Spiderman & 'Saints' Are Top Of Mind. One Was Chased By Sharks.

28:10I also have another product, which would be good for holidays, called Oatrageous. And these are dairy-free oat milk cream, like cocktails. So this one is the espresso variety. So I'm going to guess it's going to kind of be like an espresso martini experience, but it's dairy-free. And then this one is a bourbon cream. So it has oat milk liqueur and small batch bourbon whiskey in it. And then they have just their traditional oat milk cream liqueur. But I thought it was interesting. I feel like, you know, if people want something a little bit creamier on the holidays and they don't like dairy or they can't consume dairy, it's a good alternative.

28:54And yeah, I think that packaging also is pretty clean. And yeah, cool looking. Yeah. I do want to talk about a couple more brands, which to start with. Okay. How about this one? So Momofuku has launched a new product. This is their garlic crunch, which is a little similar to their chili crunch in that it is made with oil and seeds and wonderful flavors that you can use on a lot of different things. But of course, garlic crunch would mean that the primary ingredient or the primary flavoring is garlic. And so it looks amazing. I haven't tried this yet. I specifically brought it out here because Mike's not in the office.

29:35And I know he would try to steal this and open it up and, you know, drink half of it immediately. Jeez. Yeah. So this just launched and it doesn't, as far as I can tell, it doesn't have any heat. It's just really focused on the garlic. So I want to dip into this garlic crunch with some pita chips. Issa's, I-S-S-A apostrophe S has some new restaurant style pita chips that they sent to me. and I tried this stuff when I was in New York. I think I originally saw this at the Sahadi store in Brooklyn in Industry City. And I was really impressed with the product. So I know you're, John, a big pita chip eater, no?

30:19Sure, yeah, I like a pita chip. I think we should try dipping it in some garlic crunch. Okay, I don't have any hand sanitizer with me, so maybe you can do it. I know, what excuse? Okay, so no, but these are actually described as pita dips, not pita chips. It says crispy like a chip made to dip. So why don't we open them up here? Okay, hold on. You can do this. Just pour a few on the table. I'll eat them off the table. I'm getting some good sound effects here. Oh, these look amazing. They smell amazing too. Just give me a little pour. Okay, one's good. One's good. Okay. Okay, do you want to dip it into the...

30:55What could go wrong? A lot, actually. I like it. Here, should I open this over the laptop?

31:04what could go wrong with garlic oil spilling all over the place it's not where oh my gosh just waiting for an explosion of oil everywhere looks like a nice level scoop good oh i he mikey he loves it

31:25yeah you're right mike mike would still this whole jar i know you would okay so it's a really good combination as expected yes

31:37okay well well done he says well done momofuku all right save some for the team but what oh my i know i'm like waiting for his finger to land i know don't do it don't don't don't just put your pinky nail in it just ruin it oh my gosh okay i have to seal this up all right thank you listeners for bearing with us while John was crunching his Issa's pita chips and mofuku garlic crunch. We appreciate you. And I really mean that. Thank you so much to our listeners. And you guys are the best. And thank you for all the kind words that you share with us in the notes you send us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

32:16And the five-star reviews you're about to post. The five-star reviews. And I'm being really, really serious. It's really humbling when I get a message on LinkedIn or Instagram or an email saying you really love the show, you like our banter, you like our interviews. It means a lot to us. And as John mentioned, if you could, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, we would be very, very happy and appreciative that you did. You can just go to Apple Podcasts on your app, and I think you can also do it on your PC now as well. Pretty easy. Just go to the bottom of the page and you'll find a way to leave us a review.

32:52On that note, I think it's time to get to our interview with Megan Klein. 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. As I mentioned at the top of the episode, Megan Klein is the founder and CEO of Little Saints, a brand of zero-sugar, non-alcoholic cocktails and spirits infused with functional mushrooms and other adaptogens. A former practicing attorney, Megan launched Little Saints in 2021, following entrepreneurial ventures in food and farming.

