[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, dear listeners, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. When can we be the number one podcast for anyone building a business in AI? We're close. Are we not? Well, not if you keep downgrading our listeners.
[00:00:35] John Craven: They used to be friends. Now they're dear listeners. That's true. That's true. I was thinking about adding to my LinkedIn because I've seen some people start putting AI and like their title. Like they're an AI wizard. I don't know, like AI driven leader or something. But I want to be, I want to be AI distracted. That's part of your skill set. Yeah. No, it is part of my role. Oh, yes.
[00:01:02] Ray Latif: If you happen to be his muse, you know, from the AI that I've seen, those cute pics and videos that you guys create, AI distracted sounds about right, actually. Yeah.
[00:01:13] John Craven: Like, did you like the one of you and then with Mike crying? What about the one of me crying? That was hilarious. Good.
[00:01:19] Jacqui Brugliera: That one got a couple of comments at the meetups, though. People are liking the AI distraction.
[00:01:25] John Craven: I'm sure it's great for our bottom line too, you know? I mean, it's tastefully done at least. It's better than when I go on TikTok and I see like fake cats working at McDonald's. That's all my feed is by the way. Yeah.
[00:01:36] Ray Latif: Or Britney Spears falling in a hole or that's weird. That's, that's what's in your feed. I don't even know how the algorithm is analyzing your search habits, Mike, but that sounds a little strange.
[00:01:48] John Craven: I know how it happened. I was talking about Katy Perry the other day. And so I start getting like Katy Perry content and Britney Spears content, et cetera, et cetera. That sounds reasonable. Sounds logical.
[00:01:59] Ray Latif: I was talking about how great Katy Perry is. Okay. Okay, cool. I want to talk about how great our San Francisco meetup was. Sometimes it's tough to gauge what an event like that is going to feel like, how it's going to unfold, especially because we haven't been to that venue before. This being the American Industrial Center and it was a co-working space in there and generously and very graciously shared with us by the wonderful Kate Sullivan, who's the founder of a CMOS gel brand called Uncracked. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And it was just a phenomenal affair. Just keep rubbing it in. raucous, fun, people were eating, networking, drinking, listening, for the most part. And just generally, I felt like the environment, the atmosphere was just full of positivity and enthusiasm for the food and beverage industry. Mike, I'm sorry you weren't there, but it was fun. Me too.
[00:03:01] John Craven: Yeah. Me too. I heard it was great. And I got a lot of, I got a lot of good feedback, even though I wasn't there. Some people were like, Oh, I searched the room a couple of times and I figured he didn't make it. Someone did ask me what happened to Mike. Tell him I was in jail.
[00:03:15] Ray Latif: He had to check in with his parole officer. I'm not allowed in San Francisco. There's a restraining order. No, it's just too many miles away from where you're supposed to be.
[00:03:24] John Craven: Right, I can't lie.
[00:03:25] Ray Latif: My ankle monitor.
[00:03:26] John Craven: When they said what happened to Mike, my knee jerk, which I didn't say, was, do you mean in general? I've been trying to figure that out for years, but anyway. Yeah.
[00:03:36] Ray Latif: You know what was really cool is I felt like there was a good mix of people we knew and people who were established in the industry and people who were brand new to the industry. Yeah, definitely. And that's one of my favorite things about these meetups is that we get to reconnect with old friends and old colleagues and acquaintances, but also be introduced to so many new concepts and the founders behind those concepts. And I got to eat and drink and Taste Radio talk with more people and interact with more brands than I really expected I would. I mean, I knew we had the, obviously we had the registration list, but you know, the tangible aspect or the tangible quality of being at these events is that you get to actually experience it IRL, so to speak. Yeah.
[00:04:21] John Craven: Well, we got to start planning 2026 soon.
