The Kids Love Nostalgia. Ask Hal's. Plus, Celebs With Cred.

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 and Jackie Brugliera. This episode features an interview with Stephanie Rita, the director of brand development for fast-growing snack and seltzer brand, Howl's New York. Now, when I say I'm with my co-hosts, I am actually in a studio for the very first time alone. I'm with co-hosts who are based in, well, currently based in Southern California. John's out there with Jackie in the studio.

0:50Yeah, we were getting set up over here and we just saw this one single chair waiting for you to enter. It was sad. What do you mean waiting? I've been here all morning. Yeah, yeah. I played some entrance music for you when you were walking in, though. It was good. What was the entrance music? I don't know, some WWE kind of stuff. oh i was hoping it was return or something heavy hoping it was return of the mac that's favorite yeah actually at the uh at the naturally san diego pitch slam the dj actually asked me he said uh do you want to walk into any music and i joked i said how about return of the mac and i'm just like no no don't do that and then he played it so i don't know if it's always a good time it starts the party yeah it does it does yeah mike is uh according to the calendar oh in oh oh oh i don't know where oh is but i hope he's having fun numpty ten and john i think we talked about this last week you're in southern california because you're about to be interviewed well tomorrow you're going to be interviewed as part of a naturally san diego event you're ready you have all your notes i'm still working on those ray all right he's always ready yeah you're also there to get on a boat is that what you're doing for the wcb extravaganza summer extravaganza uh we are we are came out here to go on a boat basically yeah so we're gonna take a picture of our boat and see how it compares to your boat from last week we're in a competition yeah our boat from last week was very nice very very nice but we had like i don't know how many people join us like 16 16 17 something like that yeah yeah are you guys doing spouses and significant others on this boat i think so we are See, we didn't do that with us.

2:34We just left everyone at home for hours. Sometimes better, but. Yeah, yeah, sometimes. Well, I'm happy for you. I'm happy that that's going to happen. It's probably going to be actually cooler, relatively speaking, than it is here. We're in the midst of a humidity heat wave. I think it's like the temperature feels like it's 105 out here. Yeah, I saw some photos and everyone was dripping in sweat. Yeah, it was nice, but sweaty. yeah yeah yeah i mean i think that's that's how you know you're having a good time if you're nice if you're sweaty it's a terrible like 72 degrees out here yep you know life is hard over on the west coast yeah jackie got what i was talking about anyway i'm ignoring well one thing that you could use on a boat for sure uh are some popsicles some ice cream pops one of the two or perhaps some sort of combination of the two i uh saw this new product being launched or that was launched by two i think relatively well-known brands orida for sure the well-known maker of potato products like their french fries anyway everyone knows orida if you need an explanation of what orida is i don't know maybe somebody thinks i'm talking about another brand.

3:57This is audio, so sometimes you have to explain what Oreida is. And Good Pop. Good Pop is a maker of frozen desserts. They have joined forces to launch a new fudge and vanilla french fry pop. It's designed or developed to taste like french fries dipped in a milkshake this looks like pretty much the best new product launched in 2024 i i need to get samples like yesterday i already ordered some they're already on the way he couldn't you ordered some i mean it's 9.99 for four of them free shipping i'm like this is not even worth the time to go write an email asking for samples that's actually a very good point that i didn't even notice that are they being sent here uh i ordered some to the office back east okay but then i made a second order to where i'm staying out here okay because i'm like i kind of need to no matter what you'll get them i'm hoping for like chunks of potato well i mean they must be like fried potatoes right french fries and i hope so salty and it sounds delicious you are brilliant john because i'm on the website right now and it says sold out check back tomorrow wow there might be some more tomorrow sata hog them all you bought all of them that was really smart you know what at for 9.99 and free shipping that is insane because the amount of dry ice that they have to include in that box is probably four times that price i mean this is clearly just a marketing play right there's no like let's make some money with the collaboration so it's fine you know yeah straight to instagram it will go when i get it so it's gonna work who led this this concept or who did good pop reach out to orida or i gotta maybe maybe this is like a good 15 i would guess it would be good pop they got a guy that knows a guy kind of thing yeah i don't know they always do kind of like some cool innovative things ice cream brands are known for doing innovative flavors so i would say they probably proposed this to them but were you have Have you been like a French fry and shake person in the past, Ray?