33:35Little Saints markets several canned cocktails, including a Paloma, Negroni Spritz, Ginger Mule, and Spicy Margarita, and also sells a Mezcal-inspired spirit called Saint Ember. While the products are primarily sold direct to consumer, the brand is carried nationally at Sprouts and is rapidly expanding distribution at other retail chains. In the following interview, Megan discusses how her personal interest in Better For You adult libations led to the creation of Little Saints. She also speaks about the brand's unorthodox social media strategy, why dropping CBD from the products had a big impact on sales, why the company invests heavily in meta ads, how Little Saints navigated a controversial issue, and how she prepared for an appearance on the ABC business competition show Shark Tank.

34:32Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm honored to be sitting down with Megan Klein, who is the founder and CEO of Little Saints. Megan, great to see you. Great to see you, Ray. I'm so excited to be here. Finally, we're making it happen. I know. You're here at BevNet HQ in Newton, Massachusetts. You're here in full dress, so to speak. Actually, this is half dress. This is like business on the bottom and mushrooms on the top. Like sometimes it's like full mushroom. What Megan's talking about is that she has a mushroom headband on right now. If you're not watching the video, it's pretty impressive.

35:05It's a real reishi mushroom. It's a huge reishi mushroom. It's about a six inch wide dried reishi mushroom that I glued on. I made this. I know that's very shocking. I glued onto a headpiece. Why is it? Why would it be shocking? Yeah, it's really not. Have you seen my Instagram? Yes. I encourage folks to go to the Little Saints Instagram account. Do you guys have like 55 ,000 followers? Yeah, 55. It's at Little Saints Co. Yeah. That's really impressive for a brand that's just about three years old. Yeah. Three years old, no celebrities. I mean, listen, we do a lot of meta advertising. Okay. Like we're 85 % D to C sales.

35:39And then also my CMO, Katie, and I love to just do weird, wacky, ridiculous content. We dress up as the characters, you know, to show people what the ingredients feel like and not tell. And so if you've seen our Instagram, we do like ridiculous. We're like, I'll dress up like Damiana. Katie will dress up like Reishi and we'll like show what they would do if they went to Lollapalooza or something like that. Well, Mike, our CRMO, loves, loves what you guys do. And it's like encouraging other people, other founders. You should do what Little Saints is doing. You know, ask Megan what she's doing and do that.

36:13That's what he says. So just so you know. Just have no filter in between what's in your head and what goes out on the internet. Oh, I don't know if that's. That's my, that's my method. Okay. That's your method. Yeah. That's my masterclass for everyone. Not necessarily your advice. Kind of. I mean, that's what we do for our Instagram. It is. Yeah. Maybe that's not a good idea from the look on your face, but it's what we do. I would say within reason, certain. I mean, you don't want to get in trouble. I mean, is that a yes or a no? We kind of do. Okay. How? I mean, I just, I think that what is really important for all brands and us, like, especially is authenticity.

36:50And so like, if I am starting to filter myself, like I feel like I can feel it and probably like our customers can feel it. So I feel better in myself if I'm totally unfiltered on things. And like, I think that that authenticity shows through to our customers, you know, like we've got a really high returning customer rate. Like we've got pretty good engagement on our Instagram. And I would like to think that's because people kind of see us like really not giving that shit. Sure, sure. And like, hopefully kind of feeling like, oh, cool. Like, I kind of want to do that too. And I want to try these drinks because like whatever these girls are drinking, I want to try it.

37:27Were you always someone who was without filter or did it take you time to get used to that? I mean, I used to be a lawyer, so I definitely, I know. Wow. I was not suspecting that. Yeah. I used to, I was a lawyer for 10 years. Okay. Which is insane. But yeah, so I definitely have to have a filter during the day. Like at work, I was never, I never felt like I was myself. And then at night I would, you know, go out and I lived in New York. I was like pretty wild. I drank a lot. And like, I just then like the filter would come off, but I was for so many years, for decades, I was living kind of a dual life where I would have like tons of filters and like be really buttoned up during the day.

38:05And then just like completely the opposite at night. And then slowly over the years, like those like day and night kind of morph together. And now it's just the same all the time. I think that's a great lead-in to the development of Little Saints, which is a mushroom-powered, non-alcoholic cocktail. And you brought us some new product. This is the latest from Little Saints, their spiced, old-fashioned, sparkling cocktail. It's made with reishi and damiana. Damiana for life. I'm sorry, for love. Yeah, for love. What's damiana? What's the function on? Damiana is like a flower botanical and it is like, you can't say this on a can, but people think of it as like an aphrodisiac kind of like it gives you like some body feels.

