[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and with my co-host for this episode, Melissa Traverse and Mike Schneider. Kroger is drawing a line in the sand on pricing, and some familiar brands are disappearing from its shelves. We recap Taste Radio's San Francisco meetup before digging into the supermarket giant's standoff with Red Bull, which has halted shipments of the energy drink, and the disappearance of Boar's Head products from some of its stores. We also clarify what's happening with Hoplark following its Chapter 7 filing and unpack what these developments reveal about the increasingly tense dynamic between retailers, suppliers, and consumers in a pressured CPG environment. I'll be honest, I love San Francisco and I'm kind of sad that we didn't have more time there. We had a fantastic meetup at the San Francisco Brewing Company and we saw so many fantastic people from the Bay Area and it just felt like I needed another day or two to
[00:01:22] Melissa Traverse: Absorbed the city and it's incredible people including those that came to our event I needed to drink a lot more soupies or eat a lot more soupies Amanda Huang out with just incredible founders there drink more Golden Disco
[00:01:35] Mike Schneider: Eat more Nutty Hazel.
[00:01:37] Melissa Traverse: Have some Calligraphy Wine. I even had some Calligraphy Wine.
[00:01:40] Mike Schneider: That is huge. Yeah, it was really tasty. Yeah, you never drink.
[00:01:43] Melissa Traverse: I mean, when a founder asks me if I'll try their product, then I'll tend to do it.
[00:01:47] Mike Schneider: That soupies, it was the soup with, I think it was ground turkey, daikon, and seaweed. That was exactly what I wanted to eat after being on a plane all day.
[00:01:56] Melissa Traverse: And anchovy broth. Yeah, that's why I went right into your soul. Fantastic stuff. It was good to see Jules Reyes from Mindful Drops and a secret tea project.
[00:02:08] Mike Schneider: Oh, you know, actually, that was one of my favorite items of the meetup. It's a squeeze bottle that has L-theanine drops in it, and you squeeze it right into your coffee. And I've been using this and I love it. I'm a big fan of L-theanine and coffee anyways. I've heard it described by psychopharmacologists as sort of like a replacement for if you're on an ADHD med, this could, you know, I'm not a doctor. I'm not prescribing anything. I'm just saying.
[00:02:34] Melissa Traverse: Do you know what this makes L-theanine? The interesting ingredient of the week.
[00:02:38] Mike Schneider: No, no, it's not even I have another one.
[00:02:41] Melissa Traverse: There's gonna be two.
[00:02:42] Mike Schneider: Yeah. Yeah. The San Francisco meetup was rich and interesting ingredients.
[00:02:46] Melissa Traverse: We also got to see YC from Hero Bread. He also brought the people who formulated his fantastic shortbread cookies.
[00:02:55] Mike Schneider: And he brought the shortbread cookies and those little pretzel bites.
[00:02:59] Melissa Traverse: Right next to the hero biscuits was Nutty Hazel with their stir free Hazelnut spread and you put those together and I did and I was like it was like I found the entire Triforce I was like Lincoln Legend of Zelda. I won the meetup you saw me
[00:03:14] Mike Schneider: I saw you glowing. I saw you glowing, but I don't know if I can say that you won the meetup because I feel like I also won the meetup. There are two winners? Yeah. I found not one, but two interesting ingredients of the week. The second one was with Nutty Hazel. So they use rice bran butter, which I had not seen before.
[00:03:35] Melissa Traverse: It's so it's stir free.
[00:03:36] Mike Schneider: It doesn't separate. Rice bran butter is an upcycled ingredient. And Katie, the founder, said that it gives the product the texture of palm oil and helps the chocolate hazelnut butter not separate. And I haven't seen that before.
[00:03:51] Melissa Traverse: So many great brands are there. We just got on a tangent race. Sorry about that.
[00:03:54] Ray Latif: No, it's okay. I'm just, you know, I'm trying to reminisce on the brands and people that I saw at the meetup as well. Great to see Michael Fisher. Michael Fisher from Rotten, who we also had on stage speaking. Mark Gallo from Man of Beverages. He was there. Pete Grego, an industry legend. Industry legend, Pete Grego. Yes. The folks from Golden Disco were there. They were there to the bitter end. Bakefull was there.
