[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey folks, thanks for tuning into another episode of 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 BevNET and Nosh colleagues, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. 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. We'll send you a T-shirt. We will. We will. If you have any T-shirts here, we can give them to folks at Anaheim. Just throw them at the crowd.
[00:00:45] Mike Schneider: Just toss them in the crowd. I might have already shot them out of my cannon already.
[00:00:48] John Craven: Yes. God, Mike with the T-shirt cannon at Expo West.
[00:00:51] Mike Schneider: I love this idea. Because I don't have a battering ram, I just use my T-shirt cannon.
[00:00:54] Ray Latif: Well, folks, if you haven't figured it out already, we are in Anaheim for Expo West 2022. This is the first time all four of us, I think, have been together to record this in a while.
[00:01:04] Natural Products: Yeah, I think so.
[00:01:05] Ray Latif: Face to face. Yeah, here at BevNET headquarters, BevNET Expo West headquarters, that is.
[00:01:10] John Craven: Is this like a TikTok house or as close as we're ever gonna get?
[00:01:13] Jacqui Brugliera: Looks like it.
[00:01:15] John Craven: It is. It has a mushroom waterfall, you guys.
[00:01:17] Jacqui Brugliera: We're sitting next to a lit up pool right now.
[00:01:20] John Craven: Yes. There's no bodies in the pool, though.
[00:01:23] Ray Latif: We're in the backyard, even though there's no yard to speak of. It's mostly pool and mushroom. Turf. Turf. But yeah, it's a nice little walk from the convention center. What, about 10, 15 minutes? Not too bad. Because that's what you need. After you walk miles and miles on the show floor, you walk back. Yeah, stretch the legs. Exactly. Right. Replace all that convention center air with fresh air. You know, I, for one, was not expecting Expo West to be as fully back as it seems to be. The North Hall, and I should note, we're recording on day one of Expo West. The North Hall was the only hall that was open, although the Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace tent was also open, but the North Hall was packed to the walls with attendees and exhibitors. And I, for one, was a little surprised by that.
[00:02:11] Mike Schneider: We were talking to Jake DeCicco from Super Coffee. He pointed out that, you know, a lot of the people were people whose exhibits hadn't opened yet. So it just is packed because everybody who's anybody who's at Expo West is in that hall checking out all the stuff.
[00:02:25] Ray Latif: The main halls aren't open yet, as the arena is also not open yet. So, you know. by that rationale, perhaps all those people were in the North Hall jamming up the aisles. I shouldn't say jamming up the aisles. That sounds bad.
[00:02:38] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't know. It was jammed up.
[00:02:40] Mike Schneider: It was pretty jammed.
[00:02:41] John Craven: It felt like peak Expo West because you couldn't get down an aisle. Well, I mean, I think, you know, the number of people that are at Expo West today and the rest of the time, I mean, I think You know, it'll be hard to really know like how it stacks up compared to 2019, but I think for sure, you know, I mean, I think we said this after. Expo West, I mean, the vibe of the show and just people's general attitude is super positive and everyone's pumped to be here and, you know, to be back in person. And, you know, I feel like make up for lost time. I mean, it's like just a super weird thing that we're all kind of in this boat together of not having been at one of these. It's not like some people missed one or whatever, but, you know, I think we're all kind of going through the same thing. So the optimism at this event is, you know, really strong. And, you know, obviously there are bigger things out there to worry about and pandemic and conflict and supply chain issues and whatever, but yeah, no, it felt really good.
[00:03:48] Mike Schneider: There seemed to be a lot of time for longer conversations because, frankly, people haven't seen each Mother In person in a long time, so everybody seemed to want to make the time. There were, as, you know, John pointed out, the vibe is, it's just smiles everywhere.
[00:04:01] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I would say people are definitely lingering in the aisles. I mean, even looking at the tent, the line when the tent first opened was wrapped around for like a mile. And I think people were just waiting to get in there, whether it was the tent or the North Hall, people were ready to go.
[00:04:18] Mike Schneider: people really wanted to get into that tent and John and I were standing outside the tent. We're like, I don't know if we want to be first because we weren't sure if there was going to be a stampede. Because it's been the first time that people have been able to get to booths and sample in such a long time. Then before we know it, we're like, look one way and look another. We're like in the line. We're trying to stay out of the line and then the line formed around us. It was a good feeling.
