Hello friends, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts, John Craven. Melissa Traverse. And Mike Schneider. We're in Anaheim, California wrapping up or close to wrapping up Expo West 2026 and I, for one am beat I've exhausted.
Yeah. So many steps. Yeah. I mean, I feel, I don't, I don't use the Ora ring or the I Don Apple Watch or all of the other stuff because that stuff goes straight to the go. Okay. So, you know, you got all that information. You don't wanna, you don't wanna share that, but um, as you wear your tinfoil hat, I get it.
Yeah. I feel like I might've been, I might've done 60,000, 70,000 steps in the last couple days. Suspect my dogs are barking. Yeah, my dogs are barking. Melissa, welcome back to the show. Thanks. Permanent co-host of Taste Radio. I am really excited that you've, uh, joined the podcast. On a permanent basis, and I know you're excited to be back on the show.
And now you have double duties though 'cause you are the Nom Base podcast. That's right. Host and you are a co-host of Taste Radio. So you got a lot going on. I got a lot going on. Yeah. I'm so excited to be joining all of you as a permanent co-host of Taste Radio. I think I said at some point I was just gonna keep showing up.
I guess, I guess it worked. I'll just kind keep coming to the studio, see if you'll have me, me, that's all. That's all I'll takes, just keep talking. Yeah. As I mentioned, we're here in Anaheim for Expo West 2026 and I think as expected, the show, uh, was as big as ever, you know, and I think that the themes that we thought we were gonna see, uh, pretty much.
Came to fruition or came true for the most part, as we expected. Protein is everywhere. It's in everything. I don't necessarily know if I saw as much fiber as I thought we would see, or added fiber into, you know, traditional products and traditional snacks and beverages. But you know, I mean, let's start with protein because that's at the tip of everyone's tongue.
You know, from my perspective, I think it was a little bit of overload with. Certain categories, you know, there are certain categories where I'm like, this really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like, for example, I saw protein rice where, you know, I, I get that this is something where you could add protein.
I don't know if consumers are looking for it as much. Whereas I think in. Snacking. It does make a lot more sense. You know, I sat down with the CEO and co-founder of Cloud, uh, which makes a protein popcorn, and clearly there's a lot of demand for that, and I think brands are following that lead and adding protein to potato chips, adding protein to pretzels, adding protein wherever people snack, I mean, even clouds.
Good example of like, you're not eating popcorn to get protein or any sort of sustenance and you know, I think we're just seeing, I mean, clearly every category try it out and I'm not really sure that anyone knows which categories and which product types that don't naturally have protein are going to accept this as like an add-on or.
Functional component to it, but I think it's also one that is pretty awesome in that like there's really no education required for it. You know, I mean, I think of the days of CBD or like, you know, you ask three people what C, b, D is, you get three different explanations that don't make sense, and this is like straightforward, like no one.
Hasn't heard of it. You can just say how many grams there are. It's kind of like well established. So I like the fact that like this function that's being kind of added to new types of products is one that is again, familiar and understood. Understood in terms of what it does. That may be true, but again, the reason for being for me might be a little bit further in the future than it is.
Today. So Jeff, uh, Rubenstein brought up the fact that there are reports that up to 25% of all Americans will be using GLP one drugs in the near future. Okay. I get that. And as we know, people on those drugs are counting every gram of protein. They need a certain amount of protein with all their meals. So maybe in that sense, a protein.
Mashed potatoes or a protein rice, that might make sense. But at this point, I know it's easily understood by most folks, but I don't know if they easily understand why it's in a particular product. I think they understand that. It like fills you up at a basic level too. You know, like it's something that if you take popcorn, it's salty.
Like you could eat an infinite amount of popcorn, right? And like you could still be hungry like 20 minutes later. But here's the problem. I mean, taste. People taste when added protein is not great when you get some of that grittiness, especially in beverages. But I think also it has to work in the traditional snacks and there has to be no compromise.
And I think, Melissa, I was talking to you about this, you know, before we hopped in the mic, I think everyone was coming up to me at the show and saying, what's great? What's this, what's that? And I just said, look, anything that I really loved. I love the taste of. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. I absolutely do think that people are tracking their macros and keeping track of things like fiber and protein and, you know, eight grams here, 10 grams there actually does really add up.
