[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, John Craven and Mike Schneider. Shelf-stable meal kits aren't exactly the most exciting corner of the grocery aisle, but that could be changing. This We Riff, the new shelf-stable meal kit brand from Sir Kensington co-founder Mark Ramadan and Eleven Madison Park chef Daniel Hum, made its nationwide debut at Target, bringing a chef-driven approach to a category that has largely sat on the sidelines of food innovation. We dig into what Riff is aiming to do differently, then turn our attention to Battle Bars, which is leaning into the era of peak protein with a major rebrand that includes new packaging and reformulated bars with more protein, more fiber, and fewer calories. We also recap our recent Taste Radio meetup in San Diego, and review All Phenoms. It's good to be here in San Diego at the San Diego office here with John Craven, as I mentioned, and Mike Schneider, as I also mentioned. We're also in the studio with the one and only Ryan Galang, whose role in the company is officially video editor, but he does so much more than that. He makes us happy, which I think is probably the most important role you can have in a company. He's very convivial, gregarious. fun, but he doesn't talk a lot.
[00:01:48] John Craven: Yeah, but if you get him talking, he's one of the most interesting people you could ever talk to.
[00:01:51] Ray Latif: Yes, he is. I feel like you need someone like that in the company who, once you get him in a room, he'll talk to you. But like outside of the room, sort of in a group, he's less involved.
[00:02:03] John Craven: Yeah, he's a curious guy who's got a lot of interesting experiences. Definitely talk to Ryan at our events.
[00:02:08] Ray Latif: Now everyone in our audience knows Ryan.
[00:02:09] John Craven: But be careful though, because he's probably going to be taking photos of you.
[00:02:12] Ray Latif: You come up to him and talk to him, the video is going to get really interesting. He did take a lot of videos and a lot of photos yesterday for our Taste Radio San Diego meetup, which was fantastic. We saw so many people from this area and beyond, and it was so great to catch up with founders and operators that we know and ones that are relatively new to us. I felt like, as usual, I met with entrepreneurs who are building really interesting brands, innovative products. And that's a big part of the reason why we do these meetups is to engage with the community and figure out what's going on on the ground in the communities that we interact with.
[00:02:53] Mike Schneider: I don't know, it's always awesome to see people come out, especially those who, you know, listen to this podcast every week and have nice things to say, as you always wonder. But, you know, I think it's just great when you get CPG people together and they can share their, you know, war stories and kick around, you know, whatever new ideas they're thinking about, get feedback on their products. You know, I think people generally leave with a smile on their face and energized, which is great. As do I, so.
[00:03:16] Ray Latif: As I mentioned during the meetup yesterday, BevNET CPG Media is not simply a content organization. Yes, we have websites with daily content. Yes, we have a magazine. Yes, we have live events with stage content that is relevant to anyone building a food or beverage brand. But I feel like BevNET CPG Media is also a key part of the ecosystem in that we're helping brands grow. We want to help see your brand become successful and scale. And the way we do that is through great insights, advice, and connections in the industry. One of the things I was most proud of yesterday was having Maddie Serviente join us as a speaker. Maddie Serviente is a partner with the Angel Group, which is a network of 400 or so angel investors that work together to fund emerging businesses in food and beverage. And it was great because before we had our interview session, she was interacting and engaging with so many folks at the event. And we talked on stage about what the Angel Group is looking for in terms of early stage brands and investable brands. And she was so kind and the whole team, Adam Spriggs, Chris Robb, everyone involved in the Angel Group, they want to talk to you. So this is exactly what I'm talking Every single time you and I, Mike, or you and I, John, go to an event, they're like, do you know any investors? Yes, we do. And again, this is part of our job is to make those kinds of connections and help you and your brands grow.
[00:04:44] John Craven: Yeah, you didn't use the word community, Ray, when you were explaining BevNET CPG Media. And I think it's an important part of what we do on a daily basis, making those introductions. It's meaningful for us. It's a lot of, it's a lot of fun. I introduced a brand to Maddie yesterday that she knew because they only exchanged samples, but they didn't know each other, you know, person to person yet. So that was, that was really cool.
