It's Controversial… Till It Makes Money. Plus, A Sip Of Slane And Eggo Cream.

0:10Hello, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. I'm John Craven, the founder and CEO of BevNet, and with me are my colleagues Melissa Traverse and Jackie Berguiera. In this episode, we feature an interview with Alex Cunningham, the co-founder of Slain Irish Whiskey, who discussed the duality of building a modern brand that's rooted in tradition. Hello, guys. Well done. Thanks. Very nice. Step in for Ray. We don't need Ray. Right? Yeah. I mean, I don't think so. Sorry, Ray. Yeah. I know. Big news about Ray. by the way. Ooh, tell us. Ooh, what is it?

0:48Manchester United lost to Tottenham, and I think he's drowning himself in a bucket of two-buck chucks somewhere. So, no, he's just on vacation. I don't know. And Mike's relegated to the Jersey Shore, so. Yes, he's boogie boarding somewhere. That's a frightening thought. But, yeah, anyway, how are you guys doing? Pretty good. Yeah. How about you guys? Not bad. Summer's almost over. Yeah. Which is kind of sad, but I have kids, so it's not that sad. Now you get a little bit of break. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. Theirs ends and mine begins. I'm feeling great. This weekend, I went to Denver and I had the USGAA, which is Gaelic Athletic Association's finals, North American finals, and we won our Camogie Championship.

1:44Congrats. Woohoo! The whole week I will be drinking all beverages out of a cup. So this is where you can find me. That looks like it could hold at least three beverages. You're going to be well hydrated. I am. This is the only vehicle for any liquids. But yeah, for anyone that doesn't know, camogie is a national sport of Ireland. It includes a ball and a stick. And you got to YouTube it because it's really hard to explain. But a lot of fun. I got a couple bruises, but all worth it. Is it similar to cricket, field hockey, somewhere in between? Yeah, throw in lacrosse and ultimate frisbee as well, because you get like the four steps.

2:26And then the goal is like a soccer goal combined with an American football upright. Again, lots of things going on. You got to YouTube it. So this is a contact sport, right? A little bit. It's just kind of like lacrosse physicality. Like you can shoulder people, box people out. You can hit them with your hurl. that's the stick. You can hit other people with your stick? I mean, as long as you're not going for their head, but if you're going for the ball, anything is allowed. How did you get into this? An old colleague was from Ireland. She worked for BevNet and she was going off to practice after work and invited me to come try it out.

3:04And I did. And I got hooked. I used to play all different sports. So this kind of just fits that for me and allows me to be competitive still. I mean, anyone who's playing like a contact sport who's not like in high school is pretty impressive to me. So glad you made it back safely, I guess. Yeah, back in one piece. Congrats. Yeah, I mean, I barely made it back because I know everyone saw the headlines of San Diego and a hurricane. So I got stranded for a couple of days, but nothing too bad. Well, you know, with summer also coming to a close, we have a lot of stuff going on this fall. Right, guys?

3:37We sure do. Super excited about the two meetups that we just announced. We will be having a meetup at our Newton headquarters on October 4th from 6 to 8. So everybody who's in the area, please take note and visit. We will be doing sampling from brands, chatting, food, drinks, fun, all of it. Under one roof. Our roof. Both roofs. because we also will be having a meetup in San Diego on Thursday, September 28th from 5 to 7. Come enjoy some pizza, bring your samples. We will be here and we are partnering with Naturally San Diego again. So we're excited for that. Fun times. I'm going to be at both.

4:23Lucky me. You know, I'm curious, why does ours start at 6 but San Diego's starts at 5? Everything starts a little bit earlier in San Diego. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. People get off of work a little bit earlier and then they need to go, you know, live their lives later in the day. Yeah, that makes sense. I like that. That's better than what I was going to say. So we'll go with Jackie's explanation. And obviously we have all the fall trade shows. I know people from our team are heading to all sorts of things. Expo East, Pack Expo, Supply Side, West, NACS, Great American Beer Fest. I don't know.

4:59I'm probably forgetting some other stuff that's in there. and finally culminating with our events out in Marina del Rey right after Thanksgiving. Yeah, I feel like right after Labor Day is when everything starts going full speed ahead again. September is going to be jam-packed, October, November, and then it's our events. And couldn't be more excited to be in Marina del Rey. I know we also just announced that we have the retail one-to-one meetings at BevNet Live. So if you go to BevNet.com, You can check that out and you can sign up to meet with Albertsons companies. And that's not just Albertsons.