[00:04:17] Mike Schneider: Loved those people. Thanks for the support.
[00:04:19] Ray Latif: Shauna Golden Disco. Yeah. Tony Davis, the founder and CEO of Bakefull, which is... That's a chill dude. Such a remarkable brand. It is the kind of brand that we all hope for. And here it is with us. I think I described it on stage as current nostalgia, right? So it's a brand for modern times, but just soaked in nostalgia. Imagine all the Hostess cakes and pastries that you ate growing up, but in a much better for you form. That's Bakefull. And they have three different lines of products, including Muffinfull, Browniefull, and Donutfull. The donuts. Those were the best. I have a weakness for donuts. Me too. And the donut full, bake full Product Parade just spectacular.
[00:04:58] Mike Schneider: They were frosted in just the right way. We also saw Stephanie, is it Howie?
[00:05:03] Ray Latif: I think it's pronounced hottie, but I've never asked. Yes. But regardless, Stephanie is one of the most incredible people in our business. So supportive of early stage founders, so supportive of minority founders. And she is just someone who is a champion for early stage entrepreneurs and their products. It's just fantastic. She brought you stuff.
[00:05:24] Mike Schneider: I have what she brought me in my hand. I have the San Diego bar. So it is an energy bar that has coffee and a small amount of caffeine in it. And then she also brought me Mammoth Bars. These are raw protein bars.
[00:05:38] Jacqui Brugliera: Those are so good.
[00:05:39] Mike Schneider: Are they so good? I haven't tried them yet. I'm so excited to try, especially the macadamia coconut. But Stephanie is the best because you always know you're going to get and try amazing things.
[00:05:47] Melissa Traverse: I was this close to being able to try. She said, oh, I brought you guys some stuff. Do you want to try one? I do. I want you to try them, though, too. I mean, I've tried them before. Mammoth Bars are fantastic.
[00:05:56] Mike Schneider: Cashew cinnamon or goji berry? Because I want the coconut.
[00:05:59] Melissa Traverse: Yeah. All right. Thank you.
[00:06:01] Ray Latif: Yeah. Stephanie has been working with Whole Foods for some time. She's based in the Bay Area. And if you haven't met her yet, connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn. She's just, like I said, she's just the best.
[00:06:13] Mike Schneider: She also had Philosopher Foods raw stone ground pistachio butter, which I couldn't take back with me because I was flying the next day, but I haven't seen that anywhere. I'm so excited about it. Did you know that pistachios are one of the few tree nuts that are a complete protein because of their amino acid profile? Oh, interesting. I just saw that on a...
[00:06:34] Melissa Traverse: Which makes them one of the interesting ingredients.
[00:06:37] Mike Schneider: Three interesting ingredients? Come on, man. Crazy. I'm done. I'm going home.
[00:06:41] Melissa Traverse: Stephanie, by the way, is H-A-U-G-H-E-Y, for those of you who are trying to find it, because we didn't know how to pronounce it and you won't either.
[00:06:48] Ray Latif: And I think I used a T to pronounce her last name, which is not correct. But anywho, you'll find her.
[00:06:53] Mike Schneider: Oh, these Mammoth Bars?
[00:06:54] Ray Latif: They're good. Obviously a huge thanks to Josh Levy and his team at San Francisco Brewing Company. I mentioned Michael Fisher from Rotten, YC from Hero, Tony Davis from Bakeful. Vibrant Ingredients, Belay and the Angel Group. Thank you so much for your support. Yes, absolutely. Our partners, our national partners for the meetups have been so critical to hosting these events. Again, Vibrant Ingredients, Belay, and the Angel Group. And Bakeful was a great local sponsor for the event as well. So thank you all for helping us turn these events into something that's really special. Like we saw in many other cities, people are clamoring for these community meetups. People want to see each other, connect with each other, talk about the wins, the struggles. They want to meet investors. They want to meet people in the retail business. And people stuck around a lot longer than I expected they would. You know, San Francisco is a busy city. It was on a Thursday night. I assume people had plans, but people were there till the very, very end and then beyond.
[00:07:54] Melissa Traverse: Everyone was pretty happy that there was an event like that in town and that they had a chance to be there and connect with each other. It was the networking was electric. Yeah.
