[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my BevNET and Notch colleagues, Mike Schneider and Jacqui Brugliera. As always, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. should you do so you will have a brand spanking new t-shirt sent your way all you have to do is take a screenshot of that review send us your address that screenshot and the t-shirt size of your choice and you'll have it you'll have it for life as long as you don't wash it too many times we wash t-shirts too many times You really start to fade and fall apart, right, Jackie? I don't know why I asked you, Jackie. I don't see you wearing T-shirts very often, so I don't know why I asked you.
[00:01:00] Mike Schneider: She's rocking one right now. She's going Def Leppard.
[00:01:03] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, snap.
[00:01:03] Ray Latif: It's cool.
[00:01:04] Jacqui Brugliera: It's not faded, though. I keep good care of my T-shirts.
[00:01:08] Mike Schneider: Jackie's all pyromania today.
[00:01:11] Ray Latif: See, if you're not a Def Leppard fan, you wouldn't have gotten that dad joke, but I'm a Def Leppard fan. I've loved that band for a long time. Are you a real fan, Jackie, or just like the T-shirt?
[00:01:23] Mike Schneider: Great, just answer me this question then. What do you want? What do you want?
[00:01:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Stop. I am a Def Leppard fan, but this might date you guys, but my parents are huge fans of Def Leppard, so it got passed down to me.
[00:01:43] Mike Schneider: The thing is, is Def Leppard has stood the test of time. They're pretty badass with their one song that they rewrote 17 times. It's pretty awesome.
[00:01:52] Ray Latif: I did see Def Leppard in concert, but it wasn't in their prime. It wasn't their heyday. It was like the early 2000s, I want to say. And it was awesome. They were really, really good. They're one of those bands that play very, very closely or their music sounds very, very close to what the album sounds when they do it live. And I like that, especially from some of these older bands, which just like sometimes they just get too old and they can't play the guitar or hit the drums as hard or sing as well. Yeah, exactly. So but Def Leppard rocked. They were awesome. I'm glad you're a fan, Jackie. I'm glad your parents are fans, too. They're good people.
[00:02:26] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:02:31] Ray Latif: Well, you know, what else could be multi-generational is the love for the soccer phenom Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, when he first joined my favorite soccer team, Manchester United, he was just 18 years old, I believe. And now he's returning to the team at age 36. And this is the biggest news, one of the biggest pieces of news in all of sports, global sports, that is, and certainly the biggest news in all of soccer globally as well. I am...
[00:03:00] Mike Schneider: It's almost as if Lionel Messi didn't join Paris Saint-Germain. I mean, stop.
[00:03:07] Ray Latif: No, it's because Ronaldo's coming back. He's coming back to where he belongs, Manchester United. And so it just warms the heart. When I heard the news, I couldn't believe it. And you're going to see me on cloud nine for the next eight, nine months, because he's going to take United back to the promised land to win the Champions League, to win the Premier League. This is going to be a season to remember for sure. Now, you know, when I follow United on social, I'm following them on Instagram. I don't do the Facebook thing. Sorry, Facebook. But I guess Instagram is part of Facebook. So maybe technically I am doing it on Facebook anyway. But apparently there's a lot of Tik Tok followers. The Manchester United has a lot of Tik Tok followers. I'm just not on that platform at all. Never have been. I don't dance. I think we talked about this before. I'm just not, I'm not that guy. But there's a beverage brand out there that is called Poppy, and we've talked about Poppy on this podcast a number of times, that is apparently killing it on Tik Tok. They recently raised $13.5 million, and in the press release, they described themselves as the Tik Tok viral beverage brand. which was kind of interesting. Now, Poppy, if you recall, was formerly known as Mother Beverage, which won the New Beverage Showdown, Bevaness New Beverage Showdown a few years back, run by Steven and Allison Ellsworth, the founder. Steven is the CEO of the company, as I mentioned, $13.5 million in new capital. And, you know, they attribute a good amount of their recent success to Tik Tok, which is interesting. I didn't realize that there was that much carry through from watching an ad or watching somebody dancing or doing whatever they're doing on Tik Tok to people actually buying the product.
