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-hosts John Craven, Melissa Traverse and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we break down the Hershey Company's plan to return all Reese's and Hershey products to their classic milk and dark chocolate recipes by 2027, sparked in part by criticism from a descendant of founder Harry Burnett Reese. We also dive into whether discontinued brands could survive or even thrive in today's market, and spotlight a few standout products along the way, including a surprising Grillo's and Liquid IV mashup that you truly have to taste to believe.
You know, there's this really exciting event that's happening next week. It's on Thursday, April 16th from five to 7:30 PM It's in New York City. Ooh, can I come? You can come. Can I come? You can come too. I'm busy that night. John Craven will not be there. I'll be there. I am gonna be there. Kidding? Okay. Okay.
Okay. Of course, the event is the taste Radio, NYC meet up happening at the offices of Ansin, which is in Times Square. Now, I know people aren't usually that. Thrilled about going to Times Square. But note, you should be thrilled about this event because it is absolutely a can't miss opportunity to mingle, network and sit down with some of the brightest minds in the industry, particularly from the Metro New York area.
We've got over 120 people signed up already, and we're expecting even more. It's very, very important that if you'd like to attend. You register for the event, you can do so at taste radio.com/meetups. You will see all the information there. It's very quick to register and once again, only registered attendees will be able to join.
That's right. Meander Pest Spider-Man. Elmo and the Naked Cowboy and just come right to the Anton office. Yes, we be there. Ready for you. There you go. It is free. As we've mentioned in previous episodes, we just ask that if you're a founder to please bring samples of your products. We will have a space and an area for you to position your wares such that everyone will see them and want to try them.
A huge thanks to our partners for this event. Of course, Anin Vibrant Ingredients, belay Solutions. Next Food, which is the maker of Cher Bundy and good belly. And of course, corner market communications. We are thrilled, thrilled, thank you, to be partnering with these companies. Thank you. Absolutely. Also, um, you know, everyone knows BevNET Live is coming up.
I'm not gonna beat a dead horse here, but, uh, it's not dead yet. Come on. It's not dead yet. In about two months from the New York City Meetup, we'll be back in the big apple for Bev Net Live. I am thrilled. I'm really excited for some of the folks that are going to be presenting, including of course. Tom first, whose office.
I'm not sure why. We could just do a Bev net life here. Yeah. In the Boston area. 'cause Tom and his team at Culture Pop are like right down the street. Mm-hmm. Making great. Better free soda. Making great, better free you soda. Yes. That's what culture pop is. They bring it to us. Sometimes they s stocked our fridge.
My gosh. When do they do that? They brought the Noah K. Black Cherry. I drank most of it. Oh, okay. Yeah. I had a lot too. It was so good. Yeah. Yeah. For folks who don't know, Tom First is the founder of Culture Pop or one of the co-founders of Culture Pop. He's the CEO of the company. Uh, he's also, I think it's a pretty well known fact at this point that Tom is also one of the founders of Nantucket Nectar.
Yes. Sure. Yeah. Which I haven't seen in a while. Have you guys seen Uck nectars in a while? No, not really. No. Strange what's going on. Yeah, that's okay. Interesting. You bring that up, John. 'cause uh, I wanna talk about some things that, uh, don't exist anymore on the market, but, uh, we'll hold off on that because there was a story that dropped on Nas last week that we've got to get to first and Melissa.
You didn't bring this to our attention. You're like, we gotta talk about this in the podcast. And I am really excited to talk about this because I have been yelling and screaming and ranting about corporate companies using Better For You ingredients. Going back to the original. Formulations or ingredients, and after screaming and yelling by the consumers and interested parties, things are actually moving that in that direction.
You know, it's interesting. You're not the only person who was screaming and ranting. My kids were the ones who, I mean, I had heard about it, but they kept talking about it. The deal is, is that Brad Reese, who's the grandson of the founder of Reese's, he put out a note on LinkedIn to Hershey's calling them out for replacing milk chocolate in some of their products with basically vegetable oils and fats.
Compound coatings, just definitely not chocolate. And you know, really like put them to task. And then I went through his LinkedIn feed and there's post after post? Yeah, after post. After post. And you know, I mentioned that my kids brought it up, Mr. Beast. And his brand Feast Bowls, they put together a YouTube short on it, calling out Hershey for, you know, replacing milk chocolate with all of these certainly non-chocolate ingredients.
