Burnin' Dollars? Recess' $30M Raise & Ben Stiller's Soda.

0:10Hello, dear 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 Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio. And with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Melissa Travers. Three out of the last four weeks, we've been blessed to have Melissa Travers with us. This time, she's sitting to my left. The other two times, she was sitting to my right. I'm always happy to fill in for you. Yes, thank you. I love that it's assigned seatings. So like, Melissa, you had to sit in that chair because today you're filling in for Mike.

0:42It doesn't work otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. John's in his regular seat. Melissa's in Mike's seat. I'm in my seat. Jackie, you're in your seat. My personality will change too, depending on which chair I sit in. So, yeah. So before we go any further, I was sent by the fine folks at Costa Rina, which is, or at least they describe themselves as a modern Mediterranean lifestyle brand founded by olive oil sommelier, Katerina Molintanos. I think that's how you pronounce your last name. If Mike were here, he would make fun of me. They debuted or they've launched their first high phenolic extra virgin olive oil shot.

1:21So it's all the benefits of olive oil, which are backed by science, as we know, in a simple functional shot. This is a shot, a half ounce shot of olive oil in a glass bottle. It is fully wrapped in a yellow label. And this says it's a product of grease. so usda organic it's also usda organic certified suggested use drink one bottle a day jackie once again we got to figure out a better system so that you can drink with us but we're gonna do some shots to start the show here let's see it i mean it's greek olive oil so must be tasty it tastes like olive oil okay sorry for the spoiler so does it taste like dressing like i feel like olive oil just like dressing i want like a little bottle of like balsamic to go with it Oh, it's great.

2:10It's like those little bottles of hot sauce people hold in their purse, you know? Yeah. I mean, or like a thing you'd see on an airplane or another place where we're using single serve everything. Melissa and I are dying over here because it's a bit of spice. Is it spicy? There's a bit of spice at the very end. So if you actually do it like a shot, you're going to get that hit of spice right in the back of your throat at the very end. That's just olive oil. Well, the more peppery it is, oftentimes the more polyphenols it has, right? Oh, nice. Nice. Getting science-y. And the fact that they wrapped it in this yellow opaque packaging is really nice because the light can also degrade polyphenols too.

2:47So there you go. I thought of everything. Right. So it launched this week. You can buy it at the Costa Arena website. It's$49 for a pack of 15. I'm doing the math, which I'm not being able to do the math. I think this is what,$3.15, something like that? Sure. Go with it. Per shot, that is. But yeah, this is great. I wonder if we're actually going to start to see this multi-pack or this box here. If we're going to see boxes like this at a Whole Foods. I mean, I don't know. This seems like it has a big re-education hurdle here. I like the idea of a mini bottle of olive oil. I'm sure there's a market for that out there too.

3:23But I mean, you could just do this now. I can completely imagine using this as a travel size bottle of olive oil to put on whatever it is on your plane or your train or whatever. But I don't think I would ever just do a shot of olive oil because I eat so many things during the day that would be really delicious with olive oil. Just a little drizzle everywhere. Right. Yeah. And I feel like people will take like a tablespoon if they're doing it for, you know, hair or just health, but they'll just put it in a on a spoon, you know? I mean, also, I feel like they're fighting kind of the obvious, which is compete with the plethora of upstart olive oil companies that are out there that have modern branding.

4:05I mean, I think this in a full-size bottle would look pretty awesome. Well, I think they have these in full-size bottles. Well, it shows what I know. I'm not familiar with the brand, but I guess I feel like it seems maybe too niche then if they're doing that. I also take so many supplements that the idea of taking one more thing is a supplement. You could wash them down with an olive oil shot. That's right. It doesn't conflict. That's right. I could mix my magnesium powder into the olive oil. But I won't be a hater. The olive oil is great. I love the branding of this. If they have full-size products, I'd love to see those too, but it's high-quality stuff.

4:43I love it too, and I would take this with me everywhere that I go to put on my food and eat it as a delicious meal. Well, because you said that, Melissa, you get two more bottles. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. John gets nothing. I'm going to take one if I've met live. I can not take one. Yes. We'll wait for the full-size bottles to come in. Okay. You'll get some. Don't worry. John looks so agitated, right? Okay. Moving right along. You know, what's interesting is I'm not sure if we can define this product, this olive oil shot, as a beverage or as a food or how would we describe this? I mean... I say food.

