Milk, Money & Momentum. Slate's Rise & A Bay Area Buzz.

0:10Hello, dear listeners, 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. When can we be the number one podcast for anyone building a business in AI? We're close, aren't we? Are we not? Well, not if you keep downgrading our listeners. They used to be friends. Now they're dear listeners. That's true. That's true. I was thinking about adding to my LinkedIn because I've seen some people start putting AI in like their title.

0:47Like they're an AI pro? AI wizard? I don't know, like AI driven leader or something. I don't know, but I want to be AI distracted. That's part of your skill set? Yeah. No, it's part of my role. Oh, believe me. It's part of your role. Yes. If you happen to be his muse, you know this. You know, from the AI that I've seen, those cute pics and videos that you guys create, AI distracted sounds about right, actually. Like, did you like the one of you? No. And then with Mike crying? What about the one of me crying? That was hilarious. That was good. That one got a couple comments at the meetups, though.

1:21People are liking the AI distraction. I'm sure it's great for our bottom line, too, you know? I mean, it's tastefully done, at least. It's better than when I go on TikTok and I see, like, fake cats working at McDonald's. That's all my feet is, by the way. Yeah. Or Britney Spears falling in a hole, or... That's weird. That's what's in your feed? I don't even know how the algorithm is analyzing your search habits, Mike, but that sounds a little strange. Anyway, we digress. I know how it happened. I was talking about Katy Perry the other day. And so I start getting like Katy Perry content and Britney Spears content, et cetera, et cetera.

1:57That sounds reasonable. That sounds logical. I was talking about how great Katy Perry is. Okay, okay, cool. I wanna talk about how great our San Francisco meetup was. Sometimes it's tough to gauge what an event like that is going to feel like, how it's going to unfold, especially because we haven't been to that venue before. This being the American Industrial Center, and it was a co-working space in there and generously and very graciously shared with us by the wonderful Kate Sullivan, who's the founder of a CMOS gel brand called Uncracked. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And it was just a phenomenal affair.

2:39Just keep rubbing it in. Loud, raucous, fun. People were eating, networking, drinking, listening for the most part. And just generally, I felt like the environment, the atmosphere was just full of positivity and enthusiasm for the food and beverage industry. Mike, I'm sorry you weren't there, but it was fun. Me too. Yeah, me too. I heard it was great. And I got a lot of good feedback, even though I wasn't there. Some people were like, oh, I searched the room a couple times and I figured you didn't make it. Someone did ask me what happened to Mike. Tell him I was in jail. He had to check in with his parole officer.

3:17I'm not allowed in San Francisco. There's a restraining order. No, it's just too many miles away from where you're supposed to be. Right, I can't. Well, no, I was going to say - My ankle monitor. When they said what happened to Mike, my knee jerk, which I didn't say, was, do you mean in general? I've been trying to figure that out for years, but anyway. Yeah. You know what was really cool is I felt like there was a good mix of people we knew and people who were established in the industry and people who were brand new to the industry. Yeah, definitely. And that's one of my favorite things about these meetups is that we get to reconnect with old friends and old colleagues and acquaintances, but also be introduced to so many new concepts and the founders behind those concepts.

3:58and I got to eat and drink and taste and talk with more people and interact with more brands than I really expected I would. I mean, I knew we had the, obviously we had the registration list, but the tangible aspect or the tangible quality of being at these events is that you get to actually experience it IRL, so to speak. Yeah. Well, we got to start planning 2026 soon. We definitely do. Well, after we go to London. Yeah, after we go to London. So London, just as a reminder to our UK listeners, London will be happening, our meetup that is, will be happening on October 2nd. That's a Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.

4:36at the offices of Trip. That's in Nuttin' Hill. All the details at Tasteradio.com slash London. I mean, if you're not in the UK and you just want to fly over or need an excuse to go to London. Yeah. Come join us. Yeah. The event is free. Come on over. So, you know, your airfare, your lodging, that's all you have to pay for. Mm-hmm. As John mentioned, we are planning events, meetups. We may rethink the name meetup, but that's another story. If anyone has any good ideas, just email us at askatasteradio.com. Let us know if you are interested in having us in your city. And if you happen to have a venue that you'd like to share with us.