[00:04:23] Ray Latif: We definitely do. Well, after we go to London. Yeah. After we go to London. So London, just as a reminder to our UK listeners, London will be happening, our meetup that is, will be happening on October 2nd. That's a Thursday from 5 to 7 PM at the offices of Trip. That's in Notting Hill. All the details at Taste Radio slash London.
[00:04:44] John Craven: I mean, if you're not in the UK and you just want to fly over and need an excuse to go to London, come join us.
[00:04:50] Ray Latif: The event is free. So, you know, your airfare, your lodging, that's all you have to pay for. As John mentioned, we are planning events, meetups. We may rethink the name Meetup, but that's another story.
[00:05:03] John Craven: If anyone has food ideas, just email us at askatasteradio.com.
[00:05:09] Ray Latif: Let us know if you are interested in having us in your city. And if you happen to have a venue that you'd like to share with us. That goes a long way. That definitely will help convince us to Go to said city, but no in all seriousness. Yeah, we're excited for The series to continue next year if you do have any suggestions send them to ask at Taste Radio.com Just quickly circling back to San Francisco got to thank our Incredible partners for the events we cannot make these things happen we can't put these events on without the support of partners and those in San Francisco included forge your project and Virtosa, Uncracked as I mentioned, Dopamine PR, and Yerba Madre. Also, huge, huge shout out to Cy Cain and his team at Straightaway Cocktails, the Portland-based ready-to-drink cocktail company that just is the best in the business. exceptional products and sigh brought with him sigh flew down from Portland for the day and I sat down with him for an interview stay tuned for that took the Straightaway Cocktails chopper No, he took the 747 He probably has like a submarine
[00:06:23] John Craven: Yeah, it's like a speakeasy inside a submarine.
[00:06:26] Ray Latif: In true Portlandia form. Yes, in true Portlandia form, he has a submarine. I mean, you can get to San Francisco from Portland by submarine. That's true. Right? Yeah. But Cy brought with him just an unbelievable amount of cocktails and a bunch of new stuff that we got to sample. So thank you very much, Cy and team. food Taste Wines slap. I'm so glad we had some slap there and make everyone feel healthy. The ginger and turmeric shots that they make are just... Those were much needed. Oh, man. They are so good.
[00:06:56] John Craven: I miss so many good brands. I heard I miss Doke beer and Kyokyo and Mindful, the L-theanine sticks.
[00:07:03] Ray Latif: My dear friend Jules Matcha Jules. You mentioned Doke beer, Fort Point and Standard Deviant supplied us with beer. So plenty to drink and imbibe and People did. San Francisco. Awesome. Everyone was all in. It was great. Now this news came amidst the day of the event. It was announced on September 18th. At least it was reported on September 18th by our dear colleague, Lukas Southard, that Slate Milk, a maker of high-protein chocolate milk and canned coffee, raised $23 million. in a round that was led by the founders of Yasso, the makers of frozen Greek novelty products. It brings the brand's total investment to $50 million. The round was a Series B round. So I gotta tell you, 10 years ago, If you had told me that a milk brand or a brand whose basis is milk, I know they sell coffee as well, but a lot of what they sell is milk, would be raising $23 million and have raised $50 million at this point and is one of the faster growing brands in the beverage industry, I would have laughed in your face. Milk in a can? Come on, that doesn't make any sense. But here we are today. Certainly we talked about this last week with the influence and impact of protein and demand for protein as, you know, probably being a core reason this brand is where it is today, Slate Milk. But come on. Have you tasted it? Yes, of course, it's delicious. Yeah, it's awesome. But just, it's so interesting. I mean, these concepts, these early stage concepts, and I bring this up because we're going to be seeing a bunch of new concepts at BevNET Live LA 2025 in December. And I know there are going to be some really out there ideas, and some of us are going to poo-poo those ideas, but just goes to show you really don't necessarily know Slate's an easy concept to understand. Do you really? Would you have said milk in a can is going to be a great idea?
