How Yaza Went National at Whole Foods Just Weeks After Its Launch

26:46It's so delicious. If you're a licorice fan at all, I highly recommend. And, you know, I've seen in a number of Indian food places when you like right at the entrance, they have that bowl of the fennel seeds and the candy coated licorice as a digestif. And I think they're just so delicious. However, Chicka Chicka does it all without any artificial colors or flavors or anything. and they have three different flavors, mint, cardamom, and cinnamon. And they're just so tasty. You eat them after. I spent one day eating them like all day long. Melissa, they're digestive. I know, I know. How was your stomach afterwards?

27:25I have a stomach of steel, so it was fine. I'm just going to put this out here. We're probably going to want to eat some of those today after that Domino's. Yeah, I'll leave these here so you guys can partake. But I think this is just such a delicious and fun product. And fennel seeds are a natural gut health support aid. Fennel seeds are tasty. Yeah, they're so good. Yeah. Yeah. And I also wanted to talk about Kohl's Vart. This is the Swedish candy that I'm seeing pop up everywhere. Whole Foods has this now, but I actually picked this up at a cheese shop in Portland, Maine on a trip this past weekend.

28:04And I have here the sour blueberry and the ginger black licorice. Do you guys want to try this? I do, actually. And let's get a shot here because I feel like this is minimalism personified, or at least I don't know what the term would be for packaged food and beverage, but it just screams natural and uncomplicated, at least on the front of the pack. And Kohl's Vart, it looks European. it looks like it's a really natural and like an original type of Swedish fish versus, I don't know, whatever we get nowadays. The Swedish candy trend has been, I mean, you see it like everywhere, all over TikTok and Instagram and everything.

28:47This is the one that I've seen kind of pop up in more of the chains recently, but the black licorice one with the, I love black licorice so much. And I looked up on their website and they have so many different options for black licorice. So I'm going to go buy a bunch. Did you know that our very own Colin, the sample captain, loves black licorice? I did not know that. I think I'm going to do a black licorice tasting with him after I order a bunch. Malmo, Sweden. Great day trip from Copenhagen, by the way. Malmo is an amazing city. Yeah, it's beautiful. You know, everyone in Sweden is tall and beautiful and nice.

29:23What did they do over there? That's why I was thinking about moving there, actually. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's like it's - I fit right in.

29:32and i have one more if i can just one more and if this isn't a ringing endorsement of how delicious this is we got a sample of this into the office this is wilderton aperitivo they're based out of hood river in oregon and it's a non-alcoholic bittersweet aperitivo i went through this so fast it's so so tasty i really loved it we have more of that we do in the sample room Yeah. Oh, well, maybe I'll stop by there on my way out. Different variety. But yeah, I sat down with the founders of Wilderton a couple of years ago at the Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans. Really interesting brand based out of Portland, Oregon, I believe.

30:15They say Hood River, but I'm sorry, Hood River. Yes, I'm sorry. 100 % Hood River. But they just moved to that new bottle. They used to be in a more short squat bottle. And I feel like that definitely looks very nice. Very big upgrade. Yeah, it definitely fits into a shelf, a beverage alcohol shelf, a spirit shelf a lot better than I think the old package did. I think it's one of the best non-alcoholic mixers. I've tried very low sugar and I like the fact that you can add it to whatever you want. Yeah, indeed. This black licorice is fantastic, by the way. Isn't it so good? Sweet licorice and ginger.

30:47Yeah. And it's vegan. Ooh. Yes. I looked at Jackie when I said that, even though I know she's pescatarian, but for some reason. I mean, I'll take it. No beef. No meat in the candy. Yum. Jackie, what do you got over there in San Diego? So we're going to go from Oregon and travel to Georgia. I have some Georgian teas. Ooh. Georgia the state. The state. Okay. Yes. Yes. I don't know if Georgia the country has tea or what they're known for. Tea literally everywhere. Right. So Georgia the State, which usually you would think like sweet tea, which I believe this brand does have sweet tea varieties, but they also have a couple options that are black tea, hibiscus tea, and also green tea.

31:37This one I have right here is called the Longarm Citrus, and this is a black tea base. They also have Charmed Voodoo, which is hibiscus, and then the Sidewinder, which is a green tea. So they have a bunch of different options. obviously iced tea is trending and people want clean energy. They want low caffeine or no caffeine. I think maybe just like if they could call out the caffeine a little bit more, like I didn't know that the hibiscus, well, obviously I know hibiscus is caffeine free, but people might not know that. So having that called out and having the type of tea on the front, I think would be a little bit more helpful, but I tried it and it tastes pretty tasty.

