Hello, and thanks for tuning into 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 I'm with my co-hosts, Melissa Traverse and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we compare two contrasting growth stories. BRĒZ, the cannabis-centric beverage brand navigating regulatory uncertainty and growth beyond THC.
And Stars & Honey, the protein bar brand that earned a nationwide Target launch after years of refining its D2C business. We also discuss GT Kombucha's playful take on a Shirley Temple flavor, the rise of better-for-you Rice Krispie treats, and an ice cream brand's pickleball-inspired care package most of us, actually all of us in this room, are off to the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City this weekend, which begins on Sunday, June 28th, and goes till Tuesday, June 30th.
If you're attending the show, if you're exhibiting at the show, please let us know. Send us a note on LinkedIn, IG, or you can email us at ask@tasteradio.com. We would love to see you. We're gonna be recruiting for Elevator Talk. Lots of our early-stage brands exhibiting at the Summer Fancy Food Show, and we would love to have you join us for an episode of Taste Radio via our Elevator Talk series.
If you're not familiar, it is a series that profiles early-stage and disruptive brands from across the food and beverage industry. It's an hour-long show. We feature five brands per episode, 10 minutes for each brand, and we feature a co-host who is an expert in finance, retailing, distribution, what have you, who can offer some feedback, advice, and insights about your brand and business strategy.
So once again, if you're attending the Summer Fancy Food Show, please let us know. We want to see you. We want to recruit you. Of course, we want to also see you at our upcoming events, BevNet Live, Nosh Live, and our Taste Radio meetups, which are happening across the country. We should make the Elevator Talk army like the Tartan Army.
Oh, I like that. Oh, yeah. I like that. Make some kilts. We need kilts, too. Songs. Can we have kilts? We have to do something different, though. I f- I feel like- "No Ray Latif, no party." Is that what they say? No. They will. Okay. They're gonna, they're gonna sing about you. Yeah, seeing the Scottish folks and their reaction to Boston made me love Boston a little more.
I feel like I was a little down on Boston, but... they definitely seemed to praise the city in a way that was a little unexpected. Typically, you don't hear that Boston is the most welcoming city. No. It's the most friendly city. No. And that's all the Scots seemed to talk about. At least that's what we saw on the news.
Now, per- maybe there's some tweet out there that's "This is the worst experience I could have ever imagined." "Boston is S-H-I-T." But, that's 1 out of 10,000 probably. Yeah, and I never think of Boston as being a place where people go to party, but I- I'm glad that the- wait, what? What? No, I don't, I feel like- What?
everything closes early. That doesn't stop people ... people here are, like, grumpy. No, I know, but I just, I feel like we were infused with the spirit of partying. You're missing something, though. There's a kindred spirit between Boston and Scotland, 'cause they both beat England. That helps. Scot- the Scotland-England banter is fantastic.
Coming from a guy- It's next level ... who loves a London-based team. Yeah, I l- I love it. I'm still with England, man. Okay. Fair enough. I want England to win the World Cup. Do you? Yeah. Okay. But you know who Scotland wants to win? They want Abe to win. Anybody but England. Oh, I never heard that before.
Yeah. Just talk to a few of them. So I'm sipping on this drink at the beginning of our episode here. It's called Neutonic, N-E-U-T-O-N-I-C. It's described as a productivity drink, and the tagline is, "Fuel your focus." It's got a bunch of ingredients that are designed to, I assume, enhance brain health. Is that a thing, brain health?
Cognitive ability. Cognitive ability. So it's got cognizin, it's got rhodiola rosea, Panax ginseng, L-theanine, and 120 milligrams of natural caffeine. This is their strawberry lemonade variety. It's got zero grams of sugar. It comes in a 12-ounce slim can. I mention this drink because, A, I wanted to test it out, and listeners can let me know if I sound somewhat more coherent and smarter by the end of the show, or if it didn't work at all.
But you know what? Please send your responses- Yes ... to ask@tasteradio.com. Yes. I can only imagine the emails we're gonna get. But I also wanna mention this because this brand was recently reviewed as part of BevNET's weekly product reviews. These are the official product reviews that are featured on bevnet.com on a weekly basis.
