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 with my co-host for this episode, John Craven. Jacqui Brugliera and Mike Schneider. Well, thank you to everyone who joined us in Miami for Taste Radio's first meetup of 2026.
We are recording this episode a couple days before the event, so we'll have more to share along with brands to highlight and people to shut out. Next week, man, you're just killing me. I was gonna just quickly get in there and say, Ray, thanks a ton for picking up the bar tab and buying everyone dinner. I mean, it's possible.
It's possible. We'll see. Not on the company card, by the way. I'll just put, just put it there. I don't have a company card. Exactly. We'll never trust you with one. It's for the best. A big thanks to our event partners, of course. Casa La Rubia. Vibrant ingredients, matriarch wealth Management, and Atmos strategic marketing.
Thank you. Yes. Of course we have many more meetups planned for later this year. Upcoming stops in New York City, Austin, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, and London. You can register for any or all of these events at tasteradio.com/meetups. And of course, we've mentioned this before. If you're interested in sponsoring any of the meetups that we're holding in 2026, just email us at ask@tasteradio.com to learn more.
We would love to have you as a partner. So, as Mike pointed out, I am wearing a new hoodie today. I am, I'm very hoodie during these banter episodes. I, I like to be comfortable in this, in this seat. And the fine folks from Dirty Saints. We've mentioned Dirty Seat on this podcast a number of times. They make at least 7,000 hangover recovery shots.
Guys, why not put a QR coat on the sweatshirts? Yeah. When people have to stare at Ray in these social media clips, they can just click the order. Yeah. I feel like also you, I mean, come on. Specifically, like black hoodies. So I feel like if a brand gives you a black hoodie. You're gonna definitely wear it.
Yes, correct. The pockets need to be lined with like a hundred dollars bills. I mean, that would be against the rules. Monkey Saint also failing that, that would be against rules. But if would Not for you, for me. Oh, for you. You just get the hoodie. Also against the rules. If they were lined with a hundred dollar bill.
I'm sure we would donate it to one of our favorite charities. But no, in all seriousness, thanks so much to the guys at Dirty Saint. This is very comfortable and yes, if you send hoodies to our bev net headquarters here in Newton, Massachusetts, in most cases I will wear it. If it has some sort of offensive language on it that a challenge, then I might have to, uh, like Tottenham Hot.
Exactly, yeah. Our soul. Maybe I will not wear an Arsenal hoodie. I probably won't need to wear this when we're heading out to la, which is happening a couple weeks because of course it's the dreaded, I mean, the Annual Natural Products Expo, west Trade Show is of course happening. Your time warping is really bad.
How's that? Because we're already in Miami. Yeah. And it can't also be a couple weeks. Alright. Three weeks to Expo West. Three weeks we're nitpicking here. No, because you always wanna talk about the timeline and then I know. I know. And then every time we spend half an hour hanging with timeline, timeline, I'm trying to avoid, why don't we just saying he's coming up soon.
Coming soon. Coming up west and it was great. Okay. There are listeners who like to listen to these like, you know, months later, this is true. Now, of course, expos is happening beginning on March 2nd, say soon. Soon, starting on March 2nd. Uh, it's of course an annual event. We get about 80,000 people who pile into the aisle with us, thousands of CPG exhibitors, and, uh, it is the preeminent natural products trade show in America.
Dare I say, the world. I of course, got into some hot water last year because I questioned the value. Of Expo West. More specifically, I question the value of early stage founders having a booth at that show because I felt like it gets swallowed up and a lot of times brands do get swallowed up 'cause there's just.
Too much going on. There's not enough time to see everything, and brands just don't have a big enough presence with some of their tiny booze in the arena. No one has a booth in the arena. Ray, come on. There's the North Hall. People should listen to your words from last year. I would highly recommend, I don't know what episode number or date that was, but I'm speaking truths here.
I think I, I've actually talked to a number of founders who went to Expo West last year, had a booth, and they, they said, Ray, you know, you're. Probably right about this. All that being said, this is also why you're gonna have a fake name on your badge this year. They're, it's also why they're gonna stop me at the door and be like, yeah, you're not gonna, you're not that I'm, they're fake name on your badge or a bunch of.