32:19So they're doing good. I think they just launched and sprouts in the innovation set. So they're, they're making their way into retail. Nice. And that's blue Durango tea. Yeah, very cool. Can I open this giant box that I have? Yeah. So John has a secret box of stuff here. It's from a company called First Look. First Look.vc. First Look.vc. This is entirely caused by the fact that you and Mike keep having these like mystery boxes so someone else who ships out boxes send us a box okay and first look basically this is um supposed to be a box of like emerging brands for investors hence you know they got the like loot face emoji on the the box here now i feel i feel like you i understand what how you feel sometimes because i'm just like open the damn box already yeah well i haven't actually looked into it it colin cut it open but uh so i don't even know what's in here so oh okay i see some newish i mean we got a delightful reusable bag nice can't have enough of those yeah we got some newish yes the mother ball soup brand launched by sarah nathan pretty good stuff we got some grounded oh yeah yeah the uh uk-based protein drink brand yeah there's a couple flavors of that in there we got a kamana mesquite superfood coffee alternative okay i don't think i've had that one.

33:39Okay, this comes in a big pouch. It's already ground and a 10-ounce pouch here. No caffeine in there? No, it's described as a superfood coffee alternative made from the pods that grow on mesquite trees. When roasted, ground, and brewed, mesquite looks, tastes, and makes like coffee. This is a true alternative, it sounds like. Okay, very cool. Try it up. Oh, it says caffeine-free on it. I got some cuddle. I'm a fan of this stuff. I'll definitely take this home. Yes, cuddle. Launched by our dear friend Hugh Thomas Hugh Thomas based in the UK and what else we got in here Chubby's crumbs chubby's chocolate chip Buttercream cookies.

34:20Hmm. Is that a UK brand? They're not all UK brands. Okay, I don't think Too small to read the print I think that's it chubby's. Okay. Yeah, the cookie sandwiches. They look like soft. Yeah red velvet white chocolate buttercream oh my gosh my heart is watering yeah right this is the way stream here I also have this although there are like 10 ,000 ingredients in this thing but you know a lot of ingredients yeah but yeah pretty cool box I guess if you're like an investor or brand you can go to first look vc and submit your product or try to sign up to get a box I don't know exactly how it works or what it costs but nice-looking box love the barfing uh or not barfing the loot emoji guy i was thinking of the barfing money face i guess that's kind of barfing money so i wouldn't call it barfing as it went as it would he is like licking a dollar bill or something you know what i mean yeah i will say that out of all these products obviously we know newish grounded and cuddle chubby's looks interesting but the kamana k-a-m-a-n-a looks really interesting their fonts not the font of the logo but the font um everything else on the front of pack looks like that's um blank street coffee uh brand doesn't it you know yeah like athletic greens uh totally yes that athletic greens dark forest green color on the good stuff we'll see if we uh get another one of these boxes in the future who knows who knows who knows quick break if this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage explore bevnet and nosh insider our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team.

35:59Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. All right, let's get to our featured interview for this episode. As I mentioned at the top of the show, Christian Karim Khalil is the founder and CEO of Yaza, an emerging brand specializing in Lebanese style labna, a creamy dairy-based bread that has long been a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine. Launched in 2024, Yaza sets itself apart by emphasizing authenticity and health benefits, including high protein and probiotics. Now distributed nationally at Whole Foods, the brand has quickly captured attention with its unique flavors and commitment to quality.

36:40In this conversation, Christian shares how Yaza overcame early production challenges, why Whole Foods recognized the brand's potential, and how he is strategically evaluating potential collaborations to fuel further growth and expansion.

36:59Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am honored to be sitting down with Christian Khalil, the founder and CEO of Yaza. Christian, great to see you. Good to see you, too. Thank you for having me on the show. Yeah, it's been a minute, as you mentioned. I think the last time I saw you, was it at Expo West? Expo West. We've spoken a few times, but the last time we met was Expo West. Expo West 2024. It's January 2025. and Yaza has been on fire since that time. I think in June of last year, you guys went national at Whole Foods, right? That's correct. Yeah. Congratulations on that. How's it going?

37:31It's going really, really well. It was actually our best week last week since we started at Whole Foods. Things have been, you know, we've been growing really good and the feedback has been amazing. Yaza is a brand of Lubna. I love Lubna. I grew up on Lubna. I've been eating it for all 26 years that I've been alive. Don't laugh too hard, Christian. I think it's somewhat familiar to a lot of folks, but not necessarily fully understood. What is Lebanon? So Lebanon is what, like you said, it's what we grew up on. You know, I'm originally from Lebanon. Lebanon is what we have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.

