The Best Ways To Generate Buzz? Innovate, Collaborate & Breathe Fire.

0:10Hello and thanks for tuning in to taste radio the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry 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. I feel like I'm so far away from Jackie now, having seen her IRL last week. I have so much space for activities now in this studio. We were in San Diego last week to record at the San Diego office. That's where we held our WCB meetup. actually is more specifically the BevNet slash NSD, NSD standing for Naturally San Diego meetup, which was fantastic.

0:48We had well over a hundred people attend, but more than anything, it was just fun being around the West Coast branch. West Coast headquarters. There's no West Coast headquarters. WCHQ, baby. That's what we call it. Makes ourselves sound more important. Yeah, they like calling it the WCHQ. It's like WCBNSDDNS. DNS, baby. WTF. There are a lot of CFDs at the meetup. CBQ, Rafflecopter celebration. But I imagine it was a lot more fun for Jackie to record at 11 a.m. than 8 a.m., which is currently when she is recording right now. So sad. I'm currently drinking my apple pie iced matcha, which is a new thing for me, but I'm trying something different other than pumpkin spice after Craven, you know, crapped on pumpkin spice.

1:33So sorry. And then he shows that video that literally... There was a literal video that we didn't... We don't need to get into it at this point. It's legendary. Now, the meetup was a ton of fun. Got to see a lot of new faces, got to see some familiar faces and a lot of great conversations with both. I mean, the networking that happened at the meetup was, dare I say, tremendous. And for folks that are having FOMO, well, unfortunately, you missed the event. But you can come and see all of us and quite a few people from the meetup at BevNet Live, Nosh Live, and BrewBound Live, all of which is happening in late November and early December.

2:13For full details, check out the respective websites, BevNet, Nosh, and BrewBound. I do want to highlight a few folks that we did see at the events, including the founder of a brand called Shibare, which is a brand of probiotic and protein bars. His name is John Eliotti, and he came with a bunch of samples, some of which I brought home with me. And I got to tell you, as I told John at the event, I am prone to hyperbole. You told me that, too. All right, everyone's laughing because it's true. That's outstanding. These are some of the best tasting protein slash nutrition bars that I've ever had. No one believes you, though, because you cried outstanding so many times.

2:58Yeah, but you know how sometimes you will try a product and it's called a certain flavor? It's a blueberry-flavored protein bar or an almond-flavored snack. Sure. And it doesn't actually have any of the whole ingredients incorporated into the food or beverage. In this case, you could actually taste and eat and chew on the actual blueberries in his protein bars. They were my hashtag snacks on a plane. You're so right about this. Yeah. I mean, those are really tasty. I had two of those on the plane at home. Nice. They were really, really good. And the almond. So they have a peanut butter and almond variety and a blueberry.

3:38And I'm forgetting what other flavors in it. Peanut butter chocolate chip. Peanut butter chocolate chip. Yes. Just fantastic stuff. So kudos to John for creating such an amazing product and also for joining us at the event. His daughter is part of the founding team, Maddie. She joined us as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, especially for a functional bar, sometimes they can taste a little chalky. They're not the best tasting, but he really delivers on flavor. And I mean, I don't think we mentioned this, but it's a probiotic protein bar. So it does say that it has 1 billion CFU per bar. So usually you're going to think, eh, I don't know how that's going to taste, but really, really delicious.

4:18But the fun and functional. Yes. What was really cool is that I had first met John as part of our Elevator Talk series. He joined us for an episode, I want to say a couple of months back, and it was just great to meet him IRL. Same with the folks from Improv Cocktails. Improv Cocktails is a brand of booze-free cocktails. They are based in San Diego or in the San Diego area. Got to meet founder Alex Brooks in person, also James Murray, who's part of that co-founding team. I love their grapefruit Paloma variety, just dynamically different from a lot of the other non-alcoholic, ready to drink cocktails out there.

4:58The experience of drinking it, I think the experience of holding that can in your hand, the branding, it just felt like a very natural alternative to drinking a canned cocktail out or on social occasions. I think they nailed the flavor of the positioning. And as we talked about in a former episode or past episode of Elevator Talk, the description of booze-free versus non-alcoholic or alcoholic alternative just lends a different kind of, I guess, feel and credibility to this product that makes it, I guess, more in line with what I think what people want. I like how they're so on brand when they come up to you, they ask you for a place, an object, and a famous person, and then they just pull off a little skit.

