[00:00:00] John Craven: BevNET Live, the premier event for beverage industry executives, is coming up fast on June 10th and 11th in New York City. Hundreds of beverage founders, investors, and retailers are already confirmed. Don't miss your chance to build momentum mid-year and set yourself up for a strong finish. Early registration pricing ends Friday, April 24th. Register now and save $100 at BevNetLive.com.
[00:00:39] Ray Latif: Hello and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast For The food and beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts For The episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. I don't know why I have to continue to read that. I have this... You forget our names.
[00:00:58] Jacqui Brugliera: I guess so. You should know by now.
[00:01:00] Ray Latif: This is what, the 500th time that I've done this? And I still consistently need to read from my agenda here. But anyway. It's a process.
[00:01:07] Mike Schneider: I love BTS. I love talking about it. The band? Yeah, that's what I meant.
[00:01:14] Ray Latif: They're not a band, they're a group. Okay. Yeah, they're a group. Yeah. I often... I don't know. You indulge? I don't, well, no. I've never, I don't think I've ever heard a BTS song. We'll remedy that later. Okay. I feel a reel coming up. Let's just stop right there. I think I am not a BTS fan or a listener or just haven't really been exposed to BTS because it's not, I'm not of their target market. I'm not a target listener of BTS. And in some ways I feel the same way about Prime, the brand of sports and energy drinks. Launched by social media influencers Logan Paul and KSI and operated by Congo Brands Prime. BevNET's 2023 brand of the year. And I want to pull back the curtain a little bit, just ever so slightly about why. We chose it.
[00:02:09] Mike Schneider: You know, this is a Prime opportunity, haha, for soccer banter right now, because... Because you should see John Craven's face. They are a major supporter of Arsenal. Did that alienate you from Prime, do you think?
[00:02:21] Ray Latif: No, I don't think so at all. As a Manchester United supporter? You know, I think the thing with Prime that's really interesting is that I... And I think some of us here at the table, and I'm not including Jackie because she's not at the table, don't really understand today's youth. And for so many reasons, Prime, I feel like, captured the zeitgeist of the 2020s in so many ways. I mean, I think about, you know, this feeling that youth can be bold and unapologetic about who they are and, you know, prime in its branding and its positioning and its marketing is that in so many ways.
[00:03:03] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Also in its personalities.
[00:03:06] Ray Latif: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Logan Paul and KSI, I mean, that two guys who do what they want, say what they want.
[00:03:12] Mike Schneider: Talk about unapologetic individuals.
[00:03:14] Ray Latif: Exactly. Exactly.
[00:03:15] Jacqui Brugliera: I think how they've gone about it is just really smart. Like you said, they're unapologetic. They're authentic to their own personal brands. And that feeds through to Prime. And with those partnerships, I know they also like partnered with UFC and NASCAR. And they're being very like particular.
[00:03:31] Mike Schneider: Biggest football clubs in the world.
[00:03:34] Jacqui Brugliera: And like they're being very particular with like who they partner with. And then they're also using the product all the time in their content. So I think they have almost like 40 million followers on Instagram combined. So right there, that reach is the consumer that they're trying to target. Like I know that Gen Z follows both of those influencers daily.
[00:03:56] Ray Latif: Yeah, you're talking about KSI and Logan Paul as having 40 million Instagram followers combined. The other part of this that's kind of interesting is that I am not necessarily a fan of artificial sweeteners in my beverages. And Prime sports drinks include Sucralose or Made with Sucralose. And I've tried the product and frankly, I'm not a huge fan of it, but it's not made for me. You know, I think it's a liquid, it's a formulation that's made for younger consumers who seem to love it.