Founders who said Ray's head is full of Nutella. Yeah, no, I, I mean, I saw a lot of people, I ran into a bunch of people. They were like, oh, Ray, you're here. Like, what's that all about? And, uh, they let you in. Let's accentuate the positive here. I mean, expo West is a great show for. Introducing new products, especially if you're a more established company.
You know, we are always on the hunt to try to find the most innovative, the most unique, the most exciting new products at that show. That's pretty much why we go, and so I think the question is how do you. Drive awareness. How do you get the most excitement? How do you get the biggest bang for your buck if you're an exhibitor and you are spending more than a few bucks if you have a booth at that show?
And Mike, you recently shared some great insights on this very topic on the Nom Base podcast. You are managing editor Martine Caparo, and of course Nam Base Director of Community Melissa Traverse. But dive into a few takeaways from that episode. If you were to advise someone on how best to stand out at Expo West, particularly if you have a booth, what would it be?
Chicken, costume. No hesitation. Okay. The way to stand out is to not wait until Expo West. Right. To try to stand out. Exactly. I mean. The standard strategy for Expo West is have a great booth, be on brand, have a great experience, and then hope everybody walks around and talks about you. That's the zigging.
The zagging is to put your innovation out beforehand. Make sure people know about what you're going to be doing at Expo West beforehand, so when they walk up to your booth, they're asking you to try your innovation versus you having to explain all of your innovation. Spend all your time doing that. Lose your voice.
Yeah, I mean all of our teams I know are already planning what booths they're gonna be hitting, you know, weeks leading up to the event if you wanna be on a shot list or, you know, be considered for a story or an interview. That's all happening now. So I feel like a lot of brands that do stand out that're.
Getting the ball rolling. They're trying to make noise. They're trying to reach specific people with pitches that they know would resonate based on, you know, where the market's heading. I think that's like another big thing is to understand where you fit and why you're relevant, and why what you're doing is new and fresh.
Because everyone has limited time, right? So if they have to like really think about it, they're gonna be moving on to the next thing. There's always worry that, oh, we're going to. Miss our opportunity to have that big splash on day one of Expo West if we tell everybody what we're doing in advance and you want to be part of the news cycle during the event and that sort of thing.
And you know, everyone can't be the main story during the event. I feel like there's so much news that comes outta that show that if your brand is covered after expos, it almost gets swallowed up in the same way you might get swallowed up as an exhibitor at the show. Mm-hmm. I mean, if you can get people excited about what you're doing before expos starts, that's the place and that's the time to generate excitement.
That's the place to get people. To want to share some information about your brand, to talk about what Booth to visit ahead of time. I find oftentimes at the show you run into someone and what's the first thing they ask? What are you seeing? What's the most exciting? How's the show going? Exactly. Please don't ask us that.
Yeah. Mean the questions always, you know, what Booth should I visit? You know, what have you seen? That's awesome. And I try to be like, uh, you know, you can check out my Instagram page 'cause I can't remember. Maybe there's one or two things that I really remember and would. Say, okay, this stands out so much that you should go to that booth.
There's always just too much stuff too. I mean, I feel like I kind of get stuck saying any single company, because there's just always a lot of stuff that's worth seeing, you know? Mm-hmm. It's interesting when people really are like, what's the booth like? The one thing? Mm-hmm. Jackie, do you think it's gonna break you if you're not like the superstar of Expo West?
No, I don't think so. Not at all. There's like a bunch of superstars of expo us. There's how many booths? Thousands of booths. Yeah. It's impossible to be the one shining star. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of different, you know, categories people are looking at. Everyone's going there with different interests too.
So maybe for, you know, an investor, they're specifically looking for someone and they have their own superstar. So you never know like who's gonna be looking for what and you wanna be ready for that opportunity. So one of the brands that really stood out to me at Expo West last year and to a lot of other folks as well, was true dates.
Now they are the. Dates that have a, they don't really have a candy coating or shell per se, but they have candy flavoring that are sprinkled onto their dates, so they have like a sour watermelon. That's so good. Yeah, those are really good, amazing stuff. It just, it tastes like a gummy, but is dates. Mm-hmm.
