Tasty & Targeted. How U.K. Brands Nail Functional Appeal.

0:10Hello friends and thanks for tuning in to taste radio the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. We're here in Notting Hill in London at the office of TRIP because we're about to start our meetup. Well, not about to, but in a couple hours, the meetup that we've been talking about for some time. They're probably sick of hearing about it. I don't know. I think they're going to want to hear about this. This is the big one.

0:46Uh, we've got nearly 150 people registered and, uh, lots of food and we're in a room right now that is going to be used for food and beverage. So we need to, uh, be efficient with our voices here. So yes, Mike, how are you doing? Living the dream, Ray. Thanks for coming to breakfast with me this morning. It was great. It was good. Uh, you just didn't tell me that you were going to walk out without paying the bill. The only place in London that only accepts cash. Yeah, it's a cash only place. and Ray was not prepared for cash, but they're nice in there too. Even though it's a Tottenham establishment and you walked in wearing a Manchester United hat.

1:21It was bold. That hilarity ensued. She called back to the kitchen and was like, he found it on the street. He's got to protect his head. Well, Jackie, I don't think you would have liked it, whether you're a soccer fan or not, because it's a lot of pork, a lot of meat. It was a full English breakfast that we had. Yeah, Mike had warned me, but he said that there weren't veg options. So I could have came. I don't know. But if veg options were, you know, like a carrot baked into a sausage, I don't know. I mean, maybe it was that kind of place. You go to Palici for the vibes and the banter. The banter was awesome in there.

1:55And Ned, the proprietor, he was, you know, talking to us a lot of the time. And they're just really nice. When he found out I was a Gooner, he said he might not throw me out. So that was good. Yeah, it was good. John, how are you doing? I'm all right. Yeah. You feeling good? You ready for this meetup? Mostly. Yeah. Excited to be back. Yeah, I forgot to set my alarm this morning. That didn't work out well. You forgot to set your alarm? So what time did you actually wake up? Like 10. 10 o 'clock? I think I had lunch. I mean, sorry, breakfast at 1.30. Okay. Well, I guess you don't need lunch. No, no.

2:26All right. Good for the company. Whoops. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just so happy. It seems like there's a lot of enthusiasm for our meetup. As I mentioned, about 150 people registered. And coming from all walks of the industry, whether they're founders, investors, I think we've got some retailers on board. consultants for sure. But I'm just excited to meet all the entrepreneurs in this area. And a couple days ago, I had the opportunity to visit a grocery store called Portobello's Whole Foods. Now, there's no connection between the Whole Foods that you know, and the one that's called Portobello Whole Foods.

3:01But the selection they had was pretty stunning. And I picked up a few things that I thought we could sample from my shopping extravaganza. And I think while we're While we're sipping, it would be good to talk to you guys about some of the folks that you met one-on-one IRL here in the city of London. Jackie has the mic now. Let's be clear. I should just be clear with our listeners. The behind the scenes of what's happening right now. One of our inputs on a recorder is wonky, is on the fritz, as it were. Definitely fritzy. And so I'm forcing Mike and Jackie to use one microphone. So I apologize for that.

3:38It's not sanitized. I'm just quiet over here. Yes, yes. But anyway, Jackie, you and Mike had the opportunity to visit a commercial kitchen on Tuesday. And from what you guys told me, it was pretty impressive. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. They had so much space for all of the entrepreneurs at Mission Kitchen. They had places for R &D. They had private kitchens. So as you grow and scale, you can grow within the kitchen. A co-working space, an event space. They really thought about everything. and they had a lot of packaged brands there. So it's not just, you know, chefs or caterers. It was a lot of people that are going to the package industry and they want to support them as they grow and also, you know, eventually get them out of the kitchen and producing elsewhere, but still providing the support that they need as they grow.

4:28Yeah, I love when you see those incubators, those commercial kitchens that are the birthing ground of some of the most innovative food and beverage companies in our industry. And I don't know if Perfect Ted started in a commercial kitchen, did they? That's a good question. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think they started there, but they might have started in a commercial kitchen. And I mentioned Perfect Ted because you guys sat down with the founders. Perfect Ted being a matcha-based beverage. Matcha-based beverage. They have matcha lattes. Their new vanilla one was quite good. And they also have matcha energy.