[00:04:27] Mike Schneider: Well, I don't know. I beg to differ slightly. Okay. You know, I think what's super clever about it is if you look at, I mean, there's tons of influencers, YouTubers, et cetera, you know, selling merch, right? I mean, that's like the most basic thing. Merch link and bio, baby. Yeah, merch link and bio. You know, what they did was sell something that you use every single day and has the ability to also, if you are a fan of them, you buy this product and you could influence other people on consuming it. As opposed to, like, I don't know, if you buy a a piece of merch from some YouTuber, you're not going to convert somebody else who's like not into that YouTuber to wear that merch, right? Like your rainbow Lamborghini sweatshirt. Right. I know my rain. I try to get Mike to wear it, but he just won't do it. But, um. I think this is something that it's really broad in its appeal, and in hindsight, I think they launched in a category that, to some extent, despite there being a recent big acquisition in that category... Body armor. It was kind of a little, you know, ripe for another brand to hop in and seize a chunk of it. So, you know, I don't know how much of that was luck or, you know, a plan or whatever, but, you know, it worked. So, and I think, you know, at least Logan Paul has transcended beyond just being an influencer at this point too. So, I mean, it's... I think hard to extract lessons out of that that your average entrepreneur can put to use. Yeah, boxing your friends probably isn't a strategy for everyone.
[00:06:07] Ray Latif: You know, I was thinking about that point, John, about, you know, how entrepreneurs can incorporate what Prime has done into their business strategies. And I thought of a couple of examples, ones that we brought up on the podcast that have done just that. You know, you think about AumSum or you think about Fly By Jing, again, two brands that know what they stand for, are firm in their representation, but go ahead.
[00:06:30] Mike Schneider: No, that's true, and I think, yes, and those are certainly more niche products than, you know, a brightly colored sports drink. Sweetened with sucralose, but maybe I would put it this way, like Prime to me feels like They have a product that can go super broad. And AumSum and Flyby Jing, on the other hand, I think have gone extremely deep into areas that they are also associated with, right? So they're not trying to sell a billion units or whatever, you know, prime is sold, right? The higher price point, probably higher margin product that doesn't need that many units to be sold.
[00:07:11] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. And I think also like body armor is targeting the athlete prime, not necessarily, you know, targeting an athlete, which again, widens the reach. And they also do a great job of, you know, doing giveaways and making it like some exclusive offers, which has the cool factor. And I know like Gen Z loves sneaker drops and things like that. Like they want something like that to engage with online as well. So it's like multichannel.
[00:07:38] Ray Latif: Yeah, that's a really good point, Jack. Yeah. I think you're a hundred percent correct in that body armor is very much focused on sports, fitness, hydration, whereas prime feels so much more tied to lifestyle and, you know, specifically Gen Z and Gen Alpha lifestyle. I remember, you know, going around the soccer fields of my town and, you know, last year just seeing the fields littered with prime bottles. I'm like, what the heck is going on here? And I just couldn't understand it. And the reason I couldn't understand it is because I'm not. 12 or 18. Like, this is not my brand.
[00:08:10] Mike Schneider: Prime is also super focused right now on the sports drink. And they've got the energy drink and they've got the sticks too, where you've got like, you know, going back to Fly By Jing, it's, it's a little bit more diversified too, to capture more markets. So you've got them with, you know, going beyond the, the heart and soul of Chili Crisp there too, so.
[00:08:28] Ray Latif: Yeah, and I know you're going to say, John, that Prime does have broad positioning, and I keep going back to like younger consumers drinking this. But really, have you seen any people drinking?
[00:08:37] Mike Schneider: I crush a Metamoon right now, right? Do you drink Prime on a regular basis? I like Prime, yeah. Not regular, but I do drink it. What I was going to say is I see a lot of parallels to the rise of vitamin water, which is essentially kind of almost a sports drink, but designed for, uh, as the big guys like to call it, uh, non-sweat occasions, right? It's a lifestyle brand and, you know, drink it whenever you want. Right. And clearly it's working. So.
