The New Premium Mindset. Why Quality Matters More Than Ever.

0:10Hello and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Melissa Travers, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we celebrate a milestone anniversary, explore how CPG brands are energizing consumers beyond the bottle, spotlight a wave of innovative snack and beverage brands, and feature an interview with Jordi Vinales, the managing director of acclaimed Spanish winery, Marquez de Vargas. Thank you to everyone who came out to our Taste Radio Austin meetup.

0:52Fantastic event. Humongous thanks to our partner Nutribolt and their incredible office, as well as our national partners for the Taste Radio meetups, the Angel Group, Vibrant Ingredients and Belay Solutions, and of course our amazing partners for the Austin event, Corner Market Communications, and Next Foods. more events on the horizon, including Chicago in August, San Diego and San Francisco in September, and London, London, England. I love that London always gets a little accent or whatever you want to call it. London, England in October. I was going to say, at least you didn't do a fake accent.

1:34You kind of just did a weird Australian one. It was Australian. Mike doesn't know the difference. I don't. He's an Arsenal supporter. I'm just happy about it. It's going to end up on the internet, Ray. Certain match that happened yesterday. I don't know what you're talking about. City. No, okay. You know what I'm talking about. I know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay. You broke the time machine. Yes. Well. Oh, well. Oh, well, indeed. Who cares? Speaking of a time machine, May 2026 marks a big anniversary for everyone sitting here, and especially for our CEO, John Craven, who's also sitting here.

2:12Am I? How are you? You're an illusion. I'm asleep again. Wow, a hologram. I'm on Zoom. Yes. No, this is the 30th anniversary of BevNet. And what a ride it's been and what an influence that the company has had on this industry and beyond. I think, you know, BevNet in some ways is a cultural institution as much as it is a business one. It is funny. I'm just going to point this out. I have a sister who lives in Los Angeles and she has a friend who is a crazy beverage nerd. He's not involved in the industry anyway, in any way, shape or form. And a few years ago, when she told him that I work for BevNet, he was jumping up for joy.

2:55He's like, I love BevNet. He's like, that is my favorite website. I'm on there every single day. And I don't think he's the only one. You know, certainly from an industry standpoint, BevNet is the go-to resource for beverage, for food, beer and beyond. But I think, again, the impact goes even further than that. So kudos to you, John, you and Carolyn for building this incredible company, you know, and speaking personally, and I think for others in the room, you know, offering such gainful employment and really enjoyable gainful employment to so many people who are currently with this company and those who have, you know, gone on to do different things as well.

3:33So what a ride. Thanks, Ray. Yeah, yeah. I think BevNet team members have some of the most longevity of certainly anywhere. Who has the most years under their belt at this point? John McKenna. Yeah. And then Jeff and then Stern. And what's that, like 20 years or something? 20 years and beyond, yeah. Well, McKenna was like 2003. Unbelievable. Yeah, long time. Yeah. John Fisher's been with you for a long time as well. Yeah, he and I started working together in 2000. Wow. Yeah. on something else. But yeah. So when you get that email from Fisher, reply to it. All we're doing is just asking some questions about Fevna.

4:13We're old. He's been around for quite a while. I think that's part of it. I think there's, there's a family aspect to this as well, which is that, you know, you spend time with people that you like and spend time with people that you love, and you don't want to leave a situation that feels comfortable, but also rewarding and challenging at the same time. And I think that all represents my experience at BevNet, which, you know, when I came here in 2011, I didn't know a thing about anything. And, you know, I give a ton of credit and respect to John and the team for giving me a chance. And, you know, since then, I really have found this experience extremely rewarding and challenging and fun and met some my best friends in the world here at BevNet.

4:57I shout out Adam Stern. And I think more than anything. The Bert to your Ernie. Yeah. Wait, I'm Bert, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Only Stern would go. Yeah. But more than anything, it's given me an opportunity to help people as well. So, you know, I'm able to pay this forward. I just recorded an episode of Elevator Talk, which again is our bi-monthly series that profiles early stage and disruptive brands from across the food and beverage industry. And just having an opportunity to bring, just having an opportunity to share awareness and bring awareness to small and emerging brands, to give people a platform to talk about what they're doing and talk about their passions and pair them with an expert in the industry, whether they're an investor, a retailer, or otherwise is incredible.