[00:04:57] Mike Schneider: Of course there is, right? It's about discovery and you get these influencers that have millions of followers, you know, and people who look up to them. They grab a poppy and the next thing you know, the sales go up. I mean, we, we talked to brands all the time who they love it. If somebody with millions of followers, a Kardashian picks up their, their beverage tries it. And then they always report that. Yeah, no, it, it, it had an effect on sales. So poppy has been all over Tik Tok. And I think a lot of it is just organic.
[00:05:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I was watching their videos and it's, I think it's all about authenticity and they're using their founders as the face of their brand and they're communicating their story and why they actually launched this product and how it's helped them. And I think consumers can relate to that. And I thought it was really interesting how they just created this video on, I think a Friday night. And then over the weekend, they did make $75,000 worth of revenue on Amazon just over a couple of days. It just speaks true to the value of viral marketing, the value of authenticity, and also using your founders as the face of your brand when it makes sense.
[00:06:03] Ray Latif: Yeah, very well said, Jackie. Uh, you know, some of the names that, uh, were participated in this round include celebrities such as Olivia Munn, Halsey, Ellie Goulding, uh, the NBA star, Kevin Love. I believe he's still a star. If you want to fight me on that, just email me at askatasteradio.com, but you know, who is a star. Russell Westbrook was also part of the round as well. The new LA Laker, Russell Westbrook, but Congratulations to Poppy. Congratulations to the Ellsworths. Congratulations to Kavu, led by Rohan Oza, who led the rebrand of Mother Beverage to Poppy. Good work on all accounts. Good work on all. Is that what you say? Good work on all accounts? Good work by all? I'll just say that. Fronts? On fronts. Good work on all fronts. Yes. I don't know if you can call this good work on all fronts. I'm having some issues with this new Mountain Dew Flamin' Hot. Their new variety inspired by, of course, Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I have not tried this product. I have not seen it in the office. I know it came into the office, but I haven't tried it. Mike, Jackie, where do you stand on this?
[00:07:12] Mike Schneider: This is not about the product, Ray. It's about exactly what's going on right here, right now. They're talking about it. They were talking about it, and that's all they want. I mean, they got you, Ray. You took the bait. Hook, line, and sinker.
[00:07:25] Ray Latif: Yeah, I'm talking about it, but not in any kind of positive way. This isn't like all PR is good PR. No, this is not bad. Yeah, this is. This is all PR is good PR.
[00:07:33] Jacqui Brugliera: And you still want to try it, even though you're skeptical.
[00:07:37] Ray Latif: I didn't specifically say I wanted to try it. I said I haven't tried it. I know it came to the office, but I didn't say I necessarily wanted to try this.
[00:07:44] Mike Schneider: So let's talk about this for a second. They sent us like one can, and when we send one can, it basically, it goes into some archive somewhere where it can be photographed, and then it's basically put into, you know, like a Beverage Hall of Fame-ish sort of place where no one can ever touch it. So if you want us to actually try stuff,
[00:08:03] Ray Latif: Send many cans. That's Mike's call to action. His regular call to action on the show about sending his product for sure.
[00:08:13] Mike Schneider: Send many cans like Holy Kombucha decided to send us many cans of their new tapache, which we'll talk about in a moment here. But let's continue on the Mountain Dew front.
[00:08:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think it's all about buzz. I mean, even the fact that they created some clothing, they partnered with a clothing line and they're branding it, you know, and I think people that are fans of Mountain Dew and Cheetos are going to buy into that and they're going to want to rock that, that gear. They're going to want to try it. Like I asked our resident Mountain Dew fan, Joshua Pratt, our technical director, if he'd, if he'd want to try it and he's a, he's game. I think it's all about if you're, I want to try it. If you're a fan of the product, you're going to want to try it. There's buzz there.
[00:08:55] Mike Schneider: Yeah.
[00:08:55] Jacqui Brugliera: There's gear.
[00:08:56] Mike Schneider: Even if you're not a fan of the product, you're going to want to try it. It's one of those things. If I got my hands on it, I would definitely try it for the stunt. I would put it on Instagram.
[00:09:05] Taste Radio: I'd be like, this is new stuff.
[00:09:07] Jacqui Brugliera: It's like Cheetos meets Mountain Dew and I'm going to drink it. They have their core consumer that drinks it regularly. Then for the people that aren't drinking it regularly, how do you get on our Instagram feeds? It's by doing a stunt like this.