And I thought it was such a good move for a Challenger brand to jump on the train. Well, unless you want. The other brand to switch back, which is seems like what's gonna happen. Do you think that's why people switch to feast oils? All those 12 year olds are like, man, I, I gotta have real milk chocolate.
Well, I mean it from an economic standpoint, it makes sense. Cocoa prices are volatile. They're only going up, and brands have just a few choices here. They can shrink the size of the package, they can raise the price, or they can. Quote unquote, innovate and replace the expensive ingredient with something else.
I'd rather pay more for real chocolate. I mean, the thing that it does do though, Melissa, you know, the Mr. Beast call out or the Reese's call out is get a bunch of numpties on a podcast to talk about it. Exactly. And you know, to be clear, Brad Reese's LinkedIn post was I, I think that was the first call out, but this was certainly a great way to further it and increase the audience of people who knew what was going on.
Well, typically, when something like this happens, and its headline news, it's because of a class action lawsuit where consumers are saying, Hey, you're not saying, or you're not delivering on what you're saying on front of pack or on your marketing. Instead, this was an activist, I dunno if he's the shareholder still in the Hershey company or not, but he's certainly an influential person who educated a lot of people about what they're eating or what they're not eating in this case.
And so Hershey's, CEO, claimed that the switch to. The real thing. Right. Had nothing to do with Mr. Reese's rant in his very, in my opinion, positive and impactful rant. But of course, how could the two not be aligned? Right? Yes. Right. And I think it affects like 3% of the products that Reese's has and they've pledged to change them back by 2027.
But I think it's such a, I know, right. Like it's not happening necessarily anytime soon. Gotta work through all that inventory. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But it's such a good example of how a founder, you know, founder legacy and how it still has meaning. Even when you know Hershey's. It's disgusting. What legacy brands call chocolate now.
I mean, yeah, Butterfinger doesn't have any chocolate in. So many brands that are trying to pass off. Butterfinger doesn't have any chocolate anymore. They're, they're chocolate over the, over the butter crunch. Whatever's in there. I mean, static. I was gonna say, your mind will be blown when you learn what that orange stuff in the middle is.
Right. Bro, I have no interest in that. I don't wanna know, I don't know. Tony's chocolate only. I wanna modern day Wonka bar or bust. I'll pay whatever for that. But this, this certainly gives other brands an opportunity to step into those shoes and do the right thing and sell chocolate. I mean, look, there's better peanut butter cups and stuff already out there, Justin's, yeah.
Super fio. But I, I do think that this might have a ripple effect. On Better for you and premium chocolate brands in the future because people are going to taste something that's a little bit closer to what the real thing is as opposed to something that's just, as you mentioned, an oil based recipe or chocolate, fake news.
Ray, what do you think? So. I just don't think that's the reason that someone's going to buy a Justin's or whatever. I mean, there's still going to be this perception and reality that better for you. Brands probably end, do end are using better ingredients than something that's being priced as like a value mass produced, available literally everywhere.
Product. I am a hundred percent on board with that. I'm just saying I hope that the taste of these reformulate. You hope it sucks? No, that these Reese's products actually taste a little bit better and more like what chocolate used to taste like, at least their chocolate used to taste like. And I think that might have the ripple effect that I'm talking about where people are tasting better chocolate from these value brands and saying, oh, well you know what?
Now that I know what chocolate tastes like and it doesn't taste like this, whatever it is. And I appreciate better chocolate and premium chocolate. 'cause I think sometimes when you do try a product that. Is truly, and actually what it says it is and have been eating the fake thing for so long. You think the fake thing is the real thing.
How about that peanut butter in the middle of those peanut butter cups? That's the weirdest peanut butter Yeah. You'll ever have. Yeah, true. But as soon as you step out the US and like into the UK or in Canada and you taste the equivalent, you taste the Kit Kat equivalent. You have a Kit Kat in, in uk or you have a Kit Kat in Canada, you're gonna be like, what?
What have I been eating? We have peanut butter material. Yeah, peanut butter and peanut butter like flavors. Disclaimer. Totally makes me laugh. Speaking of a disclaimer, I, I read this on the internet, but apparently bananas used to taste and smell like the candy. You know when you have a candy that tastes like banana?
Is, is a banana flavored? Mm-hmm. That's the actual taste of bananas from way back in the day. And somehow the mass production or the mass growth of banana trees has created something that doesn't taste like the original banana to taste. Yeah, we have a monocrop of bananas now, and from what I understand, we're in danger of losing.
