What's Working (And What Isn't) In Better-For-You Snacks & Libations

0:10Hello and thanks for tuning in to taste radio the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. As Mike pointed out, this is a very special episode of Taste Radio because our dear colleague, Amanda Huang, has done yeoman's work in putting together the studio for us for this particular episode. It was a hairy affair, to say the least. I feel like something could explode at any moment. No, no, no. I wouldn't say that. No, as I mentioned, Amanda Wong is our dear colleague.

0:50She is one of our photographers, videographers. She is our video designer in so many ways. She's a designer, right? She's a user experience designer. Yeah, I don't know why I called her a photographer, but she does. She does photography, yeah. She does photos too. Amanda does a little bit of everything. She also beat me in tennis the other day. She's got an amazing backhand. Did she smacked you? She did. she's she beat me okay she smacked mike and took away his racket told him he can't play anymore she's like you're you're you just suck dude you gotta your skills are your skills are inferior to mine stick to barista uh well if you're listening to this episode on the day that it was published it is friday the 13th this is the first friday the 13th that i remember in some time and it's october friday the 13th so um i'm never a big fan of these days it's not spooky as much as it is bad luck, I feel.

1:42I'm a... Do you believe in that, though, Ray? Do you believe it's bad luck? I'm really in luck because Friday's my birthday. Is it really? Yeah. October 13th is your birthday? Should I not give that out on a podcast? I don't know. It's probably not hard to find. I think it's fine for you to do that on a podcast. You'll get extra presents. Well, happy birthday. Thanks. You going to dinner? I don't know. I don't know what the future will hold, Ray. Don't people let you know, your friends, your family, let you know if they're going to take you out to dinner ahead of time? Or is this like a big surprise for you.

2:11I just don't, I have plans on Saturday, not Friday. Ah, okay. That's good. Cause it's Friday the 13th on Friday. Yeah. I mean, I'm just going to, you know, hunker down at home and going back to whether it's spooky or unlucky. If you got Texas Chainsaw Massacred, I think it'd be a little of both. We're talking about October the 13th. Why did you ever get Texas Chainsaw Massacred? Oh, I see. Okay. It's Halloween. Yes. It's a confluence of the two movies that are most terrifying, at least the franchises. People have a real fear for it though. I actually, fun fact, the name for having fear for Friday the 13th is Frigatrischeidekaphobia.

2:46What? Frigatrischeidekaphobia? That just rolls right off the tongue. I'm so frigging afraid of Friday the 13th. Is that where that came from? I think so. Okay. That is, yeah, quite, quite the word. We should have had Ray say it. What is it? Yeah, it's Frigatrischeidekaphobia. Frigatrischeidekaphobia? Let's go, Ray. Come on. Sorry, I'm sipping coffee over here. It's perhaps because we had such an amazing meetup last week here at BevNet HQ. Yeah. One that I'm still recovering from. And I need my coffee to keep going here. As we've talked about in the podcast, we did host a meetup last week. I forget.

3:24Was it October 4th? Is that the day? I think so. October 4th. Fantastic. We had well over 100 people here from all parts of the food and beverage industry. Lots of entrepreneurs. So great to see someone like Porvi Patodia, who's the founder of Vienna here, a Vienna maker of chickpea-based snacks, including roasted chickpeas and puffs and such. I love like we have folks like her here because she is such an inspiration to other entrepreneurs here in the area. Someone who really built her business from the ground up, bootstrapped, and has done amazing things with that brand. She inspires people beyond the area as well.

4:02Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, and she was recently on Community Call too. So for people that weren't at the meetup and want to tap into some of our insights, they can check that out. Absolutely. Perhaps on a podcast? Yes, check it out on the Community Call podcast on your streaming platform of choice. There you go. Also love to see Greg from Howie Spiked, Greg Howard, that is. Howie Spiked is the maker of Spiked Coffee Cocktails. The name of the brand is Alcaccino. If you watch the cocktail showdown last year, I believe it was December of 2022, Al Caccino participated in that competition. And they just released a new 13.5 ounce vodka coffee cocktail that comes in this clear can.