[00:04:38] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. You started the trend.
[00:04:41] Ray Latif: Well, the common refrain definitely was, it's so good to see you in person. It's so good to like actually see you face to face and not in front of a screen or in front of a camera. And I think that, you know, it's just being human, right? It's just you want to be near people, you want to talk to people. a lot of what We Have been doing over the past few years has been inhuman. I don't mean inhuman in that it's been terrible, but I just mean we're lacking that connection.
[00:05:07] Mike Schneider: It was great, Ray. It was great to hear, hey, Mike, where's Ray?
[00:05:12] John Craven: Well, I think, look, obviously, the industry and just people in general adapted as much as they could to the virtual world. I think people who've been in this industry for a while know that there's a spontaneity of, you know, human connection at these shows. Like, I always think about this, like, when these shows are done, it's like, you know, you have a plan and then there's, like, what actually happens and all these people that you, you know, you bump into and you talk to. I think for a lot of these entrepreneurs, especially the backpackers as you call them, I think that's stuff that is really hard before the show to be like, man, should I go to this? It's a thousand bucks and travel and whatever, just a walk. But, you know, if you go there and you're talking to people, like, I mean, it's again, I just don't think anyone's going to walk away from this feeling like, man, that was a waste of time. I mean, honestly, if you do, then you probably did something seriously wrong. But the quality of people just walking around, I mean, I was saying to Mike, like, we're just standing there and. looking around, and I'm like, look, there's Dave Berwick, who's, you know, CEO of Boston Beer, just, like, standing there. Like, nobody wants to talk to him at this show. But, you know, the quality of people who take this show seriously is, I mean, you can't argue with it.
[00:06:30] Ray Latif: No, I mean, running into people in the aisles, running into people like while you're walking home, cheers to Ryan Armistead and the team at Happy Moose Juice for hooking us up this morning.
[00:06:40] John Craven: Hawaiian vitality shot, I think I slammed. I really, I really needed that. Thank you, Ryan.
[00:06:43] Mike Schneider: And I was talking to before the show, talking to Kirsten from Doozy Pots, and it's like, oh, well, we'll try to find some time to meet up. And right there, day one. among the first people meet up with, we meet up with them.
[00:06:54] Ray Latif: That is awesome. And that's something that can't happen online. You know, no matter how hard we try, we can't bump into people online like that.
[00:07:00] Jacqui Brugliera: So yeah, I mean, there's been so much action on LinkedIn, too, and people releasing announcements or looking to meet up and Sir Alvarex. saw them at the time. And yeah, and we were connected on LinkedIn and I saw them right away. So it was exciting to see, you know, people that I've been talking to on LinkedIn and see them in real life. And then they want to meet up afterwards. You know, they want to continue the conversations and continue to connect.
[00:07:24] Ray Latif: Why wouldn't they, Jackie? You're like the coolest person here. One Mother In, obviously, that people come to Expo West for is new products. And the concentration of new products, new brands, line extensions, revamps, etc. It is a little overwhelming, but there's so many cool things that are happening. And I know I documented a bunch of stuff on Instagram. I know you guys did as well. Just at the Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace tent. I had come across a brand that we had worked with or that we had spoken with via an episode of Elevator Talk. It's called Bon Appesuite, and it was founded by Teresa Black, who was striving to create a chocolate that did not have any high-glycemic sweeteners. So she makes it with date sugar. Really great tasting products. You know, sometimes I don't know how to say this. Sometimes like you eat chocolate makes you feel gross. You eat this chocolate actually makes you feel really, really good. It's like the placebo effect. You're in a yard eating like a product with a high-quality ingredients, but she was absolutely slammed at her booth. Everyone wanted a piece of what she was putting out.
[00:08:31] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it was delicious. I mean, the golden milk was delicious. The better-than-milk chocolate. I mean, it is better than milk chocolate.
[00:08:37] Mike Schneider: Speaking of slammed, Rosalie, wild wonder, slammed at her booth and has a new strawberry flavor that she's really excited about and thinks may take over the Guava Rose as their number one, but super excited about it. It was good to see her.
