On this episode, we have Andres & Juan, the Co-Founders of Chiki Chiki Boom Boom.
Chiki Chiki Boom Boom is supporting regenerative agriculture with their line of enhanced water beverages packed with regenerative and organic botanicals.
They market the product to consumers as “Reggaeton In A Bottle” and a tool to “Regenerate Your Body.”
In this episode, we learn about Chiki’s regenerative organic farm in the “Valley of Longevity” in Ecudaor, Andres schools us on how the brand architecture was built to encompass Reggaeton, authentic Latin flavors and culture, plus lofty sustainability goals. And, we dive deep into their current farming operation and commercial traction of the brand.
Episode Highlights:
💃 Meet: “Reggaeton In A Bottle”
😂 How Juan & Andres met in LA
🙏 Inspiration from the “Valley of Longevity”
💰 The huge opportunity to serve the Latin consumer
😍 Their 40-acre regenerative organic farm in Ecuador
🏅 The rigor of USDA Organic certification
🤳 Why TikTok is so important
🤤 The competitive advantage of “regenerative flavor”
🤩 How they support indigenous + female farmers
💥 Why retailers are the “gatekeepers” to a regenerative future
Links:
Episode Recap:
ReGen Brands Recap #40 - Regenerative "Reggaeton In A Bottle" - (RECAP LINK)
Episode Transcript:
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated with AI and is not 100% accurate.
Kyle Krull - 00:00:15
Welcome to the ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for consumers, operators and investors to learn about the consumer brands supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined by my co-host, AC, who's going to take us into the episode.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:00:33
On this episode, we have Andres and Juan, the Co-Founders of Chiki Chiki Boom Boom. Chiki Chiki Boom Boom is supporting regenerative agriculture with their line of enhanced water beverages packed with regenerative and organic botanicals. They market the product to consumers as a "Reggaeton In A Bottle" and a tool to "Regenerate Your Body." In this episode, we learn about Chiki's Regenerative Organic Farm in the Valley of Longevity in Southern Ecuador. Andres schools us on how the brand architecture was built to encompass Reggaeton, authentic Latin flavors and culture, plus lofty sustainability goals and we dive deep into their current farming operation and the commercial traction of the brand. This was a fun one. Y'all. Let's dive in what's up everybody.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:01:01
Welcome back to another episode of the ReGen Brands Podcast. Really excited today to have our friends, Andres and Juan from Chiki Chiki Boom Boo with us. So definitely I think the best all time brand name that we've had. So welcome, gentlemen.
Andres Izquieta - 00:01:37
Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you for having us.
Kyle Krull - 00:01:41
Absolutely. I was gonna talk about this is by far the most fun brand name and just branding that I think we've had on the show so far. Um So super, super cool, also know that there's always like these pre conversations that happened before the recording that, you know, the listeners don't get to hear about how this is like a fun podcast. We try to make it a good time today. I wanna kick it off with something different, you know, I want to know what everybody had for breakfast briefly. Um So, you know, Juan, let's start with you, man. What did you have for breakfast today in Ecuador?
Juan Jaramillo - 00:02:10
Well, since I'm, I'm, I'm very, you know, and grateful and happy to be at the, at the volume of, of longevity here in, by Ecuador. I'm uh I'm in a, in an organic, a ecological farm, you know, so I obviously had for breakfast. My, my green juice, that was amazing. I still have some but uh you know, like I, I'm, I, I doubt you guys have my breakfast, but it was, it was definitely great.
Kyle Krull - 00:02:39
I'm really glad you're not eating like cereal while you're in the valley of longevity. Just the ultimate sin. Um Andreas. I know you're in NYC today doing the grind. Did you end up having like a classic bagel. What did you end up going
Andres Izquieta - 00:02:50
with? No, I actually didn't eat yet. Well, I kind of start eating. So, when I just sat down to start the podcast, I had bought a sandwich in the, in the supermarket that I was just at briar selling chicken and they gave me the sandwich. I'm not kidding you. It's this big, it was like the size of like a miniature football. Um, so I guess it, it, it like breakfast and lunch. But uh so yeah, it was like a turkey avocado sandwich, you know.
Kyle Krull - 00:03:19
Solid good. Move ac what did you go for,
Anthony Corsaro - 00:03:23
uh, coffee in a smoothie? My usual lean, lean uh you know, procedure before we go record
Kyle Krull - 00:03:30
lean machine. And what did you put in your smoothie? This is important
Anthony Corsaro - 00:03:34
berries, protein powder, peanut butter, powder, greens, powder, coconut milk, organic coconut milk and one big ass avocado every time.
Kyle Krull - 00:03:44
Nice. Hell, yeah, I went with uh I had an apple which is a little bit mealy and not very flavorful and I was really bummed out, um, bought it from local. So it's not like my local fruit place but uh you know, it must not have been grown regenerative unfortunately. Um, so apple with some peanut butter and some bone broth, you know, I have this uh and fire regin chicken bum broth. So all good. Um cool. Well, hey, that, that was you, that was new. That was different. Um, but I wanna give, let's get back to the podcast. Um Wanna give, you know, for those who are not familiar with Chiki Chiki Boom Boom. Um Juan Andres give us like the lay of the land.
Kyle Krull - 00:04:07
You know, what is the product? Uh where can people find it today? You know, why do people wanna drink it? Give us just a quick overview of the brand.
Andres Izquieta - 00:04:28
Yeah. So Chicky is a organic plant based tropical water. Uh It's made of botanicals. It's meant to regenerate your body. It's 3 g of sugar. 20 calorie. Think of it like basically an organic plant based vitamin water. Um It's very, very hydrating, very refreshing. Um and it sits in the flavored water aisle.
Kyle Krull - 00:04:50
Got it. And how many skews do you have? And what are the flavors?