And I encourage folks in the beverage industry to send products to our office, and you can find our address on our website, bevnet.com, and you can find out exactly how to address the package so that it reaches our product review team. Same with Nosh. We do product reviews on nosh.com as well. So if you wanna find the address, if you wanna find all the information about how to submit your brand for a official review, an official review, head to bevnet.com or nosh.com for more details.
We offer some semblance of a review on tasteradio.com, excuse me, on Taste Radio on a weekly basis, but these are starred reviews. These are officially starred reviews here. This is a finite review. Yes. I just say DNS or something like that. DNS meaning? Does not suck. Which is the highest rating you can have on Taste Radio.
For a person, it's a CFD, right? Yes. A CFD is the highest- Chill dude. ... It's it's the highest word or name you can offer someone in the industry. It means chill effing dude. Yes. Now, what's the gender equivalent for a chill fucking dude? I would say in that respect that's an all gender- Okay
You know- It's gender neutral? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. I like that. My daughter calls her friends bro, so I think you- Yeah ... I think you can go down that road now. I think it's fine. Bro? Yeah. What happened to brah? I thought brah was the the new term. Bro, brah, whatever. Yeah. They use them both.
When you were toking back in the day, Mike, did you call your toke buddies brah or bro?
Mike never- yes Ray, both. Mike never touched cannabis until 2019, and then- Oh ... he had a real serious reaction to it. That's right. Everyone knows this. We've mentioned this literally- Everyone does ... literally this has been mentioned- At the Rose Cafe ... 115 times on Taste Radio. Trip falls at the Rose Cafe.
I, look, it's pretty ubiquitous. You can get THC anywhere these days. You can get THC via The traditional rolled up smoke version of THC, AKA a joint, where you can get topical THC lotions and whatnot. You can even get THC in olive oil. You can get it in Target right now until- Yeah
November at least. You can get THC in beverages at Target, certain Targets, that is. Yep. Go Minnesota. And Florida and Texas. You touched on something there, Mike. You can get THC at Target until November. Yeah until November when the ban goes into effect, or presumably goes into effect.
Presumably goes into effect. There's a looming regulatory change. Hopefully we won't see that completely turn over. I'm hoping that it won't, and I'm sure so many other people in our industry are hoping that it won't. Yeah. As we've mentioned on the podcast in the past, there is a federal ban on THC beverages and consumable products looming, and it is slated to hit in November of this year.
It is a very controversial topic amongst folks in the industry, especially those who market cannabis products, and that includes a brand called Brees, B-R-E-E-Z. It really is a serious change. Right now under, under the Farm Bill, hemp is regulated by weight, but starting in November, if the change goes through, the regulation will be that .4 milligrams of THC total per any unit or container will be what's allowed, and that's absolutely nothing.
That's like the head of a pin compared to what you experienced at the Rose Cafe Mike. That was dispensary grade stuff. The ridiculous thing about this is you don't hear anything but stories of people finding joy after discovering five milligrams of cannabis or two and a half milligrams of cannabis in a beverage.
And this is .4 milligrams, which I can't imagine anyone would feel anything from that. Also, when you talk to our editor-in-chief, Jeff Kleinman, who I would consider my cannabis sherpa, along with John Landis, he ... he says basically, this cannabis, the hemp derived cannabis, is made from cannabis that was grown to make rope, not to- get you high. So it's like basically the Bud Light of cannabis anyway. It has very little impact, and it's pretty great in general for people who need an alternative to alcohol, who, people use cannabis for a lot of different reasons. Medical grade cannabis helps a lot of people. It's just good to take the edge off a little bit.
Have two or three of them. You might end up in the couch, but still, I don't know. I just, I think it's pretty ridiculous when you got alcohol running free, which again, I'm also for alcohol running free with regulation, 18 and over sort of thing. But I don't know this is just gonna hurt farmers, it's gonna hurt the beverage industry, it's gonna hurt so many people.
And obviously THC beverages allow you to feel something almost immediately, just like alcohol. There are so many non- ... alcohol alternatives, but the trick is, do you actually feel anything immediately from the L-theanine or ashwagandha or, magnesium, whatever it is? Yeah, not like those mints you gave me and then I felt them later.
