[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, friends, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, Mike Schneider and Melissa Traverse. Welcome, Melissa, back to the booth, back to the studio.
[00:00:31] John Craven: Thanks so much. I think my seat was still warm from last time.
[00:00:34] Ray Latif: Yeah, well, you're occupying the traditional or the regular seat of John Craven, who is in San Diego right now, sitting next to Jacqui Brugliera in the studio. It's weird.
[00:00:45] Jacqui Brugliera: I know. It's cool. We reformulated to fit Craven over here.
[00:00:48] Ray Latif: So did you? Did you also tidy up in there?
[00:00:51] Mike Schneider: You triggered anxiety in every listener when you said reformulated Jackie. No, they didn't tidy up.
[00:00:58] Melissa Traverse: There's like video game consoles everywhere.
[00:01:01] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm not joking. You can't control Josh.
[00:01:03] Melissa Traverse: There is literally an Xbox What is that other Nintendo of some sort?
[00:01:09] Jacqui Brugliera: PlayStation.
[00:01:09] Melissa Traverse: PlayStation, and is that a Sega?
[00:01:12] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, we were thinking about playing some video games to get warmed up over here.
[00:01:17] Ray Latif: Josh is down for NHL 95 for sure. I would have thought that Josh has room like John C. Reilly in Step Brothers, where he's like, don't go in there, don't touch it, don't touch my stuff. That's his office.
[00:01:28] Mike Schneider: That's just everywhere.
[00:01:30] Ray Latif: Are his video games like the drum set in Step Brothers?
[00:01:33] Mike Schneider: He likes it when you play with his toys. Actually. He's a weird, he'd be a good brother for somebody. Yeah. He's pretty generous too. Okay.
[00:01:39] Ray Latif: Fair enough.
[00:01:40] Mike Schneider: Yeah.
[00:01:40] Jacqui Brugliera: He's got a lot of Ninja turtles in his office. So yeah, maybe he'll share.
[00:01:46] Ray Latif: Well, John, now, you know what it's like to get up at a crack of dawn and be in the studio ready to record just like Jackie does every Tuesday.
[00:01:53] Melissa Traverse: Yeah, I mean, I went out for a surf, ate a crap load of guacamole. You know? I'm good. I'm good. How many fish tacos did you have this morning? How many waffles did you have this morning? Eight. Eight at least. Yeah, they just fly into your mouth when you breathe here. Did you find your dream garbage can of ceviche yet? Not yet. Working on it.
[00:02:10] Jacqui Brugliera: Too early.
[00:02:11] Ray Latif: Too early for ceviche? What? Those are fine words the air in San Diego is you just breathe in you get wahoos tacos just coming right into your lungs I said we record on Tuesdays, but today's actually as of this recording. It's Bastille Day the French holiday July 14th You know, I've always loved Bastille Day, but never celebrated. I don't even know how you celebrate Bastille Day. Do you?
[00:02:38] John Craven: I do. So as it turns out, I was in France last year for Bastille Day.
[00:02:43] Ray Latif: I believe it's pronounced France.
[00:02:45] John Craven: France. I was in France. I was in Paris. And we saw the fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. And let me tell you, it's a lot better to celebrate Bastille Day in France than it is in Newton, Massachusetts.
[00:02:59] Ray Latif: We're having no fireworks. OK, so there's fireworks. We know there's fireworks. OK, is there is there food or beverage, food or drink that you're supposed to have specific?
[00:03:07] John Craven: There's I don't know if there's specific food or beverage, but it seems like every time there's something going on in France, whether it's, you know, a strike or Bastille Day, there's always delicious food. That's the most important thing, it seems.
