[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio. And with my co host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Carolyn Hamlet, the visionary founder and CEO of Oku, a trailblazing brand that is redefining energy with this innovative line of gummies.
[00:00:37] John Craven: Right? It's Expo West time. You know how I know? You sound 20% more like Barry White.
[00:00:41] Jacqui Brugliera: You got a little rasp in there.
[00:00:44] Ray Latif: Yeah. It's nice though. It always happens. Well, you know, we don't typically record this early. So this is, it's 830 AM here in Anaheim. You don't. I don't. Yeah. Wait for Jackie. Jackie always has the Barry White voice. I always have the rasp. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good thing, you know? And although I just, I just peaked there. Did you hear that? Yeah. I heard it. It's a good thing. You hit puberty. You Peter Bridges. You Peter braided right before I really do some people will know that I mean no it is expo is 2025 and yes They did hear the jokes on the floor ray. You're here. I thought you don't like Expo West I thought you told people not to come to Expo West indeed I did say some of these things, but I'm glad I'm here, and yeah, we had to hear it to Ray Okay, so you know oh my god. All right everybody.
[00:01:23] John Craven: I thought you weren't coming to Expo West, Ray said you're not coming to Expo West, Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray It's always about Ray
[00:01:28] Ray Latif: Look, you know, some of the conversations I had, I did get a lot of affirmations and high fives and being like, Ray, you're right. So just so you know. From people at Expo West. But you got affirmations from people who are at Expo West. Yes. Anyway, no, it's good to be here. I think probably another 65,000 people here with us in Anaheim. a big show, but a much more, I felt a bit more manageable than in years past. I think that's because they moved some of True Dates instead of having the North Hall be the only main area that was open on Wednesday, all the halls were open on Wednesday, so.
[00:02:02] John Craven: The thing though is that since we're all creatures of habit, the North Hall still slammed on day one when it is typically slammed. The basement still slammed, Holly, when it's typically slammed, you know, because everyone did the same, like they just kept their schedule.
[00:02:17] Jacqui Brugliera: Just moved back a day.
[00:02:18] Ray Latif: Yeah, yeah. But I felt like I saw a lot of folks that I intended to see hopefully I didn't miss too many folks I'm sure I did for listeners who asked me to come to their booze, and I didn't make it. I am sincerely sorry Hopefully today's Friday, so I guess I have a little bit more time, but it's really hard to navigate It's hard to see everything, but there were a lot of really cool things at the show I think I just need to apologize for the thousands of listeners who asked where's Ray that I couldn't tell them where you were I think in general terms, and I had this conversation with a bunch of folks, I don't feel like we saw a ton of groundbreaking, earth-shattering innovation. It felt like there was a lot of incremental better. You know, there were things that just got a little bit better to well-known products, existing products, and they were a little bit better in terms of taste, package design, Date Better for you ingredients, what have you. But nothing that was just like, whoa, this is the only thing that needs to be seen at the show.
[00:03:13] John Craven: I thought we'd see more magnesium and we didn't see as much magnesium as I thought we'd see. I thought that might become the new hero ingredient, but it's been mostly like protein and hot honey.
[00:03:23] Ray Latif: Yeah. Lots of protein. Lots of protein. I also felt like we saw quite a bit of nuts this year. There was a lot of nuts. Like you? Yeah, like me. Lots of pistachios. Totally. Lots of pistachios. Crunchy pistachio. Pecans. There was a brand called, I believe it's pronounced Evie's, E-V-I-E apostrophe S. They call themselves the maker of Texas pecans. They come in a variety of flavors, including their banana bread, which look pretty darn amazing. Those are tasty. Did you get to try them, John? We did, yeah. Which flavor did you try?
[00:03:55] Mike Schneider: I think it was like a cinnamon.
[00:03:58] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, there's a cinnamon and then like a sweet and salty one. Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:01] Mike Schneider: It was good. Cool packaging too.
[00:04:03] Ray Latif: Yeah, and I like the fact that everyone's talking about Nuts as being sort of the overlooked snack because legacy brands have owned that category, owned that space for so long. And upstart brands are coming to the table with a fresher take, literally and figuratively, on Nuts. I spoke with the founder of a new brand called Wild Fox Foods. He is also the founder of Kevin's Natural Foods. So he sold his business to Mars a couple years ago for $800 million. He's back in the business with Wild Fox. I sat down with him for an episode of Taste Radio that will air pretty soon. You don't want to miss it. It's amazing, actually.