5:40They didn't do that. Oh boy. They should. Yeah. He just keeps pulling the bar out of his bag. It's like a bottomless bag. He's got like 17 on the table. I just wanted to clarify, yeah. Took them all home with them. The Chibari, which is actually spelled C-I-B-A-R-E. There's a blueberry almond and a peanut butter chocolate chip. Just want to make sure I'm clear about that. If this is what he's sharing, Jackie, it means he's got at least 20 at home. I do actually have 20 at home. So curious what's in his closets. Oh, no. A lot of blue shirts. Obviously. John was very kind to send us home with a punch.

6:16Also great to see the Tigronis folks. And John Craven, you were very kind to share with me some of their new products. I know, I regret sharing them. Well, they have a new Boulevardier, and they also have a new Mezcal Negroni. Did you get to try any of these? I did. They're delicious. I thought they were collaborating with Brad and making a Boulevardier-y. He loves Boulevardiers. He does. That's why it's called the Boulevardier-y. Oh, I see. You're just trying to jam in a dad joke because we haven't had one in five minutes. Yeah, Vincent and Paul were there. Great guys. Always good to see what they're up to.

6:46Absolutely. Now, the question I have with these new varieties is, obviously the Mezcal Negroni makes a lot of sense for a brand called Tigronis. A Bovardier, you know, just a Negroni, but made with whiskey instead of gin. I'll take gin for$200, Alex. But, you know, do you think this is just a natural transition or a natural brand extension, given that this is not necessarily a Negroni product? Sure, why not? It is? Yeah. Yeah? Well, I get it. Easy answer. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I feel like people that like Negronis, they know what goes into a Negroni, and I think they would know, you know, other varieties.

7:27For sure. Also great to see Susan Hartman, who is the co-founder of Recoup Beverage, a maker of Better For You sports drinks and energy drinks now as well. I was trying to recruit her to join Jackie's camogie team. She is herself a former athlete, was in high school and college. Not a former, current athlete. Yes, current athlete. She is into so many sports, so on brand. She's played rugby, Australian rules football. Yeah, she played rugby and Aussie rules football, which for people that don't know is very similar to Gaelic football, which is what I play. So I heard that and I was like, no way you have to play with me in San Diego.

8:07Yeah, she was also the heptathlon in college. She surfs. Yeah, surfs, does a lot of stuff. Yes, actually walking the walk, as it were, as a founder of a Better For You sports drink brand, and a great tasting one at that. Also great to meet Mark from Machico. Mark being the founder of Machico, a brand of ready to drink matcha drinks. I think that was kind of obvious, obvious. I hope so. Yeah, I mean, I guess it could be a food brand. I don't know, it'd be weird if Machico was like a gluten-free bread company or something. A free bread company. Also love meeting Pavan cholera who is the new ceo of salty salty being the brand of cold press juice shots and also lemonades and other kinds of refreshment beverages that are made with cold press juice and better for you ingredients in glass don't forget that in premium glass yes all first in glass or whatever they say they're tasty yeah nice to have those on hand yeah pavan was the former ceo of press juicery.

9:13So it definitely bringing a lot of experience to that job. Also in glass and in a shot format is Tuluwa. And this one is their skin health variety. It has kimchi probiotic, which is very interesting. And it's turmeric ginger. That's the flavor. So Tuluwa was also at the meetup. Another functional beverage that was featured. I wasn't drinking at the meetup because I would have fallen asleep, but Blue Bear, which is a sleep beverage, which features, I believe, L-theanine. Definitely some melatonin. Melatonin. Yes. Yeah. So this is for, you know, when you're ready to snooze. And this is white peach tea.

9:56That's the flavor of this one. Yeah. Great to meet Alex Viali, who is the co-founder of the brand. He's actually going to be featured in an upcoming edition of our new On the Spot with Taste radio series. Look for it on social media. The can makes me feel sleepy. He did a good job on that. They did a really good job on that. It really does. Don't even need to drink the beverage. Just look at the can. I don't need to. I was having a convo with him and he was like, Hey, you want to try one of these? I was like, I could sleep on, on the, on the pavement here if I wanted to. He's like, Oh no, not you.