4:47I love this. So that you can actually see the mudslide looking liquid, colored liquid that is, in the can. I'm a big fan of this package. Those are what, 15 % alcohol? 13.5%. 13.5%. Yeah, that makes all the difference. I love that. Yeah. And it is, let's see, what are the ounces in this? It looks like an eight ounce. Yeah, I think that's probably about a hundred milliliter. No, probably 125 milliliter. Interestingly enough, I don't see the size of the can. Oh, it's 200. I'm excuse me, 200. 200, that's way off. Way off. Looks way smaller from over here. Way out of line, way out of line. Way out of line.

5:24Just drink it and find out. Yeah. Yeah. Also love seeing Shannon Edgar, who's one of the founders of Stormalong Cider, who is the founder of Stormalong Cider, which is a maker of ciders based here in the Northeast. He brought along some really delicious treats, including some secret vials that John and I got to try. I loved one of their products in particular. It's called a Ragtime Reserve, and it looks like and feels like and almost drinks like a canned cocktail. It's part of their rare Apple series. It comes in a 12-ounce slim can, 8.3 % alcohol by volume. Just a really a delightful product.

6:00And the packaging is amazing. It has this sort of like art deco 1920s kind of vibe to it. And I posted it on Instagram and lots of folks responded and they were like, I love that product. I love that brand. So great to see Shannon and thanks for bringing products. Also great to see the folks from Al's, which is a brand of non-alcoholic beer. John, you got stuck those guys. John and Mike, you both got stuck with us for a while. Tasty stuff. Love the retro look of the brand. So big fan. Yeah. Their first time in Boston and they were really enjoying it. Yeah, Albin and Fannie are the founders. I believe the brand is named after Albin.

6:34I think so. Al, you know. That is correct. Yeah, they came here all the way from New York City based in Jackson Heights. And Al and I both have, or Albin and I both had a good chat about Jackson Heights. I got to get out there for a haircut, apparently. Do it. Just so you know. Does he have a recommended barber? Is that why? No. So Jackson Heights has a large Southeast Asian population. And the salons and barbershops there are known for doing more than just giving your haircut. They'll give you like a head massage. They'll like crack your back and stuff. It's like a whole experience. I want to go.

7:12It's like a chiropractic haircut. Perhaps. But yeah, look it up on YouTube. Actually, there's actually videos that you can see of these barbershops in Jackson Heights. and uh yeah it's it's pretty entertaining stuff also the folks from spade they get the bi-coastal mvp i know i was like this is the only brand that went to both i know they were in san diego i mean not the same folks i you know the founder blake came to the san diego one and uh i think some of his colleagues came to the one here at our office they did in boston so uh but yeah i really like this dr spade it's kind of a uh spade is a line of sparkling soda and or sparkling soda obviously sparkling so it's flat soda how about that no uh spade is um you know has all these kind of cool flavors and they have a dr pepper dr spade flavor is really good zero calories cool looking package too yeah it's a really really delicious dr pepper whatever dr fill in whatever Yeah, Dr.

8:15Ruff. Super good. Now, I don't know if the folks from Pickle Juice, the Pickle Juice shot, were here at the meetup, but I did see a bunch of these shots up front near the cooler. And I figured, well, I have three of them here. So we have one, two, three people here in the studio. Not going to do it. Why not? It's like you and cheese. I'm just not going to do it. Yes, you are. I guess I'll have to do two. Pickle Juice isn't your thing. This isn't just pickle juice, though. This is chili lime pickle juice. Whatever. It's USDA organic. I'll do both. Pickle juice is, I would say, the epitome or textbook definition, whatever, of a polarizing product.