38:54So reishi mushroom, what I'm wearing on my head, if I were to embody reishi mushroom, I'd be like a chill, cool girl, kind of nothing bothers me. I'm just like really relaxed and at ease, but not sleepy. And then the Damiana, if we go through our characters, Damiana is like all sexy and like inner body and like really kind of like amps it up a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Well, on the back of the can, it says that Damiana, well, the product itself is formulated to arouse positive emotions and playful desires. So, okay. It's 1130 AM. Well, I'm drinking it right now. So watch out. Yeah. Well, I'm going to sip on this as well.

39:32as someone who loves old fashions, this is a fantastic product. Please forgive me for not drinking it with ice. Oh, you don't want ice? Well, yeah. So Kenny Sadowski, the beverage whisperer, encourages folks to drink things not cold. Yeah, because I think you're getting more of the flavor if you are just tasting it sort of at room temperature. So this is great. There's a little bit of a cola kind of essence to it as well. Is that intentional or is it just sort of a kind of a deliciousness that I'm getting with this. It's, you know, we're trying to get as close to the like cocktail flavors as you can.

40:07And without like bourbon in there, like that flavoring is kind of the closest to make it taste like, you know, we want to, if here's the spectrum of like, this is sparkling water and this is an old fashioned, we want to be like much closer to old fashioned. Gotcha. It's really good. Really, really good. Going back to your interest in mushrooms and non-alcoholic cocktails. It sounds like in your personal life, you wanted to step away from some of the going out in the late nights and so on and so forth. I mean, was it something that took some time for you to get interested in this space or was it just, you know, I'm done with nightlife and I really want to find a way to sort of fill that void with something positive and healthier?

40:47Actually, I wanted to keep nightlife there. I just wanted to drink something else. That was like my whole thing. Like I still go out all the time and like, I love going out dancing and staying out late. I just was realizing that like the alcohol part of it was like, what was like making me feel like tired and burnt out all the time. So I was, you know, I've been an entrepreneur in food and beverage for a little while. I founded the brand Field and Farmer, which had like salad dressings and dips and juices. And before that, I ran a hydroponic basil farm. This is all after you were an attorney or left your law firm.

41:20So attorney first. And then I knew I just felt like I was like, this is not right. And even at the end of being an attorney, I was an attorney for Earth Justice. So I was doing nonprofit environmental work. And I really like felt passionate about the work that they do. But just like in terms of like the impact that I was making, I'm not like that fun and like that great to be around. I'm fighting all the time. And I found that like I wasn't actually inspiring any of my friends and family to like love the environment more by being an Earth Justice attorney. I was kind of just getting angrier. And then COVID, January 2021, I was living alone in Detroit during the pandemic.

41:56Do not recommend. I didn't have any friends there. I mean, I love - If there's another pandemic, definitely don't move to Detroit. Do not do that. Well, I love Detroit. Like I completely love Detroit. It was just like, I just moved there and I had no friends. So I was basically just like in this house by myself. And I had gone from drinking alcoholic cocktails with friends and like, you know, socially for a long time to doing like zoom happy hours. And then also having like a Negroni or two, it wasn't like I was like drinking bottles of wine by myself, but I was having like a cocktail or two, you know, probably more nights than not throughout the week.

42:30And with just no distractions and just me and myself in this house, I was like, Oh God, like, I really see that this is like, you know, making me anxious. I kind of feel like I'm spending my morning meditation and yoga, but just getting back up to baseline. If I don't have two coffees, like I'm not really like totally there. And so I tried dry January for the first time. Well, no, I tried dry January a million times, like every year and failed. And so this time I had like this big kitchen table and I bought everything that was out there and like lots of beautiful brands that are still there today.

