Is The U.K. Ahead Of The Curve On F&B Trends?

0:10Hello friends 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 with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. You know it's my intro voice when everyone sits up in attention. I say, hello, friends, and I just saw Jackie and, yes, John kind of straightened their backs out a little bit. You say, hello, friends, I start looking around and go, where? I was waiting for a British accent. I was going to say, I thought we were getting big of a guy.

0:44I, you know what, would lose a lot of British listeners, English listeners. I can hear right. Hello, hello. No, I was thinking about it and then I decided not to do that. We are in London. As discussed, as talked about the last few episodes, we finally made it here to the UK and couldn't have had a better first three days in this country, in this city. It's been really exciting. Jackie and I were in the cab over here. I should know that we are in the offices of Trip in Notting Hill. And on the cab ride over, Jackie. Beautiful offices of Trip. It's gorgeous. Yeah. The first couple of days we were here feel like two weeks.

1:21Yeah. It feels like a marathon. We're like, it's only Wednesday. It feels like it's been a week and a half. Day one felt like 96 hours. Totally. Jackie, what day is it? I kept asking Jackie, Jackie, what day is it? What day is it? Yeah, I had to keep checking my phone. I have no idea. I mean, it's hard to believe I landed at 7 a.m. on Monday, and then it's 3.40 p.m. here recording London time. And I'm just like, no. I landed like three, four weeks ago at least because it's so much packed in. Well, you went right into it. You landed, and then you were on the road. We were hitting markets. We were.

1:53We were. I tried to sleep for like a half an hour, and Jackie was just like, get up. Get up, you lazy bum. We have things to do. And things we did. Jackie's a bit of a Sherpa. Yeah. Got to keep you online. Well, it was great because you mapped out a bunch of places that we had to stop by and visit. And, of course, the first one was Sainsbury's. Is it Sainsbury's or Sainsbury's? I don't know. Yeah, is it Sainsbury's? No, Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's. I hate when people – this is a pet peeve of mine. Is there an Apostle Fiesta fan? I don't even know. When people put a possessive on things that don't need a possessive.

2:27Like if someone's saying, like, I don't know, I'm going to Burger King's. Yeah. Ooh, I'm cringing right now. It makes me so mad. Yeah. Anyway, we went to Sainsbury or Sainsbury's, one of the two. Interesting. I mean, I feel like... I hate when that happens, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it anyway. Sainsbury's. Yeah. I feel like what we saw at that retailer was very British. I feel like it was a very different kind of grocery store than the ones we typically see in the United States. A lot of products, almost, I'd say 99 % of the products there are ones that I haven't seen before.

3:00Some brands, but yeah. But like products... Do you know the difference between British and English at this point? What's this? Never mind. All right. Do you have anything to add about Sainsbury's? Yeah, I would say it's like a conventional grocery store, but they were all UK brands. Like I feel like if you go into a US convenience store, they might not all be US brands. And it was very British. Even the plant-based food was very British. It was like aged cheddar cheese, but it was plant-based. I like to go to Sainsbury's for all the standard candy to go get, you know, or Tesco for all the standard candy to go get something Cadbury, something Toro, a Kit Kat.

3:37Wasn't that Kit Kat next level? It was unreal. I will say the streets here are better because they don't have all the garbage that they put in the United States. This supports your argument though, Ray, that U.S. stuff is so processed, has so many additives and fillers and disgusting. It's like, sure, a Kit Kat on the streets of L.A. would melt in a second, a U.K. Kit Kat, but it tastes so much better. I'd just be licking my hand. My teeth don't hurt after I eat that kind of food for some reason. Because I don't know what it is. I'm telling you, the chemicals, they're ruining our mouths. I'm sitting here listening to you guys talk about this.

4:16Rolling my eyes. I mean, there is processed food here, obviously. It's just made with better ingredients. I was actually struck by a brand I saw at Sainsbury's called Korn. Q-U-O-R-N. It's been around for a while. And yeah, this is the first time I'm seeing it. There's someone in the U.S., you know that. Do they really? This is a big brand in the U.S. Well, I've never seen picnic eggs, plant-based picnic eggs. Oh, really? Yeah. And so picnic eggs are apparently eggs or hard-boiled eggs that are covered in fried sausage. Is that right? Yeah. Do you think I use this stuff? It's like a Scottish egg, right?