[00:08:53] Ray Latif: One of the other Really Bacon brands in the tent was a brand called Waju, which was founded by Chris Oates. Pretty interesting brand in that it is a canned water, but the water is sourced from fruits. In other words, it's not juice that they're pulling from, say, a strawberry, it's the water itself from the fruit. I know that sounds... a little weird, but the product itself tastes amazing. And in particular, his strawberry variety, you don't taste many strawberry flavored products. And I think what he told me, Chris, is that people expect this like really sticky, Jolly Rancher-y kind of flavor when it comes to strawberry. And his product actually tasted like a strawberry. It was really good.
[00:09:37] Mike Schneider: As did Wild Wonders. Maybe it's a trend. It's not a competition, Mike. Yes, it is, Ray.
[00:09:44] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, also in the tent, I tried a vegan caviar, which I thought was really interesting, by Avafina Organics.
[00:09:51] Mike Schneider: We missed that.
[00:09:52] Jacqui Brugliera: And it was made out of chia seeds and seaweed. And the texture was really interesting. I enjoyed it. But I've never seen anything like it. So definitely recommend.
[00:10:03] Mike Schneider: Are you a caviar fan? Have you had caviar before? I've had caviar before. Yeah. And was it close?
[00:10:07] Jacqui Brugliera: I mean, it was pretty close. You get that like like the taste of the sea with the seaweed, you know, you get that saltiness. So I was a fan as a little spread.
[00:10:16] Ray Latif: Well, a plant-based caviar, I have never seen or heard of anything like that. So if that is a product that people want, that seems to be the only one out there. So power to that team.
[00:10:28] John Craven: Okay, but can we talk about plant-based bacon?
[00:10:31] Ray Latif: Yeah, of course, yes.
[00:10:32] John Craven: I need to try this. I think that was Ozo from Planterra Foods, which, I don't know, you know, look, you come to this show, there's like, on every aisle, a plant-based something. I wouldn't say the curb appeal, if you will, is that good, but this stuff looks like bacon strips. It tastes like bacon. It has the consistency of bacon. I mean, what else do you need?
[00:10:58] Mike Schneider: Bacon? I swore it was meat.
[00:11:02] Ray Latif: That's really funny that you guys say that because I thought I saw a plate of bacon, like Really Bacon. on the show floor. And I wonder if that was what it was, because I didn't stop by the booth. But if that is indeed what you guys are talking about, then wow, because that looks like the real deal.
[00:11:17] Mike Schneider: It looks insane.
[00:11:18] Ray Latif: It looks like bacon.
[00:11:19] Mike Schneider: You can't miss their booth either. And, um, and I was like, Oh, what is that over there? And their sunglasses, like the shades of the sunglasses say bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon. It was it. They want you to know that it's bacon, but it's not bacon.
[00:11:32] Jacqui Brugliera: Do you know how they make it?
[00:11:34] John Craven: They wouldn't tell us. They had to tell a secret recipe. You know, it had familiar ingredients on the ingredient list, but they did tell me that the machinery, the guy was dropping numbers that were like, you know, in the tens of millions of dollars. Oh, wow. Because they make other plant-based products. So, yeah, I think it was sort of a technical feat that was not cheap.
[00:12:00] Jacqui Brugliera: Nice.
[00:12:01] John Craven: Unlike, say, making a plant-based burger, which...
[00:12:05] Mike Schneider: They did mention their own production line, and yeah, and that it was a proprietary process.
[00:12:10] Ray Latif: I really enjoyed Julie's new chocolate-covered dates. They are like the new Raisinets, or at least... Those are tasty.
[00:12:19] Mike Schneider: Yeah. And it was good to see industry legend Amanda Sainz, of course. Of course, of course.
[00:12:23] John Craven: That does seem like classic, covered in chocolate, and you have a marketable product, which... that works really well. So, you know, kudos to them for creating that. Absolutely. The blood orange variety was mad good.
[00:12:36] Mike Schneider: I haven't said mad good in a while, but it was mad good. The matcha was good too.
[00:12:38] Ray Latif: Yeah.
[00:12:39] Mike Schneider: Matcha was good. And right next to that booth was the Wisp booth, which they have this new cheese and pretzel bite.
[00:12:46] Ray Latif: Don't you, it's pronounced Wisps. Wisps.