5:37That's all of the retailers that Albertsons manages under their big conglomerate. So check that out on BevNet.com and you have to register in order to participate. And that is, of course, part of BevNet Live, but we also have Nosh Live and BrewBound Live and early registration is still open. So crazy to think about December when it's only August, but hey, you know, you got a plan. That's what we do. If you miss those retailers at all of the trade shows, then you have a chance to hunt them down at our shows and it'll be a lot easier there for sure. Definitely. You know, in just a couple of months, we're going to open applications for our sampling at these events and Jackie will be inundated with boxes being delivered to the office out there.

6:24Be a good time. So, but speaking of boxes, let's thank our presenting sponsor for this episode, Tetra Pak. Smooth. Who needs Ray? I mean, I tried to do a Ray style one. So yeah, Tetra Pak, the pioneering packaging solutions company that provides safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world. How about that? What would we do without Tetra Pak? I don't know. It'd be a different world. Not one that I'd want to live in. I mean, Ray would not be on vacation in Monaco right now if it weren't. I have no idea where Ray is.

7:03Let's also talk a little bit about the latest community call stuff, too. I think you've got this new script flip thing that you're doing. Yeah, for sure. So we just did our second flip script a couple of weeks ago. We had Elise Eilerman from the Bad Tea Company who was looking for help sourcing information on influencer marketing, how to do it, best practices, where to start. So we had Becca Milstein from Fishwife and Sarah Grose from GoodCPG hop on and give her some really fantastic advice. So certainly check that out if you haven't had a chance. It's bevnet.com slash community call. And I'd also like to put an alert out to all emerging brands who are listening.

7:46If you are trying to figure out a particular issue, a particular piece of business, whatever it is, let me know. It's a great way to really answer the questions that brands are having in the moment. And I would love to hear from you so that, you know, perhaps we could do a community call with you. My email address is mtraverse, T-R-A-V-E-R-S-E at bevnet.com. Hit me up. Let me know what you're struggling with. And I'd love to hear from you. There you go. I mean, all brands are welcome, as you mentioned. And it's been really interesting just to watch some of the brands that have gotten, you know, to take part in Community Call in both the Script Flip episode as well as some of the others.

8:27Always easy way to get FaceTime and get your name out there too. So definitely reach out to Melissa if you're interested. Absolutely. I'm here. I'm waiting. So I want to talk about another really important day that Jackie just told me about, which is August 24th, National Waffle Day. Woo! Yes, very nice. That is true. Figured this would be a great time to do this sampling of the Eggo brunch in a jar. Oh, boy. Which is in collaboration with a company called Sugar Lens Distilling Company. And this is Appalachian Sipping Cream, which is, let's see, 20 % alcohol by volume. The Appalachian piece of that, how does that relate?

9:09I wonder. I don't know. I kind of got hung up on this brunch in a jar, which Melissa and I are going to do a sampling. know yeah i just want everyone to know that i'm giving up my usual fast until lunch to uh to try this i i hope that's that's being appreciated so this on an empty stomach is going to be interesting for you yeah i really want all listeners to know that it's actually 4 30 eastern time here uh like on a friday uh which is totally a lie but um we would never try it at 11 in the morning never do that so here you go thank you cheers cheers i am very curious i've heard that has tasting notes of buttery toasty eggos and then also bacon i guess that's what makes it brunch wow that is um

9:58oh i just saw melissa gag that is that is a real uh a real wallop to the old system is it potent Yes, it's pretty potent. It does kind of taste like someone took Eggo waffles, I don't know, a stick of butter, some cream, a crap load of sugar, and probably some grain alcohol and put in a blender. Oof. I have nothing but exclamation points running through my brain. Well, I assume you don't drink sipping cream too often, right? You know, this actually might be my first sipping cream experience. You know, having tried some of these products, just purely in a professional setting, I do not drink stuff like this normally.

10:43Getting past the sipping cream part is the first hurdle. Can we go back to the sipping cream? So is there a list of ingredients on there or there's nothing? Okay, okay. That makes sense. You don't want to know. No, no. You're right, Jackie, actually. I don't want to know. Like, I don't think there's real bacon or real ego in there. Well, I don't think it claims to have bacon. I mean, there's only a picture of just the Eggo waffle. Yeah, waffles and syrup cream liqueur. I think that's a pretty accurate description of what it is. I absolutely love the label, though. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Nicely done on that.