5:19Food. Okay. What jumps out at me is an encounter I had at a summer fancy food show many years ago where an aggressive PR person was trying to get me to come over to her client's booth and they made salad dressings. And I'm like, sorry, I only cover beverages. And they're like, well, you can't drink it. So. Okay. There we go. Point being, is it a beverage? It's just a matter of perspective and how aggressive your PR team is. Fair enough. But I do think that. And I did try the salad dressing. It was great, by the way. If I were part of the PR team at Costa Arena, I might submit or nominate this olive oil shot for BevNet's Best of 2025 Awards.

6:02I'm just saying, because I'm doing this or I perceive this to be a beverage in that I'm drinking it like I would a shot, a turmeric shot, a ginger shot, what have you. Also, luckily for you, we do have NOSH Awards too. So it's really just where you identify. There you go. So if you identify as a food, you should apply or nominate a brand or your brand or a product that you represent for Nosh's Best of 2025 Awards. If it's a beverage that you're the creator of or that you represent, you could nominate those products for BevNet's Best of 2025 Awards. The key here is that... Don't forget about BrewBound.

6:42And of course, BrewBound, if you market, make, or represent a beer or adjacent beverage like beer, you can nominate that product for BrewBound's Best of 2025 awards. And as I was about to say, the key in all this is that you do it today because today is the deadline for all nominations for all awards. That's October 31st. I was like, what day is today, Ray? October 31st. It's Halloween. I mean, you do have your Halloween costume on. I do. A nice arsenal kit. I'm not wearing an arsenal kit. But basically, yes. An Arteta mask? To make it clear, our awards honor companies, brands, individuals, products, and ideas, as well as trends from across the dynamic and ever-changing beverage, food, and beer industries.

7:32Today, once again, is the day that you need to submit those nominations because otherwise, you're out of luck. And your product brand person trend may not be one of BevNet's best for our various properties. You can't win if you don't play. Exactly. Exactly. You can't score if you don't shoot. And you can nominate yourself. You can nominate anyone else you think that made a slash this year. And you can nominate as many as you like. Nominations also get included in our list of nominees, which will be published next month. And then we will be announcing all of the awards and presenting the awards on stage at our events this December at Nosh Live, BevNet Live, and Brewbound Live.

8:14Apply or nominate your brand, person, product by today because tomorrow is November 1st and you can't do it. Also, if you're thinking about participating in the New Beverage Showdown at BevNet Live in L.A. this December, the application deadline is also today, October 31st. first. And as we've mentioned in past shows, participants and winners of past competitions have included Liquid Death, Poppy, HealthAid, brands that are now doing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in sales. And they all started on stage at BevNet Live as a participant of the new Beverage Showdown. You could be, at least your brand could be one of those amazing success stories, but you got to apply.

9:05You got to send us some information. You got to send us a short video and you'll be on your way. We have the founder of Recoup speaking at this year's BevNet Live and Recoup was last year's New Beverage Showdown winner. Yes, Susan Buckwalter Hartman, who's been at it for a few years and just gave a dynamite presentation at our LA event last year and yeah she is speaking and i'm excited to see and hear her on stage because uh she's just really remarkable and that brand is going places we never had recess recess the brand known for its mood enhancing beverages as well as mocktails it started out as a brand really focused on cbd beverages we never had ben witty the founder and ceo as part of the new beverage showdown but uh we've had him on stage we've had him on stage but he never participated i feel like he would have knocked it out of the park on stage for the showdown.

9:59But alas, he would have done it in the heyday of CBD drinks. And he's obviously pivoted to be much more than that. Yes. There was a lot of hype around that brand at the time when it launched in 2019, I believe. And it was called or described as the Red Bull of CBD, Recess was. And yesterday it was announced that Recess raised $30 million in a series B round led by Kavu Ventures and also added a key member to its staff. That's Kyle Thomas, formerly of C4. Kyle is now the co-CEO of the company alongside Ben Whitty. Yeah, really impressive stuff. I sat down with Ben last year for an interview that I really loved and it was just about how he pivoted from CBD drinks and being a really CBD focused brand to one that encompassed this idea of sort of chill and relaxation throughout the day, whether it be in the afternoon with one of their mood-enhancing beverages, which is fueled with, or at least has the key ingredient of magnesium fueling it, as well as their mocktails, which have been a huge hit.

11:08I see their mocktails everywhere now. And so I thought it was pretty interesting that recess is where it is today and that Kavu, which is known for investing in brands like Poppy and Buy, made this additional investment. They had already been an investor in the brand, but it made this additional funding of Recess, especially because it feels like Recess is a platform for products in a variety of different categories, more so than one specific category. John, what do you think about their approach? Oftentimes we talk about focus and we talk about brands and founders needing to be focused on one particular aspect of whatever industry they're a part of.

