CPG's Plot Twist: Old Ingredients, New Money

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 Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts, John Craven, Melissa Travers, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we recap Taste Radio's raucous Austin meetup, explore how beverage founders can get their products into the hands of the industry's most influential tastemakers, and examine how a fast-growing French fry brand differentiated itself as a premium player in a commodity category and landed a$10 million Series A round. We also feature an interview with Better Sour co-founders Bella Hughes and Samira Niku, who discuss the company's latest brand extension and how it's designed to strengthen its presence at major retailers, including Whole Foods.

1:08I don't want to let the cat too far out of the bag because we have this wonderful interview with Bella and Samira, but I've got some samples of their new products here with me in the studio. and I figure, well, Mike and I have tried these. John and Melissa. Well, Melissa, you had a bag. You gave me a bag and I actually housed it while I was packing up to leave from the Taste Radio event in Austin, Texas. Now we have it at every flavor, right? Nobody shares anything with me. So let me set the stage here. So we met up with Samira Niku, who's one of the co-founders of Better Sour in Austin while we were down there for the Taste Radio Austin meetup.

1:45At a coffee shop. At a coffee shop that was closed. So we met with her in the parking lot. Genius planning. And she shared with us, well, it's a long story, but anyway. It was close for Cinco de Mayo. Exactly. No one knew. But she shared with us samples of their new line, which is made with real cane sugar. And so they have three varieties, mango, lychee, and watermelon yuzu. And this is a big step for the brand because in the past, their sweetener deck was primarily focused on allulose. Menallulose is a non-nutritive sweetener that allows you to have that wonderful sweet flavor, yet with a low caloric content and a lower sugar count.

2:26The real sugar line allows them to get into places like Whole Foods. Which one do you want, John? I'm going to go mango. Mango is my favorite. There's a reason that you didn't get any, John, because the tradition, and it was an accidental tradition is that when Samira hands me a bag and tells me about the new product, it's gone before she's done describing it. Sorry about that, bro. Yes. Well, stay tuned for the interview with Bella and Samira. It's a great one. And of course, thank you to everyone that we saw in Austin, Texas for the meetup. I had just a fantastic time. Nutribolt headquarters was the venue.

3:04And man, what an office they have. It's just amazing. The first floor is a wonderland for CPG and a wonderland for people who want to just live better. They have a gym that resembles a goals gym. It's a state of the art type goals gym. They have a pro boxing ring. They have a way next level, man. I beat the ever living crap out of Mike in that ring. There you go. I know. He's like, I can throw it out. I'm surprised I'm even here. I can't even see. My eyes are still swarmed shut. But they have a, it seems like a pro practice basketball court. Then I was training threes over you. You were reigning threes over me.

3:40Could not stop me. That's like almost a Premier League level training facility. You could fit your entire first squad, second squad, and academy in that and train at the same time. That is insane. And they have athletes in there all the time training in their offices. It was a good time. Yes. They have a Pilates studio. I don't know what those Pilates machines called. They had a whole room full of these Pilates machines. The transformer? No, reformer. Reformer. Yeah, transformer. They're more than meets the eye. It is a transformer. Well, it sure is. It was right next to the face-off machine. It's also a torture chamber.

4:11Face-off. And there was, I don't know what you would call it, like a healing center where they had IV drips. They had UV light. Yeah, of C4. That's funny. But anyway, they had an amphitheater that we didn't use because we didn't need it. But it was just fantastic being there. And I think all the attendees had a nice time kind of checking the place out. shout out to ryan sarah and the entire team at nutribolt for having us rory melissa the hosts were fantastic there too they were giving us a little history of the building and tour and they just encouraged us to use the space as much as we wanted to they even had a lamorzocco machine there i think they might have let me they would step behind they had i think they might have let me if they asked they have a barista there every morning yeah i think it was from 7 to 11 so but it was close because you know the the coffee time was over But I'm pretty confident they would have let me step back there.

5:02Yes. Well, of course, huge thanks to NutriBulls and huge thanks to our national partners for the Taste Radio meetups, Vibrant Ingredients, Belay Solutions, and the Angel Group. Thank you so much. And of course, thank you so much to our partners for the New York City meetup and the Austin meetup, Next Foods, the maker of Good Belly and Cherubundi, and Corner Market Communications, Megan Kelleher and the team, the nicest people in the world. and working with some of the best brands in the food and beverage industry. So really appreciate their support. Stay tuned for interviews with Jason Cantelli, who is the chief commercial officer of NutriPolt, Megan Kelleher, the founder and CEO of Corner Market Communications, Mark Sagan, who's the CEO of Next Foods, and Erica Tam, the SVP of brand for Bloom.