[00:09:04] John Craven: I know Gen Z and Millennials drank it. I'm saying in 2015. I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't have been able to predict it, but it's pretty simple to understand and it gives you a lot of the things that you want in terms of, you know, protein and other good stuff. The can's phenomenal. It's a nice lifestyle brand. It's got the ingredients.
[00:09:23] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think you're oversimplifying by saying just milk in a can. If you gave me just chocolate milk in a can, I would say definitely not, but they're hitting on multiple trends. They have protein, they have coffee for energy, it tastes good. So I think it makes a lot of sense.
[00:09:39] John Craven: I think there are new brands where you're like, this has no chance in hell. And that's oversimplifying it too. No, but I mean, sometimes you can just sort of tell. And then I think there's other brands where you're kind of like, okay, I get this, but it doesn't seem like something that's maybe got hype behind it or got a movement that it's gonna catch on with. And then that eventually happens. And I feel like this is one of those products where you look at it and if you ask, what does this need to be successful? Again, it's less crazy than what, I don't know, maybe a drink with snake venom might need, right? It's the new Yoohoo, isn't it? But that's kind of it. It's one of those, I just knew like when they started, there was white space out there that people in the industry have probably looked at and said, okay, but I'm not that excited about that right now. And that's fine. Because again, I'd say the important part is I'm not excited about it right now. Again, this is another one of those brands that I think will be the decade long overnight success. They're just out there with conviction, doing their thing, building. And look, I mean, the timing now of everything in cans and everything with protein. lines up pretty good for them. And they're not out there just launching today, trying to chase some hype. I've also never heard Ray get really excited about brands like Yoohoo or Ovaltine either. So, I mean, it's not that dissimilar. Mike, you're always dating yourself on this podcast. I know, but I mean, those are successful brands. You said Ovaltine.
[00:11:15] Ray Latif: They're successful?
[00:11:16] John Craven: I did see Ray crushing a couple Nesquiks in the parking lot this morning, though.
[00:11:21] Ray Latif: And to be fair, Slate in 2019 pivoted a bit. In that they went from saying, OK, we're a milk brand to we're a protein platform. And so a lot of their positioning today is very much about protein. As Jackie pointed out, you know, the primary lineup is made up of two milkshakes and three iced lattes. And they very prominently on the front of the can note that there's 20 grams of protein, only one gram of sugar, and 100 calories. And that's the line amount across all those products. Do you know what the most unfortunate part of this conversation is right now? We don't have any in the office at the moment. Yeah, you know, I think that's... It's so delicious sounding. That's a good point. That's a good point. And I should clarify, there's actually six products in their primary lineup, not five. But anyway, yeah, regardless, I think just the two points I want to make here, number one, congratulations to the Slate team. And two, I think this conversation has made it clear that yes, You can have an idea that's a little bit out there, but having a point of reference, having the right positioning, or at least being able to be flexible enough to meet the positioning that you need to be successful in a particular category, and also surrounding yourself with people that are. experienced operators, or at least experienced investors, value-added investors can go a long way.
[00:12:56] John Craven: And again, I'd like to add, your product can be a little bit out there.
[00:13:01] Ray Latif: Yes.
[00:13:01] John Craven: Wildly out there, kind of hard. It's out there, but it's simple. Yeah, that's it.
[00:13:06] Ray Latif: Yeah. Again, I think we're going to see some out there products during the New Beverage Showdown at BevNET Live LA 2025. If you are not already registered, I don't even know what to say to you. at this point, like you got to come to this event. Register soon. I know what to say. Register soon. If you're in the beverage industry, you should be coming to BevNET Live LA 2025. I mean, the amount of networking, the amount of elbows you'll be rubbing with insiders, with gatekeepers, with investors, retailers, distributors, it's just really, it's a no brainer. It's happening December 7th through the 9th at the Marina del Rey Marriott. And we've already got a bunch of announcements in terms of speakers, including the one and only Bill Creelman of Spindrift. The team and the investment team behind HealthAid, including Chris Lansing, Steve Young, and Bob Nakasone will all be speaking at BevNET Live as well. Get your tickets today, bevnetlive.com. Of course, Nosh Live, which is happening on December 4th and 5th, and Brewground Live, which is happening on the 10th and 11th of December. You want to get your tickets for those events as well. Plenty of information, bevnetlive.com events.