[00:09:07] Ray Latif: I think there's also a renegade factor in all this too. Chris Hunter from Koya, who's one of the co-founders of Koya and also one of the co-founders of 4Loko talked about this on LinkedIn in that there has always been some controversy surrounding the founders of Prime, Logan Paul and KSI, and there's something kind of edgy about the brand that is derived from that controversy. And then, you know, you saw the United States Senator Andrew Thefold talking about Prime's energy drink line and saying this is not a brand for kids, you know, kids shouldn't be consuming this, think about how much caffeine is in it, and they're targeting kids and so on and so forth. So that controversy, I think, also played into the media hype about Prime as well. Well, at least The Newton cycle right now, our memory is extremely short.
[00:09:51] John Craven: Yes. Yes.
[00:09:51] Ray Latif: Interestingly enough, that is not the talking point in today's news. Far For The top of concerns. No, it is definitely not that. But, you know, in any case, I think Prime is a brand to be recognized. It is a remarkable brand that is doing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales just essentially two years after its launch. Hence our recognition of it as the brand of the year for BevNET. And our very own Brad Avery sat down with Logan Paul for an interview to discuss Prime's big year, how it has developed and evolved, and what's next for 2024 in a video that you can find on BevNET.com. Check it out.
[00:10:36] John Craven: Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit vibrantingredients.com.
[00:11:03] Ray Latif: All right, switching gears from a popular sports drink brand to a legacy and very popular snack brand, Doritos. Today it was announced that Doritos has collaborated with Empirical, which is a Copenhagen-based spirit company that they call, they describe themselves as a global flavor innovator, to create the Empirical and Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit.
[00:11:27] Jacqui Brugliera: This is something that I thought Craven created via AI. I was like, this isn't real.
[00:11:34] Mike Schneider: This is the Dr. Jing of spirits. Mike, for once, is speechless, or almost speechless. It does look a little AI-ish, but it's maybe... It's a little too good. It's too good. Like, an actual human worked on that. Whether it's real or not, we'll find out.
[00:11:50] Ray Latif: According to the press release, this limited release offers a multi-sensorial, delicious beverage experience that smells and tastes just like the real thing. You mean the iconic flavor of Doritos nacho cheese chips into the spirit style so you can drink your Doritos now This sounds like my collaboration between chubby and fish wife Chubby Snacks chubby I'm holding out for Slim Jim and Tito's Because I'm a fan of both of those I think the interesting thing about this is I have interviewed the founders of Empirical, I've actually been to their distillery in Copenhagen, and everything they do seems to be focused on innovation and flavor development. It feels like a very refined and sophisticated brand. What do you guys think?
[00:12:40] Mike Schneider: Just like Doritos. Don't you think they're above eating a little Doritos? Think it is a refined brand Doritos that part you could say Very refined okay over time, but anyway.
[00:12:50] Ray Latif: I'm curious about why?
[00:12:52] Mike Schneider: They chose to align with Doritos maybe distiller was eating Doritos had some Dorito hands got it in the the booze and they were like well We got to sell it I mean, so, one of the oddest and best flavor combinations that I ever accidentally discovered was Lime Tostitos and Glenroth's 12. Those two go really well together. It's really strange. Okay. That is strange. That is super strange.
[00:13:21] Ray Latif: But would you ever blend the two into a spirit? Never. Okay, there you go.
[00:13:25] Jacqui Brugliera: No way. That's the thing. Like, the actual experience of drinking Dorito flavor, I don't know. Maybe like pairing, but not all combined.
[00:13:36] Mike Schneider: Which color arsenal kit did you pair with this abomination?
[00:13:41] Ray Latif: Abomination. The Newton yellow, of course.
[00:13:44] Mike Schneider: The Newton neon yellow.
