Can Tesla Conquer CPG? It's A Community Call.

0:10Hello friends and thanks for tuning in to 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-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, Mike Schneider, and Melissa Traverse. Welcome, Melissa, back to the booth, back to the studio. Thanks so much. I think my seat was still warm from last time. Yeah, well, you're occupying the traditional or the regular seat of John Craven, who is in San Diego right now, sitting next to Jackie Brugliera in the studio. It's weird. I know. It's cool. we reformulated to fit Craven over here.

0:48Did you? Did you also tidy up in there? Reformulated. You triggered anxiety in every listener when you said reformulated, Jackie. No, they didn't tidy up. There's like video game consoles everywhere. I'm not even joking. We can't control Josh. There is literally an Xbox. What is that other Nintendo? A Nintendo of some sort? PlayStation. PlayStation and a, is that a Sega? Yeah, we were thinking about playing some video games to get warmed up over here. Josh is down for NHL 95 for sure I would have thought that Josh has a room like John C. Reilly in Step Brothers where he's like don't go in there don't touch it don't touch my stuff is that like his office are his video games like the drum set in Step Brothers he likes it when you play with his toys actually he's a weird he'd be a good brother for somebody generous yeah he's pretty generous too okay fair enough yeah he's got a lot of Ninja Turtles in his office so yeah maybe he'll share Well, John, now you know what it's like to get up at crack of dawn and be in the studio ready to record just like Jackie does every Tuesday.

1:53Yeah, I mean, I went out for a surf, ate a crap load of guacamole. You know? How many fish tacos did you have this morning? How many walkies did you have this morning? Eight, eight. Nice. Yeah, they just fly into your mouth when you breathe here. Did you find your dream garbage can of ceviche yet? Not yet. Working on it. Too early. Too early for ceviche? What? Those are fighting words. The air in San Diego, you just breathe in, you get Wahoo's Tacos just coming right into your lungs. Oscars. Asbury Tacos. Yeah. I said we record on Tuesdays, but today is actually, as of this recording, it's Bastille Day.

2:29The French holiday, July 14th. You know, I've always loved Bastille Day, but never celebrated. I don't even know how you celebrate Bastille Day. Do you? I do. So as it turns out, I was in France last year for Bastille Day. I believe it's pronounced France. France. I was in France. I was in Paris. And we saw the fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. And let me tell you, it's a lot better to celebrate Bastille Day in France than it is in Newton, Massachusetts. We're having no fireworks. Okay, so there's fireworks. We know there's fireworks. Okay, is there food or beverage, food or drink that you're supposed to have specific?

3:07I don't know if there's specific food or beverage, but it seems like every time there's something going on in France, whether it's, you know, a strike or Bastille Day, there's always delicious food. That's the most important thing, it seems, which I approve of. We should have had caviar in the audience. We are kind of low on samples from French founders. So if you want to send samples, 65 Chapel Street, Newton, Massachusetts, 02458. Yeah, we should. I mean, we were just at the fancy food show. We should have, you know, cleaned those guys out. Yeah, scoured them up for ourselves. We just prepared for Bastille Day.

3:38BevNet Bastille Day. Some of us did. My cholesterol results show. show that. That was the pastrami, Mike. It was. Oh, geez. Well, we should at least have some wine. I know it's kind of early in the morning for all of us, but to celebrate Bastille Day, I assume you need some wine. I've been seeing more wine in single serve offerings, including those in Tetra Pak's. And speaking of Tetra Pak, let's thank Tetra Pak, which is the presenting sponsor for this 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.

4:18Learn more at tetrapack.com. That was beautiful, Ray. I have some beverages, non-alcoholic beverages that are packaged in a Tetra Pak carton. I'll drink that Joyburst. Including Joyburst. You're not going to. Yes, Joyburst is a brand of premium hydration beverages. They contain zero grams of sugar. This is their watermelon flavor they contain or it contains electrolytes plus vitamins plus focus i crush those i love joy burst this stuff's good i gotta ask though it contains electrolytes plus vitamins plus focus i know two two of those things are actually ingredients focus yeah i mean it's a function how how could i be crushing it it is it l-theanine is that it oh yeah it's l-theanine l-theanine i also have another tetra pact packed beverage which is bored cow which is an animal-free dairy milk.

