[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Taste Radio, the number one podcast for The Good and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my BevNET and Notch colleagues, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. As always, we would love it if you could share Taste Radio with your friends and colleagues, and of course, review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. You know, this is the time of year when I typically head to the dentist to go get a cleaning. It's just pre-trade shows, you know, usually catching up on my pearly whites, making sure that I have that gleaming smile when I'm meeting with folks from around the industry. But I was just thinking this morning about how much I really don't like going to the dentist. But it's more so because every time I go to the dentist, whether it's a dentist, hygienist, orthodontist, whatever, they're always talking to you, and your mouth is open, and they've got your hands and fingers in your mouth, and they're like, oh, you know, I've really gotten to MMA lately. What do you think? I can't talk right now, dude. My fingers are in my mouth. And I'm not sure, is this a common thing for you guys, too? Do your dentists talk to you? Do your hygienists talk to you? Totally.
[00:01:22] Natural Products: There are just so many questions with, like, that last 30 seconds, Ray. Dennis talks to you about MMA. I mean, what? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[00:01:33] Expo East: That's, that's the thing that drives me crazy. If they want to talk to you, Ray, especially someone who's into MMA, just clamp right down and clamp right down on a finger and see what happens.
[00:01:45] Ray Latif: Just a quick kick to their head. Can the dad jokes not start in the first two minutes of the show? Can we wait until like the last two minutes or something? I don't know.
[00:01:54] Expo East: I didn't even think that was a joke. Just bite them.
[00:01:57] Ray Latif: They'll stop talking. I bet you meant like a clamp, like, you know, hold, like an MMA. That's funny. The thing is, like, I mentioned MMA because this was one dentist who's not my current dentist, but he mentioned this a long time ago. He's just like, he's like, oh, yeah, I really got into, like, Krav Maga or whatever the hell they call it. He's like, you know, are you a MMA fan? I'm like, I can't talk.
[00:02:15] Taste Radio: Shut up. Happened to me.
[00:02:20] Ray Latif: Okay, that's my two-minute rant on dentists to start the show. I hope I didn't offend anyone in our audience who may happen to be a dentist. But anyway, welcome back. John Craven, haven't seen in a bit. I know you've been traveling a little bit here and there. You were in Hilton Head for a minute, weren't you?
[00:02:36] Natural Products: Yes, down in the Carolinas for a little bit. You did some golfing down there. I hear that's what they do. If mini golf counts, uh, it's about the only golf I, well, I don't even play it. I took my kids to mini golf, so yeah. Sorry to disappoint Ray. I don't think you're, you as a golfer.
[00:02:52] Ray Latif: No, it's fine. I'm not a huge golfer myself. Jackie, you golf?
[00:02:57] Taste Radio: No, I drive the cart.
[00:02:59] Ray Latif: Oh yeah. The cart's fine. It is fun. It's, uh, it's even more fun when you like, you really go as fast as you can, but people don't seem to like that when you're on the course, they don't like golf cart speeding as far as I can tell.
[00:03:11] Taste Radio: They don't invite me often.
[00:03:12] Ray Latif: Fair enough. So, John, when you were out in Hilton Head, you were still working, right? Because I'm assuming it took a lot of work to get to the place we're in right now with the new look, BebNet.com. What are some of the things that have changed about BebNet.com?
[00:03:33] Natural Products: Yeah right well we just gave it a new sort of refreshed look. I think we've moved on from the 2008 design, maybe it's 2018 now but no it's it's, you know, just a little refresh and also have a new. feature to be able to listen to the stories like audio of them, both for accessibility and I guess lazy folks like myself who are already enjoying listening to our stories while driving my car. But more, more new stuff to come. And also going to have those features on Nosh and Brewbound soon, so.
[00:04:08] Ray Latif: Yeah, very cool. Isn't it interesting? So people who listen to podcasts want transcripts, yet people who read articles on the website want the audio. So I guess it's the best of both worlds. We're trying to offer everything we can.
