Innovation Aplenty At A 'Faire.' An Indication For 2026?

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0:39Hello, 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 here with my co-hosts, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. We are here in San Diego for the Winter Fancy Fair, and I, for one, am a very happy man. John, how you feel? Great, right now that we're sitting down. Yes. Indeed. Yeah, we've been walking the show floor for two days now, seeing some pretty awesome brands and eating a lot of really cool snacks, drinking some good bevs. We have a bunch on the table here, but before we get started, I want to note that this is the coolest trade show we've ever been to because it's a booth that we're setting.

1:24It's our booth at a trade show. Yeah, this is our little footprint. It's been awesome to have people over, chat with them, do elevator talk, do meet and greet. Yes. Yeah. I think people are not only happy to see us, but some people who don't know about BevNet CPG Media are like, what's BevNet CPG Media? And then we're like, it's BevNet, it's Nosh, it's BrewBound, it's Taste Radio, it's Elevator Talk. It's all these really cool things. Yeah. Speaking of Elevator Talk, it's been awesome to see Jackie and the team filming really short, well, relatively short Instagram and TikTok videos, highlighting some of the brands and founders that are here.

1:57What's it, like 20, 25 or so? Yeah. Yeah. We've done a lot. It's been great. They've been coming up. They've been wanting to share their story. keep telling them. It's all about the reps. You want to get your experience. You want to practice. And it's not live. So they had multiple attempts. Yeah, you should see Jackie coaching them. There's practice sessions that are happening before she's like, get the reps. Come on, get the reps. You got this. Go again. Go again. One more time. Drop it. Give me 50. You only get one chance to make a good first impression with an investor. So you might as well get those reps out of the way here.

2:25Yeah, exactly. I think everyone will want to watch these videos and you can do so by following us on TheGram or TheTalk. Nobody calls it the talk, do they? You do. I just invented a new thing. The talk. Anyway. It's the tic-tac. It's the tic-tac. Yeah. So probably like one a day over the next month. We're just going to be pretty great. Yeah, we have a lot. By the time we're done, it's going to be Expo West. Ready to find the social media strategy, by the way. You on Expo West? Me? Yeah, you. Going straight there now. It's got to get there early, right? Head straight to Anaheim. It seems like we've been in Southern California, at least the East Coast folks, a lot.

2:58Like, we're here less than a month from our L.A. events. It's amazing what airplanes can do, right? Yes. Yeah. So I can't go any further without talking about Salty. Yeah. So S-O-L-T-I, everyone knows this brand. They make wellness shots. They make wellness drinks. They've been giving out tons and tons of shots to everyone here. Thank goodness. At the Winter Fancy Fair. And I swear, I just can't get enough of these things. Like, their turmeric shot is so delicious. and I've been just crushing them left and right. And so Sean from their team came over with four of their ginger super shots. Yeah.

3:36I'm going to share one with everyone. My stomach needs that right now. This is a BevNet approved level of ginger. Yes, it is very much so. Yeah, they had some new shots too, like a mental clarity shot. I think it was super boost and a couple others. So lots of additional innovation. Yeah, the raspberry. The thing is with this, you know, sometimes ginger shots can really just ruin you. Sometimes it's good to be ruined, you know, because you really want to get that feeling of wellness. But these are really palatable. And I can see why, you know, Starbucks wanted these kinds of products in their stores because they don't taste overwhelming, especially if you're expecting like a ginger shot, but you just don't want to be overwhelmed by it.

4:18Yeah, slapped in the face. Yeah, exactly. Or have your throat burned. Yeah. I like the throat burn. Come on. I like it too. There's a little bit of a burn. There is a place where there's too much. You can get like actually have your throat burned by ginger. Absolutely. So in one of the sections of the show that, you know, we were perusing quite a bit was the Startup CPG section. And a lot of really cool, interesting brands that are early stage. And one of those brands is Paro. P-A-R-O. Now, Mike, you've been a fan of this brand for a long time. I have been. What did they originally sell? It was like the candy-coated anise seeds, right?

