Elevator Talk: Flirt, Flying Ostrich, CHUH Matcha, SipSide, FreshWater Agua Frescas

30:38least. And yeah, our goal is just to make matcha easy and something you can grab on the go. You know, up till now, it's really been making it at home and you have to have time in the bowl and the whisk or being in the coffee shop. And, you know, I was recently in New York and I got a small eight ounce matcha latte and it was$11. And, you know, New York's obviously extreme, but even in Maine for me, you know, I find it to be seven, eight,$9. And so we SRP at$4.99, which is slightly above, you could argue, it's on the higher end of the category for RTD, but I think it falls in line with people's expectations of matcha being a more premium product.

31:16And we're having a ton of fun with it. I think matcha, as you said, Ray, is really having its moment. And so we're just leaning into it and trying to grow this as smartly, but fast as we can. It's fantastic. And I tried your product. I really love it. And I've tried a bunch of RTD matcha drinks. And I think some have been on the side of, okay, this tastes really indulgent and delicious because there's a lot of added flavor or milk or what have you in it. And then on the other hand, you have ones that are just matcha and water, which can be a little rough for a cold RTD. Yeah. And I think that hits on a really important point, Ray, of I think for a lot of, you know, there's obviously a huge crowd of people that love the earthiness of matcha, But I think there is, including myself, a crowd that like it, but don't want it to be too grassy at the end of the day.

32:10And so I think that was a big goal for us to strike that balance of still having the earthiness that matcha delivers, but with fun flavors that anyone could enjoy and be a good trial or entry point into matcha for people. Yeah. Beth, do you like your matcha? I am it's growing on me I say my daughter almost 20 year old college student is an aficionado for sure we got the whisk in the bowl and the whole great stuff at home and but you know she struggles to be able to find a place to drink it at school so I'm interested because she is in the northeast up in Massachusetts actually right around the corner from from BevNet's offices so I'm interested to hear like how have you made traction in the northeast and what do you have you know a particular um consumer segment you're going after like is it more the you say coffee shop matcha shop type drinker or any age range or any background totally no it's a great question beth i think for us we we see matcha is you know generally i mean matcha has exploded in america but the two segments obviously that really love it are Gen Z.

33:24I mean, I hear all the time, oh, my 14-year-old loves matcha, my 20-year-old loves matcha, and obviously millennials too love it. And so I think for us, part of 2026 is continuing to grow, and we are excited post-winter fancy fair, having some really meaningful conversations with some larger distributors. We've been working with two regional distributors to help us in this region, but looking to grow across the East Coast and beyond, but especially in food service. I think you bring up a good point, Beth, that hospitals, universities, airports, I mean, heck, cruise ships, you know, like I think there's a lot of environments that, you know, for students, a quick grab and go when they're on the way to class or a hospital when a nurse is on break and just needs something quick or environments like airlines or cruise ships that, you know, they don't have time to be making a whole matcha behind the counter for their guests.

34:18I think food service is a category we really want to lean into this upcoming year and see how we can break in. So universities in the Northeast are a top part of our strategy for this upcoming quarter and year. Great, great to hear. Do you currently have your product in the Northeast? Where would we find it? Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of, We're in about, I said, about 100 stores in the Northeast, 25 through like fair outside of the Northeast. But in terms of kind of major spots in the Northeast for Maine, Rosemont Markets in the Portland area, Pemberton Farms in Cambridge, all the Rusty Lantern convenience stores, which are 30 across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and then a lot of independent.

35:05So a lot of the more natural grocers across Maine and then some farm stands in various spots in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Very exciting. Definitely need to try your product. And actually, I have to have my daughter. We'll find a way to have her try your product. Yeah, absolutely. Have you considered an alternate price point to capture if you start to get into that food service, especially in the, you know, obviously, you know, Boston or Massachusetts in general is one of the highest, I mean, certainly have more disposable income, but they're also the highest population of colleges and universities in the United States.