I picked up this product jam packed. I saw that. Yeah. Yep. The taste, I think is fabulous. It's, I have the blueberry here. It's eight grams of protein and it comes from collagen. It's super low sugar. It has. Some fiber in it, and I think this does make a dent in any numbers that you're tracking, but it also tastes great, and the fact that they're using collagen for jam makes perfect sense.
That is an interesting point that you're bringing up here though, that that's collagen protein, which is has a different function than say, whey protein or like that's a whole other protein. It's a whole different mm-hmm. It's a whole different thing. So if there is any education, like the collagen versus way or any other kinds of like.
You know, P protein or that you're using is the only education hurdle. There's also slower release proteins out there too, and, and so we're just hearing the word protein being thrown around a lot, and collagen's kind of jumping into that too, even though it has different benefits, I think of collagen as having two main functions.
One is protein and one is. You know, joint health, inflammation, that kind of thing. So skin, hair and skin. Skin, hair, skin, nails, nails. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like, I don't know, I think is a source of protein. I think collagen is really interesting because it serves two main benefits. I think the, the thing about collagen though is what's the daily amount of collagen that you're supposed to have, and how much of that should count toward your.
Protein macros for the day. This is, you're, you're venturing into territory. I know where brands who are thinking about this. I think those are the ones that all have a challenge. You know, like what I was saying before about protein, what's great about it is like you don't have to explain it. Right. You know?
Whereas if you have, again. Certain other functional ingredients that require real explanation of what it does, how much you need, et cetera. You know, if you're, you're starting to go into like collagen or different types of protein, like, I don't know. I feel like most of the products that we saw were just whey protein way protein.
Protein, which from a. Flavor perspective, I think has dramatically improved in the past 10 years. I mean, especially like beverage, it's really hard to hide and it had that kind of tart, sour, like gross flavor for a while. And I don't know, I feel like the beverages that I tried with it were like really good.
Yeah, we tried Lumen, we tried Sky Pop. We tried a few more as well, and they, they all tasted like. They still tasted like soda or whatever they were supposed to taste like. They still tasted like that and you could get some, you know, hints that protein was in it. But for the most part, yeah, the taste was good.
One product that we didn't get to try out the show that no one got to try out the show was David's. New ice cream, which is loaded with protein. There was a billboard truck going up and down the street on West Ella, which is the street right in front of the Anaheim Convention Center. There were trucks, there were trucks.
There were multiple trucks. So while we prove that, because we were stuck in traffic in more than one past, I mean, unless they, unless they have a rocket truck. They had multiple trucks. I thought it was just going back and forth and doing U-turns the entire time. But I think there were three that were making a little, yeah, so David did not have an actual presence at the show, but they were certainly felt, or their presence was felt at the show.
So David is the brand of protein bars launched by rxbar founder Peter Raha, and. So these trucks were teasing the launch of David Protein, where they showed a picture of the pint and it says where our ice cream comes from. And it lists 30 grams of protein, 260 uh calories, and two grams of sugar. And I think, did you notice?
The like roed out cow that was also on the side of the truck. I did not. Oh, is that why? Okay. That's why it says where our protein comes from. Yeah. Okay. Um, I, I think the proof is gonna be in the pudding in terms of whether or not that's a success because there's already been brands that have had protein infused ice cream in one in particular that I'm thinking of, that actually has a fantastic product in terms of taste and flavor.
And that's protein pints. Uh, that's a brand that. No mistake in what? It's Ray? No. Well, no. That's a brand that's doing really, really well. I interviewed the founders yesterday. Uh, they went from 14 retail doors to 10, over 10,000 in one year. And we talked about how it was really about the, you know, for.
Protein as a differentiator, but it was flavor as the foundation of what they were doing. I tried their cookies and ice cream variety and it was just amazing. If you put their cookies and cream variety next to a Haagen-Dazs next to a Ben and Jerry's next to a Van Lein, you'd be like, this is amazing.
This is like any one of those. It was so delicious. You compared to Van Lewin. That's huge. Yeah, that's big. Yeah, it's, it was a really, really great tasting product and so. I keep going back to compromise. There was no compromise with this product. So the fact that there was added protein was fantastic.