[00:03:19] Mike Schneider: Which I approve of. We should have had caviar in the are kind of low on samples from French founders So if you want to send samples 65 Chapel Street Newton, Massachusetts 0 2 4 5 8. Yeah, we should I mean We were just at the fancy food show. We should have you know Prepared for best deal day Bev net best deal day some of us did my cholesterol results show I
[00:03:43] Ray Latif: That was the pastrami, Mike. It was. Well, we should at least have some wine. I know it's kind of early in the morning for all of us, but to celebrate Bastille Day, I assume you need some wine. I've been seeing more wine in single serve offerings, including those in Tetra packs. And speaking of Tetra Pak, let's thank Tetra Pak, which is the presenting sponsor for this episode of Taste Radio. Tetra Pak is the pioneering packaging solutions company that provides safe, innovative, and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Learn more at tetrapak.com. That was beautiful, Ray. I have some beverages, non-alcoholic beverages that are packaged in a Tetra Pak carton.
[00:04:27] Mike Schneider: I'll drink that joy burst including joy.
[00:04:29] Ray Latif: We're going to yes joy burst is a brand of premium hydration beverages They contain zero grams of sugar. This is their watermelon flavor. They contain or it contains Electrolytes plus vitamins plus focus. I crush those I love joy burst. This is good. I gotta ask though It contains electrolytes plus vitamins plus focus. I know to two of those things are actually ingredients focus Yeah, I mean it's a function how? How could I be crushing it? Is it L-theanine? Is that it? Yeah, it's L-theanine. L-theanine. I also have another Tetra Pak'd beverage, which is Bored Cow, which is an animal free dairy milk. This is their chocolate variety. It's rich and creamy, described as rich and creamy. 10 grams of complete protein. This is an 11 ounce Tetra Pak'd container. I haven't had this yet. Melissa? It's pretty tasty.
[00:05:17] John Craven: I haven't tasted it.
[00:05:19] Mike Schneider: I stand corrected on the Joyburst. It's not L-theanine. It is the Lion's Mane mushroom powder.
[00:05:25] Jacqui Brugliera: Interesting. Love that.
[00:05:28] Ray Latif: Jerky. Right up my alley. I'm going for it. John Craven, what do you know about Bored Cow? It's tasty.
[00:05:36] Melissa Traverse: I mean, most of those plant-based milks, at least, you know, if you take the chocolate flavor, they're pretty darn tasty.
[00:05:45] Jacqui Brugliera: What is it made out of? That's my question. Plants. What kind of plants?
[00:05:49] Ray Latif: Nuts? Well, so it describes the protein as from fermentation. It's animal-free whey protein from fermentation. So not plants, exactly.
[00:05:59] John Craven: As I remember it, didn't they sequence the DNA from dairy milk and apply that to the formulation of their plant-based milk?
[00:06:08] Mike Schneider: I love science.
[00:06:09] John Craven: So science-y. Test tubes, beakers.
[00:06:12] Ray Latif: That was incredible. You were like, as you, as I recall, if I recall correctly, and then you basically stated their entire platform verbatim.
[00:06:22] Mike Schneider: Meanwhile, every time you go to a trade show booth and they start talking science, the eyes glaze over and you're just like, how does it taste?
[00:06:29] Ray Latif: How does it taste?
[00:06:29] Mike Schneider: How does it taste?
[00:06:30] Ray Latif: That was, that was well done, Melissa.
[00:06:32] Mike Schneider: Very good.
[00:06:33] Ray Latif: Very good. Well, Melissa, you're just full of facts, and this is why I love you. Because earlier today, or actually this was yesterday, you were like, did you know, Ray, that Tesla has a tequila? And they also have a beer. And I was just like, what? This is incredible.
[00:06:49] Melissa Traverse: Well, Ray, if you use this little app called Twitter, You would've known that this stuff came out months ago.
[00:06:57] Mike Schneider: Threads, bro. I'm on threads. Ray's on threads now. He likes random.
[00:07:01] Melissa Traverse: He likes chaos. It might be about as real as Cybertruck, but who knows?
[00:07:08] John Craven: I've got a neighbor who works for Tesla, and he brought this to my attention just the other day. Apparently, Tesla has a beer called- A funnel?
[00:07:18] Mike Schneider: Putting a funnel in front of you and pouring it in?