11:49But Recess kind of has their hands in a number of different categories. Well, they do, but they all share the same kind of underlying theme, I would say, of like a mood relaxation type of product. And I think usually when we say to focus, it's more directed at the companies that are like, I want to do a protein drink and then I'm going to do, I don't know, an iced tea or something to make up a ridiculous example. But this actually feels pretty focused and it gives recess the ability to not just be tied to whatever the trending thing is of the moment, which I'm sure is by design, given that in the beginning they were tied to the hype of CBD beverages.

12:32And unlike a lot of the CBD brands that didn't make it from that era, they're still around. And I think this is a great sign that certainly Kavu, you know, led the round and was one of their existing investors, like really believes in them and feels like the timing is good. And again, I kind of would agree. Yeah. Another brand that's done this really well is Trip. Trip was tied to CBD. Now they're all about just calm. And I think a lot of brands are finding success with tying to like one very simple call out and calm is very simple. Relaxation is very simple. People understand that. And no matter what goes into the beverage, whether it's CBD or it's other functional ingredients, if they can wrap their head around that, then they're going to grab for that product.

13:21A lot of consumers drink recess as an alcohol alternative. And I certainly appreciate that they have different offerings for people who want to achieve different mood states. So they have one line that has some caffeine content in it from Goyasa, and then they have the magnesium line and then the hemp line. All of them have L-theanine in them, which does give you kind of that calm feeling. So I think it's certainly helpful and useful that they have different products for folks who want to achieve different mood states, depending on what time of day it is, what the occasion is. And I thought it was interesting in that article in BevNet about the Kavu investment.

14:05Kavu said that recess was providing a counterweight to the$25 billion energy category. And personally, that's something that I think is very attractive about recess. I don't really want 200 milligrams of caffeine in a can of anything. So that's certainly very, yeah, that's appealing to me as a consumer, certainly. Yeah, I mean, going back to where Recess started, and I misspoke, actually. Recess was dubbed by the press at the time of their launch as the LaCroix of CBD. And when I spoke with Ben last year, he preferred the tagline, the Red Bull of relaxation. The one thing I'm still wondering about is whether or not Recess will be known more for their mocktail beverages or more for their mood-enhancing beverages.

14:54And if I had to guess, I would think it's more their mocktail products. I just see more of that everywhere. There's no education. You know what it is. You pretty much know what you're going to get. You just have to try and hope that it's going to taste the way you want it to taste. where their mood enhancing beverages are, I think it's more of a perceived functionality for most people. And so the education threshold is going to be higher. So with Akavu, I wonder if they're betting more on the future of recess as one versus the other, or if they really, really believe that platform approach is gonna work.

15:27I think there's so much crossover between mood enhancing beverages and mocktails, because if you're choosing not to drink alcohol, it would still be really nice to feel something So I think that there's a lot of opportunity there as well. Am I hearing that you would like to drink more of those mood-enhancing beverages? I wish I could drink more alcohol, but I can't, so I have to find something else. The Recess Paloma is definitely one of the tastiest NA cocktail things out there right now. It is. It's pretty remarkable. And one of my local Trader Joe's that doesn't sell alcohol, They've really made an intentional focus on promoting NA beverages and NA alternatives.

16:09And Recess has a pretty big presence in that set. So, yeah, should be interesting to watch. And congrats to Ben and his team. This is not an easy business. and just the approach that he's taken, especially given that that brand could have fallen by the wayside and could have been sort of a cautionary tale about really focusing on one particular ingredient, a hot ingredient that is in CBD. But he's really navigated this industry in a pretty brilliant way with the addition of the mood-enhancing beverages and the mocktails. And I remember when they launched the mock deals, it's like, what are you doing?

16:52It seems like so out of place for what the brand is all about. And he's made it work. So kudos to Ben and his team once again. Quick break. If this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage, explore BevNet and Nosh Insider, our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. Okay, you all know the brand Tyka, right? At least in this room, we all know Tyka, which is the brand of functional coffees. And one of the co-founders of that company has launched a new hot sauce. I don't know if I would call this innovative.

17:29It's probably an innovative approach to launching a product like this. The brand is called Burn Rate. And John brought this to our attention, John Craven, that is, last week. And Burn Rate is a pretty unique brand. They've only launched, or they've only created 200 bottles of this hot sauce, which just looks like a, you know, typical one that you would find in a grocery store. Sole direct to consumer of$13.99 per five fluid ounce bottle. But I'm going to read from their website here. Burn rate is made with authentic ingredients and crafted for flavor. This hot sauce is something you'll treasure.