[00:08:04] Mike Schneider: And I want to point out that no matter how early stage you are, it's never too early to come to one of these meetups. We had folks who had a product that they hadn't even packaged yet. Super new Aloha, the molasses beverage that we saw there, I thought was so interesting.
[00:08:21] Melissa Traverse: That's really good.
[00:08:22] Mike Schneider: It was really tasty.
[00:08:23] Melissa Traverse: It was in a form factor that I wasn't expecting. It was like a tiny plastic bottle. I thought it was soy sauce at first. And then I just told everybody it's soda because this business is so hard and you look at something and you see it, you get a second to get somebody's attention. And I get that she was sampling, but still like it's one of those things where you're like, what is that?
[00:08:41] Mike Schneider: Yeah, so to that point, no matter how early stage you are, it's never too early to come to one of these meetups. And you know that product, LOHA, the molasses beverage addressed a need that I haven't seen in CPG before, which is iron deficiency, because iron supplements can really ruin your stomach. So I thought that was really interesting.
[00:09:00] Ray Latif: Nice. Yeah. One more big thank you to Adrian Hahn from Big Dopamine PR, who has been a big champion of these meetups and helped us secure a location at San Francisco Brewing Company, a place I'd like to go back to sometime in the near future, perhaps in January when the Winter Fancy Fair is being held in San Francisco.
[00:09:20] Melissa Traverse: And a shout out to Brigitte Coleman. She's my event buddy. tried all this stuff together and gave me her opinion on it from beyond brands. I mean, she had some really good perspective. I love Bridget. Yeah. Yes.
[00:09:32] Ray Latif: One more meetup coming up this year. One more big one. One more.
[00:09:36] Melissa Traverse: Oh yeah. You might need a passport for this one.
[00:09:37] Ray Latif: This one's happening across the pond in London, October 21st in Notting Hill at the offices of Trip. We will be there from five to 7.30 PM. We want to see you there as well. If you're based in the London area, or really anywhere in Europe, or are visiting the area, you gotta sign up. Taste Radio.com slash meetups.
[00:10:01] Mike Schneider: Yeah, it's a good reason to take a trip to Europe. I think the Golden Disco team was saying that they might just hop over. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:10:08] Melissa Traverse: Well, there's a story behind that.
[00:10:10] Mike Schneider: Well, yes, yes, yes.
[00:10:11] Melissa Traverse: She's always got a story that there's a reason she was in Chicago. Her family lives there, but that'd be so cool. So cool. We've seen a lot of Golden Disco lately.
[00:10:17] Mike Schneider: I'd like to see more.
[00:10:19] Ray Latif: I would like to see more folks at our meetups, and I would love to see everyone, and I mean everyone. Me too. I know what you're going to say. BevNET Live, Knox Live, and Brewbound Live, all of which are happening this December. It's, you know, just one of these times where you're probably wondering to yourself, how do I evaluate this year and think about my plans for 2027? And these events are fantastic opportunities to enhance your strategy for, again, the end of this year and 2027. So prepare yourself by meeting the investors, the retail buyers, the consultants, the operators, the service and supplier partners that you'll be meeting at all these events. You wanna register now because you wanna secure your place not only at the hotel if you want to stay at the hotel, but we want to make sure that you have an opportunity to fully understand what you're getting into, create a schedule and a plan for yourself to make the most out of the events.
[00:11:21] Mike Schneider: There are so many brands who have told me that they've found a big retailer or a primary investor at BevNET Live or Nosh Live. And sure, it might happen during a one-to-one, but it also might happen in the elevator. It might happen at the after party. It might happen anywhere. And it may not even be that you meet the investor. It may be that you meet the person who introduces you to the investor. So there's so much opportunity there. And that's another set of events that you can never be too early. Even if you're thinking about starting a CPG brand, it's a great event to attend to help you avoid really costly mistakes right out of the gates. Or if you've been around for 15 years, then that's a great time to come to.
[00:12:00] Melissa Traverse: You're thinking of your next round of innovation and you need to validate it or you want to see what's going on in the industry and pressure test what you're thinking about for next year. It's just a fantastic place to go to be able to do all of those things. And then also just make those personal connections that you can't make by sitting in front of chat GPT and typing some stuff in and getting a bunch of AI slop back.