35:45So if that market's appealing, I don't, you sort of wondered, have you considered a slightly lower price point? Yeah, it's a really great question. And I think it's something, especially as we improve our cogs and kind of our margins, you know, our first run we did last year, you know, we were, you know, in more like the$1.98 range in terms of cost, but we've been able to drive that significantly down to being more in that kind of$1.50 range, which helps put our margin around 40%. And I think as we continue to improve that and kind of improve efficiencies, which is your expertise, Beth. I think we would explore like a$449, maybe$399.

36:25I think what's interesting is there's a couple other matcha products on the market that are at$399, but at an eight ounce size. So I think it's one of those kind of tricky mindset games that we're continuing to think through with consumers is we're slightly higher priced, but also you're getting more product. but where is that kind of a sweet spot where someone sees that value to spend maybe a little bit more for a little bit more product and a higher quality product at that. Well, Andrew, I'm rooting for you. I gotta, I gotta be clear and honest about this. You know, we've seen a lot of matcha drinks come to market, a lot of matcha brands come to market and some have had a little bit more success than others.

37:07I do think, I think the timing is right now. I think when I first saw a brand like matcha bar, for example, will come to market. I wonder if, you know, awareness and education and excitement for matcha had been a little bit of a, you know, drawback for them, a little bit of a challenge for them. I think right now, the time is right for a brand like Chuh. And so I'm really excited to see where you guys go with this and definitely want to stay in touch and let us know how things are going. Yeah, well, thank you so much, Ray. And great to meet you, Beth. If your daughter can't find it, let me know.

37:42And I'm happy to send you some cans as well for you to try. Oh, thank you. Yeah. And I'm sure she would tell all of her friends. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much, guys. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Andrew. Let's definitely stay in touch. Let's keep it going with our next guest. That person is Jacobia Solomon. She's the founder and CEO of SipSide. Jacobia, it's great to see you. Nice to see you too. I am excited to speak with you because what time is it? It's 1.40 here in the Boston area. It's time for a cocktail, isn't it? At least in my opinion. It is always time for a cocktail, but a lot of a mocktail, yes.

38:20Well, exactly. Exactly. It's a perfect time for a brand like Sipside. Tell us all about what you do. Yeah. So again, Jacoby Solomon, I'm the founder of Sipside Mocktails. And I'm a little bit newcomer into the CPG space. I have a proven track record in other industries as a visionary innovator and strategist in driving business expansion. So, you know, I started SipSide Mocktails really from a personal place. For years, I've really seen like friends, families, including myself, where you enter social and professional settings and you're limited to, you know, alcohol, soda, sparkling water, or something that may be not so, you know, not so inspiring options.

39:06And it creates a space of, I would say, awkwardness. You know, I always have this thing that I never have to explain my yes, but you want me to explain my no. And so people ask questions on why you're not drinking. And so for me, you know, it was a way where I wanted to see, you know, I started to see confident, creative adults really seeking experiences over drinks. You know, I'm all about a good time, good company, good conversation, good food. And the drink is definitely a part of creating that experience for me and desiring connection. It really is just celebration and being present in the moment.

39:43I do see myself as an aficionado of mocktails and have been ordering them well before they got popular. And so I will tell you, it's always been at the forefront of my mind to put something out that really enhanced people's moment in the celebration or in a different environment. And I will tell you, the tipping point for me was, you know, I was out last summer, you know, at a Dallas rooftop bar. We were celebrating with friends and I asked about non-alcoholic options. And I was given the usual spill soda juice, sparkling water. And for$12, they would actually make me a virgin mojito, which is basically muddled mint in line with club soda.

40:30So not a lot of enthusiasm around that. And so I looked around. Everybody's enjoying beautifully made drinks. And I really kind of felt like an afterthought. So I thought, hey, it's not because I don't drink alcohol. Honestly, I just never really acquired a taste for it and not because I didn't try, but because, you know, really, I just look at like there's a lack of something that's truly inspiring for people that seeking the experience like me. And so I decided to jump into this process and jump into this journey. And I really wanted to create something authentic and not, you know, create substitutes.