11:17Yeah, I know they also had an Eggo nog for the holiday season, too. So they're really trying to extend the reach of the Eggo to the parents that, you know, maybe need to relax when the kids aren't around. You could go Bloody Mary, you could go Mimosa, and now you can go Eggo Waffle Sipping Cream. Why not? Yeah. They did a great job with their PR, though, because it's been everywhere. Yeah. It's been going viral on social media. It's been in every Google search. So, bravo to them. Kudos to them. Yeah, for sure. Another product that we just got in are these new Genius Juice shots. Cool. Nice. Yeah, these are daily nootropic shots.

11:59So a little different than the core Genius Juice product, Genius Boost now. Been following that brand for a while, as you can tell. But this is, I think, a pretty good pivot for the brand. You know, it feels like something that is timely and, you know, kind of makes sense for what this brand is all about. So nice work, Alex Baer. I appreciate the black and white packaging. It certainly stands apart from the other shots on the shelf, which typically have a lot of color. So that'll certainly make it pop on the shelf. Definitely. Yeah, and it's cool to see them really hone in on just function. I think like the juice set has transformed into the shot set.

12:37People aren't going to be drinking a full thing of juice, just, you know, being more cognizant about sugars. And they really just want to know what exactly is this going to do for me? And a small format allows them to just pick it up and chug it. What are each of the flavors that you have there? Oh, quizzing me on that. I only have the chocolate and the chocolate raspberry. I think there's a third one. Not sure what it is. My apologies, but grab these real quick. And they've got kind of feels like a little miniature hybrid of his like coconut smoothie and kind of the protein drink that he had just in terms of how it tastes.

13:15So it's pretty, pretty nice. Functional ingredients in there. And look, I think it's always interesting just seeing a brand do some sort of pivot, which this is not like an extreme pivot. It feels like maybe like a 15-degree turn sort of thing, you know? But yeah, it feels a lot more kind of market-ready, I would say. Yeah. So we need to talk about this. Jackie and I have matching jars of Atlantic Sea Farms fermented seaweed salad. Nice. And this is unplanned. Yeah, totally unplanned. We just happened to both have it in our fridge. And we were talking about how crazy it is, but in fact, it makes perfect sense.

13:57I went down a bit of a seaweed rabbit hole lately. I got really into making my own miso soup. So you simmer the kelp. That's a totally normal thing to do, by the way. No, I know. I know. It's just like a therapeutic thing. Yeah, that's cool. Everyone's got their cooking thing. Exactly. So you simmer the kelp and then you take that out and then you add the bonito flakes and then you, you know, of course, miso, tofu and wakame it up. But this seaweed salad from Atlantic Sea Farms is incredibly tasty. Have you had a chance to try this? No, hit me. All right. It's very tasty. Although I would say it doesn't quite taste like the seaweed salad you might expect from, you know, at a sushi place.

14:37It's a little bit more toothsome than that, but I think it's really tasty. Yeah. It had like all the buzzwords that I'm just attracted to. Fermented, seaweed. I love seaweed salad when I go to a sushi joint. And I love this company and what they stand for, Atlantic Sea Farms. They're all about regenerative agriculture and sustainability. And they just hit on that note, as well as creating products that are just full of nutrients and are superfoods. So anything that they come out with, I know they also have, you know, like kelp cubes that you can put into your shakes for a little bit of boosted nutrition.

15:16I personally also use like a salt shaker with kelp granules in it. It's not from Atlantic Sea Farms, but it's just another way to kind of add iodine and seaweed into my daily nutrition, especially with like thyroid issues. Iodine helps with that. So there's just like a host of nutritional benefits for seaweed. Do you ever put that powdered seaweed on popcorn? Oh yeah. Yeah. There's just like so many use cases. Yeah. Get that umami flavor. Sure. And iodine is a big thing. I feel like, especially now that so many folks use sea salt, iodized salt isn't something that necessarily everybody's using these days.

15:55And it, I don't know, it's tough to get iodine. You don't want an enormous thyroid. No, definitely not. Well, this stuff, you know, it's quite tasty. I will agree. But also I just got to point out that for you guys, like, you know, seaweed is like your premier league, you know, like Mike and Ray want to talk about that. You guys just want to go on seaweed. So I know we got to pick like a varietal, you know, like I'll be kelp. Ooh, I'll be wakame. Okay, nice.

