A Surprising Salvo On Artificial Colors. Plus, Ben Stiller... Pop?

0:10Hello friends and thanks for tuning in to taste radio the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm here with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. Are you sure we have Jackie Brugliera here and not B-Ball Cutie 32XOXO? What are you talking about? She's trolling us. In our bracket, so we're doing March Madness. That's my name, and I'm doing a throwback because that used to be my AOL name. I was like, middle schooler, high schooler. I like it. You need to catch up with Jackie on AIM.

0:50There you go. We live in an age of nostalgia. It doesn't exist anymore. Shut that down. Well, I also wanted to mention that in this episode, we sit down with Dan Grimm, who's the CEO of Functional Drink Manufacturer, Lucky to Be Beverage Co. So yes, March Madness in full swing. And it's been exciting to watch some of the games. unfortunate though that last night we lost juju uh to an acl injury poor juju which uh yeah the star player for usc all-american that's a tough one because uh well it hurts the tournament and i think it's you know it's a tough road back it takes time but she will come back she will be she will make her way back thankfully she has the off season now to recover and have surgery and all that but it's tough time to get injured you know just a second round into the tournament and thankfully I didn't have USC winning at all, but I still have hope for them.

1:42They really turned out. I think somebody on our team who will remain nameless has USC winning at all and also thinks Juju Watkins is the best. Yeah. She is the best. You ever have a knee injury like that, Jackie? I had weird knee injuries. Not in ACL, though. I had this bone fragment floating around and get locked up. Oh, jeez. That's delicious. Yeah, I needed it. Did you have to take significant time off to play? Yeah, I had to take some time off. Okay. For Jackie, it was like a day. It was like three days. Well, you still ended up as the MVP of the Division III National Championship, the season that Bentley won it all.

2:20You demoted them. Division II. Oh, II. I'm sorry. Division II, not III. I'll take any Division II. I've been telling people all this time. Now I have to go back to every single person. I told that Jackie won the Division III National Championship and make it clear that it was Division II. All right. I'm expecting a list of those people by the end of the show. All right. Oh, boy. I have to clarify. Okay, good to know. All right. Big, big news, folks. Taste Radio is going back on the road. We're going to be in the greatest city in the world, according to some, New York City. We'll be there on April 15th.

2:51That's a Tuesday for the next edition of the Taste Radio meetup series that we're going to be conducting throughout the year. It's going to be happening at the Rethink Food Community Kitchen, which is located in Greenwich Village. We're going to be holding it in the evening, as we did Miami from 6 to 8 p.m. Networking will be aplenty. And we'll also have live interviews at the event as we have in past meetups. So very exciting stuff. Ray, I want to go. How do I sign up? You can sign up by going. I mean, I think I should go. You should go. Yeah, I think you should. Okay. What's the link, Ray? The link is tasteradio.com slash NYC.

3:30It's a pretty easy form to fill out. And guess what? the event is F-R-E-E free. So there will be food, there will be drink, there will be all kinds of great conversations to be had amongst the movers and shakers, the early stage folks, and of course, us. We're basically on tour right now. Jack and I were talking about this. We need like a merch table and like some, you know, CDs and stuff. Yeah, I was saying we should make a record out of, you know the cutting room floor and put a parental advisory you know little note on it because i'm thinking orange vinyl looks like it looks like it tastes radio orange i'm thinking a t-shirt that is like al pacino from scarface but it's ray i like that actually yeah that's pretty cool let's make that fifty dollars with like a fake gold uh ray latif autograph that's like printed on the shirt.

4:23Yeah, yeah. And it fades when you wash it. And a pile of cocaine off or maybe on the back. This is taking a turn. Just on the back. Let it be known that cocaine has never been involved or associated with me. Ray's favorite merch. In any way, shape, or form. I'm saying you have a cocaine energy drink. No, I have had a cocaine energy drink. There you go. But yes, now the Babnet attorneys need to get involved once again. Can you believe this? The following month, which is May, because May comes after April. It does? It does. Wow. This time. Thank you for reminding me. We're going to be in Austin, Austin, Texas, for another Taste Radio meetup.