6:14You know, not really a French fry and milkshake. So like when I go to Shake Shack, I never get a milkshake. I just get a burger and fries. But I love this because I'm a huge sweet and savory kind of guy. I mean, that's the OG combo, right? Like Snickers, Reese's peanut butter cups, peanut M &Ms. These are just common things that you see that incorporate this. Fried chicken and donuts. Fried chicken and donuts. Yeah, I know you. Yeah. Yeah. So this is not the first time I think we've seen French fry flavored ice cream or French fries. It's sort of incorporated into ice cream. What's the name of the brand?

6:49Cool House. Didn't Cool House do something like this? Yeah, I was going to say I think Cool House did. Yeah. Yeah. But in a pop form, I think this is the first time we're seeing this. And man, OK, so maybe I'll I got to reach out to the folks from Kraft Heinz and Good Pop and see if they can please send us some. Because we're going to we're going to have to try this in the years. There are a couple that are on the way to the office, so just hang tight. I will let Captain Colin know to put them aside, and hopefully, Jackie, you get one or two. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see. There's four people in his family, so I'm thinking I'm the odd man out.

7:24Well, some of them don't eat ice cream, so maybe I'll share. Yeah, some of your family members are vegan, right, John? No, they're just complicated. Vegan, they're just complicated. No, no, not vegan, not vegan. Jackie what's your favorite sweet and savory combo well I was saying that like way back when when I used to eat Wendy's a lot that it would always be french fries and a frosty like that was my go-to for sweet and savory and we're talking about Wendy's was like the fancy food chain back one like we'd get our baked potatoes and our chili and then I get my frosty which is It's like also phrases like a better for you milkshake somehow.

8:08Back in the day. Yeah, back in the day. Wendy's should give you one of those lifetime, you know, free for lifetime carbs. Just for that plug. It's the upscale fast food chain. At least it used to be when there were limited options when I was a kid. That was like what my parents thought of as the better for you option. Wendy's, this isn't the first time that Wendy's has come up on the podcast. We talked about their$5 deal where you get like a burger, fries, a drink, and chicken nuggets for five bucks. And I have had that. And it's something. I'll tell you it's something for sure. Anywho, getting off topic here.

8:46Actually, I guess this is the topic. Ray needs to end the podcast so we can go straight to Wendy's. Yeah, craving it. Ironically, the last time I did eat Wendy's, and it was that$5 piggy bag. That's what they call it. was at BevNet Live winter 2023 in Marina del Rey. And guess what? We're not very far off from the 2024 iteration of the show and all the shows I'm talking about. BevNet Live, Nosh Live, Brewbound Live, all happening in December. And good news, folks. You can get a jump on discounted room rates for the events right now. Jackie. how do they do it yeah so the room blocks just open this week so this is your time to jump in register for the events and then you will receive a link in your email once you're registered with access to the room block we are limited on rooms they always sell out so i'd recommend you jump in now if you want to stay at the venue and you want to save some books staying at the venue is the best thing you can do because that's where all the conversations happen that's where all the networking happens yes there are some hotels in the area but you got to walk all the way over you got to take an uber yeah you know that do that i mean exactly the action is at the end you land on the roof and you're chopper and i take limited meetings up there on the helipad uh so it's a lot easier to get to that helipad if you're staying at the hotel just so you know i'm saying Yeah.

10:20Farron, our dear friend and our spirits editor for BevNet, Farron, will be at BevNet Live as well. I assume we're going to be incorporating even more spirits and cocktail content into the show in December. And Farron's been doing an amazing job just covering this industry from top to bottom, the spirits industry that is. She has her finger on the pulse. and I really enjoyed reading her recent article about the evolution of celebrity and influencer backed spirit and cocktail brands, RTD cocktail brands that is. And it got a lot of attention on LinkedIn. A lot of people are commenting on the story.