[00:13:45] Ray Latif: This isn't the first time that we've had snack foods or snack food flavors incorporated into spirits. It was what, 2021 that Arby's launched a vodka that was inspired by their french fries. And then Lay's, which is owned by PepsiCo and PepsiCo owns Doritos as well, created a vodka made in part with the same potatoes that are used for its potato chips. But I think in both cases, it wasn't a named collaboration. You didn't have two brands named as part of the spirit. So it was Arby's vodka and Lay's vodka. In this case, you have Doritos and Empirical Spirit. They're not specific about the type of spirit because Empirical is never specific about the type of spirit that they sell. They don't make vodkas and whiskeys. They make spirits based on flavor specifically, first and foremost. I have requested a bottle. I believe a bottle is on the way. So we're going to taste this.
[00:14:41] Girl Scout: Oh, taste test.
[00:14:41] Ray Latif: Yes, we're going to taste this at some point. Shots. Send a dram your way, Jackie, so you can sip with us. And then, yeah. I may have to suspend sober curiosity For The. Okay. I'm hoping to sit down with the founders of Empirical for an interview about this collab because it's, if nothing else, very interesting.
[00:15:04] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Is the product sampling time yet? Not just yet. I got some Weird Booze in the waiting area.
[00:15:11] Ray Latif: I guess that's a good segue, but if you had that Weird Booze in a Tetra Pak, I'd be much, much happier.
[00:15:16] Mike Schneider: Booze in a Tetra Pak? How about that one, Ray?
[00:15:18] Ray Latif: Yours is just in a bottle. Yeah. Secret vial, as they call it. Secret vial. Yes. Speaking of Tetra Pak, I want to thank them because they are the presenting sponsor For The episode of Taste Radio. Tetra Pak is the pioneering packaging solutions company that provides safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Learn more at tetrapak.com. I had a fantastic interview with Pedro Gonsalves, who's the VP of marketing For The US and Canada for Tetra Pak at BevNET Live. If you want to check out that video, head to BevNET.com. We'll be posting it very soon along with every stage interview, panel presentation, live stream interview that we recorded at BevNET Live. So it'll all be available very soon. Stay tuned for more information. Before we get to that even, your spirit, John, that is. You know, meeting with folks and sitting down with folks at BevNetLive and NoshLive, I often got the question, as you might expect, can you introduce me to investors? That's an obvious question. Everyone needs money. Everyone wants to speak to an investor. I think we did our best. I think the team did our best to make those connections. But the second most popular question that I was asked at the events was, how can I best curate my pitch? What should I be saying in my pitch? And this came up a lot because we had our one-to-one sessions with retail buyers from Albertsons, Whole Foods, Thrive Market, Sprouts, the Fresh Market. And in each case, the entrepreneurs... Kroger. Kroger. And in this case, the entrepreneurs sat down, they had about, what was it, 10, 15 minutes? They got 10 minutes. 10 minutes to sit down with retail buyers and they wanted to make those 10 minutes as effective and efficient as possible.
[00:17:03] Mike Schneider: Can I applaud the industry for a moment here while I applaud Jackie? First of all, Jackie, phenomenal job putting that whole thing together. Second, not a single person was late for an interview.
[00:17:15] Jacqui Brugliera: There were no missed meetings. That was flawless. Yeah. People were excited about it and they obviously wanted to take those 10 minutes to chat. So they took full advantage.
[00:17:26] Mike Schneider: Blown off a retailer. Probably shouldn't have a CPG company then. I don't know.
[00:17:33] Ray Latif: Well, yeah, rule number one, don't be late and don't blow off your meeting with a retail buyer. They didn't, The Newton rule number one. Rule number two, in my opinion, is what value, what incremental value is my brand bringing to your stores? Retailers always tell me this, look, they have a limited amount of space. So typically if they're going to put your product on, another product is going to come off unless they are increasing the amount of shell space for a particular category. So explain to them what your brand is going to do For The, not what the retailer can do for you. It's like that John Kennedy line, right?
[00:18:07] Mike Schneider: Yeah, well done there.