[00:12:23] Mike Schneider: Right. If you're raising money, if you're thinking about raising money, it's a no brainer.
[00:12:28] Ray Latif: Come see us. And we just announced a new slate of folks that will be available for our one-to-one meetings, including three folks from Whole Foods. Those people are Sammy Kiefer, who's a Category Merchant, Candice Turnus, who's also a Category Merchant, and the incredible Samantha Fletcher, a Senior Category Merchant. We'll also have Austin Hinkle, who's a Category Manager for Coffee, Tea, and Energy Drinks for INFRA. INFRA stands for Independent Natural Food Retailers Association. and Stephen Jabbour, who is the Chief Sales and Operating Officer for Specs. These people will all be there for meetings, available for meetings at BevNET Live. This is brass tacks, foundational kind of stuff. You meet this person, they give you a little bit of feedback on your brand, your idea, you follow up, and hopefully all that turns into your products on shelf at Whole Foods, Specs, or independent retailers across the country.
[00:13:25] Mike Schneider: You know, it would make me really happy if Sammy Kiefer oversaw the dairy category.
[00:13:28] Ray Latif: What? Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. OK. That took me two seconds.
[00:13:39] Mike Schneider: Melissa with the dad jokes. Oh, thank you.
[00:13:43] Ray Latif: Love it. Wow. That one threw me for a loop. Well done, Melissa. So good. Hasn't been announced yet, but I hope and expect that we'll see some folks from Kroger as well.
[00:13:55] Melissa Traverse: For those of you in the Midwest, Kroge.
[00:13:57] Ray Latif: Kroge, yes. Kroge's been in the news quite a bit. Quite a bit. Over the last couple of weeks, and a big reason why is because they're standing their ground on pricing as it relates to some pretty prominent brands, including Red Bull and Boar's Head. Melissa, what's going on here?
[00:14:18] Mike Schneider: It's a big deal. So Kroger, and this is 2,700 stores underneath all of the Kroger banners. Kroger is pulling Red Bull from their energy drink set over a pricing dispute. So Red Bull hiked their prices for the third time in four years. They also allegedly cut their trade spend by 43%. Yep, so they've been pulled.
[00:14:42] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm trying to do both.
[00:14:43] Mike Schneider: Yeah, man, they've been pulled from the energy set. And in that article on Nosh.com and BevNET.com, it was reported that other brands like C4, Ghost, Monster, Alani are all taking up the space that Red Bull left. Kroger is also bringing back Bucked Up and Rain. So lots of opportunity for other brands. And this is a big move.
[00:15:09] Melissa Traverse: We haven't seen a move like this since Costco and Coca-Cola in 2009. Like that's the biggest one we've seen in the U.S. Yeah.
[00:15:17] Mike Schneider: And they made a pledge to cut prices back in May in order to retain that customer base. And they're really drawing a line in the sand here.
[00:15:29] Ray Latif: Separately, Kroger has removed Boar's Head deli meats and cheeses from several of its stores in regional markets, including Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
[00:15:41] Mike Schneider: So Kroger is moving its Murray's House brand into some of the spots where Boar's Head was Kroger's CEO, Greg Foran, alluded to the fact that Kroger's private label items may move into spots where they're seeing brands be overpriced, that instead of selling items that they see as being overpriced that are branded, they will move their private label products in there. And I also want to point out You should go to nonbase.com because I have a fantastic podcast on the ins and outs of private label, everything you need to know by Derek Brawley. So nonbase.com slash podcast because private label is something everyone needs to understand right now.
[00:16:25] Melissa Traverse: This is a huge, a huge thing for the industry. And you look at it as, okay, is Kroger going to lose consumers because people go to Kroger just to get their Red Bull? They're going to lose some, obviously that's going to happen, but there's going to be a lot more industry pressure that we're not even talking about from co-packers, distributors. There are so many logistical changes and money being lost everywhere on this Red Bull thing.