5:01So they're calling it healthy energy. really tasty beverages founded by two brothers and Marissa, who was a serial coffee drinker like me, who... I thought you were about to say she was a serial killer like you. Coffee drinker, right? Coffee drinker, coffee drinker. Okay. Yeah. And she wanted to change her ritual, essentially, because coffee was basically having a adverse effect on her body. So she found out about matcha and then saw the opportunity here to create this great matcha beverage. And Perfect Ted was born. Okay. They're trying to come stateside to the U.S.? They're focused more on Europe.

5:39Okay. It's a pretty interesting story. Should catch up with them at some point. Okay. Yeah. I did miss that meeting. I was a little jet lagged and completely forgot that that was on the calendar. Sorry, Perfect 10 folks. I do want to meet you at some point. It's Perfect Ted. I said Perfect Ted. You said 10. He always was looking in the mirror going, perfect 10. Perfect 10. Okay, perfect 10. Perfect 10. I do want to try their stuff when I see it out there. It's solid stuff. It is. It's really good. So one of the brands I picked up at the Portobello Whole Foods is a beverage brand called Juno. And Juno is a maker of bamboo water.

6:16This variety has a splash of juicy mango. It's lightly sparkling. I figure, Jackie, since you were interested in said bamboo water, you could have the first taste. I've got some cups. I'm going to try it myself. You know, John, I feel like we saw bamboo water at the New Beverage Showdown. I want to say it was, I don't know, how many years ago? Yeah. Which brand? I don't remember. I can't remember. But I do remember they were trying to market bamboo water. It was right around the... I don't know the brand. They were marketing bamboo water. It was the time when everyone was trying to do new plant-based waters.

6:51You saw maple water. You saw bamboo water. You saw everything was like post-coconut water. That is quite a funky nose. Wow. It's a great taste. That's really good. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out what the benefit is, though. Is it for immunity boosting? First of all, it's not an American brand. So it probably doesn't have ridiculous claims like that now. I'm kidding about that. That just seems to be the vantage point from over here. But it seems to be going for a different kind of flavor profile. Like it almost has like a, despite this being like mango flavor, it has a almost slightly savory flavor to it.

7:32Yeah. No, there is a button on the front that says something about immunity. You see that? Yeah. Yeah. Supports. Supports. Okay. Well, good stuff, Juno. J-U-N-O is the name of the brand or how you spell the brand. And I was not surprised, I think, to see that CMOS is popping up in places in the UK. And I saw these CMOS gummies that I figured we'd have to try. Now, the name of the brand is, John? Jenny. Jenny. G-E-N-N-I. I think they're known for oils, specifically olive oil, but they're getting into the CMOS business, the business of CMOS, that is. All right. So they are different colors. Oh. There's a red one, kind of a gold one, and a green one.

8:19Okay. And they come in this pouch, and there's probably, I don't know, you want to say 50 or so in there? It was actually relatively affordable. It says 30. 30? Okay. They've counted them. It was relatively affordable for what I would assume CMOS. Yeah, how much was it? It was 13 pounds. Okay. Yeah, I feel like when you do get, like, usually a jar of CMOS, it's like$20,$30. Yeah. So it's usually pretty expensive. Okay. Tastes good. I mean, you buy CMOS and you eat CMOS for the health benefits. I'd eat these for the flavor. Yeah. Well, shout out to our dear friend Kate Sullivan from Uncracked, who hosted us at our San Francisco meetup.

8:56She's a maker of CMOS as well, CMOS gel, that is more specifically. And this is my first time having a CMOS gummy, so stay with me, folks. So I'm wondering how these are going to perform because there was a creatine gummy scandal in the UK not too long ago where somebody was selling creatine gummies and it was a total ripoff. So gummies are kind of like frowned upon at the moment here. Well, these are described as energy and immune boosting. So we're getting a lot of immune in our systems. These are really tasty. Yeah. Well, you can't have any more because I paid for them. Unless I can expense them.

9:32John, anyone? No, you can't. No, I can't. Okay, John just ripped open a bag of potato wedge snacks. And I thought these were really interesting. These are from a brand called DJNA. Ready to eat smoked chili and garlic potato wedges. But they're clearly not potato wedges in the sense that they're not soft, right? I mean, they're pretty crispy and crunchy. Yeah, they taste like they're almost like not totally freeze-dried, but yeah, it's a drier, crunchier texture. This is the one time that they could get away with potato chips because they would normally be crisp, but these are chips. They're wedges.