Great. You want to get a little bit of extra macros or extra protein in your, in your diet, fantastic. But I would never buy that product unless it tasted as good as it does. Again, going back to fiber, however, and Melissa, we have the fiber expert here. I love that. I love, I love this. You've become the fiber expert.
Yes. Uh, Melissa, she, as it were, you know, if you could follow. Right? Yes. Thank you very much for calling the podcast. Perfect. You weren't in that episode. You missed that one. An excellent introduction without, without context. That's weird. Yeah, you missed it. Okay. Go back and listen to old episode so you can get that reference.
Yeah. So yeah, I just didn't. See a lot of brands promoting fiber, as much as I thought I would, I saw a lot of brands calling out fiber, almost always alongside protein, but for the most part, it was fiber that the brand already had in the product. It wasn't something that they had added. So for example, Manitoba Harvest was calling out the number of grams of protein on their signage.
I don't remember them doing that before. They didn't change anything. They're just talking about it now. Yeah, and I think that's the thing that I was a little surprised by, because again, with all the callouts, you know, the PepsiCo CEO saying, you know, fiber is the new protein. I would've thought that the innovation cycle for brands getting into that space would've been a lot faster.
Maybe we're gonna see that in the second half of 2026, maybe we're gonna see that fiber wave come, but at this point, at this point, it just wasn't as present at Expo West as I thought it might be. I, I think. I don't know. Fiber is the next protein. It's just, I don't believe it. That's what I'm just quoting.
The CEO of PepsiCo, that's just me. What does he know? What does he know? Indeed? Yes. I hope he's listening. He do Frito flavors. I don't know. No, but I mean, I, I just don't think the education I. And I say this to some extent from all of the prebiotic sodas that had, you know, fiber disclosed on the, uh, nutrition vac panel where I just don't think a typical consumer has a real guidance or, or you know, it's, again, it's not the same as protein where like you kind of know what is a lot.
Or substantial protein. Do you? I think so. How much is this substantial? Well, but I'm saying the differences are like, you know, 15 grams, a five versus a 20. Yeah. You know, I mean, I don't know a steak like that's got what Well, five isn't very much. We know that. No, but I'm just saying like there is a point of reference in like 30 grams real normal food that I don't think for fiber has been.
Properly, like quantified. And my point is really that I think there, there is a pretty significant education hurdle that I just don't think is like, you know, later this year we're gonna solve that. Yeah. I don't mean solve, I mean just see more of, or see more brands getting into or promoting and added fiber.
I, I'm just, I would just caution that because I think it is unlike protein. Going to require any brand that does that to stand there and explain to the consumer how much fiber do they need and so on and so forth. Did you go to the, the, the Belly Well Booth, they had an interesting way to talk about fiber.
I did see it. I saw, I think I saw that in your Instagram. I mean, and that's. I mean, I, I'd love that they're doing that, but I don't think that's, like, for me, it wasn't enough people like their their counter to talk about how many hot girls had pooped today. It was only like in the a hundred thousand and I felt bad for the millions who actually did, to be clear, that's, I hoped did to be clear to our listeners, like that was their whole stick.
Yeah, that was their whole stick. They trying to, it was a hilarious stick. Was it was a, what was it? Some sort of a clicker ala like the national deck where they were showing it was the national deck clicker, but it didn't increment, so it only is. Stopped at 120,000 something. Women who, but I mean, look, I mean even, even what you're talking about is not, it's not a appetizing thing, right?
No, of course not. It's just be blunt. So you, it's not, but protein you can talk about all day, even though, fine. You're talking about a maybe a. Dead piece of animal flesh, but it's just not the same. But it is hilarious. It's hilarious. Talk about fiber. It's, it's hilarious. But not everyone can do that. True.
Right? I think other people copy that then it's not, it doesn't work anymore. I think the same people who are tracking their protein on their apps or, you know, wherever it is, they're also tracking their fiber there. So I do think that that's, that's something that people are looking at. And I also think that folks who are on GLP ones and that whole wave will be affected.
I mean, there are. There are issues that come up that need to be solved. So I think that'll be an opportunity for fiber as well. What kind of issues? Yeah, and you know, you touched on prebiotic sodas, John, and um, you know, we're still seeing a few brands enter that space a little bit later than probably they, you know, should have gotten into that space.