5:06This is their chocolate variety. It's rich and creamy, described as rich and creamy. 10 grams of complete protein. This is an 11 ounce Tetra Pak container. I haven't had this yet. Melissa? It's pretty tasty. I haven't tasted it. I stand corrected on the Joyburst. It's not L-thiening. It is the Lion's Mane mushroom powder. Interesting. Love that. Jackie. Yeah. Yeah. Right up my alley. I'm going for it. John Craven, what do you know about Bored Cow? It's tasty. Okay. Don't think about you need to know. I mean, most of those plant-based milks, at least, you know, if you take the chocolate flavor, they're pretty darn tasty.

5:44What is it made out of? That's my question. The ingredients are... Nuts? Well, so it describes the protein as from fermentation. It's animal-free whey protein from fermentation. So not plants, exactly. As I remember it, didn't they sequence the DNA from dairy milk and apply that to the formulation of their plant-based milk? I love science. So science-y. Test tubes, beakers. That was incredible. You were like, as I recall, if I recall correctly, and then you basically stated their entire platform verbatim. Meanwhile, every time you go to a trade show booth and they start talking science, the eyes glaze over.

6:26And you're just like, how does it taste? How does it taste? How does it taste? That was well done, Melissa. Very good. Very good. Well, Melissa, you're just full of facts. And this is why I love you. Because earlier today, or actually this was yesterday, you were like, did you know, Ray, that Tesla has a tequila? And they also have a beer. And I was just like, what? Oh, my God. This is incredible. Well, Ray, if you use this little app called Twitter, you would have known that this stuff came out months ago. Threads, bro. I'm on Threads. Ray's all Threads now. He likes random. He likes chaos. It might be about as real as Cybertruck, but who knows.

7:08Okay. I've got a neighbor who works for Tesla, and he brought this to my attention just the other day. Apparently, Tesla has a beer called... putting a funnel in front of you and pouring it in. Right. Quote unquote, brought it to my attention. I'm just wondering. It's called Giga Beer. And it sounds like it was meant to bring attention to their cyber truck, which I think has not been released. Yeah. That is not real. So how long have they been cellaring this beer? I think the beer was launched in late March, early April, but the truck, the truck is yet to come. So the beer was launched in April and it's been sitting around for a while.

7:51For a while. Barrel age, basically. You get three of them. I think it's like, it's like 90 bucks for three. And the packaging itself, to me, it sort of looks like a cross between Axe body spray and a remote control. Yeah, I'm looking at it now. It actually looks like sake bottles. You know some of those sake bottles? How do you plug the beer in? How do you plug the beer in? That's a good question for Mr. Musk. He's got a lot of questions right now. I think he's a little busy to answer questions about his beer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta say. The tequila was wild when I was checking it out.

8:27I think it's like$1 ,400. There's only$400 available. And they're all hand glass blown. It's a little excessive. How does it plug in? It is like a lightning bolt. the bottle. You just hold it up. You put it attached to a kite. You energize. There's a key in it. There's plenty of giga beer left. So, uh, so it's not too late for folks who want to jump on it. I hear they pay you$90 to take it now. Well, we, we need the beer. I don't know if we can get our hands on the tequila at this point, but we need the beer, you know, to have here on the show, test it out. Maybe we'll do a later version of the show, like maybe at 5 PM when it's more appropriate to be drinking beer, but we need it.

