Do Consumers Give An F About Functionality?

0:10Hello 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 with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Melissa Travers, and Mike Schneider. Protein, fiber, collagen, pickles? These days, just about anything can come with an added benefit or limited edition twist. This week, we're looking at how functionality is moving deeper into the mainstream as brands like Cloud, Doritos, and Smartfood add trendy ingredients to familiar snacks, and why authenticity matters more as brands make bigger promises.

0:51We'll also dig into a new study raising questions about avocado oil labeling and Grillo's increasingly wild world of brand collaborations. So our dear friend and colleague, Ken Sadowski, also known as the Beverage Whisperer, stopped by the office a few days ago, And I recorded an interview with him that we featured this week on Taste Radio. I highly recommend that you listen to it. It's a great episode, an insight into the mind of a beverage investor, someone who's been doing this for a long time. So Ken was so kind to bring a bunch of beverages from literally all over the world to talk about during our conversation.

1:30Unfortunately, we didn't get to all of them, at least in that interview. But I figured, why don't I go into my grab bag and see what we've got that we didn't get a chance to talk about. Is Ken in there? Ken is not in here, unfortunately. But I mentioned London, and he did bring some drinks from the UK to the office. And this one I'm holding in my hand is one called Posca. P-O-S-C-A. It is a sports drink that comes in this 12-ounce slim can. Not only is it a sports drink, it's described as the OG sports drink. Interesting. Yeah. Looks like a cocktail from here. What makes it DOG? I don't know. It has zero grams of sugar.

2:12This is their pineapple variety. It does, to Mike's point, look a bit more like a canned cocktail than it does a sports drink. At least for this market. Maybe over there it looks a little more sporty, but I don't know. It doesn't look like LucasAid. It makes me think of the Silver Bullet, which won't slow you down. I don't know. How often, though, do you see sports drinks in cans? Not that often, yeah. Not that often. unless it contains booze. Super light, which we've mentioned on the podcast a number of times, is, of course, the alcoholic sports drink brand that is on fire today as well. So maybe, as you pointed out, Mike, we'll start to see more sports drinks in cans now that they're appearing as alcoholic products.

2:54I mean, that feels like an interesting niche to have a sports drink in a can. And it's not the first better for you, you know, better for you, better ingredients, alcoholic beverage we've seen in a can. I would point to Goldilocks as another one of those that's making vodka drinks with better ingredients. Would you drink an alcoholic sports drink when you're playing alcohol sports like beer pong or something? Pickleball, darts. So Posca has the ancient wisdom of red wine vinegar with the modern science of four key electrolytes to create Posca Hydrate. Super light. Red wine vinegar. You drink super light before your pickleball match and you're basically like drunken master.

3:37Interesting. One thing that we didn't sample much of during the conversation was protein drinks. It was strange because we did talk about protein, how protein is one of the biggest trends that's happening across CPG, but didn't see a lot of protein drinks. good for us that we have protein chips here in the studio. Good for us. Yes, good for us. Really good for us. Really good for us. Melissa, what kind of protein chips are these? Yeah, so these are the cloud protein chips. Yum. I have here in front of me the buffalo, the sweet heat. Wait, what? Chips now? And the jalapeno. Yeah, I know. So they started with popcorn.

4:14Yeah. They moved on to chips. Of course, we had Khloe Kardashian at Nosh Live this past year in Marina del Rey. and I've tried the popcorn, but I haven't tried the chips. I thought maybe we should, should we crack the sweet heat open? Yeah, let's crack them all open. Before we start to munch on these, I want to note something that Cloud, and if you're not familiar with Cloud, as Melissa pointed out, the Khloe Kardashian brand, spelled K-H-L-O-U-D, but this is Cloud Plus. This is a line extension for the brand because these not only contain protein, they also contain collagen. So protein chips plus collagen, 17 grams per serving.

4:50How many servings are there? So 17 grams of protein per serving, two grams of collagen per serving. All right, let's see what these taste like. I actually got a sneak peek of these. Maybe not the ones with collagen. I got a sneak peek of these at Expo West. CEO Jeff Rubenstein was so kind to share them with me. When I tasted these tortilla chips, I was like, wow, these are amazing. It doesn't taste like they've been jam-packed with protein and are really stiff and unpalatable. Buffalo, I'm trying. Buffalo. I feel like we got to start Buffalo. Uh-huh. You know, for folks... Don't crunch in these listeners' ears, folks.