[00:18:07] Ray Latif: You like that? Sure. I incorporated some, some presidential. Yeah, perfect. I think another part of it is obviously, you know, what differentiates your brand, your products from what already exists out there. Sometimes that's kind of a hard question to answer because it might only be a tiny difference between your brand and another. But if that tiny difference can in the long term be a significant difference, that's an important point to make. Any other thoughts, folks?
[00:18:35] Mike Schneider: No, that's exactly it. I mean, going in with, our product is extremely different from every other product is like, usually doesn't work out that well in most categories. Right. I also think you should just be in love with the product that you have in front of you, because if you get too far into innovation too soon, then, you know, they're going to shut you down too.
[00:18:56] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I know that a lot of times I hear that brands should stay focused. They're trying to do too much too fast. And then they're trying to enter the store in multiple locations. They're spreading themselves too thin. So I think staying focused and explaining what is your plan for growth, once you do expand that focus is also important.
[00:19:19] Mike Schneider: We saw a lot of that in The Newton Beverage Showdown where we had some companies that were, you know, they just had a lot of variables in their drinks and they're good, but each of them could have, sometimes those variables could come together to form a new company.
[00:19:34] Jacqui Brugliera: And there's also more variables, more like holes to poke as far as like a retailer or an investor. Right.
[00:19:41] Mike Schneider: And the education.
[00:19:42] Ray Latif: Absolutely. And also what your competitive advantage might be and how sustainable that competitive advantage is, whether it be in your team, in your formulation, in your supply chain, in your retailer relationships, etc. And, you know, I'm going to paraphrase Warren Buffett here, the famous investor. who once said, you know, he invests in companies that have a significant competitive advantage over others, but more importantly, how sustainable, how much runway long-term value that advantage has.
[00:20:14] Mike Schneider: I think The Newton Beverage Showdown and BevNET Live also just proved to be the safest place to hear that feedback too, because once again, you could just walk up to a retailer and find out what they think or you know, meet somebody in the crowd who could help you, you know, hone your, uh, your strategy, your packaging, you know, all that stuff was, was there.
[00:20:32] Ray Latif: It was, it was pretty fun. Absolutely. I do want to mention one more aspect of a pitch, and this is more specific to InvestorDex. John Foraker, the co-founder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm, also well known as the CEO of Annie's or former CEO of Annie's, had a great post on LinkedIn last week. He noted that investor decks that he sees from emerging brands often single out and target competition by name. And your competition often sees these decks and often sees the comparisons that you're trying to make. And you want to be very careful, he noted, about making those comparisons and including those names in your decks, because it ends up being more of a detriment to your brand than otherwise. Well, those are your frenemies.
[00:21:20] Mike Schneider: You know, those are your market making frenemies at times and talking, you know, too badly about them is to your detriment because you're trying to build off in a category together. Well, I think it also just simply undermines your own credibility and awareness. I've seen decks where you know, you might as well have like a quadrant that's like products that suck. And then you just put like, seriously, I mean, I've seen that one. I've seen many times in the competition. I've seen that I've seen matrixes that are basically like, you know, products like that look bad and products that Taste Radio. And they put brands like, you know, Red Bull and these massively successful brands in them. With more race cars than you. And it's like, you know, I guess where I'm going is sometimes it makes founders sort of try to fix something about a product that a consumer isn't looking to fix. And Red Bull in that case would be a good example of like there are probably hundreds if not you know, low thousands of better tasting Red Bull brands out there that are in the graveyard of things that didn't work out. So, you know, I don't know. I think when you're super early stage, like, yes, crapping on the market leaders is not, it's just not a good look.
[00:22:37] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, I think it's also distracting. You know, that's less time for you to talk about your own brand and you're just shifting the focus to other products rather than explaining like what you're doing different amongst the entire marketplace, not like specific brands.