43:01You're talking about non-alcohol cocktails. Yes. Non-alcohol cocktails that are still there today that I still drink, but like everything had sugar in it. Even if it was called white grape juice concentrate, I was like, okay, this has a bunch of grams of sugar in it. Nothing like had a smell. And like, I'm really into essential oils and smells and terpenes, which are just aromatics. And like, that's why we like alcohol. One of the reasons, you know, with like wine, we like, we associate the smell of a good wine with like a positive experience we've had before. And so that's like a multi-sensory kind of like attractive thing about alcohol.

43:34So sugar, no smell. And then nothing had like a functional ingredient that like really resonated with me. Of course, there are brands that have functional ingredients in them. But in my personal life, I like to like not stack too many adaptogens. Like if I have like a bunch of adaptogens all in one, I feel kind of crazy. So I just like I was like, okay, like I work with really potent functional mushrooms in my coffee and just in supplements. And like, I know that when I have them alone, they're really effective. And so it's like, I want to do something with like like mushrooms and scent and no sugar.

44:05And that's how Little Saints was born. What was your first step to saying, okay, I have this idea. How do I create the first can of Little Saints? Well, I work with a food scientist with our masters in adaptogens and a bartender to create the flavors. How do you find those folks? We had formulation at our, like Field & Farmer is the Fresh Factory, which is like the parent company and it has a coat packer. It's mostly a coat packer. So like I already had worked with food scientists and I just understood the process. And so I didn't work with the food scientists that I knew, but I just kind of talked to my network and I was like, I need someone who really understands like mushrooms and adaptogens to help me with this.

44:39So, and then I went to them and I was like, listen, these are the parameters. It's got to be like super clean label. It's got to be sugar-free with only pure monk fruit juice concentrate. We actually used Stevia in the beginning too and dropped that. But like, I just kind of gave them the flavor profiles and like the parameters in terms of like clean label and ingredients. And we just went back and forth. You originally included or used Stevia? We originally included Stevia and also we originally included CBD. CBD, yeah. I wanted to ask about that because when I first encountered Little Saints, it was at Erewhon.

45:12I'm pretty sure it was 2021 or 2022. We launched at Erewhon in November 2021. Okay. Yeah, it was December. It was when I were at BevNet Live in December 2021. And I remember seeing the can. I'm like, wow, this is so interesting. It's so differentiated. It's not like anything I've seen before. It had mushrooms, CBD. It was an on-off cocktail. It seemed like the convergence of a lot of trends happening in one can. But to be completely honest with you, Megan, I think I told you this before. I was like, this is totally an Erwan product. And that's not a knock on brands that are in Erwan, but it's like, okay, I'm going to see this here, but I may not see it a couple months from now.

45:46How are you able to get interest beyond that West LA crowd, which for sure embraces these kinds of concepts, loves products like Little Saints, but how are you able to get buy-in beyond those pockets in the United States that are known for a bit more eccentric consumption of food and beverage? Well, first of all, I think like dropping CBD was a big part of it. I mean, 2022, I was still self-funding it. I mean, I think you know this, but I started the brand when I was 42. I thought I would get married and have kids. I had a big savings instead of like birthing children. I put it into the brand.

46:22And so I was like, you know, I am all in invested. And at the time, I was terrified because we actually launched with a like an alcohol distributor in California, because like we were doing really well at Erewhon. So I was like, okay, this makes sense. Like, we're gonna get this out to a broader group of people with this alcohol distributor. And again, that had CBD in it. And even for California, like the, you know, the brand didn't have big enough brand awareness, like I'll totally take full responsibility for that. And then also, like, we thought that like, there was a lot of awareness of non-alc in 2022.

46:53But as you know, like, it's super, it's grown so much. And so like, even in California, like there wasn't enough interest from grocery and retail and liquor stores to get little saints off the ground. So then in 2023, we still had CBD in the product, but I was like, okay, like we either like go out of business and I just lost all my savings or we completely pivot and become a DTC brand because we knew that like when people tried the product, they for the most part liked it. We knew that there was a lot of education to be had. You know, I've done like hundreds and hundreds of in-person events. And what really resonates with people is like just a sugar-free non-alcoholic cocktail.