4:59Stay tuned for all the details on that one. But I know a lot of folks in the Austin area have asked us to come back out there. And if you want to support the event, get involved. Email ask at taste radio dot com. Ray would love to talk to you about it. Yeah. Either event, New York City or Austin, if you're looking to become a partner, and we are looking for partners to help us produce these events, Just let us know. You can email us at ask at tasteradio.com or rlatif at bevnet.com. We'll put your name in lights or on a sign or something. Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. Now, we'll be in New York next month, but we'll also be back in the Big Apple in June.

5:37June 11th and 12th, of course, for the biggest beverage event of the year, or at least one of them, because there's two of them, two BevNet Lives a year. Yes. Something like that. Something like that. BevNet Live, Summer 2025, happening in New York City on June 11th and 12th. It is going to be an epic event. We already have some incredible speakers lined up, including Ralph Crowley, who is the president and CEO of Polar Beverages. My goodness. So for me, who grew up in the central Massachusetts area, and Jackie, you as well, I mean, Polar was this mainstay beverage company. Everyone was drinking Polar.

6:14That was just kind of specific to Massachusetts and New England to a certain extent. And now Polar has become this juggernaut. I was going to say, now everyone everywhere. Yeah, it is an incredible story. And Ralph is going to be sharing some details about that story and how Polar is working with a range of new and exciting and emerging beverage brands, supporting their goals, strategies, and journeys as they continue to scale. We also will have Ben Mand, who is the CEO of Guaya Key. Ben, brilliant guy. Yeah. Formerly of Harmless Harvest. Now he's taken the reins of Guayaquil and I think pumping some life back into that brand, which is exciting.

6:54How about Chobani? Chobani, yes. John Frost, the chief customer officer of Chobani, will also be speaking as well as Scout Brisson, who is the CEO of De Sois. I love De Sois. Yeah, De Sois is one of the leading brands in the space of non-alcoholic cocktails. Now, of course, in addition to all these speakers, you're going to be rubbing elbows and mingling with hundreds and hundreds of the industry's finest folks, entrepreneurs, retailers, investors, suppliers, and everyone who attends BevNet Live, of course, is best in class. Oh, yeah. Be part of that best in class group. Sign up today. BevNetLive.com.

7:34You have hard questions that are keeping you up at night. Bring them to BevNet Live. Get the answers to those and more. Move your company a milestone or two. you know, just come join us. Yeah. And if you're a startup too, we have the application open right now for New Beverage Showdown. So you can come pitch on stage, become a little celebrity at the event. We also will have one-to-one meetings with retailers that are happening at BevNet Live. So there's a lot going on. Just check it all out at BevNetLive.com. Absolutely. As everyone knows, I love the New Beverage Showdown. And it is so exciting to see the brands that have been on stage and then build incredible companies.

8:11And some of the stories, some of the success stories are just unbelievable. Now, Poppy, Poppy, Poppy, Poppy's certainly one. HealthAid, Vive Organic, Malk. I mean, these are really incredible brands that started on stage. Can, of course, yes. Liquid Death. Well, Liquid Death started on stage. Didn't even win. Yeah, didn't win, but had their start on stage at BevNet Live as part of the New Beverage Showdown. and your brand can become part of that list. I really believe that. The sky's the limit, I think, and clearly for beverage brands, the rewards are really remarkable and being able to pitch in front of a live audience, in front of judges who have been there, done that, the most experienced folks in our industry, if you can succeed, if you can present well, you might have a chance of going really far in this industry.

8:58I mean, I think a lot of times the early stage entrepreneur has that fire inside of them to succeed. and this is like accelerant for the flames, you know? It's not even about winning. It's about getting up on stage, getting, you know, in front of the community, getting awareness and getting the feedback that you need to take your beverage to the next level. Do you think we can get Ben Stiller up there to pitch his new drink? Can we get his in here as Audi? Isn't that funny? So this came out in the news cycle, I believe it was last week. Ben Stiller, the famous actor who's been in such films. Oh, that one.