Andres Izquieta - 00:04:53
We have three skews our top selling skews the mango Passion Fruit are and then we have strawberry lemon and then we just have plain lemon.
Kyle Krull - 00:05:02
Nice
Anthony Corsaro - 00:05:03
and the Passion Fruit is fire.
Andres Izquieta - 00:05:06
Yeah, that's, that's like next level. That's by far the number one, it's like it's number one literally in every single store that we sell at. There's never, there's never been a situation where it's not been number one in like over 3000 stores which is not.
Kyle Krull - 00:05:20
So you mentioned 3000 stores, you know, where, where can people find you today in the US?
Andres Izquieta - 00:05:25
Yeah. So depending, you know where you are, we have more of a concentration for instance, in Socal and Florida and New York. And then we are nationwide in CVS. So, um and then obviously in a lot of pockets in natural stores across the country. So just depending on, on the region that there. So for instance, in Florida, we're Publix Walmart CVS uh go. Um and then in New York we're gonna be probably like 500 Bodegas by the end of August, early September and then in mainly independent and natural stores and then obviously Sprinkle in a bunch of CVS locations across the country.
Kyle Krull - 00:06:08
He Yeah. Well, congrats on that distribution. I know that's not easy to gain. It sounds like, you know, you're, you're omni Metro and a few different channels there. So uh kudos to the to the early success.
Andres Izquieta - 00:06:17
Yeah. And thank you. Thank you. This
Anthony Corsaro - 00:06:20
is, this is such an interesting, I think brand for us to talk about and I'm so excited because it's like a culmination of all these things that are just awesome, right? It's like we have the Latin influence, the Reggaeton influence, we have the sustainability and the regenerative raw materials. We have um you know, actually a real better for you and enhanced water slash hydration product where I think a lot of those are not that much better for people. Um So there's a lot in there but y'all too break down for us how this whole thing came to be and how y'all, you know, started this brand
Andres Izquieta - 00:06:53
Yeah. So about uh five years ago, I met Juan and during that time, I was kind of in this like Indiana Jones type of search uh in Latin America looking uh to bring a sustainable, better view product to the global market. That was Latin inspired, had authenticity that had a real story. I'd come from fashion, I built close to 10 brands of fashion um was pretty burn out at the time and I wanted to really focus on doing something in the impact space, food, beverage wellness, uh culture and selfishly reggaeton because I love reggaeton. And, you know, during that time, I met Juan and we started to, to talk in Juan's background was in agriculture and food and beverage back in Ecuador where, where he was born and raised, I was born and raised in L A, but my family is from Ecuador and we shared a lot of the same ideas and visions in terms of what the future should look like for the food system. Um And, you know, he even went further and telling me like, how do we fix it and how do we actually put our water mark on the space? Um So that, that's when we started talking and you know, he was tell me about this beverage and I tasted it before my vacations in Ecuador, but he had drank it every single day. I think it's better for him to explain to you kind of his experience with the drink is when he told it to me, I knew that that was it instantaneously. So Juan better you explain this part.
Kyle Krull - 00:08:26
Hold on one. Also when you met Andres in this Indiana Jones cycle, was he wearing like the hat had the whip like the whole mine like leather cruising around Ecuador like I need like the visual.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:08:38
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So actually I, I met a dress at the Standard Hotel in, in, in West Hollywood with some uh Spanish uh Spanish, very, very sexy girls that were next to Andres as always because he, he loves to be surrounded by, by sexy girls, you know, so I was like, I need to be friends with this guy, you know, I was like, we need to, we need to be friends and, and you know, II I thought more like Andres was more like because these, these girls invited me, they were trying to make it at the standard hotel a a party and Andres was getting the location. So when I saw Andres, I thought Andres was more like the DJ or so on because of how he was looking and to the girls and so on. And when we started talking next to the pool, we started talking about business and you know, like what he was doing there, what he has done, what I was doing and I was like, yeah, he's definitely not the DJ. Like he's the, he's the big picture. Here like, and, and yeah, and, and yeah, that's how, that's how we met.
Andres Izquieta - 00:09:41
Tell them about the drink origin, tell them about the drink and your experience with it,
Juan Jaramillo - 00:09:47
right? So uh I, I grew up like here in the, in the, in the south of Ecuador because my family has a, a uh a sugar cane uh company. You know, that's the, that's uh the, the, the, the biggest, the, the biggest uh landlords here in the, in the south of Ecuador. And in the only sugar cane company here at south of Ecuador, there's five in the country. And this, this is the the one in, in uh in, in south of. So I grew up, you know, like next and close to lots of, of uh of employees here in the in the farm in the farm side of the, of the city. And the I grew up always drinking this uh this punch, you know that it's called in Spanish or we, we don't really call it like that because in the Spanish colony, all the the that the Spanish uh brought us. Well, they didn't brought us here, the Spanish, the Spanish name or to the typical drink in each country, you know, the indigenous or the typical country in each country.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:10:40
So people just get confused that the for example, the in Mexico has milk, ours has nothing to do with milk. It's brewed from herbs and flowers, water with herbs and flowers it's a brew from hers and flowers. So, er, you know, it's very, it's very common and popular all around the country here, especially in the and side, you know, like, so like, and that's what I drank in my house. My, my whole life, my mom never wanted us to drink Coke or any sugar, sugary drinks. So we always had lemonade or because water was a bit boring, you know. So, and then that, that's
Anthony Corsaro - 00:11:29
was it, was it something sold in stores like in a brand or everyone brewed it at home with their own like raw materials or ingredients? Y
Juan Jaramillo - 00:11:36
Yeah, great question. You know, at that time when I was a child, it was like just at home, everyone was brewing it at home because at that time, people was still not drying the, the herbs and flowers here. But since it got popular in the hotels and, and everywhere here in Ecuador, many companies, many startups entrepreneurs start to dry in the herbs, put it in a dry form so that you can just bring it home and, and dry it yourself and it's, you know, like very fresh, very, very delicious. It's like a very um very uh weak formula calling it like weak because it's like you, you just have there like it's like having a, a tea of mint but with, with all this mix that we have, you know, like the, the mint, the, the lemongrass, the chamomile and we have many that are like endemic from, from this part of the and like, you know, like the malo flower, uh the malda sense. And um and uh yeah, that's, that's, you know, like how, how I, I um I translate, I told this to, to, to Andres because we were really looking into a, a superfood Latin product to start with. And uh we thought that this, this uh this was a, a great choice.