Wow, those were strong. But with beverage though, you do feel it immediately. I think it's- Yeah ... pretty immediate onset, like- Yeah ... 10, 15 minutes, tops. So it is a good trade-in for an alcoholic beverage. Just circling back to BRĒZ for a sec, you know, BRĒZ was one of the fastest growing brands in the industry a couple years ago.
We gave it an award, BevNET that is, for a what's the term that we use? Rising Star? The award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence? Exactly. No, a Rising Star Award, and it seemed to be a rocket ship, and according to an article written by our colleague Lucas Southard about BRĒZ, they had a challenging year in 2025.
They described themselves as growing a little too fast, too far. Despite that, they still pulled in $90 million in revenue, and they're in 10,000 retail stores. But of course- They're facing a potential reckoning as well in November, and they're trying to determine the right course forward because they not only market THC drinks- they've diversified
they have non-infused THC drinks, which are infused with adaptogens and nootropics, and BRĒZ has described these drinks as a, quote-unquote, "Trojan horse into mainstream retail, introducing consumers to the brand without the baggage and regulatory uncertainty of intoxicating hemp." Now, note that BRĒZ is not the first THC brand to attempt this strategy.
Cann, C-A-N-N, which is one of the pioneers of this space, introduced a line extension or brand extension called Unspiked. These products did not contain any THC, but they were able to get the Cann brand out there and on shelves in major retailers because, like BRĒZ is attempting to do, they wanted to get that name out there, they wanted to get the word out there about Cann itself.
Unspiked, however, hasn't been on the market since, according to our li- our little research here, 2023, so- I tried to buy some just now. The website's still up, but when you get to the checkout- ... it ends. Yeah, and they haven't posted anything on Instagram about this Unspiked line since 2023, so I suspect it's not something they are pursuing anymore.
And it'll be interesting to see if BRĒZ ... Now, look, BRĒZ launched their Unspiked or uninfused line a couple years ago as well, and I don't know how well it's doing in comparison to their THC line, but if come November they can't sell THC anymore, how many people are actually going to buy their uninfused products?
I don't know. I don't know. It's a good strategy, though. You saw Trip, who was struggling with CBD regulations in the US, and they pivoted into adaptogens and calm and ... you could certainly see BRĒZ's adaptogen products sitting next to Trip and making a pretty strong category. They're both, fantastic beverages.
I think, as always, it depends on how good the product is. So the non-THC line, if it tastes good, if the functionality actually resonates with consumers and, then- Yeah. All the check boxes get checked. Yeah. And I think the trick is, though, is that consumers who are familiar with BRĒZ's THC line, if they're expecting to feel something while they're drinking the product, I think that's tricky.
But at the same time, if it tastes great and it offers something that other modern sodas, other functional beverages don't, then they have a great chance. They did go similar route to Trip, too. The packaging isn't that much different than the original packaging. It's just differentiated in whether it has THC or whether it has adaptogens.
I think it's a good path for BRĒZ because they've built up some brand equity. They are a brand that's supposed to give you that chill out impact, and so the uninfused versions are supposed to do the same thing. I think they do. In my experience, it's a good product. So I think they have a chance.
They have a good team. Speaking of the team, right now as they're pursuing this non-THC line, they're also doing a lot of restructuring within the company. So Aaron Nosbitch, their CEO, has stepped down from that role. I think they're slimming the team down a little bit. Right now they have 10 products I don't know if they're gonna slim those down as well.
But it'll be really interesting to see how all of this reorganization will coincide with them promoting the non-THC line. I think it really will come down to positioning. How do people see and perceive BRĒZ as a brand? And it was interesting, toward the end of the article, their new CEO talked about how he would like to see the brand move out of the non-alc alternative set and closer to modern soda and functional beverages.
This kinda threw me for a loop. He said, quote, "Putting us between Celsius and Olipop is really framing us in the correct placement." Which- ... you're talking about a fitness-centric energy drink and prebiotic sodas, and I'm not sure how BRĒZ fits right into the middle of those two. What just happened there?
Putting it on that. I don't know. I just got some, I got some Lumen in my throat. Okay. Down the wrong pipe, sorry. So we weren't laughing at the idea of putting BRĒZ in between those two brands. No. Okay. I think it's a great idea. Okay, there you go. All right anyway, for the full story on BRĒZ, head to bevnet.com.
