Evolution, In. Revolution, Out. Expo West 2025 In Review.

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, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Carolyn Hamlet, the visionary founder and CEO of Oku, a trailblazing brand that is redefining energy with its innovative line of gummies. Ray, it's Expo West time. You know how I know? You sound 20 % more like Barry White. You got a little rasp in there. Do I have a little deep?

0:44It's nice, though. We don't typically record this early So it's 8.30 a.m. here in Anaheim You don't I don't, yeah Jackie always has the very white voice I always have the rasp It's a good thing Although I just peaked there Did you hear that? Yeah, I heard it It's a good thing You Peter Brady You Peter Brady'd right before our very best I really did Some people will know what that means No, it is Expo West 2025 And yes, I did hear the jokes on the floor Ray, you're here? I thought you don't like Expo West I thought you told people not to come to Expo West. Indeed, I did say some of these things, but I'm glad I'm here.

1:19Yeah, we had to hear it too, Ray, just so you know. Oh, my God. Everybody, I thought you weren't coming to Expo West. Ray said you're not coming to Expo West. Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray. It's always about Ray. Look, you know, some of the conversations I had, I did get a lot of affirmations and high fives and being like, Ray, you're right. So just so you know. From people at Expo West. But we're all here. But you got affirmations from people who are at Expo West. Yes. Anyway, no, it's good to be here. I think probably another 65 ,000 people here with us in Anaheim. A big show. But I felt a bit more manageable than in years past.

1:53I think that's because they moved some of the dates. Instead of having the North Hall be the only main area that was open on Wednesday, all the halls were open on Wednesday. The thing, though, is that since we're all creatures of habit, the North Hall still slammed on day one when it is typically slammed. The basement still slammed, Holly, when it's typically slammed, you know, because everyone did the same. Like they just kept their schedule. Just moved back a day. Yeah. Yeah. But I felt like I saw a lot of folks that I intended to see. Hopefully I didn't miss too many folks. I'm sure I did. For listeners who asked me to come to their booths and I didn't make it, I am sincerely sorry.

2:31Hopefully today's Friday, so I guess I have a little bit more time. But it's really hard to navigate. It's hard to see everything. But there were a lot of really cool things at the show, I think. I just need to apologize for the thousands of listeners who asked where's Ray that I couldn't tell them where you were. I think in general terms, and I had this conversation with a bunch of folks, I don't feel like we saw a ton of groundbreaking, earth shattering innovation. It felt like there was a lot of incremental better. You know, there were things that just got a little bit better to well-known products, existing products.

3:03And they were a little bit better in terms of taste, package design, maybe better for you ingredients, what have you. but nothing that was just like, whoa, this is the only thing that needs to be seen at the show. I thought we'd see more magnesium and we didn't see as much magnesium as I thought we'd see. I thought that might become the new hero ingredient, but it's been mostly like protein and hot honey. Yeah, lots of protein, lots of protein. I also felt like we saw quite a bit of nuts this year. There was a lot of nuts. Like you? Yeah, like me. Lots of pistachios. Totally, lots of pistachios.

3:35Crunchy pistachio. Pecans. There was a brand called, I believe it's pronounced Evie's, E-V-I-E apostrophe S. They call themselves the maker of Texas pecans. They come in a variety of flavors, including their banana bread, which looked pretty darn amazing. It was our tasty. Did you get to try them, John? We did, yeah. Which flavor did you try? I think it was like a cinnamon. Yeah, there's a cinnamon and then like a sweet and salty one. Yeah, yeah. That was good. Cool packaging too. Yeah, and I like the fact that everyone's talking about nuts as being sort of the overlooked snack because legacy brands have owned that category, owned that space for so long.

4:15And upstart brands are coming to the table with a fresher take, literally and figuratively, on nuts. I spoke with the founder of a new brand called Wild Fox Foods. He is also the founder of Kevin's Natural Food. So he sold his business to Mars a couple of years ago for$800 million. He's back in the business with Wild Fox. I sat down with him for an episode of Taste Radio that will air pretty soon. You don't want to miss it. It's amazing, actually. Did you guys get to try the Chuzo? I know John did. We tried their new trail mix. That's got a lot of nice nuts in it. Nuts and fruit. Chuzo. A maker of dried fruit snacks.

