[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, and 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 co-hosts for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. 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. It is the final countdown to Expo West 2023. You remember that song, The Final Countdown? You guys have it?
[00:00:48] John Craven: It's the final countdown.
[00:00:50] Ray Latif: Correct.
[00:00:51] John Craven: Jackie!
[00:00:52] Ray Latif: You legend. That was very good. I love it. I looked this up yesterday on YouTube, because I went to go listen to this song. As you do every day, right? As I do every day. Now, the song is performed by the band Europe. Yes, which super group kind of strange to have a band that's named after And Continents because they're a super group That's why they name themselves after something big Mike is a closet Europe fan.
[00:01:15] Jacqui Brugliera: I just learned I mean was it I mean we live in a city that has a band called Boston named After Cities which is well, there's a band called arguably kind of dumber But no the worst is I think Asia, you know that band Asia another super group.
[00:01:31] Ray Latif: I don't have you heard Newton, right? Oh Remember that movie the 40 year old virgin when? Yeah, like you framed Asia poster in your room and like they were trying to figure out why he framed a poster of Asia Anyway, hmm, so I was watching the final countdown official video on YouTube who can tell me how many views That video has no cheating don't count down. That's I'll give everyone one guess. We'll start with John Green billion Jackie three billion
[00:02:04] Mike Schneider: Mike 800 million.
[00:02:05] Ray Latif: Wow, you guys are pretty close. My john is correct with 1 billion views.
[00:02:11] Mike Schneider: It was super popular a couple of years ago. And so people just were going final countdown nuts as it comes around every once in a while. So I figured it had to be at least 800 million.
[00:02:21] John Craven: Okay, I mean, it applies to any situation. It's like a perfect tick tock real song.
[00:02:26] Mike Schneider: It also used to be like a when that when you when you launch a new product Since The startup world People would you know play the song while they're trying to get it into the Apple Store.
[00:02:36] Ray Latif: How did I miss all this? Yeah? Actually Well, it is the final countdown. We're less than a week away from Expo 2023. Exciting stuff. Thank you to everyone who submitted news to our portal on BevNET and Nosh. Really appreciate it. We have a lot of booths to visit and we are going to be bringing... And Europe thanks all of the... Our entire crew is heading out there and we're gonna be doing a bunch of filming reporting photographing podcasting it's a Gramming Gramming Gramming Gramming sampling some talking sampling chatting walking catching up with friends lots of INGs yeah Outside of the floor at Expo West, we highly encourage you to come meet us at a few events, a few meetups, including the Snack Shot and BevNET event that is happening on Tuesday. I'm really excited for that.
[00:03:39] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's going to be very interesting. It's going to be epic. Andrea has curated some pretty unique brands for the sampling as part of that. I think we're at capacity on it, so. I guess if you have an RSVP, don't come see us. We'll be doing another one. Don't worry. I swear. Uh, yeah, we're doing that in LA. Should be a good little, uh, precursor to Expo. I called it a shindig.
[00:04:05] Ray Latif: Well, if you don't see us at the Snack Shot and BevNET event on Tuesday, you will see us at the Startup CPG Alley Rally event, which is happening on Thursday, March 9th at the Bolero Anaheim at 400 Disney Way. Check it out. There will be quite a few folks there, including several of us from the BevNET and Taste Radio team.
[00:04:26] John Craven: Are we going to be making a Taste Radio bowling team?
[00:04:30] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to be at the booth Since The corner slumped over because I'm so tired.
[00:04:36] Mike Schneider: I'm gonna be sampling and and I usually like to catch up the Mid-Day Squares usually there, and they're always up for some shenanigans So I'll probably be doing some you know silly video or or maybe playing pickleball with Jake Pickleball yeah pickleball.
[00:04:52] Jacqui Brugliera: He's so into pickleball. I mean I'll bowl if anyone's interested. It's like in my Long Island roots You know I was on a bowling team
[00:05:00] John Craven: Yeah, I remember New England's candle pin bowling.
[00:05:05] Mike Schneider: Oh, none of that in Anaheim. Oh my God. That's just another reason that people are like, oh my God, Boston are hardcore because candle pin bowling is so bleeping hard. So hard. It's wicked hard.