5:16That goes a long way. That definitely will help convince us to go to said city. But no, in all seriousness, yeah, we're excited for the series to continue next year. If you do have any suggestions, send them to ask at tasteradio.com. Just quickly circling back to San Francisco, got to thank our incredible partners for the events. We cannot make these things happen. We can't put these events on without the support of partners. And those in San Francisco included Forger Project, Vertosa, Uncracked, as I mentioned, Dopamine PR, and Yerba Madre. Also, huge, huge shout out to Cy Kane and his team at Straight Away Cocktails, the Portland-based ready-to-drink cocktail company that just is the best in the business.

6:02They make exceptional products. And Cy brought with him. Cy flew down from Portland for the day, and I sat down with him for an interview. Stay tuned for that. Took the Straight Away Cocktails chopper? No, he took the 747. I was going to say, he probably has like a submarine. He is that chill. Yeah, it's like a speakeasy inside a submarine. In true Portlandia form. Yes, in true Portlandia form. He has a submarine. I mean, you can get to San Francisco from Portland by submarine. That's true. Probably, right? Yeah. But Cy brought with him just an unbelievable amount of cocktails and a bunch of new stuff that we got to sample.

6:43So thank you very much, Cy and team. In Good Taste Wines. Slap. I'm so glad we had some slap there to make everyone feel healthy. the ginger and turmeric shots that they make are just... Those were much needed. Oh man, I miss so many good brands. I heard I miss Doke beer and Kyokyo and Mindful, the L-theanine sticks, my dear friend Jules, Matcha Jules. You mentioned Doke beer, Fort Point and Standard Deviant supplied us with beer. So plenty to drink and imbibe and people did. San Francisco, everyone was all in, it was great. Now, this news came amidst the day of the event. It was announced on September 18th.

7:26At least it was reported on September 18th by our dear colleague, Lucas Southard, that Slate Milk, a maker of high-protein chocolate milk and canned coffee, raised$23 million in a round that was led by the founders of Yasso, the makers of frozen Greek novelty products. It brings the brand's total investment to$50 million. The round was a Series B round. So I got to tell you, 10 years ago, if you had told me that a milk brand or a brand whose basis is milk, I know they sell coffee as well, but a lot of what they sell is milk, would be raising$23 million and have raised$50 million at this point and is one of the faster growing brands in the beverage industry, I would have laughed in your face.

8:18Milk in a can? Come on. That doesn't make any sense. But here we are today. Certainly, we talked about this last week with the influence and impact of protein and demand for protein as, you know, probably being a core reason this brand is where it is today, Slate Milk. But come on. Have you tasted it? Yes, of course. It's delicious. Yeah, it's awesome. But it's so interesting. I mean, these concepts, these early stage concepts, And I bring this up because we're going to be seeing a bunch of new concepts at BevNet Live LA 2025 in December. And I know there are going to be some really out there ideas.

8:53And some of us are going to poo-poo those ideas. But it just goes to show you really don't necessarily know. Slate's an easy concept to understand. Really? Would you have said milk in a can is going to be a great idea? I know Gen Z and millennials drank it. I'm saying in 2015. I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't have been able to predict it, but it's pretty simple to understand. And it gives you a lot of the things that you want in terms of, you know, protein. So yeah, and other good stuff. The can's phenomenal. It's a nice lifestyle brand. It's got the ingredients. Yeah, I think you're oversimplifying by saying just milk in a can.

9:27If you gave me just chocolate milk in a can, I would say definitely not. But they're hitting on multiple trends. They have protein. They have coffee for energy. It tastes good. So I think it makes a lot of sense. I think there are new brands where you're like, this has no chance in hell. That's oversimplifying it too. No, but I mean, sometimes you can just sort of tell. And then I think there's other brands where you're kind of like, okay, I get this, but it doesn't seem like something that's maybe got hype behind it or got a movement that it's going to catch on with. And then that eventually happens.

10:09And I feel like this is one of those products where you look at it. And if you ask, what does this need to be successful? Again, it's less crazy than what, I don't know, maybe a drink with snake venom might need. Right. It's the new yoo-hoo, isn't it? But that's kind of it. It's one of those. I just feel like when they started, there was white space out there that people in the industry probably looked at and said, okay, but I'm not that excited about that right now. And that's fine. Because again, I'd say the important part is I'm not excited about it right now. Again, this is another one of those brands that I think will be the decade long overnight success.

10:48They're just out there with conviction, doing their thing, building. And look, I mean, the timing now of everything in cans and everything with protein lines up pretty good for them. And they're not out there just launching today, trying to chase some hype. I've also never heard Ray get really excited about brands like Yoohoo or Ovaltine either. So, I mean, it's not that dissimilar. Mike, you're always dating yourself. I know, but I mean, those are, those are successful brands. They're successful. I did see Ray crushing a couple of Nesquiks on the parking lot this morning, though. That is my, that's why he was late.

