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[00:00:52] Ray Latif: Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're tuned in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators in the food and beverage industry. They started with a cult following. Now they're taking over the country. In this episode, Ari Raz, CEO of The Coconut Cult, talks about the brand's long-awaited launch at Target and the community-powered creativity fueling its rise. Later we're joined by Starr Edwards, the co-founder of Bitchin' Sauce, who shares how a farmer's market dip turned into a national phenomenon, why she's branching into new categories, and her bold advice for entrepreneurs. Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with the one and only Ari Raz, the CEO of The Coconut Cult. Ari, it's great to see you. Great to see you, Ray. Thank you for hosting us at this amazing event. Naturally San Diego at the Puesto at the headquarters. That's right. This is not the headquarters of Puesto, though. This is just the name of the building they were in.
[00:02:03] Starr Edwards: This was a military barracks at the time that got converted into what you see here, which is restaurants and little boutique shops. Yeah.
[00:02:11] Ray Latif: Yeah. One that has flowing amounts of margaritas and tacos here. Absolutely.
[00:02:17] Starr Edwards: Yes.
[00:02:17] Ray Latif: It looks like everyone is having just an incredible time. So you're the president of Naturally San Diego.
[00:02:23] Starr Edwards: Yes.
[00:02:23] Ray Latif: You've been at it for how long now? About five years. Five years. Yeah. I dare say this is the preeminent chapter of the Naturally network and perhaps the best local organization out there, just bar none. So thank you. Congratulations on everything you've done. I mean, it's just that if you look out the window here, it's a testament to what you guys have created. So well done, Ari.
[00:02:44] Starr Edwards: Thank you so much. We're very proud of what we've built and we couldn't have done it without the city and the people who live here and all the amazing brands that were either founded here or the entrepreneurs who moved here to start brands. So it's all a beautiful community and honestly very inspiring.
[00:03:01] Ray Latif: And shout out to Rene Solaris, who is the Executive Director of Naturally San Diego. Things are going well.
[00:03:07] Starr Edwards: Thank you.
[00:03:08] Ray Latif: Things are going well at The Coconut Cult as well. And I am so happy because I was in Target the other day and I saw The Coconut Cult for the first time. And it was your debut at that retailer. And not only was it your debut at the retailer, it was the debut of your minis, these four-ounce cups. of The Coconut Cult that come in three varieties. We've already been raving about these on Taste Radio. Talk about the origins of this and what you're trying to do with this launch of smaller sized cups. Absolutely.
[00:03:39] Starr Edwards: Yeah, no problem. The Coconut Cult Minis were a dream about four and a half years in the making.
[00:03:47] Ray Latif: I'm sure there are some folks in our audience who somehow are not familiar with The Coconut Cult. What do you guys do?
[00:03:52] Starr Edwards: We make probiotic coconut yogurt that is completely clean label. So really all the ingredients on the label are whole food ingredients. And we ferment our coconut cream with a unique blend of 16 strains of very functional probiotics. so that every ounce of Coconut Cult has about 50 billion CFUs of probiotics. Realistically, this is a yogurt that is used by many as their daily probiotic supplement for gut health, but also a host of many other benefits due to the unique strains that we use in this yogurt.
[00:04:31] Ray Latif: And so the development of these cups, these four-ounce minis, I would think has been a long time in the making. Absolutely. The Coconut Cult Minis a mainstay in natural retailers. You go into a Whole Foods, you're going to see it. You go to a Sprouts, you go to a Erewhon, obviously, you're going to see it. Going into Target, that's a big move. Yes. And from what I know of the company, what I know of you is you are patient and thoughtful on how you grow? Why was the timing right? How long has this product been in development? How long have you been in negotiations with Target? Sure.
[00:05:02] Starr Edwards: So about four and a half years ago, we started to talk about creating a four ounce version of Coconut Cult. And you can imagine that when you're just in ideation mode of a new concept, that product could go in so many different directions. And ultimately, where we landed was, you know, we don't want to make a different type of yogurt. We don't want to make some new product The Coconut Cult has now a, for instance, a diluted yogurt with less probiotics, right? That's not what we're about. So what we landed on was we want to take the 8-ounce jars that our customers know. These are 8-ounce glass jars. They're 8-ounce glass jars and shrink them down into a format that would allow us to bring The Coconut Cult down in price to a more accessible price point so that more people can access it, can try a variety of flavors, and really discover what it is that so many people have fallen in love with. And with these minis, we're able to get the price down to a very reasonable $3.99 per four ounces. And for anybody who knows The Coconut Cult, you would know that typically our jars, our eight ounce jars, sell between $9.99 to $11.99, depending on what part of the country you're in. So for us to be able to really shrink down that price point to a more accessible level without sacrificing the quality of the ingredients, the functional nature of the probiotics and the yogurt itself, and delivering what I think is one of the The Coconut Cult experiences to date, it truly is, it's a marvelous product and it's a very intentional product at that.