41:07So I'm not a spirit that's trying to taste like a Cosmo or Margarita. You know, I really just want to put original flavor experiences out there that can really stand on their own. And so I started experimenting, playing with botanicals, natural ashtags, unique flavor combinations. Again, wasn't trying to replace alcohol. I was just trying to create a beverage that's worth celebrating. And so I look at SipSide Mocktails as really redefining the non-alcoholic beverage experience with bold original profiles. We are a Dallas-based brand, really creating a premium ready-to-drink mocktail using really, like I said, all natural ingredients, botanicals, no artificial flavors.

41:52I'm not imitating cocktails. I couldn't really tell you what they all taste like, to be quite honest. and just really, you know, just about creating a signature flavor that you can't find anywhere else. We are at the beginning of the journey, and we have had our preliminary rollout earlier this month with a full launch scheduled for March. Jacoby, you pointed out a problem that people have been talking about for some time, which is that, you know, there's nothing really exciting or there hasn't really been a ton of exciting innovation in the non-alcoholic cocktail space. There's so many brands coming to market, but what really stands out?

42:35What really makes you want a particular product? And I think when I think about the term mocktail, it almost means like you're missing something. And I think with the flavor-forward approach that you're taking, it definitely feels like it's adding something to the category that it didn't have before. Yeah, no, I totally agree. Again, you know, for me, it's about definitely that flavor profile. When I pick up my drink, I want to experience something. I want it to enhance the food that I'm eating. It really excite my, you know, my flavor profile, my senses and get me all excited. I look good. Like I'm in the party, not on the outside of the party.

43:19Right. So it's about the color, the taste. And it really, you know, when I think about the flavor profile and how it matches up, it's it's you know, I'm not promising anything. You know, shout out to all the other brands that that do other things like functionals and make you feel good. This makes you feel good naturally. Right. It's about your taste buds being excited. So Jacobia, what I'm curious about is I actually did get a chance to take a look at your cans, which are quite bold and beautiful. What surprised me, because I was expecting sort of, you know, you say premium, really interesting ingredients, like interesting extracts and flavors mingled together.

44:03But I'm a label reader. And when I looked around at the label, I saw something that I didn't expect, which was mostly just juice and natural flavors. And yes, 100 % natural and healthy and not too high in calories. But I was hoping to see, and I was just wondering if you were thinking at all about pulling out, you know, these ingredients that you're proud of, like that are part of this craft cocktail that you've put together. Like, what are the extracts that are combined into these natural flavors? What are the call outs? Like, what makes your drinks unique? I would be really excited to see more or hear more or have you showcase more of that.

44:46because I think that, you know, that would really resonate with the consumer. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And my originally, the canned design actually did call out some of those flavors or abstracts. And yes, there's some juice, contains some juice and it's natural juice. So it's high count, it's high premium juice. And so just with all the labeling and the requirements and space, I kind of got rid of that. But as far as the community that we're, you know, really kind of growing around the brand, because it is a brand more than a product. And so in that community is it is definitely talking about, you know, the clean ingredients, the botanical forward, no artificial anything.

45:34And it is a flavor first philosophy, right? Not functional, not health claims, just exceptional taste. And so in that community, we talk about the ingredients. We talk about what's in there. And so I have a newsletter that goes out. I'm really jarring it up on socials around it because I just want people to look at it and really create brand loyalty around SipSign. Absolutely. thing. Jacobia, one of the things that I think is difficult for the category of non-alcoholic cocktails is that the margins for on-premise are probably not as good as simply mixing, you know, cranberry juice and seltzer water and charging$10 for it.

46:22You know, the restaurants and the bars are probably making, I don't know, a thousand percent profit on something like that. So that being said, are you shying away from food service? Are you looking to sell your product more in stores? Or are you going back to that rooftop in Dallas and saying, hey, instead of serving your customer something that is kind of boring and less exciting, why don't they try SipSide? Yeah. I mean, as far as my market segments, they're pretty open. I have a couple of opportunities in the pipeline. And some are your restaurants, catering, even airlines at this moment. And so it's just different places and also as well as college stadiums.