[00:12:48] Mike Schneider: Wisps, Ray, sorry. Wisps. Pronounced H. I've been talking a lot. I'm slurring everything. I haven't even had any alcohol. We skipped the happy hour at De La Calle, which they have four new incredible flavors as well. Really? What are they? Watermelon jalapeno, which of course has that hint of spice in it. It's a significant amount of spice. They had cactus prickly pear, chamoy, which I didn't know what it was before today, I admit, and then also grapefruit lime. All of them pretty incredible.
[00:13:25] Ray Latif: Very cool.
[00:13:25] Mike Schneider: But the happy hour was, they were pouring Mezcal in. So, unfortunate to miss that. And right next door is their sister brand, Vina. It's a prebiotic soda with ACV. They've definitely backed off on the ACV and it's more like crisp, crushable soda that doesn't have as much ACV flavor as, say, a poppy does. They have grapefruit, pomegranate, strawberry pop, ginger, and lime lemon.
[00:13:57] Ray Latif: Awesome. Quite good. Now, I didn't get to this booth, but I'm a huge fan of this brand, Teonic. I saw on the BevNET Instagram page that they launched a new line of pops, sodas, as it were. They have an immunity variety, a chill variety, and a detox variety. Just another one into the pool, but these actually look really, really good. The immunity is aligned with an orange, it looks like an elderberry flavor. The chill is the tart cherry and hibiscus, and the detox is the ginger and lemon. I can't wait to get over there.
[00:14:26] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's interesting to see them go into cans too, you know, from their like apothecary look with their glass bottles to something that we're seeing a lot of in the functional sparkling water space or cans. So I think it's a good line extension for them.
[00:14:39] Ray Latif: Totally. And Vive Organic is getting into cans too. They have a new soda line. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see them today as well, but I can't wait to try that product.
[00:14:46] Mike Schneider: I don't know if I'd use the S-word with that product. It was very spindrift-esque. It's good. It's good.
[00:14:53] Ray Latif: The Vive Organic.
[00:14:54] Mike Schneider: Yeah. The S word. Soda. Oh, sorry about that. I think they call it a soda. I just don't know if I'd use soda with it. It was tasty. It's really good and thoughtfully done. I mean, Vive Organic, a brand that's been around for a while. They've really focused on the shots, and you gotta wonder how long Wyatt's wanted to expand into other categories. And just a really thoughtful founder. Vive has been the shot company for a long time, and they've tried a bunch of different shots, and they've had a lot of success in the shots category, and in a lot of ways, the gold standard for shots. And it's taken them a long time to expand into another category, and very thoughtfully done, and can't wait for you to try this, Ray.
[00:15:38] Ray Latif: Well, it definitely seems like the scale driver for them. I know they're already, you know, distributed in a lot of places, but a soda feels like the kind of product where you could, it gives you permission to go into a lot of places.
[00:15:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Also in the North Hall was an interesting product that kind of crossed over from food to the beverage category, which is not your mother-in-law's kimchi. And it's called mul, I believe. And it's Drinkable Kimchi.
[00:16:07] Natural Products: Yes.
[00:16:08] Jacqui Brugliera: It's the juice of the kimchi, which I am a huge fan of. I love pickle juice. I love kimchi juice. I love gut shots. So it's definitely a product for me. Love the probiotics. It was really tasty, but I think it's interesting to see if like consumers are going to want this.
[00:16:24] Ray Latif: Yeah, a phrase I never thought I'd hear, Drinkable Kimchi.
[00:16:27] Mike Schneider: But I mean, it's... Well, GT's had the veggie kefir, which... Not anymore though. Yeah, I haven't seen that in a while.
[00:16:36] Ray Latif: That was, I think, around for a very short period of time. Perhaps an experiment?
[00:16:41] Mike Schneider: There was like a pickle variety and the kimchi.
[00:16:45] Ray Latif: This is certainly not a traditional beverage and I don't expect it to be merchandised next to other beverages, this is probably going to be next to your sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, et cetera, things like that. So obviously the hardest part about Drinkable Kimchi is getting people to even notice that it's something you can drink and not something that maybe you use to cook with.
[00:17:06] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I mean, even drinking it, there are still, you know, pieces of the kimchi in it. There are bits.
