Unboxing Opportunity & Innovation Here… And There

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0:39Hello, dear friends, 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 with my co-host for this episode, Jackie Brugliera, Mike Schneider, and John Craven. How are your travels in Europe? Travels are good. Yeah. Just went to that meetup thing, which is great. The London meetup you're referring to? Yeah. And then, yeah, stuck around a little bit. The London meetup was like three weeks ago, though. So you've been out of the picture for a while. I'm still buzzing from it. I got lost.

1:11I was still excited about the London meetup. That was fun. It was fun. It was good. Really good. Yeah, I would say it left a lasting impression on us. I feel like we want to go back there more often than just once a year. At least me. I don't know. That's just me talking. I definitely want to go back to L.A. as soon as possible. It feels like the weather has finally taken a turn here in the Northeast, and it's getting colder. And the days are getting shorter. When it gets cold and dark, you just want to be anywhere else. But, well, wherever you are. And so L.A. is a good place to be, not just for your own mental health, but for the food and beverage industry to learn, to network, to be with the kind of people who are going to help you scale your business and live the dreams that you've always had, at least as an entrepreneur.

1:58And you can do those things at BevNet Live, Nosh Live, and BrewBound Live, which are all coming up very, very soon. Nosh Live is happening on December 4th and 5th. BevNet Live on the 7th, 8th, and 9th. And BrewBound Live on the 10th and 11th. And good news, really good news actually, because anyone who's listening right now can literally save$100 off the cost of a ticket to any of those events if you just register today. and today being Friday, October 24th, because today's the last day that you're gonna be able to do so. If you wanna save money, you can register today. If you don't wanna save money, you can register on Monday.

2:43That's fine. You know, I mean, that's totally fine. Who would wanna do that? You can even save$100 if you're not listening to this podcast right now. That's kind of a weird thing to think about. I feel like this is like an episode of Stranger Things. We're just gonna send it into people's minds. Yeah, I'm freaking out over here. I mean, you get to save on a ticket. You also get to save on a hotel room because the room block is open, but it usually sells out. Yes. You can sign up early for one-to-one meetings, for sampling. There's a lot already happening. So if you're not registered yet, you're kind of missing out.

3:16Yeah, those one-to-ones are first in, first out. You get the first choice of who you want to meet with and first chance to get your schedule filled with one-to-ones. About the value of the one-to-ones, because you get FaceTime with retailers, investors, and entrepreneurs who have been there and done that. And you get to do it all in one place within a span of two days. Sometimes you could do everything in one day if you'd like. And where else can you, say, meet an investor who has a track record of funding really innovative emerging businesses? where you can meet a retail buyer from Whole Foods and you can meet someone who has scaled their business to$200 million.

4:03Really, legitimately, where else can you meet people like that in one place, in a single setting, in a specific period of time? Yeah, I mean, there are great conversations happening in the hallway, happening throughout the networking opportunities, but people have told us that it's great to just have that structured time to come in, have 10 minutes, be focused, know that you're both here ready to talk business and bring your questions and set it up for future conversations. Some people say, how do I do it all at BevNet Live? And we tell you, just be where you are. Take advantage of the conversations that you're in.

4:36The place you're in is probably the right place to be. Ask all your hard questions and you're going to get answers and you're going to move your business forward. And if you're considering applying for BevNet's signature beverage brand competition, the New Beverage Showdown. Hosted by Relative. You have until October 31st. I mention the New Beverage Showdown because it is perhaps one of the best opportunities to gain awareness, insights, advice, feedback, and most importantly, feature your brand in front of an audience of some of the most important people in the beverage industry. And even if you apply and say you don't necessarily make it, we know who you are.

5:21We have a better sense of who you are, when you apply. You send us your information. You send us a short video about yourself and your brand. We'll find you in the crowd. And hopefully we'll see you on stage if you make the semifinals. But all I can say to any beverage brand, early stage beverage brand or founder who's considering applying for the showdown, just do it. Just do it. Just apply. Fill out the application. Send us your short video because we want to know more about your business. We are constantly surprised by the number of brands that we don't know about that apply for the showdown.

5:53We're like, wow, where'd this brand come from? Where'd that brand come from? This is really cool. I love this concept. I love this idea. This founder is really awesome. So just let us know who you are. Reach out and apply for the showdown. It's a great way to introduce yourself to us, to the industry. There's been so many brands that have done that. I mean, HealthAid, Poppy, Liquid Death, they all introduced themselves to the industry on the BevNet Live stage. Ahead of major trade shows, food and beverage professionals across the industry are turning to BevNet and Nosh to stay informed. If you have a brand update, share it with us at submit.bevnet.com forward slash news.

