[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello friends, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food New Beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, Jacqui Brugliera and Melissa Traverse. In this episode, we revisit four interviews from Taste Radio's NYC Meetup, including those with Rachel Krupa, the founder of influential retailer The Goods, and Cole Riley, the VP of Engagement and Partnerships for mission-driven nonprofit organization Rethink Food. Well, I'd like to be back in New York City soon, but I'm gonna have to wait because I don't have any plans to be back there until mid June. That's when BevNET Live Summer 2025 is happening, June 11th and 12th. The whole damn industry is going to be there. If you're not, I don't know what to tell you.
[00:01:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. You're missing out. There's hundreds of people already registered. We're gearing up for, looks like going to be our largest event today in New York city. A lot of innovative brands coming, a lot of established brands coming and a lot of great speakers. And if you haven't seen yet, we have released the agenda. So head to bed net live.com and check out the two day agenda. See who's speaking when they're speaking, start planning your trip, start planning what insights you want to take away from the event.
[00:01:34] Ray Latif: Exactamundo. And the after party is always the best networking part On The event for sure. That's happening on June 11th, the first day of BevNET Live and you don't want to miss it. I'm sure John Craven will have handfuls of Negronis, canned Negronis to pass out and you know. It's a fun time. It's a fun time. But for sure, the agenda is packed. It is a really, really well curated schedule that we have for the two days. I, of course, am really excited for our competition, the New Beverage Showdown. And today, Friday, May 2nd, is the final day that you can apply to participate in this competition. We are going to be sorting through the applications and choosing a few semi-finalists, 12 to be exact, to take the stage at BevNET Live. And I gotta tell you, I mean, we've talked about this a number of times On The podcast, but getting up on stage, introducing yourself On The industry, hundreds of folks who have never heard of Your Grandma before, having people try your product, having people look at the packaging, offer advice, offer feedback, it is invaluable to be able to do exactly that. And brands have really benefited from doing so. I mean, I'm not saying that there would have been no Liquid Death or HealthAid or Malk or, you know, Cannes before, if there were no New Beverage Showdown, but it certainly helped build awareness, build enthusiasm, build excitement for those brands.
[00:03:07] Jacqui Brugliera: There's just no better way to get in front On The entire beverage industry. And you never know who you're going to chat with after you pitch. It's, it's just such a great way to get exposure and introduce yourself On The industry. Yeah. It's also critical time for feedback. Like if you're coming, you're pitching on stage, you're going to hear a lot of different pieces of feedback and take what you will, but you can often avoid, you know, common missteps and maybe save a bit of money by making some changes at the early stages of your business rather than backtracking once you're more established.
[00:03:42] Ray Latif: Definitely. Again, today is the last day to apply to participate On The New Beverage Showdown. We'll be picking 12 semifinalists. There will be six finalists and one winner. That winner could be you, but only if you apply to participate. On The New Beverage Showdown at BevNET Live Summer 2025. We want to see you there. It was great seeing a lot of early stage emerging brands at Naturally San Diego's Naturally San competition, pitch competition that is, which was held last week on April 24th. I was so honored to emcee the competition, which featured five amazing brands, including the winner, which was Chasin' Dreams Farm, which is a maker of Better For You snacks. Runner up was Recoup. Everyone knows what Recoup is, the Better For You brand of hydration beverages. The People's Choice winner was Mooski, the brand of refrigerated granola bars. It is a fantastic, delicious, amazing brand of products. Fierce & Kind, which is a mission-driven brand of alcoholic beverages. They make a bourbon, they make Haku Vodka, they make some incredible tasting products. And on stage, Bassem, who is the founder, did a really, really great job identifying and explaining why Fierce & Kind is doing something that is transformational and differentiated in New Beverage alcohol category. And then, of course, No Nasty, a really interesting brand of clean label, or at least, I don't know how you would describe it, cleaner cleaning products? Can you say that?
[00:05:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Cleaner cleaning.
[00:05:23] Ray Latif: Cleaner cleaning products. Great branding. And it was really cool to see what they're trying to do in terms of that industry, cleaning that industry all up. So once again, I was honored to be there with Diego Naturally San Diego team. Jackie, you were there. The excitement, the enthusiasm, the raucous energy, I would call it, was all there.
[00:05:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's always fun to participate in their annual pitch slam. I mean, the community in San Diego is amazing. Everyone's so supportive. Everyone's cheering each other on while they're on stage. It's just a really fun event to be a part of and to see some faces that, you know, come around every year and see these brands grow. I know like some of these brands have been in our pitch competitions and now they're like moving on and doing other things. And it's really cool to just reconnect with the San Diego community.
[00:06:14] Ray Latif: Yeah, Recoup won our New Beverage Showdown at BevNET Live Winter 2024. Moosky participated in our Nosh Pitch Slam. I think that was 2023, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I think Robert Broom, who's the founder of that company, everyone knew he was onto something. And I'm so glad to see that he's doing well and really getting distribution, more and more distribution out there for Moosky because, as we know, refrigerated is a tough business, but he makes such a delicious product that you want to keep going back and back and back for those products.
[00:06:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, Sydney Chasen from Chasen Dreams. I've known her for a while and she started in food service. She's going through a mega rebrand and it's really cool to see just how that brand's evolving and how it's building a lot of momentum and now she has the big win. I think that Moosky sort of offers that perfect combination of good for you, but also totally delicious. What more could you want than, you know, basically like overnight oats coated in chocolate. And then Recoup was actually just On The non-base podcast with a supplier called the Forest Farmers and Wild Orchard. They use maple sap as the base of their beverage. And it's so delicious. It's so good for you. It sounds like it was such a great show.
[00:07:32] Ray Latif: It was a very quick trip for me. I think I was in San Diego itself for, let's see, 36 hours or something like that between flight times and adding that all together. It was like, yeah, I was probably actually On The city for 36 hours, but man, it was, I would do it in a heartbeat again. Cause NSD does such a great job. Kirsten Riley, who is the executive director of NSD. I mean, she leads that organization with so much passion, enthusiasm, professionalism. I'm just proud that we're a part of it. I mean, we have Diego Naturally San Diego chapter. We've Diego Naturally San. And obviously, we've Diego Naturally San England, which is a tremendous chapter as well. And we're going to be participating in an event. Actually, Melissa, you're hosting an event essentially out there in Providence next month.