9:36Yeah. I was going to say, how about the son of George Costanza's dad on Seinfeld? Yeah, there you go. Can we get a Magnum? Can we get a La Tigre? Yeah. What's your favorite Ben Stiller movie? Oh, man, that's a really hard question. I like Doolander. Yeah, Doolander's good. No, but my favorite Ben Stiller movie is, of course, The Royal Tenenbaums. Okay, yes. I had a feeling you were going to say that. Yeah, The Royal Tenenbaums. It's one of my favorite movies, so, of course. I think my favorite one is that there's something about Mary. Every time he fights that dog in the kitchen, I start dying.

10:13I fell out of my seat in the theater, man. I fell out of my seat. My wife was like, what's wrong with you? When he body slams the dog on the counter and breaks all the wine glasses. That's one of the funniest scenes ever. All right. Well, I mean, are we going to be talking about what's our favorite flavor? What's his drink called? Okay, so Ben Stiller, according to a lot of sites, is setting his sights on the soda business. Ben Stiller's 59, by the way. He is exploring plans, according to Bloomberg, to launch a low-sugar soda named Stiller's. And a trademark application for Stiller's was filed in November, and it describes the beverage as a fruit-flavored carbonated beverage.

10:55So, yeah, very exciting. The last time, according to Bloomberg, a stiller was involved in the soda business, he was pitching Pepsi Zero Sugar in a 2023 Super Bowl ad. So I guess everyone's getting into this, jumping into this soda pool. I mean,$1.65 billion motivates a lot of people. Yeah. I mean, this probably was existing before that, but. Yeah. He filed for the trademark in November. So, yeah. We'll see what happens. I'm sure he filed for it. I mean, you know. I'm sure he's just like, oh, my list of things to do. File for trademark. Check. Ben, as far as I know, does live in New York City. Or he might be in LA.

11:37But I always see him at the US Open. So I assume he's got some sort of place there. So hopefully we can get Ben at BevNet Live at some point. That'd be cool. BenNet Live. One country. BenNet Live. I don't know. Is Ben Stiller still relevant, though? Like with younger generations? My goodness. He's the director. he's responsible for severance. Well, yeah, but how many people like actually know that? Lots. I think lots. Well, like the younger generation though, like does Gen Z know who Ben Stiller is? Yeah, I think so. I think Meet the Parents has had a little bit of a resurgence as like my kids have seen it and stuff like that.

12:13Okay, so that keeps them alive. The kid is like the Wes Anderson too. I'm just saying. Well, clearly there's a time when kids of today don't know the stars of yesterday I hope there is a time when kids of today and tomorrow never have to think about whether they are eating or drinking artificial ingredients in their food or beverage. And I think we are kind of hitting a turning point here. Very exciting news in that West Virginia, it was announced yesterday, is banning most artificial food dyes and two preservatives in all food and beverage, citing the potential health risks of these ingredients.

12:54The legislation was signed into law on March 24th by Governor Patrick Morrissey, and it's going to go into effect in 2028. According to the New York Times, at least 20 states are considering similar restrictions on all food chemicals. But West Virginia is the first to ban virtually all artificial dyes from foods sold statewide. And this is really exciting. The new law will prohibit products containing the dyes from being served in school meals starting in August. That is progress. That is progress, I would say, for sure. So at a time when there's not a lot of good news in the news cycle, at least the world news cycle, that is, I think this is great.

13:37I'm really happy about this. And I think it will spur other states. And as I mentioned, 20 states are considering similar legislation, but I think it will spur other states to take greater action. And I think this is one of those things. This is one of those ideas that no one, unless you are a manufacturer of said artificial ingredients, can say is a bad idea. This is a really good thing. Well, is it going to make companies change or just exit the, no offense to West Virginia, maybe not so important market of West Virginia, which would have a negative impact of prices and whatever else? Well, I think it's kind of an experiment.

