Taste Radio

For this week's episode of the Taste Radio podcast, we're bringing you an Independence Day-length conversation with Gary Hirshberg, the co-founder and chairman of dairy company Stonyfield Farm and a highly influential figure in the organic food movement. Hirshberg shares war stories ranging from the company's pastoral beginnings, to its decade-long struggle for financing, and on to its eventual sa...

In short, the life of Todd Carmichael can be defined by his zealous thirst for adventure and his unbridled passion for coffee. Brevity, however, doesn't quite capture the scope of Carmichael's incredible journey as the co-founder and CEO of super-premium coffee company La Colombe. His story is deserving of ample time, and in an interview for the Taste Radio podcast, we sat down with Carmichael for...

KeVita co-founder and former CEO Bill Moses is keeping busy. In the seven months since PepsiCo's acquisition of KeVita, a maker of probiotic drinks and kombucha, Moses has been actively investing in and advising a range of early-stage food and beverage companies. This edition of the Taste Radio podcast features an interview with Moses, who discussed the key elements of his investment philosophy an...

Over his three decades as an executive and consultant in the natural products industry, Bob Burke has been recognized as one of the foremost experts in the space. This episode of the BevNET Podcast features a wide-ranging conversation with Burke, whose career includes 11 years in sales and marketing at organic dairy giant Stonyfield Farm and nearly 20 years as an advisor to early-stage and entrepr...

In this episode of the BevNET Podcast, we sat down with Mark Mahoney, the co-founder and CEO of premium cocktail mixer brand Powell & Mahoney, who joined us for a discussion about his background as a beverage entrepreneur, the rapid development of the premium mixer space and what's next for the thriving category. This episode also includes a segment with BevNET editor-in-chief Jeffrey Klineman, wh...

Earlier this month, BevNET CEO John Craven met with Juice Press founder Marcus Antebi and chairman Michael Karsch at the cold-pressed juice chain's Long Island City headquarters and production facility, where the trio recorded a wide-ranging interview for this episode of the BevNET Podcast. Antebi, who launched Juice Press in 2010 and now presides over a chain of 62 stores across the Northeast, ex...

Tim Sperry spent nearly 25 years as an executive at Whole Foods and was a key figure in the company's ascent from a small grocery chain to a household name and natural foods powerhouse. Eleven years removed from his role as the company's director of grocery, Sperry is concerned that Whole Foods' merchandising prowess and brand identity have fallen into neglect -- and he's not alone. The retailer h...

In an interview recorded for this edition of the BevNET Podcast, we sat down with Gigi Lee Chang, the managing director of cause-oriented food business accelerator FoodFutureCo. Chang, who also founded baby food brand Plum Organics, explained FoodFutureCo's work in advising and supporting early- and mid-stage food and beverage companies, particularly those that are providing unique products and so...

In this episode of the podcast, BevNET's John Craven and Jeff Klineman discussed some of the big stories in the food and beverage business, including tough press for Juicero, operational issues for brands like Soylent and Reed's, and the ways the largest, publicly-traded food and beverage companies are attempting to refresh their lineups through transactions -- and through change at the top. Also...

Livio Bisterzo thinks millennials are the new hippies. And he's got just the snack for them. A longtime entrepreneur, Bisterzo is the founder and CEO of Green Park Brands, a self-described "food innovation company" based in Los Angeles. Approximately 18 months ago, the company launched its first brand, Hippeas, a line of organic chickpea puffs available in six varieties. The vegan snacks are high...

Last week IRI, a global market research firm based in Chicago, held its annual "Growth Summit," a three-day conference designed to help CPG manufacturers, retailers and media industry executives understand the opportunities and challenges presented by big data. The event, held in Nashville's Opryland district, included a range of educational and strategy-oriented sessions on cross-category dynamic...

Adam Melonas has a pretty simple mission: he wants you to eat tasty, healthy snacks. The Australian-born chef and entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Chew LLC, a Boston-based food incubator focused on recreating legacy snack brands. Melonas said the products are being renovated from "the ground up, inventing new processes to make them more nutritious and delicious every time." BevNET recently v...

Mining trends at the recently held Natural Products Expo West 2017, Howard Telford, a senior beverages analyst with market research firm Euromonitor, said he saw the event as the embodiment of the health and wellness movement that has reshaped the beverage industry in recent years. In an interview recorded for this edition of the BevNET Podcast, Telford shared his thoughts on pertinent trends affe...