But with the sale of Poppy, I think, you know, certainly there's still a lot of excitement around the potential for prebiotic and probiotic drinks. I saw that was really interesting and I dunno how far this is gonna go, but when I was at the snapshot event on Tuesday evening, and Snapshot of course is show off a amazing food and beverage sort of media tracking platform launched by Andrea Hernandez.
Um, and they had this just amazing, it's a cult. Yes. They had this or self described. Yeah. They had this sort of amazing pre expo party on Tuesday and they had all these. These different brands. I wouldn't say exhibiting, but like just sort of there to promote and talk about their brands. One of which was a brand called Pop Sips, P-O-P-S-I-P-S.
And it's a maker of spiked prebiotic sodas. And I had some, and it tastes like a soda and you can taste some of the alcohol as well. And it has great branding. It's really beautiful branding. I'll show you guys, I mean, it just looks like a really polished, trendy. Package for this brand, but I question myself.
I'm like, okay. Am I gonna have this, you know, on a regular basis? Am I going to like drink this? Like, you know, once in a while. Is this, are people asking for products like this? And I think, you know, the blurring of the lines that we've seen beverage in particular, I almost feel like we've kind of hit that peak.
I don't know that we need a product like this, no stain on what they're doing. And I hope they do really, really well. But. I almost feel like we can go a little too far with these blurring of lines. I feel like if we're gonna talk about spiked prebiotic sodas, we should talk about spiked probiotic sodas.
Did you guys stop by the ferment Toia? Yes. Yes. Ruth? Yes. Jade Shepherd. I love what she does so much. So she has her spiked probiotic soda. She has the non-A, and then she launched the shots at the show. Shots. Yeah. With like the. Probiotics, a billion probiotics. Really tasty. And um, I don't know. That's something that I would drink on a regular basis.
I feel like that stuff was tasty. Yeah, it tastes good and I feel like it's probably good for me. Do you mean the shots or do you mean the spiked probiotics? Sodas. I would drink any and all of those. Okay. I would drink the shots. Yeah. I guess I'm still trying to figure out who it's for and, and clearly it's not for me.
You know, I think it, you know, certainly it feels like it's for a younger consumer that appreciates a sweeter soda like experience as an alcoholic beverage. But yeah, it just doesn't, I don't think it speaks to, you know, my generation. Um, and, and maybe that's why it'll work. You know, I think of it as like a healthier, maybe more interesting high noon.
You know? Yeah. I just wonder how many people are gonna be like, okay, this is slightly better for me in that it has a functional benefit, so I'll feel more comfortable drinking this beverage, alcohol brand or product versus something else. Fermentation and alcohol go hand in hand, so maybe this can work.
But, but that said, like, I think just the packaging of it and the way that it's being marketed is. A little on the, I guess the strange side because they're, they're not just, you know, they're marketing it at through the ferment area name versus just saying, Hey, this is a great alcoholic beverage. You could try.
I mean, it's also like a really fine line in that you just can't make healthy claims on alcoholic beverages. But maybe just the word prebiotic or probiotic sort of in some minds equates to health or better for you. Yeah. So you know, they're saying it without saying, be careful. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Be careful.
Do not take that as an endorsement that you should do that. No, no. I mean, I think that. Companies doing that need to be very careful. Yeah. I mean, that will invite various sorts of legal trouble, so For sure, for sure. I mean, I, I saw a bunch of other really great things at the Snapshot event. If you follow me on Instagram Bev trade with the YI, you may have seen them.
Uh, one thing that really popped out was, let's talk about Protein, was a crunchy jerky chip brand called Beast, BE. EST described as crunchy, clean, and high protein. Uh, they have a smoked original that I thought was great. We've seen a product like this in the past. Does that compare to Ys? I'm sorry? Would that, would you compare that to Ys?
Exactly. Ys, YAY apostrophe S. Mm-hmm. I think this is a similar type of product. Cool. We've seen lots of jerky brands come to market, jerky sticks or meat sticks, things like that. But the crispy jerky, I think that's, I think it's. It might be the next, next great thing that's, I can't gonna a half an hour.
That space can stop. If I get a, if I get a package of yays, it'll be gone. Yeah. It's so good. Is it thicker than like a bill tongue? No, it's somewhere, it's like thinner. It's almost a consistency of like a chip or a tortilla chip, something like that. It's little bit crispier, but it's meat, but, and it's also a little bit chewier as well, so, yeah.