[00:05:19] John Craven: Tiny balls, tiny pins.
[00:05:20] Ray Latif: You even get three chances and it's impossible. No, I've definitely rolled strikes at candle pin. Yeah, once. One thousandth. Ray has his own.
[00:05:29] John Craven: You must be amazing at bowling.
[00:05:31] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, you'd be amazeballs if you're getting strikes. Ray has his own ball. And one of those little wrist guard things.
[00:05:38] Ray Latif: You ever see Kingpin?
[00:05:39] Jacqui Brugliera: You ever see Kingpin? I'm Bill Murray in Kingpin. The Big Lateefski.
[00:05:42] Ray Latif: The Big Lateefski. Nice. Also, one other meetup I want to highlight, that is the meetup of MENA CPG. Now MENA CPG is a new industry organization with a mission to elevate entrepreneurs and professionals of Middle Eastern and North African heritage who have been historically underrepresented and unrecognized in CPG. The meetup is being held at the Better Sour booth Since The North Hall. 1344 is the booth number. It's being held from 12 to 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 9th. I will be co-hosting this meetup, so please check us out. A lot of fun, a lot of cool brands, and a lot of cool people. All right. Just want to give a shout out to our presenting sponsor for this episode. That's Cognizant. Cognizant is a clinically tested nootropic ingredient that delivers a patented form of citric choline to supply your brain and those of your consumers with the energy it needs to stay sharp. Learn more at Cognizant.com. That's C-O-G-N-I-Z-I-N dot com.
[00:06:44] Mike Schneider: I'm drinking it now.
[00:06:46] Ray Latif: There you go. And you're center enhanced.
[00:06:48] Mike Schneider: Center enhanced, yeah. Yes. John said I need to be sharper, so I'll go for some Cognizant.
[00:06:52] Jacqui Brugliera: He takes Cognizant like five minutes for each one of these. It's about the only time of the day he's intelligent.
[00:06:57] Mike Schneider: The rest of the time I'm running into walls. I'm like, I fell off the stairs the other day. You fell off the stairs?
[00:07:04] Jacqui Brugliera: No. Oh God. It's for the show, right? He fell down the elevator shaft Since The office.
[00:07:08] Mike Schneider: We have one.
[00:07:09] Ray Latif: Can you believe that? That's so great. The elevator. So cognizant, good for your brain. Erythritol? Maybe not so much. Well, there's a lot of conversation happening around erythritol related to a new study that claims that the sweetener may elevate your risk of heart attack and stroke. Guessing that'll be a much talked about subject at Expo West. John Craven, people have been peppering you with this topic. What are you hearing?
[00:07:38] Jacqui Brugliera: Well, I think, you know, if you look at this study, it's certainly, the headline is not so great. I don't know, without getting into details, it's kind of not totally relevant to your typical beverage, but this sort of stuff, as we've seen with other artificial zero calorie sweeteners is, you never helpful. I mean, I think we've seen these back Since The days of aspartame and saccharin and all that stuff. And, you know, look, I mean, this is just the dilemma that faces every CPG company that is trying to be responsible about how much sugar they put in their product. And, you know, I think there's a wide array of sugar-free, zero-calorie sweeteners out there. And this is just, again, I guess, sort of the harsh reality that Some of these come with certain baggage, so I'm sure that it will have right now, at least a knee jerk of, you know, that's a bad ingredient, but I don't know, to me, I think the jury is probably still out on what this really does to consumer awareness. of it. I don't think it's an overly well-known sweetener Since The consumer world with, you know, things like Stevia and Splenda and whatever that have spent, you know, or NutraSweet that have spent tons and tons of time and money to, you know, create awareness. So, don't know. I guess jury's still out, as I said.
[00:09:06] Ray Latif: Now the study was conducted by analysts at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and the Calorie Control Council, which represents and is an international association representing the low and reduced calorie food and beverage industry at a kind of harsh reply. They said, like the previous study conducted by this group, which investigated associations between low and no calorie sweeteners and cancer, these allegations are contrary to decades of scientific research showing these sweeteners are safe as evidenced by global regulatory permissions for their use. For the full story, head to BevNetOrNosh.com, which details exactly what the study is all about. And again, the response from the Calorie Control Council.