I don't know what the. Species of banana that we all buy from the grocery store, but from what I understand, it's in danger and we may not have bananas or maybe it doesn't exist anymore. The the, we have this conversation. It's so fascinating that the banana flavor everybody loves is like almost dead.
It's so sad. It actually, it is sad when you think about it because nowadays when I eat bananas, and this is a real tangent and we'll get off this tangent momentarily 'cause John's like, I am gonna shoot you. Um. Folding chair Ray, that's what the choice would be. It's almost like certain kinds of tomatoes, especially if they're non-organic.
It's almost like you're just eating fruit or vegetable flesh. It doesn't taste like anything, and I'm getting to the point right now where if I eat banana, it doesn't taste like anything. Yeah, okay. There was my tangent. You know what I couldn't tell though from the, you know, Reese's articles and LinkedIn posts that I was reading was whether this.
Sales of that 3% of product that had had the milk chocolate replaced, whether their sales were declining or not, I still can't tell whether consumers really could tell and stop buying them or not. I mean, there could be a million reasons why the sales went down, right? Yeah. Well, I don't even know that they did.
And as a matter of fact, their quarterly earnings were soaring after they replace those ingredients because their, obviously their profit margin was higher. Wall Street likes cost cutting layoffs. Yeah, all the things that might be bad on the, I don't know, from someone else's perspective. Yes. Well, there could be a million reasons why a product or brand is doing well and not doing well, but I wanna challenge us here in this room.
Ooh, and this is a surprise I was talking about as to whether a particular brand or product was either ahead of its time. Or never really had a shot by my side here. I have a box of products that have been discontinued, that are no longer on the market, which were all in his pantry up until yesterday. No, they've they've been in various places.
Yeah. Yeah. Raised squirrels under my, he used the worst of that. He is best. So I wanna talk the best in this case. So I want to talk about a handful of brands here. They're mostly beverages. Mm-hmm. But, uh, I wanna start with this one. This is a brand called Spacho. Now, if you've been with Bev Net for some time, is that Remember Spot?
Is that liquid? Is that Liquid Brown? Uh, this is a very old bottle. There we go. I remember Spacho. Context, French onion soup dish. Context, context. Context. Okay. Spacho was a drinking soup. Very, very short-lived brand of gazpacho inspired vegetable juice, so it was a V eight type product, but with a GPAC flavor and consistency.
This was, I believe, only on the market for. Less than a year. It did win our new beverage showdown, I believe in 2013. It won one of the competitions, but due to a manufacturing error, the founders decided that it was not worth it for them to continue with the brand. So they had gone through a production run.
The production run didn't go well. They had spent a lot of money on it, and they just decided we're not gonna spend any more money for another production run of Spot show. I'm wondering, and I'm gonna put it to you guys, is this a brand that you feel, this is just, your opinion was ahead of its time or never really stood a chance?
Lemme give you some fact, Ray. Sure. I, you know, look, I, I think there are certain product types out there that people will look at the market and say, why doesn't this exist? And then go create it. Not knowing maybe that others have tried to create it and fail before and. I think this is one of those products that the biggest challenge with it is it's a product that a lot of people like, like gpac.
Chos Tasty, right? But when you're trying to like repurpose it into a beverage, trying to get me to drink soup as opposed to like having a bowl, trying to change the use occasion, the education hurdle. For this brand or any type of drinkable soup is really, really difficult, especially when you go the gazpacho route.
I mean, people tend to know what gazpacho is, but it's not exactly, I don't know. On everybody's dinner table, we've seen different evolutions of that come along. Like the drinkable bone broth craze that also kind of went up and then. Down and it, it, you know, it had, it's found a niche, but it didn't explode the way they wanted it to.
Yeah. And to be clear, for our listeners, this is a single serve bottle. It comes in a 12 ounce plastic bottle with a almost full wrap in a red cap. So it was intended to fit in the deli case, maybe as a lunch alternative or maybe a product to have with your sandwich. So at the time, I think a lot of people saw some potential.
But as you pointed out, John, at least three people did the judges. A new ever showed four. Four. I think it's a product where you had to do a little bit more education and explanation as to when, how, and why you would use this product than actually existed, which is just frankly impossible for any emerging brand to do purely on its own.
Mm-hmm. And all of these brands have never started at a time or become a catalyst for some more broad movement of people wanting to drink soup. If this was intended to be a revival of vegetable juice, I guess I kind of get people used to drink tomato juice. It used to be a thing, but I think reap, I mean, it's still a big market, mostly on planes.