You all get to the, uh, startup CPG Alley rally? We did, yes. Yeah, that was, it was pretty eyeopening. I mean, there were a ton of brands that were there, and it almost felt like this was the, these were these brands that were going to be at Expo next year, but or in a few years. Yeah, or in a few years, for sure.
Very, very early stage really. Interesting concepts, very cutting edge, and perhaps ahead of their time concepts there. Uh, Mike, uh, you seem to have talked to every single brand based on your Instagram. Uh, I tried to right photos there. Yeah. Anything really stand out to you? I liked, um, the Teza strawberry yogurt.
It was a 12, it's 12 grams of protein. It was actually made with soy. It's soy yogurt. Um, yeah. And, and how It's, how's it spelled? T-E-T-E-Z-Z-A. Yep. Very good stuff. That one had little bits of strawberry too in them, which was amazing. It's it, I love that texture. I mean, I just, I like soy anyway, and I'm glad to see that soy is making a comeback.
The founder was giving me the story of soy and apparently we use a lot more soy to feed animals than humans, and we're both really happy to see it becoming like, you know, popular again. Did you try the Bitter Love? I have tried that in the past. Yeah, that's, I didn't try it at the event. I love that brand.
Great. Grape beverage. My first beef Tallow chip was called tips. You're first of many? Yeah, my first of of very many. Uh, it was really great to see our friends from UK Mother Root there. Did you see them? Yes, I did actually. Mm-hmm. They said they saw you right before me, so I knew. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It was so good to see.
See them. They are, they're super excited about launching in the United States, and they do have such a special product for folks who are looking for an alternative to drinking it's honey. Um, something a little spicy. Apple, apple cider vinegar, ginger. Yep. Yeah, really tasty stuff. It's really tasty. It comes in a, like a very special bottle too.
And, uh, I mean it's, it's, it's just a premium product. It's really cool. Did you try. Uh, Siah, which is a non out Yes. Adult drinking occasion without like, the, the most functional thing in it, I think was ginseng, but the flavors were really thoughtful. Yeah. OSIA uhhuh, uh, delicious product comes in a slim 12 ounce can.
I tried their bliss spritz with raspberry yuzu and pineapple. That was amazing. Mm-hmm. Really great tasting products and definitely felt like you were getting the experience of a cocktail, albeit a, a carbonated one without. Again, going back to that word, I love to use compromise. It was great. Yeah. Dime.
MSG was really great. Um, they gave you a dime bag. Don't skip over that. This is a brand that is bringing MSG back and saying it's okay to eat it. It's Ms. Genius. I love it. I mean, I love any brand that wants. To give us more MSG. It's like, it's just one of the most amazing flavors there is. It's delicious.
Yeah. Mike, did you get to try Black Beverly Hill Sea Moss Lemonade? Yes. China, the founder, we met him at Bev Net Live, and it was good to see him like doing his thing and finally get to try his product. Yeah. We're gonna, he's gonna join us for an episode of Elevator Talk in a couple weeks. Oh, thank you.
Yeah. Excited about that. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, this was a pro, this is a, a, a brand of lemonades. Set incorporates CMASS and at a reasonable price point for, you know, considering how expensive CMOs is, it was 7, 9, 9 for, I believe it's a, uh, 15 ounce bottle. Lemme just double check on that 12 ounce bottle, excuse me.
But it's also loaded with ginger and other kinds of really high quality ingredients. I really like what they're doing. I do too. I also really enjoyed, uh, oh, my dessert butter. Did you try that? I did not. So decadent. Um, got to talk to the founders for a couple minutes and, uh, oh, one thing that I really liked was, um, sleet pops, which are kind of like, remember pushups?
They give you like the cream. Of course. I remember pushups, they taste. A better for you pushup. So good. Uh, there's Chara, which was like a Greek frozen yogurt, very tart, but also a little sweet. Amazing. A brand called Benny Bites that uses, uh, uh, Japanese sweet potatoes to make a bar that was Oh, really? Oh, so good.