[00:16:50] Ray Latif: I wonder because this is one of those cases where you have an iconic, immense brand in Red Bull, but you also have an iconic, immense brand in Kroger. And it's almost like the, what is it? The unstoppable force versus the immovable object. And what we're seeing, I think, and no stain on Red Bull, an incredible company, but I think we're kind of seeing Kroger win here because there are alternatives. You mentioned quite a few, Melissa. And I wonder how many people are such Red Bull enthusiasts that they're going to say, I won't drink anything else but Red Bull. I have a feeling you're going to start to see consumers of Red Bull try other products. Like why would you just leave Kroger, but why would you let's say Kroger is the dominant grocery store in your area? And as a consumer as a shopper are you gonna really make that extra trek to go somewhere else to go get your Red Bull? Maybe maybe you'll get it delivered from Amazon.
[00:17:51] Mike Schneider: I don't know fans lately.
[00:17:53] Ray Latif: I don't know
[00:17:53] Mike Schneider: Well, consumers nowadays are making more grocery trips than they had been previously, which shows us that, you know, maybe you buy your meat at this place because it has either a good product or a good price. You're buying these certain staple items here because you get a good price. But I think this shows that retailers, or at least Kroger, is willing to risk losing a well-known brand to hold price. At the same time, I think that consumers are maybe also willing to forgo a brand that they've been loyal to for a large number of years because they also need to be saving money as well.
[00:18:28] Ray Latif: Well, case in point, we were talking about private label, you were talking about private label, and there's a reason that private label sales are up because, in general, they're usually more affordable than branded items. A note at the end of that story about Kroger dropping Red Bull in Boar's Head. says that Kroger reported sales of its store brand items, including deli and prepared foods, were up $420 million over the past year. So what's to say that Kroger won't even launch its own energy drink product at some point? Perhaps that won't have as much, I don't know, success as its Murray's Deli Meat brand?
[00:19:06] Melissa Traverse: You think they're going to launch a race car brand and get Max Verstappen too?
[00:19:09] Ray Latif: No, but I'm saying that at the end of the day, if you're a consumer and you want a lot of caffeine in a beverage, what difference does it make if you're trying to save a couple bucks or a buck per can? People are squeezed these days and you might be willing to drop Red Bull as a consumer so that you can save, I don't know, $100 a year.
[00:19:35] Mike Schneider: And the Boar's Head loss is a huge one as well. I think a lot of us in the natural products industry may not buy Boar's Head or may not be loyal to it. But, you know, I was born and bred in Massachusetts. And like if you have a family event and you're serving Boar's Head, like it's a it's a pretty nice event. I mean, people have been loyal to Boar's Head for so long. There's a deli in my town that still has a sign out in front saying we serve Boar's Head meat. So this is a really big deal.
[00:20:04] Ray Latif: Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll continue to follow this story. The energy drink category certainly doesn't have a lack of players, big and small. So again, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Now the hop water category has seen a lot of new entries into that space. I use the word category kind of loosely because I don't know how big you have to be to really call yourself a category. But over the past few years, there's been a lot of interest and demand from people who are looking for an alternative to beer or just a refreshing beverage that doesn't have sugar. that puts them in the hop water set. Hop water is typically a sparkling beverage that's made with the hops that you might find in beer but has no sugar, typically has no calories, has some flavoring other than hops, and we've seen a bunch of brands in that space do pretty well. Hop water is a very good example of that. Hoplark, a brand that we know and have known for some time, has also been a leader in that space, but they've been in the news and not so much in a great way. The headline is, Hoplark Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Liquidation Signals Potential Lawsuit Against Brooklyn Brewery. This was penned by Brewbound editor Justin Kendall. According to the story, the Boulder-based non-alcoholic beverage maker reported more than $5.9 million in total liabilities. It's never good when you hear about a bankruptcy filing, but it almost sounds like there's more to the story and Hoplark and Brooklyn Brewery have become not-so-great friends.
[00:21:46] Mike Schneider: Yeah, so this is chapter seven. So they're liquidating, not reorganizing. And Brooklyn Brewery has said that it plans on still producing Hoplark as a product. So, you know, I thought it was interesting that Hoplark may still exist as a brand, even with all of this upheaval with the brand itself. So it may exist no matter what is a brand if Brooklyn Brewery continues to produce it.