[00:17:12] Ray Latif: So... I like bits. Yeah, that's good. So many bits.
[00:17:17] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm a little frightened by this description. Gotta try it. Another product which showed innovation in the frozen burrito set was Sana. So they have a line of grain-free tortillas.
[00:17:33] Ray Latif: How is Sana spelled?
[00:17:35] Jacqui Brugliera: S-A-N-A.
[00:17:35] Ray Latif: Oh, that's easy enough.
[00:17:37] Jacqui Brugliera: Mm-hmm. S-A-N-A. And they have two new grain-free burritos that are plant-based. And I thought what was really interesting, first of all, obviously, it's grain-free, gluten-free, but they also use jackfruit and breadfruit as kind of like a meat substitute in their burritos and you don't miss the meat. It's really, really tasty. It is plant-based. So Really Bacon to see a product that is going beyond just a veggie burrito and doing more to hit those different dietary constraints.
[00:18:06] Ray Latif: That is Really Bacon. So you tried this?
[00:18:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Mm-hmm. I tried it and it was tasty.
[00:18:09] Ray Latif: I got to go over and try that. That sounds really good.
[00:18:11] Mike Schneider: Did you get to the Savorly booth today? Because they have a new plant-based... It's like a pig in a blanket, but you would not know that the hot dog is not a hot dog. That was really good. It was good. I gotta try those. They don't make anything that's not awesome. Yeah.
[00:18:26] Ray Latif: Yeah, we tried everything. It was good. Very cool. John, you mentioned the backpacking entrepreneurs of Expo West. I met one of those folks, Rebecca Cass from Kula. Kula is a maker of kombucha tabs. These are tabs that you can put into water and about 10 minutes later, you'll have a glass of kombucha. They also make probiotic powders as well. New Zealand based company. Really great meeting Bex and yeah, backpacking entrepreneurs. This is a cool thing. You gotta have the gear, though. You gotta have all your gear that says your brand so that people know to come up to you and be like, wow, that's Really Bacon.
[00:19:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I see people just pulling out things from their backpack left and right. It's really fun having just impromptu meetings in the middle of the aisle, seeing a variety of products, some things that look really, Really Bacon. And I might be, you know, sneaking over there trying to grab some samples for myself. Yeah, exciting to see a lot of entrepreneurs walking. There are some people that have exhibited in the past and chose to walk this year too, and they also are carrying product.
[00:19:29] Mike Schneider: Did you guys get to try a shikama yet? No. X-I-C-A-M-A. I might be butchering it, but Mona Sharma is the founder. It's a new sparkling beverage that is made from the shikama root, which is like a yuca or an ube potato. It's good. Nice.
[00:19:47] Jacqui Brugliera: Speaking of ube, I saw you tried the ube spread.
[00:19:50] Mike Schneider: I didn't get to try it, but I did get to grab it. I mean, Jake was closing deals, so we're going to have to go back to that booth.
[00:19:57] Ray Latif: The ube spread from Philomenilla. Jake DeLeon is the founder of Philomenilla, a maker of marinades and spreads, including a new ube spread.
[00:20:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Top of my list to go try tomorrow.
[00:20:10] Ray Latif: Very cool.
[00:20:11] Mike Schneider: I also got to try a new Vietnamese coffee called Little Green Cyclo, which was, it was great. The packaging is super unique and it kind of pops out at you. And it had less sugar than many Vietnamese coffee brands that I've tried. It was pretty unique and tasty.
[00:20:28] Ray Latif: Now, we also tasted a bunch of beverages that were not at Expo West. They were at the headquarters of GT's Living Foods, where we sat down with GT Dave. to talk about some of the new products he'll be launching in 2022 or not. But it was really fun visiting the office and a huge thanks to GT for showing us the factory because it is pretty impressive.
[00:20:48] Mike Schneider: Pretty impressive. And it was great to get to taste some things that may or may not hit the shelves. And just a reminder that anybody can do that. If you want us to try things before they go to market, you want to get our opinions on your liquid or your snacks or your packaging before you launch it, we're here for you.
[00:21:06] Ray Latif: Absolutely. All right. Well, we got a couple more days of Expo West, so we better go get some rest. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, I'm Ray Latif, and we'll talk to you next time.