[00:09:53] Mike Schneider: Do you think anyone would go to BevNET or Nosh.com? Should you say BevNET.com or Nosh.com? Maybe we should register BevNET or Nosh.com.
[00:10:01] Ray Latif: We probably should. Right, people do exactly what you tell them to do. Do they? Okay, well, people that are listening that are early stage entrepreneurs and... looking for some awareness or looking to build awareness about their brands, Elevator Talk is the way to do it. Get your brand Since The spotlight and at the attention of the industry's gatekeepers. For those who are not familiar, and I don't know why you are not familiar at this point, Elevator Talk is a bi-monthly video series that features short interviews with entrepreneurs representing emerging brands from across the food and beverage industry. The discussion is focused on business strategy, new products, news, And it gives brand owners an opportunity to hear feedback and constructive criticism from an industry expert, including investors, retail buyers, and successful entrepreneurs. We're all connected via Zoom. It's typically five entrepreneurs per episode. An hour long program is a great way, great way to build awareness for your brand, introduce yourselves to the industry, and get your brand in front of the industry's most important gatekeepers. Apply to join us for a future episode at BevNET.com or Nosh.com slash Elevator Talk. I remember when we had Hema Reddy, who is the founder of a brand called Crafty Counter on Elevator Talk. And she has finally, or Crafty Counter has finally released their plant-based hard-boiled eggs known as Wunder Eggs.
[00:11:31] Mike Schneider: Oh, get those in my belly. Yeah, exactly.
[00:11:33] Ray Latif: Now, according to Crafty Counter, Wunder Eggs are the world's first whole food, plant-based hard-boiled eggs. And they think you're going to love them. I know I do. Now Wunder Eggs is really interesting because I saw these first at Expo West 2022 and I tried them for the first time and they have finally come out with a commercialized version that are now available nationally at Whole Foods. They sent us a bunch of their products and I'm really excited to have even more. The best part about it is, now they come in packs of six, six half-sized hard-boiled eggs. There's even some salt that comes with each package. It's in this plastic tray, and I assume you put the salt in this little, what is that, like a reservoir? A trough, maybe? A trough, and then dip your eggs in there. So I'm going to have one right now. Mike, did you have these before? I have. Can I see the package?
[00:12:24] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, do you want to see this package? Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. They're made mostly with nuts nuts. Yeah, I see water almonds cashews coconut milk Yeah, what's that protein our yeast? I? Haven't had a little salt. I can't wait a protein count. Let's see here. Well if you eat two Mm-hmm. What do you get here? That's us right three grams of protein so obviously a little lower than an egg and Yes.
[00:12:54] Mike Schneider: You know that really heavy, eggy smell that's, you know, almost stinks? They smell like that. It's awesome.
[00:13:00] Jacqui Brugliera: It's a hard-boiled egg, you know? It's a hard-boiled egg.
[00:13:03] Ray Latif: Yes, there is a certain aroma that is associated with hard-boiled eggs, and this has them, but in a good way. In any case, congratulations to Hema and her team. I know they've been working on this for a long, long time. What do you think? It's great. I feel like the yolk, and I think I mentioned this to Hema last time, the yolk, they nail it. It's outstanding. I think the white is probably going to- I think the albumen is the thing they nail.
[00:13:25] Mike Schneider: The what? The white part's called the albumen.
[00:13:28] Ray Latif: This is a riddle.
[00:13:28] Mike Schneider: This is no joke. The white of the egg is called the? Alboron? Albumen.
[00:13:33] Ray Latif: Say yoke though anyway, so Yeah, I think that's the part that they just they nail but you you think the yoke is yeah, I really little nutty I really like the yoke and I feel like this does address a Real need I think there are some people who really loved hard-boiled eggs and can't for one reason or another and now they can again And so yeah
[00:13:55] John Craven: Yeah, it's cool to see other egg replacements. I know we have like Just Egg, which I use a lot. And now we have an option for hard-boiled egg. So it's cool to have different formats that you can substitute.
