One Of The Best Trade Shows We've Ever Attended? Fancy That.

0:10Hello, dear 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 I'm with my co-host for this episode, Jackie Brugliera, Mike Schneider, and Melissa Travers. You know, John Craven, who's typically in the seat that Melissa is occupying, is in Europe. He's in Ireland, reconnecting with his roots. He's not Irish, is he? I don't know. He's so Irish. He does like Guinness. Yeah, a mix of European, like a lot of us. He's a European mutt. I got it. Well, anyway, I saw that his parking space was open today.

0:51And so, you know, I did take it with my beat up 2009 Honda core that has more dense than it has miles. It is a pretty impressive thing to park right there. Did the parking space reject you? No, it didn't actually. But what's great is that I am now the CEO of BevNet because by virtue of parking in that spot, I become the leader. It's like severance. When you walk in, you're transformed. I'm pretty surprised that I stole someone's parking space after. Stole? Well, took someone's parking space. I think that's how you summed it up to me the first time I ever met you. When I parked in a raised spot.

1:29Oh, that's true. I remember that. And he comes storming into the office and he's like, who's in my spot? And I was like, that's probably me. I do remember that. And he's got his United hat on. And I was like, who's this guy? Yeah. I do remember that actually. That was like in 2016 when Mike was a consultant before you became CMO. That was the day I met Ray. Yeah. And I come charging in there and my arms are like chugging. I'm like, mother effers. It was before I was actually a consultant too. Oh, okay. Yeah. We had a really small parking lot back in the Watertown office. It was. Everybody was really stressed out about it.

2:00And the parking spaces were marked and you have to go in like, you have to like ask for somebody else's spot. Yep. And it was very much. I didn't know any of this. Yeah. Yeah, it was very much seniority. If you had seniority at the company, you got a parking spot. If you didn't, you had to park like down the street and risk getting it. That's where I parked. Yeah, like a train station or something. Yeah, exactly. That's a local pool. I'm not even kidding. It's pretty true. I parked in Ray's spot. And then you know what I did the next time? I did it again. The beginning of a beautiful rivalry. Anyway, I'm glad everyone's peppy because I am a little tired, to be honest with you, coming back from New York City because it was an amazing, amazing event that we were at called the Summer Fancy Food Show.

2:51And I walked and walked and walked. And, you know, typically when you traverse these amazing, yeah, Melissa traverse, traverse these amazing shows, you come back a little tired, but I think everyone seemed to really enjoy this edition of the Summer Fancy Food Show. It was so great. There are so many great products, our favorite founders, the River, I feel like, you know, half of us barely made it out of the River Pavilion, which was the very top floor, but it was such a great show. Yeah, the River Pavilion was pretty amazing because it hosted about 300 plus early stage brands that were some of the more impressive brands that I've seen this year.

3:34Actually, I'm not even, it's, that's not hyperbole. I think the innovation, the excitement, the passion that we always talk about on this show was all represented at the River Pavilion. Typically it's, um, that whole area is like downstairs in a corner of the show. And I think specialty food association did a really good job putting them in a brighter area in a much better light so to speak yes that's so key yeah because in the past we've complained about the javits center feels like a dungeon it feels like a basement and not only does the javits center continue to you know up its game with just adding a little bit of light makes a huge difference and as Melissa said, the way that they have been organizing the event, it just keeps getting better and better and better and it's difficult to get just out of certain areas because it's really set up for great conversations, great sampling and just checking out new innovation.

4:34Yeah, I did spend some time downstairs in the, they call it the basement, but it's just really the first floor. On the first day and the second day, I just tried to hit as many booze in the River Pavilion as possible. And just to be clear, the River Pavilion was made up of a bunch of groups that were highlighting brands or work with different early stage brands. Shout out to Startup CPG. Great job. To a lot of the incubators like the Hatchery in Chicago, Commonwealth Kitchen in Massachusetts. There were a few others. I'm blanking. I think Emerge CPG, but Emerge CPG actually might have been downstairs.

5:08Anyway, it's so great to see those organizations supporting founders because it's kind of expensive to go to these shows and to have booth space and to help bring awareness to and visibility to your brand. It's a great thing these organizations are doing. I didn't have a hell of a lot of time because I was just there for the day and my trains were late, but the Startup CPG team is a really kind team and they know what we like and they'll say, oh, you should try this. You should try and kind of give us a rundown of all the stuff when we get there too, which is really, I don't know. I love that.