8:56Either you're super into pickle juice or you're not. And I have nothing against pickles for a record. I just don't want to drink the juice. Mike, you're way ahead of the game here. Michael, drink mine. I got to get ahead. I'm ready to do the second one now. Okay, we'll do the second one here. Personal preference here. Now, I just want to point out that I've never done, I can't recall ever doing one of these. Never? No, yeah. Oh, yeah, right. These are good. You should move your laptop out of the way. You might sizzle it. That's okay. It's not mine. Jeez.

9:29I don't know what happened to my laptop. Ray, we have video proof. The benefits of pickle juice are apparently for recovery, right? Mm-hmm. Yes, okay. Yeah, I used to drink pickle juice after basketball games sometimes. Just, you know, open the little can in my fridge in my dorm and just chug. Well, I went up and down the stairs a number of times this morning. So this is my recovery shot right here. I played soccer this morning. Let's do this. Yeah, you all need recovery. Different levels of activity. Ray's primary activity up and down stairs and the ironing motion for blue shirts, obviously. Yes, exactly.

10:06I couldn't do the entire shot in one slug, but... Yummy. No, this is great. Does it taste just like pickle juice or does it taste a little bit different? No, it tastes just like pickle juice. And I was expecting a spicier taste to it because it says chili lime. But this is delicious. I like this a lot, actually. It's really tasty. Well, I mean, there's a whole case upstairs with your name on it, right? Well, now there is. I wonder if you make picklebacks with those, if it just cancels out the effects of the alcohol, you know? Stay hydrated. Drink some whiskey. Picklebacks. I remember when picklebacks.

10:39That was a big thing when I first came to that. That sounds too much like Nickelback. I want to stop this conversation right now. You don't like Nickelback? Oh, geez, guy. The sound that Mike just made, that was a little weird. That was the pickle juice. It was not the pickle juice. All right. I wish we had a bit of a chaser, though, because, I mean, I like the flavor of pickle juice, but I wish we had a little water here, perhaps water packaged in a Tetra Pak. I want to thank our presenting sponsor for this episode. But that's Tetra Pak, 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.

11:19Learn more at tetrapak.com. What if vitamin water were packaged in a Tetra Pak? I think that could be kind of cool. Like maybe like a food service size of vitamin water. Does anyone still drink vitamin water? You're ruining my segue, John. Look at this. I just feel like. Oh, that would be a great idea, Ray. I would love to have a food service size of vitamin water. There you go. Billion dollar idea. How about a food service size of body armor? How about that? Oh, that is even better, Ray. You genius. AI Mike has entered the chat. Apparently. the point of the segue i was trying to make yeah where are we going here is that mike ripoli who is the co-founder of both vitamin water and body armor is back in the game so to speak although more specifically back in the snack game he is or was uh did acquire pirate's booty so back in the snack game he has acquired a majority stake in a company called junkless foods i had not heard of Junkless Foods before this was announced.

12:32Did you guys? Yeah. I think we've covered it, had it at some point. Okay. I think we've gotten Junkless. You've gotten Junkless. It's a good brand name. Yeah, I love the name. I mean, it's pretty clear what they don't have in their products. They don't have any junk. Or do they have less? I don't know. It's genius, isn't it? You're talking about a real genius, Mike. That's Mike Rapoli. According to the Nosh article about this story, Junkless was founded in 2017. They're based in Michigan and sell five varieties of limited ingredient chewy granola bars and two flavors of crispy protein bars. They previously sold a line of crispy cookies, which have been discontinued.

13:15So they had to get rid of the junk. They got rid of the junk, exactly. That's what you got to do. They need less of it. Yeah. No, I saw a lot of talk about this on LinkedIn and a lot of people praising Mike Ropoli as being a genius when it comes to CPG and someone who can take a brand not only to the next level, but to the upper echelons of success in food and beverage. And I think people expect nothing less with Junkless. Well, he's certainly one of those rare people that I think has had, I don't know, zero failures, basically. So, I mean, not that all these brands didn't have unsuccessful skews, but all of the companies that he's gotten involved with, I think have eventually, you know, turned into something pretty big.