[00:14:07] Ray Latif: Yeah. And they also note on their website, there's some environmental impact or environmental benefits of using or creating plant-based eggs. They note that one chicken egg requires 7,000 gallons of water. Also, if you're eating factory farmed eggs, chickens live in tightly packed cages. And it takes chickens 34 hours to make one egg. I didn't know that, that's interesting.
[00:14:29] Mike Schneider: I didn't know that, but I usually just drink one glass of water with an egg.
[00:14:31] Ray Latif: I don't know who's drinking 700,000. Anywho, anywho. John Craven, you have some booze in front of you. What's this? Yeah, you know, I always just keep a little booze in front of me. Always. I would have mentioned that in past episodes. I should have mentioned that in past episodes.
[00:14:47] Jacqui Brugliera: I Am not a rookie here. I've been working Since The beverage world for a long time comfortable being around alcohol without consuming it all day long Unlike some people, but anyway I have the Via Carota ready-to-pour Negroni they also have a whole host of other cocktail classics They're pretty good. I've had a couple of them so V Corota. They're a bar restaurant right yeah, yeah in New York City Yes, yes, I've never been but now they have this with or without Campari I think they probably make their own. I'm gonna go with without just based on the taste. Yeah, so it's a good It's a good Negroni rift definitely respectable. I again would consume it not right now while we're To be clear to be clear right after They have an old-fashioned a Manhattan white Negroni Espresso martini yes, I think there's a regular martini in there, too. I think maybe I
[00:16:01] Ray Latif: Nice, I like them. Maybe I'm making that up or just made a line extension for them. Hey. Now, this is a product that has no alcohol, but very exciting. Nonetheless, souped up. Did you guys see this? This new product from Athletic Brewing, where they partnered with Super Coffee on a pre-workout beverage, I believe it is, or is it post?
[00:16:20] Jacqui Brugliera: Pre pretty nice, and I think it's got some protein in it. Yeah, that's a pretty cool Collaboration from you know two companies that Well, we certainly like the folks from so yeah curious to see how that plays out I'm surprised we don't have any right now typically athletics pretty quick on getting us products I think they might be holding off on that until they're doing like a little event during South by Southwest, I believe. So I should say little, I don't know. It's got some pretty interesting celebrities and stuff at it. Have you ever been to South by Southwest? You know, it's right after Expo West. I have. A bajillion times. Yeah, he's been. Yeah, what's it like?
[00:17:01] Mike Schneider: It's uh, I don't know. It's kind of, when I used to go, I used to go to the Interactive, it was called Interactive, maybe they still Call Him that, but- Back Since The 86?
[00:17:10] Jacqui Brugliera: It kind of felt like going, yeah, back in 1986.
[00:17:14] Mike Schneider: The Stone Age is when we were checking out on Foursquare. I went to South by Southwest before South by Southwest was invented, Ray. It felt like going to college for a week with all the people that you wanted to go to college with because you'd be learning all day And then you'd be partying all night, so it's it's pretty crazy nice speaking of going to college got this reminiscent of a college joke sort of Mr..
[00:17:41] Jacqui Brugliera: Beast D's nuts bar
[00:17:49] Ray Latif: Feastables is the name of the brand.
[00:17:51] Jacqui Brugliera: Feastables, Mr. Feastables Deez Nuts Bar.
[00:17:55] Mike Schneider: Now you can't say Feastables Deez Nuts Bar. It's Feastables Deez Nuts Bar.
[00:18:00] Jacqui Brugliera: Okay, I'm not gonna say that, but thank you Mike. That was great. Yeah, it's a milk chocolate bar with peanut butter. Easy and you TZ. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to try some? Oh, I've tried it. I actually did a review of it on tick tock. Yeah. I mean, as far as my, my, I mean, my tick tock account is amazing. I'm going to start offering tick tock services. Actually, the best part was when I set it up. One of my kids texted me and was like, dad, you have tick tock. I'm trying to do some cringy stuff, and yeah You know what did your kid cringe cuz then you're successful. That's how you know she she was like Can you send me some of those mr.. Beast chocolate bar?