[00:22:53] Mike Schneider: I know what they're trying to get at, the space that they occupy, and they're trying to excite the investor, but there's definitely a better way to do that. Well, I think generally speaking, you know, the majority of food and beverage CPG is not build a better mousetrap. It's build something that is, I think, as we said earlier, like, you know, some meaningful, probably smallish innovation. And then it's about execution. And I think that's something that. to the point of it being a distraction, like it does change like the kind of course of the conversation to have, again, sections of a deck that are crapping on these brands that are out there actually executing well.
[00:23:36] Ray Latif: And as John Forker notes in his post, you'd be surprised how motivating it is to your competitor to have shade thrown at them.
[00:23:45] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, we've seen that on LinkedIn for sure. We've seen it.
[00:23:48] Ray Latif: Absolutely.
[00:23:49] The Newton: 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 slash SUG. That's Taste Radio 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 ebook 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 slash octopi.
[00:24:39] Ray Latif: All right, John Craven.
[00:24:41] Mike Schneider: You ready for a little sip of some booze? I think so, I didn't know I was going to be sipping on booze. I don't know, Mike, do you want one or are you back on the- It depends on what it is. Oh God, it's ectoplasm, no.
[00:24:52] Jacqui Brugliera: Is this bright yellow?
[00:24:54] Mike Schneider: Oh my God. No, it's more green.
[00:24:56] Jacqui Brugliera: Okay. Neon green?
[00:24:58] Mike Schneider: Matcha oat. Oh my God, it is neon green.
[00:25:01] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh, the consistency.
[00:25:02] Mike Schneider: It is neon green, folks. This is a matcha oat liqueur.
[00:25:05] Jacqui Brugliera: Who is the vial from?
[00:25:07] Mike Schneider: Cannot state That's why some secret vile Jackie. Come on now.
[00:25:12] Ray Latif: I'm like did you make I'm not gonna shove this across the table It's not it's not a vile as much as it is a bottle, but I thought the word you were using was vile It's off the set This came off the set of Ghostbusters. This is it does look like ectoplasm like slime.
[00:25:26] SPEAKER_??: Oh
[00:25:26] Mike Schneider: It smells like ectoplasm Give us some context here. What is this? This is matcha liquor, so it's basically trying to be an alternative to like a cream liqueur with a matcha flavor to it, which I don't think has been done before.
[00:25:44] Jacqui Brugliera: I guess there's a lot of coffee liqueurs. Yeah, there's coffee liqueur.
[00:25:49] Mike Schneider: There's things like Bailey's Irish Cream and all those. This is going for a different sort of vibe. I mean, the liquid is definitely eye-catching.
[00:25:57] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty good. I am a little worried that they are using artificial colors in this because it does this does not look like that is the color of matcha. Yeah, but this is like neon green.
[00:26:10] Mike Schneider: It looks like a clear spirit with matcha to me. No, that's the color of matcha. I've poured a few. I mean, it's it's a little bit lighter. I'll give you that definitely would drink again Okay, I have a snack to wash.
[00:26:22] Jacqui Brugliera: There you go You can drink it again Mixed or just drink it straight up like could you mix that in a cocktail most cream liqueurs?
[00:26:30] Mike Schneider: You can make a cocktail out of but the primary use is like drink from bottle probably a little more chilled or over ice, but it's only I think it's 17% ABV. So Girl Scout Muddy Bites. Another green product. You guys can share this back because I'm going to eat this one myself. But these are Girl Scout Muddy Bites. And Muddy Bites are? Line of waffle cone snacks right there a little the end of The Newton filled with chocolate these are Thin mint flavor, and you know you guys know that I love mint chip things that seem pretty close So so this is brand this is this is co-branded with the Girl Scout this right?
[00:27:11] Ray Latif: Girl Scout gonna come knock on my door and sell me these holy moly you guys just opened up the pouch and you can just get that that immediate aroma Of their thin man's oh my gosh. It's not so good inside the best Girl Scout cookies I I For The Newton. What's The Newton Jackie with the coconut flakes on top?
[00:27:28] Jacqui Brugliera: Oh?