5:28No, no. That would be rude. Have you had the Quest protein chips, for example? Those are the OG protein chips. I think those are the OG. And I think they're fine, but they have a lot of ingredients in them, and a lot of them aren't necessarily ones that you want to be eating all the time. The ingredient panel on these Cloud Plus chips, It's pretty simple. Pea protein, avocado oil, collagen, sugar, brown sugar. It's pretty clean, and they are really nice and thin and have a good crunch. They're words I can read until calcium carbonate. Yeah, right. Oh, I know what that is, too. Hey, listeners. As of August 13th, lots of new jobs are live at cpgjobs.com, including from North American Sake Brewery and Topa Topa Brewing.

6:10Allagash Brewing, Serene Beer, and Owls Brew join the rush. Great companies, hot opportunities, so find your next move and apply now. Now, got a role to fill? Reach a self-selected CPG audience and cut wrong fit screening with operators, sales leaders, supply chain pros, and retail buyers who know the category. Post your job at cpgjobs.com today. Post the role. Use code TASTERADIO26. Save money on your listing. Your inbox should reflect the parts of CPG that matter to you. Choose from BevNet's seven free newsletters covering beverage, food, beer, spirits, careers, education, and more. Sign up and select your favorites at cpgmedia.com slash newsletter.

7:00Mike was so kind to alert us as to the launch of another protein chip hitting the mark. And of course, that's Doritos protein. Oh, my God. PepsiCo announced that they were going to launch functional varieties of some of the most well-known brands, including Smartfood, Smartfood Fiber, and Doritos, the Doritos Protein. I don't know if Cloud being a little ahead of the game is going to make much of a difference. I don't know if people are actually going to buy Doritos Protein. I don't know if they give a crap about protein in a Doritos chip. But I do know that clearly brands are thinking ahead and that they're not resting on their laurels and they realize that functionality matters.

7:43But how do you get people to buy into what you're selling? Well, if the comments section are an indication on LinkedIn, then at least the comments that I saw, which was probably the first 10 to 15 of each was, hey, you're kind of slapping protein into a legacy product that isn't that good for you in the first place. and you're also slapping fiber. And the way that they have blasted it all over LinkedIn on the PepsiCo account is just that, hey, we're adding protein and fiber to, you know, some of the products that you love the best. And it happens to be protein in Doritos and fiber in smart food, popcorn.

8:22And the comment section's kind of damning, but I mean, I still like Doritos. I do too. And there's time and a place for them. They're freaking delicious. Yeah, like Cool Ranch Doritos, one of the best snacks of all time. Gross. 100%. I agree with you, Mike. The question I have is, are people going to see through it, though? Like, it's great that they have Doritos, but Cloud has always been a protein-centric brand, right? Just the fact that you're adding protein to Doritos, you're adding fiber to smart food, does that really make a difference for consumers? I think one of the things that we're seeing here is that they're triggered by Cloud because they're trying to add protein to what they're doing.

8:58So cloud must be taking like that micro amount of share from them. That's just annoying them a bit. So they're saying, hey, can we get that back? Or should we be innovating in that direction? And they're testing with their legacy brands, of course. Or they're like, man, we should acquire this fast growing, whatever, protein, fiber brand. Full circle here. Now we can just do that on our own. I think because GLP-1s are becoming so prevalent and obviously Doritos is a mass market brand. And I think that there might be a play there for people who are trying to eat more protein. Just put the GLP-1s in a Dorito flavor.

9:32Hey, that's a great idea. Just shortcut all this. That could be the next big thing. Taco Bell, great there too. When are we going to see? Mountain Dew Baja Blast. When are we going to see colostrum in Doritos? Do you think there's a possibility of that ever happening? Colostrum's more expensive. A long time. Okay, so Kenny brought a jar of ancient nutrition, colostrum with him. I don't think I've ever consumed colostrum this way. And we talked about where it comes from. A couple episodes ago, Melissa, you talked about this. What do you mean this way? What is it? Just a powder you mix with water?

10:04Yeah. Okay. You probably consumed it after you had just been born. I don't recall, but it's possible. Yeah. I mean, colostrum seems to be an ingredient that a lot of people are talking about, but the education here, I think is just not only complex and somewhat confusing, but maybe a little touchy to talk about to your point there, Melissa. So it's the first milk that a baby, anything will get before actual breast milk comes in for the baby to feed on. It's like a supercharger. Yeah, it's like a supercharger. It's like liquid gold, but I mean, I don't know. How many things do we need to be taking these days?

