How Upstarts Shined At A Final-ish ‘Fancy’

Before the sun set on a final Winter Fancy Food Show, the event cast a light on a swath of emerging, innovative and better-for-you brands. The hosts highlight a few of their favorite products exhibited at the show, and how package design, ingredients, form factor and taste helped them to stand out.

Show notes:

0:25: A First! Shifting Cities. Miami Meetup. The Worst Cup. So Many Fancy Brands. What’s Trending? – Ray and John are in WCB, which means Mike is all alone in Newton. Everyone is excited about a perennial trade show’s return to its roots. Miami is the team’s next stop – and everyone is invited to stop by. Ray pulls an anti-’Elf’ before he and John dish on some of the most notable brands they encountered at the 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show, including canned lattes, NA cocktails, poppadom-inspired snacks, lentil-based dips, boiled peanuts, single-serve ethnic meals and fruit leather. The hosts also highlight BevNET/NOSH’s 2025 Trend Forecast and wonder why Ray can’t say “insider.”

Brands in this episode: Laurel’s, Hail M Cocktails, Mate Party, JAS, Lazy Food, Edenesque, Ayoh Foods, Proppadoms, HipPop, Maazah, The Cumin Club, Tierra Negra, Peepal People, Dixie Grace’s Boiled Peanuts, Milk-Ish, Pulpito, Jas, Sayso, Nufs, Glonuts, Breakin Snacks, Feisty, Protein 2.0, Gatorade, Hebrew National, Bitchin’ Sauce, Plink, Element, Cure Hydration