4:58Well, no, they had a ghee-based chili crisp kind of thing that they were selling, and their kitchery products, which is also like a rice dish, which they still have that. And now they have some new innovations. So relatively esoteric products. This new line feels like it's a little bit more mainstream. It feels like a lot of people are going to be snacking on these. These are lentil crisps, what they call lentil crisps. And we have, I think, three varieties. The one I'm holding in my hand is their jalapeno mint variety. It's made with avocado oil, made with real lentils, 12 grams of protein per bag.

5:33Each bag is four ounces. I wrote this on Instagram. This was one of the best things I ate at the show. Did you get to try these, John? I did. I really did. I like the whole stuff. It's phenomenal. The call-outs on the bag are good. Do you need some hand sanitizer, Jackie? Yes. You haven't tried it yet? Did you reseal this? You haven't tried it yet? Oh, crone. No. Really? Oh, you've been in the booth. Where did my hand sanitizer go? It's gone. It's weird when you haven't been to try something before me. Hold on. I'll save you, Jackie. Ooh. Aren't they good? I'm good. Yeah. Yeah, those are phenomenal.

6:04Super good. Oh, you poured it out. There's a barbecue skew as well. Oh, I love the mint. Yeah, the mint comes kind of late, and it's a nice little finish for the crisp. Yeah. Yeah, nice and light. These are really good. And I guess I disagree with Ray. The Kitchery product, it's pretty easy to understand once you see that it's rice and it's super tasty. This is just another great skew in the Paro family, even though they did go away from their ghee because that was difficult for people to understand. Yeah, I mean, these are definitely like higher velocity products. For sure. Just different categories.

6:36For sure. I think it just speaks to the evolution of some of these brands and that they're going into higher volume categories with adjacent products, right? or category-adjacent products. So crisps, chips, I would definitely reach for these as much as I would a tortilla chip. Probably even a potato chip. They're really, really good. We paired these with, well, there's a collaboration happening right now with Mazah, a Mediterranean brand that's, you know, everybody knows Mazah at this point, I think, who listens to Taste Radio. Phenomenal dips and sauces and people. Most importantly, the people.

7:10They sell people, too? Well, no, no, no. I'm talking about Sheila and Yasmeen and their mom. Mothos native people. No. This is not Pluribus Ray. All right. Anyway, so we've seen Paro there, and we took Paro to try with Masala Bliss, which is a line of Achar products, which are phenomenal. And Nadia is here, too, teaching people about Achar. I mean, I think the important thing to know about Paro is it goes with anything, or you can eat it on its own. It's just great. Absolutely. And not too far from the Paro booth was the Pulpito booth. Oh, my God. And Pulpito is a maker of fruit jerkies. And we have been fans for a long time.

7:53Mike hoarded all the Pulpito for a long time. I will continue to hoard that for life. But they introduced, I don't know why I'm reaching around, Mike, because Jackie and Mike have one of these. They have new fruit, I want to call them jerky bars almost. Like imagine like a meat stick. Fruit snack bars. Yeah, like a strip. If you know Soli, the brand Soli. These are shorter Soli. They're shorter Solis. So the mango one that I have in my hand is half a mango, which is really, really cool. Incredibly delicious. And I'm so excited that they've gotten these single serves. I think they're coming in boxes of 10, though.

8:23They come in boxes of 10. We had a conversation about, like, what they should do next. And they've got, like, they've got some other innovations, too, like a puree that's really tasty. But he's just been talking about form factor, which I think is really key here. because something like this, you know, you sell it in a big box, it's accessible at a certain level. And then how do you make that even more accessible or how do you get it into the hands of people who want to try it without buying the whole box? Well, this is the answer. And then you can think of things like shapes to make it more sort of kid-friendly.

8:56And there's nothing not kid-friendly about this right now. I mean, I got to say, like, in terms of the ingredients. Yeah, cartoons. Cartoons and just, well, the cartoons are a little bit like aspiration. for some kids, but that's a good thing. Remember back in the day when they'd have toys for 6 - and 8-year-olds, and there's 12-year-olds playing with them in the commercials because you want to aspire. Regardless of age, I think it's a format that kind of tells you how much to consume. So I think it makes it a little more approachable. Which I never listen to the amount you're supposed to consume because I just eat it all.