11:00I mean, it's just been a deluge. I don't know what opened Pandora's box. I think it was George Clooney, you know, making a billion dollars off of Casamigos. yeah that was probably part of it but you know even before that Sammy Hagar with his Cabo Wabo was it rum yeah Cabo Wabo rum I mean he made a ton of money off that was it like 300 at least a few hundred million dollars off that brand but yeah what's that I don't know but I don't think anyone really was paying attention until George Clooney got his payday that seems to be the the fuel for all of what we're seeing now. Yeah. I wonder if that's why, as Farrah noted in the story, that celebrity brand dollars are overwhelmingly coming from tequila.

11:48In other words, the celebrities that are investing in this industry are getting into the tequila game specifically. And maybe it's because George Clooney made a billion bucks off of it. But I mean, you think about a guy like The Rock and what he's doing with Taramana. uh i think when i was in tail at tales of the cocktail last year the big conference the big beer bar and hospitality conference in new orleans i heard that they were doing a million cases of terramana annually when that was in 2023 and when casamigos sold to diageo they were only doing a hundred thousand cases so diageo bought casamigos for a billion dollars at a hundred thousand cases so if you extend that i mean should terramana be sold for acquired for 10 billion dollars i i i don't think the math ever works out that way where the first the first guy got a big payday and the second one's gonna get a bigger one because of that or at least by the same a 10x multiple like using the math that you're using i don't think it works that way no it's not going to work that way I don't know anybody that would be able to recoup their investment at a$10 billion price tag.

13:03It would take a long time. But, I mean, it is an amazing brand, Terramana. And it's one of a lot of brands that are doing pretty well in this business. but as Farron's story noted a lot of the growth in celebrity-backed brands is coming from non-elk and RTD brands so again quoting her story a few celebrities have embraced non-elk spirits including Katy Perry, Blake Lively, and Lewis Hamilton making up less than one percent of celebrity brands but are growing by 65 percent in the same data period so interesting stuff Again, non-elk is still a very, very nascent, bleeding-edge space, but it is growing and we are seeing celebrities really get into and commit to that space.

13:53The thing with celebrity-backed brands is that consumers are quite good at sniffing out inauthenticity and inauthentic connections between the actor, musician, influencer, what have you, and the brand that they're representing. j-lo is a very good example of this with her uh delola brand of uh premixed cocktails rtd whatever you want to call it j-lo doesn't drink alcohol and yet she has an alcohol brand how does this work and so a lot of her we talked about this about a year ago when she launched the brand and it's like this makes no sense and her fans were like this makes no sense why are you doing this but for me i'm wondering i'm trying to think when i purchase a spirit or when i think about i don't know the association between a celebrity and a brand i i'm wondering like do i actually buy into this where does the credibility come from here i don't know john what do you think yeah i mean i i think it's it's really kind of odd in the sense that from an authenticity you know perspective like none of these celebrities have any sort of connection to tequila for example like were they home distilling spirits like even if they did they aren't making tequila right so like the association is ultimately like they like to drink tequila or their fans like to drink tequila but you know look i think you know the the issue with a lot of these is just the story is basically all the same you know all the way down to like the token photos of the trip they took down to you know mexico and some agave in the background or whatever and then the playbook is also kind of the same like you know these are not brands that sort of naturally flow into the life of whatever celebrity is there so everything sort of feels a little forced it's like here's you know celebrity holding a bottle of their product or a bottle of the product in the background like we've just seen this so many times that i don't know i mean i guess then there's also cynically like i think the type of consumer who's looking for i don't know this sort of mid price value tequila doesn't really care all that much you know it just seems like a little bit of a whack-a-mole of you know what brand happens to have their eye or or you know dollar for some short period of time so i think it is smart for those who've gone and done something different you know if it's a the non-alc stuff for rtds you know those are longer probably longer plays you know there's no like illusion that you're going to make billions in those categories like tomorrow but I think for things like tequila in particular there very much is the illusion that there's like a lot of money to be made quickly and easily there which just is not true for most yeah and I feel like to that point a lot of the brands that are growing it's tied to the category as well so like tequila is growing so these brands are also growing and with like JLo as an example her brand is still growing and is one of the top performers based on Farron's article even though people might be questioning her authenticity, but it just shows that like, yeah, she might get some bad flack at the beginning, but she does have staying power as a brand and as an influencer.