Is it really? Yeah. Who's drinking Toma? Well, besides bloody, those are, I mean, bloody Mary mixes go like crazy on a plane, and V eight is still a big, you know, so they must drink them at home too, right? See, on a plane it's a big thing, but I, I don't know. At buffets sometimes you see, you know, a carafe of tomato juice.
Oftentimes actually You do? Yeah. Well I think rebranding this as sort of like is Spacho doesn't necessarily make that much sense because how many people on a regular basis are guzzling gazpacho, so, oh, there you go. Reinventing my point. Exactly right. Reinventing it is something that people don't necessarily consume that often, but even if it were another type of soup, it's still has the same problem.
And there have been other like drinkable soup brands that, yeah, I don't know, are a little closer to more widely consumed things. Although I've never seen a drinkable clam chowder. Buto pure chicken soup. Alright, so it sounds like this is a product that probably never really stood a chance, but that's what I'm hearing anyway so far.
Yes, that beverage won before my time. Now this is a brand, or at least a product that was launched by Seth Goldman's Company called Eat the Change Now Eat the Change. Started out as a brand of Mushroom Jerkies and he started the company, I believe it was in 2021. He was creating it as a sustainable vegan alternative to meat-based jerkies or animal-based protein jerkies, and they expanded into this product, which is their organic cosmic carrot chew.
Now, this is a Welch's chew type product. What are, what are the Welch's products called? Welch's Chew. Something like that. Yes. They have since, or they're about to announce that they're reformulating their products to include no artificial flavors or colors either. Great. Which is interesting. Yes. So of course when Coca-Cola decided to discontinue honest tea, Seth and his team saw an opportunity to get back into the tea business with just iced tea, which they are now completely focused on.
So eat the change as a food brand no longer exists. Right? But I had these as well. These are organic cosmic carrot shoes, which are very delicious, and we chased these at Expo West. Their organic carrots sweetened with fruit juice and turned these little gummies. They have a sour cherry berry flavor that I'm holding in my hand.
This is my personal opinion, like this was a little ahead of its time. I don't think it was ahead of its time. It's just they saw a baker opportunity in iced tea and decided to go all in on it. I think this would've been. You know, the path to victory just would take more time, you know? Um, but just consider the explosion of better for you Candy that's out there today.
Sure. And I think this would fit really nicely into that mix that we're seeing right now. This isn't necessarily specifically marketed as a candy. I, again, I think this is a kid snack that belongs in your lunchbox, and this is how it was presented. It just was a little bit ahead of its time and they probably had the runway to be able to experiment with ideas like you just talked about there, Ray, that's clearly minimum viable branding.
They were trying to get the product into people's hands Sure. And, and see what people thought about it. And then, uh, and then honesty shut down. And they were like, we know how to do that. So they, like John said, they went all in there and that is one that I think was ahead of its time and didn't. Didn't quite get as much oomph as it could have to, you know, to show us what it, what it was made of.
And that's a disappointing one. 'cause those are tasty. They call out this product is carrot chews. I don't know if your market is kids, if that's this. Smartest way to go about it. Like evergreen waffles, for example, has veggies and fruits in their product, but they call it out in the package. Right. I think that was probably a problem.
Yeah. O only mom needs to know the carrots are in there. Yes, yes. That, I mean, that that is the other like difference between just iced tea and the eat the change products is like just iced tea was like the steps to getting to like being able to go far and wide were not that big. Whereas I think with this, yes.
I mean it would've had to continue to evolve. Yeah. I think we're in violent agreement on that one. It's a good product. Yeah. Probably ahead of its time, more than probably ahead of it time had a shot in the market. Yes. Mm-hmm. Now this is a brand that we all loved when it came out. I believe it came out in 2020s.
It's Proposition Cocktail Company. Oh yeah. So this is a brand of cocktails that come in, these 6.7 ounce glass flasks. They have a variety of flavors. This was their smoky margarita flavor. And just to be clear, these are all non-alcoholic. Did it have CBD or something? Correct. It did. John Corus founder, correct?
Yes. So, uh, hemp extract the, or I think it was originally. Called out his CBD and then he moved it to hemp extract. He changed it to hemp extract. Uh, clearly non-alcoholic cocktails. Having a moment, you know, how long this moment will last is, you know, remains to be seen. But we all love this product. We all love this brand.