[00:07:20] John Craven: Right. Quote, unquote, brought it to my attention. It's called giga beer and it sounds like it was meant to bring attention to their cyber truck which I think has Has not been has not been released real.
[00:07:37] Mike Schneider: Yeah, that is not really been sellering this beer
[00:07:41] John Craven: I think the beer was launched in late March, early April, but the truck, the truck is yet to come.
[00:07:48] Mike Schneider: So the beer was launched in April and it's been sitting around for a while.
[00:07:51] John Craven: For a while.
[00:07:52] Mike Schneider: Verily.
[00:07:53] John Craven: You get three of them. I think it's like, it's like 90 bucks for three. And the packaging itself, to me, it sort of looks like a cross between Axe body spray and a remote control.
[00:08:05] Ray Latif: Yeah, I'm looking at it now.
[00:08:07] Mike Schneider: It actually looks like sake bottles plug the beer in That's a good question for mr.. Musk He's got a lot of questions right now. I think he's a little busy to answer questions about His Bev.
[00:08:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tequila was wild when I was checking it out. I think it's like $1,400. There's only $400 available and they're all hand glass blown. It's a little excessive. How does it plug in? It is like a lightning bolt, like the bottle.
[00:08:42] Mike Schneider: You just hold it up. You put it attached to a kite. The air does. There's a key in it.
[00:08:47] John Craven: There's plenty of giga beer left, so it's not too late for folks who want to jump on it.
[00:08:53] Ray Latif: I hear they pay you $90 to take it now. We need the beer. I don't know if we can get our hands on the tequila at this point, but we need the beer, you know, to have here on the show. Test it out. Maybe we'll do a later version of the show, like maybe at 5 p.m. when it's more appropriate to be drinking beer, but we need it. We're going to get it. John Craven, you got to splurge on this one. I don't know what to tell you.
[00:09:15] Mike Schneider: Well, I mean, I don't know I figure you guys who love Tesla's, you know, you'd be all over this but maybe it's just for the ultra Tesla enthusiast don't tell him about the code that makes it come out of the steering wheel John don't drink and drive It's only when you're stopped Oh, okay. Oh, I gotcha.
[00:09:36] Jacqui Brugliera: Then you have to drive again.
[00:09:38] Mike Schneider: You stop the car and just chug beer.
[00:09:40] Jacqui Brugliera: This is great.
[00:09:41] Mike Schneider: Jackie, it's watching. Trust me. The Tesla's watching you.
[00:09:44] Jacqui Brugliera: It knows. It cuts you off.
[00:09:48] Ray Latif: Lots of Teslas in California. I assume there's more Teslas in California than there are here on the East Coast, or at least in Massachusetts. Jackie, you were in Southern California. Actually, no, you were in Northern Southern California because you went north from San Diego to Marina Del Rey. What was that, a couple days ago?
[00:10:05] Jacqui Brugliera: Yesterday, yesterday, a couple of days ago, a couple of days ago, a couple of days ago. Yeah.
[00:10:11] Ray Latif: This is Friday. Did you get to see, you did get to see the venue for bad net live winter, 2023, 2023 and brew Brown live.
[00:10:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes.
[00:10:22] Ray Latif: I was going to say fall, but no, no, no winter, winter, 2023.
[00:10:30] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Pretty cool space.
[00:10:32] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I got to see all nooks and crannies and it is a pretty awesome space. It's right down the street from the Lowe's Santa Monica, which people that have attended in the past, that was our past venue. This one is awesome. There is a amazing ballroom on the rooftop with pretty much 360 degree views of LA and the ocean and the marina. It's right across the street from the marina, just a really cool indoor outdoor flow. We'll definitely have a lot of networking outside. because we have the beautiful SoCal weather. But yeah, it was a really nice time to just explore and kind of visualize what our events will look like in a couple months.
[00:11:08] Mike Schneider: Did you prefer the nooks or the crannies?
[00:11:11] Jacqui Brugliera: The crannies.