16:26Yeah, before we started, Jackie and I definitely were effusively talking about seaweed. So I definitely think we should start a team and perhaps have t-shirts. Just a seaweed podcast. Someone must have that. Yeah, absolutely. There's got to be an aquaculture. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. No doubt about that. Maybe we can guest host. I'm so down. You guys have more products? Because like I'm going to sit here just chugging this Eggo jar. So I also picked up these Couchy croutons. I don't know if either of you have had a chance to try these. So good. Okay, I'm going to open these right now. Yeah, let's do it.

17:02But they are sourdough croutons made by two brothers who are obsessed by bread. They're based out of the Chicago area. And, you know, I got to be honest. I love the fact that they're not gluten free. I love the fact that they're, you know, shock full of a gluten. And what can't you do with these little puppies? Yeah, I remember talking to them at Expo West. And it's a really interesting category that they're getting into. When you go to the grocery store and you look at croutons, there's been no innovation. It's just, you know, the same packaging, the same flavor profiles. And I know they have like some sweet options and some savory options and the packaging just really pops.

17:45So I really like what they're doing. And they have some really nice suggestions on the back as well. So of course you can use them in a salad. You can also crumble them on pasta. I would crumble them into a kale salad. You know, why not? I like feed the birds. Or you could feed the birds with them. Super expensive way to feed the birds. Those are so tasty. Yeah, these are pretty good. I like the packaging. Yeah. Really simple, clean. shall I say bread forward flavor? Mm-hmm. Unlike, you know, you get some croutons or they just taste like... Stale bread. And like crappy fake flavoring. For sure.

18:19Yeah. Nice job, Couchy, on the croutons. Yeah. They're also non-GMO, I might add. Jackie, do you have any products to add otherwise? I do. So the beverage that I was drinking out of the cup is Benu or Benu, I believe. and it is a line of functional beverages. This one is energy from plants. And then I also, I also have another one, which is unwind, calm from plants. So the idea is there were three parents that just felt like their life was very chaotic and they were trying to supplement alcohol and supplement caffeine. And they came up with these products and they're really great tasting products and very simple ingredients that have a lot of, you know, these buzzy functional ingredients that you've probably heard of like lion's mane and rhodiola and ashwagandha, vitamin D3.

19:18This one also has echinacea. So this one is the uplift one and the energy comes from green tea. So this one is marketed as a sparkling energy supplement. And then this one is a sparkling non-alcoholic adult supplement. So you have something for the morning and then you also have something for nighttime, maybe instead of your glass of wine. And I love the packaging. The packaging really pops as well. Is it just two SKUs? They have two more as well. So they have two uplifts and two unwinds and they're just different flavor profiles. And one has alcohol on it is what you're saying? Nope. This one has no alcohol.

19:56So it's instead of drinking alcohol, you can drink this to unwind. And this one has, yeah, echinacea as well, lion's mane ashwagandha, L-theanine for stress reduction. And then it also has, oh, okay. So this one is interesting because it has kava in it. And it has 500 milligrams. I think there was going to be something funky there. Yeah. I feel like it's always interesting when a beverage just kind of like throws it in there and doesn't really call it out unless you're really looking at the side label. Because I I know some people, it's kind of like polarizing as far as kava goes, but it is marketed as a supplement and it does have supplement facts.

20:33So I guess that's something that makes you read the ingredients a little bit closer. Does it say how much kava is in there? It says 500 milligrams, which is the equivalent to one cocktail. Interesting. I've never tried kava myself, but I've certainly been hearing a lot about it lately. Yeah, it's a pretty polarizing ingredient that I think is at a couple of attempts in the beverage industry. Maybe this time around where there's more knowledge about functional food and beverage ingredients and things like cannabis, it'll stick a little more. I think the first time I saw it, it was positioned as an alternative to energy drinks, which was probably 15 or so years ago.

21:14But I don't know. I'm not a personal user of it. like try to, it makes me kind of feel a little loopy. Yeah. Kava chills you out, right? Well, I mean, I personally find that sort of feeling like not chill, you know, like it feels like the side effect to a medication. Yeah. And I guess I would say, I don't know, like that, that just makes me feel unchill. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. There's a kava bar that's walking distance from my apartment and I went there and it's really interesting. They serve it in like this shell and you drink it and then you start to feel kind of like a little woozy, I guess, like a little like, oh, something's hitting me.