[00:04:44] John Craven: Did you guys get to try the Chuzo? I know John did. We tried their new trail mix. That's got a lot of nice nuts in it. Nuts and fruit. Chuzo. A maker of dried fruit snacks.
[00:04:55] Ray Latif: A maker of dried fruit snacks based in San Diego. Yeah. Great stuff. Now, these snacks I was blown away by. I got a sneak peek of these back in October when I was able to sit down with Porfirio Patodia, who's the founder and CEO of Vienna.
[00:05:07] John Craven: And in a rare turn of events, you shared some with us.
[00:05:10] Ray Latif: No, I didn't share some.
[00:05:11] John Craven: They made it into the office though before.
[00:05:14] Ray Latif: No, no, no. I got a sneak peek. These were like, Yeah, when you were recording production samples. Yeah. Oh, way before they even got there. We gotta just clarify that. These were production samples. We gotta just clarify that. And I'm going to clarify that these are crispy roasted edamame snacks from Vienna, described as high protein super snack. There's 12 grams of protein in each 1.05 ounce pouch. They're made with avocado oil. Man, they come in three flavors. Ranch, Himalayan, pink sea salt, and chili lime. The chili lime one, my goodness. Tremendous really really good products. Yeah, you guys get to try those. Oh, yeah, yeah Did you hoard them or did you try them because there were a whole bunch of samples a few samples first?
[00:05:56] John Craven: We hoard in between okay, then we tried them They also have giant edamame walking around to do the halls to try to get you come to the booth Nice. Try their stuff.
[00:06:06] Ray Latif: Yeah. Before I posted about the Vienna edamame, I posted about a brand that is known internationally. They are sold in many countries, but new to the United States. It's called True Dates. True Dates are a maker of dates that include a candy flavor. So I tried one that was a sour apple flavor. I tried one that was a sour cola flavor. The best one was their sour watermelon, which was unbelievable. And they also have a cookie dough flavor. They have more than those as well, but it really tasted like a gummy candy. And you didn't know at all if it was actually, if you closed your eyes, you wouldn't know it was a date.
[00:06:45] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. Whenever people are asking me, what's the innovative thing you saw of the show? I would always bring that up because it was very simple ingredients, but it tasted like a candy. So it was kind of like mind blown.
[00:06:56] Ray Latif: Yeah. I did get a sneak peek of another brand in the date space that is planning to do something similar. So stay tuned for that. And I did get a taste of that product as well. Oh man, look it. There's the flex. There it is. I'm not flexing.
[00:07:13] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm just saying.
[00:07:14] Ray Latif: You won't tell us either. Look, I mentioned it to said date brand and they're like, oh, well, we should show you something.
[00:07:20] Jacqui Brugliera: So yeah, I did see lots of dates like date cola.
[00:07:24] Ray Latif: Totally.
[00:07:24] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. Date sweetener and date everything.
[00:07:27] Ray Latif: Yeah, Date Better, which is a brand of, I believe, just pureed date that you can use to spread a lot of things. I think they also have snacks. They have a new line of Date Bark. Date Bark peanut butter crunch that I tried. Only four ingredients. Really, really good. Despite the name, it wasn't very crunchy, but it was really tremendous. And I think a lot of people are using dates because it's a natural sweetener. You don't have to add a ton of sugar. Oh, like tree bark. I thought you meant like... How do you eat that? How many magic mushrooms did you have last night?
[00:08:01] Jacqui Brugliera: Too many adaptogens.
[00:08:02] Ray Latif: Yes. The sidewalk tacos. We did have some sidewalk tacos. And we survived the tail. Yes. Also Datefix, which is a maker of squeezable dates typically used in the same way that you have those energy gels. It's actually packaged in an energy gel kind of pouch. They just went through a brand refresh. It's now described as fresh fruit nutrition. And I sat down with the founder, Alan Skolnick, for an interview on Taste Radio. Datefix is actually sold in over 3,000 Walmart stores. So pretty big coup for that brand. But a lot of what we talked about was trying to understand who their consumers are and trying to manage being in 3,000 Walmart stores as a small brand. So interesting stuff for sure. One other thing that I loved seeing at Expo West was the number of collaborations that we encountered on the show floor. Firehook, which is a maker of artisan baked crackers, they released a limited edition truff flavor. It's parmesan truff, which was really cool to see. I am embarrassed to say I didn't get to try the Ithaca Hummus and Graza collab. Did you get to try that, John? We did. That was really good. Was it olive oil on top of Ithaca Hummus?