10:25That was his, uh, you know, sort of the hole in his, in his scheme was that a lot of people can't sleep and they don't need the product. And, but there are so many people that struggle with sleep. So he's excited about helping them out. I like that phrase, the hole in his scheme. The hole in his scheme. It's schematic. He's got a blueprint. And a couple other products that I just wanted to call out that were at the meetup. So this is Spade. It is a premium sparkling soda. This is their kiwi strawberry. Their whole thing is upgrading your soda. It has electrolytes, zero sugar, zero calories, and they have a couple of different flavors.

11:02Don't forget to talk about Dr. Spade. That stuff is good. Yes. Yes. They have Dr. Spade, which I believe is their Dr. Pepper varietal. And also... That stuff. I have... Yeah. Andori. So good. These are electrolyte hydration mixes. And this is lychee. And it's really delicious. Ryan, who's helping me with production over here, it's a big favorite of his. And yeah, these are really, really good. I love the packaging. I've already had way more than my fair share of that. I love the chicken. Super cute. Gave some to our designer, Amanda. She likes it. We gave some to our bartender at the airport in the lounge, Ray.

11:44You love giving out products to random people. Just because, you know, that's one of the things. Like if you've got a good product, I don't know. I just like sharing products. I don't know. Mike shared a can of cha, C-H-A with a Lyft driver and it was not not the best idea. It made her very chatty. I was going to say did you like I mean are you saying something bad about chat? her life story. I mean like the past 60 years of her life we got in like a half hour. Unfortunately we came BFF. So but the drivers in San Diego are super friendly. Oh yeah. Do you talk to your Uber Lyft drivers? I never open my mouth.

12:27If they start talking to me, sure. Yeah. I try never to engage in conversation. I just try to be respectful. I'm like in their workplace, you know? And I don't want to get a bad rating or like make them annoyed. But if you ride in an Uber with Ray, he has like the angriest face. And he's usually like, he's like, don't talk to me. And I just want to, I want this ride to be over. He's like gripping. I really need to use the bathroom. So that's what it was. Just kidding. can you set that in uber like beforehand before you get in it's like i want my music off oh so you need that ray so you can tell them that you don't want to talk i can't afford uber black i picture ray is getting in and he's just like 72 degrees do not talk to me and then you push a button for some imaginary glass to go look i i appreciate the fact that I appreciate that.

13:18He's got taste radio glass that he brings with him. I feel like you talk so much for your job, you know? You get into the car and you're out of words. The expectation of conversation was something that, I guess, is part of the taxi industry or being a taxi driver. But it doesn't need to be a part of this new form of car ride sharing, whatever you want to call it. world according to Ray. I don't know. I've learned a lot of life stories in my Lyft drives. I did learn one or two good travel tips. So you think it was inevitable even if I hadn't given her the cha? She would have. Especially being in San Diego.

14:01You know, that's just expected. You get in there and you're going to learn a lot. But she told us about her kids. And she went super deep into the story arc. My favorite form of conversation, if this is a form of conversation, is when you get in and say, oh, you're going to this place just to reiterate where you're going. You say, yes. And then when you get out of the car, the driver will say something nice like, appreciate you, chief. And I'm like, great. I love that. You know? Appreciate you, chief. First of all, he said he appreciates me. Second of all, he called me chief with a measure of respect.

14:33I appreciated that. I don't know. That's got a snark to it, though. What if he called you slugger? Wait a minute. Go back for a second. Or champ. Rewind here. Why is it snark? Chief champ. I don't know. I mean, did you look behind you? Was he flipping you the double bird at the same time? Why would he do that? I don't know. What'd you do in his car? Yeah, I feel like it's probably like sarcastic. Like, thanks for, you know, your resting bitch face, Ray. Yeah. Appreciate you, Chief. Resting Ray face. Oh, my gosh. You guys are so cynical. I was heartened. Ray was in the backseat. Ray's the only one who's ever heard appreciate you, Chief, and thought it was a compliment.

15:10Ray was in the backseat. You were probably in the backseat, like streaming your Manchester United eating tinned like oysters or something. You know what? Okay, here's what I normally do. We're going way deep into the weeds with this. Typically, what I do in the car ride, the Lyft or Uber ride is work. Like I'm always trying to catch up on stuff that I can do in between where I am and where I'm going. Do you ever get carsick? No. So if someone's like interrupting me with like meaningless conversation and I'm trying to like, I don't know, send a Slack or check us on or do something else like that.