14:20We'll see how much of an impact it does have, at least early on, whether or not, you know, major food companies will say, OK, well, we'll just, you know, spend less time and effort on West Virginia. West Virginia, that global microcosm that it is. Anywho. Hopefully it's a domino effect, though. And then there's like multiple states that are doing this. And then the companies have no choice but to make change rather than just ignoring it. As we've talked about in past episodes, look, I mean, they do this in Europe. They don't have artificial food dyes and artificial sweeteners and artificial, really anything in food, packaged food or otherwise.

14:57And it is something that is really irked a lot of people. It's really irked me. I just don't understand why we can't eat better like that. And B-Ball QT32XOXO eats meat there too. So I mean, because the food is just overall better. Yeah, it tastes better, better quality. Ray, the lover of packaged pies and cakes. I don't eat that stuff.

15:20In other good news, I think most of the samples that we have in front of us contain no artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners. And that includes a brand that I think was the best one I saw at Expo West. One of the for sure. One of the for sure. But this is a brand I was not familiar with before I went to Expo West. It's a brand called True Dates. The parent company actually sells gum. It's called True Gum. But they just launched in the United States a line of dates that have candy or soda flavors. So the sour watermelon flavor is basically a date that's naturally sweetened with a sour watermelon taste or flavor.

16:06We got sweet peach, sour cola, creamy peanut butter. Delicious. All right, let me try some cookie dough. Two flavors that do not go together here. The cookie dough is really good too. cookie dough flavored dates these are made in denmark it's denmark not a u.s labeled product right so so these products are these peanut butter flavored they have peanut butter in them no they're peanut butter flavor okay yes there are peanut butter filled dates out there but these are not these are flavored yeah so they have a coating on top like the sour watermelon has like a little sour coating and it's like no i'm not i can't open all of them all right Don't just, just don't dig in there.

16:46Hold on. I got a sneeze. I'm going to sneeze in the back. I'm just, I didn't dig. You dug. You think I dug? You dug. Yep. Just, just dump out. There you go. Yeah. Oh, you want me to dump? I want you to dump. They smell like Sour Patch Kids. They do. And they're really good. Yeah. I remember seeing them at Expo West and they just, that was a thing that stood out to me because it's so simple, but packs a lot of flavor and does what it says that it's supposed to do is taste like cookie dough and tastes like sour watermelon. in some ways i feel like sour cola here i go oh i dug this is the anti-innovation right they didn't do anything more than come out with a product that everyone knows which are dates and add some familiar flavors that aren't necessarily associated with dates and yeah it's a great product keeping it simple i don't know about candy though sour watermelon is pretty good sour cola is pretty good too i mean they make it if you make it taste like candy i think it's pretty good you got the texture of like i don't know it's chewable like a sour patch kid but it's a date and the flavor kind of goes with it okay coating a date in cookie dough i don't i don't get that sorry mostly sugar so pretty good yeah well i mean talk about a satiating snack dates are great and i think this is going to get a lot of people into dates who wouldn't consider dates in the first place so good stuff i think the branding needs a little uh the branding is a little too like that's going to appeal to people who really like dates i'm not sure that's going to do what you just said.

18:11Well, I'm going to tell you something, John. Yes. And I'm, uh, I probably should say not so much about this. And I think I actually mentioned this in, um, our Expo West roundup. There is another company out there that is planning a similar type of product. Yes. We're not going to reveal the name of that company, but, uh, listeners can probably figure it out. That one felt like a little closer in the right direction than this one. The branding on that one was awesome. Yeah. We saw a sneak peek of said, uh, product and brand. This one says to me, like, do you like dates? Like, if you like dates, here's a candy-flavored one.