[00:09:15] Mike Schneider: No, it's basically just their kind of classic hummus made with grasa instead of regular olive oil. And it's got a really cool like grasa colored label and all that. So admittedly won't say that there's like a massive flavor difference. But I think it's really cool to take like two brands that are trending and doing well and you know, putting them on a package like that. I mean, that's probably gonna fly.
[00:09:41] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, it actually looks more like a Graza product. It's a Graza green tub. And the branding almost looks more Graza than it does Ithaca.
[00:09:51] Mike Schneider: Yeah, no, it's the Graza color scheme, which I think is sort of intentional to make that thing stand out.
[00:09:56] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, the booth popped. When I went over, there were a million people just taking like photos of the cooler alone. So I think that will just tell you it's going to pop on shelf.
[00:10:04] Ray Latif: Did you see the harp player? They had a harp player there. I was just like, what the hell's going on here? It's not a hard player.
[00:10:12] John Craven: I like that kind of chill. It's not something you usually find at Expo West.
[00:10:18] Mike Schneider: No, not at all. It's usually like... Or remember that booth, what was it, the Bad Tea company that was literally smashing dishes? That was amazing. I never seen something like that. That was jarring.
[00:10:29] Jacqui Brugliera: That was zen in a way too.
[00:10:30] Mike Schneider: No, there was no zen. That was like one step. Well having someone just it was done for Jackie who enjoys breaking. Yes, okay, just saying This makes no sense why were they smashing plates cuz they're Bad Tea're the bad company They had like a booth and you could go in I think China kind of thing and you just like old China and bought out someone's estate sale and smashed it.
[00:10:55] John Craven: Yeah That seems reasonable. And some of the booths around, who I guess will remain nameless, it's very jarring and annoying.
[00:11:04] Jacqui Brugliera: It's like those rage rooms that you can go to now.
[00:11:07] Mike Schneider: It was a rage room. You know, it's like every year there's something that goes down at a booth that people just talk about. This year, I think it's going to be the Belgian Boys bag giveaway, which I did not witness. heard about multiple times they were giving away these reusable bags that basically looked like a puffy down jacket almost like as the material and apparently they had a line that was really long and I think uh I don't know some sort of uh altercation happened at their booth. Oh interesting.
[00:11:34] Jacqui Brugliera: I saw a security guard there so I believe it.
[00:11:37] Ray Latif: Wow was someone trying to grab a bag from someone else or something?
[00:11:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I don't know but they made some great social content around it saying that they were the hot commodity of the show and just Zoomed in on everyone with their bag, which just stood out.
[00:11:48] John Craven: Yeah, you'll keep an eye out. You'll see something You haven't seen these bags. There's like this just big red puffy beast on people's arms.
[00:11:57] Mike Schneider: Someone cut up a jacket Yeah, like a down jacket that interesting interesting.
[00:12:02] Ray Latif: Well back to collabs for a sec fobblish which is a maker of hummus and Middle Eastern, I guess, inspired products made for a modern consumer. They introduced a new chili crisp ranch that they have created in partnership with Mr. Bing. Mr. Bing, a maker of Hot Sauce based in New York City. I tried this. It was really good. I mentioned on Instagram, it tastes like Doritos in a jar. Outstanding stuff. I also met some really interesting folks from the UK who make a product or a brand called Urban Noodle. And there are three varieties that they make.
[00:12:40] John Craven: Just pimp your nudes on the side.
[00:12:42] Ray Latif: Is that like a tom yum soup? Love that. Yes, there's a tom yum soup. There's a spicy pho. And there is a yaki umami. They're all Urban Noodle. And they come in large tubs.
[00:12:54] Mike Schneider: I mean, I was gonna say, I think the US has, you know, a reputation for like super sized containers, but that is definitely like the largest. sort of noodle soup container, I think I recall seeing.
[00:13:07] John Craven: Only a quarter of the size of a proper bowl of pho.
[00:13:11] Ray Latif: It's so small, but it's good. To be clear, there isn't more food in here. It just makes it easier for you to be able to enjoy your ramen instead of the really, really tiny ones where the soup is spilling out all over the place. Yeah, so these are probably, I don't know, 1.5 times the size of your normal Urban Noodle bowl. I didn't get to try these yet, but they looked amazing. And I'm excited to get into them. The packaging feels very, I mean, it's like a brown paper bag kind of look. It's a bad way to describe it, but it kind of looks that way. It feels very urban and fits the name Urban Noodle and something that would definitely fit into the modern consumer's pantry.
[00:13:57] John Craven: And they encourage you to go to hashtag PimpYourNudes on Instagram for content. And I think I would make sure that I type N-O-O-D-S. Obviously and UDES might lead you someplace else.