Kyle Krull - 00:12:56
Well, let's let's dive into like the functionality of the beverage. You mentioned a couple of the key ingredients. So like let's talk about why those ingredients, what sort of benefits they have for the consumer and, and take us down that path.
Andres Izquieta - 00:13:09
Yeah. So the beverage um has been dred traditionally because of its antioxidants, apart from obviously its flavor and kind of being like a cousin to drinking water. Um It's a lot of the antioxidants that come from the botanical. So there's eight different herbal flowers in it and the antioxidants deliver everything from digestion to rehydration, um to regeneration of the body in general. You know, I think if you look at it overall, it's it regenerating your body is probably the best thing that it does. So anything from post workout to being, being, being hungover or to just, you know, post lunch to just feeling better and it definitely also helps with digestion in the sense that it the herbs and flowers help to settle your stomach. So it's really great to eat along with the meal. Um So from a functionality perspective, I would say that the hydration and the regeneration. Mhm
Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:06
And Andres, how did the, how did the branding and the real like latching onto the reggaeton come about because obviously the Ecuadorian influence is very authentic and just right from the source of where the the drink comes from itself. But like why did you all decide to lean so hard into that cultural element from like a marketing branding perspective?
Andres Izquieta - 00:14:26
What explain
Kyle Krull - 00:14:27
to the audience and, and to me what reggaeton is? Yeah.
Andres Izquieta - 00:14:32
Yeah. Is basically a musical genre um in Spanish that explains in a very simplistic manner. It's like up in Spanish, but it's blended with different genres from depo to reggae, to salsa, etcetera, etcetera in one genre called reggae. Um So basically in a very simplistic way for the naysayers understand it's like, it's like hip hop and Spanish, but it's a lot more upbeat um very much more dancey. So the reason why, you know, I think that music is such an important vessel, communication. A lot of times like the music communicates everything from, say love to relationships, to culture, uh to social beings that, you know, I wanted to be something initially where it was centric around social impact and you know, and Juan wanted to do something around sustainability as well. So we were like, hey, why don't we like merge these ideas and impact the earth and impact people. Um But like, what's the communication tool? Because a lot of the call it better, few products that are very sustainability and social impact minded.
Andres Izquieta - 00:15:36
It's a little boring, it's a little granola. It's a little too nature. Why don't we make it fun and loud and bold and use these kind of languages to be able to communicate cool things and to communicate and to make this thing much more pop culture. I, you know,
Kyle Krull - 00:16:10
yeah, you know, when you mentioned the vehicle and you talk about some of the old school natural foods and you talk about the vehicle, like the first thing that came to my mind was like Birkenstocks, which to your point is not the uh most appealing vehicle, right? Um But I'm, I'm curious and I keep getting off topic today but if I, if I was to listen to one track that was like representative of reggaeton and like hit, hit me with, you're
Anthony Corsaro - 00:16:30
so, you're so out of the loop. Like bad bunny is like maybe the most popular artist on the planet right now, bro. Like the culture,
Andres Izquieta - 00:16:38
bro, I would say, I mean for, for Kyle to get indoctrinated, go look at Daddy Yankee Gasolina Kyle is gonna be jumping on the wall,
Anthony Corsaro - 00:16:52
I guess
Andres Izquieta - 00:16:53
I, I have to because you probably heard the song, you 100% heard the song in your life. Um And the song is like, I don't know, like 15 to 20 years old. So the bad stuff obviously is more young, modern, fresh, but 1000% you've heard at some point in your life.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:17:15
And you know, just from like a pure business perspective, like Latin influence Latin culture, the wave of immigration we've had in America, like the Latin consumer is like taking over like massive market share. So I just think it's brilliant from uh there's all these actual, just like real strong business cases to leverage that. And y'all are doing it authentically where I know we've seen some, some large brands try and do some similar things that I would say lack that authenticity. And when you talk about really like driving distribution in a place like South Florida, you know, I've spent two or three years of my adult life there and like, it's brilliant because like that's where like your hardcore, you know, early adopter consumer like really should be. So just touch on that a little bit more for the audience that we talk a lot about like, hey, you get it in the natural channel with sprouts and whole foods. But I think this is a little different and just want to give the audience some education on, on that strategy.
Andres Izquieta - 00:18:06
Yeah. So, you know, like Latins that depending on the geography and the age group, you know, millennial based, it's like 22% millennials are Latin, 26% of Genz is Latin, 30% of teenagers are Latin in America and they're, it's very under represented. Uh and you know, we want to have something that we can be proud of. We don't necessarily like to consume your stereotypical Latin drink, which is like 50 g of sugar. We like to drink something that's like 3 g of sugar. And why do we get forced to be like pigeonholed and like this is what's Latin. So, you know, I think it was something for us that we, we can be proud of and that we can be like, this is one of ours. So if you look at like the better food space, Latin foods, I would say that like the food, sorry, I'm a very loud coffee shop and randomly in Brooklyn, not in like the hipster part of Brooklyn or like South Brooklyn.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:19:02
Andres. Andres is out selling product into stores and he made time to be on the podcast today. So y'all can forgive the background noise because he's hustling.