5:50She had a great story. She did. All those interviews coming to you an upcoming episode of Taste Radio. And I know that's a lot of information that we just threw at you. And you're thinking, should I reach out to some of those sponsors to maybe have a question that they could answer? The answer is yes. Tell them we sent you. Absolutely. Vibrant Ingredients, Belay Solutions, and the Angel Group. You got ingredient suppliers. You got investors and Belay Solutions. Melissa is. They are an outsourced accounting firm. There you go. So if you need help in any one of those areas, and I know most people need help in investment, reach out to any one of our partners.

6:30If you don't know how to reach out to them, well, just send us an email at askatasteradio.com. We will point you in the right direction. And we'll leave the light on for you. Absolutely. And thanks to Celso, which is a beverage brand whose jersey Mike is sporting right now. This is the first time he hasn't worn Arsenal in the studio. Thank you, Celso. Yeah. Giving us a freaking break for once. Are there pelicans on your shirt? I think so. These are phenomenal football kits. They're getting ready for the World Cup and making some amazing agua frescas. Yeah, among the many brands that we're sampling at the event was SILSA, which is described as the world's first functional agua fresca.

7:12Hope to see those guys at BevNet Live, which is coming up. That was super tasty stuff. It was, and I want to see more of it at BevNet Live, which is happening. On June 10th and 11th, right? On June 10th and 11th. In New York City. In New York City, the hub of the universe. Is that Brooklyn? Well, it's all New York City. Hub of the universe. Yeah. Well, the hub is actually considered Boston. Boston's the hub, dude. Yeah, no one calls it the hub. It's the Big Apple. The Big Apple, bro. The Big Apple. It's all happening. Empire State. Less than a month away. And this is what I want to talk about, right?

7:41We have so many folks join us for episodes of Elevator Talk, which is our bi-monthly series that highlights early stage and disruptive brands from across food and beverage. and every episode I talk about the importance of building awareness for your brand. There are so many new brands that launch every single year in the food and beverage industry and one of the biggest problems is getting people to know you exist, getting the kind of awareness, getting the eyeballs that you need to have just to get your brand off the ground, to let retailers, investors, distributors, and just the industry as a whole know that you're out there and know that you're trying to make a difference via your products.

8:19And so one of the best ways to do so is to be at BevNet Live sampling your products. And we have an outstanding opportunity for early stage brands to do just that via our cooler. So if you attend BevNet Live, you have an opportunity to sample your products in those coolers. And I don't know how many times I've talked to attendees, whether they're investors, a retail buyer or distributor, and say, hey, Ray, have you seen this product. Like, yeah, they're new here. And they're like, this is fantastic. I want to invest in this brand. I want to carry this brand. I want to sell this brand. And so just being in the cooler gives you an opportunity to be exposed to so many of the gatekeepers in our business, because they're all at BevNet Live.

8:58It's 19 ,426 times. That's how many times you've told brands that they can do that. I don't know how you know that number, but I trust you. I keep track. Okay. Yes, absolutely. So yeah, be at BevNet Live. You'll have an opportunity to bring products, have them in our coolers, and again, showcase them to the most important people in the beverage industry. And you know, if you're a food brand, don't worry, because you can send samples to our offices, and we'll try them, and we'll talk about them on Taste Radio. A hundred percent. More samples means more opportunities for us and the BevNet, Nosh, and Taste Radio team as a whole, and NonBase team, to talk about what you're doing.

9:39We put your products on our feed. We put them on our individual feeds. We talk about them on the podcast. We'll highlight them in roundups on Nosh and BevNet. So please send samples to our office. You can find our addresses for Newton and San Diego on BevNet.com and Nosh.com. If you still can't find them, DM John Craven because he is the person that will give you the address. No, nobody else. I have it on autocomplete on my phone. So if you want it, it's ready to go. ready to go bug John specifically BevNet Craven at BevNet Craven on the X that's your number one it's not his number one no no one's number one number one social media platform for making me cry remember when you guys used to dabble on the X I still dabble on the X I used to be a Twitter fiend but didn't you didn't you do like a dot ETH thing next to your thing oh we were messing around with stuff when you were like Ethereum guys yeah we sold we had a BevCoin.