5:44And our co-host yesterday was talking about this, just talking about, You guys have just provided an amazing platform for early stage founders to talk about what they're doing and shed light on the incredible industry as it's unfolding in front of us. I've had a lot of jobs, as I think you all know. If I look at my spreadsheet, I think this is number 36. You have a spreadsheet of jobs? I do. Wow. Okay. I've done pretty much everything there is. More about that another time. but um by the way this is probably like 35 and 38 right 35 and 38 yeah are you sure i'm burnt

6:25i do like to clean um but like so i'm sorry i'm sorry

6:34but um so i know a little bit about what it's like to work places and it really is unusual to work somewhere where you feel like the people who are running the company actually care about you as a human being, which certainly is the case for BevNet. And I think that translates to how we interact with our community. I think so. And, you know, how we truly care about all of the entrepreneurs and brand builders that we talk to and that we see at our events and meetups. And it really has a trickle down effect where, you know, we feel really good about what we're doing. So yeah, it's a pleasure. Yeah, thanks for building this place.

7:09Yeah, thanks. Hey, anytime. You know, it's one of those cliches where you say, well, here's to another 30 years at BevNet. And you wonder about the future and whatnot, but you don't worry about it here. You think about what's possible and what's next from a standpoint of how can we better help the community? How can we be a better partner? Because that's what our community is thinking of every single second of every single day. What's next? What can we do? And where do we do it and how do we do it from the new beverages like juice on your desk over there to even pop water here to the essentials of the world.

7:46Everybody's thinking about what do I do next? Yeah. And, of course, where else is a better place to find out what's next other than BevNet.com, Nosh.com, BrewBound.com, Tasteradio.com, Nonbase.com, and, of course, BevNet Live. It's coming up soon. June 10th and 11th. It's happening. Oh, my gosh. It's like a month. It is a month. It's pretty much a month away. Yes. Crazy. And people are signing up at a record rate, which is fantastic. I'm really excited for New York City. I'm really excited to hear from some of the incredible speakers that we'll have on stage, including Olivia Ferti and Daniel Khoury, who are the co-founders of Trip.

8:25Richard Laver from Lucky Energy, Tom Furst from Culture Pop, Samantha Fletcher, who is, again, you've heard me talk about this, one of the best people I know. She's a retail buyer for Whole Foods. She's more specifically a senior category manager for adult non-alcoholic beverages. Ellie Truesdale, a former Whole Foodser who is now a managing partner with venture capital firm, New Fair Partners, and many, many, many more folks. and of course your peers, your fellow entrepreneurs, other retail buyers, other investors, other distributors, decision makers, just folks that you want to meet. PR firms, designers.

9:06Oh my gosh, the industry's going to be there. That frankly you need to meet. You need to meet these folks. Brokers, distributors, you said it. You know, I actually worked with Ellie Truesdale at Whole Foods Market. She is spectacular. She was instrumental in helping Siggy's dial down the sugar in their yogurts. We actually went to Iceland together for an Icelandic lamb trip that they had us help with the lamb roundup. And yeah, so she's amazing. But you work here now. I know. You had to go to Iceland at one point. Wow. What number is that on the spreadsheet? I think that is number 32, 30. It might be 30.

9:43Did you ever pack fish in Alaska? I did actually pack fish in Alaska, yeah. And you found a job in a comic book, right? Basically, that was one of the worst jobs, but not the worst, which is really saying something. If you ever wanted to talk to the person who did that job, it's Melissa. Just let me know. I know all about it. Oh, boy, indeed. Oh, boy. That's all I've got. Yeah. Well, you know, you don't want to miss this event. If you're involved in the beverage industry in any capacity, BevNet Live is the place to be. Once again, June 10th and 11th. To learn more, to register for the event, head to BevNetLive.com.

10:20One of the things that I always do at BevNet Live is drink coffee. I end up drinking, I don't know, probably 10 cups of coffee a day. That's not hyperbole. And at a certain point, I'm sure the caffeine just has no effect on me. But I keep drinking coffee. We need a new source. I need a different way because then it stains my teeth. Maybe I have coffee breath. Maybe I just don't know about any of this stuff and it's been going on for 15 years. Now I have to write the ship here. You're fine, right? You're like a human raisin, so dehydrated. It took me a second to think about what that meant I was thinking this sounds like An SNL commercial where like The punchline's gonna be like Meth or something That's a functional ingredient Oh that's a new company He's like I have 10 cups of coffee If only there was a better way Literally anything When are we inventing meth net I'm not the kind of person who brushes his teeth Middle of the day I do it in the morning Yeah you like your Listerine strip I do like my Listerine strips But you know if you're drinking that much coffee You want a caffeine Listerine strip.