4:50Is it like a Scotch egg? I don't know. Yeah, a Scotch egg. So this is like a British thing. Yeah. So, you know, I saw a few of these things out there. I saw there was a plant-based fish sticks brand as well. I thought to tag Jackie on that because I know you were, at least when you were a kid, you used to indulge in the fish sticks. And now that you, you know, partake in a lot of plant-based stuff, it might be talking to you. But then I was thinking, fishless fish sticks. I don't know. I can't say that that's something. I mean, don't you like sushi? Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?

5:20Don't you eat a little imitation crab? Yeah, like California rolls? No, no, no, no. I don't eat California rolls. No, don't do that stuff. No, that's disgusting. Yeah. Jackie was tempted by the dark side, though, the other day. at, we stopped by St. John. Might have sampled some meats. Yes. What is St. John? It's a very fancy restaurant that is, what is it? It's nose to tail eating. Yeah. It's Fergus Henderson's restaurant and it is magic. And I tried Oxheart, which was actually pretty tasty. So if I'm going to eat meat, you know, I'm going to go all in. Just picture you eating a raw Oxheart. You should have seen.

5:55That's what I imagined. It was just like a still pumping, bleeding heart. She thought it was going to be like Temple of Doom where I just reached into the cow and pulled out how Jackie eat this. Bad for anyone that might be eating lunch or something when they listen to this. No, it's kind of like a little steak. Yeah, it's steak. Well, the question is, did you get sick afterwards? I think, no? I would have thought that eating meat for the first time in like, what was it, seven years? Yeah, I haven't eaten meat in a very long time. Many, many years. And I don't know, anything I eat in Europe or not in the U.S.

6:25for some reason, I'm like, fine. I eat bread. I drink milk. Yeah. You know, I think, again, you know, it's not processed, as processed, and it's better quality. So your body just sucks it up rather than rejects it. Maybe it has something to do with all those juice shots we're drinking. We're drinking a lot of Moju juice shots. Rich Goldsmith. Rich Goldsmith. Very kind fellow who is the founder of the company. He was actually speaking at the Cheers the Drink Summit event that we went to on Tuesday. And he gave a great presentation. I was really surprised and excited to see their flasks, their flasks of turmeric shots, which they seem to have in a lot of stores around here.

7:04They were in Sainsbury's. They were in Whole Foods. I actually didn't buy one of these, but I think I'm going to buy one for the way home. Yeah. We all bought the little shots. The mango one was incredible. Yeah, it was really, really tasty. Side note, he said that a lot of people are stealing those from retailers thinking they're alcohol. The shoe shots? Or the flasks. Oh, the flasks. Oh, the flasks. You know, I think I saw, wasn't there... There were stickers on it for security things. Yeah, security stickers on them. Okay, that makes sense. Just beginning the path of sobriety for so many people.

7:33Yeah. I also drank a blue drink. So listeners might be surprised to hear that. Yes, Innocent Drinks, which is a maker of cold press juice. They make a bolt from the blue product. This one has guava, lime, apple, coconut water, blue spirulina, and vitamins. Yum. It's quite good. Quite good. At Whole Foods, Whole Foods was our next stop after Sainsbury's. Actually, I take that back. It was a place called Club Soda. Club Soda is a tasting room and shop for mindful drinking, i.e. non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits. Founded by a woman called Laura Willoughby. We tried to reach out to her to get her to come to the events.

8:11She's in Berlin, unfortunately, right now. But hopefully we'll get a chance to hook up with her at some point. I mean, what a place. Well, the best part about that place is that they had a bar in the back. Yeah. I mean, it was a place and they had a couple of tables in the front too. For tasting. Yeah. If you wanted to just hang out and crack open a can or a bottle, you know, they had that available. And I think, you know, there was a slight upcharge if you wanted to like consume it on premise. It says try before you buy outside. Yeah. But I love the fact that, you know, it was a social, it was a place for social gathering, if that's the term.

8:44And as well as one where you could go and shop. I think like that is the kind of thing that might be missing from the U.S.-based non-alc stores. Before we came here, I stopped for a quick decompress and I got something from Ish. What is Ish? Ish is a Danish maker of non-alc cocktails. And we had the Paloma and John and I both had the Spritz. And the Paloma just blew me away. The smoke, the taste. It's so close to having an alcohol burn. It was pretty scary. and no impact, no alcohol. And then I also had the spritz, which was phenomenal. Now, a product that I saw at Whole Foods, they may have already had this also at Club Soda, was a brand called The Root Co.