10:38We didn't. BevCoin. BevCoin. Nice. Sold for negative. Tariff refunds can add up fast, but only if your books back it up. Belay helps you get organized so you have the clarity and documentation to claim what you're owed. Text TASTE to 55123 for your free tariff refund guide. Candy freaks, listen up. Dr. Rotten is here to solve your problems, especially if you crave something gummy, fruity, and crunchy without harmful dyes or a heavy sugar load. Visit eatrotten.com today and feed your freak. I was always saying the Ethereum craze happened before the advent of NonBase. Oh boy. I'm so happy that we do have NonBase because I am extremely excited about a new episode that is dropping soon that features the one and only Chris Robb, who, if you don't know, is one of the partners of an incredible new venture capital firm called, drumroll please, Melissa.

11:49Supernatural Ventures. Supernatural Ventures. And you may have heard of Supernatural Ventures in past episodes of Taste Radio because one of the other partners is Adam Spriggs. Adam Spriggs is one of the co-founding members of the Angel Group. And now Supernatural Ventures is out there to make even bigger investments. So what's Chris going to be talking about? Yeah. So Chris Robb is going to be on this week's Non-Base podcast. And Chris Robb is a really interesting guest because he has such a rich history in CPG. His dad is Walter Robb, who was co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. He grew up in grocery retail.

12:29He was also the founder of New Barn Organics for folks out there who might remember that product. And, you know, he certainly gave information on what Supernatural Ventures is looking for, but he gave so much information on how brands can win at retail and really information that you would only know if you've done it and you've lived it. And just for context, both Adam and Chris have invested in some of the fastest growing CPG brands in recent memory, including, I'll mention one, Siete, which sold for a billion dollars. Now you can do it, Mike. To PepsiCo, he's got the pinky. He's officially retired, but just for you, Ray.

13:08Okay,$1 billion. Of course, one of the biggest beverage deals in recent memory, Poppy, which sold to PepsiCo again for$1.95 billion. And then the incredible brand known as Bocchons. So these guys know what they're doing. They know how to identify great early stage brands and they're funding really fast growing brands today. One of which was featured in a recent article on Nosh. That brand is another drum roll. Melissa? Jesse and Benz, which he spoke a lot about on the podcast as well. Jesse and Ben's, a maker of frozen French fries that are cooked either in beef tallow or avocado oil. I was talking to Adam Spriggs in our interview for Taste Radio about Jesse and Ben's, and I was a little skeptical about the opportunity for a brand like this because I feel like it's kind of hard to differentiate in a commodity category, period.

14:05In a commodity category like frozen French fries, where you have tons of private label brands, you have a lot of legacy brands out there. I was like, what's the opportunity here? And - Too late. Excuse me. Adam talked a lot about what he saw and how just overall health and wellness trends are pushing folks in that direction and giving folks an opportunity to experience a different type of French fry, more premium one. And they're paying for it. They're paying that premium. And so Jesse and Ben's recently raised$10 million. Do not do it, Mike. I didn't say it. I'm not going to do it, Ryan. There's no key in there.

14:42$10 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm Graycroft. This is really interesting to me. And I'm kind of surprised though, Ray, that you're talking about a French fry as a commodity because there's so many different kinds, varieties. And it's the kind of thing that, you know, everybody from a two-year-old to, you know, 102-year-old knows what they like in a French fry. And so there's so many different ways that you can prepare them. And this is a little different than, say, a date. for instance, like Julie States, you know, things like that. But that's what the products are, though.

15:17I think there's just a lot of value priced, commoditized offerings. I mean, outside of maybe the Alexia brand, which is owned by ConAgra, I don't know what really is speaking to the consumer in like a premium way. And I like it a lot. I mean, the products are... They're great. They're great. They're pricey. I mean, it's like a$7 or$8 small bag of fries. But, you know, I think it's one of those things where like they're just looking at a market where obviously people buy a crap load of these products. And the premium brands like Orida, no offense, is not really like premium. So it's Orida. There you go.

16:02You know, I was actually introduced to Jesse and Ben's by my mom. This is a woman who never goes into the frozen aisle to buy anything new, never buys anything that's even remotely prepared. And she said she was in Whole Foods. It was in a satellite freezer and the packaging grabbed her. So she picked it up. She flipped it over. There were three ingredients. This is not a woman who would normally spend$7 on a bag of frozen fries. So, you know, between the merchandising and the packaging and the ingredients, they really have something special. I mean, it looks like a restaurant quality product.