[00:22:13] Ray Latif: Yeah, and the story notes, and we should note that it was September of 2023 when Brooklyn Brewery acquired a minority stake in Hoplark. Brooklyn Brewery CEO Eric Ottaway said that while Hoplark recently made a decision to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the filing does not impact Brooklyn Brewery or our continued operation of the Hoplark brand. So another one of these where there's a poll tug back and forth and I mean, I hope that we continue to see Hoplark and I really hope that it comes to a amenable conclusion. Again, hop water products and hop based products seem to be in demand and seem to be a good alternative for people who are looking for low sugar or non-alk products. And it just hits that sweet spot, no pun intended. And Hoplark has been, again, a leader and an innovator in this space. So it'd be a pretty big blow, I think, to a pretty promising category or set.
[00:23:08] Mike Schneider: Selfishly, I'd be sad because I really enjoy hoplark as a product.
[00:23:13] Ray Latif: Well, we always get their limited edition products sent to the office and they're always delicious.
[00:23:17] Mike Schneider: Always delicious.
[00:23:18] Ray Latif: I remember their root beer one. And they always call this the something one. And it's the flavor that's usually in between the and the one. And so they had a root beer flavored hoplark. That was just phenomenal. Fantastic.
[00:23:28] Mike Schneider: There was a blood orange one that just sticks in my memory and I'd like to drink it again.
[00:23:33] Melissa Traverse: I liked when they did their hot water series and they had the citra hops one. I mean, I could just have a whole fridge of that and be happy. So good.
[00:23:40] Ray Latif: Maybe Red Bull will let you borrow one of their fridges so you can keep it in your house.
[00:23:44] Melissa Traverse: I'm still traumatized by it.
[00:23:46] Mike Schneider: Get yourself to a Kroger fast.
[00:23:47] Melissa Traverse: I have experience with Red Bull and fridges. So let's talk about that later.
[00:23:50] Mike Schneider: What? I was gonna say you could dress up like a Red Bull employee and go to a Kroger and grab one of the Coolers and stock up like you're trolling me directly right now.
[00:23:59] Ray Latif: What are you talking about? No, I don't but anyway, okay All right. Well from hop water products to ice cream for breakfast. That's a good segue, right?
[00:24:09] Melissa Traverse: Yeah.
[00:24:10] Ray Latif: Yeah So I have in my hand a new product from Alex Ice Cream, or I guess they just call themselves Alex these days because they make more than just, or they want to be known for more than just ice cream. And in this case, the product they're marketing is called a Culture Cup. It's probiotic ice cream made with A2 dairy milk. And this product is a collaboration with Purely Elizabeth. And so you have, according to the company, ice cream for breakfast, the cereal milk ice cream under a strawberry hard shell, topped with Purely Elizabeth granola. You can see my mouth watering and getting on the microphone here. Nine grams of sugar and 150 calories per cup. And these are the cups that you grew up with.
[00:25:03] Mike Schneider: Almost like a hoodsy cup.
[00:25:04] Ray Latif: Yeah, like a hoodsy cup. Oh, I was hoping they would have... Darn it. I was hoping there'd be a spoon.
[00:25:08] Mike Schneider: Like a little wooden spoon.
[00:25:10] Ray Latif: Oh, it's lacking a spoon. I want to try this, but bummer. Okay. I can only imagine how good this tastes. It looks when I opened up the top. Look at that. Oh, it does look good. Just give it a little lick. It looks incredible. Wow, that does look great. I wish I had. Nice work. You know what, maybe I do actually. Okay, while you guys are talking about your next products here, I have a spoon in my bag. Go for it, Ray. Okay. Ray's gonna get it. All right, so Mike, you got all kinds of sodas.
[00:25:34] Melissa Traverse: I got some stuff over here. So have you seen this brand called Sodi? S-O-D-I? I have not. It is a maker of better for you sodas, five calories, There are multiple flavors. There's one called Corsa, one called Beach Day, one called Stoked, and then Pineapple MK2 that looks like a grenade. They all look like they could be an art project or another brand. Like it's really kind of hard to see sody. And the thing that is my biggest beef with these is that I'm one of those people who firmly believes that the most important thing on your can is the ability to see the flavor. And I guess you can see the flavor, but what does Corsa taste like? I don't know. What does Stoked taste like? What does Beach Day taste like? Or Pineapple MK2, I know it's pineapple.
[00:26:24] Mike Schneider: And that's all the same brand. I didn't actually realize that. I know, it's hard to tell.