47:32Sometimes the mushrooms are confusing, but not that often. The CBD was very confusing. And so what we started to do was just meta ads. We were like, okay, we're going to like do like educative, informative, like Instagram ads so that people start to recognize the brand. They see like normal people drinking it and they like can understand what the use case is for it. Because I think people, like, as you said, like, it seemed niche, it seemed like, how would I actually use this? Like, what is this thing? So we really just completely pivoted. And in 2023, you know, like 95 % of our sales were DTC.

48:02We were mostly just like an e-com brand. And then we dropped CBD from the cans in November of 2023. And that's when like little saints, like became much more mainstream. I didn't realize how much CBD was like hindering our growth. We surveyed our customers. We talked to a lot of people and what we started to see was that like CBD was more of a hindrance. Like for example, I was at a dinner party with this woman and she was like, I really love your drinks and I drink them all the time at home, but I'm afraid to bring them to my friend's houses for dinner because I think they're going to think they're drugs because they had CBD in them.

48:37We know CBD is not a drug, but like, it was just like this kind of association. And so we were like, okay, well, we don't want that. And the purpose of having the CBD in there in the first place was to kind of give that take the edge off feeling. and also in 2023 we found like the best mushroom supplier ever they do like it was not the same mushroom ingredient supplier we had in the first place they do um 70 percent beta-glucan reishi mushroom extract and like the beta i'll just geek out for a second the beta-glucan is a functional part of a mushroom and like if you take a regular ground up reishi mushroom including all the fibers and the fruiting bodies and everything if you dry that up and like you test the beta-glucan content it's going to be about a 0.1 % potency.

49:17The reishi mushroom that we use in Little Saints is the beta-glucan is actually extracted from the mushroom with ultrasound. And then they're using a 70 % beta-glucan extract for like the ingredient that they provide to us. So like our reishi mushroom extract in these cans is 70 % beta-glucan, which like, you know, is like about like 700 times more potent than it would be if we just like dried up the mushroom and put it in here. Okay. Sorry, that was a lot. No, it's really, really interesting. And I think as a loyal consumer, that kind of information is great. It's really helpful. It's something that you can probably share with others.

49:56You know, they use this really special technique to get the most out of the mushroom. But as you mentioned earlier, you had said most people were interested in this idea of a sugar-free non-al cocktail. So if the mushrooms are secondary, why spend as much time and money and focus and resources on that part of the product and the brand? Listen, everything that we put in there is like the most premium ingredient that we can possibly find. You know, like just mushrooms in general, what does it do for the end consumer if the end consumer isn't necessarily looking for that type of functional ingredient if they just want a great tasting sugar-free cocktail?

50:38Well, listen, because I think that like functional NA is like the next iteration of this category. And I think that there are, there's a lot of competition in NA, as you know, and like there will be like more sugar-free options out there. They probably won't taste as good. And like, I think that personally, and like in terms of our customers, they want like an extra added benefit, you know, like a sugar-free non-alcoholic cocktail. At the end of the day, it's like a healthy like soda drink, but there's like not any like real benefit to it. And we wanted to like make sure that there was something functional in there.

51:09So it's like, oh, I'm actually, instead of drinking alcohol tonight or for this drink, like I'm putting something in my body that's actually really good for me. Yeah, that's a good point. I think a secondary reason for drinking something or eating something is always a reason for people to pay a premium for sure as well. But getting to trial is really difficult. Everyone knows this. Liquid to lips is the phrase that I've been hearing for the past 14 years in this business. Especially difficult, I think, when you're primarily D to C. How are you getting people to try this product when most of your business is online?

51:44Well, we do a lot of product donation. So in the beginning, I was like paying for event sponsorships, and we were getting a lot of liquid to list through like paid stuff. And that really wasn't moving the needle. And so we've got a really good network of people that reach out to us events. So we like, you know, we donate to probably 40 or 50 events. What kind of events are these? Sometimes it'll be like a charity event, like a party, and they'll just, they'd want a non-alc option. And it's something that would be like aligned with our values. So it's something like pretty fun. Like we're not sponsoring yoga events.