[00:14:10] Ray Latif: Just sure in terms of the internet people in terms of brands that are also made for an American audience We got to all try this and Chili's which is a maker of better for you clean ingredients Hot Sauce based in San Diego and They had small cups of popcorn and they would just add a dash of their Hot Sauce with them. And the one I tried was their jalapeno variety. And I put this on Instagram. It was one of the best things I've eaten at Expo West.
[00:14:42] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, that was delicious. Yeah, their product is so delicious. It's so clean. It's so flavorful. And having Hot Sauce on popcorn is a game changer. In San Diego, at the popcorn bar and the movie theaters, you can get like pickled jalapenos and just take the juice and put it all on top. So it's a thing.
[00:15:00] John Craven: But I got a bone to pick with them.
[00:15:02] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:15:02] John Craven: Because There's video of me somewhere guzzling Cien Chiles that has never surfaced. Why?
[00:15:09] Jacqui Brugliera: We got to do it again.
[00:15:09] John Craven: They're saving it for a rainy day. Yeah, we could do that again.
[00:15:11] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think he just wants you to do it again.
[00:15:14] John Craven: Blackmail material. Challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. No, it's really good. It's quality Hot Sauce. But speaking of quality Hot Sauce, yesterday we visited Nami, who's a maker of noodles. We visited Stephen and Suyi, which- And Nami is spelled? It's N-O-M-M-I-I, nami. And we tried their silky sesame noodles. They're phenomenal. Definitely encourage you to get your hands on some nami if you have a chance. And also in that booth were Jane and Alex from Emperor's Hot Sauce, who once again, very much enjoy when I try their ghost pepper. Hot Sauce, and wow is that flavorful and spicy. The heat just keeps coming and coming and coming. It's amazing. I love their stuff so much, especially the mango.
[00:16:01] Ray Latif: Yeah, the spice keeps coming. Niramaya, which is a maker of Indian-inspired dips, just introduced their Indian-inspired naan pretzels. These are grain-free and gluten-free. You didn't get to try these? Not yet. Well, you're not going to get to try them. No, these are fantastic. They have a number of varieties. The one I have in my hand is their jalapeno chutney variety, which I get to try. We got a sneak peek, John and I, at the Winter Fancy Food Show. These are made with avocado oil. They come in five ounce pouches or bags, excuse me, and they are indeed nice and spicy as advertised.
[00:16:36] John Craven: Well, Mihak is also one of the nicest people you could ever meet in your life. It looks good from the preview we saw.
[00:16:42] Ray Latif: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's another theme we keep seeing, not just at Expo, but beyond, are ethnically inspired snacks or snacks that have an ethnically inspired spice or flavor. And they're really, I think, playing well into American consumers' hands, mouths, and pantries. What's going on? Why are you slashing stuff?
[00:17:01] John Craven: There's a donut fight happening over here, right? You've got Good Journey, Cha-Cha, and what's this other one?
[00:17:07] Ray Latif: So you have Drumroll, which is, yeah, Drumroll, a maker of small donuts a la Hostess Donuts. The one you have is their vanilla glazed one. Yes.
[00:17:16] John Craven: Yeah. Which I, well, I guess I was unsurprised to see that this is a really cool brand, great tasting product. And Jason Cohen's involved in this brand too. So, I mean, like just the package is clean. He's an insanely great operator also behind Pretzelized. And so I'm, I'm just, I'm expecting to see Drumroll everywhere soon. This is really tasty stuff. I like the vanilla glaze the best, but there's also chocolate and strawberry.
[00:17:41] Ray Latif: Yeah, I ran into the folks from Good Journey on, I believe it was on Wednesday morning, and they are makers of single serve doughnuts that are just about the normal size that you would expect for a doughnut. They have two varieties. a dark chocolatey one, as well as a horchata variety. Both of them have three grams of net carbs, zero grams of added sugar. They are indeed intended to be Date Better for you donut.
[00:18:10] John Craven: We got to get our donut expert Jackie on these.
[00:18:12] Jacqui Brugliera: I know I need to try those. I love this trend. Better for you donuts. Who knew?
[00:18:16] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:18:18] Jacqui Brugliera: No.
[00:18:18] Ray Latif: Yeah. I saw a lot of drum rolls I could do at Expo, but that brand has actually been around for a couple of years. I believe they rebranded from, I forget what it was called, but, um, they made that rebrand and I think they made their full introduction to the market within the past. Do it, Jackie. Go ahead. I'm doing it. A few months. Okay. You know you want to. Mike was, Mike was rolling his finger and be like, let's go. Let's go. She started to open the package. Donuts for broke bros. She started to open it. Oh, geez. They're all over the microphone. That was not graceful. Jackie had an accident.