11:23That is my 11 a.m. happy hour is Nesquik in the parking lot. Sorry, I know so much about brands, Ray. Sorry. No, no, no. I'm excited for those guys and happy for them. You and Jackie. Of course. And to be fair, Slate in 2019 pivoted a bit in that they went from saying, okay, we're a milk brand to we're a protein platform. Yep. And so a lot of their positioning today is very much about protein, as Jackie pointed out. You know, their primary lineup is made up of two milkshakes and three iced lattes. and they very prominently on the front of the can note that there's 20 grams of protein, only one gram of sugar and 100 calories.

12:05And that's the line amount across all those products. Do you know what the most unfortunate part of this conversation is right now? We don't have any in the office at the moment. Yeah, you know, I think that's - So delicious sounding. That's a good point. That's a good point. And I should clarify, there's actually six products in their primary lineup, top five. But anyway, yeah, regardless, I think just the two points I want to make here. Number one, congratulations to the Slate team. And two, I think this conversation has made it clear that, yes, you can have an idea that's a little bit out there, but having a point of reference, having the right positioning, or at least being able to be flexible enough to meet the positioning that you need to be successful in a particular category, and also surrounding yourself with people that are experienced operators or at least experienced investors, value-added investors can go a long way.

12:57So again, I'd like to add your product can be a little bit out there. Yes. Wildly out there. Kind of hard. It's out there, but it's simple. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Again, I think we're going to see some out there products during the new beverage showdown at BevNet Live LA 2025. If you are not already registered, I don't even know what to say to you at this point. Like, you got to come to this event. Register soon. I know what to say. Register soon. Pretty please. If you're in the beverage industry, you should be coming to BevNet Live LA 2025. I mean, the amount of networking, the amount of elbows you'll be rubbing with insiders, with gatekeepers, with investors, retailers, distributors, it's just really, it's a no-brainer.

13:37It's happening December 7th through the 9th at the Marina del Rey Marriott. And we've already got a bunch of announcements in terms of speakers, including the one and only Bill Creelman of Spindrift. The team and the investment team behind HealthAid, including Chris Lansing, Steve Young, and Bob Nakasone, will all be speaking at BevNet Live as well. So get your tickets today, bevnetlive.com. Of course, Nosh Live, which is happening on December 4th and 5th, and BrewBound Live, which is happening on the 10th and 11th of December. You want to get your tickets for those events as well. plenty of information bevnet live slash events bevnet.com slash events all right bevnet live.com slash events what we do without john craven live editing by my right hand well done bevnet.com slash events bevnet.com say it again ray just make sure you got it okay actually i wanted to talk about something else that wasn't on my bingo card this year of course this brand was actually launched a couple years ago but our dear colleague brad avery wrote about it in a profile piece yesterday, actually.

14:43This is a brand called Agro, A-G-R-O. They make plant-based jerky that comes in resealable bags and they have a caffeinated variety as well. So it's very, very male oriented. So agro. Just so agro. So agro. The thing that I didn't expect is that this is a brand that was launched by the founders of Q-Drinks. Q-Drinks is a brand of premium cocktail mixers. We've known Jordan Silbert for many a year. So many years. Classic case of entrepreneur who just can't stop being entrepreneurial. I mean, how does cocktail mixtures relate to plant-based meat jerky? I don't know. Maybe that was the point. I guess.

15:22Can't compete with your own beverage brand. Yeah. And, you know, to a certain extent, I don't think I've seen positioning as male forward or as leaning in the direction of masculinity as much as aggro is, at least in the plant-based. I was going to say the regular jerky category is kind of loaded with it. It's pretty bubba. But it's very, very clear who this is for. I don't know if I fit the bill. There's a guy who looks like a lumberjack slash. He looks like he's about to bail some hay. He's got a pitchfork. He has massive forearms, a good beard, and some suspenders as well. It looks like he's.

16:00So aggro. And he's got this belt buckle that says A. It's like aggro man. Yeah. Aggro man. They're making a superhero. Yeah. I definitely want to try this stuff. Yeah, we, I think, ran into Jordan at, I don't know if it was Expo West, maybe? This brand's been around kind of, I don't know. Very interesting conversation. Stealthily. But it's a fun brand. I like the plays on aggro. 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.