[00:09:20] Mike Schneider: Because you want to know. You want to know, what does it taste like? Does it taste cheesy? How hot is it? Is it going to set my face on fire? Everybody's, you know, there's all kinds of questions when you look at this kid. And they have the money to be able to pull off a stunt like this. That's exactly what it is. It's a stunt.
[00:09:37] Ray Latif: You know what's not a stunt, but was a really interesting collaboration that also raised a lot of eyebrows was when Van Leeuwen Ice Cream partnered with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for their Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ice cream flavor. It was a limited edition flavor. I personally didn't want to try it, but it seemed interesting enough and it seemed buzzy enough that I was like, okay, this works. I think with the flaming hot thing, aside from that hoodie, and as Jackie referenced, they have a line of clothing. That hoodie does look kind of hot. No pun intended. It is cool. But yeah, I don't know. I don't expect we'll be talking about this past next week, honestly. We won't.
[00:10:17] Jacqui Brugliera: Nobody will, but it's interesting to see just they have a lot of innovation coming out right now. I mean, they're working with Boston Beer on their hard Mountain Dew line as well, so they're just trying to launch a bunch of products right now and build off of the Mountain Dew brand.
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[00:11:23] Ray Latif: Did you guys see this new line of vodka, by the way, launched by Natural Light, also known as Natty Light. Now this line of Natty Light vodka is available in lemonade, strawberry lemonade, and black cherry lemonade flavors. Pucker up, folks, apparently. Again, a product I don't really understand. It's certainly not for me. It's not for folks in my demographic. It's not something that I expected to see. Actually, I don't know. Maybe I did. Maybe this is one of those things where they're like, here's an opportunity we have. It's not going to cost us a lot of money to go to market with it and see if it sticks.
[00:11:57] Mike Schneider: The last time I drank Natural Light, it was illegal. I haven't had one of those since I was allowed to legally drink.
[00:12:05] Jacqui Brugliera: So bad, I feel like new drinkers, younger drinkers on a budget might be drinking something like this where they can just mix it with soda water. And you know, maybe they have a fancy cocktail. I don't know.
[00:12:19] Ray Latif: Now, obviously, to get the full story on Mountain Dew Flamin' Hot, on Hard Mountain Dew, on Natty Light Vodka, and you know you wanna get the full story on this, you gotta check out BevNET.com and Brewbound.com. In order to do so, you need to be an insider. It's not that hard to do so. Go to either site in the upper right-hand corner, click on Become an Insider. $39 a month, $375 a year. Pennies, pennies in comparison to the amount of experienced news and other amazing contents you'll find on both sites. Oh, and you'll also get a discount at the upcoming BevNET Live and BrewPound Live events if you are an insider. It's a no-brainer, it really is. You know what else is a no-brainer? Attending our upcoming Supercharged D2C event. Jackie, September 9th is the date. What kind of content will our insiders be viewing?
[00:13:13] Jacqui Brugliera: So next week, which is crazy, September 9th at 3 p.m., we will have another supercharged virtual event focused on growth and scale. We have a great speaker lineup coming to the virtual stage. We have Madeline Hayden, the Nutpod CEO and Jeffrey Hayden, CFO of Nutpods. And they will be talking about the growth story of their brand and talking about just how they allocated resources, how they went through the different phases of their company, and how they grew. And there will also be Neil Kimberley. He is the Chief Strategy Officer for Essential Water, and he will be talking about how he guided the company from the natural products mainstay to a multi-channel brand. And then there will be Jamie Bortek, who is the founder of JCB Growth Ventures. And he will be talking to Jeffrey Klineman, BevNET editor-in-chief, to talk about tactics that will propel sales and marketing teams. So get into more of the strategy and the tactics for brands. Again, this is included if you become a BevNET and Nosh insider. So you can find information on our sites at BevNET.com and Nosh.com and register there.
[00:14:22] Ray Latif: Indeed, indeed, fantastic stuff. Looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to trying Ming's Bings, a new better for you style of Hot Pocket launched by Ming Tsai, the well-known chef, Boston-based chef. Ming's Bings comes in a Fiesta Bing variety, plant-based sausage and peppers, veggie-filled patties, buffalo, cauliflower, and a plant-based cheeseburger. Plant-based cheeseburger, that sounds pretty good.