5:38Yeah. Well, I know we have a lot of brands and products we want to talk about. But Jackie, you were scrolling through Instagram. I was. In your office in San Diego. I was stalking everyone. You got to come next year. Who told you not to come? She didn't want to. She didn't want to. Oh, now we know. It's a long trip. Now we know. It's a long trip. It's a six-hour flight, you know. Okay, well, it was damn well worth it, I would say. I know. It sounds like it. I mean, yeah, I was stalking you all, following all your Instagrams. but yeah I found a couple things I thought was really interesting I saw on um Adrian DeLuca's Instagram she posted the milkadamia oat milk sheets which I thought were really interesting so you take like these sheets of like dehydrated oats and you put it in a blender and you get a quart of oat milk that's awesome okay now that that is that is amazing could you also sleep under them?

6:37Yeah. Ooh, maybe. They're under threat. Multipurpose. Well, I guess for context. Egyptian oat milk. Are they just like three by three inch sheets? I'm imagining something that's pretty easy and portable. Yeah. It's just like in a standard, like it almost looks like a pasta box size. Okay. Yeah. It's not like bed sheets. Okay. Okay. Good. Well, that does sound rare. That'd be a lot of milk. But let's be honest. I mean. It's more like bounce. it's it's a real great sustainability play right you're not shipping heavy liquid it sounds like it's easy to make all you have to do is put the sheet in some water shake it up and you got some is it oat milk or is it milkadamia nut milk i would assume it's the latter they make oat milk i believe do they okay well again i think that's a that's a great way to ship sustainably and probably for a lot of folks you know it's a great way to be able to bring oat milk with you on trips and not have to worry about where you're going to find it or a cold DoorDash or Uber Eats.

7:41You can just do it in your hotel or wherever. So I like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was interesting. I also saw a product called Juicy Bites. So the packaging was really, really cool. And it was just fully cooked chicken breasts. And it's like six packs of chicken breasts and you throw it in the microwave for like a minute and you just have, you know, chicken, which is so simple. And it's not something for me, but I was, you know, if I was a meat eater, I would definitely try that product and they just launch. So that's something new. You just throw in the microwave and you got chicken.

8:18But everyone's so obsessed with protein. And I think a lot of people don't necessarily want protein powder or protein bars. It's real protein that's portable. So I think that is a cool thing. So I tried it. I think you probably saw it on my Instagram feed, Jackie. So it's these two Korean guys. It wasn't originally called Juicy Bite. They just rebranded and they have, I believe it's somewhat cooked chicken. I don't think it's, I don't think it's completely raw in this vacuum sealed plastic pouch. And you put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and out comes a really moist, juicy chicken breast.

8:54And I tried it and it was really good. Now, normally I'd be a little afraid to try something, you know, plastic in the microwave. Yeah, that doesn't sound like you. It doesn't sound like me, but it was fantastic. And I invited those guys to join us for an upcoming episode of our Elevator Talk series. And for folks listening who are early stage or represent early stage or emerging brands, I highly encourage you to participate in Elevator Talk. It's a bi-monthly video and audio series where we sit down with entrepreneurs who are building really disruptive, innovative brands, talk to them for about 10 minutes each.

9:25And in each episode, we have a co-host who is an expert in the industry who can give some feedback and advice. That expert is usually an investor, a retailer, a distributor. So we record new shows every two weeks and we'll be recording them through the rest of the year. So if you want some more information, just shoot me an email or go to bevnet or nosh.com slash elevator. Not bevnet or nosh.com, bevnet.com slash elevator talk or nosh.com slash elevator talk. All right, Terry. We should get bevnet or nosh.com for the number of times this guy says that okay all right all right we can work on that all right that'd be funny you know what i don't okay for the one person in the world that was going to go to i apologize i sincerely get it and they're gonna put some weird site up of probably ai mike or am all the time.

10:19Jackie, did you see my post about this new brand? It's called Nikigo, N-I-K-I-G-O. And they make soy-free soy sauce. Did anyone see this at the show? It was really interesting. The founder reached out to me on LinkedIn. I put a post about attending the show and wanted to see some new things. And yeah, she has soy-free soy sauce, soy-free teriyaki sauce. It was really impressive. She uses a mushroom base. I was thinking, is it tamari? Because tamari is like a soy, that's miso, right? Tamari? Yeah. This describes it, there's no coconut, no gluten, no peas, no soy. But yeah, what she said is that she uses mushrooms as a base.

10:57This is really difficult because describing something as what it's not, but also is, that's one of the strangest stories that we continue to see. I have one too for after this. Yeah. Well, this is described as a soy sauce replacement, not a soy free soy sauce. Soy sauce replacement. So that's an interesting model. But what actually is it again? Like, what are you eating? Is it like fermented mushrooms? I believe so. It's very similar, I think, in terms of how it's produced, just the ingredients are a little different. And so like an alternative to coconut aminos as well. Exactly. And that's what the founder told me.