16:37All right, we're surrounded by samples. We've got so many good products. So many products. Can I start with some Sprinkles? Sure. All right, so Sprinkles, which is a maker of cupcakes and confectionary treats, has introduced these new cupcake bites. They come in four varieties. There's a red velvet, there's a cookie dough, there's a birthday cake, and there's a cookies and cream. So I opened the birthday cake one already. And inside these 5.5 ounce pouches are these tiny little, they look like balls, like these small little balls. And they're bites. They're bite-sized poppers. So it's like the cupcake on a stick without the stick.

17:18Oh. Did you see that? Yeah. Ray just sampled on Taste Radio. Did it very carefully. He did. He did it very carefully. I don't know. His weakness is always baked products. These are delicious. They have a frosting flavored coating. And then inside is a cupcake-like center. That's their words, not mine. They're mostly frosting, though. They're mostly frosting. Yeah. They're really, really good. What flavor you got there? I want a more basic flavor. I've got cookies and cream. What's that one? Why do you always want the one that's in my hand? Because you probably picked the most basic one. Cookie dough?

17:54Yeah, sure. That's pretty basic. Oh, they're small. I mean, Sprinkles makes everything amazing. Yeah, they even make good birthday cake, which again, it's not usually my favorite. Well, the cool thing about Sprinkles is they are who they are, right? They know who they are. Pretty good. They make really indulgent sweets. And this is a frosting flavored cupcake-like centered ball with all these different flavors. And so you're not getting reishi mushroom. You're not getting stevia. You're not getting... They just, they're like, look, if we're going to make something, we're going to make it really delicious and indulgent.

18:28Because that's what customers are. No BS in this. They know who their customers are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well done, Sprinkles. Well done, Sprinkles. Delicious line of products. Again, love that you've gone full. Ray, hold the cheese because I'm eating healthy. But give me all the baked goods, Latif, here. I had one. I had one cupcake bite. I had one. Well, right now. But you're going to crush this whole bag. I know. I was going to make an AI video of me just crushing a pouch of one of these. Don't do it. Don't tempt me. Right after the Cycane submarine. I see by my left hand here that Mike brought some Mix Mix.

19:05I brought some weed. Yeah, Mix Mix is a maker of drink stick mixes that are infused with THC and CBD. There's two milligrams of THC and one milligram of CBD per stick. Our dear friend Matt Sabo, who was at our Taste Radio Chicago meetup, SentaC's. I am so excited for him and his team because this is beautiful branding. And a THC and CBD level I think people can live with. Well, you can make your own. Yeah, exactly. Your own level because it comes with two milligrams THC, one milligram CBD, there's tart citrus. Spicy ginger. Spicy ginger and I don't know why it's called warm vanilla, but it's called warm vanilla.

19:41And it's a taster pack as well that has a variety of sticks in here. So I was pretty excited to see this. Yeah, have you had these yet? Haven't tried them yet. Can't wait. Who opened the taster pack then? Probably Marty. Marty's been sampling. Probably Marty. Yeah, no, this is really cool. I like the fact that it's actually in powder form. We get so many new THC beverages that are obviously ready to drink. This allows you to take it with you. It's very portable, probably very easy to ship. And it just doesn't feel like one of those... You could make it sparkling. You could make it still. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's one of those stereotypical, very weedy and, you know what I'm talking about?

20:27Just keep going, right? Like Stoner vibes? Yeah, exactly. The Stoner vibe, THC brand that keeps coming to the office. And I'm like, why are you doing this? There's fewer and fewer of those nowadays. I mean, we've got some great brands coming out in cannabis. I mean, I feel like it's Cannabis Corner over here now. But there's still a lot of them that are very Stoner culture. Yeah, there are. but I mean, I would say if there are, but I saw that from far away, I think electrolyte drink. Yeah. Well, that's the whole point. But except the purple kind of slows you down a little bit there too. And it's all purple.

20:57And then the call outs for THC and CBD are, are pretty large here too. So I like that. Yeah. There's a lot of good things going on on this, on this pack. And it's a low sugar, low calorie, no hangover. The tagline is mix in, even out. Mix, mix is the name of the brand. Well done. Yeah. What do you got there, Mike? You have more THC? I do. I have more THC. What a surprise. I've got some Plift here, which we've talked about on the show before, but the last time we talked about it was in ready to drink mode. And now we've got it kind of in five hour energy form, if you will, in little 10 milligram shots here.