[00:06:54] Ray Latif: Why was Target the right retailer for this rollout?
[00:06:56] Starr Edwards: So I have personal experience working with Target from my time at Once Upon a Farm.
[00:07:01] Ray Latif: You are the co-founder, one of the co-founders of Once Upon a Farm as well.
[00:07:03] Starr Edwards: One of the co-founders of Once Upon a Farm. So I have plenty of experience working with Target. I know the Target customer. I know that there's certain categories of premium CPG that do extraordinarily well at Target. I know that there's a customer there for a product like this. So going into the development of this product, from day one, I went in with the mindset that this was going to be the product that launched us in Target. And Target has been such a phenomenal partner to work with. primarily because they knew they were going to be the exclusive launch partners for these items that we have put so much work into. They gave us national distribution from the get-go, along with a five-week off-shelf for the launch. And all of that has honestly led to the product taking off in sales beyond our wildest imaginations. So we're all very, very excited and enthusiastic about the launch and how it's been going.
[00:08:08] Ray Latif: It's taking everything from me not to rip open this banana cream pie variety, which I've already eaten. It's so freaking good. It also comes in a lemon meringue variety and a organic berry basket variety. And all of them taste just incredible. You didn't have these. at your pop-up in New York. No, we did not. And, you know, your pop-up in New York is something I want to talk about. You have some of your felt art from that pop. You know, getting the word out there about your brand is so important. Getting people to know what you're doing and why they should be buying your product is really tough, but it's so critical to being able to scale. Pop-ups are a great way to do that. Sometimes it can be expensive. Sometimes they can be a good idea that's not executed well. Sure. How did you make sure that you were creating a pop-up that would actually resonate with the right people, the right audience?
[00:09:09] Starr Edwards: Well, first of all, we put a lot of intention into the timing of the pop-up. and the location. So we decided to do it during New York Fashion Week in Soho, which was a great call because it's super, if you're ever in New York and Soho during Fashion Week, you'll see the streets are just flooded. So even if you go in with your pop-up with no awareness, no marketing beforehand, you're guaranteed to get plenty of foot traffic just by the numbers of people who descend upon Soho. Now, what we decided to put together was what we called the collab lab. So we rented out a 1,500 square foot space that had an initial lobby. And you walk into the lobby area and you basically create the parfait of your dreams. So you can choose between four different coconut cult flavors and about 30 different toppings from brands like Simple Mills, you know, Midday Squares, you name it. natural CPG brand we love with clean ingredients, you could put it on a yogurt. Then once you make your parfait, you go into the next area where we had our felt art marketplace. So lining the shelves, we had about 45 different brands. Some of them are represented here, brands like Olipop, we had Malk, we had Costarina Olive Oil, Midday Square, so many brands, Simple Mills, but basically felt representations of their products lining the shelves. We had a custom pop-a-shot for people to play. We had a custom claw machine for people to play where they could win the felt art. And then we had different miniature activations. For the first couple of days, for instance, we did an activation with Malk, where people could make a Malk shake using coconut caulk. We then had a dirty soda bar where people could pull draft Ollipop and mix it with our yogurt and make their own dirty soda. We did a fishwife activation where We created fishwife tacos topped with Cleveland Kitchen sauerkraut, which was incredible. I mean, so many different activations. And what it really represented for us was this coming together of all these like-minded brands that are pushing clean, healthy, real food out to the world. And we wanted to just celebrate them in a space. And we were able to do that for about two weeks. And every day we had over a thousand attendees walk through the doors. So it really was a magical, you know, once in a lifetime experience. It got a lot, a lot of attention on, you know, TikTok and Instagram. A lot of content creators showed up. Our founder, Noah, who's a content creator himself, invited a lot of New York content creators. They even did a panel at the pop-up, which was very special. So, you know, it was really just a way for us to celebrate our friendships in the community, but also just give people this very broad introduction to the world that we live in and the fact that really, you know, at the end of the day, it is a community and that's how we think about it.
[00:12:19] Ray Latif: Yeah. We're kind of coming full circle here.
[00:12:22] Starr Edwards: Yeah.