47:08And so just looking where I can get a different option. So it's not just focused on restaurant bars, but definitely going wider with the focus, like I said, on clean labeling. The calorie count is pretty low. And so you can look at it as just a healthy option. And so it definitely offers something different when you think about, and again, it's celebratory. It's about being able to drink SipSide in different spaces. Yeah, it definitely feels like it has that kind of sort of different experiences, different day part use, different kind of settings where SipSide could fit in pretty easily. So I think you did a really good job on that front.

47:53Jacoby, I can't believe we're out of time. Where did the time go? This is not fair. This is not, okay. We'll make up for it another time because I think there's a lot to talk about when it comes to SipSide. Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us today. Appreciate the time and your input, both Ray and Beth. And just really would love for your listeners to try SipSide. Definitely visit our website at SipSideMocktails.com. Follow us on Instagram to join our community. And really, if you're a retailer listening, reach out. We would like to partner and really bring value, premium, innovative beverages to your set.

48:29So thanks again, Bethnet, Ray, Beth, for having me on the show. Thank you so much, Jacobia.

48:38All right. On to our final guest for this episode of Elevator Talk. We have Moses Alvidrez, who is the founder of Freshwater Aguas Frescas. Moses, it's great to see you. Great to see you too, Ray. A big fan of your work, BevNet, and just the information and the resources you guys provide on the daily. So just want to thank you for that. Well, thank you so much for saying that. And we're truly honored that you're joining us for this episode. Aguas Frescas is something that, talk about a category or at least a type of beverage that just has just been yearning for more brands, more ready to drink brands to get into.

49:17It's just, I feel like every single year we see a new one come to market. I just want to see one explode. And I think Freshwater might have that chance to do so. Tell us all about what you do. Well, thank you so much for that and the acknowledgement of the category. Yes, it's obviously been around for years and decades, I should say. But since 2020, you've seen a rapid expansion of the category. So Freshwater, I was fresh because it's a family-owned business. I'm one of the co-founders, me and my two brothers. We're a team of five. we are a modern take on traditional indulgence of aguas frescas normally if you're not familiar with aguas frescas there's really a standard recipe list for it is water a juice base of some sort and a ton of sugar where we are different is we use no added sugar whatsoever we use a high quality sweetener tandem of monk fruit mv50 monk fruit and red m95 stevia so we try to go high quality on that to deliver a traditional taste that someone could be familiar with along with traditional flavors, but still eliminating the junk and, you know, allowing a guilty-free conscious as you're drinking this, you know, can consume multiple throughout the day and still give you that, you know, that traditional Hispanic experience.

50:31So we started our company in 2022. We rolled out our first product in early 23. We really tried to set out from a personal experience of having family members with diabetes and saying, hey, you know, let's try to offer something different. Let's see if someone even wants a healthy agua fresca with no sugar. We went very minimal with the label. We went two SKUs with the hibiscus and strawberry. And we hit the streets, you know, guerrilla marketing style, seeing if, you know, mom and pop franchise-owned restaurants and convenience stores would be interested. And to our surprise, we had a great response on our simplistic packaging and flavor design.

51:10So we did that for a solid year. We gained about 120 accounts throughout Southern California, just self-distributing ourselves, a lot of reactive play, taking orders as they came in and things like that. And that led us to 2025, where we did a full rebrand and relaunch in July. And we really took a position of we're going to rebrand ourselves. We're going to change our packaging. We're going to rethink this thing the right way. And we added on two new SKUs. We reformulated. We originally started with sucralose just to try to the concept of no added sugar. That completely went away and we repositioned ourselves last year as a truly better for you Agua Fresca.