[00:27:28] Mike Schneider: Those are also the best girls.
[00:27:29] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, they're my favorite.
[00:27:30] Ray Latif: You know what else are the best tagalongs Those are also the best girls every Girl Scout cookie All right listeners if you want to disagree with us about girls cookie send us a note ask a Taste Radio calm or DM us Okay, I did rename those
[00:27:51] Mike Schneider: I will give some unsolicited business advice to the Girl Scout though. They should just stop selling cookies and sell Muddy Bites instead.
[00:27:57] Jacqui Brugliera: People still like cookies.
[00:27:59] Mike Schneider: No, I mean if like somebody knocked on my door selling these I would buy like all of them. These are really good.
[00:28:05] Ray Latif: You know what's a plus For The Girl Scout is that these don't include any artificial ingredients and I've come to see more artificial ingredients appearing in Girl Scout Cookies, which is not making me too happy about buying them. I still buy them, but I don't buy them as much as I would otherwise.
[00:28:23] Jacqui Brugliera: I think Girl Scout Cookies are ripe for innovation, so I think it's about time they change it up.
[00:28:28] Mike Schneider: Girl Scout cookie inspired flavor. Samoas are now caramel delights.
[00:28:34] Jacqui Brugliera: Caramel. There we go.
[00:28:35] Mike Schneider: Do-si-dos are peanut butter sandwiches. And tagalongs are peanut butter cookies.
[00:28:40] Jacqui Brugliera: I also just like the basic shortbread ones.
[00:28:43] Mike Schneider: Those are called shortbreads, but used to be called trefoils. AI Mike over here. God, why are their branding so confusing? That was just Google, Mike. Yeah, Mike's coming later for Glen Ross and Tostitos.
[00:28:58] Ray Latif: John Craven has the winner of Notch Live's Pitch Slam 2023 in his hand. The brand that is, yes.
[00:29:07] Mike Schneider: This is the Tomato Bolognese flavor. We've talked about Lentiful before. Many times. Yeah, because it's awesome. Too many times. Sorry. Yeah. I mean, uh, great pitch slam competition. I think I was, well, I was not on the judging panel. Fortunately, I think it was, I would have been tough.
[00:29:27] John Craven: Yeah.
[00:29:28] Mike Schneider: Or Lexington Bakes probably would have been my two, but I would have, I was all over my side. I mean, there's so many good ones and also Confusion Snacks. I love the story. I love the popcorn. I can't stop eating it. Probably Lexington Bakes was on my mind because I was eating a pile of... Lexington Bakes? Yeah. Brownies and cookies. Take nothing away from Farron Square and Zuita is amazing too. I mean, that was one of the hardest pitch slams to judge ever. I did not envy those judges.
[00:29:57] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, they were just all so buttoned up as far as their pitch, their packaging, all the products were unique and innovative. So good. They all had the full package.
[00:30:07] Ray Latif: So tasty. Absolutely. Mike, you got some Babe Kombucha next year. I feel like you've been drinking this straight for two weeks.
[00:30:15] Jacqui Brugliera: Now that you've met Vinny, you're like all about...
[00:30:18] Mike Schneider: I've been a Babe Kombucha fan for quite some time and it's not that easy to get. So when the founder's there with a backpack full and you can just kind of walk and take one out of his backpack. Thank you so much, Vinny. Vinny also sent us some, so grab some For The fridge on your way out. Isn't Bay based in San Diego? It is. They are. I often, I was telling Vinnie, I drink a lot of that in the summer when I'm out there. They are at the La Jolla Farmers Market. Yes. Oh, did you know that Jackie and Vinnie are on a first name basis? That's why she's like, you guys are on a first name basis too. She's a good old Vinnie, basically. Good old Vinnie?
[00:30:49] Ray Latif: Yeah. Oh, Vinny, good to see you. Vinny. Hey, do they have a do they have a brewery? Babe Kombucha Brewery? They have a tasting room, I think.