10:06They look like wedges. They look like dried wedges. Looking big. Really good. Yeah. I thought. Oh, those are delicious. I figured you guys would like them. Yeah. The wedge, like, there's a lot going on. Oh, my God, they're good. Okay, Mike. They're delicious. I think your mom told you about that, right? It's way better than a chip. I feel like I'm always, like, dissatisfied with, like, a chip experience. Okay, Jackie's going in for more. I'm going for more. And they're loaded with, like, seasoning. It looks exactly like a potato wedge, but it's dry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does. It's kind of weird that they call it a ready-to-eat snack.

10:38like you don't have to deep fry it or anything or put it in the air fryer. But yeah, I figured you guys would like those. 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. All right. Mike is looking at a new sparkling tea brand that we've, or new to us anyway. It's called Olas or Holas. I would say Holos maybe. H-O-L-O-S. It comes in a, I believe that's a 10-ounce slim can, as did Juno, by the way. This one I have in my hand is cucumber mint, passing it to John Craven.

11:17An organic sparkling tea. I feel like we need more sparkling teas in our lives. And I was happy to see this on shelf. While Jackie's pouring that. Is it white tea? Very good question. It's the oolong tea. Oolong tea. Oolong tea, yes. It's pretty tasty. It's like kissed by cucumber. I like it. Yeah. Why is there not enough sparkling tea on the market? I mean, especially in the U.S. Didn't we just talk about this? No, we didn't. I think we did. I think you slept until 10 and you... I invented episodes. His memories went. Yeah, exactly. No, I think it is just one of those things that has tried to break into the U.S.

11:56market, hasn't stuck. And every couple of years, someone tries again, hoping that the timing's right and the market's ready for it. And to be honest, I feel like each time that that's happened, I've felt like, yes, now is the right time. Yeah. And trying to think of which brand totally just slipping my mind right now that we recently had sparkling tea. The one I always go back to is Sound, Sound Sparkling Tea, which eventually evolved to or transitioned to a sparkling water brand. Yeah, that was more water than... They originally launched as sparkling tea, and then they saw more of an opportunity in the sparkling water market.

12:32I got to check up with those guys. But I do have to say that Holo's is delicious. I can't tell how much sugar is in here. It seems like there's a healthy amount of sweetness. It actually is made with kombucha culture. Organic kombucha culture, raw cane sugar, cucumber and lemon juice, agave insulin, oolong tea, green tea, mint, natural flavoring. Yeah, even going to the, we went to the Whole Foods in Kensington and there were a bunch of teas in Whole Foods too. But I mean, the tea culture in the UK is there. I think people are looking for tea in different formats. Okay, so we can all blame jet lag here, but the sparkling tea that we just talked about was Birdie.

13:09Birdie, right. I was not on that episode. Kind of remind everyone that there's a certain new beverage showdown winner called the Uso. Yes. Whoops. Nice one, guys. Let's definitely blame them on the jet lag. Ray's like, I've never had sparkling tea. What? Sparkling tea. The Uso guys are going, we won your showdown. I guess I just keep mentioning it because I want to see more sparkling tea on the market. No, I mean, kind of what I was saying, too, I just feel like it's one of those things that it feels like bubbles make it better or different, at least give it another sort of path. And I think it just has been a bit of like an elusive category, not to, you know, incubate a small brand, but to get it to really like fly.

13:49But it also points to like Uso for me isn't even a sparkling tea as much as it's an elevated drinking experience. Like it's more of that adult non-alc sort of experience for me. That's when I like to have Uso. So I didn't even think of it as a sparkling tea, just the packaging, the flavor. That's a phenomenal product. Yeah, I feel like tea in general has that sophistication to it. So you are feeling like you're drinking something a little bit fancier and higher quality. But then there's also the whole energy route. There's just a lot of different routes. I mean, also nowadays, I think the fact that it basically is a pretty assertive flavor for like zero calories might be kind of compelling.