17:33Some people might not even know that she doesn't drink because they don't know her that well. So they just see her face. She, you know, ties to the brand and then she increases awareness for the brand. I think also the most interesting stat in that article is that 80 % of consumers can't connect the brand and the celebrity you know like there's just really hard sort of association which some of that is probably just that there's an overwhelming amount of the stuff out there and even terramana like you know to say that that brand's successful exclusively because of you know the celebrity attached to it i think the execution of that is pretty like hardcore as a too.

18:16So you have to make sure you have both basically. Yeah. And based on the celebrity too, it can open up other channels like long drink has partners that are an actor, a DJ, a golf superstar. So a lot of people are drinking on the golf course, a lot of people drinking clubs. So they're kind of targeting those specific channels, even though it's a Finnish cocktail, I believe. So I feel like a lot of times that kind of gets lost. It's just a tasty cocktail for people in those channels. Yeah, I would agree. I think one of the most successful, I wouldn't, I don't know if it's, you could call it a celebrity backed brand, but it was highlighted and featured in the TV show Entourage was Avion.

19:00Avion, but Avion was front and center in I don't know how many episodes of that show. In fact, there was a whole storyline based on avion tequila which probably helped it quite a bit yes um hey there was also aqua hydrate that didn't exactly benefit uh i think there was only like a handful of mentions of that brand in the show uh and you're talking about the mark walberg backed brand well that backed bottle water it was like in everything he did for many years yeah uh it was also backed by diddy but we'll leave that alone for a moment. The celebrity-backed brand that I really think has done an amazing job with both marketing and branding is Crystal Head Vodka, which is co-owned by Dan Aykroyd.

19:47And I interviewed Dan Aykroyd in August of last year, and we had a great conversation for Taste radio and we talked about the fact that his association with the brand is kind of atypical for most celebrity-backed brands and that he's not front and center he is not the face of the brand the face of the brand is the crystal skull that is so represented on the bottle it is the in so many ways and it was interesting because amid this growth of celebrity and influencers in the spirit space, he's like, look, from the beginning, we were all about business fundamentals and premium positioning. And I think that is really what's getting lost in this gold rush is can we actually create a good brand?

20:35Can we create a good business? But some people are just throwing stuff at a wall and seeing if it sticks. And hey, we've seen that work too. I also think that sometimes the most obvious celebrity connections to a brand are the ones that people appreciate the most so snoop dogs gin and juice rtd i mean come on everyone should have launched that 20 years ago yeah i don't know it seems to be working now i mean i think there's a lot of people that are i don't know maybe maybe no one's drinking this i don't know but it just it looks cool yeah it's pretty it's pretty obvious it's by dr dre as well dr dre and snooper yeah aligned on this brand.

21:17I don't know if anyone's tried. Have you tried this, John? Yeah, I tried it when it came into the office. It's not bad. I think it is one of those products that people of a certain demographic that I think at least you, Ray, and I are in will probably be tempted to buy a can of that once just because it's funny, right? I joked about they should have made that 20 years ago, but they should have made it 20 years ago, right? But I think it's fun. It's funny. It's got the parental advisory thing on the front of it. Throwback to the old days of buying tapes and CDs. And I think that's one that it kind of speaks for itself.