[00:14:54] Mike Schneider: It does. I think the thing for me that's going to be confusing for people is that I don't know that people necessarily know what a Bing is. It's not exactly a household word for what you're getting here. Ming's Bing sounds cool. It sounds fun. But if you said, hey, do you want Ming's Bings? I'd be like, what is that? Maybe that's what he wants you to say. Maybe that's what the marketing team's idea here is. I don't know if they're gonna be able to educate everybody who doesn't speak Chinese on what a Bing is.
[00:15:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think it's also interesting using like people are referencing like Hot Pocket, but when I think of Hot Pocket, I think of like little pizza pockets or, you know, small bites, whereas this is more of like almost a sandwich. It's like a sandwich that has, you know, all the goodness of plant-based foods, but there is like multi levels of education as far as understanding what the product is and the benefits. because I know they're saying, you know, it's full of super, it has healthy plant-based foods in it, but there's just a lot to learn about the product. So I'm curious to see just if people understand it and if they, if they jump on it or if it might take a little bit of time.
[00:16:08] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, if you reference Hot Pocket, you think of one thing, and they don't necessarily look like that or even have that texture that you're probably familiar with in a product like that. So it's probably the easiest way, if not the, I guess, most accurate way to describe these products. But it is a point of reference that I think most people...is approachable for most people. What surely does work, and I know from experience, are two new products from the company Gotham Greens. Gotham Greens, if you recall from our interview with CEO of Verag Puri in episode 201 of Taste Radio, operates a network of indoor greenhouses. that make these amazing lettuces and Gotham Greens. They also created a line of dressings and dips. I have two, and these are the two new products that they've launched. They're Vegan Caesar and they're Creamy Ranch. Both are fantastic. These are refrigerated dressings. Both come in 10-ounce glass bottles. They are both vegan and both really, really delicious. I feel like Gotham Greens, it makes a ton of sense, you know, doing what they're doing, keeping it in-house, so to speak. selling their greens along with the dressings and dips that you'd have with a salad, really well done. Once again, a really incredible company. If you haven't had an opportunity to check out that episode with Farage Puri, again, episode 201 really delves Def Into urban farming and what's possible in terms of creating a lot of food in a sustainable way in a small amount of space, or at least a small amount of space compared to large institutional farms.
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[00:18:41] Ray Latif: Now, I want to call it, what, 300 miles north, 200 miles north. I don't know exactly how many miles north that the King Arthur Flour Company is from Boston, but they are based in Norwich, Vermont. They're obviously known for their flour. They're recently being more known or better known for their organic flour, and they recently launched a bunch of new products, including four new cake mixes. They have a buttermilk cake mix, carb-conscious pancake mix, confetti pancake mix and a gluten-free protein pancake mix. They also have introduced, as I'm holding my hand, a new organic masa harina, which allows folks to create tortillas, pupusas, and gorditas, as you can see on the package. I believe those are tortillas, and they look pretty delicious. I haven't had an opportunity to try this yet, but I have tried the buttermilk pancake mix, and it is fantastic.
[00:19:39] Mike Schneider: Ray, I've got two things to mention. One, I've been trying to mention for a bit here is the new Holy Tapache. I've got the majestic pineapple, but there's also hibiscus, peach mango, and then strawberry lime flavored tapache, which is a drink that's made with fermented pineapple rind, and it's similar Holy Kombucha, and Holy Kombucha's put out their version of it, and I gotta say, it is very tasty.
[00:20:09] Ray Latif: It looks pretty great. I think that's a great brand extension for Holy Kombucha. You know, we see a lot Holy Kombucha companies getting into more fizzy type drinks and that seems like a pretty innovative way to extend the brand. So nicely done.
[00:20:23] Mike Schneider: if you're Holy Kombucha lover and you get your hands on it, there's a good chance that you're going to like it. So I think it's very close to, you know, what they're already making in some ways. And, um, like you said, Ray quality extension of the brand. The other thing that is not on my desk yet, regrettably, is the new Fly By Jing, their Hot Pocket starter, which looks so awesome.
[00:20:49] Taste Radio: Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:20:51] Mike Schneider: And on the Flyby Bings and Jing Gao's Instagram, the founder Jing Gao, there was a photo of her and somebody else from Flyby Jing sitting in a Hot Pocket. Hot girls eat Hot Pocket in summer.