11:35She's like, you know, our primary competitor, even though they're brand new, would be that brand that you referenced. So they're a fermented mushroom sauce that is a soy replacement. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty easy to explain. So what do you have in your hand there? Well, what is this? What does this look like? Chocolate bar. It looks like a chocolate bar, but this is Kapuasu, which is sort of like a cow. So Kapuasu, the brand name is Figa, F-I-G-A. Right. These are Capozo bars. And they come in these standard 2.1 ounce bars. I think if you look at a chocolate bar, a premium chocolate bar, you know what I'm talking about.

12:07Yeah. And these are, they're marketed similarly to premium chocolate bars. And I'd say that it's basically a fruitier chocolate. So this one is salty. I also have fruity in my hand. What's the one you have? So they're like the Cadbury fruit and nut bars. Yeah, but natural. Just kidding. But they're not unlike that. Oh, really? Okay. So here's the question. You should try. I have the 63%. It's branded as chocolate's Brazilian cousin. Yeah, that's really interesting. Try the salty. I'm going to wait because I have a problem eating during the show. I know. Well, I'll do it. So is it a different part of the cacao plant or is it just a different variety of cacao?

12:47It's not cacao at all. In fact, it's capua-su, which is a commodity like cacao. Gotcha. And so on the back, it says Brazil's national fruit, capua soup, and described as the cousin of cacao. We upcycle the seeds of the superfood from regenerative farms to make our uniquely curious bars. What do you think, Melissa? It's chocolatey. But I would say that if I really wanted chocolate, I think I would still want chocolate. There's a little bit of a dryness in there. Really? I find it very buttery smooth, like cocoa buttery smooth. What's really interesting though, what I love about this is that this fruity variety only has three ingredients and a lot of chocolate bars are packed with ingredients, you know, a lot more than you would think.

13:36This one has kapua, su, dates, cocoa butter, and demarara sugar. So I guess that's four ingredients. This one you add, this one is kapua, su, dates, cocoa butter, and sea salt. So Melissa, you were expecting chocolate, though. That's probably it. Right. Yeah, I mean, I think if I open something shaped like a chocolate bar and it's branded like a chocolate bar, I want the chocolate. And I think that's the exact issue that they're going to have because you see 63 % Capoçu bar. You see smaller on here, chocolate's Brazilian cousin, and then you get a flavor. And I think it's good. But it's like just for me, it's a fruitier, the way that this one is presented as a fruitier chocolate.

14:19Yeah. Even when you said Kapuosu, I still thought you were talking about chocolate. I was like, so like pretty much chocolate, right? Yeah. I'd be curious to know too, chocolate has been found to increase dopamine levels. And I don't know if that's because of the sugar or because of the antioxidants in the chocolate or what, but I'm curious to know if it's still, if it has similar properties to chocolate in that way. See, there's so much education that you need to put into selling a capo suit bar, which is why I hope first that more capo suit bars come out because I think these are delicious and Figa could use a few market makers with them.

14:52And not to mention so important is the prices of cacao increase exponentially. And that's not a situation that's going away. So alternatives like this will become more and more important. Well, these are also premium, too. You can see just by the packaging that I opened up here, these are around$9. Well, let's stay on the alternative ingredient front. I was introduced to a brand yesterday called Jack's Dad's Hummus. Did you guys get to see this brand? I did. They make their hummus not with tahini, but with miso. Really? Yeah. So Jack's dad was making hummus at home, and he realized he didn't have any tahini.

15:32He's like, oh, what do I have? He has miso. So they made it. it's really delicious. It was a really, really creamy hummus. The miso is definitely evident. When you're eating it, you definitely get that umami flavor. It was really fantastic. I feel like at a time when it's so hard to differentiate, you know, one hummus from another, this one really stands out. Good stuff. That sounds tasty. The name's interesting. I don't think I would have gotten miso from Jack's dad's hummus, but I really want to try it. So it's hard to see from my phone because I don't have the package in front of me. I don't have the actual package in front of me.

16:06But yeah, the top of the tub says Jack's Dad's Hummus. And the bottom, it says family recipe made with miso. And it's pretty prominent on the top there. That sounds amazing. Did you guys try the Zahav hummus? The Zahav? Zahav. So Michael Solomonov. Oh, the Zahav. Yeah, they sent us a product here. Yeah. So that was the first time that I had tried that. And it really lived up to the name. It was delicious. After I saw Jack's Dead's hummus, I saw a brand that we know and love called Doostra. Oh, Patrick, we love you. Everyone's smiling. Everyone's enjoying themselves. Just the best. Doostra underwent a rebrand that looks fantastic.