9:28Well, I think the other thing that I like about this is that parents are paying a little bit more attention to some of the fillers, the preservatives, the colors that are in snacks that their kids are eating. And Pulpito's fruit jerky, fruit strips, contain no gelatin. They contain no preservatives, color, or flavors. What you're getting is what you see on the front, half a mango per bar, which is awesome. Speaking of parents, Adnan, one of the co-founders, his parents are at the booth. Got to meet them, too. And it's really cool to meet his family. It was just kind of weird when you were like, oh, you're Adnan's mom and dad.

10:00He's a chill fucking dude. Yeah. I don't know if that was the comment. They're like, wow, such a compliment. Interesting way to go. Yeah, yeah. So anyway. What I said to them was, your son's perfect except for his choice of football clubs. Oh, here we go. Now you would say he's perfect in every way. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Yes. Kick United in the, I was going to curse again. I'm not going to do it. I already cursed once. Did you guys play in the FA Cup? One curse per episode. Did you play? Yeah, we didn't. All right. Jackie's got a bedroom in front of her. I can't see. What is that?

10:31This is Morrow. No. And they stopped by the booth and did an elevator talk. And it is sparkling bone broth. Stop. And this is blackberry lime. It's in a 12-ounce slim can. It is. It is. It's actually kind of tasty. I haven't tried it because I don't consume bone broth. But I know Craven, Mike have tried it. What do you think? It tastes like a fruit drink with a little bit of soup in it. Yeah. I don't know how else to describe it. So is it like a little salty? Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it's got a beefy flavor to it. A little beefy flavor. It's a little red. Blackery lime plus beef. It doesn't suck, though.

11:05Okay. You might go, oh, my God. Have you ever had a bone broth latte? No. Did you drink out of this? Because I don't know where you are sometimes. Sometimes you'll just dabble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a bone broth latte is kind of weird. You know, you're pouring milk into, like, beef soup. Yeah. And you're like, but you also think of it as a cream-finished soup. So you're getting, like, an umami kind of experience? Yeah, you get a little umami in there, but you're also getting fruit. What did Ray think? Right? It kind of looks like, well, first of all, the front of the pack, you've got this whole liquid death kind of thing going on.

11:38Yeah, there's a skull. There's a skull with a bandana. It's like a groovy liquid death. Yes. I don't know what maro means. I guess this rhymes with. Like marrow? Marrow. Oh, marrow. Marrow. Now I get M-A-R-R-O with a line over the O. You got it, Ray. It's described as a revitalizing protein refresher. I think they should just kill the statement of identity. Don't call it a sparkling bone broth in the front. Just call it a protein refresher because you're not going to get a lot of – you're going to get a lot of weird glances and probably some people just writing it off right then and there. But you know what?

12:12It doesn't – to me, it doesn't taste that – I don't taste the bone broth. You'll get it in the finish if you drink enough. Like every other sip is fruity, and then you'll get, oh, okay, there it is. Yeah. And it does say 70 calories, workout recovery, supports healthy skin, hair, and nails. So lots of great benefits. 12 grams of protein and electrolytes and B12 and stuff. Zero grams of sugar. What's the sweetener in here? Stevia. Wow, that's actually pretty good. I don't really taste much of the stevia. Yeah, it's pretty tasty. Yeah, good job. It's an interesting idea. I don't know. Again, it's one of those things that it's going to take a bunch of education, but I think the benefits are there, so maybe they got a shot.

12:48Yeah, and the fact that it tastes good, I think that they can definitely work on the messaging. Yeah. It tastes mostly good. Yeah.

12:56One brand that I saw that I was not familiar with is a brand called Buy Nuts. B-Y-N-U-T-Z. No nuts jokes, Mike. Try not to. It comes in these pouches with a closure. It's like the squeeze closure, yeah. It's a squeeze pack with a... Sometimes sauces come in that kind of package. Exactly. You see some applesauce. Yeah. It's like a twist closure on the left-hand side here. Send us a DM on Instagram if you know what that's called. Yes. So it's 3.5 ounces of peanut butter in this pack, 25 grams per pack. Get in my belly. 25 grams of what? Of protein? Of protein, yeah. And I love, yeah, thanks for pointing that out.