Ohum. Oh, I'm, I'm butchering it, but it means, oh, this is good in, in French. And, uh, the raspberry french cake was so good and so moist. I mean, there was just so many good brands. Kias was there. Yeah. With and, and hidden somewhere. Apparently I didn't know, like there must've been some VIP room with Royal guards and, and a throne that I didn't, I didn't see, see?
Did you try Gato? It's a brand of. Uh, dates. Uh, I believe they're filled with a flavoring. The one that I have is filled with a pistachio cream. Come on there. Dubai Chocolate writing. Yeah. I'm gonna throw this one to Melissa because she's awesome. There you go. Nice. I can't believe I got it. Well done. Well done, well done.
Oh, I steal, I stole it with a fist bump. Yes. But I'm also like, maybe you should do that now. It's like a ball for who decides who's gonna talk next, so like Melissa gets to talk next. That's right. Melissa. I was gonna point out, I was like. Mike was talking about all these indulgent, you know, from our childhood treats, and you saw some jello at Expo West.
I sure did. You know, I, I don't remember the last time I saw Jello at an Expo West, but this year I saw a couple of Jello brands actually, and both of them spoke to the nostalgia that. We probably all have for eating jello as kids and how, you know, there's a whole generation that doesn't eat it. But also with the protein trend and you know, gelatin, there is certainly a tie in there.
Both brands, you know, by no surprise, we're both grass fed gelatin brands, so they're targeting millennial, maybe Gen Z moms. The first brand was lasso jello grass. Fed, um, really tasty product and then wobbled jello, um, yeah, no, I haven't. That's a great name, right? Yeah. It's collagen. I mean, I will say it's protein from a whole source, so there's nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, it's kind like beef. Tell by your favorite thing. Talk about sweet things. Let's stick with sweet, sweet things for a sec. I mean, obviously we saw. Tons of, you know, new. Better for you. Candy come to market before Expo West and I should call out a new Better for You gum brand called. Very lucky. And Lucky, spelled L-U-C-K-E-E.
And who is the co-founder or founder of this brand Is The one. And Gary. Gary. Gary. Chuck. Chuck. Also known as Gary. And I sat down with him for an interview that we'll be featuring in a future episode of Taste Radio, which is awesome. And man, that guy can talk and he is really proud of his brand and really happy to be introducing this line of Better for You gummies to the market.
But what I was, and he kissed me, he did kiss you and he actually, Mike, on the lips, the way that Gary. Mike. Mike was slammed into a wall as he was being kissed. That's how funny Gary was. So happy picture this, he gra. Okay, so I was trying to bring the products in and I've known Gary for a long time and I hadn't seen him in a long time.
He's just like, oh my gosh, Schneider Monkey. He grabs me and he literally, he slammed Mike into a wall. He bear, hugs me, slams me into a wall. Kisses me and then he starts to tell everybody how we know each other. It was awesome. Yeah. And it was a kiss right on the lips. No, it wasn't. Oh, it's not a kiss. Good for you.
It got weird. It got weird. It was too weird. What I wanted to talk about was, was dates, you know, um, the number of can dates that we saw at expos, I believe, quadrupled, right? So we saw, of course, true dates, which we've talked about on this podcast. And they have a bunch of new varieties and they, they're coming out with a peanut butter protein variety that's coming out later this year.
Of course. Our great friends at Julie's, ugh, uh, introduced a new line of candy dates, which my mouth is watering, just thinking about how delicious those were. You know, Amanda SAEs, who's the VP of Marketing over there, 'cause she knows me so well and she listens to the podcast on such a regular basis.
She's like, okay, let's try your F uh, let's. Sample the first one, Ray Blue ra. And so they have a Blue RA variety, which was actually really good. I spec. I went over there. She, she did Razz me. I went over there and she asked me which flavor I wanted to try and I said, how about the Blue ra? Just spite Ray and she knew exactly what I was talking about.
Nice. I did think the Cola one was also so tasty. You guys, can we just talk for a second about what she has done with that brand too, because. You know, dates a commodity and she comes in with this grand vision for how Julie's could become this date platform. And from a marketing perspective, you know, obviously there's a, a vision there from leadership too.
And she's come in and executed so beautifully. And I, I mean, Julie's is just a fantastic brand with great treats and, um, just so happy for all the work she's done. Really high quality measure, dual dates, great work. Yeah. And, um, I, I've never had anything from that company that isn't top quality, top notch.