13:59So yeah, he has a lot of success taking something that's in conventional grocery and growing it to like junkless is in a ton of stores, maybe not like, you know, your specialty or your lazy acres or things like that. But They're in Walmart and Target and larger retail stores and trying to hit, you know, more of a mainstream consumer with just a very simple value proposition, which is less junk. Speaking of less junk. Speaking of less junk. I've got a better for you gummy in front of me called Behave. And Behave has a line through it because it's pronounced behave. Okay. Mike, you're... That's what the founder, Mesa Chehada, told me.

14:43is the proper way to say it. Mike just rose his right pinky finger to his lip. I conflated Dr. Evil. You just conflated Dr. Evil and Austin Powers. Austin Powers is the one who says, behave. Oh, behave. And he's million. I get it. I know, right? Just because they're two characters played by the same actor. You can't do that. In the same movie. In the same movie. By the way, I didn't know. The first time I watched Austin Powers, I didn't know Dr. Evil was Mike Myers. Did you? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Oh, boy. All right, all right. Only the instant that I saw him. Only the instant that you saw him.

15:20All right. Did you know that Fat Bastard was Mike Myers? He is? What? Oh, my God. Okay. Smoking a pancake. Did you not know that either? Uh-huh. Smoking a pancake. Next thing. Bong and a blitz. The pipe and a crepe. All right. Please continue with this. Next thing you'll tell us is that he's also Mike Myers. Okay. So it's a better for you, Gummy. I've got a bag of stars in front of me, one gram of sugar. These are raspberry, pineapple, apple gummy stars. And there's another pack over here that I also sort of demolished over the last day or two called, that's watermelon, mango, lychee. And yeah, these are pretty tasty.

15:59There's also new sours that are three grams of sugar. Nice. Pretty good. Seems like we're seeing so many new low sugar, non-nutritive, sweetened gummies and candies coming to market. it just feels like we're just seeing this is the a moment for these kinds of brands also have a little bit of like licorice flavor to them too so maybe that's the maybe that's coming soon who knows but um i don't know these are really tasty i like them i mean my only issue with all this is nowadays when you see like an adult chewing on some gummies i know you know that's a great up to kind of like mike what's with all the edibles oh hey guys oh i see what you're saying okay i I just need to take a nap on the table.

16:38But also, I mean, gummies are huge in the vitamin space now too. So adults are taking gummies for their vitamins, for their edibles. And I also have a brand with me, which is called Choosy, which is kind of an extension of the gummy for vitamins. It's almost like a starburst. So this one is for beautiful hair. It's very clear what the function is. This one is sweet raspberry. the wrapping is just like a starburst it tastes very similar to starburst but it's like a treat that has vitamins in it i always was like hoarding the red and pink starburst so this one's for me nice yeah but why is it i mean i'm thinking about the opportunity for these low sugar gummies and candies and yes certainly is a functional component to some of these brands but who eats most candy in America.

17:30I would assume it's kids, right? So are these products and these brands being marketed to kids as much as they are adults? It doesn't seem like it. I don't know. I think adults do eat candy. It's just not as they're not doing it in front of other people. Jackie's like, I eat three bags of candy a day. You know, or they're looking for better for you options and not eating it as often, I would say. Because Jackie's housing a chosen and I'm eating behave. It's funny you say that, though, because there's a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. His name is DK Metcalf. And apparently, most of his diet is comprised of candy.

18:12He eats like three or four bags of like Sour Patch Kids. What? He drinks like a cup of coffee in the morning. And then he eats like three or four bags of candy, like big bags. And that's his diet. What? Yeah, it's really weird. Had some gummy bears. Not cramping up. Yeah. Yeah, Marshawn Lynch, who used to be a running back, well-known running back for the CLC since retired. He was known for his Skittles. What's with Seattle? I don't know. But he was crazy about Skittles. He would eat Skittles in the middle of the game. No wonder everyone wants to play for Seattle. Yeah, right? Pete Carroll, he's got the head coach.