11:21Ooh, well, they already have those. I'm sure they do. Yeah, not Listerine branded, but they have those. But that's a good point, because I think there are people who don't necessarily want to drink coffee, who don't want energy drinks, who don't want to consume their caffeine via liquid form. And so it seems like, and we're clearly seeing, that there are a lot of new alternatives to energy in beverage form. There was a data report that was released on nonbase.com that you can go check out by the Brightfield Group. They're a social listening data platform. And they talked about just this recently.

11:58And they were saying that caffeinated gum is one of the fastest growing new formats for energy and caffeine snacks. So energy bites, energy balls. They were talking about granola, granola bars. But I think they said something like over 60 % of U.S. adults wish they had more energy. And, you know, caffeine does that. That's for sure. And I think gummies seem to be another format that people are embracing for caffeine, for energy. On stage at the Naturally San Diego Naturally Rising Pitch Slam was a brand called Oku. Oku was founded by Carolyn Hamlet, and it is a brand of energy gummies. And she describes it on the website as energy reinvented as a snack.

12:43So the energy that she describes is conscious energy, and she's got that trademark too. Clean caffeine and fiber in every pouch. And I also recently got sent a couple pouches from a brand called Gate Drop. They market energy gummies as well. 25 milligrams of caffeine per gummy. There's also additional vitamins, including B6 and 12, D3 and K2. There's 25 gummies per 2.5 ounce pouch. I think I'm gonna give these a whirl. I really think that this is the kind of stuff that is probably better for me and will lessen my need to brush my teeth or go to the bathroom more often. I don't know. I mean, I can't be the only one.

13:31No, you're not. I mean, you know, there's a process that happens when you have coffee, for sure. But if you were to trade out your coffee, which I know is just mind-blowing to think about, Mike, what would be the format that you'd embrace most? Or what would be the format that you'd turn to? Mike would become a man-you. Why would you do that? What? I was going to say, you'd become a man-you supporter before you'd give up coffee. Wow. Wow. It's probably true. I just wouldn't drink caffeine. I'm not a big caffeine user. I just like coffee. Oh, interesting. See, I love coffee so much that I don't want to get caffeine other places because I always want to drink coffee when I want caffeine.

14:08Well, when I don't drink coffee, I don't have caffeine. So I don't try to replace it with something. I just don't like on a lot of weekends, I don't have coffee or when I come in here and make some. In that Brightfield report, they also talked about some of the functional ingredients that we're seeing less of that are kind of declining in popularity. The two that I thought were most interesting were ketones and guarana. I feel like we saw a number of ketone drinks come through the BevNet doors for a little while. It's hard to mask the flavor of ketones. What about chill? What about relaxation and how that function applies to snacks?

14:46I have in my hand a brand called Vibes, V-I-B-E-S. They're maker of what they call fruity stars, which are gummies, and they're made with chamomile. The variety is sour watermelon chill. and the brand is described as functional and snackable goodness. I bought this in San Diego from some convenience store. I forget exactly where. And I have not yet tried this, but this might be a bad idea. I never thought about chamomile gummies. In that Brightfield report, they are also talking about how adrenal support and cortisol support is something that people are looking for more and more. So this makes sense.

15:21I mean, they taste great. And I feel like the candification of function or functionality has been pretty cool to see as well. Candification. Candification. You know what else I've been hearing more and more about, which I find to be very surprising, is nicotine. So like the manosphere, like, you know, Andrew Huberman and Joe Rogan, they're all about nicotine and zins, right? But I'm always so surprised when that comes up that that's something that are people going back to that? I don't know. I don't know. It's ridiculously addictive. Yeah. I'm sensitive to nicotine, Ray. We can talk about that later.

15:58But my mommy smoked cigarettes in the car with the window like barely cracked. And I'm mad triggered by anything nicotine oriented now. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, you've cut back on the booze too. You're very much sober curious. And I know you have a drink once in a while. Yeah, every once in a while. Yeah. I wonder if you'd need a product like the one John just crushed over there, which is called Rally, R-A-L-L-Y, which is a recovery shot that uses pickle juice as its hero ingredient. Pickle juice hydration. Yes. We met the founder at our Taste Radio New York meetup. Yes. And it's a good looking brand, a good looking bottle right there.