[00:11:12] Mike Schneider: Yeah, nice. I knew she was a cranny guy.
[00:11:15] Ray Latif: I plan on taking a blade one of those helicopters. There's like it's isn't blade owned by uber. Yeah. Yeah It's like a helicopter service as you can take we do have a helipad.
[00:11:25] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm gonna say there's a helipad I think right before the new Everett showdown you should fly in and that's gonna be your grand entrance move.
[00:11:34] Ray Latif: Oh I want to see that yes much like the gigabeer. I need this John Craven.
[00:11:38] Mike Schneider: You can splurge for the blade as well now We'll get the bev chopper Superhero right now Well
[00:12:04] Ray Latif: Will you be like the old Batman or you're gonna have more like a new spider-man sort of vibe Definitely not a spider-man guy Superheroes always got to go with Superman right okay? Yeah, I love that.
[00:12:16] John Craven: I can see you as Superman love that yeah, but Superman Ran tights could be your superhero name
[00:12:24] Ray Latif: How about just Rayman? Rayman. People are going to think, okay, all this talk about blades and stuff like that, BevNET just has an unlimited budget. We don't, we don't, we have to, you know, we have to be careful about where we spend, just like you entrepreneurs out there. You gotta be careful about how you deploy those funds as it were. You know, you talk about such things on Community Call often, Melissa. In an upcoming episode. In an upcoming episode, yeah.
[00:12:49] John Craven: We sure do. So the investment chats on Community Call have been incredibly fruitful and it's great to hear the perspective of the folks who are right in the thick of it and hearing all the pitches and talking to all of the founders.
[00:13:04] Mike Schneider: I hear we got Maxi Kozler-Koven coming up.
[00:13:06] John Craven: As a matter of fact, we do. So she is joining us from LDR Ventures on August 8th to talk about all of the things that founders need to know right now as they're heading into those discussions. We are also lining up Sebastian Dreher from Dohler Ventures, who's going to be chatting about the investor mindset. But I wanted to crowdsource some ideas from the audience here. If there are any investors that you'd like to hear from, if there's a particular topic that you'd like to hear more about it, or that perhaps you're struggling with, please let me know. I'd love to, uh, love to make sure we're, we're hitting all the right spots with these. So you can hit me up on Slack, slack.BevNET.com, or you can shoot me an email at mtraverse at BevNET.com. We want, we want to make sure we're, we're, we're seeding this thing with exactly what everybody wants to hear.
[00:14:00] Ray Latif: How about Mark Cuban? Let's get the cubes on the Community Call. The cubes.
[00:14:04] John Craven: Cubes, if you're listening, I've got a seat for you on this thing.
[00:14:08] Ray Latif: I think only Ray can call them cubes.
[00:14:10] John Craven: I think the cubes is another- Mr. Cubes.
[00:14:12] Ray Latif: Cubes is another Stepbrothers reference, isn't it? Doesn't Adam Scott call them the cubes?
[00:14:17] John Craven: Mr. Cubes.
[00:14:19] Mike Schneider: Maybe. Most I hear, we're also flipping the script again?
[00:14:22] John Craven: Flip the script again. It was it was such a joy last time when we did it with Vassa Martinez from Perfie We're gonna do it again with a lease from bad tea company, so this is actually this is another conversation She's my favorite baddie. She's she's she's a baddie to the max.
[00:14:39] Ray Latif: She's awesome. Yeah, I'm standing for bold and delicious right I
[00:14:43] John Craven: Bold and delicious indeed. This actually came out of a conversation that started on Slack again, and she is trying to figure out what the best approach to marketing and specifically influencer marketing is as a very emerging brand with limited budget and limited retail outlets.
[00:15:01] Mike Schneider: So when we flip the script, we have somebody come in who has a problem or they're trying to work through an issue and hit their next milestone. So it's your opportunity to join Community Call and give your thoughts on how to get it done.