38:05It's the first thing that any family has in their fridge. It's a Mediterranean dip. It's a dairy-based dip made of milk and salt. These are the two of the ingredients, milk, salt, and obviously the probiotics, the cultures that are added to it. And it's a little bit of a thicker consistency than yogurt. It's spreadable, not like a cream cheese. It's sort of in between a yogurt and cream cheese in terms of consistency. Yeah. So what I like to say, tell people and explain to people who don't know what labneh is, if Greek yogurt and cream cheese had a baby, that's labneh. There you go. And there's a tartness to it as well, which is really delicious.

38:36You started the company in 2022. Correct. And at the time, I think there was maybe one big brand, I think it was like a Cedars, that was marketing at Lebna and you couldn't necessarily get it everywhere. And now I feel like we're starting to see more and more products come to market, more brands come to market that are selling Lebna. Has there been a change in how Americans have seen the product, how they use it? I mean, what's going on here? So yeah, so I think Lebna is having a moment. It's been trending. The Washington Post had it for 2024 as a trending food item. Cottage cheese was 2023. You can imagine 2024 Lebna, how big that is for us.

39:14So the timing of launching Yaza, we did start the company in 2022, but we launched in the market last year properly. We've been in the market for a year, again a bit. And the momentum that we've gotten and the other brands have been following up, it's been really amazing because of people understanding what Lemne is. So yes, it's trendy, but I think it's here to stay. And it's not just one trend that's a short-term trend, but it's a longer-term trend. And I think we've seen that growth as we go. people are interested in the Mediterranean diet because it's healthy, it's good for you. You know, lebanae is high in protein, low fat, low calories, and it has a lot of probiotics.

39:51It's really the perfect additive to someone's diet. You know, I like to add it to everything I eat, whether it is, you know, rice and chicken or dinner. I always add a spoon or two spoons of lebanae to increase my protein intake, get some probiotics good for the gut health. I think Americans are into now. They start to understand what's good for them. The Mediterranean diet is really, really big and really growing. And I think it's 10 years running. It's been voted the best diet consecutive 10 years. And leaveney is part of that now. I think I consume most leaveney in the morning with breakfast.

40:25If I have some fried eggs and some toast and leaveney, it just feels like a natural combination. My mouth is watering because I'm thinking about how delicious it usually is. Do you have to educate a lot of people about use case, though? like what the best time of the day? I mean, again, you and I will eat it any time of the day, but when do people typically eat it? How do they use it? I would think like a hummus, right? Yeah, so the American consumer, the way we've launched Labneh, yes, like you said earlier, it's a spread, it's a dip. We kind of cook with it as well. It's a condiment. We marinate our food with it back home.

40:56It was hard to kind of introduce it to the consumer. So the way we focused on, we did some kind of market research and the best approach was using it as a dip. So we kind of compare it to hummus. And people are familiar using hummus, and they started using it more for lunch and dinner rather than breakfast. We back home have it for breakfast almost every day. And education-wise, we focus more on lunch and dinners. And then little by little, we've seen people being creative with lebne. So the New York Times came up with the lebne and za 'atar pasta recently, which we do it all the time. But it's nice to see New York Times coming up with that.

41:31Yeah, absolutely. I think there are people who are listening to this conversation and they're saying, Ray, did you skip over something? Because Christian just said the company started in 2022, but they actually launched in 2024. And Yaza also went national at Whole Foods in 2024. This is not necessarily common to go from launching a brand to being national at Whole Foods the same year. How did you do it? So we started the company in 2022. and just to kind of go back and kind of explain the process of lebanay. So lebanay back home, the way my grandma would make it, she would use a cheesecloth, start from the milk, heat it, masterize it, and then strain it.

42:12And the problem we've had in the market here, so back in Lebanon, the shelf life of the product is three weeks. That's the max you can get because it's exposed to bacteria as it's open air. The problem in the U.S. market, there's two types of lebanays. When we started, when Cedars and the other brands were starting, the Turkish Lebne, which is a bit similar to cream cheese and it's imported from Turkey. It's double cooked, so there's no probiotics. It's high in fat. It's a completely different product. So you have those types of Lebne and different brands like Olker, Icine, and now we have Bezi.

