Episodes

This week’s episode of Taste Radio features a captivating interview with Joth Ricci, a veteran beverage executive with one of the most diverse, interesting and impactful track records of anyone in the industry. Over a 17-year career, Ricci has held roles as president of Stumptown Coffee, president and CEO of Jones Soda and managing director with beverage investment and advisory firm First Beverage Group. We recently traveled to Portland, Ore. to meet with Ricci, who is currently the president/CEO of Adelsheim Vineyard.

Ep. 72 of Taste Radio features a conversation with Poorvi Patodia, founder and CEO of Biena, a fast-growing maker of roasted chickpea snacks. Patovia discussed how the combination of familiar snack flavors and a healthy, whole food option continues to win over investors, distributors, retailers and consumers.

Ep. 71 of the podcast includes an interview with Doug Zell, co-founder, Intelligentsia Coffee. Zell discussed how Intelligentsia’s relentless pursuit for improvement permeates its retail and packaged coffee business and why “quality will always find an audience."

This week's episode spotlights a recent conversation with Jeff Church, the co-founder and CEO of Suja, who opined on the role of luck in business, why a thorough understanding of consumer demand is critical to success, and explained how “the rule of twos” helped steer the company through its growth and development.

This week’s episode of Taste Radio features a wide-ranging conversation with Krave Jerky and Sonoma Brands founder Jon Sebastiani. Recorded at the 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show, Sebastiani delved into his background in the food and beverage industry as an heir to a legacy wine family and talked about what spurred him to strike out on his own with Krave.

Episode 68 of the Taste Radio podcast features interviews with Jennie Ripps, the CEO and co-founder of tea-based cocktail mixer and beer brand Owl’s Brew, Pete Speranza, who is a New Business Development Principal with General Mills’ business development and venture capital arm 301INC, and the latest edition of Elevator Talk with Jason Petrou, the founder of Clean Energy Organics.

In our conversation, Norton discusses the company’s “inside-out” approach to marketing, how a strong company culture can bring tangible business results, and how a shared sense of responsibility to consumers has strengthened the company’s new relationship with Unilever.