[00:30:58] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. Yeah. He said that the WCB West Coast branch should go for a little field trip.
[00:31:03] Ray Latif: You know what we should do? Definitely, Jackie. You got to see the giant scobies. Jackie, can you reach out to him and see if we can record a live recording of Taste Radio there or at least record an episode of Taste Radio there? Sure yeah, he's gonna say yes Why do you wanna do that random?
[00:31:20] Mike Schneider: I don't know I feel like you know we need to branch out Yeah, branch out record on the road as it were you don't do that enough They've also got a good new Yerba product to we were talking about the difference between making Yerba mate Babe Kombucha Babe Kombucha is obviously a craft with with the scoby and all that kind of stuff and Yerba's represents an opportunity for easier production and also tasty beverage so We're talking about that a lot. Right on.
[00:31:48] Jacqui Brugliera: I have an advent calendar. So I used to love doing advent calendars when I was growing up. So fun. I had all the things to count down to Christmas. And this is an advent calendar from... I'm like, can you see it? Evolved. Evolved!
[00:32:03] Mike Schneider: I'm jealous.
[00:32:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Evolved is a line of paleo and vegan chocolate. They have bars and they also have chocolate cups, like peanut butter cups. So it says happy holidays. And then on the inside, you have like all your numbers. So I need to like catch up and eat a lot of chocolate.
[00:32:22] The Newton: That's awesome.
[00:32:23] Jacqui Brugliera: But you like open it up and then yeah, it has a little chocolate in here. And it's a 24 day paleo vegan chocolate cup calendar. So I'll be eating a lot of chocolate The Newton couple days. And they're all different flavors. And they give you this little like key card so you know what you're getting every day. I'm not gonna look at this though, because I like the surprise.
[00:32:42] Mike Schneider: If you catch up, we're gonna have to go on another Christmas run.
[00:32:44] Jacqui Brugliera: I know. At least this is paleo and vegan, you know?
[00:32:48] Ray Latif: Yeah, you're good. It's better to fall behind on paleo advent calendars. It's not good to fall behind on alcohol nip advent calendars. You know, The Newton that have, yes, that's because then if you have to catch up, uh, yeah, you're going to have a rough morning.
[00:33:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Or I've done The Newton ones For The have beer ones.
[00:33:08] Ray Latif: Those are rough too. Oh boy. Well, in any case, I'm glad that you have something that we don't, Jackie, because typically we have stuff on the table, like these Girl Scout Muddy Bites that you weren't able to sample at this point, but, uh. So good.
[00:33:22] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah. Good for you. Don't share. Every day I eat one, I'll send you a picture. Yeah, exactly.
[00:33:26] Ray Latif: It's a darn good idea.
[00:33:28] Mike Schneider: This is pretty weird, but I thought I'd give it a chai.
[00:33:33] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:33:34] Mike Schneider: We end the episode with a dad joke. Okay. The Newton Hoplark hop tea. The chai one. Here we go. Going in. Oh, that is way better than I thought it would be. This is just amazing.
[00:33:46] Ray Latif: I feel like we received new Hoplark products almost on a weekly basis at this point. Are they innovating that much? Are they releasing new products?
[00:33:53] Mike Schneider: I did not think beer and chai would taste like this, and it's awesome. They, I believe, have a monthly or some sort of subscription box where you get new limited release flavors.
[00:34:05] Ray Latif: Yeah, there's always some hoplark in the cooler. And I thank the hoplark team for sending us product because they're in the cooler and then they disappear pretty quickly after that.
[00:34:15] Mike Schneider: They don't last. This one has a really nice holiday vibe to it, even though the packaging doesn't, you know, doesn't scream Christmas or anything or Hanukkah or choose your favorite holiday. It definitely has that flavor For The time of year. I like it.
[00:34:29] Ray Latif: 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. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:35:19] Girl Scout: you