6:35So I came across this really interesting online market. It's called Hear Hear Market. And basically, it is a online marketplace that features emerging brands from all parts of the food and beverage industry. And so I got a couple boxes of products from Hear Hear Market. Now, these are specifically curated boxes for a specific type of occasion. This one is described as a charcuterie gift box. Now, let's start with this. This is not charcuterie. Obviously, this bag in hand. All right, where's the meat and the cheese, Ray? Yes, this is from a brand called Unbothered Foods, and they make fermented sourdough products noted for, quote, for easy digestion.

7:19This is their rosemary and sea salt crackers. This actually looks like a nice product. Actually, I feel like you could see this in a lot of different places, but it's really, really focused on the fact that it's not going to mess with your gut. In fact, the bottom of the bag says ingredients that won't bother. well that's the whole point of eating sourdough which uh you don't need to say that it's fermented sourdough that's just what sourdough is well that's what the that's what the bag yeah no i know but we're gonna rip this open here okay that's our crackers all right more from this charcuterie gift basket here's another product or another brand known as share crackers this is their za 'atar sourdough variety these are described as made in detroit not described i'm sure they They are handmade, right?

8:05All right. There you go. This is reminding me of like airplanes where you have like those little charcuterie boxes. Yes, exactly. Super sized. Yes. Here's Live Loud Foods, candied citrus pistachios. You're a big pistachio guy, John, aren't you? Yeah, sure, right? There you go. That looks pretty good. Live Loud. Oh, candied citrus pistachios. That sounds great, right? Now we have pickled golden beets with chili d 'arbol. I'll take those. Yes. This is from a brand called Altogether now. These look really good, actually. Oh, my gosh. This, however, you know, again, very much more in line with a gift box than it is something that's going to be a high-velocity product in stores.

8:51All right. More nuts here. We have cinnamon whiskey pecans from Nat's Nuts. These are slow roasted by hand and in small batches. All right. Who wants pecans? Sure. Cinnamon and whiskey. See what you think about these za 'atar crackers, too. Can I get a cracker? We're finally getting to the charcuterie part of this, and this is where John really rips into stuff. This is Inizio's Italian specialty meats. This is their Soprasetta. Mama Teresa's mild Soprasetta. Say what? Soprasetta, huh? And last but not least, we have some tomato jam. Yeah, this is very Harry and David-ish, for sure. I mean, some of this stuff is like, it's just not going to see at a Walmart.

9:35This is Cellar Door Artisan Preserves, tomato jam with red pepper. This is turning into lunch over there. What's even going on over here? Nats nuts are pretty good, but I'm not really tasting a lot of whiskey, but I like the cinnamon. It's just dripping in booze. That's what you're hoping for. there's a little bit of barrel aging out of all these products i think there's only a handful that i actually think might have a shot at high distribution unbothered foods live loud foods that's nuts are good yeah that's nuts nuts are great i mean okay i put those out snack on which one the nats nuts i mean the live loud was solid too yeah as were the uh i don't know what this is called share crackers share crackers where did we meet that's confusing morgan murdoch didn't we meet her at the unfi show perhaps unbothered food yeah we've met her before unbothered foods possible possible yeah good crackers startup cpg event yeah really good i don't know about that giant meat stick uh well you slice it up you know you don't just take a bite into it no you should not definitely not bite into this yes what do you think of those share crackers the share crackers are good i will share i have these maybe should be in your little box over there but they're local style chicago inspired chips wow they have a variety of flavors is it just called local style yeah is that italian beef they have a variety of flavors i brought you italian beef and hot dog they also have a hot giardiniera

11:15And a regular amazing they have no meat in them just to be clear but here I'll give this one a mic try here they're vegan would you like try a hot dog chip are you scared I'm good for now but I like the fact that it's a loaded hot dog it comes with does it have pickle and and Chicago style hot dog right it's not a loaded dog okay Chicago style yep tastes like this tastes like an italian beef sandwich nice here we go the hot dog kind of tastes like the fixings of a chicago hot dog yeah there's a lot going on mustard i wonder what the ingredients are it's probably quite easy actually to uh make something taste like that because all you need to do is add some pickle flavor some mustard flavor let me see go for it that's my contribution okay that's true you're welcome i'm gonna just i'm gonna unplug my mic and go go home now okay All right, Mike has some, are there smoothies?

12:11Yeah, they're shakes. These are from Urban Remedy. What's the most important thing to note about these, Ray? You can't actually see the liquid. You can't, but 30 grams of protein plus 10 grams of bovine collagen, no added sugar. Yeah, these are organic grass-fed skin, hair, nail, and joint support. They're also made with cashew milk. More quality products from Urban Remedy. So do they send those to you? Did you buy them from Whole Foods? No, they sent us a bunch of these. You can get some. Yeah, no, Urban Remedy is great. I love those kiosks that they have at Whole Foods. I'm not sure how they made that deal, but Nika Pasquale, who is the founder of the company, I've sat down with her for a Taste Radio interview, and she has a great story.