[00:18:49] Jacqui Brugliera: Thank god we don't have video of these episodes. It just flew right out of her mouth.
[00:18:52] Ray Latif: We're not getting our deposit back.
[00:18:55] Jacqui Brugliera: That's delicious. They are pretty moist.
[00:18:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, they're pretty M word, right?
[00:18:58] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. You said it. I said it.
[00:19:00] Ray Latif: Trick or treat. Oh, jeez. Trick or treat. One other thing I wanted to try, and I'm hoping we can all try this here. John and I met some really engaging, exciting folks on the show floor. I'm embarrassed to say I forgot the founder's name, but he is the creator of a brand called Palmas. P-A-L-M-A-S. They're a maker of, better for you I believe, sodas that are inspired by Indonesian flavors. They have three varieties. They have a salted pop one red pop. They have a coconut strawberry Sakura, and they have a pop one red pop. So there's a salted one and there's just a regular one. I kind of want to try the salted one. I don't even know what a pop one is. Does anyone?
[00:19:47] Jacqui Brugliera: No.
[00:19:48] Expo West: No.
[00:19:48] Jacqui Brugliera: Should we Google it?
[00:19:49] Ray Latif: Uh, well, according to their- We should just have you be the guinea pig. According to their Instagram page, it's described as an Indonesian-based soft drink brand. Will be released in the United States of America. So, let's try this. Oh, and I forgot to mention, one of the reasons they stopped us, or the primary reason they stopped us, was to tell us how much they love Taste Radio and how big of fans they were of the show. It looks like grapefruit juice.
[00:20:14] John Craven: They're one of the rare listeners that actually found you.
[00:20:17] Ray Latif: This is the Salted Papuan Red Pop.
[00:20:19] John Craven: Oh, geez, why didn't I try it?
[00:20:21] Ray Latif: It smells really salty.
[00:20:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. I don't think I've ever had anything like it.
[00:20:26] John Craven: The nose is really interesting.
[00:20:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Very interesting.
[00:20:29] John Craven: Pretty tasty. Oh, I like that. It reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on it.
[00:20:34] Jacqui Brugliera: It's like salty.
[00:20:36] John Craven: It tastes like popcorn. Yes. That's what it is.
[00:20:39] Jacqui Brugliera: It tastes like popcorn. Oh, it's got like a little buttery.
[00:20:41] John Craven: Yeah. It smells like a buttery popcorn. Totally. It's popcorn. It's the salt. This is really good.
[00:20:49] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:20:49] John Craven: I mean, this is a good idea. This is one of those that's going to be, Great idea tastes really good and and it's going to need a lot of like Other people kind of figure this out if it's gonna be a trend.
[00:21:00] Ray Latif: Mm-hmm.
[00:21:01] John Craven: Oh, it's so good Sugar count on that one. Oh, it's 60 calories. So it's got to be about 811 11 grams.
[00:21:08] Ray Latif: Yeah, and these these are I believe 11 then that's like a good sweet Yeah, the branding is pretty cool, too. It has Paul Musk in a vertical font. It's vertically on the can here. So since it was good, we're not going to get to try the other two because Ray's going to hoard them. No, you're welcome to try the other two. Just kidding, Ray.
[00:21:27] Jacqui Brugliera: Those might disappear.
[00:21:28] Ray Latif: Joe Cratchy, our audio engineer, is about to stab me because he doesn't want us to go overboard here. He's literally sitting to my left and he has a Swiss Army knife. Oh gosh, be careful. Wow, he just picked it up. Dear listeners, I love you.
[00:21:45] John Craven: While Joe is destroying Ray, we had an experience yesterday, didn't we?
[00:21:50] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, we had quite the experience.
[00:21:52] John Craven: So we met the founder of Power Up, which is a maker of collagen products. This one I have in my hand is cocoa mix with collagen protein, Mary I. Polanyi. I can only describe her as a combination of Pamela Anderson and Ron Popeil.
[00:22:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, that's pretty on point. The energy was off the charts.
[00:22:11] John Craven: If you need to pick me up and you've already had enough coffee. Wow. She got me in her clutches and I thought I was never going to get away.
[00:22:20] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. You asked one question in an interview and she took it over. She took it over. She was like, I'm interviewing you.