22:06There's a lot of people that will remember that and know what it is, right? And the celebrity connection there is really straightforward. so yeah i mean that's that's a clever i guess opportunistic if nothing else yeah i think it's really authentic obviously like they've been singing about this people attach attach them to that drink specifically they did collaborate on it too it just wasn't one of them launching this and i haven't tried it but i mean from the list of all the things that have come out like i was most drawn to that as far as something that makes the most sense. But again, like to both of your points, it's all going to be about flavor and quality to make sure that it lasts, you know, if people want to like buy it again and they don't just buy it once because it's something that they think is funny.

22:56It's like the can you want on your shelf, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Flavor, quality, and package design too. I think they could have gone really kitschy with this or I don't know. I'm just imagining all the different ways they could have designed the packaging. And they actually went with this well-known designer who, according to Farron's article from the launch or about the launch, has worked with brands including Hermes, Noel, and Logitech. So this is something that designed to be a premium gin-based cocktail. and, you know, again, looking at the packaging. Yes, it has that parental advisory warning in the middle of the can, but it also looks like something that you might, I don't know, perhaps even see in an airline.

23:42So I think they did a good job there too. Tastefully done, I would say. And guess what, John? It's not just me and you that this might appeal to. Jackie just pointed out that she enjoys this and would reach for this. I just have to give Ray some sort of crap every episode. Well, you know what? I was tempted with the return of the Mac thing too, because that's a little late 90s, but it's okay. It is quite old school. But everything's retro now, so anything you like, the younger generation now likes. Exactly. Something like that. I think that if you have any interest in this space, you should be following Farron's articles on a regular basis.

24:26You can get regular updates on everything that's going on in the spirits business via her newsletter, which comes out. Is that is it bi-monthly? Mm hmm. 20 a month? 20 a month. Go to BevNet.com slash spirits dash newsletter to sign up. From boozy to non-boozy, I have in my hand one of Recess's four zero proof cocktails. This is their classic Cosmo. So Recess is a brand that was once known for their CBD infused beverages. Now they are known for their alcohol alternative cocktails and also a line, their primary line of products is a mood boosting or adaptogenic infused line of products that is designed to enhance mood.

25:17Those products are made with magnesium and adaptogens. but the non-elk stuff which they call craft mocktails come in four flavors they have a paloma in addition to the cosmo they have a paloma an island spritz and a lime margarita i was actually kind of surprised when i saw recess get into this business were you yeah i mean i was definitely looking at that kind of like man what the heck this is like you know i'll say it now but it almost felt a little desperate at the time. And I'll give credit where credit is due. I mean, I'm super impressed with those products. And, you know, I think they've done a really good job getting them out there.

26:01I mean, their products at this point, like I have a couple of friends that don't drink and like they show up with the, like the recess Paloma with certain folks in my demographic or my circle is pretty popular and it's tasty. So really nice pivot. And oddly, I think the brand actually kind of makes sense as a non-alc too. It does. And are there any like functional benefits still to their mocktails? Yes. So they're infused with guayusa and adaptogens. Guayusa has caffeine. And so caffeine in a non-alc cocktail, a bit of an interesting addition. The adaptogens include L-theanine and lemon balm. Good stuff.

26:43I mean, again, you know, everything begins and ends with taste for me. So I think the only one I haven't tried is the Island Spritz. Now, Ben Witte, who's the founder of Recess, is probably going to kill me for drinking this warm, but let's see how this goes. Yeah, I mean, the packaging pops just like even in your hand on camera. It's really pretty. I love like the slim cans. And pretty like understated too, you know? like it's not shouting via packaging or whatnot that it's a non-alc either uh this island spirits is delicious it tastes like a it tastes like a pina colada but not an overwhelmingly sugary or just like like sticky pina colada like pina coladas are sometimes known for really really good and you can definitely drink it not cold so good job ben i gotta catch up with ben we sat down geez i mean probably like five years ago for an episode of taste radio when there was a lot of hype around recess as this new um cbd brand or this this brand that could be the anchor for the cbd beverage category and well no there really isn't much of a category for cbd beverages still out there yeah just to a certain extent yes i mean you know Cloudwater is a good example.