[00:15:15] John Craven: So if you are a brand that has done this really well, if you're a service provider who has some great tips to share, we would love to have you join. Again, slack.BevNET.com. Hit me up, I'll give you all the information and make sure to join on August 15th.
[00:15:30] Ray Latif: Be the expert. Solidarity is so important in the community. Everyone's going through the same thing. You want to feel like everyone is sharing in the answers. It's like, uh, Al Pacino, when he was playing Jimmy Hoffa in, uh, in the Irishman, you know, he was talking to the crowd, he's like, solidarity!
[00:15:44] Mike Schneider: I mean, solidarity! The next generation of founders is, is really strong and also not afraid to show a little vulnerability and, and help fellow founders. It's really great to just be in this industry.
[00:15:56] Ray Latif: Vulnerability!
[00:15:57] Mike Schneider: I love it.
[00:15:58] John Craven: There are so many one-off conversations between two people talking about this kind of thing, but to have everybody on one call together I think is such a joy.
[00:16:10] Ray Latif: I love that despite my maniacal references to the Irishman, Mike and Melissa Traverse able to hold down the fort and actually have a decent, pleasant conversation about what we're doing. Just ignore him, folks.
[00:16:25] Mike Schneider: This is what we were doing over here, basically.
[00:16:28] Jacqui Brugliera: We're all ignoring you.
[00:16:29] Mike Schneider: Ray is only serious on the podcast. This is him the rest of the time. This is true. I was just trying to get as many movie references in as possible.
[00:16:38] Ray Latif: I like it. I like it. Exactly. It's really just for Adam Stern so that he listens in because he's our dear friend and colleague, Adam Stern, who has the issue with chartreuse jello shots, if you recall.
[00:16:49] Jacqui Brugliera: I sure do. How could I forget? Yeah, I feel like 80% of your conversations are movie quotes, you Adam Stern.
[00:16:56] Ray Latif: 82 rushing to 83 rapidly So John are you actually are you just in San Diego to like keep an eye on the WCB or you there?
[00:17:11] Mike Schneider: Wait wait I think he's out there because they renamed it to the WC HQ The WCHQ. They're calling themselves the West Coast Headquarters now. You know, like Avengers, West Coast Avengers. That's what they think they are out there now. We're not just a branch anymore. No, it's not a branch.
[00:17:30] Ray Latif: For context, WCB stands for West Coast Branch. Right. And we called it the San Diego office, BevNET WCB.
[00:17:38] Mike Schneider: The WCHQ, they recently put a reel on our Instagram About an upgrade to Over Coffee machine. They got a spin. We sent the spin to them that we got at Headquarters, and they said that here at headquarters. We done it and I was like what they've upgraded.
[00:17:56] Jacqui Brugliera: They're trying to take over Yeah, like I think we were the WCB once we were around eight employees So I think once we got over the eight threshold we became the West Coast headquarters.
[00:18:07] Ray Latif: I like it But who's really in charge? When I'm out here trying to figure out Because Josh who's the technical director and was the I guess the original Member of the WCB he's out here in Boston notice that he skipped town Jackie watch my toys Anyway getting back to my original point, so are you there working or you want kind of on vacation or is it a workation?
[00:18:42] Melissa Traverse: What are you doing there? You anything Kathy a little bit of both a little bit of both how about that ray okay?
[00:19:00] Ray Latif: Well, no, it's kind of cool because if you have a place where there's unlimited snacks and beverages, maybe not unlimited, but anytime, like, you know, let's say you're going On Tap little bit of a drive somewhere, you can pop into the office, pack your car with snacks and beverages and be on your way. There's no reason to stop by a Target or a convenience store or any kind of place like that. You're ready to go.
[00:19:21] Mike Schneider: I got to say another reason that the WCHQ, their snack game is mad strong over there. It is super strong. Mm-hmm.
[00:19:29] John Craven: I would it's stronger. It's always stronger than you get so strong.