Zak Normandin is a determinedly practical entrepreneur. As a new father, he was concerned that there were few companies selling organic foods for babies and toddlers. So he created his own: Little Duck Organics, a maker of USDA organic snacks. A few years after its launch, he sold the company. Although he had been successful in the food business, he wasn't satisfied with traditional distribution m...

As the founder and CEO of Bulletproof Nutrition, Dave Asprey presides over a company dedicated to hacking human biology through nutrient-dense food and beverages. A former tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, Asprey first came to fame as the creator of Bulletproof coffee, a blend of hot coffee, butter from grass-fed cows and coconut oil. The recipe won acclaim for its purported benefits of weight...

In this edition of the BevNET Podcast, we're joined by prominent food and beverage attorney Nick Giannuzzi. The founder and managing partner of the The Giannuzzi Group, he has for over a decade provided legal representation to hundreds of small to mid-sized CPG companies and been involved in the biggest M&A deals in the space, including the sale of vitaminwater to The Coca-Cola Co., Krave Jerky to...

Kevin Klock, the president and CEO of Talking Rain, believes that while timing and some luck played a role in the remarkable success of Sparkling Ice, execution is the primary reason that it's currently a $600 million brand at retail. A focused business strategy and the development of a national DSD network and seasoned sales organization helped position Sparkling Ice for eye-popping sales growth...

In this edition of the BevNET Podcast, we're joined by Michael Schwartz, the co-founder and managing partner of Organic Food Incubator, a shared production facility and resource center for early-stage food and beverage companies. In our conversation with Schwartz, who is also the founder of BAO, a brand of fermented foods and drinks, we delved into the current landscape for start-up brands in metr...

Big Geyser, the largest independent beverage distributor in metro New York, has played a critical role in the development of some of the most successful entrepreneurial beverage brands in recent years, including vitaminwater, Zico and Honest Tea. Jerry Reda, the company's COO, oversees a distribution network that includes over 25,000 retail accounts -- and navigating the day-to-day challenges as B...

Mike Repole, the co-founder of BodyArmor, is unsatisfied. Why? Because BodyArmor, despite its impressive growth in recent years, is not the world's top-selling sports drink brand. Repole, who also co-founded vitaminwater and is a horse-racing magnate and billionaire, clearly does not lack ambition. As part of a wide-ranging interview recorded for this edition of the BevNET Podcast, Repole, who joi...

Last week, the podcast team visited the Boston offices of Bevi, a high-tech water cooler that customizes still and sparkling water with unsweetened, zero-calorie, or organically sweetened natural flavors. We spoke with Bevi co-founder and CEO Sean Grundy about the internet-connected machines, which are placed in corporate clients, health gyms and hotels, and provide real-time data to the company a...

In the past two years, crowd investing firm CircleUp has morphed from solely a platform for investors to fund innovative, early-stage consumer brands into one that is also an investor itself. Last week the podcast team visited CircleUp's San Francisco office to speak with Ben Lee, the managing director of CircleUp Funds, the company's investment arm. We sat down with him to discuss the ways in whi...

BevNET's podcast team recently visited with Mike Burgmaier, the co-founder and managing director of Whipstitch Capital, an investment bank that provides mergers and acquisitions and private placement advisory services to consumer products companies. In this edition of the podcast, Burgmaier, who's worked with several fast-growing and high-profile beverage brands, including Essentia, Spindrift and...

Year two of the BevNET Podcast begins with a discussion on trends to watch in the worlds of non-alcoholic beverages, craft beer and natural foods. In this edition, the podcast team is joined by BevNET editor-in-chief Jeff Klineman and the editors of BevNET's sister sites, Brewbound's Chris Furnari and Project NOSH's Carol Ortenberg, each of whom offered their take on the most pertinent trends and...

It took us a couple of weeks to recover from the biggest BevNET Live conference yet, but in this edition of the podcast, we reflected on the three-day event, which was held from Dec. 4-6 in Santa Monica, Calif. With over 600 attendees and more than 150 beverage brands represented at the show, BevNET Live Winter 2016 showcased the breadth of cutting-edge trends and innovative beverage concepts, inc...