14:32And it's also a multi-use occasion thing. So this morning I spoke to the founder of Everystate, Gemma Fear, about her new matcha and cacao. It's a powder that you can use multiple times during the day, depending on the occasion that you need it. and it's got adaptogenic mushrooms in it. And so there are just so many different ways. When you think of tea, it's one of the most versatile ingredients there is in terms of beverage. Yeah. Kombucha apparently too, because Holos is a maker of kombucha. In fact, their website is holoskombucha.com. Interesting that they're using kombucha culture and then describing this as a sparkling tea.

15:11It feels a little Olipop poppy-ish, you know, in that regard. Sure. There was a ton of kombucha. I've actually been pretty impressed to see. Need more wedges. Oh, John's reaching for the wedges. Kombucha seems to be having a bit of a comeback, or maybe I just haven't been paying attention in the UK. There was quite a bit of kombucha in a lot of different forms. And I picked up a brand called Summa, S-U-M-A. Maybe it's called Summa. It's a cooperative since 1977. This is a sparkling cola kombucha. Now, isn't all kombucha sparkling? I would assume so. Anyway, but I wanted to try this because I wanted to get a sense of how cola-y this kombucha is.

15:49And you know what? it's pretty damn good. The first ferment of kombucha isn't always, you can drink that, but you probably never have. It tastes like a cola. It doesn't taste like a kombucha, which I love. And I feel like this is what the Holy Grail was when everyone was trying to say kombucha is the new soda. Reminds me of the now discontinued or shutter brand Revive. Yes. Had a cola flavor. Yeah. I mean, I guess also live soda did, but that was more actual soda. If you didn't tell me that was kombucha, I wouldn't know. That's really good. It's a really good cola-flavored kombucha. It comes in a 10-ounce can, well, 250-milliliter can, slim can.

16:27Everything is organic in here as far as I can tell. And I am a huge fan. These guys just made me a huge fan of what they do. If they sold this in the United States, I think they would have a ton of consumers. They just shouldn't call it kombucha because I think the U.S., there's still that stigma against kombucha. Yeah, people, they hate it or they love it. Yeah. Whereas here, I think kombucha is a little bit more embraced as a category. And it was very clear on shelf that you didn't see, like, I think there was GTs, but then there was just a whole bunch of other local brands, small brands representing that category, at least at the Portobello Whole Foods.

17:00We got to meet one of the world's foremost gut health scientists. You'll meet her daughter tonight, V Cutting from Feisty Protein Soda. Her mother and her father are both into gut health science, and they're pretty well known. And so they make a protein soda called Feisty that gives you 10 grams of protein, and it's totally clear. And one of the things that Jackie and I noticed was there's like no bloating whatsoever. However, we quickly had, what, two feisties, like with all the sampling? Yeah, I think we got up to like 20 grams of protein with just all these little vials, testing all of the latest flavors that they have.

17:40And yeah, she was telling us, oh, by the way, you know, the source of protein is really good for your gut because it doesn't use whey protein, which can definitely mess with your gut. So it wasn't anything that they were like really touting as a benefit. And I felt great. Yeah, it's good to hear that you guys aren't bloated because that would not be fun for tonight. Yeah, exactly. I thought we were going to be walking. You know, you're sampling carbonated beverages and you're like, oh, God. You know, just like one after the other. We know how that can be in the New Beverage Showdown, right? Absolutely.

18:09All right. I got another beverage here. This one's called KULT. K-U-L-T. It comes in a 12-ounce wide can. It is a water kefir product. It's described as fermented lemonade. And the flavor that I got is passion and hops. So this is, I just had a sample. Passion and hops. It is very tasty. Yep. Ooh. Yeah, it's like very light tasting, very refreshing. I like the little addition of hops. Cool, yeah. Yeah, really good, right? It almost tastes like pineapple with the hops. It has a little bit of acidity to it. Well, what's clear in all the categories that we're trying, whether it's sparkling tea, kombucha, water kefir, it's clear that these founders understand that consumers want great taste.

18:52no matter what the category is, no matter what the functional benefit is, they want great taste. And from what we've sampled so far, and Juneau as well, excuse me, with the bamboo water, everything's been really good tasting. And I think we just hammer that home all the time on this podcast. And somehow we still get products coming to the office that are just not there in terms of taste. I would say across the board too, it's like very like delicate, sophisticated flavors. It's not like very sugary, not like a ton of fruit juice. Like they're using fermentation, hops, bamboo water, tea, which I think just adds to the complexity of the flavor profile.