[00:26:27] Melissa Traverse: Look, it looks like it could be, you know, renditions from the same artist, but two of them are like MI5 or CIA or Mission Impossible kind of looks. And two of them are, I don't know, old school Stussy looks or something.
[00:26:42] Mike Schneider: You know, it's interesting because when you start out as a brand, there's so much iteration and there's so much evolution. We are seeing a picture of all of the identities that this brand could be.
[00:26:54] Melissa Traverse: So we should try these, right?
[00:26:55] Mike Schneider: Yeah.
[00:26:55] Melissa Traverse: Which one do you want to try? Which one like tempts you?
[00:26:58] Mike Schneider: I want to try Beach Day because I like beach days.
[00:27:01] Melissa Traverse: I'm going to go with Stoked while you're going with Beach Day.
[00:27:04] Mike Schneider: I can see how this tastes like a beach day.
[00:27:07] Melissa Traverse: What's the flavor though? Mine's citrus.
[00:27:09] Mike Schneider: I mean, I see electrolytes, ginger, vitamin B12, vitamin C. I guess I'm getting the ginger the most in this sweetener they're using.
[00:27:16] Melissa Traverse: So it's like supposed to be kind of a ginger ale thing?
[00:27:18] Mike Schneider: A bit of a ginger ale and there's a strong sweetness to it.
[00:27:21] Melissa Traverse: Okay. I'm going to go for Corsa.
[00:27:23] Mike Schneider: But only five calories, may I point out.
[00:27:26] Ray Latif: This Alex ice cream, Purely Elizabeth collaboration is one of the best products I've had this year. It is unquestionably delicious. It is a perfect serving size. I could eat this for breakfast. I could eat this for midday snack. I could eat this as a dessert. It is perfect.
[00:27:50] Mike Schneider: I see two more in there, I'm gonna take one. Corsa's Ray's favorite flavor.
[00:27:54] Ray Latif: Corsa? Uh-huh. Okay. It's blue raspberry. Oh, boy. Mike's thoroughly enjoying that can of soda over there. Maybe you should cleanse your palate with some Culture Cup, Alex Culture Cup here.
[00:28:04] Melissa Traverse: Or, some PTR Nation Costa Rina collaboration.
[00:28:10] Jacqui Brugliera: Ooh.
[00:28:11] Ray Latif: Yeah, here you go. Costarina being a premium olive oil brand. This is interesting.
[00:28:16] Mike Schneider: Lemon olive oil cake. You guys. Exciting flavor.
[00:28:19] Melissa Traverse: I've had it and it is amazing. 15 grams of plant protein, 7 grams of fiber, no refined sugar, no dairy, soy or seed oils.
[00:28:29] Ray Latif: Yeah, Ashley said it again. BTR Nation, a maker of protein bars. They're also a maker of better for you rice treats. I won't use the word crispy. I guess I just did. You did. Nice work. But yes. Rosemary in it.
[00:28:43] Mike Schneider: Really, really tasty. And I think they did such a nice job balancing any of the bitterness that might have been in the olive oil out. I don't taste any bitterness at all. And I also see that there are 15 grams of fat in these bars, which I'm assuming comes from the olive oil. So it's a good serving of healthy fats as well. And the cashew butter for sure.
[00:29:02] Melissa Traverse: I mean, that's the unfortunate thing about it is it is allergens made with tree nuts. So not everybody can have it, but the people who can are going to love it. Very tasty.
[00:29:11] Ray Latif: 15 grams of plant protein. You're right, Mike. Ashley Nicholson, the founder and CEO of BTR Nation has hit it out of the park once again. Great job.
[00:29:20] Melissa Traverse: I love this brand because who doesn't want a better nation?
[00:29:25] Mike Schneider: I sure do.
[00:29:28] Jacqui Brugliera: This is a great brand.
[00:29:29] Mike Schneider: Oh, and you know what? I need to go back to a previous episode. I saw that blue wrapper from BTR Nation. I tried the Hall Pass peanut butter cups and they are much better than the... I had only tried the candy pieces. The peanut butter cups are good.
[00:29:45] Melissa Traverse: They don't suck, right?
[00:29:46] Mike Schneider: Yeah.
[00:29:47] Ray Latif: 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. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Kratchy. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, 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.
[00:30:37] Jacqui Brugliera: you