[00:05:06] Ray Latif: So if you want the full story on The Angel Group, you can do a couple of different things. One, you can go back and listen to my interview with Adam Spriggs, who's one of the founders of The Angel Group. It was titled, or the episode is titled, They Invested in Poppy, Now They Want to Invest in You. There's also a great conversation between our colleague, Melissa Traverse and Chris Robb, that's on Nombase, on the Nombase podcast. And of course, we'd love for you to tune in to the episode that will feature with my interview with Maddie Serviente, along with Chuck Casano. Chuck Casano is the founder of Pitaya Foods and also one of the co-founders of High Touch Libations, which is a DSD distribution company that works with brands in Southern California and also in other parts of the Southwest, including Arizona. Chuck, who I've known for 15 years, I think, John, you've known him for even longer than that. just a great dude and someone who is also really plugged in to our industry and is paying as much as he can forward based on the experience he has as a distributor and a founder.
[00:06:05] John Craven: I stand corrected. Listener, you have homework. You have homework. We should post those on our Instagram so it's easy for people to find.
[00:06:13] Ray Latif: OK, that sounds good. Let's do it. Let's get right on it.
[00:06:14] John Craven: I'm on it. I'm on it.
[00:06:15] Ray Latif: You know where else you're going to find a lot of connections, a lot of insights, advice? DevNet Live? DevNet Live.
[00:06:22] John Craven: Got it right.
[00:06:23] Ray Latif: You know where else? NoshLive? NoshLive. BrewboundLive? Brewbound Live. So this December in LA, NoshLive, December 3rd and 4th. BevNetLive is happening on December 6th through 8th. Brewbound Live is happening on December 9th and 10th. As I mentioned during the meetup yesterday, these events, the LA events, are like the meetups but on steroids. So while we have over 100, 150 people at our meetups, You'll have and have the opportunity to engage with a lot more than that. A lot more people who are investors, who are founders, who are distributors, who are retail buyers, and they are all coming to Nosh Live, BevNET Live, and Brewbound Live. So you should be there, obviously. Head to BevNET.com slash events to learn more and register. I would love to see Mark Ramadan and Daniel Humm at Nosh Live. So if you don't know, Mark... Can Daniel Humm do the catering? I would love for Daniel Humm. That would be amazing. So Daniel Humm is the founder and chef, I guess the head chef, of Eleven Madison Park. If you don't know, Eleven Madison Park is one of the most revered restaurants in the world. Three star Michelin restaurant. Mark Ramadan is a very successful CPG founder as the co-founder of Sir Kensington's and also a former CEO of Hugh Kitchen. They have collaborated on a new brand called Riff and Riff is a brand of meal kits. They are shelf stable and they debuted this week at Target stores nationwide. This according to a story penned by our very own Adrianne DeLuca. And I was, I love this. I love this a lot because these are shelf stable meal kits where apparently all you need to do is mix a few things together and you have a better for you, delicious meal within 30 minutes. According to the article, Riff aims to compete with conventional brands like Hamburger Helper or Rice-A-Roni and capture white space via consumers seeking an easy elevated meal to keep on hand, keep on hand in your pantry. We've talked about this concept many times on Taste Radio, which is that consumers are looking for elevated versions of products and brands that they're already familiar with, a la a Hamburger Helper or a ricearoni. But where is the innovation coming from? It's coming from entrepreneurs like a Mark Ramadan, like a Daniel Hum. The key question, of course, in all this is, Does it taste good? The branding looks fantastic. It definitely looks in line with what modern CPG packaging looks like. If you want to find out about that packaging or see what the packaging looks like, head to that article on Nosh.com. But the products come in a spicy tomato rigatoni, garlic lemon rotini, sesame ginger noodles, coconut curry noodles, and creamy parmesan cavatepe. They're $6.99 per box. It's a two serving kit per box. So really interesting stuff. I really want to try this. You know, I mentioned taste. You would assume with a guy like Daniel Humm, these products are going to taste amazing, but you never know.