[00:22:26] John Craven: it was like it was like she was beating me with her pitch but she has a cocoa mix with collagen protein and was encouraging people to eat it out of the bag like if you just needed just eat the powder you just just wanted your 23 grams just eat the powder if you don't have a chance to mix it And I was like, no, no one's going to do that because you'd be like, but it works and it tastes really good. What's the name of the brand again? It's called Power Up, P-W-R-U-P. And we were also talking to Chandler, who I could see she was empathizing with. I was like, she's like, that's me every day, Mike, every day. But Mary is she was like human sunshine.
[00:23:06] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, she was amazing and she was so happy to talk to us. She was like, this made my day. She just didn't want to let us go.
[00:23:14] Ray Latif: And on the spot with said founder is coming soon to Instagram. It is and you get to watch.
[00:23:21] Jacqui Brugliera: You really have to see it.
[00:23:22] Ray Latif: Watch Mike's face. Okay. I'm expecting to see a rotisserie chicken behind you when you're, you mentioned Ron Popeil. There is one other brand that I really caught my attention, I think it caught everyone else's attention. It's called G.E.E.M. It's the brand of Korean Seaweed chips. The branding is very on trend. It feels sort of authentic, sort of throwback, a little nostalgic, but it's described as baked without oils. They have a number of varieties. The one I have in my hand is their spicy one. It comes in 0.71 ounce pouches. Women owned, 70 calories, vegan, etc, etc. But this one really, I saw a lot of people gramming this.
[00:24:12] John Craven: Candice Choi is the founder. A lot of people were gramming that. The booth was mobbed. There were buyers there. And you know, it was, this is just like so on point in terms of great snack, good for you. It's got great crunch and great flavors and great founder. All the, it's got all the things.
[00:24:29] Ray Latif: All the above. All the things. Well, I'm sure there are a lot of other brands and products we can talk about. We'll probably follow up in the next couple of episodes with more callouts.
[00:24:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes, that's another on the spot.
[00:24:41] John Craven: Next. Which one? Next episode, we'll talk about Beny Yogurt and that stuff.
[00:24:45] Ray Latif: Living yogurt is so good. All right. Cliffhanger indeed. And I just want to remind listeners that a lot more content to come. On our Tuesday episodes, interviews with Alan Skolnick from Datefix, Gabriela Morales from Ignite20, which is a really interesting new fund focused on making smaller investments and a lot more brands. So they're looking at making $50,000 investments, value-added investments to about 30 brands over the next two or three years. Really interesting stuff. Gail Becker, the founder of Kali Power, that was an incredible interview. Troy Bondi and Winston Alfieri, the co-founders of Saws. Kevin McCray, who I mentioned, who's the co-founder of Wild Fox. Todd Davis, who is a natural and organic buyer from King's Supers in City Market. And of course, Rosa Lee, the founder and CEO of Wild Wonder. Wild Wonder! Yes, so exciting stuff. Lots of... That's more anecdotes, products, brands to be talked about from Expo West and certainly a lot of great interviews to come as well.
[00:25:44] Mike Schneider: And you can always send us your product, too. We didn't talk about it, right?
[00:25:50] Ray Latif: I like the way we ended that. John Craven just slipped in there. And please, if you'd like, send us some products. Sorry, I woke up from my nap over here. While you guys were going on and on and on. No, the addresses to both our Newton and San Diego offices are easily found on BevNetAndNosh.com. All right, let's get to our featured interview for this episode. That's with Carolyn Hamlet, who, as I mentioned, is the founder and CEO of OKU, an energy gummy snack made with green tea, yerba mate, and coconut water. In our conversation, Carolyn discusses her transition from Wall Street to founding a CPG brand and how OKU is positioned as an alternative to highly caffeinated products. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I'm honored to be sitting down with Carolyn Hamlet, who is the founder and CEO of OKU, a product that I'm holding in my hand right now if you're watching the video. Great to see you, Carolyn. How are you? Great to see you. Doing well. Did I meet you last year for the first time or I met you before that?
[00:26:53] Carolyn Hamlet: No, you met me at the Naturally event in October with Jeff Church. Yeah. So that was last year. Yeah.
[00:26:58] Ray Latif: Yeah. And I was really impressed with your brand. I remember you sent samples to our office in Newton and I was like, this is perfect. I like gummies. I like energy. I need both. And they're in this perfect package together. And if I'm reading the front of the package here, it says Oku, your brand name, Conscious Energy Gummy Snacks. Where'd you come up with this idea? Because it's a great one.