[00:14:18] John Craven: BevNET.com slash events.
[00:14:19] Ray Latif: All right. BevNetLive.com slash events. What would we do without John Craven? Live editing. Buy my right hand.
[00:14:26] John Craven: Well done. BevNET.com slash events. BevNET.com slash events. Say it again, Ray. Just make sure you got it.
[00:14:31] Ray Latif: Actually, I wanted to talk about something else that wasn't on my bingo card this year. Of course, this brand was actually launched a couple of years ago, but our dear colleague Brad Avery wrote about it in a profile piece yesterday, actually. This is a brand called Agro, A-G-R-O. They make plant-based jerky that comes in resealable bags and they have a caffeinated variety as well. So it's very, very male oriented. So agro. Just so agro. The thing that I didn't expect is that this is a brand that was launched by the founders of Qdrinks. Qdrinks is a brand of premium cocktail mixers. We've known Jordan Silbert for many a year. So many years. Classic case of entrepreneur who just can't stop being entrepreneurial. I mean, how does cocktail mixtures relate to plant-based meat jerky? I don't know.
[00:15:20] John Craven: Maybe that was the point.
[00:15:21] Ray Latif: I guess.
[00:15:22] John Craven: Can't compete with your own beverage, Brad.
[00:15:25] Ray Latif: Yeah. And you know, to a certain extent, I don't think I've seen positioning as male forward or as leaning in the direction of masculinity as much as aggro is, at least in the plant-based category.
[00:15:38] John Craven: I was going to say, the regular jerky category is kind of loaded with it.
[00:15:43] Ray Latif: It's pretty bubba. But it's very, very clear who this is for. at the bill there's a guy who's looks like a lumberjack slash he's looks like he's about to bail some hay he's got a pitchfork he has massive forearms a good beard and some suspenders as well it looks like a girl and he's got this belt buckle that says a it's like agro man yeah yeah I'm making a superhero Yeah, I definitely want to try this stuff.
[00:16:07] John Craven: Yeah, we, uh, I think ran into Jordan at, uh, I don't know if it was Expo West, maybe? This brand's been around kind of, I don't know, stealthily, but it's, it's, it's a fun brand. I like the plays on aggro.
[00:16:24] Ray Latif: All right, we're surrounded by samples. We've got so many good products. So many products right now. Can I start with some sprinkles? Sure. All right, so Sprinkles, which is a maker of cupcakes and confectionery treats, has introduced these new cupcake bites. They come in four varieties. There's a red velvet, there's a cookie dough, there's a birthday cake, and there's a cookies and cream. So I opened the birthday cake one already. And inside these 5.5 ounce pouches, are these tiny little, they look like balls, like these small little balls, and they're bites.
[00:17:00] John Craven: They're bite-sized poppers. So it's like the cupcake on a stick without the stick.
[00:17:05] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh.
[00:17:06] John Craven: Did you see that?
[00:17:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:17:08] John Craven: Ray just sampled on Taste Radio.
[00:17:10] Jacqui Brugliera: He did it very carefully.
[00:17:12] John Craven: He did. He did it very carefully. I don't know, his weakness is always baked products.
[00:17:17] Ray Latif: These are delicious. They have a frosting flavored coating. And then inside is a cupcake like center. That's their words, not mine. They're mostly frosting though. They're mostly frosting. Yeah. They're really, really good.
[00:17:31] John Craven: What flavor you got there? I want a more basic flavor. I've got cookies and cream. What's that one? I always want the one that's in my hand.