18:42He must know something. I guess also sugar is kind of a recovery thing sometimes. Like I used to drink chocolate milk because of the sugar for recovery. And the protein, right? And the protein. Yes, and the protein. Before we get to something else, I got to mention this. So our colleague Marty Caviero was out in Atlanta for the NACS show, that is the National Association of Convenience Store show, last week. And in one of his articles about the show, I had seen a new tagline for Buy BAI, the low-calorie brand for refreshment drinks that has, or is infused with coffee fruit as its functional components.

19:21I would guess, I think that's how you describe it. Anyway, the brand, as we know, was acquired by Dr. Pepper Snapple for$1.7 billion. Oh, stop. Oh, behave with your pinky. I did it right that time. And I was kind of shocked by this new tagline. It's Wonderwater. It's what it is. And yeah. Sounds like a superhero. They got the Gallagher brothers? I mean, the thing is. You're my Wonderwater. I never would have described bi as a water in the first place. No? No. Okay. And wonder is such a, like, I guess it's alliterative, wonder water. I don't know. I mean, like, but it just, to me, speaks to... Reminds me of drowning.

20:07I don't know. Some, no offense to the marketing professionals here, some marketing team coming up with this tagline, thinking it's brilliant, and it really ain't. I'm sorry to say. Jackie, can you imagine us sitting there going, wow, that's brilliant. come up with something i can't imagine no and all the money they spent i'm sure doing focus groups doing surveys and being like what do you think of this tagline what do you think of this tagline okay we'll go with it's wonder water i mean that's usually how it goes that's the best we got we'll go with it exactly it seems kind of like a large umbrella you know like it's like this could cover anything so we're just gonna say wonder water rather than doing something yeah i I mean, it's, I don't know, it's one of those like head scratcher, you know, a brand trying to present itself as water, which is Jackie was sort of pointing out.

20:56It's like the most broad, you know, common ingredient in all beverages. Right. But this isn't water. It's a flavored still beverage with some functional ingredients in it. People drink it because it has flavor and sweetness. So I don't know. Losing its identity a little bit. You know, they're just trying a million things. They have a lot of different types of products now. And now they're just trying to have this one umbrella term for all of it. I guess. Wonder water. Apparently there's a new call out for new great taste and more benefits, which I mean, I guess both are good things, but it's wonder water is something that would actually honestly make me not necessarily less interested, less interested.

21:43Who reads the label anyway? I do. I do. Especially, and this is the last thing I'll say about it. So the photo I'm looking at right here is of their Molokai coconut variety, which to me looks like it has a whitish color to it. So if I see a beverage that has a whitish color to it and isn't clear, and then I see something that says it's wonder water. It's cloudy dishwater. It's quite confusing is what it is. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about some snacks. Enough crapping on DPSC's marketing here. You know, I saw that. I scratched my head and I moved on. I had to talk about it.

22:21I don't know. Not a bi-consumer. Ray, continuously has scratching. I'm done. I'm done. It's the therapy couch here. It's what keeps Ray awake at night. Stick to pickle juice, Ray. So we got a nice box of rind remix from our dear friend, Matt Weiss. Does everyone know what rind is? Okay, Ray, do your thing. I'm going to do my thing. A brand of dried fruit snacks that has now expanded into these other tasty snacks. There you go. Called Rind Remix, which has, there's a pina colada and a cocoa berry. This cocoa berry, definitely super fun. That one's great. I love, went to the standard snack playbook for success and added chocolate.