21:34I've got Tangerine and Fruit Punch. And these packages are beautiful. I might like to see a little bigger call out for the THC, but overall, really love this brand. Yeah, you've always praised the plift. How about some Zico organic pure coconut water? Yeah, 100 % nom nom coconuts. Nom hum. Nom hum, excuse me. Nom hum. Nom hum. Yeah, I mean, this stuff is like a throwback to the good old days of HPP coconut water. I don't know what the deal is with this, but it's like not from concentrate. Definitely the best tasting Zico I've ever had. So. Really? Yeah, they come in these 13.5 ounce plastic bottles.

22:17They have like a sports grip and they come in a green, like a forest green wrap. No added sugar, but there is still quite a bit of sugar in here. 24 grams per bottle. Oh, coconuts have sugar. Yeah. Can I crack this open? Can I? Okay, I'm going to crack this open because I haven't had coconut water in a long time. Here we go. All right. How is it? It's really delicious. Yeah. And it's got that pink, that light pink color that is often associated with Nam Hom coconuts, which are grown in Thailand. This is like what's old is new again. I like it. Nice. Can we have a booze sampling? Because it seems like we've talked a lot about weed.

22:53Yeah. More adult beverages. I don't know if I should pour one for Mike or not. He can smell it. This is the Apologue Carrot Root Liqueur. Apple Log is a brand of liqueurs made with interesting flavors, founded by our dear friend Jordan Tepper, who was the founder of Host Cocktails. Host Cocktails hosted us in Chicago for our meetup. I think they had just announced this when we were doing the meetup, but did not have it. That sounds great. This is their new carrot variety. It smells like carrots, but it smells like carrot cake almost in a way. Sweet carrots. It does have a carrot cake smell. Good call, right?

23:32It kind of tastes like carrot cake almost. Really, really good. Yeah, it tastes like a really sweet carrot cake. That's pretty good. I'm not sure if this is meant for sipping or mixing or both, but I would guess mixing. I wonder what a cocktail would look like with that mixed in. I'm guessing maybe you could make a Negroni with that? Only one way to find out. Yeah. Carrot Negroni. Carrot Negroni. I have to work on that later. Replace your vermouth with some carrot liqueur. Maybe. We'll see what happens. Okay. Jackie's got a big bottle with her. What's that? Big bottle. I have Uncle Matt's Yerba Mate Energy Team.

24:06Wow, Yerba Mate. Yes, Yerba Mate. 45 calories per serving, 100 milligrams of caffeine per serving, and it's made with wildflower honey. I feel like they're just hitting on all of the trends with this product. Clean energy, low calories, natural sweetener, and I feel like more and more people are understanding Yerba Mate and the health benefits and looking for better-for-you sources of caffeine. So yeah, it's cool to see. And in such a big jug too, like you can 64 ounce bottle. Yes. Yeah. A big bottle. You can have, you know, yerba mate all week long, but yeah, they also have on the back, just really focusing on that.

24:48It supports focus and digestion, no crash and no jitters and antioxidants and a little bit more education on just yerba mate on the back too, for the people that don't know what it is. Yeah. I mean, everything that uncle Matt's makes is top notch. They're best known for their orange juice, but in recent years, they've expanded to a lot of different other products and the Yerba Mate Energy Tea, I think is a nice extension for them. I wonder how much does that cost? I'm going to guess$7.99, something like that. Yeah, I'm not sure. Well, I mean, Yerba Mate in general is a more premium beverage. So 64 ounces of a tea, probably a good price point, but you can drink it every morning and you don't have to buy a can.

25:29You don't have to buy a big bottle. You have four or five ounces of that. I'm sure you're feeling great. Exactly. Yeah. Anything else over there in the WCB? I have one other product. This brand was at the San Francisco meetup, Rootless. I was talking to the founder of Rootless and they are daily bites and they have seaweed in them. And I was just talking to the founder a bit, just like about positioning of seaweed. and for women especially seaweed really promotes has iodine in it and promotes hormones so she's really positioning for women to have balanced hormones and also as you go through menopause this can be like a daily supplement so really interesting positioning tasty product you don't taste the seaweed which is also good because i think that could really turn people off but really good product.

26:23Yeah, I would say so. I didn't get to try that, but I definitely love what they're putting out there. I got to shout out another brand from San Francisco. That's a brand called Benny Pops. B-E-N-N-I Pops. I saw a whole bunch of people munching on these. They are frozen popsicle type products that are crafted with superfoods and adaptogens. The pops look like a happy face. Yeah. Looks like something that you would almost get off like an ice cream truck. Exactly. Yes. And when I hopped off the mics and was done with the live podcast interviews that we had at the event, I was glistening. It was very warm where I was.