16:48The brand is now described as an Indian snack mix first and foremost. So the largest font on the front of pack is Indian snack mix. And then it describes the ingredients and it has a picture of the ingredients as well. It looks really, really good. But what was most impressive to me was the new product that they have, the walnut and dark chocolate flavor, which really, it put me on the floor. It was so good. And Mike and I were talking about this, but Kartik found the walnut supplier at our event. and we were talking specifically about how the walnuts have been, the skins have been removed from the walnuts.

17:26So you don't get that kind of like bitter, flaky mouth drying feeling from the walnuts and the walnuts and the dark chocolate and those crisps are so amazing together. It's the difference between like formulating a food in your kitchen and then like using food scientists to actually make something that can scale. You know, you can't just throw a bunch of walnuts in a blender and pop them out and make Dusra. It's a pretty well-crafted snack. And Kartik's new packaging is, it just oozes glass. And it kind of, I told him this and I kind of spread it around a bit, but we also workshopped this when we had lunch with Kartik the other day.

18:06Kartik's new Dusra feels like a snack your granddad would give you, like in the best way. It's like special, something he would covet for himself and would share with you because you loves you, you know, sort of thing. And I feel like that's Karthik. He's got like that granddad style energy. He tells great stories. He gives people presents. He just wants to see the cool looks on your face. He wants you to experience great stuff. And he never really asks for anything in return. He's like the kindest person you could ever possibly meet. And he wears his belt really high up.

18:36He's like he's smoking a pipe in his soul. He's an old soul. And I feel like he went went to Granddad University and got his degree already. Like he's got his masters. He's awesome. And he knows everything about BevNet and Nosh. So he mentioned, you know, meeting the walnut suppliers at Nosh Live. He was talking up elevator talk to people I was sitting next to. Yeah, what a guy. He ran over at some point and introduced me to a new brand called Wild Manners, which is a brand of a bottled cocktail brand, which was fantastic. So yeah, obviously Karthik, great stuff. It's the kind of person we wanna hang out with all the time.

19:12All the time. All the time. All the time. He gave me this brand called Crocca, which is peanut bites, sweet and zesty, rooted in four simple ingredients, 28 calories per bite. What is it called? It's called Crocca. Crocca. C-R-O-C-K-A-O. And it has a massage sticker on the back. Oh, yeah. I made a massage shirt to wear at the event yesterday. But, yeah, there's one bite left, Melissa. Here you go. Those are a great train snack. And I thought they were just going to be like, you know kind of the old school sweet peanut bites it's a square peanut bite kind of held together by uh is it caramel caramel super tasty i think these are delicious and the ginger and the cardamom in there give it a special twist that really makes it seem different than just a peanut brittle again car sick curating the experience of fancy foods for us so delicious yeah they're really good.

20:06I know we could go on and on and on. I want to mention just, let's do a quick fire. Yeah, let's do a quick fire. Okay, quick fire. Brooklyn Deli, a maker of premium plant-based Indian sauces. And now they have pouches of ready to make meals. You put them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Fantastic stuff. They have a new sweet potato, coconut dal, black bean, butter masala, chickpea, teakhan masala, red bean, rajma masala. Love Brooklyn Deli. What about that tamarind sauce? I died when I tasted it. I died. There was also tamarind. Sorcery has tamarind, and they have it in a jar, so you can just add it to stuff with a bunch of other great spices.

20:47Also, shout-outs to Pody for being another great South Indian Desi brand. How do you spell that? P-O-D-I. Pody? Ginny's. Did you try Ginny's? Ginny's Pizza? Great new beverage brand. Ginny's Pizza, yes. Ginny's Pizza, great pizza spot in Newton. How do you spell Ginny's? G-I-N-N-Y. I saw it. Yeah. Lucas and I had a quick sample there and it was just really, really nice stuff and looking forward to hearing more from them. Did you try Nourir? N-O-U-R-R-I-R-I. Those flavors were exquisite. Weren't they? Exquisite. It's a beverage brand. It's a beverage brand. There was a cranberry skew that I thought was so fantastic.

21:24Pineapple. The pineapple ginger. Pineapple ginger was my favorite. So good. That was so good. N-O-U-R-I-R. N-O-U-R-I-R. Yes. Nurear. Yeah. Nurear. What type of beverage is it? It might have two Rs. Good question, Jackie. What type of beverage is it? Fruit. And so they use fruit juice to sweeten the beverage. Right. We've got to have them on Elevator Talk because I don't know enough about them. I invited them to join us. I invited them too. Yeah. Okay. So I think most of these brands we've invited. And then in what I would call the sincerest form of flattery that I've seen in quite a while, Shout out to Kefir Cult, who has a new coconut kefir, which when you open it, the jar, it can explode.