[00:08:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Just as you were so honored to emcee the San Diego event, I'm so honored to emcee Diego Naturally San England event. It's on May 22nd at Farm Fresh Rhode Island, and we have an amazing lineup of brands pitching. We've got Cleva Health, which is so cool. It's a brand that does gummies that are based on Eastern herbs. So Clevahealth, Uncle Todd's, which is also a cleaning, a cleaner cleaning brand. We have Farmer Foodie, which is the cashew parm, of course, that we all know and love. Singing Pasture Farm, which is a farm that is doing meat sticks. They're so Food and The Conza Crumbs, they have a sourdough based kind of bread crumble that you use for crunch and seasoning and all that. So that's going to be super exciting. And Ray, you're going to be doing interviews, aren't you?
[00:09:11] Ray Latif: Taste Radio will have a studio set up at the events, recording content, talking to folks who are attending, short interviews, nothing too, too long. We'll be featuring them on future episodes On The podcast. Very excited for that. We did a similar, we had a similar studio at a Naturally San Diego event in January, and it was so great. We got so many good interviews out of that one, and I'm hoping we can On The same here On The great region of New England.
[00:09:45] Jacqui Brugliera: If you are local, or if you're going to be On The area, Diego Naturally San.org, and you can get your tickets there. Nice.
[00:09:51] Ray Latif: Well done. Melissa, to your point about creating something that's better for you, but really delicious and decadent, I think this is what we're starting to see On The candy space, right? I mean, people know that candy in general is not great for you, but there are a lot of brands that are attempting to make it better for you than traditional brands that have been out there. And I think about a new company that came to market, or a new brand that came to market. It's called Hornbill's Chormbills. If you're watching the video, here's the nice little package they sent me. Hornbill's Chormbills describes itself as revolutionizing confectionery with high protein, zero sugar, 100 calorie candy bars. And they're formulated to, quote, make candy make sense. So in this little package I have, I have four bars. There are four varieties, cookies and cream, salted fudge, peanut butter, and classic milk. They come in these bright, bright yellow packages. They look like traditional candy bars or chocolate bars. I don't know what Hormbles Chormbles means. I'm going to have to probably look that up a little bit, but I'm wondering. If we're starting to see better for you candy sort of peak with products like these, or if this is sort of perhaps the beginning On The end. I don't mean to be so... pessimistic about it, but no knock on this brand whatsoever. And the guy who founded it, Jared Smith, he's the co-founder of RX Bar, obviously tons and tons of success with that brand, $600 million sale to Kellogg. I don't know if I would reach for this immediately. You know, I don't know if I would say I need 10 grams of protein in my chocolate bar.
[00:11:43] Jacqui Brugliera: I actually just saw an influencer on Tik Tok talking about hornbills, chornbills. They tried the peanut butter version. And I think it always comes down to how does it taste? So if it's candy, it has to taste Food and The if you look at the nutritionals and you see that there's protein in there, which I think that there is the influencer that was talking about the peanut butter hornbills, chornbills said it was absolutely delicious and it does have protein. So if it tastes great, I think that's the most important thing. And then it's really nice to see that there's no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial colors, that kind of maybe lower sugar. That's my opinion. Yeah, I feel like it kind of fits in between almost like the protein bar category and candy. I think in candy in general, people want the taste, like Melissa was saying, like they expect a certain taste or flavor or something that tastes decadent. So if it delivers on that front, then I think people would be more likely to come back to it. I think also people, if they're looking for the functionality or looking for protein, they might like allow it to maybe not taste exactly like candy. But if it's delivering on that, then I think like it could be successful. I also think that there's still a lot of room to take down, you know, like Hershey, because you go to like any convenience store and there's still not a lot of better for you candy On The candy aisle. Or even okay for you.
[00:13:09] SPEAKER_??: Yeah.
[00:13:09] Ray Latif: I don't see this brand replacing Hershey bars in any way, shape, or form at any time, but it could be a good brand for Hershey to have in its stable for people that are looking for products like these. But they're definitely not marketing protein first and foremost. At least that's not the way I see it. It seems like they're marketing a delicious candy bar, first and foremost. They do describe it as a high-protein, zero-sugar, chocolate-flavored, note that, chocolate-flavored candy bar. So I'm going to try this peanut butter one that you mentioned.
[00:13:43] Jacqui Brugliera: Where does the chocolate flavor come from? Is there any cocoa mass or anything in it?
[00:13:48] Ray Latif: That's a good question. I'm looking at the ingredients right now. It says Dutch process cocoa powder is in this. It's sweetened with allulose and stevia and monk fruit. How does it taste? Well, I got to tell you, this is delicious. This is really good. This peanut butter variety.
[00:14:06] Jacqui Brugliera: I would honestly expect it to not taste good with the protein. Like I would probably not grab it just because I don't want protein in my chocolate. Maybe if it was just like a value out of like, Hey, this has some nutrition in it. But yeah, I wouldn't necessarily grab a protein chocolate.
[00:14:24] Ray Latif: This is much, much better than I thought it was gonna be. It is certainly comparable to anything out there in terms of candy bars. There is, for me, at least, and this is just the one peanut butter variety, no compromise. And I was expecting compromise to your point, Jackie. I think some people would say, oh, well, if it has a lot of protein in it, I'm okay with it not tasting as good. But that has been my problem with a lot of Better For You candy out there. is some of it is saying, OK, well, this is this is pretty good. You know, it's a little bit better for you. You have to expect that some On The flavor is not going to be there. And I'm like, no, that's not, I don't, I don't, I reject that. I am, I'm not okay with that because all you have to do, and this is me talking, is eat less if you don't want all the bad stuff all the time. Moderation perhaps. And, and I think there's some parallels to what we're seeing in alcohol analogs where Whether it's beer or wine or spirits or canned cocktails, bottled cocktails that are non-alcoholic, I feel like there's a question at this point of why am I drinking this? Is it just because I want to be part On The social group and that's the only thing available? Or am I drinking it because I actually like it? And I think the latter is really, really important and getting more and more important to more people.