21:53It's definitely like a high of sorts. It is very relaxing. I felt very relaxed, but it's also was a very relaxing environment too. It was just very chill vibes. But yeah, I feel like in San Diego, especially there's still like some bars that, you know, serve kava. So you can go there instead of going to an alcoholic bar. But yeah, I don't really see it that much other than that. It seems like one of the few functional ingredients where you immediately feel the effects, whereas many others, like maybe they're doing something and maybe not. Yeah. I mean, I think it's definitely like more on par with alcohol in terms of the immediacy of it.

22:29I think it just still has a huge education issue to it, even though it's been around in various ways. Like I don't think, you know, mainstream awareness of it is there, you know, So I think with anything like that, that just becomes a massive challenge to any startup brand, right? Because you can sell to that niche that your competitors are selling to and growing beyond that's tough. I mean, I do feel like that's an ingredient that will get there eventually. It's just kind of like, is it now? Is it something that a small startup could have the funds to ride out? Don't know, you know? Yeah. I think there's definitely more of an opportunity now too, just because there's all these non-alcohol options and people are still looking for a buzz or some sort of instant feeling of relaxation.

23:25So I think that opens the door to maybe, you know, consumers being open to it and open to new ingredients and learning about it just because they're trying to cut out alcohol. Totally. I mean, that's what I was sort of poorly articulating before about cannabis too. It's like, I think there is more of a thirst for like alcohol alternatives, right? Sure. So maybe it will be part of that movement. You know, we'll see. I mean, it obviously, you know, has a functional component to it, which you can't say about all like alcohol alternatives, you know. And similar to cannabis, I believe it has a pretty strong flavor that can be difficult to integrate into a tasty beverage.

24:05Jackie, how does the, how does the kava skew taste? Can you taste it? Yeah, it's kind of like earthy, I guess. Like if you're used to drinking more bitter, earthy drinks, you know, I don't know, it doesn't put me off from drinking it. It also blends well. So if you're putting other flavors in it, I believe that one has some juice in it. And that's where the sugar comes from, which is nice. There's no like artificial sweeteners or anything like that. It's just like sugar from juice. So that kind of masks it a little bit, and then it just tastes like a really nice, light, refreshing, sparkling beverage.

24:42Very interesting. All right, it's time to get to our featured interview for this episode. That's with Alex Cunningham, the co-founder of Slain Irish Whiskey, a brand born in, of all places, a castle. Alex and his family are the owners of Slain Castle, which is located in Ireland's Boyne Valley, just north of Dublin. Since 1981, the Castle has hosted concerts for some of the biggest musical acts in the world, including U2, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. Harry Styles performed there earlier this year. The whiskey debuted in 2009 and eventually caught the attention of spirit conglomerate Brown Foreman, which acquired the brand in 2015 and reintroduced it two years later.

25:27In the following conversation, recorded at the spirits convention, Tales of the Cocktail, held in July, Ray Latif spoke with Alex about the development of Slane, which has emerged as a brand that lives at the intersection of music, sustainable farming, and premium liquid, and how he communicates that positioning within the competitive landscape for the whiskey.

25:50Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I'm honored to be sitting down with Alex Cunningham, the co-founder of Slane Irish Whiskey. Alex, great to see you. Likewise, Ray. It hasn't been a while. We had breakfast this morning, or I had coffee, you had breakfast. That's true. I needed that breakfast after last night at his tails. After all, as we were saying earlier, at least you get one good meal a day and then you're good. Exactly. And you know, it's the most important meal of the day, breakfast. At least that's what they say. Yes, that's true. Who are they, by the way? I don't know, but we seem to listen to them.

26:20Yeah, right, right. I learned quite a bit about Slane this morning and a brilliant brand in so many ways. its backstory just knocked me over. And I was like, we need to share this with our audience. We need to share this with the industry. And so I figured we could chat a bit about how you've built the company since you launched about 14 years ago, or since the brand launched about 14 years ago. The actual debut of Slane Whiskey, when it was originally called Slane Castle Whiskey, was very, very unique. Tell us about the debut. So we started back in 2009. Slane Castle, which is my family home, is like, it's a music venue.