No. It's the best. Yeah. There's this crusty sugar on the outside of the dates that is a little bit similar to the, to the other candied dates with the candy shell, but I do really like the crystallized, um, sugar flavor on the outside. Yeah. So they all have their different takes, but they're all really good.
Yeah. So, yeah. So the Julie's products are coming out later this year. I think you were talking. We're touching on smooth S-M-O-O-D. Yeah. Which they also market candy dates that almost have like a, not exactly a, an m and m shell around them, but something along those lines. And I tried some of their products.
Apparently they're sweet berry fish, which is like a Swedish fish, was their top variety. Mm-hmm. And at the very end of the show, I saw another brand called Daddle, D-A-D-D-L. Unfortunately there was no one at the booth there, but I did snag a bag of their fizzy bottle. I believe this is like their caramel variety.
If anyone wants to sample it, you're more than welcome right now. But, um, I was, I was happy to see that and I really hope that we'll continue to see more brands enter and get into this space because the nutritional value of dates, you know, has gotta be. A huge advantage for brands that are in the candy aisle.
Um, you know, if you're a mom, if you're a parent, obviously kids are gonna say they want the gummy bears, they're gonna say they want the Starburst products and things like that. But Amanda was telling me that. People in her family who are younger consumers couldn't get enough of the candidates that she was marketing or they were that, uh, Julie's market.
So she's just like, I had to stop, you know, this kid from eating so many of them 'cause they were eating 'em out of house and home. And I really feel like there's a great opportunity to feed kids better food via dates. Well, I would agree. However, I think it's one of those places where it's a long game. And even though some of these companies have been doing it a relatively long time, like I think we're still somewhat maybe early in that journey.
For sure. For sure. I mean, and there are a lot of brands that you know don't necessarily need to do. You know, something as. I guess at this point, novel as a, you know, date product or a date based product. But I will say, you know, dates in, uh, a brand like Harken Sweets, for example. Sure. Where she's doing amazing stuff and yeah.
Using it as a sweetener different than like literally using it as the. Product. Correct. Did you try their innovation they were asking for you today at the booth, by the way? I did see them. I, I and uh, they, they have a new Mounds slash Almond Joy product that is just, it's phenomenal. Yeah. You, you have, and I, I, I asked Katie, the founder, Katie Lefkowitz, and then Lena Garrett was also there, who, uh, is just an amazing, uh, member of their team as well.
I, I was like, how often do people come up to you and say, you're lying, right? No, this is a full calorie, full sugar product that. You're just saying it's, you know, there's something low calorie, you're, it's marketing it wrong. You, you can't be telling me that this is as delicious as it is with all, you know, with limited amounts of calories and sugar.
I'd also like to point out that dates, as far as I understand, don't raise your insulin as mu, uh, have a lower glycemic effect on your body than other sweeteners. And there are people who are using those continuous glucose monitors and tracking stuff like that. So there's an opportunity there. Absolutely.
Obviously we can't go through all of expos all at once, so we'll be talking about more products at the, uh, uh, in, in future episodes of podcast. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a brand called Farmwell, and I know Melissa wanted to highlight, uh, some of the brands that are using Farm or using the, I guess, backdrop of their sourcing partners, uh, to promote what they're doing this.
Brand Farmwell is a maker of, as they describe it, superfood antioxidant drinks that are refreshing. You know, their label hierarchy is farmwell, refreshing, antioxidant, hydration, and a lot of it, or their entire line is based on the err ronia berry, and they have four different varieties that they make in all of them contain err berry, and so their flavor that contain rose, hip and hibiscus as well.
Was my favorite sip of Expo S. This was a delicious product and it just told me everything about what I think. Uh. It's missing from a lot of these functional beverages, which is refreshment and delicious flavor, and this, this Farmwell brand has it in spades. Farmwell was the only beverage that I drank an entire can of for the whole show.
I think I had the cucumber. I was so impressed with their flavor profiles and the sugar is super low. I think it was between 30 and 50 calories. I think they used a little bit of monk fruit and a couple of the skews, but I couldn't taste it. Mm-hmm. At all in a really good way. So tasty. Absolutely.