[00:19:33] Melissa Traverse: It's strong Find some after we're done recording this you know they also have Mountain Dew On Tap here
[00:19:43] Ray Latif: Oh God, when Josh is in charge of the tap. I mean, I love packing snacks and beverages when I'm on trip. And I got to say, it is a key part of your vacation plan, right? Like to make sure that you don't have to like eat the crap that you might find at certain, you know, rest stops and convenience stores. You have what you want to eat. I don't go to a lot of rest stops on my vacation, but you know I'm happy for you I guess for someone for someone who lived as close to Jersey as you did growing up I figure you're very familiar with rest stops.
[00:20:14] Mike Schneider: Oh She's quick. They renamed it. That was my favorite rest stop name, and they renamed It's like Jon Bon Jovi rest stop or something like that. What the heck is a cheese quick. I don't know great name for No, it's not he's quick Can you get a lot of cheese there? I think it's probably what happens if you eat too much cheese.
[00:20:33] Ray Latif: Jackie's looking over there like she's quite. No, no, I thought you might have been a fan.
[00:20:38] Jacqui Brugliera: No, no, not a fan of any really rest stop.
[00:20:43] Ray Latif: All right, so that was a jersey turnpike. The Vince Lombardi. No, no, no. Garden State Parkway, baby.
[00:20:47] Melissa Traverse: It's the Garden State.
[00:20:49] Ray Latif: I think it was the jersey turnpike.
[00:20:52] Melissa Traverse: I don't know.
[00:20:52] Ray Latif: Whatever.
[00:20:53] Melissa Traverse: It's all the same.
[00:20:54] Ray Latif: Yeah, that's all the same. Do they have turnpikes in Canada? Have you researched this, Melissa?
[00:20:59] John Craven: I haven't researched yet, but we're heading to Vancouver very soon. I'm going to pack some Date Fix for our hikes. Nice. I grabbed some of the Malu Pour Over Coffee packets from the office. I'm going to bring some of those.
[00:21:14] Mike Schneider: Next Over Coffee.
[00:21:15] John Craven: I'm very excited. So good.
[00:21:17] Melissa Traverse: I've been enjoying those.
[00:21:18] John Craven: You never have to go without good coffee.
[00:21:21] Melissa Traverse: You know it gets dark there at like 11 o'clock at night too, right?
[00:21:24] John Craven: Oh, that's fantastic.
[00:21:26] Melissa Traverse: Bring some sleeping masks for your kids.
[00:21:29] John Craven: Never go to sleep. Well, you can do that.
[00:21:32] Melissa Traverse: It's bright super early to not a lot of hours of darkness this time of year That sounds great Craving was trying to like just ruin your vacation.
[00:21:40] Ray Latif: You're like Don't you dare leave the office?
[00:21:49] John Craven: We're gonna go hiking My favorite thing to do on vacation is to check out like new markets and grocery stores and that kind of thing originally I thought we were gonna hit up an Olympic National Park, and I wanted to check out a PCC in a metropolitan market But I'm gonna have to find some some good stops in in just Canada, so if anyone has any ideas Let me should go to Stanley Park in Vancouver to they have this weird.
[00:22:14] Melissa Traverse: I think it's like like a shrine to like a Sasquatch or something
[00:22:19] John Craven: Oh, fantastic. That's on the list. We're going there. I'm going to see Sasquatch.
[00:22:23] Mike Schneider: Sponsored by Dr. Squatch. Come on. You're never going to let that go.
[00:22:28] Melissa Traverse: I love Dr. Squatch. I was thinking of Mike the other day regarding Dr. Squatch because I finally just opened my last bar of Dr. Squatch from Expo West. That's how many we ended up with.
[00:22:44] John Craven: What flavor?
[00:22:47] Melissa Traverse: You know I actually I threw away the packaging and then I was like I don't I think it was the only one that I got of that kind was just a little more What's that the pine tar was? the pine tar and a lot of the It was like a whiskey bourbon and then this one's different, but I don't know what it is.