9:31And they had this ginger kick in a can. It describes it as a cold-pressed from East African ginger drink. And it is just striking. I feel like this was a theme across the board. among a lot of the products that I picked up and saw is that they had this beautiful, current, trendy package design, but also in a very British way. It's kind of weird. I don't feel like I would see this type of package design in the United States or this label design. The can feels a bit like sandpaper. A lot of the cans here, these small sort of squatter cans, they all have that texture of like sandpaper. I'm not sure.

10:11They must be all canning at the same place. A lot of the ready-to-drink cocktails are in the same way. Yeah, there was even a line of canned cocktails called Vacay, and it's this British soldier sitting in an inflatable tube. And it's just fun and playful. A lot of the branding that we're seeing is very modern, but also very fun. And there's a sense of humor there. Totally. It's that British irony. I was actually struck by, there's not a lot of them, but the magnesium waters that I saw at Whole Foods. Now, magnesium, obviously a hot trend or at least a in-demand ingredient in the United States, but typically I'm seeing it in supplement form or powder form.

10:55But there were two ready-to-drink offerings that I saw at Whole Foods. One is called OHMG. It's a sparkling magnesium water. Speaking of humor, OMG. I love that one. The other one is for a brand called Better You, and it just describes it as magnesium water, and this was an energy variety that I took a photo of. And then, of course, Trip. You know, Trip Markets, products made with Better For You and botanical ingredients and adaptogens. The one I have in my hand right now is their Mindful blend made with magnesium, ashwagandha, and lion's mane. This one is a blood orange and rosemary flavor. It's delicious.

11:33I'm kind of curious why we haven't seen magnesium water RTDs in the United States and they already have them here. We have? Have we? There's a couple. We know one company that's going to do it. We won't say it yet. But anyway, I mean, I thought it was pretty interesting to see that because, again, you know, us crazy, stupid, and bullheaded Americans think that we start everything. We lead all the trends here. No, the non-alc trend is certainly led by the UK. The non-alc stuff here is a little bit ahead of what we have now. We're catching up. Yeah. There's a lot of great offerings now between Little Saints and Bombas and Ghia and De Soie or De Soie or however you like to say that.

12:16De Soie. De Soie. Well, the bottled water market is also quite different outside the U.S. in terms of like mineral content. And, you know, consumers are a little more maybe accepting and wanting that type of stuff than what you see in the U.S. too. So that could be part of it. Yeah. I mean, I stopped in Prague on the way over here and they had magnesium waters too and they led with it, which was interesting. It's like mineral water. And because you expect mineral water, let's just add some magnesium and add that functionality. Whereas I feel like magnesium might be just like a ingredient in some of the beverages in the United States, but not like the main front and center ingredient.

12:53Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see that in the United States where we, there are brands that lead with magnesium. Is that the best marketing strategy? Is that the best brand strategy? Probably not. But yeah, I was, I was a little surprised to see that. Also, seeing a lot of soups as beverages. Back in the day when Tio Gazpacho caught everyone's interest. Kettle and fire. I think we kind of stopped. There's not many of these. There's not many of these drinkable or bottled soups in the U.S. market, at least not ones that I've seen. This one that I saw at Whole Foods was ReNourish, the brand called Re colon Nourish.

13:30This is their digest variety that I'm looking at on my phone. It's like carrot ginger. And they have a roasted carrot ginger variety. It looked really, really good. They had a mushroom one too. I mean, that might also be a British thing. Like it gets cold and gloomy and there's a lot of hearty soups and things that people are eating. So maybe they're more likely to, you know, pull a bottled soup off the shelf than like someone in the United States. Yeah, that's a good point too. Before the Cheers event, I stopped by a specialty food store called the Passage Pantry. If you have an opportunity to go over.

13:59What neighborhood is that? Where were we yesterday? at the London Design Center. We'll just call it the London, baby. Or it's North London. Okay, North London. Yeah, you can say it's Angel. Angel? Okay, Angel or North London. Either way, that's where we were. This place was awesome. This place had a ton of products and ready-to-drink cocktails in particular that I was in love with, including a brand called Brink. They had this Negroni in an orange can. Great branding. Described as a bittersweet Italian aperitivo. That's what it is. But you know what? this is going to blow your mind. I did not realize that this product that I bought was a non-alcoholic cocktail.