28:07I love Cloudwater. They're doing some great things, vibes for sure. But I think Recess was looking at a much bigger opportunity for beverages. The gold rush of it is no more, which frankly, I think is a good thing. Yeah. I feel like it's just transitioned into yet another kind of functional ingredient that you can play with. So I think it also makes sense for Recess to pivot. They're still using function in their beverages. So they're still in that kind of category, but they're just a different use occasion. Yep. I'm actually, I don't know how much I should say here, but I'm actually surprised we haven't seen any kind of announced celebrity involvement in recess because from what I understand, celebrities, some that you might know, really enjoy and like the brand.

28:58So I'll leave it at that. Maybe I can get Ben back on the show and I can get him to reveal a few things. If you do your own homework, you might know what I'm talking about. All right. On to another brand that I saw in the cooler. This is called Nutcase. Nutcase is a brand of premium cashew milk. This is the vanilla variety that I'm holding in my hand. Talk about great packaging. This comes in a matte black can with the word nutcase vertically centered on the front of the can. These products are plant-based, obviously contain five grams of protein. Recovery is mentioned as a function. They contain 570 milligrams of potassium and are naturally sweetened.

29:39The sweetener is dates and agave syrup. So it's almost like a chocolate milk that you would, it's not chocolate, but. Well, they do have a chocolate flavor, which is delightful. Okay. So it'd be like a replacement for a chocolate milk post-workout. That's kind of what they're going for correct correct and nutcase participated in our new beverage showdown competition at uh bevnet live winter 2023 you know i can't they didn't make it to the finals uh if i recall right john uh i think that's correct um and i think they only had a single skew then okay it was that one of the reasons i mean like i think it's fine to talk about this now but was some of the criticism uh well you weren't part of the semifinal round yeah so um and i try to oftentimes not watch the first round to not bias the second round yeah i can't recall geez i want to go back and and look at some of the notes from that but i think part of it was perhaps that they only had the one skew and the one nut, I guess, like just cashew on its own as the base for the milk was something that I think the judges saw as limiting.

30:55Yeah. I mean, the name allows them to expand and this might be their first, you know, go and then they might enter into other nuts. Yeah. I think it's, I mean, looking at the three of those, I tried them right before uh leaving and it's it's pretty cool just to see the three of them now the strawberry one is like if you if you like the flavor of like strawberry quick they they like nailed that it's like the classic classic strawberry strawberry milk um but yeah it's it's tasty stuff and definitely agree the packaging is like pretty uh eye-catching for sure the the founder of this company joelle Winand.

31:34I believe she had a chain of restaurants and kind of spun nutcase out of them. If I recall, actually, no, I take that back. She's a professional poker player. Interesting. No, no, no. She has like all these, if you go to her Instagram page, she's got, she's got like a Forrest Gumpian kind of thing going on where she's the founder of this brand nutcase she's the owner of a brand called wolf down um which is which makes berlin donor kebabs uh in canada they're in ottawa and canada so there's that young entrepreneur yes and she's a poker player like if you go to her instagram page um she says poker player just for kicks but from my understanding she's actually quite good at the game smart i was gonna say it's not like one of those random things that people put on their uh social media profile just to like catch your eye i mean it caught his eye no i i i recall uh when we i was doing a little research on the brand for the new bird showdown that yeah she's got she's got game as the kids like to say i think that would be riz nowadays no no no no yeah uh i thought riz is like when you're trying to attract someone else like your your ability to attract someone else we'll just leave it here yeah i guess we're not the experts on this topic okay well i do know is short for charisma so anyway anyway you guys got anything good at the wcp i have one thing that i was drinking over the weekend at the beach which is crescent nine they have a variety of thc products this one particularly is five milligrams of thc and four milligrams of cbd and it is they're ginger lemonade so as far as their flavors go they're very like approachable things that you would you know pick up in any beverage but what is interesting is that a lot of their different SKUs have very varying degrees of THC so they have one I believe that has like 50 milligrams of THC cool to see them just trying to test into different dosages see kind of what resonates what people want it is delta 9 so it's not resealable which is one thing that I guess they would have an issue with the larger dosages.