[00:04:20] Natural Products: Why not?
[00:04:20] Ray Latif: Yeah. Now the option to listen to articles is only currently available to insiders of BevNET and Nosh. If you'd like that feature and you'd like to read or listen to any articles on BevNET or Nosh, it's easy to do so. You just become an insider. $49 a month, $375 a year. Probably the best investment you'll make in 2021 and beyond. It's like that commercial for Carlsberg beer. It's probably the best beer in the world. As we all know, Carlsberg is the best beer in the world. this is the best option you could make in 2021, is to become an insider of DevNet and Nosh. Very easy to do so. Go to the upper right-hand corner of either site, register, and you'll have access to all of our content forever. As long as you keep paying us, that is.
[00:05:08] Expo East: $49 a month or $31.25 a month or less if you sign up your whole team. We're trying to make it easy. Absolutely.
[00:05:23] Ray Latif: Now, some of that content or upcoming content is going to be related to the 2021 Natural Products Expo East show, which is coming up in a very short amount of time, the 22nd to the 25th of September. We are planning to attend and excited to see folks on site. If you are planning to attend, please let us know if you have any news about new products brand revamps, etc., just send us an email to news at BevNET.com if it's beverage-related or news at Nosh.com if it is food-related. Now, for folks attending, we're putting together a handy-dandy booth guide. Jackie, can you tell us all about this guide?
[00:06:05] Taste Radio: We are putting together a new guide, which will feature all of our insiders across food and beverage that are exhibiting at the show. We are taking booth numbers. So if you go to our sites and you go under submit, you'll see a form to submit your booth number and also your news. So it's a great tool for us to just plan our coverage for the event and also make sure that you're not missed in our guide. So check that out and submit your booth number. We'll get you in there. And if you're not an insider, become an insider And Unwet'll make sure you're included as well.
[00:06:35] Expo East: Is that just for brands, Jackie? Or can anybody, any insider?
[00:06:39] Taste Radio: For everyone. So anyone exhibiting that is an insider will be included in that guide.
[00:06:44] Natural Products: Cool. And if you're not an insider or not exhibiting, but you're going to be at the show, just reach out to us. I think we're all trying to figure out who to meet up with and what else to see that isn't just an exhibit too. So definitely reach out.
[00:06:59] Ray Latif: Indeed. Well, we hope to see a lot of folks there. Just once again, let us know if you'll be attending. You can reach out to us on really any way. Probably the easiest way to reach out to us on Taste Radio is ask at Taste Radio or hit us up on Instagram. Bev Trade with Y, BevNET Craven, Eat with Cui or BevNET Mike. Now I get a lot of my news about new products, line extensions, brand revamps, et cetera, on Instagram. And a lot of folks reach out to me via that platform, including the folks from Alldae Cascara, a new brand of Cascara products. It's spelled A-L-L-D-A-E. We had a nice visit coordinated via Instagram to our office from one of the co-founders. That's Ryan McDonald, who stopped by and dropped off some of his cans of Alde. John Craven, you have some with you, yes? I do, drinking a can of the ginger flavor right now. I'm going to have to try that. Which brings me to another point. If you do have a new product, you happen to be in the Boston area, let us know. You can stop by, drop it off. We can meet you out on the deck if need be. Just shoot us an email to ask at Taste Radio And Unwet'll happily have you over. In addition to sipping on your Cascara, John Craven, what else do you got on your desk these days?
[00:08:15] Natural Products: Well, nowadays, I feel like it's still just raining, kind of ready to drink cocktails and hard seltzer type products. Got this one from Sail Away Coffee that's a cold brew and hard seltzer mix. And otherwise, it seems like there's a ton of tequila products coming out right now for whatever reason.
[00:08:35] Ray Latif: Yeah, where's all this tequila coming from? It seems like there's no shortage of new tequila. Hold on. Oh, OK. OK, here you go.