Much more information about the brand and where it's headed in this story by Lucas Southard. Also, big news. I was thrown for a loop on this one, 'cause I had never heard of this brand before. It is a brand called Stars & Honey that is launching at Target nationwide. But as part of this announcement that they're launching nationwide in Target, they also picked up a $24 million investment.
From VMG. From VMG, which is a very well-known and very successful private equity fund. They've had many funds, but it's a firm that has had a lot of success over the years, and $24 million is nothing to sniff at. That is a big number, especially for, once again, a brand that I'm not familiar with.
And look, I'm not the be-all, end-all of CPG, but it's kinda strange. That's only because Stars & Honey are not on Wayne Wu's pants yet. Oh, that's perhaps correct. Yeah. Wayne Wu being one of the founders of VMG, yes. I was introduced to Stars & Honey by a friend of mine, who said that he had found the best tasting protein.
And this isn't someone that necessarily gives me food recommendations, but he was talking about how much he loved this protein bar, and how it tasted really good. And so I looked them up, and went to order, but you had to order a full case, and I don't really eat protein bars that often. But I think it- the way that they are going about this business, they've grown the business on D2C for three years.
They know who their consumer is. They've iterated through D2C and through those channels, and now they're launching nationwide with Target, having all of that research and information underneath their belt. It is really interesting. If you are able to identify your customer, why they buy your product, why they're loyal- Who that person is and the fact that they are buying, not only on a regular basis, but being a loyal ambassador for your brand, talking to other people about Stars & Honey, the impact that can have on a retail rollout, on raising money.
I can't claim that it's a case study for how to build a brand online and eventually go into retail, but this is a pretty powerful look at one brand that has done it seemingly very well. And, their value proposition is that it's a product that tastes great. Their flavors are dessert forward.
There's one that's cherry chocolate waffle cone. They have 15 grams of protein, so it's not like a David bar. It's not a wild amount of protein. They're clean label, but what they lead with is the flavor, and I think that there's so much competition in this category. If you can get a bar that tastes really good and has the nutritionals that you're looking for, then that's a really great start.
The letter blocking in the logo is horrifying- ... and I love it. It looks- it's so confusing. It looks like something I doodled in high school, and I hate it, but I love it so much. And the ads are really cool, too. It's a really clean package. The geometry is beautiful in it, but the ads have the flavors exploding out of the bar.
So you have to see the mint cookies and cream one in particular. It looks really cool. But I think they're just going with a little bit of confusion here. The first look at this, if you can read that it says Stars & Honey, you're doing a great job. Which it'll be interesting as they introduce the brand to new consumers at Target, they've identified that retailer as...
What's going on right now? That's the cookies exploding- Oh, I see ... out of the bar. See, now I, I wanna try it. In the ad. It's cool, right? Yeah, it is good. Yeah, looks good. But yeah, they've identified the Target shopper as aligned with their current shoppers, their current consumers, and feel like there's a lot of synergy between the two And in addition to this rollout at Target, they are in the process of expanding into a new 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility.
So I assume that's where a lot of that $24 million is gonna go to as well, is building this manufacturing plant. I also read that they are doing a lot of out of home advertising to support the Target launch, which I think is interesting as they're expanding into their first retail locations. I always hear about out of home as being a really tricky thing because it's really hard to track ROI.
But I'm wondering if that approach was informed by their D2C consumers. And of course with all of the Target locations, they're trying to draw traffic to those retail stores, yeah, very interesting. We'll continue to follow this story. You can read about Stars and Honey's expansion and investment on nosh.com in a story penned by our very own Monica Watrus.
In the meantime, I want to talk about another protein bar brand that I recently saw upstairs. It's called Samsara, S-A-M-S-A-R-A. It appears to be a protein Bar brand that is influenced by Indian flavors and cuisine. They have two varieties that I'm holding in my hand. They have a masala peanut and a spiced chai.
Beautiful packaging. They're on the smaller side for protein bars, which I like, 'cause, I don't- ... need a huge amount of- But they're dense. But they are dense. They each contain 15 grams of protein and two grams of sugar. But it got me thinking, got me wondering- ... why do you guys eat protein bars?