9:10We're going to get it. John Craven, you got to splurge on this one. I don't know what to tell you. I'm not sure, Ray. No problem. John's already on GoPuff. Well, I mean, I don't know. I figure you guys who love Teslas, you know, you'd be all over this. But maybe it's just for the ultra Tesla enthusiast. Don't tell them about the code that makes it come out of the steering wheel, John. Don't drink and drive. Don't drink and drive. It's only when you're stopped. Oh, okay. Oh. I got you. But then you have to drive again. You stop the car and just drug beer. This is great. Jackie, it's watching. Trust me, the Tesla's watching.

9:44It knows. It cuts you off. Lots of Teslas in California. I assume there's more Teslas in California than there are here on the East Coast, or at least Massachusetts. Jackie, you were in Southern California. Actually, no, you were in Northern Southern California because you went north from San Diego to Marina del Rey. What was that, a couple days ago? Yesterday. Yesterday. A couple days ago. A couple days ago. A couple days ago. Yeah, this is Friday. Did you get to see, you did get to see the venue for BevNet Live Winter 2023, Nosh Live Winter 2023, and Brewbrown Live. Yes. Winter 2023, baby, yeah.

10:25I was going to say fall, but no. No, no, right. Winter. Winter 2023. Yeah. Pretty cool space. Yeah, I got to see all nooks and crannies, and it is a pretty awesome space. It's right down the street from the Lowe's Santa Monica, which people that have attended in the past, that was our past venue. This one is awesome. There is an amazing ballroom on the rooftop with pretty much 360-degree views of L.A. and the ocean and the marina. It's right across the street from the marina, which is a really cool indoor-outdoor flow. We'll definitely have a lot of networking outside because we have the beautiful SoCal weather.

11:01But yeah, it was a really nice time to just explore and kind of visualize what our events will look like in a couple months. Did you prefer the nooks or the crannies? The crannies. Yeah, nice. I knew she was a cranny guy. I plan on taking a Blade, one of those helicopters. Isn't Blade owned by Uber? Yeah. It's like a helicopter service that you can take. We do have a helipad. That's what I'm going to say. There's a helipad. GT. Yes. I think right before the New Bedford Showdown, you should fly in. And that's going to be your grand entrance. That's a move. I want to see that. Yes. Much like the gigabier.

11:37I need this. John Craman, you're going to need splurge for the blade as well now. No problem. We'll get the Bev chopper. The Bev chopper. I'm just like visualizing a whole BevNet superhero right now. Ezra Lateef. Ooh, I love that. Bev man. Is there a cape? There's got to be a cape. well i you know ray in tights that's scary amazing will you be like the old batman or you're gonna have more of like a new spider-man sort of vibe definitely not a spider-man guy uh superheroes always got to go with superman right okay yeah i love that i can see you as superman love that but superman ray in tights could be your superhero name

12:24How about just Rayman? Rayman Hood. Rayman. People are going to think, okay, all this talk about blades and stuff like that. BevNet just has an unlimited budget. We don't. We don't. We have to be careful about what we spend, just like you entrepreneurs out there. You got to be careful about how you deploy those funds, as it were. You talk about such things on community call often, Melissa. In an upcoming episode. In an upcoming episode, yeah. We sure do. So the investment chats on Community Call have been incredibly fruitful, and it's great to hear the perspective of the folks who are right in the thick of it and hearing all the pitches and talking to all of the founders.

13:04I hear we got Maxi Kosler-Koven coming up. As a matter of fact, we do. So she is joining us from LDR Ventures on August 8th to talk about all of the things that founders need to know right now as they're heading into those discussions. We are also lining up Sebastian Drur from Doller Ventures, who's going to be chatting about the investor mindset. But I wanted to crowdsource some ideas from the audience here. If there are any investors that you'd like to hear from, if there's a particular topic that you'd like to hear more about it or that perhaps you're struggling with, please let me know. I'd love to love to make sure we're hitting all the right spots with these.