[00:23:06] Mike Schneider: Oh And yeah that one was the I stole the least of that. I mean, I borrowed, I mean, I helped myself. No wonder our snack game isn't great over here. We have a good soap game though.
[00:23:27] Ray Latif: Nice and clean. I like packing ready to drink cocktails when I'm traveling because it's just a good way in your hotel room to save a little bit of money and not have to go to the bar and spend $20, $30, $40 on overpriced, underwhelming cocktails, right? So Social Hour, which is a brand of RTD cocktails that participated in our first live cocktail showdown back in December of 2021, has partnered once again with George Dickel, the Tennessee whiskey brand, to launch a Harvest Whiskey Sour. This stuff I've had in the past, and they came out with a new one, or the 2023 version this year. It's fantastic stuff. Made with 13-year whiskey, 13-year-old whiskey, honeycrisp apple, Meyer lemon, cinnamon, maple, cardamom, and it's 20% alcohol by volume. Fantastic stuff. A little early in the year to be drinking a Harvest Whiskey Sour, but...
[00:24:20] Mike Schneider: I also heard that George Dickel Jim beam in a fight punched him right in the face.
[00:24:25] Ray Latif: That's how you beat. That's how you win in a fight.
[00:24:26] Mike Schneider: Yes punch the guy in the face That's over. You know Mike Mike Tyson's famous line is that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Yes It's such a great.
[00:24:35] Ray Latif: It really is smart really yes I'm also gonna bring with me on my next trip, which is not planned.
[00:24:46] Jacqui Brugliera: You gotta plan that.
[00:24:47] Ray Latif: Yeah, right? Yeah, you should plan that so you can eat the Daily Crunch. Maybe I should get punched in the face so I do have a plan.
[00:24:54] Happy Freaking: Anyone?
[00:24:55] Ray Latif: I can help you with that. Or Stern can. Let's Stern do it. I'll ask Stern. Daily Crunch has come out with a new dill pickle variety in which they partnered with Cleveland Kitchen, a maker of fermented foods including pickles and kimchi and kraut and things like that. I can't wait to dip into this. Daily Crunch makes sprouted nut snacks and particularly they make sprouted almonds. This one has sprouted almonds and pepitas. The almonds have a hollow core, which, according to Daily Crunch, equals crunch. So exciting stuff.
[00:25:29] Mike Schneider: Those are tasty. Do you want to try those? I can open those if you want.
[00:25:31] Ray Latif: Yeah, open those.
[00:25:32] Mike Schneider: Yeah, for sure. Do you want to try them? I don't have a trip planned. I've tried them.
[00:25:35] John Craven: I gotta say, I find them a little lacking in flavor.
[00:25:38] Mike Schneider: I would say more pickle. Yeah, the pickles is a little on the subtle side for them and most of their flavors, you know, they come right at you and this one is a little more subtle for them. I do want a tad more pickle.
[00:25:50] John Craven: I think they could use a little more pickle dust.
[00:25:52] Mike Schneider: You know, I think some of the pickle dust kind of went to the bottom on the pack that I had. So yeah, but you can see, you know, they're not covered in pickle on the package on the front.
[00:26:05] John Craven: Might be a matter of taste.
[00:26:06] Mike Schneider: You just want a dunk tank of pickle juice is what you're saying? I think it's like for me, pickle and ginger. You know, I want, I want a lot of pickle flavor. I love, you know, when you eat a pickle, it's just a hundred percent pickle.
[00:26:18] John Craven: Takes over your mouth.
[00:26:19] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I feel like a hostage situation.
[00:26:22] Mike Schneider: Oh, I see what you're saying.
[00:26:23] Jacqui Brugliera: And people that like pickles love pickles. It's very polarizing.
[00:26:27] Mike Schneider: Pickles are really one of the greatest inventions of all time.
[00:26:31] Ray Latif: Fermentation may be the greatest invention of all time. Pickle is one of the greatest inventions of all time. I had a college roommate who said eating after drinking is one of the greatest inventions of all time.
[00:26:42] John Craven: Eating and drinking. What were you gonna say? Oh, eating after drinking.