[00:18:47] Ray Latif: I guess my review my review worked I can't tell if any of this is like truth or the truth or just being made up on the spot I Anyway, no, it's it's interesting. This has a QR code Since The back I see a lot more brands using QR codes the QR code Since The back promises more noms more prizes and more beast if you scan here I did not win a prize I had to put scissors and lost every time when you when you scan it.
[00:19:11] Mike Schneider: Do you get a prize? This is what happens you play you play games for prizes. It's just like mr. Beat the mr. Beast Since The real world You know I make everything fun.
[00:19:18] Jacqui Brugliera: That's right. Tell me what you think I mean. It's it's a serviceable chocolate bar I think that's the best one Yeah, okay. Oh here. We go.
[00:19:26] Mike Schneider: No. It's pretty tasty To me.
[00:19:29] Jacqui Brugliera: It's as an old dude. It's reminiscent of those Andy's candies.
[00:19:33] Ray Latif: It's got like a really thin layer Yes, exactly what it's like except a peanut butter version right this is good I like that it only has seven ingredients cane sugar organic cocoa butter organic chocolate is Organic milk peanuts salt and organic vanilla powder I'm tasty we're on this account look What's going on over there?
[00:19:54] Jacqui Brugliera: He's checking out my TikTok account, trying to get a few tips.
[00:19:56] John Craven: As long as you didn't say the TikTok.
[00:19:57] Jacqui Brugliera: It's creeping. It's like the five. Yeah, I picked a good song.
[00:20:03] John Craven: Was it trending?
[00:20:05] Jacqui Brugliera: It's blowing up. This thing's blown up.
[00:20:07] John Craven: It's got 60 likes.
[00:20:08] Jacqui Brugliera: That's not terrible for your first... That's pretty good. I know.
[00:20:12] John Craven: It only goes up from there.
[00:20:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Just wait till the end, as they like to say, right?
[00:20:16] John Craven: Oh my God, the dance when you're like...
[00:20:17] Ray Latif: I honestly don't know what's going on right now. I feel like I'm actually having, I'm asleep and I'm. The moral of the story here folks is go to John's TikTok account and watch him headbang to these nuts.
[00:20:38] Mike Schneider: All right.
[00:20:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Mike's gone full double.
[00:20:47] Mike Schneider: How come that's only had 60 likes well, I only posted it like a minute ago Mike While Mike's recovering from the D's nuts tick-tock video Thank you gotta keep it going
[00:21:15] John Craven: I have two products that I want to shout out and then two products that I'm really curious to try. First product, Nuent. They're on the cover of BevNET magazine, January, February issue.
[00:21:27] Mike Schneider: Yeah, Nguyen Coffee supply, so good.
[00:21:29] John Craven: So good. I've been caffeinated all day, but they were on the cover along with Pop and Bottle and Super Coffee. We did a roundup of the category of coffee. So check that out on BevNET.com.
[00:21:41] Mike Schneider: Jackie, did you see their Instagram? They have like their RobustaBean has an Instagram account. If you go to RobustaBean.
[00:21:49] John Craven: It's like the cutest little cartoon of the BevNET award And I just I need a stuffed version of it like a stuffed BevNET award We got to find somebody who makes I want you to have that And then another brand, um, Mike and I were talking about them at length yesterday, Tucson Tamale was my breakfast and they will be at Expo West. Uh, they are in our insider guide, which is published on BevNET.com. I'm definitely going to be making multiple trips to their booth. They always have quality products sampled. So that's another, another shout out. I was looking at Nosh.com. I found a couple of products that I was really interested in trying. There's a company called Oishi, and they are focused on vertical farming, hydroponic strawberries, and they have a new variety of strawberry that they just launched. But it was really interesting because it's just really focused...
[00:22:43] Mike Schneider: They made a variety of strawberry?