And so I think the reason a lot of people loved that booth and loved that brand in particular, it was because it was easy to talk about the three things you could say were. Have you heard of this brand? I have not. It seems like it's brand new, even though it's been around for a little bit overseas.
There are candy flavored dates, which I know that's not the most intuitive thing to say, but it's easy to understand. It's a, it's a date that has some sort of flavoring added to it. Then there was nothing really, I don't know, functional about it. There wasn't anything that had to be described in terms of a particular new ingredient or vitamin or what have you.
It was just a very easy thing to share and talk about. And so for me, if you're an exhibitor. That point of reference has to be very quick and easy. If you're going to want people to talk about what you're doing, make it easy for them to talk about it. I know that's pretty simple to say, but that point of reference is a huge part of that word of mouth marketing.
Focus on where you are. Do the thing that you're doing. Don't worry about all the other things that are going on around you, because guess what? We're gonna cover it for you. Yeah, and I think also another thing is the booths that I often visit, they're like in my dms, you know, they're reaching out, they're telling me what's new.
They're making it really easy for me to find them. So if you have. Specific targets that, you know, you wanna stop by the booth, hound them a little bit. You know, we're busy, we might miss you on day one, but that doesn't mean we don't wanna stop by on day two. There's multiple days, there's lots of opportunities.
It's really easy to miss things at the show. So be persistent during the show. Be persistent with your follow-up. That's how you're gonna stand out. Yeah, that's a really good point, Jackie. And even with your pre-show planning, if you're putting a LinkedIn post out there. Or an Instagram post out there. Tag the people that you want to visit your booth.
Oftentimes, yes, we do get a lot of people tagging us or DMing us, but you know, those people at least have a better shot of us remembering to go there versus just kind of stumbling upon your brand on the show floor. For every a hundred booths I wanna visit at Expo West, there's probably 25 that I can't just because of the time constraints.
Mm-hmm. So the ones that really make the effort to reach out ahead of time, I almost feel like I'm obliged to go and visit them as opposed to again, to one I might just stumble upon. I agree with that. Yeah. I think that's how you get people to come to your booth and then. You know, the conversations happen and there's a, a disease that everybody has called the Trade Show Happys, and I think the most important thing about Expo West is the follow up.
Mm-hmm. Sure. And you're gonna be doing a lot of follow up, just like you always do. So you might have to double down on that follow up. And if somebody said they, you know, they love your brand and that follow up is so key. So be careful, you know, take notes on your interactions and, and make sure that you're, you're doing a lot of follow up after the event.
The last thing I would say about it is, you know, for folks like us who are in the media business, we're always asking what's new? Mm-hmm. What's different? What's happening with your brand? Please have an answer ready if you can. If there's anything new or there's anything happening with your brand that is helping you scale your business, just.
Let us know if you don't have a new product, a new line, extension, new packaging, what have you. Okay, that's fine. Maybe talk about new distribution, new retail, a new hire, new investment. Just you know, at these shows, again, we go to booze, looking for new stuff, looking for new information. So please, if one of us approaches you.
And asks what's new, what's happening? Even if you don't have a new product, just give us, you know, something that's going on with your brand that again, is helping your business scale. Mm-hmm. And if you do have a new product, have a little sticker that says new. I feel like you go, there's something that just catches my eye walking down the booth aisle like I wanna see new somewhere.
You know what? That's such a good point. And it's such a simple thing that can really make a difference for someone who's. Perusing down an aisle and hoping that they see something new. Just having some signage that says new. Mm-hmm. It sounds simple again, but it works. Mm-hmm. Clearly, if you are attending Expo West and you want to alert our NAS and Bev net teams about what you're doing, you can head to either website, benet.com or nas.com and let our team know exactly what's going on, and they will hopefully visit you and write about you.
During the show and then post-show as well, and perhaps even before the show starts. Now, of course, we're gonna be seeing a deluge of protein enhanced products at Expo West. Protein is a word that I, I don't think we're gonna go through the entire year without mentioning protein. At least once. Every episode of Taste Radio.
And Fiber. Protein and fiber. Super pretzel. Guess no Super pretzels. The uh, yeah. Old school age old. Yeah. Old school pretzel brand. Well. Of course they, like everyone else, had to introduce a new protein skew. And so they sent some of these products over, uh, super pretzel, New York City, pretty ubiquitous. You go to one of those?
