray Latif: Oh, of course, Kaya. I love when she trolled you. That was amazing. Right, you had one job. Well, yeah, so she came on to the stage with a lot of fire and enthusiasm. And so as I was trying to exit the stage, I'm handing her a microphone and the clicker was still on the stand. And she's like, where's my clicker? And she looked at me. I'm like, I think it's in the chair. She's like, U.S.O.B. you had one shot. No, she didn't say that. She thought it though. Yeah, she thought it. But that brand's also gaining a bunch of traction too. We're starting to see that one on shelves and she's traveling a lot more than she isn't to do demos and to hustle that brand and it's just phenomenal to see that happening. So again, that's another one I thought could have found their way into the winner's circle. It was just a
[00:11:49] John Craven: That branding is like really pops off shelf. The flavors are very complex for a potato chip. Yeah. Overall, like she's done a great job.
[00:11:58] Ray Latif: Flavored potato chips. Yeah. She's seems to have hit the right vibe there. Yeah. I think all the brands really have a runway for success. It's really just about executing at this point, executing on their vision. And that's why they came to BevNET Live and to Nosh Live is to meet people that can help them take their brand to the next level to get those insights. And, you know, we've been talking about this for months on end, but that's really what you get from these events. And so I'm looking forward to working with them and writing about them and doing podcasts about these brands in the months and hopefully years to come. A couple fun surprises here at the show. Actor and investor Ryan Phillippe, star of one of my favorite movies of all time called The Way of the Gun with Benicio Del Toro. If you haven't seen it, watch it. He came to BevNET Live. I didn't realize he was a beverage enthusiast, investor, advisor. He sampled some products. He chatted with attendees. He was here till the very end. He stayed and watched The Announcement of the New Beverage Showdown winner as well. I think if it wasn't for the Eagles game, he's a big Eagles fan, he would have been here for the party too. He was really enjoying himself. He just came as a regular attendee and hung out and talked about beverage. He was just doing the rounds like any other attendee. It was pretty cool. Yeah, shout out to Scarlett Long, who is the co-founder of Pretty Tasty, a New Beverage Showdown winner last year, a brand of collagen teas. And she and Ryan are friends, and she's like, hey, you should come to this event. It's called BevNET Live. He's like, what? BevNET Live? A beverage event? That sounds amazing. And so he came. And so I sat down with Ryan for an interview as part of the Taste Radio studio lineup that we had during the show. And it was a really fun conversation. So we're going to feature that conversation in an upcoming episode. Did you get to meet Ryan John? I did. Did you take a selfie with him?
[00:13:37] John Craven: No, I'm not really a selfie kind of guy. I like to ask for an autograph on my DVD.
[00:13:43] Ray Latif: Okay. I know what you did last summer DVD that you always have with you. God, I never had that on DVD. No? No. VHS?
[00:13:54] Jacqui Brugliera: Laserdisc? Datamax?
[00:13:56] Ray Latif: Definitely Laserdisc. Yeah, no, you're not really a selfie guy, but a lot of people want to take selfies with you. You're just, you're like, okay, fine. Okay. Anyway. It's only, it's only five bucks. Joe was just cackling once again in the back. Anytime he hears a good one, we hear the Joe cackle. It wasn't really a cackle, it was more of a giggle. It was a lame joke.
[00:14:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Chuckle.
[00:14:16] Ray Latif: It was a lame joke, yeah. Because you don't actually ask for $5 every time. No, you Venmo. All right. You know, in the last episode, we were talking about how Khloe Kardashian was going to be at Nosh Live. And even that feels like it was eons ago. It feels like it was just like ages ago that she was on stage as the founder of a brand called Cloud Foods, a maker of protein infused popcorn, which was great. I heard a lot of really good feedback about her presentation and that of the CEO of the company, Jeff Rubinstein. But probably one of the funniest moments or the most on-brand moments for Nosh Live is when we heard the story about someone from Sweetie, and that someone is Sarah Kastengrade, who's their head of sales, Sweetie Mochi. She happened to be in the bathroom when Chloe was in there. And Sarah's like, OK, this is my moment. I'm going to take my moment. Because she had a little cooler bag full of the Sweetie Mochi in there. And Chloe's washing her hands. And she's like, Chloe, I'm Sarah. I'm with Sweetie. Can I give you some mochi? And Chloe's like, yeah, of course. And she ate it. She gobbled it right up in the bathroom. Wow, in the bathroom? Yeah. I feel like he would never do that. Impressive snacking. Not in the bathroom. Ray would never do that. First of all, I would go... But there's germs in the hair. Well, to be fair, I would be like, can we leave the bathroom? If we could do this outside of the filth. But you're not going to get tackled like Khloe Kardashian if you go into a public space. She gets tackled?
[00:15:47] John Craven: I could see it.
[00:15:49] Ray Latif: Did she have security with her? She must have. She did. She had layers of security. Layers? Chloe, and then Jeff next to him, and then the Glam Squad, then the Hulu crew, then the security crew, then us. Because Hulu does Keeping Up with the Kardashians, that whole thing? You might see Nash in an episode in a few months. I don't watch that show, unfortunately, so I won't see it. I'm being a listener, not to you. Oh, listeners, right. Listeners are here. Okay. Yes.
[00:16:15] John Craven: I think when many years ago we ended up on Teen Mom or something like that. That's right.
[00:16:19] Ray Latif: We did. Yes, the Teen Mom show about a teen mom, which is just very strange. Did she have a beverage or something? I forget. Sauce. Tomato sauce. She had a tomato sauce. Of course.
[00:16:28] John Craven: This is like, I think, seven years ago or something.
[00:16:30] Ray Latif: At least. A long time ago. I think more than that. Yeah. When I think of tomato sauce, I think of teen moms, so that makes a lot of sense.