13:33I love the fact that these kinds of squeeze packs will keep me from ever having to use a butter knife again to get the inside. Scrape it, the scraping sound. If you're scraping, hopefully it's glass. Right. Use a rubber spatula at that point. No. Even the rubber spatula is not going to work. And you know how hard it is to clean peanut butter jars? Yeah, the nooks and crannies. Exactly. You spend at least seven gallons of water just trying to clean your peanut butter jar. What is even going on right now? Anyway. No, I just feel like this is innovative packaging. We always talk about packaging format and how you can differentiate yourself from other brands.

14:10And this is a really good way of doing it. I'm picturing Ray cleaning the outside of the peanut butter jar before you'll even open it. No, I would never do that. So anyway, good on you. Buy nuts. That is cool looking packaging. Yeah. That is cool. And the peanut butter, the peanut is cute. Yeah. Ryan Galang, who's our video editor, introduced us to this really interesting brand. It's called Yeri. Y-E-R-I. And they're a maker of Indian coffees. You describe it as Indian coffees. This one is a spiced oat latte. It has ginger, cardamom, black pepper, chicory, and other spices. Other spices? Other spices, yeah.

14:45Yeah. That one tastes a bit like chai in coffee form. So on the back or on the side, it says gut health in your coffee and describes it as South India's traditional recipe to beat the bloat. Oh, OK. And notice none of that's on front of Pat because he doesn't need any of that. Like the coffee's awesome. Tastes really good. Do you get bloated when you have coffee? Oh, a latte you can get a little milk bloat. Great podcast topic. I don't know. Well, this is important. Dairy bloats on people. They're talking about reducing bloat. Yeah, they also have this one, which is a coffee shandy. So it's lemonade and black coffee.

15:21So interesting to see the citrus. Delicious. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's one of those things we've seen tried a few times. I was telling them that it's not my thing, but it tastes really good. Yeah, I love the branding on the package too. It looks a little bit like Dew Drop or formerly known as Honey Drop in some ways. I think there's some things they can improve with the label hierarchy, but overall it's good. And also the beans, the package for the Yeri beans, spot on. And it's got this really cool picture of a woman pouring coffee over her head like she's doing a skyhook shot, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

15:57It's really sweet. That's a brand that has some legs. Yeah, yeah. So I came across a brand called Rabbit Foods. They're a maker of frozen smoothie pops. Probably not the first brand. I think we've had similar products that we've seen on the market, but they're really, really delicious. The one I have is their Mango Passion, and the smoothie pops look like little bunnies. Yeah, it's so cute. It's cute, little rabbits. I bet you those have melted in the time it took for us to wait for you to start recording. No, there's nothing in here. I think there's like a shake weight or something like that.

16:30But, yeah, they come in three packs. Cool-looking box. Each pop has 100 calories and 11 grams of sugar per pop. I'm just joking, Ray. I mean, there's a line of people out the door to meet Ray, so we had to wait. Oh, for crying out loud. They are USC organic. They're plant-based, no refined sugar, and they have prebiotic fiber. But most importantly, they taste amazing. They're really, really delicious. And, I mean, I like the use case. Like, if you want just, like, a snack in the afternoon on a hot day, but you don't want it to be, like, a disgusting saccharine popsicle. Yum. Yeah, I love the name.

17:02Yum. The name's fun, rabbit food. You're thinking, like, greens. You're thinking, like, greens. You're thinking vegetables. You're thinking fruits. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Back to nuts for a second. Sure. And the founders of Octanuts came over and showed us their new innovation. They used to, if you'll recall, they used to have nut oils for cooking and protein powder. And now they've leaned into nut butters and snacks. Packaging looks really great. And I haven't gotten a chance to try it, but I'm going to stop by the booth and try. Yeah. Really excited about that. They're so nice. They're very, very sweet.

17:34Also got to meet the founder of True Cinnamon. We talked about True Cinnamon when we were in L.A. at BevNet Live. This is an 8-ounce glass bottle that contains water that's infused with cinnamon. That's so good. I just learned today, I did an interview with the co-founder of Burlop and Barrel, which is a maker of single-origin spices. Really amazing brand. I love that conversation. Stay tuned for that one. I didn't know cinnamon comes from tree bark. Did you know this? Yes. Cinnamon bark. I've seen cinnamon, like, sticks. You knew this? Where did you think it came from? I thought this was sort of a known fact.