16:33Even just the packaging and all that, you know you're getting good stuff and the product delivers. I mean, I think that's probably the best French fry I can remember having in like a long time. I find it's interesting that they were able to differentiate via their packaging, via the fact that they were using avocado oil. I thought the introduction of a beef tallow French fry was something that I didn't think would work. And clearly I was wrong. And I've been poo-pooing on beef tallow for a while, and maybe I shouldn't anymore. But this is an actual place where, like, fries are cooked in beef tallow.

17:08Right. The McDonald's French fry, right, is originally, isn't it beef tallow? I mean, a lot of, like, you know, in New England, all the fried fish places, a lot of them use beef tallow. But most people don't know that. And in the UK, beef tallow is the traditional way to fry fish. Sure. So when they have fish fries, it's traditionally cooked in beef tallow. I don't think many people know that, though. And when you see beef tallow on the package, it's not necessarily something that I think is attractive at this point to most consumers. Then get the avocado oil one, bro. They made two SKUs just for you.

17:37I'm not saying this is a bad brand. I'm not saying these are bad products. I'm not saying that this isn't going to do really well. Clearly, they're doing well. Clearly, they're able to raise a lot of money. I'm just saying it's a little surprising to me. And Justin Benz is certainly not the first entrepreneurial frozen French fry brand. Right. Why is this working in particular? I'm not exactly sure. You know, I think RFK Jr. and the Maha movement do have something to do with people being more familiar with beef tallow, his carnivore diet and ferments or whatever. So I think more people are aware of it.

18:12I'm just wondering what Ben's going to do without Jerry. Oh, I see. Because Ben left Ben and Jerry's to join Jesse and Ben's. That's the joke Mike was trying to make. Listener got it. They're groaning. Instead of going any further with this, I'm going to advocate that our listeners go and read the article penned by our very own Adrian DeLuca on Nosh.com. It was an exclusive when it dropped. It's just titled Jesse and Ben's Locks in$10 Million. So look for that on Nosh. I mean, also just go try the fries. They're pretty damn good. You won't be sad. Look at you. Look at you. I don't get a cut or anything, but.

18:48You're a big fan of this brand. And also what I like about it is that it feels like another place where, you know, we haven't really seen a well-funded kind of emerging brand go after that space in a while. So, you know, as we've talked about this before, there's a lot of dollars tied up in like, I don't know, sad bags of French fries. I really hope Jesse and Ben's is one of those brands that DMs you for the address. I mean, if not, I'll buy the stuff. I like it. It's good. And fries are something you don't want to make at home. Like who's frying French fries in their kitchen? I fry them occasionally.

19:24What? But you know what I fry them in? Wesson?

19:30Wesson. I traditionally fry them in olive oil. Now, here I am. I'm just going to eat my own. How much olive oil does that take? It's a lot. I can't get Ray Latif standing next to Florence Henderson out of my head right now. You're dating yourself. There's so many hairs. There's so many problems. You're dating yourself. You're dating yourself. It doesn't matter. Everyone knows I'm old and nice. But no one knows what Weston is and no one knows who Flores Henderson is. I picture you with a giant like handle jug smoking a cigarette, too. You're wishing you said Florence Henderson, aren't you? No, I'm saying that I do have handle jugs of olive oil at home.

20:10And yes, you can fry it. You don't need to deep fry it. Smoke point's too low, bro. Yeah. But I fry them in olive oil because I like the flavor it gives to the French fries. And here I'm going to eat my own words about commodity brands and commodity categories because what has been one of the most remarkable CPG brands launched over the past five years? Graza. Oh, so you make your French fries in Graza? Sometimes I'll use Graza. I'm going to raise those. Wow. Geez. The Graza people are going, we're rich. No, I mean, look. He uses the most expensive, the drizzling oil only. He's like 14 bottles to make one batch of bread.

20:50If you go to, not meant for cooking, I'll just say this. If you go to any Mediterranean or Middle Eastern home, they will use olive oil to fry potatoes. Sure. And so it's a much more delicious flavor than soybean or seed oil or what have you. Good. And Graza has really stood out among the brands that launch in spaces that you've seen no innovation, you've seen no excitement, you've seen no real mainstream consumer brands stand out in those spaces, particularly in olive oil, with the exception of Graza. Now, other brands are coming into the space as well. Brightland has done a fantastic job of separating itself from the pack.