51:51And since that rebrand, Ray, it's been great. We started putting ourselves out there a lot more in terms of the startup CPG events, the BevNet Live that we attended in December, and those have opened doors to some great relationships. We recently got brought on with High Touch Distribution, and they're going to be our distribution partner for Gelson's that we're rolling into in mid-March. We'll be going into their juice category for the 27 stores. So we are extremely excited, as that will be our first retail partner. We will still continue to support our local distribution network, which we brought on two small distributors that are in the Southern California area.

52:27and we are trying to go inch wide, mile deep in California, expand our network and really just support our customers, give them what they need, find where we can help create value, whether that be in marketing pieces, more in-store demos, and really just get the promotion of the brand out there. And yeah, we're in a very, very exciting build-out phase right now. It's been extremely exciting for 2026. We have a big grocery store that we've been talking to with Sprouts for mid-summer potential release. We're still in communications and getting ducks in a row there, but a lot of exciting things have happened since July of 25.

53:06Outstanding. And Gelson's? You're going to be in Gelson's next quarter? Yes. Outstanding. Outstanding. Glad to hear that you're working with Hightouch. Chuck and Zara are fantastic, and that's a really great partner to have for sure. Absolutely. You know what's really cool about Freshwater? I feel like you're taking an approach that's different from other brands in that it feels more approachable. I'm not hating on other brands. I'm not saying that other brands aren't doing a good job with their marketing and their positioning. It almost feels like, especially with the bottle that you're using, like a better-for-you vitamin water.

53:40Is that fair to say? Yes, very fair to say. When we first rolled it out, we went through iterations of the name, how we're going to go out. And, you know, the water really stood to us, having the name water in our name. And reason being is, you know, things like vitamin water, they pack a connotation that someone, you know, is expecting something on the lighter side, maybe not so juice heavy. And that's kind of what we were leaning towards. So although Awas Frescas is a literal translation into fresh waters, it is something that we try to play on, you know, just being a standalone word of fresh and then water and then actually bringing them together to create that experience.

54:18So, yeah, you're absolutely right. We try to make it extremely approachable with a standardized bottle. And we do try to keep things simplistic in terms of leaving a cut and stack label so that you can actually see our liquid. We realize a lot of people put Aguas Frescas in cans and other vehicles that really limit your juice visual. We're very big on whether it's whatever bottle we go to in the future. If it stays this way, we will always have something that you can see the liquid because in our world, you see Aguas Frescas before you drink them. That's such a good point. I mean, the colors that you're using, they're really bright and bold and vibrant.

54:57I'm also glad that you stopped using Sucralose. Beth, I agree with that one for sure. I was just going to ask the question on, have you experimented with the balance between the monk fruit and the stevia? And I applaud you on the choice of Rev M, although there's many, I would say there's the trend right now that we're seeing is there's a lot of, I don't want to call them proprietary, but there's a lot of blends, and there's more and more research being done on how do you mimic the taste of real sugar with not just monk fruit and the better grades of stevia rev D rev M but shockingly adding a small amount of a natural sweetener like honey or cane sugar has sometimes makes a huge difference and it only adds like minuscule amount of calories so I'm just curious if you even thought about continuing to work on your sweetener combination as you scale.

56:01And then the second question was really more about your right now. It seems like there's despite the amount of hydration drinks and I would say, you know, better for you energy drinks. there still seems to be a miss in servicing, you know, stadiums and then also players, you know, young athletes who are looking for something better than water. And I just happen to know because I have a daughter who's an athlete and, you know, she does not like any of the flavors or sweeteners. Like everyone's going at was almost I'd say it's a cookie cutter flavor. So it's amazing and refreshing to see that was not meant to be a pun, but it is really nice to see you putting out flavors that are much more, I'm sorry, less traditional and much more creative than the traditional hydration type drinks.