18:04It's crafted exclusively for finance experts. Each bottle of burn rate is wrapped in a real hundred dollar bill, turning cash into packaging you'll want to hold on to. I didn't know that John got shipped one of these. I can't believe it. And he just opened the package right next to me. And here it is right in front of us. This bottle of burn rate. May I? The box is really cool. Yeah, it looks nice. The box is like really high quality. It looks like a box, like a iPod. You get an iPhone. Yeah. iPod. Dating yourself. I really am dating myself. Yeah. But it looks worthy of a box that held a bottle that was wrapped with a$100 bill.

18:46Yeah, it looks like a nicely bound book. Yeah, it's pretty good hot sauce as well. Okay, so if John got bottles 71 of 200, these are individually numbered. And this appears to be a real$100 bill. Yeah, so I mean, there's a little more to the story. So Cal Freese, who created this, he works for a company called Runway, which is like a B2B SaaS company. And this is... SaaS? Huh? SaaS? Sorry, I forgot I need to explain everything in... No, there are some people who don't know what you're talking about. ...software as a service. There you go. It's a common acronym. Anyway, derailed by that one. But no, it's basically, I think, a clever sort of marketing, almost lead generation tool for runway.

19:38And, you know, Cal told me basically that the margin in SaaS products is really good, obviously, and they can afford to create consumer products and, you know, use them to create buzz and awareness of what they're doing. and uh side note he was i think sort of maybe less than subtly implying the cash flow to make cpg products from a cpg business was way better than it is for a cpg company to make cpg products from his experience so but yeah it's super catchy cool and uh yeah the hot sauce you can see i had a fair amount it's pretty unique and tasty it better be for a bottle of 114 dollar hot sauce what is it what does it say i think they have a flavor description on the front koji habanero hot sauce yeah so it's got like a slight asian kick to it and it is spicy the koji is really cool yeah i don't know he thinks we're going to see more companies doing this which i know at one point we had like the sticker mule hot sauce but that was like a little different than this so yeah well this is actually a collaboration between the company you mentioned runway and onama yeah i think that's just who makes the sauce yes onama or i might be mispronouncing onima o-n-i-m-a pantry is the name of the brand and they make a whole bunch of hot sauces this one again is koji habanero flavored but uh yeah so you can take the hundred dollar bill i guess you got to be very careful because there is a label on top of the bill itself the label for this brand burn rate yeah so uh i guess i forgot to take a picture of it you got to take a picture of this for the grams.

21:16And I have the$100 bill. No. So how much was it? It was$100 and something dollars? No, it was$14. It was$14? It was$0 for me. So I'm really... So you're rich. I'm coming out really good on this deal. And I mean, I don't know. I would have been happy for hot sauce alone. Maybe it's a fake$100. Maybe he didn't give me a real$100. No, it says on the website it's a real$100. No, I'm saying maybe I didn't get a real$100. Maybe Cal kept it for himself. If it is a real hundred, just to put listeners' concerns at ease, we're going to donate that. We're going to donate security. No, no, no. I'm going to go buy just shots after shot of Jack Daniels.

21:53Oh, okay. To drown out all the sorrows of the samples that you never share with me. I just shared the Kostarina samples. These are delicious. I love these, by the way. The hundred dollar bill to me feels like mischief, like the mischief stunts. Remember those horse chips that mischief did? Oh, vaguely. Mischief. Like it was, it's sort of this like art collective that launches CPG products and they came out with chips that tasted like horse meat. Oh God. How would you know it tastes like horse meat is the question. I mean, you can eat horse and a lot of other places. Yeah, other places. You can eat dog and you can eat lots of things, but yeah.

22:30I've never had horse meat, but I feel like I would eat it. I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I'm not going to look for it, but I feel like I, I don't know. I would imagine you'd need to tenderize it quite a bit. And so unless Jackie's going to puke. Squirming. And you got to really hammer it. Oh, my God. Brutal. I'm just trying to make Jackie even more uncomfortable. It's all. Like I'm leaving. You can't see her on the video because she's got her arms wrapped up. She's pulling back. She's got one foot out the door. Sorry, Jackie. I'm sorry, indeed. All right, well, you know, we're talking about runway.

23:08We're talking about burn rate, and that was the whole point of all that. So, okay, cool stuff. Can I mention another product? Yeah, it's time to mention more products. I think from a listener of ours. Yeah. This is Ginger BT. I have it as well. I'm going to leave this jar with you, Ray. It's unopened. We have a couple jars. But you might want this for your germ paranoia. but it's basically like a ginger honey that's meant to be turned into tea. So it's a little more like water-soluble than regular old honey. But you take like a teaspoon or however much you want, and you get this nice, gingery, kind of sweet, kind of spicy, tangy flavor.