10:44Everything. Perhaps we can go to an article about fraud in avocado oil. Do you think that can be a transition? I think it just became one. I think it just became one. I mean, any of us would have to look at the study and see if they chose products at random or if they chose products that they already suspected. Right. From what I read in the article, they chose a pretty good swath of brands that you would see on shelf at a Whole Foods, even a market basket. So they walked into a Whole Foods or a market basket, pulled a bunch of products and tested them and found 89 % of them have other oils. Exactly.

11:18Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, it is on the brands to figure out the integrity of the products they're using, but that's really, really hard because there's a limited amount of supply chain transparency, especially because avocado oil is a newer ingredient in terms of how much it's being used. You know, after the olive oil controversy, there were put into place more ways of testing and more rigorous standards. So I'll be interested to see if this changes the supply chain transparency in the way that it changed for olive oil. Nothing like making an already hard job harder. It's a controversy that I'm sure Nosh will be following in the weeks and months to come.

12:02So stay tuned on that front. Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit VibrantIngredients.com. The Angel Group was among the first believers in brands like Poppy, Bacchans, Goodles, and Siete. The next generation of great consumer brands is being built right now. Learn about investing alongside other industry professionals at wearetheangelgroup.com.

12:48Quick pause for a look at the people making an impact across packaged food. The 2026 Nosh Impact 50 recognizes founders, operators, investors, creators, and connectors whose work is influencing how brands are built, funded, grown, and brought to market. Some are highly visible. Others are shaping the business behind the scenes. See all 50 honorees at nosh.com slash impact50. All right, once again, this is a segment or part of the show that we like to call Chomping at the Bit. And John Craven has been chomping at the bit to talk about this Bottles cocktail that he has in his hand. What is this all about?

13:23That makes no sense. It's a beverage. No one's chomping. Well, it's a saying It's a euphemism, right? Sure Okay We'll go with it Anyway, this is the Mission Craft Cocktails New Pickle Rita Which I brought because I know Ray, you in particular love pickle flavored drinks I love pickle juice, I really do Me too So this is for you I will give you this bottle It's one of the three that we got It's unopened Okay I did not reattach the seal after taking a few swigs Okay But it's basically A few swigs would be the least of my worries But anyway, please go ahead. You know, Mission Craft Cocktails, we've had their stuff many times.

13:59They make some really good ready-to-pour cocktails. A Mission Social-based mission there. There you go. Of course. Can't forget about that. 375 mil bottle. But it's basically like a classic margarita with dill pickle. You know, I'm not going to lie. I thought it was going to be a little gimmicky, like that fake pickle flavoring. But it's a little subtle hit of dill pickle at the end. It's really good. Is it like the dirty martini of margaritas? I mean, that might be a good comparison for it. Although I would probably prefer this. Anyway, I will leave this for you. You should try it. Do you think that there's a resurgence of pickle flavor this and pickle flavor that?

14:38I'm not sure it ever really went away. It's just kind of been there. I mean, pickle flavor stuff seems to kind of have its moments. And I don't know. I'm not sure it can have a permanent always on moment. I had Sherry Fry from Nielsen IQ on the Non-Base podcast right after Expo West, and pickle was one of the top flavors in her trend report. And it definitely is true. It's definitely a trend. We just keep seeing more and more pickle-flavored things, and I'm not sad about it at all. I think we're seeing a lot of pickle flavored things because everyone wants a piece of Grillo's. Grillo's has become a hot commodity in terms of co-branded or co-manufactured products, including the one they released with Firehook.

15:26Oh, nice. Firehook. Quality. So Firehook, a brand of artisan baked crackers, introduced a limited edition Grillo's Pickles dill pickle flavor. It's USDA organic and comes in the now well-known package for Firehook. It's a, what do you call this, a little bin? Clamshell. Clamshell. It's a clamshell that contains 5.5 ounces. It's like a mini version of a salad clamshell. There you go. Well done, John Craven. Firehook. Sounds like a superhero. So if you guys want to do some more crunching, I haven't tried this yet. I want to crunch. Yes, so crunch. While you're crunching, I know there's so many co-branded limited edition Grillo's products that we've seen over the past two, three years.