42:44And that's a different product. We don't like to be compared to Yaza or to Lebanese Lebne because it's a different product completely. And then you have the Cedars, you have the Koroons and the other brands, who, to be able to replicate the Lebanese Lebanese, one, for, I think, probably for cost savings, and two, because they just couldn't figure it out, they were blending milk powders with the milk to get the thickness of the Lebanese. Very inauthentic. Yes, it's cheaper to make, but that's kind of the advantage that Yaza has. Yaza was able, that's why it took us a year and a half to get that process done.

43:17We were able to replicate the Lebanese grandmother recipe using the American standard machines because you're not allowed to back strain it in the US and sell it. It's against the FDA regulations. So that's why we took a long time. And then when we were able to do it, we soft launched at the trade show, at one of the big trade shows. And Whole Foods came by and said, we love it. What's your capacity? Can you do it nationwide? And we said, yes. I went back to the team and I said, we're doing nationwide. They're like, we can't do it. I was like, we'll figure it out. We have to do it. And we went back, worked hard, started scaling, spent the first six months of 2024 just working on getting ready for Whole Foods.

43:59So Whole Foods said yes, and you said yes to Whole Foods. When was that? So we met them, we applied. The application deadline was August of 2023. At the time, we didn't even have product in the market. Right. In September, we started having in some stores in New York kind of testing velocities, proof of concept at the time. and the big launch was planned to be February, March of 2024. So they said officially yes in February. In February, we got the official yes. We had to be set up by May, and we launched end of June. Again, as you pointed out, difficult, and your team said you can't do it. You could have said no and said, well, we've got to wait because you might only have one shot at getting it right, being National Whole Foods.

44:42Let's say you did a production run and something went wrong and you weren't ready for that launch date. I mean, they're going to fill the shelf with something else. You might miss their chance. What gave you the confidence? And why did you feel like you needed to meet that deadline at that time? So one is because Lebanon was having a trend. We had to get it right. There's no no. You know, when you get such an opportunity, it's something, you know, people dream for. And that was my dream when I started Yaza. My dream was to be at Whole Foods. So I was not going to take no for an answer from the team.

45:12Did we mess up? Yes. we messed up four or five production runs ahead of the launch with Whole Foods. And we had to throw product away. We lost a lot of money on that. And that's part of the learning curve. It was a lot of work. I spent a lot of time in the plant in upstate New York to get it right. And we got it right the last chance production. So we delayed Whole Foods' first delivery by three, four days. Luckily, we had a holiday to kind of help us. And we kind of, you know, delayed it a few days. But we got it right. And the feedback has been amazing. The velocities are really, really good.

45:46Some stores were doing up to 140 units a week, average velocity, which is unheard for Lebanon. I've heard of brands that have closed their doors after one production run went wrong. You had four or five that went wrong. It's a lot of money because the coatbacker is not going to say, oh, well, we'll just make it again for you, no problem. You've got to show that out if I'm not mistaken, right? Yes, but with all honesty, all transparency, I think we were very lucky on many fronts. and one of the most important thing is the co-packer. And the co-packer has been really, really, really helpful. So he never said no.

46:20They never gave up. They had never done Lebanon before. You know, we had never done Lebanon before using that method. Any other co-packer would have kicked us out. They kept fighting till the end. And we are here now because of them. And we all, you know, at the end of the day, it's a partnership. Are they investors in your brand? They're not investors in the brand, no. So you just found an incredible partner. We just found an incredible partner. and we also had a few hiccups. You know, one of the founders of the co-packer passed away, which kind of delayed a few things as well. We've had issues.

46:50These things happen in the industry, but we're lucky to have them because they were about to give up a few times. We were about to give up a few times when things were going wrong. And we kind of sat together and we said, no, we have to make it work. And we did. I want to go back to Whole Foods one more time. You know, when they were thinking about bringing on a Lebanon brand nationally, they could have just gone to one of the big brands. a few of them that you mentioned and said, hey, can you just make a different, can you make a Lebanese style one? Or could you just increase the amount that you're selling us or just make more?

47:20I don't know, maybe I'm oversimplifying it. But why did you feel like they wanted to go to an early stage independent brand like yours? What made Yaza so attractive to them? So one, I think the fact that our plain Lebanon only has milk and salt, it's very authentic. No one else has that formula done. I think that was a big factor. The other factor is we were the first to launch flavored labneh. And I think that's what touches to the American consumers. Because, yes, we know what labneh is. We know what to do with it. We never eat labneh plain with a spoon. The American consumer does not know what labneh is.