4:55A maker of dried fruit snacks based in San Diego. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. Now, these snacks I was blown away by. I got a sneak peek of these back in October when I was able to sit down with Porvi Patodia, who's the founder and CEO of Vienna. And in a rare turn of events, you shared some with us. No, I didn't share some. They made it into the office, though, before. No, no, no, no. I got a sneak peek. These were like early production samples. Oh, way before. Before they even got them. We got to just clarify that. These were production samples. We got to just clarify that. And I'm going to clarify that these are crispy roasted edamame snacks from Vienna.

5:29Described as high-protein super snack. There's 12 grams of protein in each 1.05-ounce pouch. They're made with avocado oil. Man, they come in three flavors. Ranch, Himalayan, pink sea salt, and chili lime. The chili lime one, my goodness. Tremendous. Really, really good products. Yeah. You guys get to try those? Oh, yeah. Yeah, really good. Did you hoard them or did you try them? because there were a whole bunch of samples they had there. Took a few samples to go. First we hoarded them. In between. Then we tried them. They also have giant edamame walking around too through the halls to try to get you to come to the booth.

6:05Nice. Try their stuff. Yeah. Before I posted about the Bienna Edamame, I posted about a brand that is known internationally. They are sold in many countries, but new to the United States. It's called True Dates. True Dates are a maker of dates that include a candy flavor. So I tried one that was a sour apple flavor. I tried one that was a sour cola flavor. The best one was their sour watermelon, which is unbelievable. And they also have a cookie dough flavor. They have more than those as well. But it really tasted like a gummy candy. And you didn't know it all. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't know it was a date.

6:45Yeah, whenever people are asking me, what's the innovative thing you saw of the show? I would always bring that up because it was very simple ingredients. Totally. But it tasted like a candy. So it was kind of like mind blown. Yeah. I did get a sneak peek of another brand in the date space that is planning to do something similar. So stay tuned for that. And I did get a taste of that product as well. Oh, man. Look it. There's the flex. There it is. I'm not flexing. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You won't tell us either. Look, I mentioned it to said date brand. And they're like, oh, well, we should show you something.

7:20So yeah, I did see lots of dates like date cola. Totally. Yeah. Date sweetener, date everything. Yeah. Date better, which is a brand of, I believe just pureed date that you can use to spread a lot of things. I think they also have snacks. They have a new line of date bark, date bark, peanut butter crunch that I tried. Only four ingredients. Really, really good. Despite the name, it wasn't very crunchy, but it was really tremendous. And I think a lot of people are using dates because it's a natural sweetener. You don't have to add a ton of sugar. Oh, like tree bark. I thought you meant like... Huh?

7:56How do you eat that? How many magic mushrooms did you have last night? Too many adaptogens. Yes. The sidewalk tacos. We did have some sidewalk tacos. And we survived the tail. We did, yes. Also, Date Fix, which is a maker of squeezable dates, typically used in the same way that you have those energy gels. It's actually packaged in an energy gel kind of pouch. They just went through a brand refresh. It's now described as fresh fruit nutrition. I sat down with the founder, Alan Skolnick, for an interview on Taste Radio. Date Fix is actually sold in over 3 ,000 Walmart stores, so pretty big coup for that brand.

8:36But a lot of what we talked about was trying to understand who their consumers are and trying to manage being in 3 ,000 Walmart stores as a small brand. So interesting stuff for sure. One other thing that I loved seeing at Expo West was the number of collaborations that we encountered on the show floor. Firehook, which is a maker of artisan baked crackers. They released a limited edition trough flavor. It's Parmesan trough, which was really cool to see. I am embarrassed to say I didn't get to try the Ithaca hummus and Graza collab. Did you get to try that, John? We did. That was really good. Was it olive oil on top of the hummus?

9:15No, it's basically just their kind of classic hummus made with Graza instead of regular olive oil. And it's got a really cool Graza colored label and all that. So admittedly, I won't say that there's a massive flavor difference, But I think it's really cool to take like two brands that are trending and doing well and, you know, putting them on a package like that. I mean, that stuff's probably going to fly. Yeah. I mean, it actually looks more like a Graza product. It does. It's a Graza green tub. And the branding almost looks more Graza than it does Ithaca. Yeah. No, it's the Graza color scheme, which I think is sort of intentional to make that thing stand out.