16:08But can you identify your favorite one? Do you have a favorite Grillo's collab? And it could be this one, perhaps. I'm not sure. Firehook crackers, yeah. Really? Are you getting a lot of pickle flavor in there? There's pickle dust on top. I always want things to be saltier. So I would like a little more salt, but that's just me. But you'll get it from the hummus that you're going to dip it in. So the hummus, the Ithaca hummus collab that they did with Grillo's, that one is fire. I think that might be my favorite one. Oh, it's fire and firehook. And let's have a three-way collab. Let's do it. Oh, I don't think you can say that on the podcast.

16:45Also, the PBR Grillo's collab. I wouldn't say that's my favorite, but that is pretty darn creative. I like that one a lot. Who made the Grillo's underwear? I believe that was Frank himself, Frank Grillo. And the shoes. They would have shoes, too. No, there was that. Didn't we just get clothing from? No, that was that was a different company. Frank Grillo. Yeah, I just got a hit of salt. You know, mad props to Grillo's. They are a Boston based brand. And when I was working at Whole Foods Market in the North Atlantic, they were always the first people to sign up to come to store openings. They would bring T-shirts for all the people in the stores.

17:21They wanted to do everything and anything. And they've just done such a great job with their branding and their partnerships with retailers and their partnerships with brands. It's such a great case study in how to grow a big, great brand. Good stuff. Yeah. I just did a quick Google search because I forgot some of the collaborations that they've done. I think was the first one, the one with V8 when they did the Bloody Mary mix? Got me. They've done collaborations with V8. They've done with Utz, with Boulder Brands. the brand of kettle cooked chips with liquid IV, if you can believe it. Oh, that's right.

17:56Pop-up bagels, Burt's Bees. Yeah, really interesting stuff. There should be a case study. Someone should do a, or at least an article on the success that Grillers has had in doing all these collaborations. I think between them and Mike's Hot Honey, they're fine for first place. Sounds like a good webinar. For whom? For me? For you. I don't talk about such things on the podcast. You know, talk about such great lessons in how to build a brand on the podcast. That's crazy. I also forgot about Hippies. Hippies is another one. Sure. Hippies did a recent rebrand recently, didn't they? Yeah, I think so.

18:30They have a new look. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Okay. Just to mention, we're not going to get deep into that. All right. I got to ask about what's in the box. You know, I'm doing a little Severn reference here, Melissa. What's in the box? So I have here a box of dates. You know, I saw these first at Erewhon. They are the Rancho Meladucco Date Farm Dates. These are hand-picked from the Coachella Valley. And I actually, these came from Clear Flower Bakery in Brookline. Pause there. Best bakery in the world. I mean, if you're in Boston. Wait, so what's the best bakery? I mean, there's so many great bakeries.

19:11Okay, in the United States, I've had a lot of croissants and French bread and things like that. there's nothing that comes close to clear. Their bread and pastries are incredible. And like so many bakeries and specialty shops, they're carrying more and more CPG products. So these came from there. I was curious. You certainly get charged a premium for these. They're handpicked. It's a family farm. Do you want to try some dates? Let's date. Oh boy. Wow. These are, these are some plump dates. Yeah. They're all nestled in together. They really do look like they were packed with care. I found that they...

19:49Each worker only picks 10 dates per day. That's right. That's right. That's right. What do you think, Mike? It tastes like dates. It looks like a date. They have pits in them. They have pits, of course. Yeah, of course. That's how they stay the M-word-er. Moist. Moist-er. But I did find that these weren't as moist as some of the other dates that I've purchased, like Julie's, for example. There's another brand that I buy at Market Basket, I did a little bit of research and found that dates are oftentimes either rehydrated or dehydrated to achieve the right moisture level. I don't know if that was done with these, but yeah, I don't know.

20:27I didn't realize they underwent that kind of production method. Did you know they have more potassium than bananas? I think I actually did because of... Did you know they're a good source of fiber? And actually they're lower glycemic than other forms of sugar. Did you know they're a sweet treat with a low glycemic index? I actually did know that they had more potassium because of that brand, Date Fix. Yes, Date Fix, launched by our dear friend Alan Skolnick. I love that brand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. These I would love to fill with pistachio butter and cover them in chocolate. Yeah. That's an interesting thought.