16:36Yeah. I mean, it's, I guess, what, a three ounce, two and a half ounce format here. Clear liquid. It doesn't look like that swampy sort of pickle juice of the past. Yeah, it's got that tart mouth puckering flavor of pickle juice. I don't need it for recovery. I would drink that. I love pickle juice. Yeah, using it for recovery. I mean, I think it's kind of interesting, like that intense flavor. I could see that. But it's kind of cool. I like the brand. It's got like a, I don't know, kind of retro vibe to it. Yeah, it definitely does. I got the same font and feel of a tennis brand that I can't put my finger on.

17:14It's so tennis. Yeah, a tennis ball. Something like that. If that bottle was wearing an outfit, I feel like it might be roller skates and bell bottoms. In a good way. In a really good way. Roller derby? Yeah. Smoking a cigarette. But anyway. The official shot of roller derby. Well, Brett Weisberg is the founder, and we met him once again in New York at our meetup. and he was very gracious to send us some samples. And I took one the night of our meetup and I felt pretty good in the morning. So don't know if that's the ringing endorsement that everyone was looking for, but you know what? It is not as punch you in the face kind of pickle juice flavor as you might expect, which is also great.

17:54It tastes just enough like pickle juice. What's the ingredient that makes it a recovery shot? I think it's all the sodium. Yes. And the pickle juice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, nice indeed. Think you overpaid on tariffs, but you can't find the records to prove it? You're not alone. Belay's accounting support helps you clean up your financials, document what you paid, and make sure you don't leave money on the table. Text TASTE to 55123 for your free guide. Candy freaks, listen up. Dr. Rotten is here to solve your problems. especially if you crave something gummy, fruity, and crunchy without harmful dyes or a heavy sugar load.

18:40Visit eatrotten.com today and feed your freak. Mike has in front of him four cans of the newest brand launched by Yanni Hufnagel, who most folks know as the founder of Lemon Perfect. His new brand is called Popwater, P-O-P-W-T-R. It's described as a brand of beverages that taste like soda, but hydrate like water. It's pretty tasty stuff. Have you had a chance to try it yet? No, I haven't. Does it actually taste like... Okay, so there's four varieties. Which one do you like? So we've got grape, we've got orange, lemon, lime, and cotton candy here. If I'm looking for something that tastes like soda, I'm probably going to go with the orange.

19:23Okay, that's a great call here. Yeah. You take the orange. Which one would you like, Melissa? Ooh, I would love the lemon, lime. Thank you. John, grape or cotton candy? He's going with grape. I'm going with cotton candy. I've already sampled all these. Yeah, me too. So the label design here is fantastic. I wanted to point that out, Ray, because this is, for me, the perfect label design here, except for my least favorite part, which is that the logo is vertical. But just the flavor cues on each of these are spot on. You've got your lemon lime is the green. You've got your orange that you know is orange.

19:57You've got your purple grape and your pink cotton candy. And then also just the words that they really grab you, like cotton candy. You can see it. And it's also on the top of the label. So that's the first thing you're going to see when you see this thing. And then tastes like soda, hydrates like water, zero sugar. He's made some really great choices. And then you can turn the can and you can see zero calories, seven essential vitamins, hydrating electrolytes, no artificial colors or flavors. Please recycle. It's a really, really nicely designed can. It's very tasty. And I do love that they use magnesium citrate and B vitamins, just like we were talking about.

20:32People are looking for a little extra boost. Yeah. The statement of identity is, well, at least for this product, an orange flavored sparkling water with other natural flavors. However, I would describe this as a soda. It tastes like soda. It tastes like soda. I would consume this in drinking occasions where I am looking for a soda. So I think the description of tastes like soda, hydrates like water. It's good. I wonder who is looking for a product like this versus just saying, I want a soda or I want water. I think anyone who's looking for a better free soda would find this at least interesting.