57:01Thank you for that, Beth. Appreciate the feedback. And yes, we get it all the time. You know, hey, Moses, can you do a tamarindo? Can you do a horchata? And it's like, I get it. These are traditional Mexican flavors. But, you know, we really want to try to keep the, you know, the marketing the same. We don't really want to try to have a separate product that's going to go refrigerated or in a milk section. And we try to, you know, keep things the same way. So thank you for that. And just to answer your first question, yes, we actually went through a very extensive and it was a lot of work going through multiple iterations with our drink formulator of let's go just Reb, you know, just Reb-M.

57:37Let's go, you know, Reb-M 95, Reb-M 90. Let's do the mix of the monk fruit MV50. We tried a ton. We tried a little bit of sugar. We found that it is a proprietary blend with the Reb-M. It's through OnoSuite, the OnoSuite brand, which we found is amazing to work with. So, you know, huge shout out to them. You know, they've been a great partner to work with for small and upcoming brands. But yes, we found two particular brands of MV50 and the REV M95 OnoSuite that work extremely well for us. And yes, we've kind of stuck with that. But by all means, we have a small lab in the warehouse that we go in and we're constantly just tweaking things just to see if we can always be better.

58:22As much as I love a horchata, I guess, yeah, I think you're spot on that. It's not necessarily a mainstream type of product and probably would be something that would hold you back a little bit versus, you know, get your brand and your name out there. Last question is Antonio Gates going to be a spokesperson, you know, for Freshwater at some point. Absolutely. That's the plan. I have Derwin James, Justin Herbert's on this wall. And yeah, that's the plan. And the L.A. roots are hopefully will be very deep soon. And then it'll all just come full circle. The colors kind of coincide, too. So, hey, it's not what a coincidence, right?

58:58And Ryan, go bolts. I saw the SD hat, by the way. Ryan, our video editor and producer, he's a big Chargers fan as well. And I was definitely rooting for him. Despite being from the Boston area, I was rooting for the Chargers. So, anyway, leave that at that. Really? I'm a Bills fan. You didn't have the Tom Brady jersey on, huh? No, heck no. No, I'm a Bills fan. I'm just going to leave it at that. All right. Okay. Moses, it's been great speaking with you. Thank you so much for sitting down with us. Definitely want to stay in touch and let us know if we can help in any way. Once again, glad to hear that you're with High Touch and let us know how things go with Sprouts because we definitely want to report on it for BevNet.

59:35Absolutely. Will do. Thank you for your time, Ray, and thank you for your time, Beth. I appreciate it. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Outstanding. Another great show. So many interesting concepts coming to market, all varied. I mean, when I talk about how brands can help enhance their operation strategies and make sure that they're prepped and buttoned up for the future, I think the first call or at least one of the first calls they should make is to you. For folks who want to get in touch with you and your team, or at least you specifically, what's the best way to do so? They can go onto my website, which is s3connectsolutions.com, and there's a contact so they can get in touch with me there.

1:00:18They can also reach out to me on LinkedIn, as many folks do. And certainly, if needed, they could lastly send an email to Beth at s3connectsolutions.com. But easy enough to get in touch with me. Happy to just have exploratory calls to see how I can best help. and wish everyone, like you said, it's a crowded market out there. There's a lot of innovation. Just want to see brands succeed and set themselves apart by really understanding how they can optimize and connect their planning to their cashflow. At the end of the day, they've got to have the margins and the volume. But I think that everyone we talked to today, super exciting brands, a lot of potential out there.

1:01:01I definitely agree. Well, Beth, once again, thank you so much for being with us on Elevator Talk. I have a feeling we'll go for the hat trick later this year or sometime in the future. But in the meantime, please stay in touch. And if anyone wants to get in contact with Beth and somehow didn't get her contact information from all that, just send me a note and we'll make sure that happens. Sounds great. Thanks for having me, Ray. Absolutely. And thank you so much to all the entrepreneurs who joined us today. Thanks to everyone watching or listening. And thanks to our amazing team at BevNet, Nosh, and Taste Radio, the best in the business.

1:01:35signing off for everyone. I'm Ray Lateef, and we'll talk to you next time.