52:15Like we definitely want to be like known as like a nighttime beverage. I like the way that you're looking at this strategically, which is that Little Saints is a nighttime beverage. It's a fun beverage for evenings. It's not something where, oh, after a hot yoga session, I'm going to reach for a spiced old-fashioned cocktail. That doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. No. So do you expect that Little Saints would be distributed in places where nightlife is most celebrated? Bars, restaurants, nightclubs, et cetera? Yes, that is like definitely our goal. And that's what we're really pushing for in Miami to start.

52:55And then in 2025, we're going to roll out that program. It's been tough. We don't have national distribution. We're not with like a Southern or a breakthrough or anything. Our only national distribution is Sprouts, our first retailer, which we love. And we're doing really well there, thankfully. But yeah, like the 2025 problem we're really trying to solve is just getting Little Saints cocktails like on the menu so that there is that choice there. And you're doing this starting in Miami because you're based in Miami. Yeah. Yeah. And because we're based in Miami, we love Miami. And also there's like not the non-elk menus in Miami are not as advanced as they are in other big cities like L.A.

53:28and New York. Picking your spots has got to be so important, too. You can't just say we want it everywhere in Miami. me. It's funny because you think of like the use case of like, you know, let's just call it like a high noon. You would have it at the, we're in Miami. So like people drink these at the pool all day long. Like you have them, like many, many people just have them in their fridge that they grab for one after work rather than like having. So it's like, we we've seen like alcohol with like nightlife and all that stuff, but it's really just the use case of like when you would have grabbed for like a glass of wine or like a day drink.

53:59I'm sorry if I'm coming across as challenging here, Megan, I'm asking just a few questions, but I think challenging you is probably what you're used to now, especially given your recent appearance on Shark Tank or your, I'm sorry, your upcoming appearance. We're recording this about a week and a half before the show airs. Congratulations on getting on the show, number one. I know you can't reveal too much about what happens on this show. Yes. And please remind me of that so I don't mess up. Yep. Okay. Don't worry. We can edit after the fact as needed. There's a big smile on your face. I don't know if that means anything, but I'll just leave it at that.

54:28You were interested in the show, just like a lot of entrepreneurs are interested in the show. A, you're hoping to get a deal, but I think probably the best part of it is that gives you a national ad in a lot of ways. What was your interest? I mean, again, I think it's the same interest as most people. Was your interest, you know, similar and, you know, how are you preparing for that airing? Because you're going gonna get crushed once you get on the show or once that show airs. I really wanted to, you know, we're always talking about internally and like, how can we make this like more accessible to people?

55:02I mean, obviously Little Saints has a high price point, you know, relative to other, this is like 549. For an eight ounce can, okay. That's fair. $5 on the website. And then our bottle of St. Ember, which is our best-selling product. It's like a tequila mezcal alternative. remind me to talk to you about that as well oh god yeah it's 50 bucks okay 50 bucks they're not cheap and what we've seen is like men are actually like the biggest purchaser of the saint ember which is great for us because you've seen little saints like you know it's skewed feminine and then we started seeing that like men were really buying the spirit especially and that was super exciting to us because it's not like we ever weren't trying to you know have men buy it but it was like really fun to see them adopt it so we've done a lot more of our advertising be male focused we're doing like a little like branding like refresh to have it skew a little bit less feminine because we really want this to be something that like is not like a niche non-alc thing like we've been seeing you know maybe if it was two years ago one friend out of 10 friends would have like known what non-alc is and had that in their fridge and i think that's really increasing to like oh for sure maybe like three or four or five people and so we wanted to we're always like doing things to like reach a broader section of people and so obviously like shark tank helps us do that to really get like little saints of course but like non-alc like on the big screen like i think people most people have now heard of it but it's like okay great if we can get out there and be like this is not like in quotes like sober movement this is just like an alternative to alcohol i think it's just drinking something better than alcohol whenever you want to make that swap so you could do it like one drink a night's a little saints like one night a week's a little saints like maybe one week a month is a little saints like whatever you want to do i just really wanted to get that message out there that like non-alc is like not necessarily replacing alcohol like i wanted to get that message like really out there nationally like if you drink little saints or any non-alcoholic beverage it doesn't mean that you can't drink alcohol anymore like 90 of our customers still drink alcohol it's like this is replacing sparkling water it is It's replacing like just having to order like a sparkling water at lime at a restaurant.