[00:09:32] Mike Schneider: You never know. Yeah. I mean, definitely will try it.
[00:09:35] Ray Latif: Would you prefer a shelf-stable kit over a refrigerated or frozen one?
[00:09:39] Mike Schneider: I'm not totally sure I'm the target market for these, but... Oh, I see.
[00:09:42] Ray Latif: Because you make your own food at home from scratch.
[00:09:45] Mike Schneider: Yeah, shocking. Grow my own vegetables. No, I don't know. I mean, I think just the target demographic for this feels like, as you said, replacing, you know, trying to get someone to upgrade from a Chef Boyardee or something like that, you know? But I think, you know, it looks super awesome. I mean, I think the branding, it's got like a established feel to it, you know? Like, I don't know, it makes me think of Jif, partially because of the name.
[00:10:09] Ray Latif: Jif? It's got like this throwback sort of 60s vibe to it, the branding. It almost looks like a cereal, like an old school cereal, like Life cereal from back in the day.
[00:10:19] Mike Schneider: 100% which I think is really cool that they're not just trying to do what everyone else is doing again, you know, you look at a brand like Like a Goodall's right? Yeah, you know which has a very modern Aesthetic to it. This I think is a nice like, you know, maybe cut through the noise sort of approach The box for me looks just if you see it really fast almost like a soup maybe because it's up There's a bowl on the front.
[00:10:44] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:10:45] Ray Latif: Yeah, so each box comes with, quote, a restaurant quality pasta or noodle, seasoning packet, and a crunchy topping. I assume you, you know, as most people eat pasta out of bowls, that's perhaps what you're saying.
[00:11:00] John Craven: Yeah, I think that's right. And the brand is intriguing, though.
[00:11:04] Ray Latif: Looks good. The other thing about the brand that's really interesting or that I appreciate is that as far as I can tell, you're not screaming a particular functional benefit. There's a small button on the front of each box that mentions the protein callout, but it's not all about the protein. It's not all about the fiber. It's about the food and the taste of the food, which. gets overlooked so often. This is the first thing that Maddie said yesterday in our conversation. How do you evaluate emerging brands? It has to taste good. It has to grab the attention of a consumer in a way that's going to make their mouths water.
[00:11:40] John Craven: I was thinking about when she said that yesterday, and I also felt pretty good that you have a With the angel group because there are 400 people there's a good chance that someone's gonna think your product tastes good Because taste obviously is subjective and we hear from other investors that taste isn't the first thing they're looking for it's a So so this is a The angel group's philosophy is a little different than other investors, which is part of why this game is so difficult.
[00:12:09] Ray Latif: I think most people in general want great taste, believe that great taste has to be a cornerstone of a brand.
[00:12:14] John Craven: But again, great taste is subjective. Very subjective. Very subjective. And so what you think, well, obviously, Ray, what you think tastes great is that all investors should just talk to you. You just say, hey, does Ray love it? Because Ray knows what tastes great.
[00:12:29] Ray Latif: I recall when the founders of Super Coffee were on Shark Tank and they were pitching to the Sharks, which at the time included Rohan Oza. And Rohan Oza, to your point, felt like he didn't love the taste of the product. And they retorted, well, it's not for you. It's for a different consumer. It's for a younger consumer. It's for a consumer that doesn't or didn't grow up on traditional coffee. So I think your point is valid for once. Yes. I'm winning everywhere. I got the events right.
[00:13:08] John Craven: It's again, every meeting with investors is going to be different and you have to be prepared for that audience when you go into the conversation.