[00:17:38] Ray Latif: Because you probably picked the most basic one. Cookie dough?
[00:17:41] John Craven: Yeah, sure. That's pretty basic.
[00:17:43] Ray Latif: Oh, they're small. I mean sprinkles makes everything amazing. Yeah, they even make good birthday cake, which again, it's not usually my favorite. Well, the cool thing about sprinkles is they are who they are, right? They know who they are. Pretty good. They make really indulgent sweets. And this is a frosting flavored cupcake like centered ball with all these different flavors. And so you're not getting Reishi mushroom, you're not getting stevia, you're not getting, they just, they're like, look, if we're going to make something, we're going to make it really delicious and indulgent because that's what customers are. Yeah, no BS in this. They know who their customers are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well done, Sprinkles. Well done, Sprinkles. Delicious line of products.
[00:18:22] John Craven: Again, love that you've gone full Ray. Hold the cheese because I'm eating healthy, but give me all the baked goods Latif here.
[00:18:31] Ray Latif: Had one I had one cupcake bite.
[00:18:33] John Craven: I had one right now, but you're you're gonna crush this whole bag Yeah, I know I guess give me an AI video of me like just crushing a pouch of one of these don't do it.
[00:18:42] Ray Latif: Don't tempt me right after the site Kane submarine I see by my left hand here that Mike brought some MixMix. I brought some weed. Yeah, MixMix is a maker of drink stick mixes that are infused with THC and CBD. There's 2mg of THC and 1mg of CBD per stick. Our dear friend Matt Sabo who was at our Taste Radio Chicago meetup sent us these. I am so excited for him and his team because this is beautiful branding and a THC and CBD level that I think people can live with.
[00:19:15] John Craven: Well, you can make your own.
[00:19:16] Ray Latif: Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:17] John Craven: Your own level because it comes with two milligrams THC, one milligram CBD. There's tart citrus. Spicy ginger. Spicy ginger. And I don't know why it's called warm vanilla, but it's called warm vanilla.
[00:19:28] Ray Latif: And it's a taster pack as well that has a variety of sticks in here. So I was pretty excited to see this.
[00:19:34] John Craven: Yeah, have you had these yet? Haven't tried them yet.
[00:19:36] Ray Latif: Can't wait. Who opened the taster pack then? Probably Marty.
[00:19:41] John Craven: Marty's been sampling.
[00:19:44] Ray Latif: Probably Marty. Yeah, no, this is, this is really cool. And I like the fact that it's actually in powder form. You know, we get so many new THC beverages that are obviously ready to drink. This allows you to take it with you. It's very portable, probably very easy to ship. And you know, it just doesn't feel, it doesn't feel like one of those. You could make it sparkling. You could make it still. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it's one of those stereotypical, very weedy and You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Just keep going, Ray. I like that. You know how many of these THC brands- Like Stoner Vibes? Yeah, exactly. The Stoner Vibes THC brand that keeps coming to the office. And I'm like, why are you doing this? Yeah, there's fewer and fewer of those nowadays.
[00:20:24] John Craven: I mean, we've got some great brands coming out. Cannabis. I mean, I feel like it's Cannabis Corner over here now.
[00:20:30] Ray Latif: But there's still a lot of them that are very Stoner culture.
[00:20:32] John Craven: Yeah, there are, but I mean, I would say if there are, but I saw that from far away, I think electrolyte drink. Yeah, well, that's the whole point. But except the purple kind of slows you down a little bit there, too. And it's all purple. And then the call outs for THC and CBD are are pretty large here, too. So I like that. Yeah, there's a lot of good things going on on this on this pack. And it's low sugar, low calorie, no hangover.
[00:20:56] Ray Latif: The tagline is mix in, even out. Mix Mix is the name of the brand. Well done.
[00:21:02] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah.
[00:21:03] Ray Latif: What do you got there, Mike?
[00:21:04] Jacqui Brugliera: You have more THC?