57:10It's replacing like being at home and grabbing a LaCroix instead of like a non-alcoholic Little Saints cocktail. So I really wanted to get that message out there that like Little Saints is like, and non-alcoholic is like an additive to people's lives. It's like really fun and it doesn't mean boring. Yeah, I think the mainstreaming of non-alcoholic cocktails and just non-alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic analogs is grown dramatically over the past year. you go into a restaurant and the non-alcoholic options are very visible on menus now. In fact, in some cases, they're pretty big, the option, the number of options.

57:43Non-alcoholic beer, I think, is helping drive that movement forward as well. So it feels like you wouldn't have to explain the potential for this category as much as you may have a year ago. You know, just a brief preview. I mean, did the judges, I mean, was that part of your pitch? Is that this isn't something that's niche anymore. This is a humongous opportunity in market. And do the judges? I can't say anything about the judges, but I will say, yeah, that's always my pitch that this is not niche. This is like a billion dollar category that's growing at a hundred percent year over year. And like, this is like going to be in everyone's fridges, like sometime soon.

58:19And like, you know, I'm, as I would talk to any investor or like really anyone, like this is like just at like the beginning, like we are like really catching fire right now. And like now is the time as an investor to get in. How much market research do you incorporate into those pitches? Or is this just based on what you're seeing in your own sales data? Oh, no, like it really is the same as like any investor pitch. So I'm incorporating as you probably know this, like there's not like the best numbers on non-alc. They're kind of a little bit all over the place, but I always incorporate as much data as I can.

58:53The person you were trying to reach, hopefully you reached them, the judge, to that is the shark as it were. Did you feel nervous? Did you feel confident getting on the show or when you actually presented? Oh, for sure. I mean, I definitely went in and out of being super nervous. Like I was practicing my pitch with the team, I think two days before or something. And I was like, Oh my God, this thing sucks. Like I can't get my like energy, right? Like I, I definitely, of course I was nervous. And then I, on the day of, I just kind of danced in the green room all day long and like drank St. Ember from the bottle.

59:25It was like making myself laugh. And I was like in good energy when I went out there to pitch. Were you wearing the mushroom? I can't tell you. Oh, right. Okay. You're good, Megan. Okay. See, the producers are probably really happy that you're talking to me about this or not talking to me about this. St. Ember is a product that I recall us trying last year on the show on Taste Radio. And my co-hosts and I were really loving the liquid. We were really impressed with this idea of a non-alcoholic tequila mezcal alternative or analog, mezcal analog. There was a bit of controversy when it came out because you described it as mezcal.

1:00:05And some people took offense to that because mezcal has a history. It has a tradition. Was that something that you were able to kind of overcome and apologize? Did you have to apologize for it? Yeah. Listen, we fucked up. I mean, like that was like the first time that I was like on a big level. I mean, you saw my face was all over the Internet. It was really all over the Internet for a day. Like we made a mistake, you know, and we had a whole team behind it. And the end of the day, like it's my fault. And so, you know, there still are like a lot of non-alcoholic spirits called Mezcal and called tequila.

1:00:40And like, you know, we just did not slip under the radar like that. And like we realized what a mistake we'd made when my face was all over the Internet. And listen, we pivoted fast. We were like, we fucked up. We started putting surveys out for a new name. All we did was run through that first initial batch of bottles. And then we came out with the new name in I think like September 2023. So it was really only like a couple months afterwards. The thing is our canned cocktails are named after the cocktail that inspired them. And I know that from like a consumer standpoint, it's really important for people to like kind of know how to swap it out.

1:01:14Like so like our spicy margarita, someone can grab that can and be like, oh, cool. Like I understand the use case for this. And that was our intention when we called it St. Mezcal. We fucked up. We changed the name and we, you know, like now we do a lot of education on like our Instagram and stuff, just showing people pouring it into cocktails, showing people pouring it into a margarita to really like show what the use case is. But yeah, no, I mean, like we spent a whole shit ton of money, like changing the name and like saying we were sorry and moving forward. And we also were a 1 % for the planet partner.