[00:15:49] Jacqui Brugliera: I actually, on that note, have something that I picked up On The BevNET kitchen. This is a light vodka by a brand called Body. So it's light vodka with a natural flavor. It's 30% alcohol, 60 proof, which I think is about 20% lighter than the vodka that you typically use. I tried it. I thought it was great. But I'm also wondering why not just use half the amount of vodka that you'd normally use, which is actually something that I've been doing. Because as you guys know, I love a cocktail on a Friday and a Saturday night. But I also want to mitigate some On The negative effects. So I've been making half-strength cocktails. I can still have two. But when you think about the price point between maybe a light Food and The vodka that you normally drink, I'm sort of wondering how people are going to make their choices.
[00:16:44] Ray Latif: Well, vodka doesn't have a ton of flavor. Is it good?
[00:16:47] Jacqui Brugliera: It's good. Yeah. It tastes like vodka. It tastes exactly like you'd want it to. So, you know, on that note, it works perfectly. I think also like the, like who's the consumer, because like, for example, this product that I have in my hand, it's called Spiked Ade. And it's pretty much just calling out that it's a hundred calories and it's powered Body Vodka. And. But it's calling itself as an aid. So it's almost like saying that you can drink this and hydrate at the same time as you're drinking. So like, are you drinking this to enjoy it or are you just want to like feel less guilt and make sure you don't have a hangover because you're going to have like crush multiple of these. So like if someone that's like a candy consumer regularly, like maybe they could throw in a better for you candy every every so often to feel a little bit better about their decisions.
[00:17:40] Ray Latif: The big question though is, are we going to be seeing worlds in five years where people are consistently chomping on hornbills trumbles, sipping on Body Vodka, and drinking crushing spirit, excuse me, Spiked Ade at the beach? I don't know. I don't know. I'm being cynical and a little pessimistic and also devil's advocate here. I'm going back to this point of, is the answer not drastic changes On The brands that are On The market, but more eating less and making better decisions just in general when it comes to your food New Beverage choices?
[00:18:20] Jacqui Brugliera: I feel like also sometimes like these products are maybe overcomplicating and like creating these new things, whereas we've also seen the trend of just becoming, you know, simpler, like having very, very simple ingredients. Like I found this candy bar in my local coffee shop called Mild Addictions, and it's literally just dark chocolate with a medjool date center. So it's very, very simple ingredients and it's delicious. And next time I'll have it with me, but I ate it super fast. But that's just an example of like, I would maybe lean towards that because it just has very clean ingredients as a treat. I think it always comes down to price and flavor. So I think that's how the majority of consumers make their decisions, especially if you're going for a mass market play. So I think if better for you products can compete with the Hershey's On The world on that level, then, you know, we, it'd be really interesting to see what happens.
[00:19:20] Ray Latif: I agree. And I do see Hornbills to Hornbills as actually making a mark because On The flavor, because it's so delicious, because it already looks like a ready for primetime brand with its packaging. I'm looking at the press release right now and trying to find price point. So it is available online at hornbills.com $39.99 per box of 12 bars. So. Not inexpensive, a little over $3 a bar. But yeah, I can definitely see this on shelf at a Target or Walmart. And again, the biggest thing you're seeing here is the brand name, the flavor name On The side of that brand name. You do see zero grams of sugar, 10 grams of protein and 100 calories at the top On The package, but it's much smaller than you would expect to see on some of these quote unquote, better for you candy bars and whatnot. I do see this as potentially part of a new cohort of candy bar brands like a Harken, like a Gigantic Candy Hornbills that taste really, really great, give you no compromise, but are better for you options than what's currently out there. No offense to, you know, dual function cocktail brands, but I wonder if it's a solution looking for a problem as opposed to a problem looking for a solution, right?
[00:20:35] Jacqui Brugliera: Are you actually solving a problem?
[00:20:37] Ray Latif: Exactly. Like, do you have a solution for a problem that doesn't exist? Or do you have a solution for a problem that has been out there and that people are looking to solve, actively looking to solve? So this came across my desk, and it is... One On The better and more interesting marketing campaigns that I've seen in a while, everyone has been obsessed with AI of late. Our dear colleagues, John and Mike, who are out of town today would be all over this, but Del Real Foods, a maker of authentic Hispanic fresh foods, has announced its first ever brand campaign. They're calling it Abuela Intelligence in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. So it celebrates, according to this press release, everything that Del Real Foods stands for. Real meals inspired by Abuela's recipes. They have a TV commercial, they have some online video, social media. And so they have this abuela road trip, which is a mobile sampling tour where they're going to stop and select markets and allow shoppers to taste fan favorites while discovering the brand's heritage and authentic recipes. So I'm looking at one On The images here for the campaign that says the best AI is abuela intelligence. And I guess you can call your abuela to learn more.
[00:21:57] Jacqui Brugliera: So I watched the video, like a blip On The commercial and it's, yeah, literally a call center and everyone's calling in for advice. And it's just, you know, like the advice you'd get from your abuela, from Your Grandma. And it's pretty funny. I mean, it's like, everyone, like you said, is obsessed with AI, but it's like, how about just human advice? How about just talking to a human and what better human than like a very caring, loving abuela? I love the call in line so much. It's like the remember the butterball turkey talk line for Thanksgiving where you can call Butterball and ask them all your turkey questions. This is like the next generation of that.
[00:22:37] Ray Latif: All right. I want to hear about the Doritos. Melissa was just pumping up Doritos before we hopped On The mics. She's holding up the bag right now. And the bag is so redundant. I don't even know where to begin. But please go ahead.