Why would you? Is it because- Protein bars, why would I eat them? No, is it because- Why would you be interested in buying a new- What makes me choose a protein bar? What would make you interested in picking up a new protein bar if you saw one at, say, a Target? Would it be the fact that a brand like this, Sunsara, has pretty unique flavors?
I've never seen a masala peanut or a spice- maybe a spiced chai, but I've never seen a masala peanut protein bar. Is it the actual protein count? This is 15 grams. Is it the low sugar count? Is it the packaging? You can't say everything, but if there was- I can ... one thing to- And I will. No. No, but if there's one thing that you, as, you know, a focus group of one or two or three here, what would motivate you to be interested and pick this up?
So for me, I eat protein bars when I want a candy bar, but I don't wanna eat a candy bar. Really the only ones that I buy are the Mezcla bars, and I specifically- ... buy the green tea. Those are good. They're so good. They taste delicious. They're low sugar. I don't really even care that much about how much protein, and I also really care about whether it's gonna ruin my stomach, because sometimes you get a gut bomb, and who wants that?
I just wanna point out, the Mezcla bars, that's a really good call, Melissa, because I think there's a lot of people who want a candy bar but want a protein bar, want something in between, and Mezcla's a really good sort of in between there. It's not very heavy at all. You could crunch on that thing and be done with it without much effort.
A protein bar, sometimes you gotta chew on that thing for a while- Yeah ... before you finish it. Yeah. Mosh bars also come to mind for- Yeah, for sure ... for that. You like those too? I do, but I think the Mezcla bars are closer to- What you're looking for? ... a candy bar, yeah. Yeah, me too. For me, if the packaging's interesting, I wanna at least check it out.
Certainly I'm looking for 15 to 20 grams of protein in a protein bar, 'cause you asked about protein bars. I don't really use them as a candy replacement. If I want candy, I just go for it- ... which is a problem for me. But if I pick it up and it has interesting flavor, interesting packaging, the right amount of protein, and as you said, Ray, it can't have too much sugar.
But I just don't want a lot of crazy alternative sweeteners either. So I'm looking for clean ingredients. I mention all this, if you look at the Sunsara packaging, the first thing is the flavor, right? At the very bottom- That's the most important thing- Yeah ... the flavor. Yeah. At the very bottom, almost, under the base of the wrapper- Are the macros, the 15 grams of protein and the two grams of sugar.
So in this case, it- it's clear that they're going for a consumer that's looking for a different- The flavor ... different kinds of flavors that are out there. The flavor's the hero there, and then protein bar's next. But- Yeah, but is this the right approach is the question ... I think those are nice matte, premium-looking packaging.
Yeah. So you see that, and you ask yourself first if it's a chocolate bar. Exactly. It looks like a chocolate bar. Exactly. But this'll be positioned in marketage- Of course ... or merchandise with other- Of course, but it still, it looks like a premium piece of chocolate. Okay. And, I also think nowadays it's really easy to find convenient, delicious, fun foods, wherever you are.
So if you're gonna choose something like a protein bar that you can keep with you, it should look good and taste good if you're choosing that over food. It is food, though. It is, but I mean- ... it's but it's compacted f- you know what I mean? Yes, I know. It's compacted food. I know exactly what you're saying.
Bars are food, Melissa. I know. I know. Bars are. There was a website. I know. I know. I know. barsarefood.com. Yeah. Go to the Wayback Machine. Yeah, Sensara, I keep calling it Sensara. I'm so sorry. I think it's Sensara. Sam- Samsara. S-A-M-S-A-R-A. But isn't there a long A too? Samsara? It could be. Samsara. Mike, you said you tried these.
Are they good? I tried them. They're fantastic. Yeah. They're nice and dense. They definitely hit the spot. I think it's 210 calories, and after you eat one, you feel pretty satiated. What's the consistency like? Here you go. Ooh, thank you. Yeah, you should give it a try. All right. The density of it pays off.
It's chewy. Here we go. It's got peanuts. Very tasty. Not as chewy or dense as, say, an RX bar. But it definitely has some density to it. I actually think these aren't dissimilar to a mosh bar. Oh, interesting. They're not that dissimilar. I would say that's kinda like- Consistency-wise ... PowerBar version five, like what you wanted them to be in the beginning.