Andres Izquieta - 00:19:11
Yeah. And I keep going on mute and on mute. So you don't hear the background. But yeah. So anyway, so uh you know, we uh to us that was very, very important is to be able to, to get something that was reflective of the culture and reflecting and kind of where we think that culture was at now, you know. Mhm
Kyle Krull - 00:19:29
mhm Right. Uh I'm curious from a, from like ac PG branding perspective, you know, there's, there's quite a bit of back story here uh from the regenerative side help us to better understand, you know, what sort of regenerative practices is, are taking place in this Valley of Longevity. Let's kind of double click onto the Valley of Longevity itself. I think you, you mentioned earlier on that. It's a blue zone. Um it's represented in National Geographic. So talk a little bit about that. And then part two, how are you then communicating all of that agricultural stuff into, you know, the the package or to your consumers via, you know, this this product,
Juan Jaramillo - 00:20:04
right? Yeah. So, so, so as you were saying, you know, like we are very, very lucky to be located here at the, at the Valley of Longevity in South of Ecuador. This place got very, very pop. It's been popular, you know, it's been like lots of studies like researchers from Harvard, great universities have been here like from, from years now. But after the COVID-19, the pandemic, the place got like very, very popular because lots of people, you know, like from Europe, Singapore, Australia us uh have been moving here, especially for, for retiring and, and, and because of some of the of the things that, that you were mentioning such as, you know, like a blue zone, it's most of it's one of the most biodiverse places in the world. You know, if it's, we are very close to a point where it's called to be the most biodiverse. Uh place in the world. So uh you know, like we are lucky, very lucky to be here. Maybe this is not the best place to show regenerative uh agriculture because the place it's already like very, very rich, has a very, very rich soil, even though we are doing like uh most of what we're doing, it's very, you know, like inter regenerate regenerative um agriculture.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:21:04
You know, like, for example, here at the farm, uh we are trying to imitate nature in the wild forest, you know, that's, that's like kind of the, the vision and what we do here, like, you know, like, for instance, we use native mountain microorganisms that as you know, like uh when they decompose, they decompose everything that falls on the ground, you know, like naturally. So we, we, we also, we also have microorganisms that we, that we have got that we got uh from, you know, like some, from some other places, obviously with certification because that's something important I have to mention as our product is USDA Organic Certified, the farm. It's also U USDA USDA Organic Certified. We're also looking forward now and applying for the regenerative uh certification. But, but going back to the certification, it's uh it's very important to mention because we've done like many, many certifications. And uh this is a certification that is really worth to do because it's very, you know, like transparent, they really go through these audits because I in the CPG industry you get maybe in, in, in New York, you know, a AAA punch made from American Flowers that it's uh US D organic certified and comes from Ecuador.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:22:31
And you really, you know, like, don't know about that traceability, but I can tell you that this certification, it's like very like the audits, the, like just like last, last week. Uh I got an audit from, from, from some guys of, of, of the cert fire and they took 68 samples of soil here at the farm, you know, like 68 like we will all day long with the guys, like going around the farm, they took water, they took hers but from soil, soil itself was 68. So it's uh it's a, it's a pretty good one, you know, they take all, all to the lab and, you know, like, uh I mean, like, since, since we got this, every time that I see a USDA organic product, I hope it works like everywhere like in the world like this. But since then, you know, like I feel very comfy when, when I get products uh that are that, that have the, the, the certification because we've done like many others, you know, that are more like, you know, like you pay the fees, you go through the through, through a process that is more like paying the fee, filling out forms, but it's not, not really, you know, what, what, what it should be like, like this one. So, um you know, like going back to, to what we do here, like we, we got also, you know, like we got like multi natural micro organisms and we also got some certified ones. Um, we got like 19 different ones that we use here at the, at the farm and, and with microorganisms II, I guess you guys talk a lot about this but you know, like it's very, very interesting and helpful, helpful when you get familiar with them because they are really the ones that can take care of the soil and the ones that can fix the soil when it's needed, you know, like here in South America, like 30 years ago, the soil was considered like like a place, a place where you can do whatever you wanted, you know.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:24:23
And uh and uh right now with uh with this concept as you know, like nowadays with the organic, the ac the regenerative agriculture that are getting very big, people is getting very, very mindful about that and people is understanding, you know, like the, that the place is uh uh uh uh the, the soil is a, a living body and, and people is giving the giving that place to, to the soil. They are really doing that. It's like, you know, like what I see in the new generations are very interested about that. And, you know, like it's, it's, it, it's, it's simple, you know, it's I mean, it can get very complicated. I'm learning every day, you know, like there's for sure a lot to learn. But if, if, if you, if you try to put it in a, in a simple manner, you know, like you, you feed the soil, you know, like what you try to do is like feed the soil and give it back their natural properties.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:25:41
You know, as, as it was, as it was uh in the past, you know, and microorganisms are like a way when you go to a forest, you know, and you see all these leaves like a, like a, like a pillow in, in uh in the or you know, like a mattress of, of, of leaves, you know, that's why you see all that for that forest is, is not getting any spray, it's not getting any irrigation. It's like it's never been a spray and you see everything green and all the biodiversity working perfect. And it's like because of that, you know, like it's, it's, it's, it's not that hard to get it. So that's uh that's pretty much what we're trying to do here.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:26:33
Yeah, that love it. Love the love how the rigor of the USDA certification and you touching on that, it sounds like you're employing some biologicals or some, some microorganisms which is really cool just back us up like for the audience that hasn't looked at the website and y'all's page on this is like, really and we'll link it in the show notes, but just like 40 acre farm, describe the setting, describe some of the practices and the implementation because I know there's like a, there's like a deforestation reforestation play. So like just break some of that down for, for folks in terms of practices and kind of setting the scene,
Juan Jaramillo - 00:27:06