[00:22:55] Jacqui Brugliera: So I was in a CVS with my younger son, and he picked these up. I normally wouldn't gravitate towards the Doritos, but he picked these up. And I looked, and I saw that they were branded Late Night. So these are Doritos. It's from the Late Night line. This is the loaded taco version. So I looked this up and sure enough, they have a late night line that features flavors like loaded taco sizzling cheeseburger and zesty jalapeno popper. The idea is that they're marketed towards those with late night cravings who enjoy bold food inspired flavors. But to your point, aren't Doritos always a late night thing? Like, you know, you wake up and you're filled with regret On The moment. you have to admit, I mean, they're not better for you, but Doritos are delicious. They are. I mean, they pack the flavor. And when I think of late night, I'm like, okay, a couple drinks in, I'm craving something a little salty. Yeah. Well, yeah, let's just, you know, loaded taco flavor, maybe. So I would maybe have that in my pantry just as, you know, in case I need it. I am curious about the sizzling cheeseburger flavor. Like how how meaty are those chips? I have to know.
[00:24:16] Ray Latif: I don't want the sizzling one. I want the been sitting in a bag on your counter for two hours while you passed out and then wake up and realize that you haven't eaten anything. I want the bland cold cheese. I don't want the sizzling one. I don't want any. No, no, thank you.
[00:24:31] Jacqui Brugliera: Greasy paper, soggy bread and lots of regrets.
[00:24:35] Ray Latif: Waking up at 6.45am with some On The ketchup still on your face and saying, my God, I'm never doing this again. And then On The same thing the next weekend. Anyway, that's not that's not me. I'm just just generalizing again. The Dorito version would be like the better for you option.
[00:24:51] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh my goodness. That's a better for you option in that case. Well done, Jackie.
[00:24:57] Ray Latif: Well done. You got me. All right. Now that we're done with Doritos, are there more late night varieties out there?
[00:25:04] Jacqui Brugliera: You know, I'm going to be keeping my eyes peeled to see what other late night flavors they might have. I feel like they should also do a dessert version with like ice cream or something. Interesting. I don't know. I don't think I would grab that. No, it wouldn't be that good.
[00:25:19] Ray Latif: No, I think that's some serious Food Beast material. If you follow Food Beast on social media, yeah, that's good stuff. All right, Jackie, do you have anything that's better for you than that?
[00:25:30] Jacqui Brugliera: I have lots of things that are actually better for you over here. One On The items, speaking of vegan Parmesan, we met with Madley Hadley at Diego Naturally San Diego event. She, Madly, has these bacon bits, which are actually vegan. They're made of coconut. They're really, really tasty. She's created a new look for her packaging. And she also is launching a vegan Parmesan, which is made with cashews. And I love the branding. She does a lot of like the packaging herself and does some illustrations on it. Yeah, really cool founder, really good, really delicious product. And to wash that down with, another product I found at my local coffee shop is Kira. I think that's how you pronounce it. K-I-R-R-A. And it's a line of pretty much just simple, better for you teas. And this is their black tea. They also have a green tea. This one is a passion fruit guava. I know they also have a lychee variety. And On The pack, they're really just focused on this as lightly sweet, no sugar added, antioxidant rich. And it's just a good tasty iced tea, which, you know, is what people want. And they're not really like going for over functionality either just like very, very simple. And the packaging is really, really pretty and clean. It's gorgeous. How do they sweeten it, if not with sugar? They sweeten it with, they have some juice in it. So there's a little bit of orange juice and passion fruit juice and apple juice. So it's just brewed tea and then some juices and natural guava flavor.
[00:27:17] Ray Latif: It's a great looking brand. Really good packaging for sure. When you posted it on Instagram, I was like, Jackie, you got to talk about this On The next episode because it looks amazing.
[00:27:26] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, they have some fun social media too. And it's all talking about like when you grab like a, a tea that has like adaptogens in it and a million different functional ingredients. And one On The founders is just like, has all these equations in his head of like, what does this mean? Like, what am I actually drinking? And he's like, but you could just drink this and know exactly what you're drinking. I also made myself a tasty little beverage. This is a, it's a strawberry matcha latte. I made this with a product that just came into the BevNET office. This is Whole Moon. It's pistachio milk, and they combined pistachios with whole roasted soybeans. So they have a number of different skews. They have almond, oat, pistachio, and coconut. and they combined the nut milk On The coconut with whole roasted soybeans and it gives it this really creamy smooth flavor. They don't use any oils On The product but I guess by using the whole roasted soybeans they get the creaminess from the entire soybean, and I think it's just so delicious and so smooth. I feel like I was avoiding soy for a while because I heard like, it's not good for you. It's a hormone disruptor. But I just really love the flavor of this. I thought this was so Food and The for the strawberry component, I use this Crushed Tonic Strawberry Milk NYLK Collagen. And I'm pretty excited about my tasty little beverage. That looks delicious. I feel like people have been going back to soy milk with just like the information on seed oils and things like that. There's just always something that could be bad for us. So it's a lot of rotation of different products. And it's a, it's a complete protein. Like I see here, there's six grams of protein per serving. So, I mean, everyone's obsessed with protein, right?
[00:29:21] Ray Latif: That's the only thing you need nowadays. You don't need anything else but protein. Yes. Pretty soon we're going to start seeing protein in bottled cocktails. Luckily, we haven't seen that yet, as far as I know. It's going to happen.
[00:29:33] Jacqui Brugliera: Toothpaste?