13:46So you can hit me up on Slack, slack.bevnet.com, or you can shoot me an email at mtraverse at bevnet.com. We want to make sure we're seeding this thing with exactly what everybody wants to hear. How about Mark Cuban? Let's get the cubes on the afternoon to call. The cubes. Cubes, if you're listening, I've got a seat for you on this thing. I think only Ray can call him cubes. I think the cubes is another. Mr. Cubes. Cubes is another stepbrother's reference, isn't it? Just Adam Scott call him the cubes. Mr. Cubes. Maybe. Melissa, I hear we're also flipping the script again. Flip the script again.

14:24It was such a joy last time when we did it with Vasa Martinez from Purphy. We're going to do it again with Elise from Bad Tea Company. So this is actually, this is another conversation. She's my favorite baddie. She's a baddie to the max. She's awesome. Yeah. Bad standing for bold and delicious. Right. Bold and delicious indeed. This actually came out of a conversation that started on Slack again, and she is trying to figure out what the best approach to marketing and specifically influencer marketing is as a very emerging brand with limited budget and limited retail outlets. So when we flip the script, we have somebody come in who has a problem or, you know, they're trying to work through an issue and hit their next milestone.

15:09So it's your opportunity to join Community Call and give your thoughts on how to get it done. So if you are a brand that has done this really well, if you're a service provider who has some great tips to share, we would love to have you join. Again, slack.bevnet.com. Hit me up. I'll give you all the information and make sure to join on August 15th. Be the expert. Solidarity is so important in the community. Everyone's going through the same thing. You want to feel like everyone is sharing in the answers. It's like Al Pacino when he was playing Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman, you know, he was talking to the crowd.

15:43He's like, solidarity! I mean, the next generation of founders is really strong and also not afraid to show a little vulnerability and help fellow founders. It's really great to just be in this industry. Vulnerability! I love it. Vulnerability! And there are so many one-off conversations between two people talking about this kind of thing, but to have everybody on one call together, I think is such a joy. I love that despite my maniacal references to the Irishman, Mike and Melissa were able to hold down the fort and actually have a decent, pleasant conversation about what we're doing. Just came out in the background.

16:21They were just like, just ignore him, folks. This is what we were doing over here, basically. We're all ignoring you. Ray is only serious on the podcast. This is him the rest of the time. I'm just trying to get as many movie references in as pop. I like it. I like it. Exactly. It's really just for Adam Stern so that he listens in because he's our dear friend and colleague, Adam Stern, who has the issue with chartreuse jello shots, if you recall. I sure do. How could I forget? Yeah. I feel like 80 % of your conversations are movie quotes. You and Stern. 82. We're up to 82. We're up to 82 now. Yeah.

17:00Pushing to 83. Rapidly. So John are you just in San Diego To like keep an eye on the WCB Or are you there Hey wait I think he's out there because they Renamed it to the WCHQ The WCHQ They're calling themselves the West Coast Headquarters now You know like Avengers West Coast Avengers that's what they think they are Out there now No it's not a branch For context WCB stands for West Coast branch. Right. And we called it the San Diego office, BevNet, WCB. The WCHQ, they recently put a reel on our Instagram about an upgrade to their coffee machine. They got a spin. We sent the spin to them that we got at headquarters.

17:51And they said that here at headquarters, we da-da-da-da-da. And I was like, what? They've upgraded. They're trying to take over. Yeah, like, I think we were, the WCB one, we were around eight employees. So I think once we got over the eight threshold, we became the West Coast headquarters. I like it. But who's really in charge? And who was here first? Yeah. That's what I'm out here trying to figure out, right? You're trying to set a hierarchy. John's on a fact-finding mission. Yeah, that's it. Because Josh, who's the technical director and was, I guess, the original member of the WCP, he's out here in Boston.