22:06It's like got so many active probiotics in there. Is that a good thing? Yeah. It's the same thing that might happen. It's like another cult. Never mind. Coconut cult. I said it. Yes. And then what I just want to maybe unpack for a second is... This is supposed to be rapid fire. This is not going to be rapid fire. It's going to be a story time just for a second, though. Okay. it's worth it. I'm telling you, this is worth it. Did you try the new formulations of Nara? No, I have not. Oh my gosh. So I got to catch up with Victoria and Miguel Reyes, co-founders, brother and sister. Of Nara, which is a milk tea or a canned milk tea brand.

22:43Filipino canned milk tea brand, which was extraordinary before. And I think they, you know, they've just been working on the balance over time. And the strawberry matcha now is to die for. It's got the perfect, it was a little leaning, a little on the bitter side. And now they've kind of dialed it back in so that the balance is perfect. And they had their younger sister with them too, Monica, who they were just millennialing away. And the looks on Monica's face were just precious. And it was so great. She made the cringe face, the cringe emoji face. And I think she might've been the inspiration for it.

23:24But if you have a chance to meet Victoria and Miguel and Monica, you have to. They're just two. They're awesome folks. Three of the best people that I know. I mean, just extraordinary. And their drinks. Oh, my God. All right, Mosa, rapid fire. What do you got? Rapid fire. Okay. So first of all, Theo Perez is the founder of a coffee company called Theo's Big House Coffee. I don't know if you guys had a chance to check it out, but it's indigenous owned. So he's a children's book author and he lives and works on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon. And so he created this coffee company specifically to bring funding to schools and repairs on the reservation, that kind of thing.

24:05So 85 % of the proceeds of what he does goes back to the reservation. And he was just the loveliest man ever. And I don't know, I feel like these days, knowing that people are doing things like that and trying to improve the world around us, I think is especially nice to know now. I also have to give a shout out to Barry's. Those are the frozen raspberries. Oh my gosh, those things are incredible. Those were my to die for food. They had one that was coated in white chocolate and it had pistachio. It was just out of this world. Amazing. B-A-R-I apostrophe S. It is worth it, folks. Really, really fantastic and amazing.

24:47I also thought that Slaka was interesting. So that was a, it's a new beverage on the market. They're marketing themselves as a supplement and they have paroxanthine, 5-HTP, L-theanine, And it's supposed to curb your food cravings. And they're sort of positioning themselves as a GLP-1 alternative. It's also supposed to help your mood. I also thought the sweetener that they used wasn't something that I've heard of before. It was OnoSweet. So that's a fermented glycoside, which is in stevia. So it's supposed to be better for you than erythritol, but also more affordable than stevia. And I was dying to like, I don't have Donald Wilkes of Blue Pacific on text, but I was dying to text him and ask him what he thought about Onosuite.

25:36So that I think was really interesting. Onosuite? O-N-O? O-N-O-S-W-E-E-T. We'll have to give Don a call. Yeah, we'll have to give Don a call. And you know, you should check out the Nonbase podcast on nonbase.com slash podcast, because we just interviewed him and he was talking about some of the up and coming ingredients that he sees as, you know, being positioned to blow up in the future. So Don Wilkes of Blue Pacific Foods are talking about who is one of the smartest people we know in terms of formula. And then also the founders of Sour Milk, just some of my favorite people ever. They're delivering everything direct.

26:19And when I say direct, I don't mean they're dropping shipments off at retailers. They're meeting their consumers at like yoga studios and like out in the community, farmers markets. And they're just buying the product directly from these two women. I feel like between Sour Milk and Lucky Ox, they're just competing to be the hardest working team. The hardest working new brand in the industry right now. No, they're great. It was fun to catch up with them. And yeah, as Melissa said, like they're riding their bikes, like they're always moving. They're always on the go. They're like, go, go, go, go, go.

26:50And they meet so many people and they're trying to get their Sour Milk out there. And I mean, that's what you have to do as a new founder. And I have one more. I got to meet one of my sort of like industry legend people. So I'm such a huge fan of Ines Rosales. They're those olive oil tortas from Seville. And I'm just so impressed with the way that they've been able to distribute the product all across the country and to me lose very little quality. They're just that like perfectly sweet, light, airy, crispy product. So I got to meet Lucia, who's their VP of national sales. and she's still in the family, but they've been doing it for over a hundred years.