21:11I also think if you're out at night and you're drinking and you don't want to drink alcohol the whole night long, this has electrolytes in it. there's, you know, hydrating benefits. It may be something that you want to do to, you know, ward off a hangover the next morning. And it's not something you're going to immediately slam like a Gatorade. You know, you can, there's carbonation in here. It tastes like soda. It slows you down a bit. It's tasty. You got to pair some pop water with some, was that Wandel? Great job, Yanni. Wandel. What's Wandel? Wandel describes itself as a softish, swedish jewish bite apparently it's based on a jewish mandelbrot but it basically is kind of like i don't know think uh one bite brownie sort of situation this stuff's nls man it's really good what's the nls next level next level right got it oh yeah they've got a couple flavors here milk chocolate chip and cinnamon sugar that's one flavor zesty lemon and poppy seed and my personal favorite, which is the dark chocolate.

22:16Which is half gone. Yeah. I was like, here, Mike, have some. I tried the lemon one. It's tasty. I mean, I think these are super tasty. I mean, it's definitely a bit of an indulgent snack, like 170 or 180 calories per two pieces. It's like a little mini brownie kind of thing. Yeah, little dessert. Yeah, little dessert. I feel like it might need a little better kind of product description on it, but these are super good. I mean, nice looking package too. It's got a nice big shot of the product on there. Yeah. You can picture this on the shelf next to a Lexington Bakes. It's almost as indulgent. I mean, it's not quite there, but it's tasty.

22:53Born in Brooklyn. So, you know, it's like legit and hipster and stuff. The chocolate chip one is so tasty and they have a little sprinkle of sugar on top, which I think is such a nice touch. Yeah. Wandel. Yeah. W-A-N-D-E-L. I'm pretty sure I saw these at the Summer Fancy Food Show last year. Great looking product. It definitely feels like it's different, right? If you're looking for a snackable afternoon kind of treat, this definitely fits the bill and is not what you've seen on the market. It's just not, it's not another me too at all. It definitely feels like a new type of product. Pretty satiated after one too.

23:32So that's, that's pretty great for me because as somebody will go crazy. You could eat the whole bag? I couldn't because after one, I'm like, great. And then I have more for later. So I feel like that's pretty good. The other thing that I really love about this product is the familiarity across the flavors. There's a certain texture, just a certain similarity in each of the ones that you taste, even though they're all different flavors. So, you know, trying one isn't going to stop you from trying the others. You know what I mean? If you like one, you'll like them all, I think. For sure. That's a good thing.

24:03Yeah. Well, Melissa's wandle is just hanging on precipitously on top of her can of pop water. Wow. I'm saving it for after lunch. Mine is so gone. But she's got another pouch of products to her right there. What is this? That's right. So I have Purpose Fuel Snack Bites here. We actually had Caroline Stevens at our New York City Taste Radio meetup. And this was one of my favorite products from the whole event. These are plant-based superfood snack bites. And this is right in line with what we were talking about earlier with the Brightfield group. There is caffeine in here. So she has 14 milligrams of caffeine.

24:43Not a lot, just a little bit. And the flavor is matcha lemon. Did you guys try these? Yes, they're amazing. The lemon flavor is just absolutely perfect. It's dialed in so excellently and it matches the matcha so well. These are so tasty. I could eat a whole bag of these easily. Yeah, Purpose Fuel, cool name. and these snackable bites, again, great for the afternoon when you're having that hanger right around 3.30 or so. You have a couple of those, you're good to dinner. I see on the ingredients, she's using cardamom and freeze-dried lemon. I don't know. It's just that her R &D came out so well.

25:21The formulation is so tasty. Yeah, yeah. Purpose fuel. Good stuff. Nice. Met the folks from a brand called Juice at the Taste Radio Miami meetup. Yeah, juice is J-O-U-S. And they make hydrating fruit drinks, is what they describe, on their cans. Seven grams of sugar with magnesium in 50 calories per can. The cans are white. And the flavor for this one is Key Lime. Let's give this a whirl. These beverages, this one in particular, Key Lime is their first SKU, and they're also working on an orange. It's 45 % juice, seven grams of sugar. and it's sweet, but it's also tart. It's a really nice flavor.

26:04Yeah, surprisingly sweet and tart with only seven grams of added sugar. And I was not expecting to ever love a lime flavored beverage. And that's exactly what this is. This is delicious. It's a very tasty beverage. They chose to put magnesium on the front. They made some choices on this can. It looks super premium. Absolutely. Camillo Ortiz and Nicholas Jeffrey, thanks so much for sending samples of juice. Now, there's another can by Melissa's right here. I saw this in a bodega. I also saw this product in a bodega, except this bodega was in New York City. It's a brand called Dirty Virgin. What is that?