No. You don't think? No. I thought all those, I thought all those hot Stan super pretzel. No. Uh. That'd be news to me. I, there's only for the ta super pretzel. Super pretzel seems more like when you're, if you wanna go for a New York, uh, thing, like you're in the bowling alley and they've got a sad little glass case of pretzels.
They've been sitting there all day. Yeah, that's like the hot dogs, not the hotdog stands. No, these are hot dogs stands. They're cooking around chestnuts. That's the classic New York pretzel, bro. Oh, John Space was, uh, I always thought they sourced them from super pretzel. Hey, I mean, don't news to me. Yeah, that would be news to me.
I have no idea where those come from. Well, they're Bavarian style, just so you know. And I, I'll tell you, I definitely stopped eating these because they didn't have protein. Kidding, kidding. Okay. All kidding aside, I mean, does protein belong in pretzels? Not necessarily. But if you're gonna eat pretzels, we talked about this last week, you know, or a couple episodes back.
It's a nice thing to have. It's a nice addition if you're already gonna be eating the pretzels. I don't know if anyone's gonna be like, oh my gosh, this is what I've been waiting for my whole life is protein enhanced pretzels, but. 10 grams of protein per serving. Fully baked soft pretzels. If you know, if, if you happen to eat these, I'd be much happier eating that, the protein enhanced pretzels than I would just a regular pretzel.
So I feel like super pretzel is the bar for pretzels. Like this is the. The pretzel bar and then like from Jersey Shore, that guy, the bar. But then find something better if you can. And it, it's the average pretzel for mainstream iStream. Like them. Yeah. What did happen to those eastern standard pretzels?
Do they still sell those? That many sold? Those are good, but those aren't soft, are they? Those are hard pretzels. Oh, they're, yeah. I thought they were always, they're like the things that sold in their restaurant. You get those super pretzels at like the Bruins game or something. You're pretty happy. Has Ante, Andy's made a CPG product yet?
I think they have, yes. I'm pretty sure they've licensed their brand out too. Yeah, just someone, don't get me started on those pretzels. I mean, I don't know this, those are more like cinnamon buns and bunts. So good. Why not include like a bottle of mustard too? Uh, there's salt. There's salt that can, yeah. No, I mean, it's just No, no.
I want a mustard filled, super pretzel. Then super pretzel has me back. I'm still, I think I'm still waiting for, I just went on their vision board. Get John Craven back. Yes. I'm still trying to figure out what the weirdest CPG category would be. Where you would see an added protein product. You know, we have AI for that Ray.
Well, originally I thought it was soda, and then all of a sudden now we're seeing, you know, protein enhanced soda, water, protein infused soda all over the place. Nah, that's, that's been there. Done that toothpaste, shaving cream. Now that you can't eat that stuff. Shampoo. Toothpaste. If I had to, I'm just saying like protein and infused meat, right?
Like we talk like this is, this is a, the running joke last year, at some point we're gonna see like protein infused or protein enhanced Turkey protein enhanced bacon, how much sugar. Just straight sugar, protein. That's possible. Protein. That'd be dumb Sugar. Yeah. Okay. Maybe. How about protein whiskey? Uh, for this, it's already protein beer, so protein negroni door full of dumb ideas over here.
Taste radio. Okay, so you got some, uh, Ben Stiller soda. I, I wonder how long it's gonna take for them to, uh, nice segue from dumb to not dumb. Yeah, this is their new Shirley Cola. Shirley? Yes, please. Shirley Cola. Yeah, I think it's kind of cola, is it Cherry Cola? Cola One would normally call it Cherry Cola with maybe like a little, oh, I see.
Sort of citrusy finish to it. Hmm. Let's see. It's got Grenadine flavor, black cherry flavor. So yeah, it's not that different than a, uh, cherry Cola. It's pretty darn tasty. I, I, you know, these low calorie, not zero calorie sodas, like they're getting better and better. We've talked about sealers before, and I don't know, this seems like a nicely buttoned up product.