Yeah, it's so good. And I, I feel like this is another one of these products and maybe, you know, John ran outta money. Maybe he just couldn't find the distribution at the time. Maybe just there was something wrong with how he went to market. He was like right before the non a explosion too. And it might have been a timing issue for this one also, maybe the vessel too, like.
That flask is super premium. That was the first thing that I thought of. So this is a flask. The idea is you drink out of a flask. Mm-hmm. But you really don't wanna drink this unless it's over ice or cold or mixed with something else. That was my feeling. I, I was, I had it in my trench coat. I did. Did you actually drink it outta the bottle?
I, I never did. I did. Yeah. I think if they right now brought this back, got rid of the hemp, put in some actual booze, economics might work in that package and it would look pretty damn cool. Uh, yeah. Okay. So with some tweaks, this was a little ahead of its time. I think it was way ahead of its time. Yeah.
And some of the ingredients here for this smoky margarita and I would drink this right now, even though it's expired. Uh, it's lime agave. Smoked Chipotle chili in sea salt. I mean, that just sounds amazing. Mm-hmm. Yum. Yum. It probably still does taste so good. One other thing I would say to John, if he's listening, he's probably like f these guys calling an Uber.
I think he meet John Cor this calls out, he, he describes it on the, at the bottom of the label here. Don't make me laugh. Oh wow. What's wrong with you? Are you sore or something? Would you play just trolling, right? Extra hard? I can't, sorry. I got smashed. Oh. Some guy just led with his elbow and smashed me over the weekend in soccer and it hurts to laugh.
Okay. One other thing I would tell John or suggest that John change on this package, and I think we, we probably mentioned this to him a number of times, but the description of an adaptogenic plant-based drink is not what this is. This is a non-alcoholic cocktail. Yep. So, yeah. You know, Ray, I think it's interesting that you're germ averse.
Are you not date code averse? Oh, I'm very date code averse. Okay. Sense. He's not gonna drink that stuff. He's just keeping it. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understood the, you know, he, he's, he's throw things away averse. I am. Throw things away averse. He's gonna waste it even though it's already passed.
It's, you stayed. Okay. We'll do one or two more. This is fun, Ray. Yeah. Isn't it? Yeah. Okay. So it's like a game show. We could do this for Infinity because Ray. You have a legit hoarding tip. Tip of an iceberg. No. I knew we'd have a day like this when we could actually talk about these products. Yes, and it's the hoarding.
Do you have a beverage time capsule in your backyard in Brookline? I have a spaceship actually that is buried in my backyard full of products from the past and future actually. So it hurts. Okay. This is a brand in my hand. It's a shot brand called Taki Mai. This is a three ounce bottle. It is described as farmed Fiji kava.
The benefit is that it comes and soothes. This is their chocolate banana variety. John, I know you remember this product. Mm-hmm. Of course, kava I would not say is an ingredient that a lot of people know about. It definitely seems like it's having more traction than it had in the past. I feel like if you're gonna drink Kava, you probably want it in a smaller format, and I think.
If you're going to sell. No, I do Like mellow. Well, yeah, exactly. But here's the thing about a nice slim can, well, that they have a wide can delicious banana. Yeah. But I feel like if you want a functional ingredient like kava, and I believe this of a lot of functional ingredients, you want less liquid than you want more liquid.
And I think if Taki Mai were to come out again today. I might think they miss brand might have a shot. Yeah. And the fact that the liquid itself, it masks flavor probably pretty well, which is oftentimes a problem with kava has a strong flavor. I don't know if you guys feel this, but when I drink Kava, the back of my throat gets numb.
So I would also, it, I don't know it like numbs, I, it just, what are you drinking? No, just a can. Like if you just drink a can like I do you get that like not feeling? Yeah, of course you do. So with this, you just shoot it and you get your relaxation and, right. Exactly. Yes. I mean, the counterpoint to that, and, and maybe the reason this didn't work is that.
The way that Mello' positioning itself is as an alcohol or adult beverage alternative. Exactly. And a cool can to hold while your friends are holding their, their cocktails or whatever and tastes good, and then also gives you that adult function. I mean, there've been kava beverages for forever, and I think the thing that was missing was that no one was going out searching for it.
And I think that is kind of what makes Kava stick now, is that people are looking for like alcohol alternatives and here's this thing that's been around a long time and it is known certainly in some parts of the world. So yeah, I think this, this one, you know, maybe had execution issues too, but timing for sure.