[00:08:47] Natural Products: Straight from the box. Yeah, literally just got this one here in a box as we were starting up, which is Cala Rosa. This is, I think, the one that Adam Levine of Maroon 5 is involved in. So yeah, a Rosa Blanca. It's like looks kind of pinkish. We'll see. We're going to we'll fire up a lot of margaritas this weekend and do some testing. followed a map that led to us.
[00:09:13] Ray Latif: We're going to have to come up with a list of celebrities that are not involved in a tequila brand and it's going to be a very, very short list. Eva Longoria apparently is involved with a new luxury tequila brand as well. I'll let you know if we get some in the near future And Unwet'll chat about that as well.
[00:09:28] Natural Products: I also saw, I don't know if you saw the one that Hayden Slater of Press Juicery is doing. No. Tequila. It's called 818. It's with Kendall Jenner. I'm sure we'll see that all over social media. There you go. It all comes back to Instagram, doesn't it? There you go.
[00:09:48] Expo East: It sure does. I mean, gigantic things are happening on Instagram as well. I got this through Instagram and this one, this is their new smashing pumpkin.
[00:10:00] Ray Latif: If you're not watching the video, Mike's holding up a candy bar from the folks at Gigantic Bar Gigantic they are for sure.
[00:10:08] Expo East: Yeah, Gigantic being the Pixie song and now they're going with more indie rock smashing pumpkins.
[00:10:14] Dentist Prattle: I love it. There's Ray. It's really tasty. Flavor is Gigantic Bar advertised. Well done. Well done.
[00:10:24] Taste Radio: Just in time for fall. Have you seen any other pumpkin products in the office yet?
[00:10:30] Ray Latif: Actually, you know what's interesting? I haven't seen as many. I know obviously if you follow Trader Joe's or if you shop there at all, this is the time of year when literally half the store becomes pumpkin flavored something. But yeah, not a lot of pumpkin-flavored line extensions. I think Super Coffee has one that they come out with every year. Maple pumpkin. Yeah, their maple pumpkin. But other than that, not too much. I think people are pumpkined out, really, honestly. So I recently got from the fine folks at The Good Crisp, maker of canister packaged potato chips, their newest addition to their brand portfolio, these new cheese balls. Now they come in two varieties, cheddar cheese and aged white cheddar. What's really interesting about these products, now we've seen other Better For You snack brands come out with cheese balls in the past. This is, as far as I know, the first one with a functional component to it. These snacks also include an ingredient called Wellmune. Wellmune is intended to help boost your immunity. I chatted about this product line and the brand as a whole with Matt Perry, who is the founder and CEO of The Good Crisp. for an episode of Taste Radio that's coming up very shortly. If you'd like to listen to it, stay tuned. As always, Taste Radio. And it's a really interesting interview. It's a really great one about this guy who saw this opportunity like a lot of folks did for a better for you type of Pringles. And he, as far as I can tell, is the only one that's been successful with it. And Unwet get behind why he was successful with that in our conversation. Such an enthusiastic founder. I can't wait to hear this one, right? Yes, it's a good guy. A man from the land down under who now lives stateside.
[00:12:22] Taste Radio: Speaking of Instagram and new products, on Nosh this week, we released the article about Chobani's new peanut butter blends. So they're getting away from center store with this new product. They have two sub lines, one's for introducing peanut allergies to infants. And then the other one is for adults and young adults that are more nutrient dense. But it's interesting, they've partnered with Adesio, which is actually a company that was part of their incubator. So interesting product to see, especially, you know, coming out of the center store. So cool to see what will happen next with those products. But you can read about it on Nosh.com.
[00:13:08] Expo East: There's lots of great news on Nosh right now, Jackie. There's news about Beyond Meat. There's Chicken, C-H-K-N, who, you know, which is not chicken. They've raised money. I mean, there's so many, so many things happening in The Good industry right now. You gotta read Nosh.
[00:13:21] Taste Radio: Yeah, there's a lot of movement.