[00:29:34] Ray Latif: Oh, gosh. That was close. So I mentioned I have some booze. On The Rocks, which is a maker of delicious bottled cocktails, packaged in these 375 milliliter glass bottles, has released two limited edition products. This is what they're describing as their Harmony Collection, a limited edition collaboration featuring two elevated ready-to-serve cocktails. crafted by world-renowned bartender and proprietor of Tokyo's iconic Bar High Five. Now there's a more, the guy's name I can't pronounce, so I'm not gonna butcher it. But anyway, Bar High Five is the name On The brand that inspired these cocktails. They have a Japanese Boulevardier that's made with Toki Suntory whiskey, and a Yuzu Matcha Martini made with Haku Vodka. How delicious do these things sound? I mean a bolvardier made with Japanese whiskey and a yuzu matcha martini. I cannot wait to crack these open. They look amazing. Alright, it's time to get to our featured interviews from Taste Radio's recent meetup in New York City, where leaders from innovative food New Beverage organizations shared insights on mission-driven business models and scaling with purpose. Our interviews include those with Cole Riley, the VP of Engagement and Partnerships at Rethink Food, Austin Rief, the co-founder of Morning Brew and Oceans's Talent, Rachel Krupa, the founder On The Goods and Krupa Consulting, and David Segal, the founder of David's Tea and now president of HighBeam. Mr. Cole Riley is the VP of Engagement and Partnerships for Rethink Food. He is a gentleman and scholar On The highest accord. Cole, great to see you. Cole, thanks for having me. Thank you so much for being with us. And once again, thank you all so much for being here at Taste Radio. Meet up here in New York City. Thank you so much to our sponsors, our partners, which include Matriarch Wealth Management, Beyond Brands, Rethink Food, The Goods, High Beam, Suite 9C, and Ginger Labs. You are all amazing people. If you see those people from those companies here at the event, say hi, because they can definitely help your business or make you feel better, like the folks at Ginger Labs can do. All right. Cole, thank you again for having us here. You know, when Rachel Krupa mentioned that we should hold this event at Rethink's Community Kitchen, I was like, what is Rethink Food? I didn't know much about the company.
[00:32:15] Melissa Traverse: What do you guys do? Yeah, so we're, I would say, one On The more dynamic food nonprofits On The city. You know, we're a chef-led nonprofit working with the best restaurants. and the best food businesses On The city feeding communities better. And what we're doing and what we've been doing for the past seven years is really, really incredible. We have been feeding hundreds of thousands of people across the five boroughs, and we also have an operation down in Miami, and we've been engaging companies and restaurants across the spectrum, from brand new restaurants just launching, new CPGs just getting off the ground, to some On The largest hospitality groups, some On The largest strategics, getting product through the door, getting food into this kitchen, getting meals on trucks and out to communities at scale. And so over the past five years, we have taken a whole nother leap to a whole nother level. And I, again, I really like to think of us as one On The more dynamic, one On The more scaling nonprofits On The space right now.
[00:33:11] Ray Latif: Yeah, and one On The things I think is most interesting about Rethink Food is that you guys work with food waste. Yeah. And I think there's a misconception about what food waste is, what it represents. Can you talk about your definition for food waste?
[00:33:23] Melissa Traverse: Yeah, absolutely. Food waste can mean a multitude of things, and it depends On The business that we're working with. If it's a restaurant, it could be scraps. It could be excess Brussels sprouts. It could be a variety of different things. And that's what we have our five trucks On The road doing every day, doing these routes, going across the city, picking up excess. and finding creative ways to repurpose those incredible ingredients into meals. For CPGs, it could be a mislabeling. It could be a production run that isn't 100% retail ready, but it's perfect in every other way. Or it could be of a skew that you're sun setting, but it's still a delicious product that can find some type of impact, whether it's a package product or something that we can turn into a meal. So access, it really, there's a variety of different definitions. And what I think for CPGs in your audience to really understand is that having an incredible social impact partner in place, like Rethink Food, that can be creative with your access, that's paramount. It's paramount. When you're building out Your Grandma, you should have a nonprofit like us in your SOP because we can take that product and find a creative use for it that makes an impact.
[00:34:26] Ray Latif: And make delicious food with it. The Goods in your kitchen, I think everyone's tried. Has everyone tried some On The Goods On The kitchen? It is phenomenal. Thank you for saying yes. Sometimes I ask these questions and no one responds. No, but I think that's the key, is food waste can go a long way. It can be a great thing as long as there are participants, as long as people want to be involved. How do they get involved with Rethink?
[00:34:48] Melissa Traverse: Exactly. So it really just starts with reaching out to us and us understanding your needs. It could be a one-off donation at a restaurant or with a CPG. It could be an ongoing deal. But see, when I say that we're a chef-run nonprofit, I really, truly mean that. At every leadership level, from the board, from our founders, from Eleven Madison Park, to our incredible culinary team led by Ken Baker, the chefs in this kitchen, our whole team is dedicated to finding creative ways to take packaged products, proteins, carbs, whatever it may be at restaurants and CPGs and finding a great way to use it. It starts with reaching out to Rethink Food, sending us an email and saying, hey, how can we get involved?
[00:35:27] Ray Latif: I assume there's a tax benefit, perhaps, to this, yes? Exactly. So there really is.
[00:35:31] Melissa Traverse: And that tax benefit can carry forward for brands just starting up that aren't profitable and will be profitable for years, most likely. You get that tax write-off. It's not only doing good, but it's a great business case to repurpose and find a home for these excess ingredients. We know, especially On The space, with New Beverage space, we know you're running through different production runs. We know there's going to be mess-ups. So finding that partner like Rethink Food is paramount. And yeah, there's a great tax incentive to it as well.
[00:35:59] Ray Latif: And I will say this just, you know, on a personal note, it is amazing when you do get to see the impact that you may be having On The community, feeding people who may not have access to food. I mean, food insecurity is a huge problem in this country, and it's an underreported problem in this country.
[00:36:14] Melissa Traverse: Absolutely. And look, since our founding, we've made or funded over 30 million meals that have gone out to community centers, that have gone out to migrant sites, that have gone out to pantries and churches and shelters across the five boroughs and down in Miami. And again, this model powered by this kitchen. And the network of restaurants that we work with and all the partners across The Goods industry, that's what's really powering this incredible impact. But yeah, it's an evergreen issue. And what we're trying to do is attack it uniquely, not just moving pallets around and calling things meals. We're actually, for a lot of our work, creating meals from scratch. in this space and with our restaurant network. So it's a really unique nonprofit that we built here. And we're really looking for more CPGs in this industry to rally around it.
[00:37:03] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Cole, thank you so much again for all you do. This is an incredible company that I think everyone in this room, everyone listening at home, should get involved with. So reach out to Cole. Yeah, work with us. Yes, follow him, send him LinkedIn DMs, flood his inbox. Totally. Yes, and definitely. Cole, thank you so much. And thanks so much for having us here today.
