Episodes

What lessons can we extract from the acquisition of Simple Mills and majority sale of Spindrift, valued at nearly $1.5 billion combined? The hosts talk about what these better-for-you brands did right and what made them attractive to strategic companies and investors. We also sit down with Marcin Malyszko and Amit Singh, the co-founders of purpose-driven cocktail brand Mission Cocktails.

One of PJ Monte’s early sales pitches startled a woman so much that she clutched her purse. A few weeks later, PJ’s tomato sauce was on the shelves of her husband’s influential grocery store. It’s one of dozens of stories that PJ, a streetwise, fedora-wearing entrepreneur, has about the development of his acclaimed sauce and pasta brand Monte’s Fine Foods.

Is booze so bad that it should come with a warning label? The U.S. Surgeon General thinks so and has advised Congress to act. What, if any, impact would potential legislation have? The hosts discuss. This episode also features an interview with Julie Cielo, the founder of pioneering non-alcoholic cocktail brand Ferm Fatale, who talks about the successes, missteps and eventual closure of her company.

Bo Jackson, the multi-hyphenate sports icon and one of a handful of athletes to play both professional football and baseball, is tackling perhaps his biggest challenge yet – the beverage industry.

What can the past inform us about the future? As we enter a new year, this special edition of the podcast revisits three headlines from 2024 that generated inspired discussion among Taste Radio’s hosts and may hint at things to come for the food and beverage industry.

In this special edition of the podcast, we feature highlights from interviews with seven innovators, leaders and disruptors who joined us on the show during the second half of 2024.

We’re not prognosticators. But we are a hopeful bunch. With a new year on the horizon, the hosts have five (actually, six) wishes for the food and beverage industry in 2025. Swift progress is unexpected, but these are reasonably achievable goals.