18:42It doesn't feel like a net new thing yet. How about Mango? Oh, Senor Mango? Love this stuff. Okay, so what do you think about this branding here? Cute. I like it. I like the product. The folks behind it are great, too. Senor Mango is a maker of dried fruit. They sent us a bunch of their products. We have their matcha variety. We have their natural. We have their dark. And we have their enchilada. What's the dark? I feel like natural is senior mango. Like that's their awesome. It's just mango-ish. No, the dark is with premium chocolate. They don't call it chocolate. Chocolate? Yeah. Interesting.

19:16Yeah. And they come in these beautiful 2.12 ounce pouches. The pouches, they're like shiny, which is nice. And they have a drawing of a mango. It looks like a young kid drew the mango in each. That's senior mango, bro. Yeah. Well, the enchilada is like a chill rabbit mango. Chill dude. And there's so many good words on this pack. I mean, they probably could have had fewer words, but that said, the words are great. Enchilado, organic mango, vegan, 100 % natural, kosher, mucho gusto. How about mango-cant cheeks? They don't describe them as slices. They call them cheeks. From Mexico with love. I mean, these are, yeah.

19:55Good stuff. Get these cheeks in my belly. Okay. I love senior mango. All right. Now, John has some pouches of his own there. I mean, not of my own. And that implies like I'm making my own beef jerky or something weird. But anyway, these are purely sprouted. They come in a bunch of different flavors. I've got the sweet and salty and the chili and black pepper, self-described as a sprouted snack mix. It's basically like granola clusters type of thing. Yeah, with sprouted nuts and pumpkin seeds. Yeah, I mean, really good. I don't know. I took the two that I like the best. This one's got like sweet and salty.

20:31It's got like a maple flavor to it. and this chili black pepper is like, you know, just straight savory flavor. Both are really tasty. Is it just me or are granola clusters everywhere? Like all of a sudden there's a new granola cluster brand like everywhere. It's Rayland. You've got to shop at a different store, Ray. It's not stores. I've been seeing a lot of granola too. I'm with you, Ray. There are a lot of them. Ray, have you seen the Truman Show? The Truman Show? The movie Truman Show? Yeah. Truman. Oh, I'm Truman? Yeah, you're Truman. Oh, okay. It's just you. All right. It's about a podcast.

21:02All right. I'm getting it from two sides here. I'm not getting it from you, Jackie. So please. No, no, no. You guys are done for the day. Wait, but I got a drink to wash it down with. Come on, people. People, cutie, three, two, XO. You got to pull your weight around. All right. As soon as John's done, we'll go to you, Jackie. What do you got? I have this product called Broda, which is a lemon, honey, ginger vodka. Wow. This came from, as the result of someone at Expo West doing the classic, like, just go around, hand out samples. It's a big sample. Well, no, he had a 100 mil little nip size, which is what I've actually tried.

21:37Secret vial, baby. This is still seal, but I've tried the little sample in a spritz quite good. I could have sworn it was kombucha. It has a kombucha look and feel to it. It does look like it. It does. And feel to it. It's a, I want to say, God, am I going to get this right or wrong? I think it's a Polish sort of background product. A Polish sort of background product? You know what I mean. A Polish origin, excuse me. but it's really tasty. I like the guy on the front label. He's a chill dude. Yeah, he's a chill dude. He's a chill dude. I was like, it kind of actually might look like you in maybe 15 years.

22:10His hair's a little bit longer. He's wearing like a quasi-tuxedo. It looks like a cartoon. It looks like an anime kind of thing. I mean, you're probably knee-deep in a conversation with one Adam Stern about, I don't know, what airline lounge is best or some sort of nonsense. That guy went one extra day without shaving, too. I mean, thanks for putting Ray on the bottle, though. Well, one thing I will say about that is he's it looks like he's sipping not a cocktail but just a a swig a swig a scoach of the vodka on its own so it seems like you don't really need a cocktail you can just drink it like that uh yeah i tried it straight it's it's pretty tasty too nice i don't i don't really like vodka things but uh you know lemon honey ginger you got you have flavors i like you know if you're ill but still wants a little scoach or something i think that's probably your best option yeah could heal year yeah yeah and i will say this just to follow up on last thing on this flavored vodka was uh that big thing that happened like 10 15 years ago now i feel like this well that's much more in line with consumer trends today yeah i mean that's flavored you're talking about flavored with uh flavoring like whipped cream flavored vodka i know you were a big fan of but um yeah this is like legit stuff yeah looks like it yeah all right jackie please take it away i have something i think Mike has as well, which is a mine garden.