20:58You know what else dates are? Or we can stuff them with the pistachio butter. That's what I mean. Yeah, stuff them with the pistachio butter and then dip them in chocolate. You know what else dates are? And it says it on the side of the box. Dates are cool. Yeah, they are. They are cool. It's a hashtag. It's so cool. Yeah. So cool. So if you reference this brand, make sure you hashtag dates are cool. These are good dates. Hard to mess up a date. They did not mess it up. Yeah. The packaging to me is what really drew me in there. Yeah. They're definitely artisan. I messed up a date once. It was over in about 20 minutes.

21:30Amanda Sainz from Julie's right now is delighted by your date pun. Mike and Melissa have been sipping or slurping on a water bottle that has the logo air up. What is this? We don't always talk about tech companies on the show, but I think this is a tech company that makes your water taste better, like without adding calories. So just scented pods. Wait a minute. The water bottle makes your water taste better? You add a pod to the top that has scent in it. And this one has peach. I was trying cherry cola earlier. What do you have over there? I have the berry flavor. We'll get to that. Lemon berry?

22:08Yeah. The water bottle has a paw that has scent in it, which makes the water taste better. Exactly. Okay, this is mind-blowing. Yeah, mind-blowing stuff. I've never seen anything like this. There was a ready-to-drink that did this one. Yeah, it's called scent. S-C-E-N-T. I remember that. Is it still around? No, I don't think so. I don't think so because they, I think they struggled with keeping the scent on. The scent. It has to be. Yeah, the scent. It has to be on the tip of the bottle somewhere on the cap. And these guys have solved that by putting a straw into a bottle. And, you know, the pods wrapped around the straw.

22:41Yeah. Well, what are they saying? Tastes like peach. 50 % of flavor comes through your nose. Through your nose. Yeah, but I think the problem with this, much like scent, is that your perception of value as a consumer is like out of whack. because while that might be true that that percent comes from the scent, you're paying not for smell, right? I think that's a tough thing to say to a consumer. Like, you're not getting anything in the liquid. You're just getting some smells. I don't know. I could just buy a scented candle and have a glass of water, right? So what you're saying is AROP is like going Dutch on a date.

23:17I don't know what that means, but I think it's just something that's got a complicated sort of education perceived value or value proposition challenge. One of the problems is everybody already has a water bottle and this has some proprietary technology. I talked to the VP of strategy, Atul Ahuja, about some of these challenges for the brand and they acknowledge all these things that you just talked about, John, like there's a bit of an education curve. The question is, is somebody going to understand that scent drives the taste and can you get them to buy the bottle too? So, I mean, that's going to be the challenge for the brand.

23:55But I think once you do, you know, the experience is pretty decent. I will say it does work. When you taste the water, you do get a hint of, in my case, the berry flavor. But I also feel like something's missing when I swallow the water. Well, that's the calories. Well, there you go. There you go. Yeah. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com Incorporated. our audio engineer for taste radio is joe cratchy our technical director is joshua pratt and our video editor is ryan galang our social marketing manager is amanda smerlinski and our designer is amanda huang just a reminder if you like what you hear on taste radio please share the podcast with friends and colleagues and of course we would love it if you could review us on the apple podcast app or your listening platform of choice check us out on instagram our handle is bevnet taste radio as always for questions comments ideas for future podcasts please send us an email to ask at taste radio.com on behalf of the entire taste radio team thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time

25:16hey folks it's ray with taste radio right now i'm honored to be sitting down with Colleen Zammar of Bay State Milling. Colleen, it's great to see you. Thanks, Ray. Great to see you too. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much for joining me in this incredible time for food and beverage. Things are changing so much. And as we all know, Bay State Milling is one of the leading companies in our space, particularly as it relates to nutritious ingredients. And I'd love to hear from you in terms of nutrition and how that landscape is changing, particularly in the context of consumer brands? Oh, it is exciting times.

25:52Nutrition is changing a lot. You wouldn't think that that's possible given that it's been around for a long time, but consumers just really tuned in to what they're putting in their mouths and what they're putting into their bodies. And so they're seeking information, they're reading labels, and they're really looking for the most nutrition for their buck. That's certainly true in the case of a macro that we're all familiar with, which is protein. It seems like everything is protein this, protein that these days. But a lot of people are talking about fiber as well. Why do you think fiber is the next part of that conversation?