[00:27:22] Carolyn Hamlet: Well, it took a while to come up with something that I was proud of and am ready to put all into. And this is a product now that it, I wanted something that would appeal to the conscious consumer. I care about what I put in my body. I care about the environment and I care about impact. And so conscious energy stands for all of that. And we have a consciously curated blend that uses green tea and yerba mate to give you energy that doesn't cause a crash and it doesn't cause jitters. And then we wanted to give you other benefits. We wanted to give you antioxidants, so we added goji berry. We have an industry first of putting coconut water into a gummy, so we add electrolytes. And then with this new product that we just launched at the end of last year, we just launched on Amazon, we've added fiber. So now we're a Good Journey of dietary fiber and energy in Date Better for you gummy that is made from all non-GMO ingredients. And it allows you to customize your own intake. You don't have to jack yourself up. Each one is only 12 milligrams. So whether you're, you know, like you are coast to coast traveling and just need a little bit of a boost, you can take one or two. You know, I sometimes eat a whole bag after lunch because it satisfies my sweet tooth as well. I mean, taste is number one of any product. So I'll let you be the judge of this new iteration because you haven't tried it yet.
[00:28:35] Ray Latif: Yeah, this is the orange blossom flavored variety. It's delicious. I love gummy snacks and I love natural gummy snacks. And, you know, when I don't want to drink a cup of coffee or an energy drink, which I drink rarely, but I feel like this is a perfect alternative to that. And as you mentioned, it's not going to over caffeinate you because five gummies equals 60 milligrams of caffeine.
[00:29:00] Carolyn Hamlet: And it's only 70 calories. So it is a snack that can satisfy you. And with the fiber, it is fulfilling. So, you know, it's a multifaceted, multifunctional product.
[00:29:10] Ray Latif: Yeah. And seven grams of sugar per serving, which isn't bad. In fact, it's pretty darn good because it's a little over a gram of sugar per gummy. Right. Yeah. Right. Carolyn, it sounds like you've done this before because your introduction to the brand and all the benefits of it, it was pretty well done, I would say. Actually, very well done. Have you been in CPG a long time?
[00:29:30] Carolyn Hamlet: Oh, my gosh. No. OK. No, I started on Wall Street a while ago. I don't want to date myself, but it's been a while. And I've spent most of my life in finance other than a short stint running the international part of an Internet company back in the dotcom world. So my background is all finance. And this is just something that it was a passion. It was something that was born from a need that I have. I'm one of those people that if you put a bowl of M&Ms next to me about one o'clock, I would probably eat them all. And I don't want to eat those, particularly, certainly not with the red dye and all the other bad things that are in them. So this was something that is so much more interesting to me than being in the financial world to have a tangible product. and being an older founder, it's a great legacy for me to show. I have a 20-year-old, and I think it's great for him to see how you build a brand and what it takes to do that, how hard it is. He kept saying to me, well, when's it going to be on Amazon? When's it going to be on Amazon? And it just took a few iterations of product. A startup CPG is not easy, and I'm learning as I go. I've got some great advisors and people around me who've been incredibly helpful. So no, I've never done it. First rodeo, but enjoying every minute of it. I would say every minute, most minutes of it.
[00:30:41] Ray Latif: Well, you're very well spoken and I appreciate that because it takes good communication to be able to sell your brand and explain what you're doing that's different than what already exists out there. And I think Oku is, again, one of these kinds of products and brands that represents differentiation. It's also kind of hard when you are innovative and trying to get into places I mean, Amazon aside, when you think about retail, you have to convince someone that people are going to understand and want to buy your products. How do you assess the market for caffeine or caffeinated or energy gummies?
[00:31:18] Carolyn Hamlet: You know, it's been interesting because Amazon is a challenge because you're focused on keywords and what people are searching for and you have to see how you convert off of different keywords. It's been a little frustrating for me. You know, I'm very detail-oriented and very driven. So it's a little frustrating, you know, that you have to do that because I do think we're that alternative for coffee for people who don't want coffee, can't take coffee, want to get off coffee. You know, we're something that is portable and convenient, unlike energy drinks that you, so you can't go through TSA. We also are, you know, our packaging is targeted to the conscious consumer because it's made from upcycled material. And we're impact driven, we're partnered with an organization called B1G1. that when we do are profitable, we will be giving back. So, you know, how do you convey all of those things with a consciously curated blend of better few ingredients? It's a mouthful. But I don't think there's anything like it out there today that, you know, isn't over caffeinating you from something, you know, a lot of the gummies are high caffeine and it's hard to calibrate your caffeine intake with drinks. So we have something that, honestly, taste is number one. If people like the taste, you know, I think that then they would buy the product. And that was where we focused. We have a formulator who has, you know, she's not allowed to tell me what she's done, but she's done some big brands. And so we've really focused on making something that I think is just incredibly tasty, but provides that functional benefit. sitting at the nexus of functional snacks, caffeinated snacks, better-for-you snacks, gummies, which is a format that everybody really likes today. So we're just trying to capitalize or market ourselves to offer things that aren't available in other delivery formats or alternatives to other products that might resonate more with a conscious consumer or somebody who's just not looking to completely over-caffeinate themselves.