[00:26:46] Ray Latif: He said, God bless the guy who invented eating after drinking. He said that in a very inebriated state.
[00:27:00] John Craven: You can make a lot of bad decisions that way, but they always seem good in the moment.
[00:27:04] Ray Latif: Yeah. 2 a.m. Oh my goodness. Never, never, never. I like it.
[00:27:11] SPEAKER_??: Yeah.
[00:27:11] Jacqui Brugliera: So while I was at the Marina del Rey Marriott, I went pretty much across the street, well, right down the street to Erewhon and found a couple products. This is a botanical non-alcoholic spirit. It's called Pentair, and it's a C word in tonic described as zesty, verdant, and bright. And it's interesting because it's a non-alcoholic spirit, but they use sea buckthorn seaweed. So they're leaning into like the sea ward and like having some like ingredients from the ocean. Haven't tried it yet.
[00:27:46] Melissa Traverse: It's gotta be tart.
[00:27:47] John Craven: Yes, let's try it. Jackie, have you moved on from sea moss to sea buckthorn? No, she's just all about the sea.
[00:27:54] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm all about anything from the ocean. I have kelp kimchi right now in my fridge. Yeah, very, very tart and bitter, but I like it.
[00:28:03] Mike Schneider: It definitely has... Is it like cocktail vibes or what?
[00:28:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's kind of, it's very light though. It's almost like a, Like just like a sparkling water with something bitterness. So I wouldn't say it's quite a cocktail, but it's definitely more like the tonic tonic side of things. Okay. What's the sweetness level? Uh, it's not very sweet.
[00:28:23] John Craven: Uh-huh.
[00:28:24] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. And then, because I don't know if you've all heard, there's a sriracha shortage. So I've been diversifying my hot sauce. What?
[00:28:33] Ray Latif: You didn't know about this? Sriracha shortage.
[00:28:37] Jacqui Brugliera: What's going on? End time. I know. So I grabbed some Zab's hot sauce.
[00:28:43] Ray Latif: Ooh, nice. Pro move.
[00:28:46] Jacqui Brugliera: St. Augustine style. So good. It's like a sweet heat. I love hot sauce. But yeah, really, really, really, really tasty. I know that we've seen them exhibiting at a couple of recent shows, but yeah, it's really, really good. This uses the St. Augustine pepper and yeah, it's from Inglewood, California, which is really, really tasty and I'm putting it on everything now.
[00:29:13] Mike Schneider: And the first product ever cuddled on Taste Radio. The cuddliest product in the industry, zaps. That's free zaps.
[00:29:25] Melissa Traverse: You can have that one.
[00:29:26] Mike Schneider: Yes.
[00:29:28] Melissa Traverse: Well, I have no products since I just got here. And I don't know you guys. It's hard to find products in here.
[00:29:34] Jacqui Brugliera: I know we're hiding them.
[00:29:36] Melissa Traverse: They're all squirreled away. But just want to mention good old Athletic Brewing for a second, which flew out here on JetBlue and crushed a couple of athletics on the on the flight since that's now on all of their flights. Which is pretty awesome to see, like, you know, an up-and-coming brand like Athletic. And I can't remember a not-out beer on an airplane before, so that was pretty cool. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that on there.
[00:30:03] Mike Schneider: Is it like free beer on an airplane?
[00:30:05] Melissa Traverse: What's awesome? Is it free? I got the JetBlue Mosaic. So you just get all the free stuff.
[00:30:12] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, only free for Mosaic. Free for him.
[00:30:15] Melissa Traverse: Yeah, it's free for Mosaic and they're super nice to you. And then they just, I don't know, shove the other passengers to, you know, make up for it. So it's all good.
[00:30:22] John Craven: Everyone else gets bubbly.
[00:30:24] Melissa Traverse: Yeah. Rhett doesn't suck either.
[00:30:26] John Craven: No.
[00:30:27] 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.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:31:17] Happy Freaking: you