[00:13:23] Ray Latif: Chicken, but not chicken. That seems to be a theme. Right.
[00:13:26] Expo East: Chicken, not chicken.
[00:13:28] Ray Latif: Yes. Stroopwafels, but always stroopwafels.
[00:13:32] Expo East: Rip Van waffles.
[00:13:35] SPEAKER_??: Nice.
[00:13:35] Ray Latif: The great folks behind this Brad Avery sent me some of their latest flavor varieties, including the one I'm holding in my hand, which is their lemon variety. I'm excited to try this, have not yet. I also have a couple of gluten-free varieties that they launched a few weeks back. These gluten-free varieties include a Dutch Caramel and Vanilla flavor and a Snickerdoodle flavor. Great stuff, as always, Rip Van coming out with high-quality products. Yeah, I think for a time, people were thinking, oh, the Stroopwafels aren't really going to do too, too well because, you know, they have too much sugar and they're too sweet of a snack. But what's interesting is Rip Van reformulated their products a while back to include a limited amount of sugar in each one of these. And this lemon variety in my hand only has three grams of sugar per Stroopwafel, which is pretty solid stuff. Very well done indeed. Now we can't get through an episode of Taste Radio without talking about mushrooms. It's like the new CBD. Yeah, CBD, right, CBD. We have a resident mushroom expert enthusiast, Al of the above, Jackie Boulair with us. Jackie, have you tried these new munchrooms? It's a mushroom jerky.
[00:14:47] Taste Radio: No, I haven't heard of them.
[00:14:51] Ray Latif: Yes. New brand, as are a lot of mushroom jerky brands, is Munchrooms, M-U-N-C-H-R-O-M-S. They're described as magically satisfying, simple, and healthy. This one I have in my hand is their Cracked Black Pepper variety. I haven't tried this stuff yet, so we're going to do a live on-air tasting here.
[00:15:12] Taste Radio: I'm also curious about the word magical in that.
[00:15:16] Expo East: Okay. I have tried munchrooms and Ray do before any mushroom that says magic, you should be careful what the magic might be. That's a good point.
[00:15:28] Ray Latif: Be careful. Well, I think this says snacks smarter. So I think this is the brain boosting function as it relates to mushrooms, as opposed to the brain altering.
[00:15:39] Expo East: Magically satisfying might be something they want to think about.
[00:15:43] Ray Latif: I'm trying to hold this up on the video. It's actually, it looks like a very dry, dry rub kind of type of mushroom jerky. So I don't know if that makes any sense to folks, but let me try it.
[00:15:54] Expo East: I've had these before. They'The Good. They're not going to do what, what me and Jackie were just talking about.
[00:16:02] Taste Radio: You'll be fine.
[00:16:03] Expo East: Yeah. You're not going to be like a nine perfect strangers melting.
[00:16:08] Ray Latif: These are great. What I like about them is that they're not, I don't know how else to say this, but like, you know, sometimes you get jerky, whether it's plant-based or beef based, and it's like wet.
[00:16:18] Taste Radio: Yeah. It's like slimy almost.
[00:16:21] Ray Latif: Exactly, exactly.
[00:16:22] Taste Radio: Your hands get all greasy.
[00:16:23] Ray Latif: This is definitely not that. You're not going to get any wet hands as a result of eating these. Wow. That sounds so awful.
[00:16:32] Taste Radio: You reach into that bag and there's just moisture.
[00:16:35] Ray Latif: Yeah, no, not that. They even put that little packet of de-moisturizing stuff in there to remove the amount of moisture.
[00:16:43] Expo East: Stop yucking my yums.
[00:16:47] Ray Latif: Sorry, Mike. Well, on that note, I just want to say thanks so much to everyone who's listened to this episode, listened to all our episodes. Really appreciate it. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askatasteradio.com. Until next time, signing off for our amazing team at BevNET and Akshon Taste Radio, I'm Ray Latif, And Unwet'll talk to you next time.