33:50But this one I tried and I liked it. It's something that I would drink again. I like that they add CBD to it. Usually I have a better experience when it has both THC and CBD. What's the name of the brand again? It is Crescent 9. Crescent 9. There's a lot of 9s added to these products that contain Delta 9. So subtle. Yes. So subtle. I have, I just saw this. This was in the storage room. I don't know if this is brand new or not, but it definitely caught my eye. It's from TMK Distillery in Canby, Oregon. It's called Vodka Cow-Cahol. So it's vodka made from fresh cow's milk. This comes in a 375 milliliter bottle.

34:35It's 40 % alcohol by volume. I've seen these types of products in the past. I've never seen anything described as cow-cahol before. Like, is it for cows? I imagine that it will interest people and that people will pick it up and look at it. I don't know if people would buy it, but it is, as one might expect, a small batch of spirits.

35:04I wonder if there's a benefit of distilling with whey versus distilling with other ingredients. I don't know. Or it's just a differentiator. They're just doing it differently. yeah it says as you pointed out it's distilled from way it's a byproduct from our in our farm cheese making process so they okay apparently have a farm as well uh nothing goes to waste so that's a that's a good thing maybe there's a listener out there that can school us on this yeah yeah if you do have any insight on this please let us know send us an email to ask at taste radio.com but uh just to wrap this up as the bottle says straight on the rocks or mixed with your favorite flavors.

35:46These cows know how to have a good time. So there you go. Cow alcohol, everyone. It's a new big thing. All right. It's time to get to our featured interview for this episode. As I mentioned at the top of the show, Stephanie Rita is the director of brand development for Howl's New York, which markets flavored seltzers, ginger ale, and salty snacks, including potato chips, popcorn, and pretzels. Launched in 2014, Howl's is known for its folksy old-school branding and products that are a common sight at bodegas throughout New York City. Howl's is also distributed at several chain retailers including Target, Whole Foods, and 7-Eleven.

36:30In our conversation with Stephanie, she outlines the history of Howl's and discusses the brand's retail and distribution strategy. She also talks about Hal's marketing and social media initiatives and how her role has evolved as Hal's enters its 10th year in business. 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.

37:03Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I'm honored to be sitting down with Stephanie Rita, who is Director of Brand Development for HALS New York. Stephanie, great to see you. Hello everyone, excited to be back. Yes, back. We sat down last year as part of our Taste Radio studio. We only had 10 minutes back then. We have a little bit longer now. I think we're going to chat for 20, 30 minutes about HALS New York. What an amazing brand this is. So first and foremost, thank you so much for bringing all of your seltzer and all of your snacks here to BevNet Live. People are munching on them and enjoying them.

37:37I think that's one of the hardest parts of an event is trying to find something that's just something familiar, something that you know is going to be tasty, and to wash it down with some seltzer. So that's what you're providing today. Absolutely. And I think it's a little bit of something for everyone. We did some of our basic flavors. We do some really exciting other unique flavors, we'll say, that we'll talk about a little later. But yeah, for today's event, we just have our original sea salt kettle chips, our number one flavor over here in the white bag. And then we did our original sea salt popcorn, one of three popcorn skews.

38:08And we have our pretzel originals, which are just, you know, the usual pretzel-shaped twist. And we just put our Little House New York spin on them. No functional ingredients in these. No, not in those. Delicious taste, but yeah. other than that. That's not a bad thing. Again, I think when someone is going to reach for some pretzels or some popcorn or some chips, it's just like, that's what I want. Let's keep it simple. Yeah, we don't need to mess around with it. Exactly. I feel like Hell's has been around for a while. How old is the company now? So we're actually having our 10th birthday this summer for the seltzer, which is crazy to think about.