47:52If you put labneh in front of them, plain labneh, they'll be like, is that yogurt? What do I do? Do I take a spoon and just eat it? Well, that's not the case. You should add different things. You can add olive oil, vegetables, za 'atar, garlic, you know, different spices. and the fact that we had flavors and Arzatar not only is our best seller, it's a trend for Whole Foods. So Whole Foods comes up with trends for 2025 or for every year in October of the previous year. And Arzatar was one of the top 10 trends for the year. Outstanding. I think about emerging brands these days and I think about a brand like Little Sesame.

48:25Little Sesame makes amazing - Amazing brand. Amazing hummus. It's a brand that speaks to the modern consumer and they've done some really good collaborations. The one that immediately comes to mind is the one they did with Flyby Jing. How do you evaluate potential collaborations? How do you think about working with other brands? So we have done a lot of, you know, worked with other different brands, other brands on a few different things, social media. But as we speak, and I can't really mention the name of the brand because I don't have their approval yet. We've had, I don't want to call it partnership because it's not an official partnership, but we're working very closely with another brand, another emerging brand in the space that I met through you guys at the MENA event.

49:05Hey, how's it going? At the MENA event at Expo Est last year. And thanks for that event. And shout out to Bella for kind of inviting us and including us there. And we are working on something, you know, a few different things that I think would be really big that will help, like you say, grow both brands together. We complement each other. We're both from the region. And both items complement each other. And I think that will be a really good partnership. or you can call it whatever you want to call it. But I think that's really important because when you go to a buyer, yes, Labneh is good, but what goes with Labneh?

49:38They don't know. They don't know what the consumer wants. So we're actually working on different presentations for different buyers where we pitch both brands together. Very cool. Very excited to see what you're coming out with. And what Christian was referring to was Mina CPG, which is a community of founders who either are from the Middle East or North Africa or are descendants of people from that region of the world. And it's a really great group. Mina CPG has a Slack channel that a lot of people are a part of as well. So if you're listening and interested in participating, either reach out or Google Mina CPG and you'll find out how to get involved.

50:13Last thing, Christian, you know, how do you keep up the momentum that you've had? And what you're hearing, folks, if you're hearing the background right now, is the NSD pre-party going on. But I think what I want to hear from Christian right now is you got through your first year. You're out there more than I think a lot of other brands could hope to be at this point. How do you keep that momentum going? So just a few things. We launched the three SKUs, the plain, the Zatar. Both of them are Whole Foods. But we also had the spicy chili. And then we've launched a new flavor, roasted garlic and mint.

50:47That's doing really well. And that's getting a really high success, not only because it's very authentic, but also because American consumers know what garlic and they know what mint is. So it kind of makes it easier to market it to them. And garlic or tomb is having a moment. So that really, really helps as well. So we have that. We've launched the snack pack, the Yazza on the go line, which is a way to educate consumer. For us, it's more tackling different channels, making sure we can diversify our channels, but also getting younger consumer in at an early stage because eventually these were become, these were by big tubs.

51:20They will initially buy the snack pack, then they'll buy big tubs. And we're launching with a big club very soon. So that's really exciting. Club retailer. Club retailer very soon. Very exciting. And then to keep the momentum going, as you said, you can't stop, right? Because things are going really well. We're growing the team as we go. We are looking at different product lines, which we will have in the market by the end of the year. So much going on. I love it. And I am so excited for everything that Yaz is doing. I'm so excited for you because it feels like you're living your dream. You did it, so to speak.

51:54I mean, you had this idea. You went through a lot of trial and error. There were a lot of times where it seemed like it wasn't going to make it, and it did. And here you are sitting next to me now. It's amazing. Right. So when I moved here, for people who don't know, I moved to the U.S. I came from Lebanon. It was a big explosion. I left. I came from an American dream. It was in the midst of COVID, so I couldn't really meet anyone or start anything. I spent two years kind of deciding what I wanted to do, understanding the market, learning the market. But then from 2022 onwards, I've spent days and nights in Whole Foods stores, talking to consumers, watching consumer behavior on that aisle in the grocery store.

52:32I've spent sleepless nights trying to understand what people want and how to portray it to them. It's not, yes, we've been successful. I think we've just started, but it's been a lot of work. And I've been really lucky to have built a really good team around me. because you can't do anything on your own. So yes, I'm the founder. People see me, but nothing would have happened without the people around me. It's the passion and the vision that's coming from you. It's those sleepless nights. It's going to Whole Foods, talking to people, doing the legwork, doing the hard work that comes with creating a successful brand.

53:03Exactly. Yeah. Christian, thank you so much for taking the time. I'm just so elated for you and for Yazza. And I can't wait to see what's next. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ray.

53:17That 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 Smirlinski. 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

54:14Thank you.