[00:16:35] John Craven: It's not what it's called, just saying.
[00:16:37] Ray Latif: Anyway, let's move on.
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[00:17:49] Ray Latif: So I also want to shout out a brand that we've seen at BevNET Live and that's also here at Brewbound Live. It's called Dirty Saint. So there's a lot of skepticism around hangover recovery beverages. And you know, when I came to BevNET 14 years ago, hangover shots were just like everywhere. You know, you go into the office, on top of the coolers, it was just like, I don't know, legit 20 different brands. And so it's kind of waned. I think people are really skeptical about hangover remedies. I guess the success rate for brands like this aren't very high. But this brand Dirty Saint, which comes in a two ounce shot bottle, it's a wrap of white and red. The red is the closure here. I honestly feel like this has helped out. Yeah, yeah, you take it the morning after you drink and not only is this supposed to reduce the impact of the alcohol that you consumed it's supposed to enhance Cognitive ability this is this has been great for me. So shout out to the founders of dirty Saints I feel like this is an actually efficacious product. It actually does what it says it's gonna do There are some that have gained some popularity like Morning Recovery and The Plug, but it's a different use occasion too. You're supposed to take those either right after you're done drinking or before you even start drinking to kind of counteract the effects. And this is like blasting you with B12. Yes, it's like 20,000 milligrams of B12 in here. And they actually said maybe don't take it before you go to bed because it might keep you awake. Yeah, they said specifically don't take this before bed. So great to see him at BepNet Live. And then when they heard that Brewbound Live was happening today and tomorrow, they're like, oh, we got to be here for that, obviously. So, yeah. I do also want to shout out Sy Cain, who is the founder and CEO of Straightaway Cocktails. Everyone knows we're big fans of the brand, but Straightaway provided us with a whole bunch of their products that attendees loved during our parties and happy hours and whatnot. One of their products that's relatively new to me is their Last Word. And a Last Word cocktail is made with gin, typically with chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. And so obviously they're not sourcing chartreuse, it's very expensive, but they make their own and it's a damn good cocktail. So if you have a chance to try their straightaways Last Word, go for it. So I saw a couple brands here that I've never seen before, which is always actually way more than a couple. I saw quite a few. Gotta read our website, bro.
[00:20:15] SPEAKER_??: Yeah, there you go.
[00:20:15] Ray Latif: It doesn't have to do with anything. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. All right, these are brands that have launched within the last week, I think, and they're here at BevNET Live.
[00:20:22] John Craven: They haven't made it to BevNET.com.
[00:20:23] Ray Latif: Even more reason to read BevNET.com. There you go. This brand is called True Cinnamon, and it comes in this eight-ounce clear glass bottle. It looks very apothecary in style. it's a brand of cinnamon water as described on the front it says we infuse saline cinnamon for an honestly simple drink i assume there's some sort of functionality to this functionality to this but i don't know i'm going to learn more about it but i was very excited to see this and see a whole bunch of other brands that are new to me in the coolers because I would love to invite the founders to join us for an upcoming episode of Elevator Talk. Great idea. Elevator Talk is our bi-monthly show that features early stage and emerging brands from across the food and beverage industry. So if you are interested in joining us and highlighting your brand on the show, head to BevNET.com or Taste Radio.com slash Elevator Talk. I think Nosh.com slash Elevator Talk. They all work. By the way, this true cinnamon, I tried it. It's a product that I never knew I needed, but after I drank it, I was like, oh wow. Don't steal it. That's mine. You see that? He's trying to take it. He's got his hands on it. I'm not stealing it. I was just going to talk about maybe some package ideas that I have, but maybe I'll just reach out to them. Okay. We can talk about it. Maybe you can be a guest co-host for an upcoming episode. I'd love that. There you go. We have BevNET C-R-M-O. We need to figure out a better title, by the way, because it's just a mouthful. Say C-R-M-O. BevNET Mike. Regular employee. I go with Numpty.
[00:21:48] Jacqui Brugliera: Numpty. Chief Numpty. Chief Numpty. C-N-O.
[00:21:51] Ray Latif: Chief Numpty. Chief Numpty Officer. I'll take that. Okay. Or regular employee. Joe likes it. I like that too. I can say one more thing. This is one more quick story. Very, very quick story from BebNet Live. So I sat down with the CEO and I guess we can call our co-founder of a brand called BioLite. You may have seen BioLite. They're very well known for calling themselves Ivy in a Bottle and they're, yeah, they're Adjusting them the the communication and how they talk about the product but listen to the episode Jessalyn Rollins Is that founder and CEO or co-founder and CEO? She's amazing. She's a wonderful person to talk to see those earrings.
[00:22:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes.
[00:22:29] Ray Latif: She has pyrolyte earrings. They're shaped like the bottle And so our technical director, who I mentioned earlier in the show, Joshua Pratt, really struck up a good rapport with Jessalyn. And by the end of the conversation, she was serenading him with a Dolly Parton song called Joshua. Yes.
[00:22:50] John Craven: Oh my goodness.
[00:22:50] Ray Latif: Yes. I'm going to have to, I don't know if we have any footage of that, but it was pretty, and she was doing a little dance while she was like singing along.
[00:22:56] John Craven: Oh, we're going to have to splice that into this episode.
[00:22:58] Ray Latif: We can get at least 10 views on that. Let's get it in. We've also got a selfie. Uh-oh, Josh is looking at me. He's like, she's like, my wife listens to this podcast. Anyway, it was a really touching, it was a really fun moment and shout out to Jesslyn for being awesome and stay tuned for that great episode that features that interview. 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 Kratchy. 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.
[00:24:06] John Craven: you