right? Yeah. So, so, so, so the place that, that, that we got here, I like you said, we, we did a big job in reforestation. We have planted so far because we, we got it last year, we have planted so far in this year, more than 80,000 plants and more than eight in more than 8000 trees because we, we have an inventory just on that
Kyle Krull - 00:27:28
40 acre plot.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:27:29
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's insane. I mean, like IIII I, I'm not sure, you know, like if, if, if the post, if, if the podcast shows also like a, a video and you want me to, to, to show like some, some video of what we do is like we have like here all the crops with like we, we really, we really prepared the soil, you know, like in the best way possible because what we're trying to do is like we're trying to show to all these farmers around here that we're used to, to grow this botanical like from 500 years ago to do it in the proper way because people here like you know, with, with, with all the respect, lots of people like, like what I was saying here, like the 30 years ago and nowadays they just had bad, bad habits and these bad practices. It's, it's been, you know, like maybe because of lack of knowledge and they keep doing it. Uh For example, you see here, the, the, the irrigation systems, we, we implemented micro irrigation for our plants, you know, to try to, we, we, we did it a very, a very niche one to try to replicate uh uh a as slowly as slow rain, you know. But if you see what people does a around here is like people normally, obviously, there's, there's many factors around the lack of knowledge. Um uh lack of resources, there's poverty, you know, but, but yeah, but technical assistance but, but I I don't think that's a justification because you, you, you, you could like in, in, in any way like do do it in, in a proper way. It's, it's more lack of, of knowledge. For example, the irrigation here, most of the people, what they do is like they use gravity irrigation, you know, where they build a small water canals in order to take advantage of the water.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:29:01
So water irrigate their plantation, they just do the canals like themselves and go around the plants, you know, but as a result, you find excessive use of water that it's, it's crazy, you know, and you do not you do not provide at the same time, the same amount of water to each plant. So you don't have consistency and finally, you end up producing a lot of erosion to, to the soil because all this water while it's going, you know, it's, it's uh it's producing erosion and, and it's, it's the same with the, for example, the, you see here like the, the, the places where they put the cows, the cows step where they want, they put where they want and that all, all that organic matter goes directly to the soil and, and as you know, the soil needs, you know, like the soils to, to be decomposed, needs to be, you know, to go through, through, through the process. So, er obviously, obviously, you know, I don't want to make this sound like like that bad because you, you cannot compare this to, to and, and not, I don't want to criticize, you know, but if you compare it to an in industrialized countries, you know, like this is like, I, I'm talking about, you know, like here in five acres, 10 cows, which is, but, but you know, like if, if we go and we see the, the reality um it's uh you know, like you, you cannot compare, I'm just, I'm just here, you know, like trying to, to going back to your question show you where we're at. What are the practices, the practices here? Like for example, burning, burning is allowed here as, as a, is legal as an ancestral practice, you know, like people here, like when they, instead of going and cutting all the grass, they do control burnings and, and you will say, you know, like they are crazy. But if, you know, like, if, if you compare that to the fossil fuels of, of big industrial countries, you, you cannot compare, I mean, it's like, but uh, but still those are things again that I think that that are because of lack of knowledge that um are are getting better and better every day because you know, like people is getting better education, people is, you know, like trying to help, obviously, you know, the the continent, the country is, is is going towards uh a better place, you know, a better, a better planet looking forward to do the things in a better way.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:31:08
So it's, it's, it's getting better. But, but as of now, you know, it's, it's just a bit of, of, of what I can tell you.
Kyle Krull - 00:31:53
Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, the term lack of knowledge, I would rephrase that to be just be like the wrong knowledge. And I think that this is prevalent in a lot of the, the conversations we have here, we've taken these concepts of like, hey, this is the industrial way, this is a better way of doing something forgotten that indigenous wisdom and it's really relearning how to work with nature and with ecosystems in mind rather than think that like we humans can develop a better system. Um And it sounds like that's what you're doing at the farm, which is incredible. Um And now Andres, I want to take that part two question and give it back to you. And so like, you know, you, you're doing all these incredible things at the farm level. How are you communicating that to your consumers via the brand?
Andres Izquieta - 00:32:35
Yeah. So a lot of it is, you know, basically reeling in people into the brand first and obviously kind of like dripping them into discovery. So as of recent, obviously, like on the website, we have information on social, we, we communicated it. But um since uh Juan's actually girlfriend who is incredible at social media, um she recently started to uh do a lot of the storytelling for us. Uh So she's been going down to the farm and she's been documenting a lot of the stuff for us and she's been making it fun as well. So, you know, um we're starting to communicate all those touch points and we're gonna be putting out probably around like five videos a week on tiktok. We're starting right now with like 1 to 2. Um But probably by September, it'll be at around five videos per week where we're documenting on a daily basis, like all the happenings from the farm itself. Um So, you know, I think it's just about explaining to people where your drink comes from.
Andres Izquieta - 00:33:24
There's no no brand that can really do that in the, in the space. You know, there's, there's not um from a regenerative perspective there. Um I, I think there's a recent beverage brand that became regenerative Regin Organic. Um but I think it's only one component of it. You know, our n95 percent of our ingredients are herbs and flowers and all those come from our farm and there's no other brand in the beverage space that I can say that. You know, so it's like you're drinking your products from Mother Nature and that they're being farmed in a way that what Juan just said it like no one can say that, you know, they're buying from these aggregator ingredient suppliers.
Andres Izquieta - 00:34:06
You know, I've met a lot of guys at Expo X and they're like blown away with what we're doing. They're like, it's not even, it's a waste of my time to try to talk to you because you're doing something. So next level, you're like the apple Tesla of uh of ingredients as opposed to everyone else just buying them and they don't care. But I think it's important to communicate that to, to the audiences. You know, like one of our new slogans is regenerate your body. And you know, I think that term regenerate isn't necessarily widely used in the food beverage space. And you know, when, when you start to discover why regenerate apart from the, the, the the ingredients actually can the antioxidants of regenerating your body.