1:01:48And so we donated 1 % of the proceeds of St. Ember to Sacred. I love, do you know Sacred Agave? They're a nonprofit that like supports indigenous communities in Mexico that grow agave. Did people accept your apology or do they were just like, you know, okay, fine. They changed. Good for them. I don't know, actually. I mean, I got a lot of attacks in the beginning. Like no one said thank you in the end. I don't know. I hope so. You know, listen, all we can do, this is what I teach my team. All we can do is like not make the same mistake twice. And like we're entrepreneurs. And so like, I'm pretty risk tolerant and I'm going to go out there and I'm going to make things that I think like need to be out there.

1:02:28And like, if I, you know, make a mistake, I'm going to own up to it and move forward. That's all we could do. So before we wrap up, I want to go back to meta ads for a second, because this is a big part of your business strategy has been for some time. Meta ads are really helpful for D2C for online. Is it a sustainable marketing strategy or is it sustainable as a big part of your marketing strategy as you move forward to wholesale? Absolutely. Like I've actually been shocked at like what brand awareness we can achieve through meta ads. Like everyone's looking at their phone and like, I would like to think that our meta ads are doing well because they're pretty entertaining and they're educational.

1:03:03And we're really trying to educate people about how to drink Little Saints and like the category in general. We've seen, I can just use our Sprouts data. Like we got in writing from the Sprouts buyer that we were like the number one selling non-alc brand in their Dry July innovation set. And, you know, we don't have a celebrity. Like I think that all of our money goes into meta advertising. So I have to think that like people recognize the brand from that. And then that also translated to like them picking it off the shelf. We also have gotten a lot of wholesale customers who have seen our ads and thought like, oh, that's interesting.

1:03:35Like, can you send me a sample? I might want to like put this on our menu. What makes for an entertaining meta ad? Well, I do some of them and I just do ridiculous things like squeezing a lion's mane mushroom into my mouth and, you know, just doing like fun things like that. I haven't seen that one. It's totally ridiculous. But, you know, just doing things that it's like my real story, which is like, I was like drinking too much. Like I didn't want to give up my lifestyle. I didn't want to give all new friends. Like I now drink this and like, I feel great and I have good energy and like, this is a great alternative with no consequences.

1:04:08So like that kind of messaging works. Like I said, you know, men are increasingly buying our St. Ember. So we have like men going on there in their kitchens, like showing how they drink it, which is might be different than I drink it, you know, and just like having like real people showing how they're incorporating this into their life has really helped with our brand awareness. Anyone doing shots of St. Amber? You got to come to our Shark Tank watch party. There might be a shark shaped ice luge. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So you can take shots. Is that happening in Miami? Yeah. I think I'm going to be in London at the time.

1:04:43I know. Yeah. It's going to be completely insane. But yeah, no, I would recommend not taking a shot, but like, I don't know if you wanted like a quick little boost of lion's mane, do it, do whatever you want. My brothers really like mixing Little Saints like into their alcoholic cocktails. Yeah. They think it gives them less of a hangover. That's great. Yeah. Do whatever you want to do. I just think about guys in tequila or guys in Mezcal and the first thing that comes to mind is shots. So I don't, I hope that's not the way they're consuming it, but you know. It's not bad for you. Do whatever you want.

1:05:11We should have taken shots today, right? Oh, shoot. We should have actually. We should have taken shots. Next time. Yeah. But I'm wearing a Reishi on my head. So we're drinking the Spiced Old Fashioned. And you might actually knock it off if you kick back a shot like that. I can't lose the crown. Yeah. Megan, this has been incredible. I could talk to you forever, but I know how busy you are. And you're in town doing a production run right now. Yes, we love Right Coast. We love you. We're doing a new spirit, which I will not reveal what it is. But that is what I'm here to do. And it is a banger.

1:05:40And I cannot wait. I'm going to drink it all the time. Well, Andrew's a good friend. So maybe I can send him a couple bucks and he'll reveal what it is. No, I would never do that. Thank you so much again for coming out to our office. This has been so much fun. And thank you for creating such a great product. Little Saints, fantastic. Cheers.

1:06:00That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Kratchy. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt. And our video editor is Ryan Golang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smirlinski. and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram.

1:06:34Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at tasteradio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.