Yeah. Again, we've talked about this. It reminds me of the Dr. Brown sodas. There's definitely some slice vibes to this, uh, product as well. Does it matter that Ben Stiller is behind the brand? Is anyone gonna care? Are they gonna be like, oh yeah, that's that Ben Stiller product. That's the, uh, what's the name of that movie he did where he was the model?
Zoolander. Zoolander. Come on. That's the, that's the Zoolander brand to stop so good. Mike just did the blue, what it called, the blue steel. Blue Steel. Yeah. This would probably go pretty nice with a, uh, super pretzel covered in, uh, in mustard. That actually probably would be good. It would? Mm-hmm. I should have made some, I know.
Falling down on the job. Uh, I never cook for you guys. It's just something I won't do. I'm really impressed that you recognize Blue Steel. Well done. Well, you know when you pull it off as well as you pull it off. Mike Gray is a movie buff, though. I mean, usually I go Lati Gray. So I pulled out Blue Steel and it worked.
I, uh, I saw some accelerator in the Cooler. Now Accelerator is a brand of energy drinks launched by the very famous Lance Collins. Very famous as a serial entrepreneur in the beverage industry, known for Fuse, FUZE, body Armor Core, core Water, a bunch of other things. Accelerator was his brand. Where? You forgot his tequila company.
Tequila company. The lance call tequila com. Oh, I think, is it Casa Azul? Something like that? Wait, no, no. There's a casa. There's an Azu, but it's not Casa Zul. Yeah, that might be the mark. Not Casamigos. Yes, it's not. It's not. Definitely not Casamigos either. Well, it's good tequila. I've had it. So sorry Lance.
So Accelerator, which was originally known as a shock. Apparently they're back to being an independent company now. They had been partnered with krg Dr. Pepper, but according to an article written by our very own, Brad Avery accelerator is back up as an independent brand. Uh, according to the story, with a refreshed product design and pro athlete led marketing campaign underway, Lance Collins said that he believes that Accelerator is poised to surpass $30 million in sales this year.
He says there's a growing footprint that could reach 50,000 doors with the business running cash flow positive. So it seems like it's going pretty well for Accelerator. More information is in the story written once again by Brad Avery. You can find it on bev net.com. I like to call him B Rad. I like to move to accelerator.
You mean from Hock? Yeah. Oh yeah. It's a much better name. Yeah, that's a good name. No, it's a, it's a better name. And you know, to some extent, I don't know, you gotta give Lance Collins credit for always taking a swing. The energy drink category is notoriously tough, but I kind of feel like maybe timing isn't so bad on this.
But we'll see. Yeah, I mean, as noted in the story, you know, KDP is also invested in triple's C four, which is a ubiquitous brand in the mm-hmm. Energy drink cooler cases in aisles. And they're the majority owner of Ghost. So feel like, uh, maybe Lance felt like Accelerator wasn't getting the attention it needed.
Sales dropped according to the story as well. And so it's for a as, uh, for a, once again as an independent brand is something that we will continue to follow. Hmm. It's Casa Azul, by the way. Oh, I got it right. Well done. Casa Azul. Jacqui's got a can in her hand too. What's that? I do, I have... Ray's a rapper. I have HopLark's limited edition, the energized one, which is their yorba mate skew, so it's just hops, ginger root, lemon balm.
And Yerba mate, and it's very clean, really tasty. It's only five calories and 80 milligrams of caffeine. Cool to see another Yerba Mate product. I feel like that's just a trend. We're definitely seeing clean energy, no crash. It's kind of like the matcha trend. I feel like this is like the next thing for tea, which is cool to see.
I'm drinking right now at Tama Tea. There are yerba mate Mint. Then another thing, I feel like just hops is everywhere now too. I have hazards here, which is hot water. So their whole pitch is that you can drink these on the golf course and be a better golfer because you're not gonna be drinking beers, you're gonna be drinking hops and you're gonna be less stressed.
'cause it has magnesium, L-theanine, B vitamins, and they have a bunch of different varieties. This is their lime and mint. They have grapefruit. Passion, fruit, watermelon, and then they have a tea and lemonade version. So hazards as in like golf hazards? Is that why it's name that? Yes. Yep. Okay. So that's interesting.