15:43So how about them Padres? I'm just like, you know what? I understand that you want to talk about the weather, but I'm just not really in the mood. Did you see the pods last night? The pods? Jeez, guy. No one calls it that. Sounds like taxis are just for you, right? Right. All right. Anyway. Deep into the week. Sorry about all you Uber and Lyft drivers out there. Love San Diego. drivers probably could tamp down on the conversation. Anywho. They can pick me up. On that note, nominations for BevNet's Best of 2023 are due on October 27th. We have lots of categories, including a couple new ones that will highlight non-alc spirit brands and leaders.

16:26It's exciting stuff. October 27th, once again, is the deadline for nominations. Head to BevNet.com to learn more. Nosh, we're also accepting nominations for their Best of Awards. Jackie, same deadline? Yeah, same situation. Head to Nosh.com. You'll see under Submit where you can submit the Best of Award nominations and also the same deadline of October 27th. And don't worry about being succinct because Ray will not be the one with you. Jeez. Never gonna live this down. That would be a good rebrand of elevator talk. It's like Uber ride with Ray. Yeah. Picture brand of red. He's just sitting in the backseat.

17:03He does not like to be talked to. There's a time and a place. Comedians in Cars with Jerry Seinfeld. What's the one with the late night guy jams? James Corden with you karaoke. Oh, yeah. Carpool karaoke. Love that. Yeah. Good stuff. That could be your version. The one with the chili peppers. Carpool Shut the Hell Up with Ray Latif. Say five words. Shut the hell up in my car with Ray Latif. Good Lord. Wow. This has gone off the rails here. This is great. Now going back to the Best of Awards, I'm really excited to see the nominations. There have been so many new brands, new products launched in 2023 and just love, love the innovation that's coming to market, including packaging innovation.

17:43And I'm starting to see a lot of brands innovate with their label design via Tetra Pak cartons. And Tetra Pak has been doing some pretty amazing things with their customized printing option. And I do want to thank Tetra Pak because they are our presenting sponsor for this episode of Taste Radio. Tetra Pak is the pioneering packaging solutions company that provides safe, innovative, and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Learn more. Thank you, Tetra Pak. At tetrapak.com. Thanks, Tetra Pak. Now, I mentioned as part of the Best of Awards, we're going to be highlighting non-alcoholic spirit brands.

18:22And speaking of non-alcoholic, I was a little surprised to see this news, despite the fact that we are seeing more consumer demand for non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails, RTD cocktails that is. So Boisson, which is a retailer of non-alcoholic spirits and RTD cocktails, picked up investment from Pernod Ricard's venture arm. Pernod Ricard, a wine and spirits conglomerate, a global one at that. And I guess conglomerate is, it's kind of redundant to say global, isn't it? Sure, go with it. Okay, fair enough. I don't know. I think, you know, these retailers are quite niche in what they offer. I mean, yes, there's a lot of new brands coming to market.

19:09Yes, there's a lot of interest and seemingly demand for non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails. But do we need a chain, a retail chain that sells these types of products and only these products? I think right now we do. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I mean... Why are you so bullish on this, John? Well, bullish is maybe a twist of the words, but I think for right now, these retailers are instrumental and important in the development of the non-alc space. At some point, if this category does really, really well and is assimilated into more mainstream, then we probably don't need these types of retailers.

19:51I guess maybe as a comparison thinking, you know, craft beer shops were kind of cool at one point. And now you can get craft beer anywhere, right? So I think the individual shop just dedicated to that has a little bit of a harder time, you know? So you think that retailers like Boisson are more short-term in their life cycle? Well, I mean, short-term is how long, right? I mean, it could be a retail concept that, you know, works for a decade or two, which in the grand scheme of retail, it's not really a fail. That's certainly a success. So I think for right now, while there's a massive need for like discovery and actually properly retailing these items, you know, as opposed to like, I don't know, where else do you buy this stuff?

20:41In a liquor store, probably in a place that's kind of hidden in a hard to find place, right? It certainly helps with the education. You know, when you walk in what you're getting, and then there's a chance for it to become a bit more Epicurean because there's somebody in there that can explain to you what the differences are, or at least categorize it in the way that makes a lot of sense. So it could help the industry at large for them to lead in that respect. And, you know, definitely makes sense for, you know, a Pernod to get involved in that. It's something that clearly they should keep their eyes on.