[00:21:05] Ray Latif: I do.
[00:21:05] Jacqui Brugliera: I have more THC. What a surprise.
[00:21:08] John Craven: I've got some Plyft here, which we've talked about on the show before, but last time we talked about it, it was in ready to drink mode. And now we've got it kind of in five-hour energy form, if you will, in little 10 milligram shots here. I've got tangerine and fruit punch, and these packages are beautiful. I might like to see a little bigger call out for the THC, but overall, really love this brand. Yeah, you've always praised the Plift. How about some Zico organic pure coconut water?
[00:21:38] Ray Latif: Yum. 100% nom nom coconuts. Nom-nom. Nom-nom, excuse me. Nom-nom.
[00:21:45] John Craven: Yeah, I mean, this stuff is like a throwback to the good old days of HPP coconut water. I don't know what the deal is with this, but it's like not from concentrate. Definitely the best tasting Zico I've ever had. Really?
[00:22:00] Ray Latif: Yeah, they come in these 13.5 ounce plastic bottles. They have like a sports grip and they come in a green, like a forest green wrap. No added sugar, but there is still quite a bit of sugar in here. 24 grams per bottle.
[00:22:14] John Craven: Oh, coconuts have sugar.
[00:22:15] Ray Latif: Yeah. Can I crack this open? I'm going to crack this open because I haven't had coconut water in a long time. There we go. All right. How is it? It's really delicious. Yeah. And it's got that pink, that light pink color. Yeah. That is often associated with Nam ham coconuts, which are grown in Thailand.
[00:22:32] John Craven: This is like a what's old is new again. I like it. Nice. Can we have a booze sampling? Cause it seems like we've talked a lot about weed. Yeah.
[00:22:42] Jacqui Brugliera: More adult beverages.
[00:22:43] John Craven: I don't know if I should pour one for Mike or not. You can smell it. This is the Appalach Carrot Root Liqueur.
[00:22:51] Ray Latif: Appalach is a brand of liqueurs made with interesting flavors founded by our dear friend Jordan Tepper, who was the founder of Host Cocktails. Host Cocktails hosted us in Chicago for our meetup.
[00:23:03] John Craven: I think they had just announced this when we were doing the meetup, but did not have it.
[00:23:09] Ray Latif: This is their new carrot variety. It smells like carrots, but it smells like carrot cake almost in a way.
[00:23:16] Jacqui Brugliera: Sweet carrots. It does have a carrot cake smell.
[00:23:19] John Craven: Good call, Ray. Kind of tastes like carrot cake almost. Really, really good call. Yeah, it tastes like a really sweet carrot cake. That's pretty good. I'm not sure if this is meant for sipping or mixing or both, but I would guess mixing.
[00:23:32] Jacqui Brugliera: I wonder what a cocktail would look like with that mixed in.
[00:23:35] Ray Latif: I'm guessing maybe you could make a Negroni with that? Only one way to find out. Yeah.
[00:23:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Carrot Negroni. Carrot Negroni.
[00:23:41] Ray Latif: We'll have to work on that later. Replace your vermouth with some carrot liqueur. Maybe we'll see what happens. OK, Jackie's got a big bottle with her.
[00:23:48] Jacqui Brugliera: Big bottle. I have Uncle Matt's Yerba Madre energy tea. Uncle Matt!
[00:23:53] Ray Latif: Wow, Yerba Madre.
[00:23:55] Jacqui Brugliera: Yes, Yerba Madre. 45 calories per serving, 100 milligrams of caffeine per serving, and it's made with wildflower honey. I feel like they're just like hitting on all of the trends with this product, clean energy, low calories, natural sweetener. And I feel like more and more people are understanding Yerba Madre and the health benefits and looking for, you know, better for you sources of caffeine. So yeah, it's cool to see. And in such a big jug too, like you can have a big bottle. You can have, you know, Yerba Madre all week long. But yeah, they also have on the back, just really focusing on that. It supports focus and digestion, no crash and no jitters and antioxidants and a little bit more education on just your Ramada on the back too, for the people that don't know what it is.