[00:12:22] Ray Latif: It's all about community. Yeah. Whether it's here at Naturally San Diego and everything that you do for the community locally. And I think just the industry as a whole, you know, when one brand wins, we all win. When one Brandt Gehrs acquired for $2 billion, it's a good thing for everyone. I think it shows that, you know, good can happen when you do the right thing. And good can happen when you're pushing the bigger legacy players to adopt better ingredients, to embrace new formulations that are healthier and better for people in general. Absolutely. Ari, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you, Ray. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. I know you're a wanted man down there, but I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you. Absolutely. Wouldn't have it any other way.
[00:13:06] Starr Edwards: Thanks, Ray. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:13:08] Ari Raz: Do you want more repeat buyers on Amazon? Well, this free resource in collaboration with Straight Up Growth will help your brand turn first-time buyers into long-term subscribers. Download Winning the Repeat Purchase Game on Amazon now at Taste Radio.com slash SUG. That's Taste Radio.com slash S-U-G to start building retention-driven growth for your brand on Amazon. Scaling a beverage brand into major retail comes down to operational readiness. From packaging lead times to co-manufacturing strategy, the details can make or break a launch. In a new e-book in collaboration with Octopi and Asahi Beer USA, industry leaders share what they've learned in helping brands scale. Download it now at Taste Radio.com slash octopi. If you're developing a cannabis beverage, formulation choices matter, especially early on. Source Technology's free guide shares practical insights on stability, dosing, and scale-ready development. Download the ins and outs of creating a cannabis beverage today at Taste Radio.com slash cannabis.
[00:14:18] Ray Latif: Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Starr Edwards, who is the co-founder of Bitchin' Sauce. Star, it's great to see ya.
[00:14:29] Ari Raz: Thank you, Ray. Good to see you too.
[00:14:30] Ray Latif: Bitchin' Sauce is one of the most incredible companies of the last 10 years. It really is. I mean, it's an almond dip brand, number one. You know, how many people would have thought an almond dip brand would be nationally sold at every retailer in the country? The name of it, and we talked about this last time, Bitchin' Sauce. Could you actually sell, you know, a brand? Could you actually have the word bitchin'? in every major retailer in the country? Turns out, yes. Not only that, you've gone into so many different formats and now new categories that this is not something I could have expected. Did you have a sense that this brand would be where it is today when you first started out?
[00:15:09] Ari Raz: I will answer this by saying I've been so delightfully surprised every time I'm like, oh my gosh, the ceiling of this brand is so much further than what I thought. I was so excited when it was, oh, we sold 50 sauces at the farmer's market. I thought that was incredible. And then it was like 500 sauces at the farmer's market. I was like, there's no way. And even just getting into stores was insane to me. So as we continue to grow the brand, you know, I'm, I'm, trying to navigate through a lot of, like you said, this is an almond dip. Who expected for people to like an almond dip this much that it could go nationwide? That's insane. But being able to also then be like, all right, well, what else do we got? What else do we like? What else tastes good? That's been a really fun journey, especially in the past 18 months where we're unleashing things.
[00:15:57] Ray Latif: Your almond dips all taste amazing. How many varieties do you have at this point?
[00:16:00] Ari Raz: We got like 27. We're getting Baskin Robbins with it. We have a flavor graveyard.
[00:16:08] Ray Latif: Before we get to these amazing new products that you brought to the table here, I want to talk about something that is very specific and personal to you, which is a cookbook.
[00:16:17] Ari Raz: Yes.
[00:16:17] Ray Latif: You just launched a cookbook.
[00:16:18] Ari Raz: I launched a cookbook.
[00:16:19] Ray Latif: Yes. Tell us all about that.
[00:16:21] Ari Raz: So I did the 30 Days of Bitchin' Bowls, which was insane. But afterwards, we had 30 amazing recipes, and then all of these sub-recipes, too. And my team was just the sweetest. They're like, let's film it all. Let's get some beautiful pictures of this. Let's get the recipes down on paper. And it was such a labor of love, really, from them more than me. Because I am really good at just kind of whipping things up. But then to get people to translate it into words and pictures, the team did so much heavy lifting. It's insane. So it's actually by me and Sarah Hale and Lauren Farrah, who also work for Bitchin' Sauce. Yeah, we launched this book and it's so much fun.
[00:16:58] Ray Latif: And the name of the book you said a couple of times is?
[00:17:00] Ari Raz: Sauced. Sauced. Sauced.
[00:17:03] Ray Latif: I like it. I mean, I guess we've said it indirectly a number of times and it makes a lot of sense. You can't necessarily have sauce unless, well, you can't have a dip unless you have something to dip it with.
[00:17:14] Ari Raz: True.
[00:17:15] Ray Latif: Bitchin style tortilla chips.