21:17And like some of the other, you know, we've seen Diageo get behind some NA stuff. I think it makes sense. Yeah, there's also the opportunity for them to be the expert in the field and to partner with other retailers in the future. Like I know, pop up grocer, I believe partnered with was it Nordstrom or some larger department store where they set up like a shop within the retail because they just know what the brands are. They have a curated experience, they have those relationships, and they have the expertise and can talk to consumers about it. So that might also be an opportunity down the road to help more traditional retailers get into non-elk.

21:55Is that called a pop-up grocer pop-up or pop-up pop-up grocer? I think pop-up grocer pop-up. Okay, thanks. And just to give a bit more information about the investment that I mentioned, in the story on BevNet, it noted that Bosson had received funding in a$5 million bridge round from Pernod Ricard's venture capital arm. Also notable in the article is that Boisson is attempting to enter into a new phase where they are an omni-channel platform with domestic and international expansion and strategic partnerships. So maybe it's not just, you know, brick and mortar, more brick and mortar stores as Boisson continues to evolve.

22:38Maybe it is something more along the lines of, you know, meeting the consumer where they are and looking for non-alcoholic spirit options. I believe they also have some of their own products too. Ray, have you heard we've got a new podcast? Mike, I have, because I work for this company. I'm glad you're informed. Community Call is coming in podcast form. Nice, nice. Community Call, the regular series in which Melissa Traverse, our director of community for BevNetNosh, Taste Radio and BrewBound, speaks in a live session with experts, industry experts and entrepreneurs who have been there, done that, and hopefully can share lessons about how to scale and succeed in our industry of food, beverage, and beyond.

23:25There's a familiar voice in the beginning. There is. So I've been co-hosting with Melissa to get the ball rolling with Community Call and introduce the podcast to our audience. And she's been doing these for the last year, I believe so, every week. And now we're super excited that they're going to be in podcast format because, you know, a video is not for everyone. Sometimes people like to multitask. They like to listen to a podcast on their way to work. So now you're going to have access to all these insights with a variety of topics that are specific to food and beverage in the CPG industry.

24:00And you can listen on any platform. On your listening platform of choice. Because everyone has a choice when it comes to their listening platform. Yeah, so many to choose from. Yeah, that's true. And we may throw one or two into the Taste Radio stream, just in case you forget, but please go check it out. And if you like, subscribe. Ask me if I knew that. You knew that.

24:24Okay. Yeah, very cool stuff. Excited to hear and be able to listen to Community Call at my leisure, because sometimes even I don't get a chance to watch it live. So it's exciting to have that. Sometimes it's while we're recording. Yeah. Yeah, very cool stuff. All right. Today is October 3rd, the date of this recording. And I know there are some folks that are already planning for their office holiday parties. I'm sure our team is probably doing some of that behind the scenes as well. Maybe not because there's a lot of... Not sure, but thanks for the reminder. Okay. Because for some folks, you know, that office holiday party is only two months away and you got to find a venue.

25:05You got to figure out how many people are coming, all sorts of other stuff. stress everybody out right more importantly you got to figure out what you're going to have to drink and folks you gotta in my opinion have this to drink at your office holiday party it is of course fireballs dragnum fireball dragnum is a magnum of fireball whiskey a liter and a half okay for folks who are not familiar with fireball whiskey i don't know where you've been probably hiding under a rock. But like, let me tell you, this is probably the most popular shot in America. And to have a liter and a half means that everyone gets a shot of this product.

25:43This sounds like an advertisement. It's really not. This is like everyone can get fall down drunk with a dragnum. Are you going to do like Edward Forty Hands at the bed net? Oh my God. Party with those? This would be Edward liter and a half hands. Did you buy this? No, I didn't. The kind folks from Sazerac sent this to me. What's the retail price on a Dragnum? $7 ,000. The retail price is$25. So not bad, right? I mean, like, why? Only$25? That's kind of insane. Wow. Why is that insane? Because of what that can do. That's a lot. Apparently it's out there in stores nationwide right now. But, you know, I think there's going to be a run on this stuff for office holiday party season.

26:28So you want to go out and get your Dragnum. I'm going to hide from all these office holiday parties. parties. Mike, drink. I want to give those that as like stocking stuffers. No, we have to leave the party and you just hand them one. Stocking is stuffed. Our secret Santa rules are clear. $20 or less. This is$25. We got it for free. I am not partying with this. Just pour a little bit out for like$5 worth. Save it for later. That's actually not a bad idea. That it meets our criteria for a secret We do a Yankee swap, but we're New Englandists, you know? Anywho, can anyone beat my dragnum of fireball?