9:56Yeah, the booth popped. When I went over, there were a million people just taking like photos of the cooler alone. So I think that will just tell you it's going to pop on shelf. Did you see the harp player? They had a harp player there. No, did not. Wow. I was just like, what the hell's going on here? Love that. It's not a harp player. I like that kind of chill. It's not something you usually find at Expo West. No, not at all. It's usually like, ah! Or remember that booth, the, what was it, the bad tea company that was literally smashing dishes? Oh, yeah, I really did that. I've never seen something like that.

10:28That was jarring. That was zen in a way, too. No, there was no zen. That was like one step while having someone just jackhammering It was done for Jackie who enjoys breaking things Just so you know This makes no sense Why were they smashing plates? Because they're bad The company that had a booth and you could go in I think they had a hammer Old China kind of thing They bought a bunch of old China They brought out someone's estate sale and smashed it That seems reasonable Some of the booths around who I guess will remain nameless It's very jarring and annoying. And they're just like, ugh. It's like those rage rooms that you can go do now.

11:06It was a rage room. You know, it's like every year there's something that goes down at a booth that people just talk about. This year, I think it's going to be the Belgian boys bag giveaway, which I did not witness. But I heard about multiple times they were giving away these reusable bags that basically looked like a puffy down jacket almost. Like as the material. And apparently they had a line that was really long. and I think, I don't know, some sort of altercation happened at their booth. Oh, interesting. I saw a security guard there, so I believe it. Wow. Was someone trying to grab a bag from someone else or something?

11:40Yeah, I don't know, but they made some great social content around it saying that they were the hot commodity of the show and just zoomed in on everyone with their bag, which just stood out on the floor. Keep an eye out. You'll see something. I mean, you haven't seen these bags? No. There's like this big red puffy beast on people's arms. Someone cut up a jacket. Yeah. Like a down jacket, that is. Interesting. Interesting. Well, back to collabs for a sec. Foblish, which is a maker of hummus and Middle Eastern, I guess, inspired products made for a modern consumer. They introduced a new chili crisp ranch that they have created in partnership with Mr.

12:17Bing. Mr. Bing, a maker of hot sauce based in New York City. I tried this. It was really good. I mentioned on Instagram, it tastes like Doritos in a jar. outstanding stuff. I also met some really interesting folks from the UK who make a product or a brand called Urban Noodle. And there are three varieties that they make. It says pimp your nudes on the side. Is that like a Tom Yum soup? Love that. Yes. There's a Tom Yum soup. There's a spicy pho. And there is a Yaki Umami. They're all ramen noodles. And they come in large tubs. I mean, I was going to say, I think the U.S. has a reputation for supersized containers, but that is definitely the largest sort of noodle soup container I think I can recall seeing.

13:07Only a quarter of the size of a proper bowl of food. Yeah, it's so small. It's so small, but it's good. To be clear, there isn't more food in here. No, it's just add more water. It's easier for you to be able to enjoy your ramen instead of the really, really tiny ones where the soup is spilling out all over the place. Yeah, so these are probably, I don't know, 1.5 times the size of your normal ramen noodle bowl. I didn't get to try these yet, but they looked amazing, and I'm excited to get into them. The packaging feels very, I mean, it's like a brown paper bag kind of look. It's a bad way to describe it, but it kind of looks that way.

13:45It feels very urban and fits the name Urban Doodle and something that would definitely fit into. Yeah, definitely fit into the modern consumers pantry. And they encourage you to go to hashtag Pimp Your Nudes on Instagram for content. And I think I would make sure that I type N-O-O-D-S. Obviously. And U-D-E-S might lead you someplace else. Just saying. Sure. Be careful on the internet, people. In terms of ethnic-themed brands that are also made for an American audience, we got to all try this. Sien Chiles, which is a maker of Better For You Clean Ingredients hot sauces based in San Diego. They had small cups of popcorn and they would just add a dash of their hot sauces with them.

14:35And the one I tried was their jalapeno variety. And I put this on Instagram. It was one of the best things I've eaten at Expo West. Yeah, that was delicious. Sien Chiles, great. Yeah, their product is so delicious. It's so clean. It's so flavorful. and having hot sauce on popcorn is a game changer. In San Diego, at the popcorn bar and the movie theaters, you can get like pickled jalapenos and just take the juice and put it all on top. So it's a thing. But I got a bone to pick with them. Yeah. Because there's video of me somewhere guzzling Cianchiles that has never surfaced. Why? We got to do it again.