I always wondered about pitching your wagon to a particular sport. Yeah. If you recall from 10 years ago, there was a brand, or at least a product called Golfer Aid. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Remember that? That's of course now part of the life aid portfolio. I think they still sell golfer aid, but at the time it was like.
This is not gonna work. So when they actually went to a product that seemed like it fit more lifestyles than this, than just those who play golf. Mm-hmm. I was like, okay, good. Move life age. I suddenly need to drive 20 yards further. Yeah. Golf array golf. It was because you guys remember that. It was such the, one of the weirdest products that ever seen.
But again, their evolution has gone pretty well since Mike's got more cans. Yeah. Speaking of energy, you might remember Hippie water? Yes. Founded by Sasha Voda and Sasha Paters. And also one of them is the Is Wait, which one is them? Is the celebrity? Sasha. Sasha. Okay. And also there's Taylor the Formulator as well.
They came out with a, another beverage called Hippie Energy. Okay. And I think we've talked about it a little bit. There's Peach Beach Watermelon Getaway and Citrus Groove. And they sent me version 1.2 of their. Wellness energy beverage, which has, it has caffeine, but it also has lion's mane, cordyceps, Turkey tail, magnesium, potassium, altheine, prebiotic fiber.
This stuff tastes fantastic. If you can win on taste and better for your energy than they have a chance, it's really good. A lot going on with this. Yep. There's quite a few functional ingredients packed into this can, which is a 12 ounce slim can, I will say the V one version of the packaging. Could definitely be improved on V two.
I don't know how much this stands out on shelf, and when it does again is, you know, the laundry list of functional ingredients, something that you want. With your energy drink. Yeah. A lot of text on there. There's a lot of text on here. We've talked a lot about just, you know, the flavor cues and that sort of thing, and what they've been trying to do before.
And, and they've taken all the information and they're, you know, they're looking at iterating, but what they wanted to get right first was the liquid. 'cause they had some liquid issues in their first run. Mm-hmm. And this one is just really well dialed in. I also feel like this is something that will probably need to be deified.
You know what I mean? So this product definitely feels like it could fit on a one shelves on day one. Very easy. 'cause again, the A one shopper is probably looking for a product like this. Is the mainstream shopper at Target looking for an artfully crafted wellness beverage that is also described as an energy drink?
Um, no. I say artfully crafted. 'cause that's what it says at the top of the label here. There is a lot to communicate in this beverage. If you can get someone to taste it, they're gonna understand what they're trying to do here, which is give you that little, you know, that little boost of caffeine, 75 milligrams, which means you could probably have another one and not feel like your heart's gonna explode.
And then a few other good things for you too. I love the mushrooms. I love the fact that it has magnesium and altheine and, and a little bit of fiber too. So it's not a lot, it's only a gram of fiber. Yeah, but to your point, Mike, you said these taste amazing. Yes. There's nothing about the front of pack here that makes me say I want to try and taste this.
And yeah, again, you know, just if you look at the way that people inspire you to taste, it's usually through getting first and foremost through to you that it's a flavor that you like. And the advantage here is that there are flavors that people like. You've got the watermelon. What you've got in your hand there, pomegranate, the citrus groove, which is a pomegranate and blood orange flavor, right?
So I think they should really boost the pomegranate there because that's the primary flavor. The peach is delicious, but the package is not stunning enough. You know, so you, you need to like just up the game here in terms of the flavor cues, and then you're gonna get people to taste it, which is what's gonna make people wanna drink it.
I think the last thing I would say is that the little decal they have above hippie energy looks like a hemp leaf, which is also, it's also the one they used for their hippie water, which is their THC. But this has no THC or cb D in it. Right. It's a little confusing. Anyway, a little bit, now that we've absolutely ripped this thing apart.
I just wanna say good luck to Hippie Water energy. Excuse me. Now that you ripped this thing apart, I have not ripped this thing apart. I think it taste fantastic. I, yeah, I apologize if, if it comes across as being negative. I do like hippie water and I, I feel like, I mean, Ray, this is version one. Yes. And they've gotten a lot of good feedback on the packaging and I, I know they're gonna do great things with it.
So I think that's a well said, Mike. Thank you.