[00:37:22] Taste Radio: Really appreciate it.
[00:37:22] Ray Latif: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. You can leave your microphone there. And we're going to bring up our next guest, Austin Rief, who is the co-founder of Morning Brew and Oceans Talent. Austin, great to see you. You know, I think there's a few folks here who are probably familiar with you because you were the co-founder of Morning Brew, but you're also the co-founder of an amazing company called Ocean's Talent. And I already had a conversation with someone who uses your company. Let's start with Morning Brew and your history On The business media community.
[00:37:52] Rethink Food: Yeah, I started Morning Brew at the University of Michigan. Go blue.
[00:37:57] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:37:57] Rethink Food: Yeah. I don't know who that was. But go blue. I started it almost 10 and a half years ago now. So we started it as our I was a sophomore in college. And it grew a bunch. And I did it full time after college. And we sold the business in 2020. I stayed there for about four years. And probably two and a half months ago. Now I stepped down and went full time on oceans.
[00:38:16] Ray Latif: Nice, well done. You also poached one of our employees from BevNET, just so you know. Sorry about that. Yeah, it's okay, it's okay. Maybe we can use Ocean's Talent to fill in that role.
[00:38:26] Rethink Food: We could, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:26] Ray Latif: There you go. Yeah, what is Ocean's Talent?
[00:38:28] Rethink Food: Yeah, so we are an overseas staffing firm. So we help US-based businesses, a lot of CPG companies, a lot of DSC companies, hire the best Oceans Talent. So we have a headquarter in Sri Lanka. where we help you find the top 1% of EAs, marketers, finance folks, op folks, come work full time in your business. We work with a lot of CPG and DTC companies, like I said, Sanzo and Four Sigmatic and a bunch of companies that I can't say, but just many, many, many, many companies On The space. And the idea is you get the same caliber talent as people here On The US, but you save 60 to 70%.
[00:39:07] Ray Latif: Saving money is great. Culture is really important. How do they fit into the culture of their business? How do you vet for culture?
[00:39:13] Rethink Food: Yes, that's actually one On The number one things we vet. So we put people through a very detailed culture screening, make sure they are not in it for things like the money, but we really want people who vibe with the company they're going to. So we have a matching process. It's a very extensive process where you make sure you get to interview the person, they interview you back to make sure they're a great fit, just like any other person you'd hire here On The US.
[00:39:36] Ray Latif: So what specific roles do you hire for? Is it, say, finance, marketing, administrative assistants? I mean, what really fits with the kind of service that you offer?
[00:39:47] Rethink Food: Yeah, so our business is about 50% EAs. Another 50% are finance, so FP&A, accounting, bookkeeping, everything On The finance suite, marketing, so paid marketing, event marketing, ops, and then we do 10% about everything else. So engineer, someone before was asking about a designer, we'll do designers. So we'll do a little bit of everything.
[00:40:07] Ray Latif: Outstanding. I think the other big question here is, you know, the reliability of Oceans Talent, and maybe this is just me talking, seems to be not so great. How do you make sure that the people that you're hiring, the service that you're offering, is as reliable as having someone On The office?
[00:40:25] Rethink Food: That's actually how I got involved in Ocean. So I was running Morning Brew and I had a few experiences with some other overseas firms, you know, people On The Philippines. I had really bad experiences, really struggled to integrate people from some of these other countries into our US, you know, Western culture. And I found this guy, Ian Myers, who's the CEO of Oceans, and he was starting this business. And he really pushed me and said, no, Sri Lanka is very different. Sri Lanka is this amazing culture. where it's very westernized. People even go overseas to America, to London, On The UK to study. I gave it a try, and I was just amazed at how great the talent is. So I was customer number two or three, I think, and it really showed me how amazing it could be to integrate people from other countries, people from Sri Lanka, into the U.S. culture. And so we had people at Morning Brew, and now we have 250 to 300 customers of people who have them in their business.
[00:41:21] Ray Latif: Now, I think the one question everyone here is wondering is, how much is this going to save me? Because this is a very challenging, uncertain time for companies. And people are wondering, how can I cut costs? How can I maintain my business at a level that is still offering top-notch quality, but yet reduced costs and expenses?
[00:41:42] Rethink Food: Yeah, and so we're seeing a lot of that. We're seeing a lot of people reach out to us who are impacted by the tariffs, impacted by the economy, and want to grow their business, but want to lower their op-ecs. And so we save people on average about 65% on hiring. 65%? Yeah. Wow.
[00:41:58] Ray Latif: That's a big number. It is, yeah. Who wouldn't want to save 65% On The staff costs? It's a great question. Yeah, well done. Austin, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for your partnership for this event. Yeah, for sure. And reach out to Austin and Oceansound. What's the best way to do so?
[00:42:12] Rethink Food: I'll be over there, so you can just come find me. I'll be over there.
[00:42:15] Ray Latif: Outside On The event, for people listening at home, what's the best way to connect? Yeah, you could just, you know, on LinkedIn, Austin Rief, just shoot me a DM. Outstanding. Thank you so much again, Austin. Really appreciate it. For sure. Thank you. Yeah, round of applause for Austin. Fantastic. You can leave that there. Is this yours? Thank you so much. All right. Rachel Krupa. Where is Rachel Krupa? Because she looks like she's hiding. She shouldn't be, because she's incredible. Have a seat. Now, Rachel, for folks who don't know, Rachel was an integral part of putting this event together. She connected us with Rethink. She has connected us with people who are supplying the bar, who are supplying some On The samples here. She is just incredible. Day and night, I can reach Rachel. She hates me for doing that, but, you know, I try to reach her. Do you sleep, by the way? You are so busy.
[00:42:59] The Goods: Yes, ish.
[00:43:01] Ray Latif: Ish?
[00:43:02] The Goods: I don't need a lot of sleep.
[00:43:03] Ray Latif: Okay, I figured. Because I look at your Instagram profile and all I see is work and play. Good kind of play. And then it's just like work, work, work.
[00:43:10] The Goods: Yeah.
[00:43:10] Ray Latif: Play, play, play.