19:28Yeah, I've got one more category. It's not really a category as much as it is a beverage type. This is cactus water. And the name of the brand is Cacto, C-A-C-T-O. Very Southwest sort of beachy looking, at least the, I don't know how to describe it. It's a yellow can. It's a yellow 12 ounce wide can. sparkling ruby pineapple. And of course, I was reminded of our friends at Prickly. The color palette is an analog of its U.S. counterpart. Yes, it is indeed. So I'm going to try this. And while we're trying this, we have one more thing to try. John, you have a pouch of vacuum fried broccoli flowers in front of you.

20:04Oh, I do. You're right. What is the name of that brand? The Giving Tree, huh? The Giving Tree. It's a pouch of vacuum fried broccoli flowers. Never heard of it. Okay. Well, John, you got to open that because you know, you're trying to open that. All right, Jackie. While we're struggling to open that. Talk about the cacto. Cacto is really nice. Like sometimes pineapple scares me because I'm like, okay, this is going to be a sugar bomb and going to be way too overwhelming. But this is really delicate. It's not just me. Well, I got to tell you. Okay, Mike's having a hard time too. But the pineapple in this actually freaking tastes like pineapple.

20:40It's real pineapple juice. It actually tastes like pineapple. Real pineapple juice. Amazing. Isn't it weird? Like not from concentrate, you know, maybe? Or not from a lab, you know, perhaps? Yeah, I know. If you're going to give someone pineapple or say something that tastes like pineapple, this literally tastes like fresh pineapple. Have you ever tasted when you're tasting your pineapple, you go down to the core of the pineapple and you get a little bit of the rind? There's a lot more oomph in there. And you get less sweetness, so you're getting some of that in here, too. Well, the one thing I'm not necessarily getting is the cactus.

21:10Like I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be tasting in terms of the cactus. It should be prickly. Okay Your tongue should be on fire at the moment Okay Well, well done, Cacto It's a bit on the sweeter side John, did you get to try some? It's very good Yeah, hit me Alright, Jackie, while we're doing rapid fire here How are your vacuum fried broccoli flores? Oh my god I am a huge broccoli fan And I would eat like five bags of that It looks like a real, like a It's not a crushed up No, it's actually broccoli florets Like I wish we had I wish we had video I wish we could share like live stream video Can I just eat broccoli?

21:44What? Doesn't it? No, it looks like frozen broccoli, but it's freeze-dried. I dig it. Yeah, right? Is it salty? I'm going to have some later. It's just very simple. It tastes like broccoli. Okay. So if you're a fan of broccoli, you'll love this. If you're not, you're not going to like it. I'm a huge broccoli fan. Okay, well, you can have the rest of that. Thank you. Jack is like, do not touch my giving tree. I have eyes on this one and maybe some sea moss. Okay. Well, like I said, all in all, I'm really impressed with what I was able to buy and see at Porto Bolo. There was a whole bunch of other things that I saw, and I didn't buy everything.

22:17But yeah, okay, just shout out to Brisk Lager. This is our dear friend, Chris Hannaway. Chris Hannaway of Infinite Session. Who is the founder of Infinite Session. Along with his brother, Tom. And they have a new product called Brisk Lager, which is described as half the cals. It's 70 calories per 12-ounce can, and it's also gluten-free, but they don't shout that out on the front of the can. Chris Hannaway, our dear friend, who we had breakfast with this morning and who is like a really good sport and one of the most knowledgeable people you could talk to. Like he knows like corners of the universe and he has very, very deep knowledge.

22:51If you ever have a chance to sit down with him, it's a real treat. Yeah, he's a true beverage insider. We have to wrap up because we can get going here. But thank you. We have to put a meetup on. Yes, but thank you so much to all the amazing folks that made this happen, including Trip, Delicious, Something and Nothing. Stay tuned for interviews with all the folks that we are sitting down with here at this meetup in a future episode of Taste Radio. That 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 Cratchy.

23:25Our technical director is Joshua Pratt. And our video editor is Ryan Galang. 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. Our 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.

24:03Thank you.