23:03Like that a lot. This is going to do really well. It's got dried strawberries, dried cocoa almonds, and dried blueberries in it. Highly recommend. You don't share that. I'm going to knock you out. Mama said, knock you out. Okay, here you go. How'd I do, Matt? How'd I do? That was pretty good. At Knacks this week, people probably saw a lot of combos because combos is an OG convenience store snack. And I have a better for you option right here. You've got Rivals. I have Rivals. Yes. Nice. So Rivals, it is a line of stuffed snacks. So this one is Extra Cheddar Mac. we have late night pizza and spicy street taco so similar flavor profiles as you know traditional combos i would say the texture is a little bit different like combos are more like pretzels these remind me of like almost like a combo of combos and 3d doritos do you remember those the crunch yeah that's not that's not a bad shout did you do the flight yet i did do the flight yes all right what's your favorite i really liked the late night pizza just because i was a pizza like combo fan growing up.

24:11I love anything pizza, pizza goldfish. So that's my favorite. I really liked taco Doritos back in the day and they don't, I don't think they make those anymore. But the taco snacks kind of remind me of those. I like that a lot too. But the pizza ones are the best. Yeah, I like the names too, like late night pizza. Everyone has a memory of late night pizza and that is the best time to eat pizza. Cold pizza. What about Elio's? Were you an Elio's consumer? Yes, I was an Elio's consumer. What were those ones did you get from the convenience store? It was like a round pizza for like a dollar and you'd put that...

24:44I grew up in New York. I'm pretty sure those were just straight up illegal, right? Yeah, well, you could get, you know, and you can still get a good slice of pizza for a buck. Well, maybe not a good slice, but a slice of pizza for a buck. But the Celeste pizzas, I remember getting those in college a lot, actually, after a night of, you know... That's standard Boston pizza in that era kind of tasted like a Celeste. Yeah. Yeah, you'd go to like a, you'd get like the pub pizzas that are like tiny, like at Cape Cod Pizza or things like that. I went to college in Ohio and we got full slices for like 50 cents.

25:17You went to school in Miami, Mike. I did go, I did go to school at Miami, yes. No, I'm just kidding. Miami of Ohio. Miami University, right? I saw this on nosh.com and I gotta, I gotta call it out because I'm really excited for this. Asha Abolasha, who was the founder and CEO of Mason Dixie Food. is going to be on stage at Nosh Live. Very excited. She's a brilliant entrepreneur. We've had her on Taste Radio a couple of times. She makes her favorite breakfast. Oh my God. Mason Dixie makes these incredible frozen biscuit products and frozen waffle products, including waffle and biscuit sandwiches.

25:54My mouth is watering. Their egg, sausage and biscuit, frozen treat sandwich. I just, it has really, it really has. It saved me so many times. when I have an early morning flight and I just want to get something into my stomach and get out the door, 45, no, not 45 seconds, about an hour, a minute and 45 seconds. An hour and 45. A minute and 45 seconds in the microwave, and it is as good a breakfast as you'll have. Microwave. I was just legit picturing in your bedroom one of those, like, heat lamp racks where you just, like, roll out of bed and you're, like, grabbing a Mason Dixie. They're already ready to go.

26:27They're just ready to go. He's got, like, a Pee Wee Herman style. John knows I love the Knack Show. even though I didn't go this year. And, you know, you see a lot of that stuff there. You know, the fried chicken, heat lambs. I know. You know, the automated pizza makers and stuff like that. All the Krispy Kreme donuts and Chester fried chicken you can eat. You cannot go to that show and not eat fried chicken. I almost want to go to Knack's now. It's almost like when you go to the fancy food show and Jackie's like, you cannot go there and not eat cheese. Cheese is my thing. I also don't eat chicken.

27:02So fancy food show is more my speed. Yeah, they do. Plant-based is just illegal in X. Yeah, it's not. The time that Jackie was like rolling a whole wheel of cheese. Well, anyway, you got to hear Asha Balacia. You got to see her on stage. She's just fabulous. Nosh Live is happening November 30th and December 1st in Marina del Rey. Now is the time to sign up. You can still save money if you sign up for Nosh Live right now, right, Jackie? Yeah, you got a week to save. So sign up this week and you can save an extra$100 per registration. There you go. Don't forget we added retail one-to-ones. Yes. Exciting stuff.