[00:13:19] Ray Latif: Yes, absolutely. John, you mentioned Goodall's and I'm going to do a little mea culpa here because last week I mentioned that... Not so much of a correction. I'll just say that we mentioned Goodall's was acquired for $500 million or upwards of $500 million. According to some other sources that I consulted with, the number was significantly higher. Significantly higher. So an even bigger congratulations to Jen Zezat and the team over there at Goodall's. AKA Gen Z. AKA Gen Z. You know what? You should definitely let her know. Wild Wonder if she's ever heard that before. We'll find out when we talk to her. She must have heard that, yes. Also, big shout out and congratulations to Alex Witt and the team over at Battle Bars. Battle Bars has gone through a brand revamp that looks fantastic. So if you don't know, Battle Bars is a brand of protein bars based in Chicago. They have not only a refresh, In a redesigned package, they have reformulated bars that cut each serving from 220 calories to about 190. They've also upped the protein content from 17 to 20 grams and increased fiber to 7 grams per bar. This is all according to a story written by Brad Avery. Of course, we saw Alex in Chicago. We did. He joined us for our Tasteread of Chicago meetup and joined me for a conversation on stage.
[00:14:48] John Craven: And he filled up my bag with product and I was flying JetBlue yesterday and I forgot, I thought I was going to be stuck with JetBlue snacks, which by the way, have a lot of room for improvement. They do right now. And I went to the bottom of my bag. And I was hoping for something. And guess what I pulled out? A Battle Bars! I was so happy. You're just winning. I was so happy.
[00:15:12] Ray Latif: You've been winning for weeks now. Yeah. Yeah. Well done.
[00:15:15] John Craven: Thank you, Alex.
[00:15:16] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, I talked to Alex during the event and even before the event, and the original Battle Bars's logo included a skull, and I believe there's a lightning bolt through the skull. So before they did this refresh, they dug deep into the protein bar category, and it turns out that women make up a very significant chunk of the purchasing of protein bars. And so a skull with a lightning bolt going through it didn't necessarily mean...
[00:15:46] John Craven: They found that that was less appealing to a potentially big piece of their audience. Yes, yes. I think they've been overcoming that, but they think that removing that will open them up to even more purchase.
[00:15:59] Ray Latif: I feel like they definitely have a much more gender neutral look, which will take the brand in a good direction going forward. So when do we get to try these? Hopefully very soon. I would say that if Alex is listening, they better be in the mail.
[00:16:16] John Craven: Also got the softest t-shirt from.
[00:16:18] Ray Latif: It is a very, very wonderful t-shirt. Yes. But that also goes for anyone listening who is a founder and launching a new product or launching a brand extension, please send us samples. You can find our address for our Boston office or San Diego office on the internets. It's probably the best way. If I mentioned it right now, John's going to get angry and be like, just Google it.
[00:16:39] Speaker: So.
[00:16:39] Mike Schneider: You're not supposed to tell people about my rage levels.
[00:16:45] Ray Latif: You can go back and listen to other episodes. That's exactly what happens. Yeah. I'm holding in my hand a shot of salty. If you don't know, salty is a maker of better for you wellness shots. They've all got to be better for you. If you call it a wellness shot, it's got to be better for you. This is their Super Boost Super Shot, which contains turmeric, it contains filtered ginger, and it contains pineapple. This is one of my favorite shots on the market. I love this. Thanks so much to Sean and the team over there at Solti for providing us with so many shots and partnering with us on the San Diego event yesterday. Solti is one of the few brands in the shot category that sells their products in glass. Remember when we first met those guys and a lot of people pooh-poohed the idea of being able to scale in glass and they've done it and they've done it in a really remarkable way. I don't know how many tens of thousands of points of distribution that Salty's in, I think it's like 30,000, and that doesn't even include Starbucks. So they've really come a long way, and they recently picked up $30 million in new investment. This according to an article written by Lukas Southard on BevNET.com. To learn more about that raise, head to the website. Mike, what are you drinking?
[00:18:00] John Craven: I'm drinking All Phenoms's right?
[00:18:01] Ray Latif: All Phenoms's. What's All Phenoms's?
[00:18:03] John Craven: All Phenoms's is a sparkling functional drink and it's got pre and probiotics in it and lion's mane ratio. It's got a lot of function. But you know what I like about it? It tastes phenomenal.