Speaking of remiss, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of brands. One that was a, a really nice tasting soda was Quip. Did you get to try Quip? No. It's like a really cool looking soda brand that has. Uh, names like Bury the Hatchet and Hannibal Nectar and just some crazy art on the, on the front of Pack that.
Yeah, and I think we should try to get those guys on elevator talk. Also, another brand that should definitely go on elevator talk was House of Joy that makes bow and uh, alza dumplings so good. So just, and the, the branding is. Just like jumps right out at you and is, is really cool. And it, um, those were and then super tasty.
They sure were, we, we got the flight too and they just kept feeding us, which was so amazing. I think that was some of the only food I fully ate all day. That makes sense. You know, well, another let's do nibble anyway, another. Food that I ate was, uh, crafty Ramen, which I had the Spicy Chicken Tanin Min Ramen, and that was so good.
You would've thought it had come out of a restaurant. Well, I'm happy to hear that. 'cause again, I, I think at this point in 2026, I've been coming to Expo West since 2011. And so in 2011, if you had said, okay, well I have this product that's much better for you than the traditional version of it, but it's not gonna taste as good because formulation.
Ingredients, you know, just the process of making something taste like what you expect to taste like. It just isn't there yet. So you were willing to give people a pass back in 2011? In 2026. I'm sorry. I really don't want to give people a pass for bad flavor. I feel like you can't do it anymore. Agreed. So if you think it's good enough, but it's really not there, then don't go there.
You know? Don't put it out in the market if you feel like it's just good enough. It's gotta be great and continuously improve. And speaking of continuous improvement, did you try the new prickly and see the new branding of prickly that beverage just. Keeps getting better. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, those guys really grind and they, I'm glad that they are, you know, sort of finding their new space for what they're doing.
'cause Prickly was selling, uh, cactus water. Mm-hmm. Essentially. And, um, you know, and it's hard to really describe what Cactus water is or explain why you need to drink it. And they've really shifted to a positioning of, and marketing of the brand as a hydration beverage. Which is, which is great. You know, hydration and it doesn't require a lot of education.
It's the buy play. Yeah. No coffee. Don't talk about coffee fruit. Just make a great beverage. Did you see fresh fizz sodas rebrand? Yeah. No, I didn't. I saw them, but I didn't see other rebrand. It's, it's a little bit of a tweak, tweak, tweak. It may not a full refresh. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I think they're a good example of like.
Just keep totally slowly making it better. Totally. And they had a tart cherry skew that was new. That was so good. Leisure also had a refresh with a new skew. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Coming soon. Nice. Nice. Well, so good. I mean, I haven't, I've at least two dozen. More brands that I wanna highlight, but let's do that in a future episodes.
See you next show. See you next show. And people to shout out. You know, I was really humbled because there were so many people that stopped me on the show floor and said, I listen to taste radio all the time. Thank you for what you do. Um, I literally listened to this show, you know, every single time. You have released a new episode and thank you so much listeners for doing so, and thanks so much for stopping me and, and, you know, talking to me about the show because it's really the reason why we do what we do, I mean, is we want people to get value out of these episodes and, and get the insights analysis, the, the feedback that'll help you.
Grow your brand and scale your brand. So thank you very much for that. And, and Superly certainly shout out to Superfan. Uh, can I, I don't know if I'm practicing his last name correctly. He's la on, on Instagram. LAY Yeah. VOND. What a guy. Uh, I saw him at the Syrup CPG event. Just a fantastic guy. So great. He.
Runs a, a, uh, I wanna call it, not an incubator, but like a commercializing mm-hmm. Uh, platform called Chapter Foods and based outta Turkey. And he's a, just a genuinely great guy. Great. He, his first, he's awesome. And he was just like a kid in a candy store. Yeah. That's great. And, uh, Jacqui Brugliera. I know you're listening, you know, you were missed.
Everyone talked about you and, and just said. The amazing things that they always say about you. Force of nature was said at least once. I use that many times myself. If you look up in an encyclopedia, if those even exist anymore, next to, for force of nature, it's Jacqui Jacqui's there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well again, stay tuned for a lot more Expo West coverage in future episodes of the show.
Until then, once again, thank you to everyone who we encountered at Expo West. We love you guys 'cause we'll keep listening to the show and, uh, we're excited to keep this thing going.