13:02And that's a brand that I love and shop for and buy their products as often as I can. I mean, they're a little bit on the pricier side, but they're extremely high quality and premium products. They make the shakes. They make juice shots. I believe they make sodas and prepared like salads and snack bars. You don't know how they negotiated this deal? They just started rolling vending machines into Whole Foods. No, that's not how it works. No, they set a table and negotiated. They pitched a great product and, you know, Urban Remedy's got some great products if you need, you know, something good to eat.

13:41That's the hell of a pitch there. That's what Whole Foods is. That's a tagline. It's like prepared foods. Something good. What about those sun butter squares? The sun butter squares are amazing. Yes. Oh, great. Yes. We actually visited the Urban Remedy manufacturing facility about five years ago. We went out to Sonoma and we met with Paul Coletta, who at the time was the CEO. And I think we got the first taste of those sun butter squares and they were pretty killer. All right. Jackie, what do you got in your hands? So I have something that's interesting. We were talking about fiber the last couple weeks, actually.

14:17And I think it's my easily. It's corn milk. Yeah. It's interesting on the front, They're talking about calcium, vitamin A, D, and E. There's also, it says excellent source of fiber. So another like kind of alt milk. I've never seen corn milk before. I've had corn tea. I tried it. It wasn't as sweet as I was expecting, but I guess it's like another good alternative. But when I was looking at the ingredients, there are a lot of different things in here. So I guess I'd be curious to see if like the propositions on the front really drive consumers to grab this. I don't know. Alt milks are tough. Yeah.

15:00There's oat milk and almond milk and soy milk. You could go on for about half an hour, right? Exactly. Corn milk. Yeah. Why would someone pick up corn milk? Watermelon seed milk. As opposed to any one of those other milks. Right, right. So I'm curious to see how it does. I've never seen corn milk before. So it's like another thing for people to try. I just I see people going now back to soy milk. And I don't know, there's just a lot of, uh, soy milks coming back. Yeah. Yeah. Coming back to soy milk. I feel like there's just like so many different messages as far as these milks go, like soy is bad for you.

15:31So now let's go to almond milk. And then now all these gums and almonds are killing the earth. So let's, they're not sustainable. And yeah, it's a tough space right now, but I mean, people are still drinking alt milk. So be curious to see if people, you know, want to try corn milk. But I also have another product, which they came to our San Diego meetup. This is called Super Lava Dandan sauce. And they're based in San Diego, really delicious. I love the packaging and they have some really cool recipes just on pack. So they have like a, I mean, they tell you how to make some noodles and then they also tell you how to make some spicy chicken salad and no seed oils in this.

16:12So I'm going to be the hater and pronounce it Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don sauce as opposed to Dan Dan how are you gonna pronounce it well Jackie pronounced it Dan Dan

16:28So I'm excited because the founder Helen Lee is gonna join us for an upcoming episode of elevator talk So stay tuned for that lovely indeed. It's super lovely Anyone anyone you get that no super lovey super lover super lover. Got it. Yeah, we got Ah, there we go. We got it. It was great. Yes, yes. But yeah, if you're interested in applying for a future episode or being on a future episode of Elevator Talk, it's very easy. Go to tasteradio.com slash Elevator Talk, and we'll get you on the top series highlighting emerging brands in the food and beverage space. So something to consider. Now we have, I don't know, what, 25 different brands here on the table right now.

17:06So it is possible that one of them or some of them could be a winner of our Inosh Best of 2025 Awards or our BevNet Best of 2025 Awards. I would say Brewbound as well, but I don't think we have any A, Bs, alcoholic beverages right now. So how does one get considered to be a winner of said awards, Jackie? Yeah, right now we are taking nominations and you can submit as many nominations as you want. And we have a variety of categories of awards that we're looking for. But yeah, just head to bednet.com slash awards, brewbun.com slash awards, and nosh.com slash awards. And that's where you can find the nomination form.

17:49But yeah, this is like a great opportunity for exposure. Every year we do these annual awards and we present them on stage at our upcoming events. Can I nominate anyone, Jackie? Like what if I'm a PR company? Can I nominate all my loveys? Yes, you can. Yeah, you can nominate all of your clients. You can nominate any brand. You don't have to nominate yourself. Anyone that you think deserves to be recognized this year for innovation, for being a leader in the industry. We want to hear them all. 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.

18:26Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cratchy. Our 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 taste radio.com on behalf of the entire taste radio team thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time