[00:43:11] The Goods: Well, in my mind, work is play. Interesting. And play is work.
[00:43:15] Ray Latif: Why is that?
[00:43:16] The Goods: Because if you love what you do every day, it's not work. Oh, OK. I've heard that before. And they merge so well together On The sense of food, meeting founders, talking to humans. On The other side of my life is the PR. And so that's just meeting, again, like meeting founders, learning about new things. I feel like I'm a student of life. And I love to learn things and meet people and just be inquisitive of why, how, how can I help? And so it's fun.
[00:43:45] Ray Latif: You'd be a good podcast podcaster. Do you have a podcast?
[00:43:47] The Goods: No. Do you want me on yours?
[00:43:49] Ray Latif: Yes, we are kind of already On The podcast as we speak. So yeah, I didn't mention you are the founder On The Goods and Krupa Consulting. Let's talk about The Goods because this is a really amazing retailer. What was the origin story? What do you guys do?
[00:44:03] The Goods: We are a better for you socially conscious convenience store where we fill our shelves with emerging brands. And that was basically the goal is, how do we get these really great brands that you are trying here, everyone here, into the hands of more people? And so that was by creating a convenience store where you could find them. And we vetted it for you based on taste, based on founders. We're actually celebrating our seventh year on Thursday, which is wild of being On The industry for seven years.
[00:44:32] Ray Latif: Where is The Goods mart?
[00:44:33] The Goods: We started actually in LA, but that is our IP. The sign is still there. So please take a picture and send it to me. I like that. I cost more to take it down than leave it up. And we're in Soho right now. So we're on Lafayette between Broome and Grand. But the biggest thing of what we're doing now is we created a new vertical that was more called curation by The Goods Smart. And so we're placing, again, these incredible young brands into hotel mini bars and corporate pantries. And again, it recertifies that goal of how do we get these incredible brands On The hands of more people?
[00:45:06] Ray Latif: How do you source these brands? Is it a lot of people coming to you or are you finding these brands and saying, hey, you should be part of our platform?
[00:45:14] The Goods: All On The above. OK. And so I believe in order to be really great at curation, you have to look into your homework equally as much as people are coming to you. So that is talking to people, talking to founders, having been On The PR industry for my CPG side for 15 years, 20 years, kind of On The industry that you know a lot of people too, but it's talking to commissary kitchens, it's traveling, it's seeking, it's asking people, and then people come to us. and coming to events like this, coming to events like this, where you can meet Rachel Krupa, you know, are great are great. Yeah.
[00:45:48] Ray Latif: So just a plug for BevNET live coming up here in New York city, June 11th and 12th. It is the event for New Beverage industry. If you haven't already signed up now is the time to do so. So when you talk about vetting brands, what is the vetting process? I mean, is there specific things you cannot have in Your Grandma?
[00:46:04] The Goods: Yeah, for us, everything is non-GMO, no artificial flavors, no preservatives from a baseline. And then everything then is based on taste, based on founder, based on ingredients. So if the ingredients say, we were just talking over here, if you have ashwagandha, do you have enough ashwagandha to actually make it efficient and you're actually making it useful if you're functional?
[00:46:26] Ray Latif: How much ashwagandha does it take to make something functional?
[00:46:29] The Goods: Oh, see, I knew you were going to ask that. You brought it up. There is. I know, but On The product right here, Joy.
[00:46:35] Ray Latif: Oh, Zen Joy.
[00:46:37] The Goods: Zen Joy.
[00:46:37] Ray Latif: Delicious product.
[00:46:38] The Goods: How many? I like this.
[00:46:42] Ray Latif: We're doing crowd work.
[00:46:43] The Goods: 150, 150 milligrams. Look at this. This is crowdsourcing.
[00:46:48] Ray Latif: Yeah. I mean, that sounds like a pretty high number, right? Yeah.
[00:46:51] The Goods: But sometimes you don't have like enough from a standpoint of just being efficacious. And like, I just love asking that question of like, what do you have? Can you feel it? Because if you're spending more money on a premium of having a functional ingredient, like you want it to do with something for you.
[00:47:05] Ray Latif: Yeah, absolutely. Now, I love when brands get their start in small retailers like yours, because they can develop a lot of learnings. They can try to figure out what's working on a really small scale and apply those learnings to a bigger retailer. How do people do that? What are they learning from The Goods?
[00:47:22] The Goods: A little bit of everything of packaging. We are working with another organization right now On The sense of like an insights group, where we actually talk to 150 people of like, what do you think about packaging? Call outs on packaging, like, does it attract you? Do you know what actually it is? Like, one On The biggest things I always love is like, I love Hector from Tia La Pita. And remember, it was cactus tortilla chip. But people didn't know what cactus tasted like. And so now it's changed to just tortilla chip and cactus is secondary or, I think, third On The packaging. So it's actually having call-outs that attract you and then bring you in once you are a big fan and a lover of it.
[00:48:05] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, cactus doesn't necessarily sound like the most appetizing thing. And I think, yeah, but I mean, you know, founders might want to say we just want to be transparent what we're doing, but transparency and marketing sometimes don't go hand in hand.
[00:48:17] The Goods: Yeah, and I think it's just packaging is really once you see it On The shelf, you know how it stands out. One On The biggest things I always like to tell founders is like, go bold. When you're coming into our store, your first iteration, you're going to have to change it two or three times. So why make it look like a mainstream standard product on a shelf? You're going to get there 100%. You're going to have to have an apple, you know, watermelon, a hibiscus plant On The cover. You know?
[00:48:44] Ray Latif: For sure.
[00:48:44] The Goods: You're going to need that. But at first, stand out. What is going to make someone grab? It's going to be packaging first. Yeah. So Ruby, Hibiscus, I think, did it really well at first. And then you can see in future iterations, he had to change it a little bit.
[00:48:57] Ray Latif: Yeah. Rachel, once again, thank you so much. For folks who are in this room and haven't met Rachel personally, you should. She is incredible. She's brilliant. She knows everything about this industry inside and out. And she is a resource like no other. So I hope I didn't say too much there.