Andres Izquieta - 00:34:47
We also explain to you that like, you know, that the product comes from a regenerative and explaining to them what that is. So we're, we're, we're starting um to also do tutorials as well where we're gonna have juan basically explain and call it like a three part series what that means and why that's so important, you know, because, you know, audience education and giving them the reason why it's so important. Like, for instance, a big part of the inspiration that we had was the movie Kiss The Ground. Um And you know, when we started Chicky, it was around the same time that, that uh documentary came out and Juan and I, we wanted to do good and Juan was talking to me about regenerative and stuff and I had heard about it, but I wasn't so so educated about it. And then when I finally watched it, I told him like, bro, you gotta watch this thing immediately and it's all the things that he had been telling me, but I never seen it structured in like a documentary that was easy to watch and they call it 90 minutes. Um You know, this became something that to us was like a big cornerstone where we knew that this is what we needed to do.
Andres Izquieta - 00:36:01
So, you know, it's about a slow role in an education of how you communicate to the that, that, that the consumers, like, for instance, our new packaging on the front of the bottle, there's a smaller text that says made of regenerate botanicals. So we realize that like some of the things were important to consumers, some were not. So we, we, we've been doing some playing around in terms of like placement of slogans and texts and stuff to focus on what's more important. And I think that, you know, once, once they realize like about that process and where things come from, then it becomes very important, you know, I think over time, the more knowledge that consumers can be, can be taught, then they start to ask more questions. It's the same thing. It's the same reason why now the food system like organic is such a big thing like 20 years back.
Andres Izquieta - 00:36:48
It was not, you know, I think one of your questions was gonna be like, how do we make this more prevalent in by 2050 or whatever? I think it obviously it's a domino effect that needs to happen, but it starts with the brand because they're, they're like the, the like the sea shepherds in terms of like, you know, they're the ones that if they don't do it, then no one else is going to do it. Um So I think that banding together and, you know, ultimately, when consumers find out about these things, like, for instance, in certain categories, I only buy and support brands that store on a leg manner because I know what that means to the ingredients. So I know that I'm buying the best product possible and that even, it's better than even an organic product because they're going the extra mile, you know. Uh So I think it's really about consumer education, you know, and it's really about tiktok because that's really how you can really explain things in, in, in an easier manner because you have to kind of like dummy things and I hate to say tiktok is kind of dumb, but I'm a little older. I, I think it's kind of dumb but III I see and I respect the relevancy of the platform and the importance of it. Um And, you know, tiktok is really about making things fun as well.
Andres Izquieta - 00:38:03
So it's kind of like, like the motto of Ticky, like we use Reggaeton as our language, Spanglish as our language. You know, Tik Tik Tok is a communication method, right? So you're educating people about in, in a fun manner, you know, Instagram can be more, more like informative, right? It can be like neutral in the sense that it it doesn't have to be fun. It can just be like information, but tiktok a lot of times it needs to be fun in order for people to, to engage with it, you know. Yeah, that
Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:47
uh there's, there's so much to pull out of there and I think something you said towards the beginning around just like regenerative is not the leading value prop like we continue to hone in on that. I think in this podcast and I just put out a blog post about it, which is like you still have to lead with the core fundamentals of here's the health and wellness benefit you're getting. Here's, it tastes awesome. Right. Here's, it's better for you in this capacity. But then you back that up with the regenerative education on the back end to say it, it is accomplishing all that because of regenerative or that is a part of
Andres Izquieta - 00:39:13
it. Yeah. And if you think about it too, like for instance, like, you know, depending on your category, like, you know, at the end day, consumers are gonna pick, pick flavor first, you know, you can do all the greatest things in the world. But if you're your shit don't taste good, it ain't gonna move off the shelf, it ain't gonna get rebo you know, um or if you use too much of one type of sweeter, it becomes with a disgusting, you know. So, but I think the reason why this is important is because, you know, when I initially tasted the, the, the chicky that came from the farm that wanded like some initial batches and tests with that was like a mind blowing taste that the prior chicky which was farmed from an organic manner, you know, versus this regenerative manner where it was juan basically controlling every single herb that came from his property. It was night and day, you know, and that's important because that impacts flavor because remember the way that things are being sourced it, you have mint on one row, you have flowers on one row, on another row, roses on another row, another row and all those nutrients and minerals in the soil are moving and they're impacting each other and the flavor they get right. So for instance, in those, in those times, and you can use even less sugar because the the botanicals are so aromatic and they're so flavorful that, you know, it does impact flavor. So that's why if you think about it like in the background, it's so important to be doing this in this manner because it impacts the most important buying decision of the consumer, which is flavor, you know. Um So I think, you know, it, it's not the hero in terms of what you communicate to the consumer, but it's the hero on the back end.
Andres Izquieta - 00:40:56
Um in terms of what's your secret sauce and, you know, truthfully, it's hard and you know, there's, I'm sure there's gonna be brands that are gonna wanna try to get on this wave and obviously I encourage everyone to do it, but it's hard, it's very hard to do good. It's like 10 times easier to not do good. You know, it's 10 times easier to do what every other brand does even, it's 10 times easier just to buy from an organic supplier of botanicals. Like that would be the logical thing. You know, there's been moments where I've been like, dude, this is so stressful and expensive to do things in the right way. But you know, we obviously have a long term vision for this and we see the impact that this has on our quality of product.
Andres Izquieta - 00:41:36
And ultimately, this makes the product also more defensible because there's no one else that can say that, that they do that. So in the moment that consumers and retailers start to put this as a higher priority and that actually take action on it uh because it's one thing that treated as a priority and that's one thing and usually they, they'll do that say for Green Watching. And then secondly, more importantly, it's, it's really more so to actually take action on it and say like, hey, we're gonna retailer X, we're gonna curate a regenerative section in our store. Then that's gonna give opportunity for these people and brands and, and founders that are doing the right thing, you know, that finally they can get the spotlight on them, you know. So I think that, you know, that's why it's so important and that's how we're gonna win, win in the long term.