This is a three ounce shot. I can definitely see this being merchandised in a gas station next to the Kratom that's no longer allowed. No, but so, but that's part of the problem. No, I think I'm the saying the gas station consumer's looking for that. Right, exactly. So now it's, we sort of have taken cavo, like out of the gas station Yeah.
And into like the cocktail party where you're sipping on a slim can and you feel like you're, you know, having a, a nice, refreshing, relaxing beverage with your friends so that it. I understand the transition. I also feel like if this were sold in a gas station 15 years ago or 10 years ago, that's probably where a lot of people would say it should be sold because it's in a shot.
Mm-hmm. Right. A lot of products. Well, using this package type, everyone was looking for the next five hour energy. Right? Right. For sure know. Which never came. So that's like a five hour nap. I mean, it's been five, 10 years. People have been looking for the next five hour nap. I have so many more. We'll probably do the segment one more time, but I gotta, I gotta do this one.
Okay. Because I feel like. This is definitely not a product that was ahead of its time. This is a product that unfortunately was never going to work. This is, and I, we, we, we probably mentioned this on the podcast before. This is a, this is a product called Ahhmigo, A-H-H-M-I-G-O. It is a chia in water beverage.
But the chia is in the cap. Oh god, I remember this. Yes. This is a chia in cap product. So basically the chia benefit or the chia itself won't dissolve or have any kind of loss of flavor if there is flavor in chia or benefit. By being soaked in the water already. So you, you press on the cap, what do they call these?
Like a cap activated? Looks like you're activating a, like a explosive. Yeah. It looks, looks that mo have cocktail, right? Right. Are we in trouble? No. Kax has one of those. They beno live this year. Mm-hmm. Yes. So, uh, this is organic itself as chia and water super food fiber, omega threes protein. So at the time of this launch.
Chia was still a pretty on-trend ingredient. I think it still has a lot of resonance with some consumers, just not in beverages. Just not in beverages. I think the founders of this company just saw an opportunity to differentiate and create a product that. Natural channel consumers might be interested in, but the educational hurdle, the manufacturing hurdle, the complicated process of getting this on shelf, to me this, this was a product that never really had a shelf.
This is like one of those products that kind of makes me angry. Oh geez. Just in the sense that like, I mean, there's so many places along. The supply chain where someone should have really said to this entrepreneur that this is not gonna work. But yet it still made it all the way there it is. To finished form.
To be fair, there were two other brands in the market that had a cap activated process. They were activate, which is discontinued, and karma, which is still on the market. Sure. And so I think maybe someone thought. Or the founder thought, well, these products are out there. They'll do a lot of the education for me.
Look, I mean there's, there's two obvious problems with this product. One is that the bottom. Of the, the product or the bottle, whatever, is just a clear bottle with clear liquid in it. One of the things that always stuck out in me with some of those cap activated products is like the subconscious sense of perceived value is like super low.
It's like this is a crappy looking bottle of water, right? No, but it is, it's not, it's not trying to be a beautiful bottle of water like some bottled water brands. It's just essentially a conduit for the more expensive part on the top. And then the second thing is that, from what I remember, this, there was a whole, like there's another I, I think just classic mistake in beverages trying to get science on people that the fact that the chia.
Isn't sitting in the water, it somehow is better for you. You know that chia already in the liquid, like a mama chia is inferior and they're gonna win on like, I don't know, better efficacy or something that no one has time to, to care about that. And frankly, it's more work. Too. And also you could just buy chia seeds and put 'em in your own water.
Right. But anyway, how many of those chia seeds are just gonna go right through you? That was Ray level rant right there. There's something about this bottle that makes me think of colonoscopy prep. Oh, geez. Which I think is not that appetizing. And the ingredients, it reminds me, the ingredients in here are spring water and chia seeds.
I mean, I've had chia seeds before. Putting them in spring water is not gonna make them delicious. It's not. No. It's gonna be a, a nice slurry. Yeah. Okay. Well those are. Five brands that, uh, are discontinued, but I think some of 'em might have had a chance today and some would just never had a shot on the market.
That's fun. That's, we'll do that segment once again in the future. Can't wait. That'd be a good CPG game show. Uh, yes. I like to ga, I like to gamify everything. Yeah. If possible. Can we make one last solicitation for this little segment that you whipped up here? Sure. Which is if you listener has any rotting away at home, yes.