15:09They're saving it for a rainy day. Yeah, we could do that again. Yeah, I think she just wants you to do it again. Blackmail material. Challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. No, it's really good. It's a quality hot sauce. But speaking of quality hot sauces, yesterday we visited Nami, who's a maker of noodles. We visited Stephen and Suyi, which... And Nami is spelled. It's N-O-M-M-I-I, Nami. And we tried their silky sesame noodles. They're phenomenal. Definitely encourage you to get your hands on some Nami if you have a chance. And also in that booth were Jane and Alex from Emperor's Hot Sauce, who once again very much enjoy when I try their ghost pepper hot sauce.

15:51Wow, is that flavorful and spicy. The heat just keeps coming and coming and coming. It's amazing. I love their stuff so much, especially the mango. Yeah, the spice keeps coming. Niramaya, which is a maker of Indian-inspired dips, just introduced their Indian-inspired naan pretzels. These are grain-free and gluten-free. You didn't get to try these? Not yet. Well, you're not going to get to try them. No, these were fantastic. They have a number of varieties. The one I have in my hand is their jalapeno chutney variety, which I get to try. We got a sneak peek, John and I, at the Winter Fancy Food Show.

16:27These are made with avocado oil. They come in five-ounce pouches or bags, excuse me, and they are indeed nice and spicy as advertised. Well, Mihawk is also one of the nicest people you could ever meet in your life. It looks good from the preview we saw. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's another theme we keep seeing, not just at Expo, but beyond our ethnically inspired snacks or snacks that have an ethnically inspired spice or flavor. And they're really, I think, playing well into American consumers' hands, mouths, and pantries. What's going on? Why are you slashing stuff? There's a donut fight happening over here, right?

17:03Yeah. You've got Good Journey, Cha-Cha, and what's this other one? So you have Drumroll, which is— I've got Drumroll. Yeah, Drumroll, a maker of small donuts a la Hostess Donuts. the one you have is their vanilla glazed one yes yeah which i well i guess i was unsurprised to see that this is a really cool brand great tasting product and uh jason cohen's involved in this brand too so i mean like just the package is clean he's an insanely great operator also behind pretzelized and so i'm i'm just i'm expecting to see drum roll everywhere soon this is really tasty stuff i like the vanilla glaze the best but there's also chocolate and strawberry.

17:41Yeah, I ran into the folks from Good Journey, and I believe it was on Wednesday morning. And they are makers of single serve donuts that are just about the normal size that you would expect for a donut. They have two varieties, a dark chocolatey one, as well as a horchata variety. Both of them have three grams of net carbs, zero grams of added sugar. They are indeed intended to be a better for you donut. We got to get our donut expert Jackie on these. I know. I need to try those. I love this trend. Better for you donuts. Who knew? Yeah. Indeed, who knew? No. Yeah. I saw a lot of drum roll at Expo, but that brand has actually been around for a couple of years, I believe.

18:24They rebranded from, I forget what it was called, but they made that rebrand. And I think they've made their full introduction to the market within the past. Do it, Jackie. Go on. I'm doing it. A few months. Okay. You know you want to. Mike was rolling his finger. Be like, let's go. She started to open the package. Donuts for breakfast. She started to open it. Okay, here we go. Oh, God. She's on board admission. Oh, jeez. They're all over the microphone. That was not graceful. Jackie had an accident. I thought we don't have video of this episode. It just flew right out of her mouth. We're not getting our deposit back.

18:55That's delicious. They are pretty moist. Yeah, they're pretty M-word, right? Yeah. You said it. I said it. Oh, jeez. Trigger word. Trigger word.

19:05One other thing I wanted to try, and I'm hoping we can all try this here. John and I met some really engaging, exciting folks on the show floor. I'm embarrassed to say I forgot the founder's name, but he is the creator of a brand called Palmas, P-A-L-M-A-S. They're a maker of Better For You, I believe, sodas that are inspired by Indonesian flavors. They have three varieties. They have a salted Papuan red pop. They have a coconut strawberry sakura. And they have a Papuan red pop. So there's a salted one and there's just a regular one. I kind of want to try the salted one. I don't even know what a Papuan is.