21:33They've been around. I wouldn't say they're new, but they've been around for what, six years? Yeah. I mean, they're like same time as Graza. Yeah, exactly. Right. And so, you know, Graza right now, I'm looking this up on the internet and the internet's always right. So Graza's valuation at this point is$240 million, which is pretty amazing for a brand that's only five years old. And Graza has also done a really good job of partnering with other brands to launch limited time offerings. They've done stuff with Rhyne. They've done stuff with Ourobora. I could recently they've doubled down on potato chips.

22:08And so recently I got sent, oh, here you go. You guys are going to eat your words here. Four new varieties or four varieties of the potato chips that are cooked in what? A hundred percent extra virgin olive oil. How about that? Potatoes cooked in olive oil? First of all, right. This is craziness. I will defend myself. You can fry a potato chip way faster. Okay. Than a french fry. I was going to hand you one of these bags, but you're I have a sense that Ray's going to cut a bunch of this. Okay. No, I'm not. The packaging is beautiful. Isn't it? Okay. So they have a zesty Caesar. I feel like you're a zesty Caesar.

22:43Oh, for sure. Okay. That's Melissa's. Give me the red one. Thank you. Okay. We have a classic Give me the bevnet red one. We have a classic sea salt. We have a hot and sweet. Yes. And then the final one here is a sea salt and vinegar. Sea salt and vinegar, John? No, hot and sweet. Come on.

23:03you're sour john and mike would you like to see sure okay here you go one two across the studio geez wow spread the bag wasn't already open okay so zero days without casualties yeah so it was i think it was two years ago when they launched a potato chip for the first time and people were excited about them they were limited time offerings they were good and they did them one year and they did them next year but they were only around for i think three or four months and so it's really exciting that graza has launched this new line which i believe is a permanent addition to their portfolio they're going to debut in target as a target exclusive in checkout lanes yeah which is really cool yeah so uh very exciting stuff this chip was so big that I missed.

23:58Yeah, they're big chips and the zesty Caesar is so tasty. Yeah. As Grazia describes it, the chips are cooked in 100 % extra rich olive oil with specially sourced yellow skin, yellow flesh potatoes, resulting in a richer flavor and distinct melt-in-your-mouth crunch. Wow, we have so much ASMR going on. These are so crunchy. These are really good, yeah. But not crunchy like a kettle chip. Like they're not greasy. By the way, I might be in the minority here. I don't like kettle chips. I'm sorry. I'm just going to put that out there. No, really. They're too crunchy. No, I like them a lot. And there's too much oil in them.

24:31They're a little greasy. You strike me as a... Earmuffs. You strike me as a Funyuns kind of guy. No, that's our dear colleague, Jackie Berglera, was a big Funyuns. Potato sticks? Oh. No. I saw Jackie, I don't know, two weeks ago, maybe, when we were in San Diego. She did say she would consider coming back for a very special episode. Well, why aren't we doing that? I don't know. That's your job, not mine. Okay, we'll plan for September. because we're going to be back in San Diego in September for a Taste Radio San Diego meetup. That's happening September 15th. The four of us will be there. And maybe we can drag Jackie back on the mics as well.

25:09Kicking and screaming, I'm sure. Your takes on the latest mushroom products. Just to wrap a bow on Graza. I don't know. I don't have the price point on these, but it is interesting that these will be in the checkout lanes at Target, especially for a full size bag. These are, what are the size? 5.5 ounces. Yeah. I mean, I would have imagined like a single serve bag, but I don't know. I'm excited to see these. I wonder, to our discussion about Jesse and Ben's, how much of a premium people are willing to pay for a commodity potato chip. This is not a commodity potato chip. Don't call everything a commodity.

25:44Excuse me, for a brand that is participating in a commodity category. I think the packaging will be a big draw. It really is unlike, I don't know, any other potato chip bag I think I've seen recently. Yeah, it's shiny. Yes, she sees her. Wow. Right. That's really good. Really good. Wow. Okay. That's a rigging endorsement. I like that. I wasn't expecting to like it like that. Yeah. The bags have this nice sheen to them. They're mostly white and then the color that represents the flavor. So, for example, Hot and Sweet is a mix of bright ruby red and white with the Graza logo large in the middle of the bag.