[00:17:16] Ari Raz: Well, yes, they're authentically bitchin' style. They're made with avocado oil. We are almond, you know, really at our core. And we're so excited to debut these because almond oil has not always been available in the commercial capacity that we've needed. And so here we are. We used to sell chips at the farmers markets, too. Oh, OK. So this has been really R&D over a number of years to break it out with the almond oil and to make it in such a way that we're able to keep up with all the munchers out there.
[00:17:48] Ray Latif: This is the first, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first non-almond dip that you've come out with. It's a different category. It's a different part of the store. Obviously, this is not refrigerated. How long did you wait until you felt like you were completely buttoned up with this product at this point?
[00:18:07] Ari Raz: I don't know. We probably have some tweaks to do. There's always things that happen. But when we realized that the staff was so addicted to the product that we're just like, I will take it in any format. We're like, unleash it. Unleash the chips on the world.
[00:18:20] Ray Latif: If I were an entrepreneur, this is just me. I'm like, let's not release anything until we get it perfect. What's the saying, you know, don't let perfect get in the way of progress or something to that effect. And I'm glad you said that because I think that gives our audience, it gives founders a little bit more flexibility in how they think about going to market. But again, it's not necessarily a category that you know as well as refrigerated dips. And so there's probably some things you're going to learn along the way.
[00:18:48] Ari Raz: Oh, definitely. I think 15 years into our bitchin' journey, we just have realized that even the most perfect plans can just flop.
[00:18:57] Ray Latif: Yeah. Where are these being sold, the tortilla chips?
[00:19:01] Ari Raz: I don't want to debut the retailer just yet.
[00:19:04] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:19:04] Ari Raz: But we are just now going to debut on the East Coast, which is very exciting. But this is the first launch of these into retail and it's very, very, very exciting for us.
[00:19:13] Ray Latif: Very cool. What's the price point?
[00:19:14] Ari Raz: It's like $599. Okay.
[00:19:17] Ray Latif: I mean, that's reasonable, especially given that they're made with almond oil.
[00:19:21] Ari Raz: The almond oil is extremely premium. People don't realize this. It's in a lot of beauty products. This is basically functional food.
[00:19:27] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:19:27] Ari Raz: You eat it and it makes you pretty.
[00:19:31] Ray Latif: As you enter year 16, are we now in year 16?
[00:19:34] Ari Raz: Yes, year 16.
[00:19:36] Ray Latif: I'm sure you get this question a lot. What has been the most important lesson that you've learned since starting the company? You know, you in LA, when I interviewed you, or was it almost five years ago now, I think you were still trying to It felt this way anyway. You're still trying to figure out how far can we take this thing. You had already taken it pretty far. But even in the last five years, you've grown so much. Within those five years and even maybe before that, what's been the most important lesson that you've learned?
[00:20:03] Ari Raz: I do get this question a lot and it's always actually the same answer, which I'm sorry, it's kind of boring.
[00:20:07] Ray Latif: No, it's fine.
[00:20:08] Ari Raz: But the truth is, it's just always do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. It's a difficult thing, actually, when you are an entrepreneur, because there's so much unknown, and there's so much uncertainty, and especially, I would say, right now. I mean, like, in the past year, we've dealt with, like, the most just crazy left-field things that, you know, we were never prepared for, and just having to remind yourself that you've been taken care of in the past, and that you've gotten through challenges in the past. I just think, you know, from the get-go, it's always just do not be afraid.
[00:20:40] Ray Latif: I love that. I love that. And I think we kind of touched on that. We were talking about the launch of these tortilla chips as well. I think. The one takeaway that I would also stress is that quality is always going to be a big part of the winning formulation, of the winning equation. Your products are always made with really high quality ingredients. They taste amazing. And you've always stuck to your guns about the name of the brand and what it looks like, what the package design is all about. It's worked. So if it works for you, I think it's a good piece of insight for entrepreneurs listening. Sometimes you know what's best for your brand. Sometimes you know what's best for your company. And it can be scary to hear other people saying, no, go this way or go that way. But at the end of the day, I think your intuition, your gut and what got you here in the first place might be the best advice you can give yourself.
[00:21:34] Ari Raz: That's so encouraging. Thank you.
[00:21:36] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:21:36] Ari Raz: Definitely our core thing is it must taste good first and it must not compromise ingredients.
[00:21:42] Ray Latif: There you go. Yeah. Star is a party downstairs here at the Naturally San Diego event. I think we should both go and get a margarita and a taco.
[00:21:51] Ari Raz: I think so. Yeah.
[00:21:52] Ray Latif: Thank you so much. 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.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time.
[00:22:48] Starr Edwards: you