[00:49:13] The Goods: Well, I will also plug you. BevNET Live was also one of my favorite events to attend and talk to founders and On The one-on-ones. It's just really great to actually have people ask questions and really take that feedback to heart. I have a handful On The brands that I met there in our store, and they also took that feedback and changed it, and it's actually making them do so much better.
[00:49:35] Ray Latif: Yeah. And you're going to be there once again for these one-to-ones. I can't wait. And not just Rachel. We're going to have folks from Whole Foods who are attending and are going to look for brands to put On The shelves. So if you want to meet with Whole Foods buyers at BevNET Live, you've got to register. You've got to sign up. And of course, you have an opportunity to meet Rachel once again. Rachel, thank you so much.
[00:49:53] Taste Radio: Thank you.
[00:49:53] Ray Latif: This is so great. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. You can just leave your microphone there. And our last interview guest for this event. is David Segal. Come on over. Yeah. Have a seat. David Segal is the president of HiBeam. David, great to see you.
[00:50:09] Taste Radio: Thanks for having me.
[00:50:10] Ray Latif: Did I pronounce your last name correctly? You did. Well done. It could have been Seagal. I prefer sounding like an action hero, but unfortunately, that wasn't On The cards for me. HiBeam, thank you so much again for your partnership, your support of this event. Really appreciate it. I know when people hear HiBeam, they think cars, but HiBeam is not that. What do you guys do?
[00:50:28] Taste Radio: Well, a little backstory. I actually came by, quite honestly, I started as a customer. So I built a brand called David's Tea from zero to 200 million in sales, 200 stores. David's Tea?
[00:50:37] Ray Latif: Yep. You're the David? Yeah. Amazing. David's Tea is an incredible brand.
[00:50:41] Taste Radio: It was a great ride. I took it public, sold it shortly thereafter. We had 200 stores across Canada and the US and went on, did a bunch of other things. One of my new businesses many years later, I got fed up with my bank. I was getting 0% yield on any of my idle cash, no intelligence on my data, clunky software, bureaucratic service. And I discovered Highbeam. And I was blown away. All we do is consumer brands, between $1 million and $200 million in sales. And they turned what was, you know, I had a new brand called Firebelly Tea, did a few million bucks. And we were growing. And they turned what was costing me money into a profit center. And I was so impressed that I called up the founder. And I'm like, this is amazing. He goes, look, you built a nine-figure brand. Why don't you invest and become an advisor? And I did. And I found myself, I loved it. Like, I got to be around brand builders all day long. And it's just the energy I love. And so we ended up forexing the business. We have several hundred customers, over a billion of flows. And what we do is we automate tedious manual finance tasks to save brands time and money. And we pair that with good old-fashioned relationship service. Like, you know, you get people's cell phone numbers. You can actually reach people as you grow and as you scale. And so we tap you into whether it's lending or giving you the maximum amount of yield on idle cash or minimizing your interest expenses or bill pay or automating. I mean, we just launched our AI agents. It's incredible. Like when I think about, you know, our vision is to have a one-person finance team, right? Like at David's Tea, I had more people in finance when we had scale than I did buyers. And I just think all that's going to change. And Highbeam is leading that charge. And it's an incredible product. And yeah, I got really excited about it. Eventually, the founder turned to me and says, look, why don't you come in as an executive? And I did. And here we are.
[00:52:29] Ray Latif: You must really believe in it, because if you took a brand from zero to $200 million in sales, and now you're the president of Hybeam, I mean, you must really believe in what you're doing.
[00:52:39] Taste Radio: I think, look, traditional banks have ignored this segment for a very, very long time.
[00:52:43] Ray Latif: This segment being the CBG industry.
[00:52:45] Taste Radio: Yeah, any type of brand, any midsize brand that's scaling. And I just think there's going to be a generational shift in banking. And all your deposits are FDIC insured, so you're protected. But we're just able to offer you a ton of value that actually saves you money and time. So you take what is fee-driven and costing you money, When you think about the finance process, the way you make decisions today on your financial stack, you're turning cash into inventory, back into cash, back into inventory. And you have all these transactions coming in and out. It's hard to make sense of. You send it up to some fractional CFO or internal finance team. They put together these statements for you. You get them 30 days, if you're lucky, later. And then you're making decisions on yesterday's news, right? And I think what AI allows us to do is, we not only can compute that information to give you quick answers to any ad hoc questions in real time on all your intelligence, but then we have the banking so we can actually link it On The money movements as well in real time. And one thing I've realized is your interest, like maximizing your yield on your idle working capital and minimizing your interest expense, if you do that by the day, it adds up. Sometimes you think you're doing it because you look at it once a week or once every two weeks. But when you really dig in and there's a system in place and we're able to automate that treasury function for you, you're gonna be surprised. I mean, it could be tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how big of a brand you are. So yeah, I got really excited about this. I think this is going to make a big difference. I mean, all of you in this room are the backbone On The economy. I know what it's like to be in your shoes, building brands. It's really, really hard to build a business. And I think I feel really proud to be part of a company that's in your corner, that's helping you. You know, it's never been easier to start a business and never been harder to make money from it. And I think Highbeam is really about helping you make money from your business.
[00:54:35] Ray Latif: We got about a minute left, but I want to ask about your lines of credit, because folks in this room, lines of credit can be lifelines for CPG brands, and you guys offer lines of credit. Is there collateral involved?
[00:54:46] Taste Radio: What's great about Highbeam is you can use us for certain things a la carte, or you can use us for everything from banking to credit to intelligence. On The credit side, yes, we do lines of credit. We also have credit card. We have various credit card products. We want to build long-term relationships. Even if we're not the right partner for your lending, you should still talk to us. We have an incredible ecosystem of lenders. We will plug you into it. We will make sure that we get you the best products for you to help you grow your business. That's really what we're about. And yeah, whether that's our products or whether that's referring you on to someone else and still handling your banking and intelligence. Highbeam.co?
[00:55:21] Ray Latif: Highbeam.co. That's the website. You guys all should check it out. David, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Ray. That brings us On The end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us On The Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf On The entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:56:21] Taste Radio: you