Kyle Krull - 00:42:37
You're speaking our language. And I'm gonna try to do something that I've never done before, but I really like the way you painted the picture of the different row crops right next to each other and how they're different. And I want to talk about why that's important. And I might completely butcher this. I have no idea. But if you think about the soil is essentially like a digestive system, a communal digestive system for all of the plants that are in that field. And if you have all of the same type of food, for example, let's say they mono crop corn row after row after row of corn, they're all vying for the same nutrients out of that system. Whereas when you have different crops right side by side, they are looking for different nutrients and putting different nutrients back in that can be complementary, which gives the plant the opportunity to get what they need and help the other biodiverse plants nearby, which can give to your point, more aromatics, more nutritional density, more potency from like a botanicals perspective. And I think that's a really critical piece that we should touch on because it's, it's hard to comprehend that. And that, that to me is why it's so cool that you're doing this.
Kyle Krull - 00:43:31
And I think this is the first application we've seen with this botanical Super antioxidant rich beverage and why it's so important for consumers. Because to your point, there's vitamin water out there, there's all these other ones out there that are likely using synthetic additives versus real nutrient dense plants that are benefitting both the human and the soil and the environment and everybody else. So it's just really, really cool. I wanna, like, really kind of hone in on that particular practice you all are doing
Andres Izquieta - 00:44:06
right.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:44:07
Yeah. So, and, and, and we do that, you know, like all here it's a poly culture plot, you know, like all our plots, all our beds here. It's, uh, it's, it, it's actually amazing, you know, because besides having all that we have, like, obviously we have here a full time a agronomist because I, I'm not, I'm not an agronomist, you know, like I'm, I'm, I'm learning every day. But uh we have a full time here like leader uh of the project that it's a 55 year old uh uh engineer that has been doing this from his whole life, you know, and he's very, very passionate about the, our ecological practices and so on. So what you just mentioned, Kyle is, is, is uh is, is so important, you know, because we, we hear also we're so used to the monoculture, you know, and when you understand what you were saying, you know, like how you treat each one differently, that that's the thing that makes the whole difference. You know, you, each one is different and you treat each one differently and, and the, and, and, and the, the, the soil, you know, like the soil, the universe that the, the planet is so perfect that for some reason when you do it in the natural way. It, it finds the way of how, how to keep equal proportions to each one and to keep them all all safe and, and obviously, you know, like when, when, when you implement and take in considerations, uh some of the, some of the things, uh some of the things, you know, like the, the fungi, the bacteria, the, the all, all these things, it's uh the, the mulch that I just, that, that I just uh that I, that I mentioned that we have, you know, like, it's like, um we have around like all this inert grass that we get from the farm and, and it's recovered, it's all recovered around. So that, that also, you know, uh that also prevents from uh from um uh Melissa. How's this word in English that the, the, all the, all the herbs like the, the, the bad herbs that grow, you know, like the weeds, weeds. Yes.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:46:04
All all these weeds, you know, like that, that in agriculture, you have to, you have to, you know, like keep cleaning years and years. It's like the, the mulch, the mulch system that, you know, like the inert uh leaves. It's uh it's uh it's the best thing that you can do, you know, like, as, as I said, when we were starting the podcast, when you try to imitate what's happening in nature, in but, but in, in, in wild nature, maybe because not all forests like primary, it, it's called, it's called the word. I don't know if it's the same in English, but it's called primary primary forests where we are, what we are trying to imitate because there's also forests that are, that have been very touched by the human that are maybe not the best example, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to try to, to, to imitate, not, not always but uh but when you do what's happening in the, in the primary one, you know, like in the, in, in the wild, in, in the real one things, things were amazing. You know, when we just started doing this, I was even like a bit a bit worried because I was looking at all our employees looking at our agronomist as, as this is uh an alien, you know, like what this guy is trying to, you know, like this guy, this guy is teaching us these crazy techniques and, and, and, and you know, his theory is crazy and, and I was also a bit afraid, you know, because we are investing a lot of money and you see all these farmers looking at him as, as as the guy is crazy. So, you know, like I start out him too because I'm like, I'm, I'm talking with him and making meetings and I'm like, hey, look, we're invested here also a lot of resources. We, we don't have much time. We really want to, to, to be the example.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:47:53
But please, please let's let's try to do it and he's like, take it easy, like just read this or read this or trying, you know, like to teach me and now that the things are, are flowing and working, it's so amazing because our farmers, the farmers that are working here, they are all replicating at their uh in their crops, in their houses, the same thing that they're doing here, you know. So and initially I thought, why are they not doing this? It's, it's it is it because it's more expensive. But the answer is no, the answer is just like, you know, like I would love to, to, you know, like to, to have all the farmers to get all the farmers the chance to, to learn to learn this because it's uh it, it's, it's simply amazing
Anthony Corsaro - 00:48:53
you, you're teeing something up that I wanna make sure we cover to their one, which is we talk about returning to indigenous wisdom, indigenous knowledge a lot of time that's returning to feminine wisdom and feminine knowledge. And I know y'all have some specific female farmer kind of empowerment programs and development programs with the farmers that y'all are working with as well as Andreas. Tell me if I'm butchering this or not. But I think there was a piece of infrastructure that was rescued that had been abandoned by like the Red Cross. So just like talk about, we talk about the soil. We're very good about talking about the soil. But I think a lot of times we skip over that human element.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:49:22
So just talk about some of that programmatic work that you all are doing,
Andres Izquieta - 00:49:28
right?