Sandwich samples. Just send an email to ask@tasterated.com. We'll give you Ray's home address and we'll talk about them on a future program. Just be sure not to wrap them in. Any kind of, uh, bubble wrap or anything else like that. So they break. Oh, yeah. We love those in transit. Perfect. And when I, when I picked them up, they're, they're just spilled all over the floor.
10-year-old beverage and liquid, just all over. Love it. My front steps. I've got some old kombucha for you, by the way. Oh geez. You know who else is a bit of a hoarder? Barry Nathanson, publisher, beverage Berry can help with this segment. And when we see him in New York next week, I'm going to his office.
Actually, I'm, I'm just. Steal a bunch of stuff there for this, you know, future segments. True story about Barry. One time he nuked his computer because one of those shelves gave away, not even joking. I can't imagine what Barry did in that situ. Did he call 9 1 1? I don't know. He called me and said he was being hacked.
That's terrible. Looking forward to seeing Barry. Oh, that's funny. Okay. Mike has been waiting and waiting. He's been hugging, literally. Mm-hmm. Hugging. I'm not waiting these bags the entire time that we've been talking. You've been hugging these bags. What? What are you hugging? They're like my squish melow.
They've gotta be warm by now. Yeah. Ray, these are Theran chips. Remember we talked a little bit about a glow up for Terranean? Terranean Pita chips? Keinan twice baked pita chips. And the first iteration of the brand was good. It had, you know, it communicated what was going on, but they've learned a lot about their brand since then.
And they've made some changes to the products now made with avocado oil, which is very evident on the top of the. Bag here, change the label, hierarchy up a bit, you know, put their call outs in places where you could find them easily. And I mean, I just think this is a really nice version too, of, of the brand.
They punched up the, the photography a bit and yeah, I mean, these just so clean and. It screams at you exactly what you're going to get. And then if you, if you don't know from there, just turn it around. There's a great story on the back. I still wish the branding were a little more assertive. Terranean sounds like it could be like a private label, which these products are like exceptional.
Mm-hmm. You know, like I. Wouldn't change the thing about what's inside the bag. Yeah. I don't know if they were interested in the idea of a name change or I, I don't know. I, I like the name Terranean because you know, it's talking about the earth and it might, Mediterranean might the brand name, just the treatment of it, Mediterranean, you know?
Yeah. I mean, that's my point is that it sounds a little too like obvious, like it needs, I don't know, a little like it should go with, so. A pita chip. I think Melissa was, I'm guessing you're about to point out the product on the front of pack. Yeah, they did such a great job with that. And especially, I'm looking at the zaatar right now.
You can just see the spices and the sesame seeds collected on the top of the pita chips, and that's a home run, in my opinion, the spices of bright red. So you know, you know there's a little bit of a warning. Well, thank you to founder Tina Latoof Chamoun. Who, uh, sent us these products. I think, uh, it's a good next step in the evolution of geranium and I think, uh, there's probably more to come for sure.
Well, I can't say probably, and for sure I don't wanna, I don't use Mar for sure. One or the other, isn't it? Right. It's gotta be one or the other. It's gotta be pick one, one. I'm gonna, the other I, I mean, I, I think what she's done here is she's capitalized on the brand equity that she's already built and just taken it to the next level, which is smart move For sure.
For sure. Melissa's got a can of something here that I, I'm a huge fan of this brand. I actually have an empty can. I think from now on I'm just gonna bring empty packages and empty cans of things that I've consumed and enjoyed. So this is Rhinestone. It's uh, an alcohol free brew. And this brand was actually, of course in our new beverage showdown, legendary presentation.
Oh my God, it was fantastic. Yeah, really fantastic. I have the blood orange flavor here. The idea behind this brand is that it's a tequila and non-alcoholic version of a tequila soda, and I think it's so refreshing to see an alternative to non-A beers. 'cause you don't always wanna drink a beer. I think they got the flavor and the formulation.
So right on this. It tastes like crisp and refreshing and it kind of tastes like a tequila soda, but it also tastes like its own thing. The branding is great and um, I noticed that they have mushroom extract in here, but it's just used as a preservative, which I don't know that I've seen before. You don't taste it.
It's not a functional mushroom product, but I thought that was an interesting thing too. Super tasty. That's interesting the way that you're. You know, talking about the flavor too. For me it was like a really good light beer and a crusher too, but that's a cool interpretation of the, of the flavor. This is a brand, and I don't weigh in on how the judges evaluate brands.