18:29Notice that he skipped town. Johnston. Peace. Good luck, Jackie. I gotta get out of here. Jackie, wash my toys. Yeah. Anyway, getting back to my original point. So are you there working? Are you kind of on vacation? Or is it a work-cation? What are you doing there? Are you like my boss or something? Check it out. Kathy wants to know. What are you doing over there? I don't have to tell you anything. I'm curious. Kathy, head of HR. A little bit of both. A little bit of both. How about that, Ray? Okay. Okay. Well, no, it's kind of cool because if you have a place where there's unlimited snacks and beverages, maybe not unlimited, but anytime like, you know, let's say you're going on a little bit of a drive somewhere, you can pop into the office, pack your car with snacks and beverages and be on your way.

19:16There's no reason to stop by a Target or a convenience store or any kind of place like that. You're ready to go. I got to say another reason that they're the WCHQ is their snack game is mad strong over there. It is strong. It is super strong. I would agree. It's stronger. It's always stronger. How do you get so strong? It's strong. I don't know. It's a good question. We're going to find something after we're done recording this. You know, they also have Mountain Dew on tap here. Oh. Josh wishes. Josh. Oh, God. When Josh is in charge of the tap. I mean, I love packing snacks and beverages when I'm on a trip.

19:49And I got to say, it is a key part of your vacation plan, right? Like to make sure that you don't have to like eat the crap that you might find at certain, you know, rest stops and convenience stores. You have what you want to eat. I don't go to a lot of rest stops on my vacation, but, you know, I'm happy for you, I guess. For someone who lived as close to Jersey as you did growing up, I figure you're very familiar with rest stops. Oh, Cheesequake. They renamed it. That was my favorite rest stop name. And they renamed it like Jon Bon Jovi rest stop or something like that. What the heck is a Cheesequake?

20:22I don't know, but it's a great name for a rest stop. No, it's not. Cheesequake. Can you get a lot of cheese there? I think it's probably what happens if you eat too much cheese. Jackie's looking over there like she's quite. No, no. I thought you might have been a fan. No, no, not a fan of cheesequake or any really rest stop. All right. So that was on the Jersey Turnpike. The Vince Lombardi. No, no, no. The Garden State Parkway, baby. The Garden State. No, I think it was the Jersey Turnpike. I don't know. whatever it's all the same yeah that's all the same is it do they have turnpikes in canada how did you do research this melissa i haven't researched yet but we're heading to vancouver very soon yeah i'm gonna pack some date fix for our hikes nice i'm gonna i grabbed some of the um malu pour over coffee packets from the office i'm gonna bring some of those level very excited so good yeah you never been enjoying those never have to go without good coffee you know it gets dark there like 11 o 'clock at night too right oh that's fantastic in my other bring some sleeping masks for your kids or just never go to sleep well you can do that too it gets bright super early too not a lot of hours of darkness this time of year that sounds great craving was trying to like just ruin your vacation you're like i love this a million miles an hour do not go to vancouver He's like, don't you dare leave the office.

21:49That's going to be great. We're going to go hiking. My favorite thing to do on vacation is to check out like new markets and grocery stores and that kind of thing. Originally, I thought we were going to hit up an Olympic National Park and I wanted to check out a PCC in a metropolitan market. But I'm going to have to find some good stops in just Canada. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know. You should go to Stanley Park in Vancouver, too. They have this weird, I think it's like a shrine to like a Sasquatch or something. Oh, fantastic. That's on the list. We're going there. I'm going to see Sasquatch.

22:23Sponsored by Dr. Squatch. Come on. You're never going to let that go. I love Dr. Squatch. Oh, I was thinking of Mike the other day regarding Dr. Squatch because I finally just opened my last bar of Dr. Squatch from Expo West. That's how many we ended up with. What's the flavor? Flavor. You know, I actually, I threw away the packaging, and then I was like, I think it was the only one that I got of that kind. Was this the bourbon one? What's that? The pine tar was the most pervasive. I got a lot of the pine tar and a lot of the, it was like a whiskey one or something. And then this one's different, but I don't know what it is.