And I love the fact that there's only two grams of sugar, and it has really great flavor. I don't miss it at all. Yeah. What do you think of the call-outs on the back? Do those speak to you? Gluten-free, no artificial sweeteners, vegetarian, South Asian, female founded. The vegetarian, that's not something that I would typically worry about in a nutritional bar.
Does that mean it's pea protein, or what's the protein? As opposed to like- Oh, sure ... egg whites or- yeah ... it's whey protein. It's whey protein. So it's vegetarian but not vegan. But not vegan, okay. Yeah. I think they could probably change out the vegetarian for something else. At the end of the day, I wanna know more about this brand.
I wanna meet its founder. So if you're listening- Elevator Talk ... Samsara's founders, who I, and I once again apologize for calling it Sonsar yeah, reach out to us. We'd love to feature you in a future episode of Elevator Talk. Let's do it. Now, Melissa, you've got by your side here a beverage that I've wanted to try for a while, and by a while a week, 'cause it only launched a week ago.
This is GT's newest product, which is... This is Synergy. It's the Unity Artist Series, and this is the Shirley Temple SKU. You actually can't try this, because I grabbed it out of the sample fridge. I think there were, like, nine of these in our cooler, and they disappeared. Gee, I wonder where they went. They disappeared immediately.
I did actually get to try one when they were in the cooler. I think it's so tasty. They did a collab with Cheribundi, so it's enhanced with Cheribundi's natural cher- It's so good ... cherry juice. And it really does, it tastes like a Shirley Temple, like you'd want a Shirley Temple kombucha to taste. I think it's delicious.
Yeah, that stuff's fantastic. The previous iterations of Unity were also really good, but I think the Cheribundi- ... collaboration is excellent. And of course, they're just, capitalizing on the Shirley Temple trend. Isn't it amazing to see how these trends roll out? How many Shirley Temple SKUs did you see out in market- Two years ago No And now you see it everywhere.
Yeah, and how many flavor companies could have told us it was coming? Yeah, exactly. Look, I think it's in line with other trends that we've been seeing- Sure ... which is the reduction of alcohol consumption. The Shirley Temple is, the ultimate non-alcoholic cocktail. Nostalgic flavors.
Yes. Nostalgic flavors, just differentiated flavors if you don't want- ... a lemon lime soda or- If you want a Shirley Temple or a Bomb Pop, ... a cola sample. No, if, but if you're of legal drinking age or I would say anywhere between 15 and 25, I feel like the Shirley Temple flavor is right up your alley for that generation, for that age group.
And how long it lasts, we'll see. But really cool to see GT's get together with Chara Bundy. I don't know if this is their first brand collab like that. I can't recall seeing them or hearing about them do one like this before. I can't remember- Yeah ... a collaboration either. I would say this is One of The first.
Yeah. At least. Yeah, good job thanks to GT and the Synergy Kombucha team for sending those over. Yeah. Yeah. So good. And we're out of them, so if you'd want to there, there is one more left, but, There's one left and Ray and Melissa are gonna have a stone circle death match. No. All right.
The sample team needs to taste this product first. The sample team has tasted it. I don't know about that. I do, 'cause I put some of them in the sample team's fridge. Okay, anyway. All right, Mike's got some bucks. More specifically some Lil' Bucks. I got Lil' Bucks. I love Lil' Bucks. Our dear friend Emily Griffith, who- The founder of the company
is also a genius, So smart Just to give our audience a little bit of information about Lil' Bucks. Lil' Bucks is a brand of sprouted buckwheat- Snacks ... snacks. Regeneratively farmed buckwheat. Thank you, Melissa. Emily Griffith has been the poster person for buckwheat for... How long has this brand been out now?
Has it been like five years? I wanna say it's been five or six years. I remember meeting Emily- Five or six years. Yeah ... I wanna say this was 2020 or 2019 somewhere. And, I remember Emily and Lil' Bucks on, I think when we were doing virtual Nosh Live, we did a brand refresh live with Lil' Bucks. We did, that's right.
Last Expo West, marched over to her booth and found out that she'd come up with the idea to make Lil' Bucks into a Rice Krispie Treat style product, and oh my God, are they fantastic. They are so good. They're really good, and the packaging is dynamite. The packaging is dynamite. They are so good.