[00:33:06] Ray Latif: I feel like it's sort of a new, I don't want to call it a new world, but it's a new opportunity for innovative and early stage candy brands. We're seeing lower sugar varieties. We're seeing global flavors. We're seeing different package types for candy. And it's all great because what currently exists, what has existed for a long time is not great. We're slowly learning that. Artificial flavors and colors, there's a lot more scrutiny around them.
[00:33:33] Carolyn Hamlet: Right. And we're all non-GMO. Everything is non-GMO. Almost all of our ingredients are organic. Yeah. And we're trying to do the right thing.
[00:33:40] Ray Latif: But it's hard getting people to change their habits, especially if it's not necessarily if the product or the brand is not necessarily merchandised in the part of the store that people are familiar with. So when I think about Oku, are you trying to be merchandised with other candies? I mean, where do you sit? Where do you envision sitting most appropriately on shelf?
[00:34:01] Carolyn Hamlet: You know, we're not there yet because we just launched on Amazon. But, you know, I've spent a lot of time walking retail and it seems to be very different in different types of stores. You know, if you ask me about Whole Foods, it would be ultimately probably where Smart Sweets and some of the other who chocolate, you know, some of those products are. But if you go into a Ralph's or Vons, you're going to be sitting, you know, Sometimes there's Date Better for you section, but we're an impulse buy. Somebody who is walking out the door and is dragging, or is about to go for a run, or looking for a pick-me-up. The best place for us is going to be, is Impulse at checkout, but obviously that's a challenge, particularly for an early stage brand. So, it's different in each place. I mean, Target, I applied to the Accelerator program a couple years ago, before I even really had product, and out of over 5,000 applicants, we were narrowed down to one of 60 to be interviewed. And we weren't chosen, they were for 30 spots, we weren't chosen for the 30 because we were too early, but they asked me the same question, and I actually went into the Target store, they had Date Better for you section, I took pictures of my product on the shelf, and that's where I thought we should be. But there's different places. I could see us in the candy section, even though we're not really a candy, but we do satisfy that sweet tooth. But we're also better for you. And I think more stores are focused more on Date Better for you sections. And I'd like to see us there because I think that's what we offer.
[00:35:25] Ray Latif: Well, I asked you the question because even though I know you're already only on Amazon right now, I think you're already on a track to be in brick and mortar pretty soon. So I'm sure you're thinking about these things, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. I think where you are right now is awesome.
[00:35:39] Carolyn Hamlet: I'll take any advice, Ray.
[00:35:41] Ray Latif: Listen to our podcast. I do. I love your podcast. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for joining us today. I know it's a great event that we're at right now, the Naturally San Diego pre-party to the UNFI show. And I hope you're meeting a lot of really good people because, as you know, meeting people, networking, it's so important in our industry.
[00:35:59] Carolyn Hamlet: No, this has been a wonderful opportunity. I learned so much from the people who are ahead of me. And I'm grateful because this community has been so rich of people willing to give back. And my goal is to build this and be able to do that with other people, because the giving back is actually more rewarding than the taking. So I'm hopeful that this can be a platform and I can build trust. You know, for me, it's integrity and trust is so important in my life. And so I want to create a brand that stands for that and be able to build that and then be able to give back in a way that helps others. So.
[00:36:31] Ray Latif: That's so wonderful to hear. And I hope a lot of people feel the same way and build their brands as thoughtfully as you're building yours.
[00:36:39] Carolyn Hamlet: Yeah. I mean, naturally, San Diego's been fantastic in their startup CPG. I mean, there are some great organizations here that are just so helpful. And it's a nice contrast for me coming out of the financial world.
[00:36:49] Ray Latif: A little different. I cannot imagine. A little different. Yeah. Carolyn, once again, thank you so much for being with us.
[00:36:53] Carolyn Hamlet: Oh, thank you, Ray. I appreciate it.
[00:36:58] 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.
[00:37:48] Expo West: you