[00:22:45] John Craven: Awesome. That's innovation. They take these seeds from Japan. So the founder, he's from Japan and he has a couple different varietals of strawberries. And he was really focused on sustainability and bringing more hydroponic farming to urban settings. So it's really interesting to see that you can buy like these trays of just like these perfect strawberries. They're a little bit pricey, but I think it's worth it considering the sustainability and the quality of the product. What do you mean?
[00:23:15] Mike Schneider: Like it's a $50 strawberry?
[00:23:17] John Craven: No, it's like $15 a tray.
[00:23:19] Mike Schneider: Wow.
[00:23:19] John Craven: Okay. So not, you know, unreasonable, but for the average consumer might be a little bit out of their price range. And then, for all the Ed Sheeran fans, there is a new hot sauce coming out called Tingly Ted. I am an Ed Sheeran fan.
[00:23:36] Ray Latif: Ed Sheeran has three of the most viewed videos on YouTube, by the way. A billion? Several billion, actually.
[00:23:43] John Craven: I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it.
[00:23:45] Ray Latif: What's Ray's knowledge of... I looked all this up yesterday.
[00:23:48] John Craven: All right, come in YouTube.
[00:23:50] Ray Latif: Yeah, checking out the view. That's pretty much what I do 24 seven. I'm not here. Yeah, when I'm not podcasting is I'm scrolling through YouTube. True story.
[00:23:59] John Craven: Well, Ed Sheeran, huge following and Kraft Heinz is tapping into that they're partnering with Ed for this line of Tingly Ted hot sauces, which is kind of a play on ketchup meets hot sauce. A sauce that you can put on anything. And fun fact, Ted was Ed Sheeran's childhood nickname. So that's where the name came from.
[00:24:20] Mike Schneider: He didn't look Since The promotion photos, he didn't look like super happy about it. Or is that just resting Ed face?
[00:24:28] John Craven: I think that's just him. He's kind of just a chill dude. Just chill. He's not very animated.
[00:24:33] Ray Latif: I don't know between these nuts and tapping Tingly Ted. I think a strange place right now for Taste Radio Talk about meat snacks No, in front of Mike here, we've got some delicious charcuterie from a brand called Veroni. Veroni is a historical Italian cured meat producer. I think they started out in 1925, according to press releases I'm looking at in their head. They have a new product here. It's called Apertime. Enjoy Apertime. And it has almonds and cheese and dried pears and all kinds of charcuterie in there. And Mike has been staring at it, drooling for at least the past 35 to 45 minutes.
[00:25:19] Mike Schneider: So many good words on there. Dried pear, provolone, coppa, salami. Yeah, that apertime does look like it looks like maritime and that looks like an anchor and I thought it might have fish But it doesn't so that that part a tad confusing, but like it's unmistakable because you can see right through the pack Well, if we cracked open the Negroni, we would have a perfect pairing right now because it's aperitivo It's intended to be like a play on aperitivo time.
[00:25:45] Ray Latif: We've got some eggs.
[00:25:46] Jacqui Brugliera: We've got some we've got some negroni Yeah, like it's just on fire. The cognizant is just kicking in
[00:25:54] Mike Schneider: See how sharp I am now? I'm wicked sharp.
[00:25:58] Ray Latif: All right, but we've got some other beverages as well. Mike's sipping on something else other than the center. We do.
[00:26:03] Mike Schneider: Now, you would probably Call Him Farming Karma, but in Boston, it might be Farming Karma and not C-O-M-M-A, K-A-R-M-A. Farming Karma, it's a beverage out of Canada, and it's basically a sparkling fruit drink, 15 grams of sugar, super tasty. I've got pear here, which I like. We've also got apple. and berry. And they're positioned as sodas, so they're like lower sugar soda with no sugar added. It's just all from fruit juice.
[00:26:37] Ray Latif: I'm liking that you spelled it out for folks who would have thought that you were talking about the punctuation comma versus phamma. So confusing. Phamma, comma. Yeah. All right. Stomachs are churning at this point with all the charcuterie, energy drinks, Negronis. No, the Negronis haven't consumed chocolate, et cetera. So it's probably time to sign off. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of Taste Radio. Excited to see you all at Expo West. As always for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci, our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