23:06I forget what the third one was. Too lazy to fish out the package in the garbage can. And yeah, that one was the, I stole the least of that. I mean, I borrowed, I mean, I helped myself. I borrowed, yeah. I stole the least of that one. No wonder our snack game isn't great over here. Yeah, exactly. Dr. Squatch. Our soap game, never getting samples again. We have a good soap game, though. Nice and clean. I don't know. I like packing ready-to-drink cocktails when I'm traveling because it's just, you know, a good way in your hotel room to save a little bit of money and not have to go to the bar and spend 20, 30,$40 on overpriced, underwhelming cocktails, right?

23:43So Social Hour, which is a brand of RTD Cocktails that participated in our first live cocktail showdown back in December of 2021, has partnered once again with George Dickel, the Tennessee whiskey brand, to launch a Harvest Whiskey Sour. This stuff I've had in the past, and they came out with a new one, or the 2023 version this year. It's fantastic stuff. made with 13-year-old whiskey, 13-year-old whiskey, Honeycrisp Apple, Meyer lemon, cinnamon, maple, cardamom, and it's 20 % alcohol by volume. Fantastic stuff. A little early in the year to be drinking a Harvest whiskey sour, but... I also heard that George Bickle beat Jim Beam in a fight, punched him right in the face.

24:24That's how you beat, that's how you win in a fight? Yeah. You just punch the guy in the face? No one likes that. Then it's over? You know Mike Tyson's famous line is that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Yes. Such a great line. It really is. It's pretty smart, really. Yes. I'm also going to bring with me on my next trip, which is not planned. You got to plan that. Yeah, right? Yeah, you should plan that so you can eat the Daily Crunch. Maybe I should get punched in the face so I do have a plan. Anyone? I can help you with that. Let's Stern do it. I'll ask Stern. No, Daily Crunch has come out with a new dill pickle variety in which they partnered with Cleveland Kitchen.

25:07Cleveland Kitchen, a maker of fermented foods, including pickles and kimchi and kraut and things like that. I can't wait to dip into this. So Daily Crunch makes sprouted nut snacks. And particularly, they make sprouted almonds. This one has sprouted almonds and papitas. The almonds have a hollow core, which according to Daily Crunch, equals crunch. So exciting stuff. Those are tasty. Do you want to try this? I can open this if you want. Yeah, open those. Yeah. For sure. Do you want to try them? I don't have a trip planned. I've tried them. I've got to say, I find them a little lacking in flavor.

25:39I would say more pickle. Yeah. The pickles is a little on the subtle side for them. And most of their flavors, you know, they come right at you. And this one is a little more subtle for them. I do want a tad more pickle. I think they could use a little more pickle dust. You know, I think some of the pickle dust kind of went to the bottom on the pack that I had. So, yeah, but you can see, you know, they're not covered in pickle on the package on the front. Might be a matter of taste. You just want a dunk tank of pickle juice is what you're saying? I think it's like, for me, pickle and ginger. You know, I want a lot of pickle flavor.

26:14I love, you know, when you eat a pickle, it's just 100 % pickle. Takes over your mouth. Yeah, I feel like a hostage situation. Oh, I see what you're saying. And people that like pickles love pickles. It's very polarizing. So pickles are really one of the greatest inventions of all time. Yeah. So fermentation may be the greatest invention of all time. Pickles, one of the greatest inventions of all time. You know, I had a college roommate who, who said eating after drinking is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Eating and drinking. What were you eating after drinking? Oh, eating after drinking.

26:46Yeah. He said, he said, God bless the guy who invented eating after drinking. Like just drinking anything? No, no, no. No, he means drinking. I mean, late night eats after a heavy night drinking. He said that in a very inebriated state. You can make a lot of bad decisions that way, but they always seem good in the moment. Yeah. General Gals, chicken at 2 a.m. Oh, my goodness. That is a good idea. That is a good idea. Never, never, never. I like it. Yeah. So while I was at the Marina del Rey Marriott, I went pretty much across the street, well, right down the street to Erewhon and found a couple products.