23:24This is a line of functional beverages promoting calm and clarity with adaptogens and nootropics. This is their strawberry rose. And they describe it as a sparkling elixir made with brewed hemp and fruit juice, which is interesting. I don't think I've seen like brewed hemp called out really. It uses fermented hemp brew as well as a bunch of functional ingredients, including L-theanine, ashwagandha, ginseng, GABA, and rhodiola. All the good stuff. So a lot going in there. Yeah, there's a cocktail of awesome in here with Panax, ginseng, ashwagandha. Mine is, I don't know what GABA is, but it's supposed to be for anxiety reduction.

24:02So I'll need that. L-theanine and rhodiola rosea. And for fatigue reduction, there's a lot going on on this can. It's pretty cool, though. I like the, like flowers coming out of your head. Yeah. Yeah, that's the calm. Every time I hear Gabba, I think of the Ramones, you know? Gabba, Gabba. Yeah, well done. Well done. It's tasty. It's interesting because I don't know what the functional benefit of hemp juice is in particular, but it does say that there's no CBD or THC in the beverage. Yeah, there's an awful lot going on in this beverage. Mine's mango hibiscus, by the way. And, you know, once you get someone to try it, it's pretty tasty.

24:39Yeah, it's really good. Like 16 % juice. Yeah, 16 % juice. Just 25 calories in this one. That is actually surprising for a beverage that has 16 % juice that the calorie count is that low. You just need low sugar juice, Ray. Low sugar juice. That's it. Don't use mango juice. Some of the juice is hemp juice. Oh, the hemp juice. John's got something great over there, too. Yeah, so you know how Ray has, like, random Wegman shots in his pocket? I've got little... It's really good, by the way. You've got a little flask. I've got a little Saints flask in my pocket. I've got a flask. Okay, I didn't really have these in my pocket.

25:11But Megan Klein sent these over. She's had. And what is Little Saints? It's, I don't know. How would you describe it? It's a non-alcoholic. They make RTDs. It's a brand of non-alcoholic cocktails. But this is not a cocktail. No, this, I think, is more designed to be like a drink. Non-alcoholic cocktails and spirits. A drink enhancer? No, I think it's actually intended to be a gin kind of replacement. Right. But I think with the flask size, they've had this sort of viral TikTok moment where Megan is kind of adding these two drinks. Oh, interesting. Okay. And I think it's pretty neat. I mean, it's kind of like a cool, you know, I think anything in a flask always kind of catches the eye of like, what the heck's that?

25:51Why is it in a flask? I've made a phony Negroni with that before and it's pretty great. The Saint Juniper tastes great too. So, but yeah, that was, if you haven't seen the TikTok of these, go check out the Little Saints TikTok account. It's pretty cool. Sweet. All right. And we've got some sweets to wrap up our banter here. Yeah, I know. Wim, I brought these. I brought these Wims. We've got, which is a maker of Better For You indulgence. Oh, oh, I just got it. Good one, Ray. So I've got dark chocolate peanut butter cups here. Oat milk chocolate peanut nougat bars. Oat milk chocolate peanut butter cups.

26:31And then also Ray has the caramel cookie bar, which is kind of like a Twix, kind of like a Reese's cup. and get me some of those right so these these also come in pouches but there's five pieces individually wrapped per pouch one gram of sugar these must have allulose is that what the sweet i've tried these no it is made with monk fruit extract and i don't see any other sweetener that i can recognize interesting yeah no good bar there you go this just then it's a snickers I mean, this is perfect for you, right? Because I can stick my hand all over this bag. Yeah, you can. They're separately packaged.