19:46Does anyone? No. No. Should we Google it? Well, according to their Instagram. We should just have you be the guinea pig. According to their Instagram page, it's described as an Indonesian-based soft drink brand. Will be released in the United States of America. So let's try this. Oh, and I forgot to mention one of the reasons they stopped us, or the primary reason they stopped us, was to tell us how much they love Tastradio. Yay, thank you. How big of fans they were of the show. Yes. It looks like grapefruit juice. They're one of the rare listeners that actually found you. This is the salted Papuan red pop.

20:19Oh, geez. We're not trying. Oh, it smells really salty. Yeah. I don't think I've ever had anything like it. The nose is really interesting. Very interesting. Pretty tasty. Oh, I like that. It reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on it. It's like salty. It tastes like popcorn. Yes, that's what it is. It tastes like popcorn. Oh, it's got like a little buttery. Yeah, it smells like a buttery popcorn. It's popcorn. It's the salt. This is really good. I mean, this is a good idea. This is one of those that's going to be a great idea. It tastes really good. And it's going to need a lot of other people to kind of figure this out if it's going to be a trend.

21:01Oh, it's so good. What's the sugar count on that one? It's 60 calories, so it's got to be about 8. 11. 11 grams, yeah. And these are, I believe, 10-ounce cans. Yeah, the branding is pretty cool, too. It has palmust in a vertical font. It's vertically on the can here. So since it was good, we're not going to get to try the other two because Ray's going to hoard them. No, you're welcome to try the other two. I'm just kidding, Ray. Those might disappear. Joe Krach, your audio engineer, is about to stab me because he doesn't want us to go overboard here. He's literally sitting to my left, and he has his Swiss Army knife.

21:39Oh, gosh. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful, boy. This is the end for me, folks. Dear listeners, I love you. While Joe is destroying Ray, we had an experience yesterday, didn't we? Oh, we had quite the experience. So we met the founder of Power Up, which is a maker of collagen products. This one I have in my hand is cocoa mix with collagen protein. Mary I. Polanyi. I can only describe her as a combination of Pamela Anderson and Ron Popeil. Yeah, that's pretty on point. The energy was off the charts. If you need to pick me up and you've already had enough coffee. Wow. She got me in her clutches and I thought I was never going to get away.

22:20Yeah. You asked one question in an interview and she took it over. She took it over. She was like, I'm interviewing you. And I was just like, it was like she was beating me with her pitch. But she has a cocoa mix with collagen protein and was encouraging people to eat it out of the bag. Like if you just needed. Just eat the powder. You just wanted your 23 grams. Just eat the powder if you don't have a chance to mix it. And I was like, no, no one's going to do that because you'd be like. But it works and it tastes really good. What's the name of the brand again? It's called Power Up. P-W-R-U-P.

22:54and we were also talking to Chandler who I could see she was empathizing with. I was like, she's like, that's me every day. I'm like, me every day. But Mary is, she was like human sunshine. Yeah, she was amazing. And she was so happy to talk to us. She was like, this made my day. She just didn't want to let us go. And on the spot with said founder is coming soon to Instagram. It is and you get to watch. You really have to see it. Watch Mike's face. Okay. I'm expecting to see a rotisserie chicken behind you when you're, you mentioned Ron Popeil. Just set it and forget it. Yeah, just set it and forget it.

23:33Now we're all aging ourselves here. I need a Vegematic. What are we even talking about? Yeah. There is one other brand that really caught my attention. I think it caught everyone else's attention. Gim. It's called G-E-M. G-E-M. It's the brand of Korean seaweed chips. The branding is very on trend. It feels sort of authentic, sort of throwback, a little nostalgic. But it's described as baked without oils. They have a number of varieties. The one I have in my hand is their spicy one. It comes in 0.71 ounce pouches, women-owned, 70 calories, vegan, etc., etc. But this one really, I saw a lot of people gramming this.

24:12Candice Choi is the founder. A lot of people were gramming that. The booth was mobbed. There were buyers there. And, you know, it was this is just like so on point in terms of great snack. Good for you. It's got great crunch and great flavors and great founder. All the it's got all the things. All the above. All the things. Well, I'm sure there are a lot of other brands and products we can talk about. We'll probably follow up in the next couple of episodes with more call outs. Yes. That's another on the spot. Next. Which one? Next episode, we'll talk about Benny Yogurt. That stuff was living yogurt.