[00:24:46] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, everything that Uncle Matt's makes is top notch. They're best known for their orange juice. But in recent years, they've expanded to a lot of different other products. And the Yerba Madre Energy Tea, I think, is a nice extension for them. I wonder how much that costs. I'm going to guess $7.99, something like that.
[00:25:02] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I'm not sure.
[00:25:04] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, Yerba Madre in general is a more premium beverage. So 64 ounces of a tea, probably a good price point, but you can drink it every morning and you don't have to buy a can. You don't have to buy a big bottle. You have four or five ounces of that. I'm sure you're feeling great.
[00:25:21] Jacqui Brugliera: Exactly.
[00:25:21] Ray Latif: Yeah. Anything else over there in the WCB?
[00:25:25] Jacqui Brugliera: I have one other product. This brand was at the San Francisco meetup, Rootless. I was talking to the founder of Rootless and they are daily bites and they have seaweed in them. And I was just talking to the founder a bit just like about positioning of seaweed and For women, especially seaweed really promotes has iodine in it and promotes hormones. So she's really positioning for women to have balanced hormones. And also as you go through menopause, this can be like a daily supplement. So really interesting positioning. Tasty products. You don't taste the seaweed, which is also good. Cause I think that could really turn people off, but really good product.
[00:26:10] Ray Latif: Yeah, I would say so. I didn't get to try that, but I definitely love what they're putting out there. I gotta shout out another brand from San Francisco. That's a brand called Benni Pops, Benni Pops. I saw a whole bunch of people munching on these. They are frozen popsicle type products that are crafted with superfoods and adaptogens. The pops look like a happy face.
[00:26:31] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, looks like something that you would almost get off like an ice cream truck.
[00:26:35] Ray Latif: Exactly. Yes. And when I hopped off the mics and was done with the live podcast interviews that we had at the event, I was glistening. It was very warm where I was. And so founder Katie Sarna came over, she rushed over with one of her pops and she says, you look like you could use one of these. I said, thank you. Thank you so much. And I had one and they were delicious. Yeah, they're really good. Really, really good. Like the Rootless, you can't taste the better for you ingredients that are in there, the superfoods and adaptogens. They're just delicious. They're fun. And if you see someone eating it, you see someone eating this little smiley happy face. It's really fun. Well done, Katie. Can't wait to... Have you join us for a future episode of our Elevator Talk series, which highlights early stage and disruptive brands across the food and beverage industry. If you're interested in joining us for an episode, just let us know. You can send us a note to askatasteradio.com or apply via Taste Radio. Just go to Taste Radio slash Elevator Talk. One more beverage to speak of, and that's the one that Mike shared with us.
[00:27:35] John Craven: Back at Summer Fancy Foods, I was at the Jablo booth and met Tiffany Tang, who is the founder of heritage beverage brand called Drink Folks. Drink Folks. Drink Folks. And this one has one of your favorite ingredients, Ray, turmeric, and a BevNET favorite, ginger. It's a line of organic juice. And this one has turmeric and ginger puree and honey and All the organic, all the good stuff, all the things you tamarind, you know, some really, really good words on the back of this pack.
[00:28:06] Ray Latif: Yeah. Beautiful bottle. It's looks like an oversized spice jar. It's eight ounces. It's in a glass bottle with a metal cap and clear. You can see the old school juice bar bottle. Yeah. There you go.
[00:28:21] John Craven: This is Rev1, so just looking forward to seeing what Tiffany does with this brand, because this is the immunity that you have in your hand here. And there's, there are other SKUs as well, but I just brought the immunity of the show and it's really tasty.
[00:28:33] Ray Latif: Yeah. Love this. Very cool. Thank you. That brings us to 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 of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:29:26] Mike Schneider: you