I'm just in the room to help that process. But this is a brand that I think. Judges will look back and say, we missed this one. I feel like this has got a good, really good shot. I, it definitely could have won. I mean, there were a lot of good conversations about that brand. It got to the next level. The presentation that they gave in the first round was good, and the presentation that they gave in the finals was phenomenal.
Yeah. I think they were confused about is this a non-alcoholic beer or is it a sparkling water? Right. It's described as an alcohol free brew. Mm-hmm. So how is this position? Where is this position? Who's drinking it during what occasions? I think that just needed to be a little bit more clear for the judges, and they might have had a better feeling about rhinestone winning the competition.
I always take one or two beverages home from BevNET Live to try it at home. And that was one of them. And the other one was Lucky Ox, I think. Oh yeah. Oh nice. And uh, both of them were fantastic. Those are fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Good choices. If it's worth putting in your suitcase. To take home, then it's gotta be good.
Yeah. John's got a very big bottle of Poland Spring. I don't know if you're just sipping on that or that's what you wanna talk about. No, I, I brought this, uh, I mean, we'll, we'll tell you what it is, but this is Poland Spring and a 25 ounce metal bottle. Okay. Single source. White Cedar, spring, Maine. I mean, real fancy.
A single source. Single. Oh boy. Is there. Is there normal water multi source? Yeah, I think so. Do they blend their water? No. Single source. That's new for them. Blended water, that's a, that's a premium. Poland Spring there, but I brought it just so. I could show you that I didn't, I didn't mess up the water. You saw that I broke the seal on the water, right?
I the As. SMR. Everyone got that? Yeah. It is safe for you to drink Ray. Uh, yeah. They sanitized the inside of that bottle before filling it with the delicious Poland spray. I'm pretty sure Mike spitting it. Anyway, while you were cracking it open. I brought fat. I saw it. Liquid IV Grillo's, pickle flavor. They sent the news a little before April 1st.
They're like, no, it's real. Send you some, this is just so our listeners are completely clear. Liquid iv. Yes. But with grills, pickles flavor. It is to read the, I love the corporate copy Dill pickle flavored with other natural flavors. Okay. So I have brought you a packet and some water. Oh, okay. Is this enough water for the full packet here?
This is a, this is 25 ounces. Ray. Just have half a packet. Okay. You know, I, I have probably had Liquid IV twice in my life. Anyone else would like to sample? How much, uh, liquid IV you're supposed to pour into a glass. I'll tell you, you probably want a quarter of that. A quarter. No more than a quarter of that for, for that.
And then you, I mean, you're not gonna be able to stir it, but the dust, I was like, did it have a clear tear mark? It'll be interesting because it will still be somewhat powdery. Okay. So just put enough in there to get the flavor. So apparently none from Melissa or Mike? Uh, they can, you want some, some ply white powder?
I'll try some. Okay. I put probably put more than I needed to. Liquid IV is positioned as like a hangover remedy in addition to it being a hydration product, but I wonder if you could put this in like a bloody Mary. Definitely not a hangover product at this point. Yeah, right. Here we go. Should we do it at the same time here?
I, I went for just a scooch, so, okay. Cheers. Wow. Whew. It tastes like pickle juice. Yeah. I mean, people drink pickle juice for recovery and for hydration for hangovers. I wonder if people are gonna think this is kitchy or cute or actually say, okay, this is something that I want because of the pickle benefit, but I don't know if, is there any pickle benefit or is it just pickle flavored?
I think it's just pickle flavor, but it's got electrolytes, but that's probably from the liquid iv. Yeah. I mean, it, it electrolytes, it really does kind of taste like a, a pickle flavored sports drink. Yeah. Which has been done before. Which has been done before. Yes. Not with Grillo's and Liquid IVs. So I think it's a fun little collab.
I assume this is probably like a buy it online while it lasted kind of thing, right? It tastes pretty awesome, actually. It tastes. So much better than I thought I was going to. It's really good. Okay. You know how some pickles are fresher than others and you get more cucumber flavor? It's more cucumber forward.
I'd say. This is really Tastes, yeah, it does taste more cucumber forward. Yeah. You know, I wonder if Daily Crunch could do a collab with Liquid iv, the Grillo's Pickles version and roll there. You know, almonds in the Grillo's, pickles, flavoring. 'Cause they already have a dill pickle. I'd like a Fly by Jing.
Liquid IV. Okay. Please. Maybe a Fishwife one too. Ooh, nice. Stop.