Everything about this hits. 90 calories. Which one you got there, Melissa? I have the strawberry shortcake. I'm going for chocolate. It's so good. It's got some, I think, freeze-dried strawberries in here. It really does taste like a Ri- everything good about a Rice Krispie Treat, but you feel like you might be getting a little nutrition in there too, but not at the expense of the flavor.
Emily's one of the nicest people you could meet. She's so humble. You just walk up and you're like, "You're a genius." "Oh, thanks." I am really loving this, it's not really a trend, but the number of brands, snack brands, that are getting into the Rice Krispie- ... business. BTR Nation. BTR Nation- is another one. They make these, what they describe as superfood Krispie treats. They are delicious. They're awesome too, yeah. And it's high time that we had a better option for the Rice Krispie Treats, which are still pretty amazing to eat, but if you want a much healthier option- Yeah ... Lil' Bucks, BTR Nation.
Three grams of protein. Yeah. Two grams of fiber. Gluten-free, non-GMO, and vegan. Amazing. Nice. Well done, Emily, and team. Their blueberry Lil' Buck squares are one of my absolute favorite snacks of all time. USDA organic, too. Very cool. All right. I got to apologize to the fine folks- ... from Protein Pine. So Protein Pine, which is a maker of ice cream that is infused with extra protein- Introduced a new brand extension called Protein Pops.
These are, as you might expect, protein ice cream on a stick. And they sent along with some samples a pretty incredible- What? Oh, God. Oh, my. Sorry. I just dropped everything. Pickleball everywhere. A pretty cool set of pickleball paddles And balls. And yeah, I can't wait to use these. Let's play. No, we're not gonna play anything in the studio, no.
Come on. Melissa and I can play. Yeah. These are really nice. They're really high quality. I am really excited to use these. I was probably more excited to eat the protein pops. But once again I, I already referenced this apologies to the team, our freezer broke down. Oh. And we lost the samples.
Unfortunately, we had to put 'em down. We did have to put 'em down. We had to put the samples down. But every time that I play pickleball with these paddles, I assume, because they are branded paddles , I'll be thinking of the brand and, and- It looks just like the pop too ... try to find an opportunity.
That's the whole point, try to find an opportunity. I understand the point, but Ray, you might bite into one of those when you're serving. Oh, 'cause they, they do have some- oh, look at that. Yeah, they do have- Yeah ... this looks very appealing. It does. It looks tasty. Very text- You play pickleball, Ray?
No, I don't. But it looks like a very textured- ... protein pop. You, Melissa? A little pickleball? No. No? But I would. Okay. If I had paddles. What Mike is trying to say is that he wants these paddles- ... but Melissa is probably more worthy of these paddles. I'm not saying I need, I don't need those paddles.
I, I have pickleball paddles. You can have this towel that they sent with us too to dry your... Yes, one, two, and three. We got it. I can picture myself trying to play pickleball with the actual ice cream bars. Okay. Mike just covered his entire head. This is what you all wanted anyway. All right.
Much better. Yeah. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. All right. Before- Improvement ... before we wrap up, I wanna give a shout-out to one of our teammates. His name is Colin Segrue. We know him as Sample Captain Colin. He's moving from Boston to Hoboken, AKA Metro New York, and we're gonna miss him. And I just wanna say that Colin's been one of the best and most consistent and reliable teammates here at BevNET for a very long time.
Clearly, he's not leaving the company. He's not leaving the company. But- We'll miss his presence in the office. Absolutely. We're gonna miss his presence in the office, and I really hope he continues to be Sample Captain. I'm gonna miss his presence, S-P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S, 'cause he brings samples in my office every day.
Yeah, that's right. And also, he has great Instagram content @samplecaptain. That's right. I hope he's able to continue doing that. Where, how is he gonna get the samples in Hoboken? I guess he'll just have to go into bodegas and pick stuff out. Barry's office. He'll find... where there's a will, there's a way.
He should go into Barry's office- That's a good idea ... and try all the samples in there. That's a good idea. For those of you who don't know, Barry's office is like a archive of- Of old beverages ... it's basically a museum of old beverages. Yes. Colin is the epitome of a CFV. If you think Ray has a museum- Yeah
you should see Barry's office. You said it well, Melissa. If there's a will, there's a way. And you know what? If there's a sample, there's a captain. Oh, God.