18:11I don't know. Where do you think it came from? Duck feathers. Ray thought of some duck feathers, guys. Like roots? Like, I don't know. Cinnamon fruits. Yeah. Yes. But one of the things I also didn't know is how delicious cinnamon is in a beverage. I mean, you have cinnamon, like, in a latte or in a coffee product. But on its own, this is a very refreshing beverage that, you know how sometimes real versus efficacious benefits? I feel like you can actually feel this doing good when you drink it. It's like cleansing you or something. Do you want to try it? Yeah, I would try it. You know, the other thing about that that I would not have thought to do was combine cinnamon and lemon.

18:51Cinnamon and lemon is an epic, epic combination, I find out. Just a scoach. Just a scoach? There's another sample cup. I'd take some, too. Oh, that's more than a scoach. Sorry. I crushed John with more than a scoach there. Thank you. And I'll get one for my cup. It's all good. Yeah. Yeah. So Ali Alfaraj is the founder of this company. And yeah, he created it after he was burned out of his corporate job. And he's like, I need something that's going to make me feel better on a regular basis. And yeah, I love, I love the taste of this product. I feel like I haven't had cinnamon when it's not sweet.

19:26You know, like cinnamon's always in like sweet treats. It's really nice and refreshing. I feel rich. I feel like I should have my pinky out. You should get your pinky. Put your pinky away. It's an experience that I wouldn't think of having and it feels like something that's been hidden. Well, the other thing is it's refreshing. It is. You want to drink more. Exactly. You think it's going to be heavy or kind of cloying in some ways because it's cinnamon, right? You associate it with sweets. But it's really delicious and really easy to drink.

20:00Now, we did have a bag of bitchin' sauce. No, bitchin' sauce, chips. Come on now. You were interrupting my... Oh, he stole the thunder! He stole my thunder! He stole my thunder! So, yes, I was going to say, how could you have a bag of bitchin' sauce? Well, you can't, because bitchin' sauce introduced a new line of tortilla chips that are made with almond oil. There's no bitchin' sauce in the chip. There's no bitchin' sauce in the chip. Tortilla chips made in almond oil. Yes. I had an opportunity to sit down with Star Edwards at the Naturally San Diego event last night. Shout out to Naturally San Diego for putting on the best party.

20:36Yeah. That was fun. At the Winter Fancy Fair and inviting us to do some interviews while we were there, which is awesome. Three words. Filet, mignon, tacos. Filet, mignon, tacos. Yes, they had them at the party. You didn't eat them last night? Oh, for crying out loud. No, I didn't have any food. No, Ray was busy working. We talked about this last week. There was going to be unlimited margaritas and unlimited tacos. Well, I had more of the former than the latter. I got to catch up with our dear friend James Wren, formerly with Thrive. We ate filet mignon tacos and trolled Manchester United. It was awesome.

21:11That's your story? You done? It's a good story. Cool story, bro. I'm glad you shared that with everyone. Yeah, we're going to cut that out.

21:20No, I had an opportunity to sit down with Star Edwards, who is one of the co-founders of Bitchin' Sauce. and just a brilliant entrepreneur who comes to work with such a great attitude and such a passion for this business, that of food and beverage. And one of the best things that she said during the interview in terms of pieces of advice for entrepreneurs was don't be afraid, right? This is a scary business for sure. But I think what she was talking about is like, you know you're going to face big problems. You know you're going to face challenges. is just face them with positivity and face them with the reality that you know you're going to get past them, or at least you have to try to get past them.

21:59So the entire interview is going to be featured in a future episode of Taste Radio, so stay tuned for that. I also had an opportunity to sit down with Ari Raz, the CEO of the Coconut Cult. Nice. Chilled dude. And the chairman, or is he the chair of the board for Naturally San Diego? Right, the board chair? I think so. I believe he is, yes. So very, very chilled. You talked about the new Coconut Cult mini cups that are at Target. Those are great. So good. Awesome stuff. Those are so good. Yeah. I also want to point out that I've eaten three Pulpito bars, and Viviana's breaking out the phone each time I eat one.