[00:21:10] Jacqui Brugliera: That's amazing.
[00:21:11] Ray Latif: How big was the Hot Pocket?
[00:21:12] Mike Schneider: Enormous.
[00:21:14] Ray Latif: Wow, OK, that that doesn't seem pleasant, but what do I know? I'm not a huge consumer of hot pots. I'm going to. I'm going to say I I doubt that there were.
[00:21:24] Mike Schneider: It was actually on fire underneath, but I hope not. No incredible photoshoot. Oh boy.
[00:21:32] Jacqui Brugliera: And I don't have the product with me because I already ate it. Clo-Clo, they are known for their plant-based vegan frozen meals. I mainly knew them because of their pizzas and I found them at my local sprouts. And the other day I found some plant-based shrimp entrees and then mac and cheese. So I ate their plant-based shrimp Alfredo. I was pleasantly surprised. I feel like some frozen entrees skimp on the protein, especially when it's plant-based protein. And there was actually like too much shrimp and I couldn't finish it, but it was, it was solid. And I'm trying to eat I love seafood, but I'm trying to eat less seafood. So this is a good alternative for me. So it's interesting to see that line extension from them. Another product that I noticed just because it reminds me of my childhood is Good Planet. They launched these snack cheese wheels and they're plant-based. I grew up eating like the little baby bell cheeses, like the Gouda cheeses wrapped in wax. So the fact that I can snack on cheese again,
[00:22:37] Taste Radio: I don't know why, Jackie, but I love the way you say snack cheese wheels.
[00:22:43] Jacqui Brugliera: It just brings me back. I'd have like softball games and just get sent to the field with like a thing of mozzarella or like a cheese wheel. I don't know why, but it was just my snack of choice. So that product I'm really interested in trying. And then the final thing is my current obsession, which is mushrooms. So Earth and Star, I know we've talked about them and their RTD products, but they just launched a whole line of ground coffee as well as tinctures. So it's cool to see that they're kind of becoming a platform brand for mushrooms. I know I use tinctures and if you go to like a local farmer's market here, everyone has mushroom tinctures. So it's cool to see that they're just trying to champion the ingredient and have different form factors for consumers.
[00:23:31] Ray Latif: I can't tell if that's your Massachusetts accent coming out or not, Jackie, when you say tinctures, because you call them tinctures as opposed to tinctures, tinctures. It's like when you take a picture of someone. Exactly. Yeah. In Massachusetts, most people say picture.
[00:23:46] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Ray Latif: And they're taking pictures of people. You don't say picture.
[00:23:49] Jacqui Brugliera: I can't say room. Like, I can only say rum. Like, rum. Really?
[00:23:53] Ray Latif: The rum?
[00:23:54] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, there's just certain words.
[00:23:55] Ray Latif: In the room? Rum is very, uh, Brahmin, I feel like. Like, it's the rum, rum, come follow me to the rum, you know? It's like half and half. I remember this person I, uh, I used to know used to always say hoff and hoff. It drove me crazy. I couldn't even be in the rum when that person said that. One last brand that I want to shout out is the brand Brewpub Jerky. They recently launched a bunch of new jerky products, including their beef jerky with green chili and hops. I don't have it with me because I ate it so quickly. It was amazing stuff. Shout out to Zach, the founder of the company. Yeah, no, there was one in the office. I asked Zach, because he offered, to send some to the office. And I was like, yeah, please send some. There was one on top of the bar. I grabbed it as soon as I could, and then I ate it as soon as I could. It was gone in 60 seconds. It was fantastic stuff. Do you know why there was one? Why? Because I ate the other ones. Yeah, and I didn't have any beer with it as well, which is kind of the point of brewpub jerky is you want to eat the jerky with beer. But, you know, I didn't have any beer on hand and it was great on its own. So once again, well done, Zach. Pairs really well with hot tea. Interesting. Interesting. I guess that makes a lot of sense.
[00:25:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Need the hops.
[00:25:17] Ray Latif: Yeah. All right. Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. Until then, signing off for the amazing team at Taste Radio and my colleagues at Mike Schneider and Jackie Breglier, I'm Ray Latif, and we'll talk to you next time.