14:37I'm seeing it for the first time I bought it in a can. I don't believe this. You just realized right in a second. Yes. I saw it immediately. The founder of Frank reached out on Instagram and was like, oh, I'm going to come tonight to the trip event. I'm like, awesome. I can't wait to try that. I'm like, you know what? This is a really good product. I just didn't feel anything. Was it that good? I have to admit, I haven't tried it yet. It's in my first. Okay. Well, I mean, you can pass it along if you want to. No, I'm still going to drink it. I wouldn't give it to you, Mike. Are you crazy? The White Box cocktail folks, who we've talked about on the podcast before, they came out with a classic Cosmo.

15:11I haven't seen this product before. Beautiful. Looks a lot like this sort of 60s vibe of, I want to say like, not like that LSD kind of thing, but it just has... Austin Powers. Yeah, it's Austin Powers-ish. Really beautiful brand. It's Austin Powers adjacent. It's really synthetic. Are you a Cosmo consumer, John? No? It's like me asking, are you an MLS fan, Ray? Wow. Is it really that drastic? It's kind of offensive. That's like the Sex and the City drink, right? You know, that's like basic. It is. I mean, when I, you know, I cuddle up on my couch for some Sex and the City, you know, every Friday night.

15:53I do have a cup. You pull out a white box and cocktails? Maybe an Appletini, isn't that what's happening? Anyway. Come on, Ray. Come on. You can't compare Cosmo and Appletini. Those are two different things. He just did. He just did. He just did. Just did, Ray. 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. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. Another product that I saw at the Passage Pantry was one that's falling in the footsteps of better-for-you soda brands like Olipop and Poppy.

16:28This one's called Living Things. It's described as an all-natural soda. Has a functional benefit of gut health. Described as gut healthy, low in sugar. This watermelon and lime variety looks amazing. I can't tell if it's a real watermelon on the front, but it looks really delicious. Our dear friend Lexi Forrester, who used to be with Minor Figures, reached out to Jackie and I, and we're going to meet with the founder tomorrow. So really looking forward to that. Yeah, just to get the whole flight and the story. So stay tuned for that. Yeah. Another brand that kind of piqued my interest was one called FIBE.

17:05Yeah, that's cool. One of the founders spoke at the Cheers event. And I was actually kind of surprised that we're not seeing as many fiber-centric beverage brands in the U.S. as well. Now, this was a one-of-one. There weren't a lot of these out there. But they made it look so delicious. They made it look like a really delicious and refreshing beverage. This is their fruit punch variety. We are. but they just don't call it fiber. They call it prebiotic. Prebiotic. They focus on gut health. Yeah, I guess that's true. But I mean, it's easier for people to understand what fiber is, mainstream consumers, than it is prebiotics.

17:40But fiber's not as sexy. The problem is it sounds like you're having a Geritol or something like that. It sounds like it's for boomers. Yeah, but again, I think that's an easier sell than prebiotics and probiotics. It used to be. And now the younger generation knows that a prebiotic is. Yeah, they know what it is. they know it's good for gut health. They know that it's fiber. And so they want that. They don't want fiber. Okay. Even though it's fiber. They don't want to hear fiber. Metamucil? That's what grandma says. Yeah. Well, this one describes also a happy gut, happy day. That's their tagline, I believe.

18:12And I love the branding. And I love the fact that it's a fruit punch. It makes it feel a lot more accessible, interesting than a lot of the others. But what is fruit punch, though? That's the problem with fruit punch, though. We've talked about this before, too. Miss fruit juice. You don't like fruit punch? We love fruit punch, but we just don't know what it is. No one knows what fruit is fruit punch. But it is cool to see a lot of gut health beverages having fun with it. We also talked to Belly Dance at the Summit, and they're doing something really fun with Kiefer Soda, and they're just focused on fun branding and keeping it simple.

18:42They have their little belly buttons everywhere, and Jackie was obsessed with the belly button logo. They're on her nails. It was really cool. Another one that we saw, we've seen in the shops, in Whole Foods at the event, And then also got to talk to the founder, Fee Cutting, who is feisty. Did you try feisty? It's a soda with 10 grams of protein. And that was pretty interesting. Like it had all the great cues, cool branding, all that stuff. And the differentiator is just, there's the protein. Just trying to, you know, it's like for pre and post run or something along those lines. Yeah. Again, I think a protein set or a protein water are things that we've seen in the American market, maybe with not a ton of success.