[00:18:18] Ray Latif: You like this brand. You're a consumer of the brand. Yes. If you want to be a part of their I guess Influencer ambassador to community you need to be able to talk to other potential consumers In a way that's going to convince them to pick what a can up and drink it But you need to be able to do it in about 10 seconds. So how would I do it do it go 10 seconds? I'll feed arms. It's got great stuff in it for you and tastes great. It's got great stuff in it and tastes great
[00:18:50] John Craven: Works does it does it is that enough information? It's I mean, I'm Bev net Mike and isn't that enough? It's a All Phenoms is a difficult one to explain this is a you know a sparkling drink that has the power of mushrooms and vitamin C in this one. But some of their other SKUs, I think, have some other function too. So, I mean, this is one of the challenges for a drink like this that has so much arguably really good functionality in it to explaining it. And so you say, well, where does it sit? Well, they've chosen the word sparkling functional drink because what category would you put this in?
[00:19:34] Ray Latif: I mean, it reminds me of a Wild Wonder in some ways, although Wild Wonder is a fiber-centric brand of, I guess, better for you sodas. They don't really call their products sodas.
[00:19:44] John Craven: Which, by the way, they've totally, because they're at a point where they can, have totally gone away from a lot of that language being in front of pack, and their Wild Wonder's just focused on being a great tasting probiotic beverage.
[00:19:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels like it's more in line with the Ollie Pops and Poppies of the world nowadays. And I think their entry point to the industry was functionality. And I think to your point, now they've become a brand that is a little bit more broad in terms of its appeal.
[00:20:13] John Craven: Well, their entry point was as Tea Crush, which was... Oh, now you're really going way back in the day. As tea, a fermented tea. And then they were like, wait, this isn't where we're going to win. We're going to win against... in the probiotic space as an alternative to the kombuchas that were rising at the time. We're going to be a beverage that gives you that functionality, but we're going to taste better. That was their whole thesis.
[00:20:39] Ray Latif: Yeah. And I think with All Phenoms, it's a great looking package, but there is a lot going on. And I feel like you've got to zero in on one particular aspect that is broadly understood. At least in terms of your functionality, like taste, of course, has to be really high on that list. But if you're going to say this thing does one thing for me, that should be front and center. That should be the highlight of what you're doing.
[00:21:05] John Craven: And it is trying to do that, Ray. This one says wellness and balance. But again, what does wellness and balance mean?
[00:21:09] Ray Latif: It's a little bit more esoteric in terms of...
[00:21:11] John Craven: Right. It is a little more esoteric in terms of the meaning. It also has real juice in it. Like if you go to the back, you'll see it contains 9% juice, which is where some of the flavor and sweetness comes from. And I don't know, I really love this beverage. And as we said, the can is cool. It's just doing a lot. Yeah. Yes. Well, it tastes great. Once you, once you taste it, you're like, oh, yes.
[00:21:35] Ray Latif: Well, I like it and I'd love to advocate for it. And I think I just need to nail down my pitch as well. Yeah, me too. Clearly. Speaking of pitches, if you would like to participate in the upcoming Nosh Pitch Slam or New Beverage Showdown or the Brew Baton Pitch Slam, you can send us an application. You need to go to bevdat.com slash events and we would love to review your application. Hopefully we'll see you on stage at one of those competitions in December. We'd also love, of course, to see you. If you're from any part of the world, you might as well just hop in a plane and come to London so that we can see you on October 21st at the offices of Trip. Or come to LA. Or come to LA. But I'm saying the event that's a little bit closer than the events in LA is the event in... By distance or time? Both. Depends where you are. Depends on where you are. Anyway, that's the Taste Radio London meetup, which is happening at the offices of Trip. on October 21st. So if you are in the UK and you listen on a regular basis, we would love to meet you, love to see you there, perhaps even love to feature you in a future episode of Taste Radio. 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.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:23:32] Mike Schneider: you