23:49Currently in just like a standard, I don't know, sauce jar. It's a 15-ounce jar. It looks like a jelly jar. Yeah. So, I mean, I feel like there might be maybe a little positioning messaging work that needs to be done to make it really clear that this is meant as a beverage, but really tasty stuff, high quality ingredients. So give that a try. We talked to the founder who came into the office in San Diego and I have it here with me too. Nice. We've been talking of like the evolution of this and maybe they go into stick packs. So it's more obvious that this is like a drink kind of mix, but it is really tasty.

24:23And it's inspired by, I believe it's like a Korean tea where it's a remedy, like house remedy that they use. It's also really good for your throat, Ray. So before you get on podcasts, you can lubricate. Well, I already lubricated with this olive oil shot. I think you can just be super lubed. It feels like this is a show where we're seeing a lot of crossover between food and beverage, right? I mean, the olive oil shot, is it a food or a beverage? The ginger B.T. is very much a jar of, well, it's very viscous liquid. It's not honey per se, but it's... Almost like a jam-ish. Yeah, you couldn't just drink this.

25:01I guess you possibly could, but you definitely need to mix it. And so where you put this in store, where you merchandise this product in particular, I think is another question for the brand and for retailers that carry the brand. Right. Do you put it with honey or do you put it with cold AIDS? Yeah. Yes. Well, here's a crossover of a different kind. Stiller's Soda. Oh, there it is. Crossover being that it's made by the one and only Ben Stiller. Now tell us more about Ben Stiller. What famous movies? Oh my God. Well, his father was Jerry Stiller, which you might remember from Seinfeld. Rest in peace.

25:39Sure. Rest in peace. And then, I don't know, greats like Dodgeball? Dodgeball. Ben Stiller was in Dodgeball. I'm going to go with, there's something about Mary. There you go. Meet the Parents. So many things. Yeah, that's good. Royal Tenenbaums. So, yeah, now he's got a soda brand, which I think we talked about on another episode. But I want Ray here to try it. Brought you a freshly sterilized glass. Are we sure it's freshly sterilized? Okay, so we've got three flavors here. You've got a lemon lime, a root beer, and a Shirley Temple. These are very reminiscent of an old school soda brand that I can't remember the name of.

26:14They have a Celery. What's the one with Celery? Dr. Brown's. Dr. Brown's. These look like Dr. Brown's sodas. It probably also looks a little bit like the Slice reboot. But yeah, I feel like this is a product where, you know, I could be like, I've been drinking Stiller since I was a kid. And it looks like it has been around for forever. Even the like font on the back. Yeah. You know, there's some little Nas, the world's refreshing-est soda on the top, which I don't think anyone would have put on a retro soda. 30 calories, no fake stuff. Yeah. I mean, it is kind of like elevated diet soda. I think the Dr.

26:52Brand's comparison may be slightly different flavors outside of the root beer. But yeah, it's got that nostalgia kind of taste to it. Yeah, so the ingredients include organic cane sugar, in this case, organic root beer flavor. The things you might see, natural caramel color. This is sweetened with stevia as well. And monk fruit, excuse me, and monk fruit. Let's give it a whirl. Uh-oh. Almost snuck the laptop. Right, all over the laptop. Okay, there we go. This is their rut beer flavor, if I'm pronouncing it the way that Jackie pronounces it. Let's go. Yep. It's very good. You know, root beer can be very high in sugar.

27:31And it's one of the reasons I don't drink root beer very often. But this is good. You're definitely getting, you know, some of the stevia and monk fruit, more stevia. But I can definitely see a lot of people drinking this with a cat's pastrami sandwich or, you know, the classic New York deli. A hot dog from the side of the corner. There you go. Why not? Yes. Why not? All right. Well, Ben, if you're listening, we'd love to have you on the show. just send me a note to ask at taste radio.com. I'm not going to give out my personal email address because I just feel like I don't want to give that out to you.

28:02I don't really know you that well. You're supposed to say talk to my agent. Talk to my agent. You didn't get that. You didn't do it right, right? Oh, have your people call my people. Is that what you're saying? We'll do lunch. Yes. Okay. Yeah. But no, no, in all seriousness, this is great stuff. And anyone who knows Ben Stiller, it'd be great to have you on the show, have the man on the show. What I like about this, last thing I'll say is there's no, there's like no learning curve. Sure. And sometimes products like that, it's just kind of what's needed, I think, especially for soda. Obviously, the hard part is going to be distribution and why people should carry this over anything else.