19:23But the branding on this is great. Top class. Yeah. I mean, it has that vertical logo, which I know you're not necessarily a fan of. I told her she did. Like, I showed her barcode where I was like, hey, barcode's done everything, quote, wrong, but it looks amazing. And I felt like she took all the advice that I would have given her, did the opposite, and it looks phenomenal. Yeah. Well, it looks, I mean, it's very clear what this is. It's protein soda is the second largest font there. 12 grams of plant-powered protein or plant-based protein, you know what you're getting. Flavor-wise, it's a little hard to see.

19:58White, peach, and ginger. But the hero isn't the flavor in this. The hero is protein. It's the protein and then the color is supposed to give you the flavor cue. And there are interesting flavors like Sicilian lemon and lime and sour cherry and blackcurrant and some other just interesting flavors. But to that, I would say for a protein soda, because you think inherently that's not going to taste great. You want to make sure that the flavor is something that you'd want. Because it's pea protein, and pea protein doesn't taste great, but you've done a great job of masking the pea protein. It tastes great warm, but it tastes better cold.

20:36Yeah, absolutely. A lot more from our retail travels. We'll throw some gems in there into the show notes. But got to talk about that really fun event last night at the Lucky Saint Pub. Huge thanks to Luke, Bose, and the team who really took good care of us and all the attendees. It was awesome to sit down with Jack Scott, who's one of the co-founders of Dash, and Catherine Bricken, who is the founder and CEO of Delicious. I just sat down with each of them for 15 minutes and chatted about their respective forays or their brand's respective forays into the United States market. In the case of Dash, they dipped their toe in the water and have since pulled back.

21:17In the case of Catherine and Delicious, they're full steam ahead. National at Whole Foods, national at Target. And so we're going to be posting both interviews in a future episode or future episodes of Taste Radio. Really, really interesting to listen to their respective strategies as it relates to international expansion. Well, first, Ray, you did, as always, a top class job with the interviews. Well, I appreciate that. And I think it's interesting because we haven't seen a lot of these folks in real life for a long time. and we keep track of them on Instagram and talk to them. But it just feels a lot like a family gathering when we get together with the UK community.

21:54And I have to say I was a little bit emotional because I've got a special connection to Lucky Saint and Luke and Emma and Sophie and Kevin and Nathan just went over the top to make that an incredible event. And I'm just so grateful for their partnership and for Lucky Saint's products and just it's a special brand and we'll always have that connection to them. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, and more coming from Lucky Saint. I sat down with Luke Bowes, who again is the founder of Lucky Saint for an interview that we're going to be featuring in a future episode of Taste Radio. Stay tuned for that.

22:31I'll also be sitting down with Olivia Ferti, who is one of the co-founders of Trip. I'm going to be doing that tomorrow. We're going to be chatting with her a little bit tonight as well, but a lot of content coming your way about how these brands are building here in the UK and beyond and what makes them successful in this country and whether or not it can be replicated overseas. I think in either case, there's going to be a lot of really great insights that our audience will be able to incorporate into their business strategies as it relates to package design, new product development, team building, et cetera.

23:07So I'm really glad I'm here. Yeah, it's always, I think always interesting just to look at, you know, another market that on the surface appears to be somewhat similar to the U.S. market, but of course has a lot of nuanced differences. But I do think there are things over here that for sure become use for inspiration for brands in other countries. So, you know, I think it's always worth listeners, you know, taking a look at that just for, you know, again, some outside inspiration, if nothing else. Yeah. And I would also say that, you know, when it comes to the UK, I keep hearing the same theme about the U.S.

23:50for founders and brands who want to come stateside. They're like, you guys are crazy. That whole country is moving too fast. Everyone's wild. Everyone's out of their mind. Everyone's flying by the seat of their pants. Too complicated. Everyone's kind of chill here. It's interesting. Because I haven't been honked at once. there are some expats who have come here to create brands for instance britney buckle who has a company called buff bake and exited that company and now has i know you guys didn't get to try because i ate it all but there there's some coming to the office she's created a brand called knack snacks and they're these these tiny almost like air puffs of chocolate and birthday cake flavor and they are insanely good 150 calories protein unbelievable snack and it was just great to see britney haven't you know heard from her in years and just serendipitously there she is at the cheers the drink summit and we got to catch up and that was that was wonderful what a great time this has been yeah yeah two and a half days two and a half weeks in two and a half days is probably two and a half weeks of memories in two days well I hope we see a lot of the folks that we met here at BevNet Live Nosh Live and BrewBound Live which are coming up faster than we think less than two months for all those events early registration still available Jackie?