Juan Jaramillo - 00:49:28
So, so you know, like for, for, for all these drying process, besides being this an idea, that was already an idea to empower women and you know, to have all our female farmers besides empowering them. For some reason, women are better than men when treating, you know, like for example, when, when, when they are in botanicals, when they are harvesting, when they are um harvesting just the leaves, they are a lot quicker like with the hands, you know, like it's like, you know, like five ladies, one guy and you see one next to each other and the ladies are like, you know, like flying with the, with, with, with all the the, you know, like the the leaves. So it it it was a group of ladies of 32 ladies that again, since this punch, traditional recipe is so popular, these 32 ladies make like an, an an organization like a legal organization where they wanted to, to to plant harvest at their, in their homes and then they wanted to, to dry it and to sell it, to sell it in a dry form. Unfortunately, you know, their, their business was not, not doing well. So it, it lasts, I think for a year and two years ago they, like, they abandon everything that they were doing. So now that we are here, we appear like Jesus for them because they are like, they are, you know, like, really like the, like, like an angel because now they are doing exactly what they were trying to do, but they are not investing their money. They just know the practice because they are very good at that, that they've been doing this like, you know, like forever.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:51:05
So, but we, we employ them and, and that's what they do, you know, like they do the, for us, this group of ladies, the harvesting, the disinfection, the washing, then the drying, then the packing. So uh it's cool. They do the whole, the, the whole since we in, in the, in our plots, we have more mens because there's like more work that more like hand hand work. But for all this, this since we, since we harvest till we pack it, that's all these lady job job that are doing amazing. The, the, the they are, they are really doing a great job.
Kyle Krull - 00:51:52
That's cool. Yeah, that is really super interesting and, and like you said, uh feels like a fortuitous. You know, these women are trying really hard to, to make it to start an organization where they could do what they wanted to do on a regular basis that, that didn't work out. But just for two, this time that you happen to be in a location where you could provide them the same opportunity, right? So that's incredible. Um
Juan Jaramillo - 00:52:14
and, and see, and, and just to, to, to, to mention a last point there because you wanted to know, do you know, like the human side? I think it's very important to mention that all these people, you know, like all these people in the country, especially in the province that have been selling to all these, you know, like brands startups, entrepreneurs there, their herbs and flowers, they have been like III I don't want to, to, to say Abu to, to say they were abused because II I don't know if that was a real intention but they, they have been, you know, like paid very, very bad and very, very unfair. And uh and you know, like so that you have just to put you an example, mint lemongrass, you know, like they get paid 35 40 cents per kilo. And if you put the kilos in the work, maybe that's 203 $100 a month, you know, like for, for a family, for a family to leave. And sometimes these people is like, OK, I don't need more lemon grass, I don't need more mint, I don't need it. And, and it's hard because the fresh herbs as you know, like they length, they length for like 34 days and then they are damaged, you know, like, so if you tell to these people that is coming from outside of the city, to your company that you're supposed to, you know, to have a contract with them. I don't want your herbs anymore. It's like you're telling them like to throw them, you know, it's like, it's, it's very hard.
Juan Jaramillo - 00:53:26
And for us in our business model, when you allocate the, the, the pennies that the, the, the A and flowers represent in our drink, we, we can pay more, you know, like we can pay more for that. So if, if we pay, let's call it double or 60 70% more of those, those uh flowers, we, we can change the the life of these people, you know, because these people instead of making 300 if they make 600 or 5 50 it, it it's already a, a big change, you know, and uh and luckily our business models, our, our business model works, works towards that.
Kyle Krull - 00:54:10
I love that incredible. Um So I'm curious to know what does the future hold for Chick Chick boom boom. We talked about some distribution primarily like Florida Northeast. So um is, is the future focused on gaining more distribution with the current assortment? Are we thinking about product innovation and adding more excuses and flavors? Are there different channels or categories we're interested in getting into? Like what does the next 3 to 5 years look like for Chick Chick boom.
Andres Izquieta - 00:54:35
Boom. Yeah. So I think, you know, obviously, it fully depends on kind of the perspective, you know, obviously, you know, I can give you big vision and all that stuff. But, you know, I think uh we have to live in the now, uh especially this business because it's so ever changing. But I would say all of the next 12 to 24 months, it's focusing on the distribution that we have and expanding in those particular regions. Um And, you know, finding and really honing in on why the customer is loving chicky. You know, I would definitely say that there is an opportunity to say expand into maybe 2 to 3 more skews. And we've already identified those flavors based on flavors that we're seeing that moves off shelves. And also more importantly, flavors that we've grown up with drinking and in the Latin households uh as a big part of is also to deliver that Latin flavor.
Andres Izquieta - 00:55:13
Um You know, so I think from a 12 to 24 month, it would probably be to keep the same vessel, maybe add two or three flavors. I think over time, you know, the bigger vision is to be a Latin plant based beverage company of the culture and of the world. Uh and what that means eventually, it it's, it's to go on the categories that are adjacent categories where call it botanical and or other plant based ingredients would be um would be accreted to what we do. So it could be something like a tea or it could be something like, you know, like a sparkling drink or it could be something maybe even like a powder. Uh But I think time will tell and obviously, a lot of times depending on how things go, either the market predicts it or obviously, depending on your brand ubiquity, you then can really control and demand that. But the obvious ones would be call it lemonade tea, uh still water sparkling version of the existing chiki more flavors of what we have now.
Andres Izquieta - 00:56:20
Um And potentially energy, it just depends on, you obviously have to do a market analysis and understand where are the opportunities, you know, some markets, some, some, some categories are extremely crowded and it could make sense. But it is, you know, I, like I mentioned energy and probably the last category I would go into just because it's so competitive and different based on product quality is a little tough. You really have to boost up so many other factors and you're going up against like a red bull, you know. Uh so, you know, I think more importantly to really have an impact on culture and to really, you know, make people frightful in terms of what the product is. And those are culturally curious to really, you know, get behind the product and to really support all the things that, that we're doing beyond like the juice itself. It's also about supporting the farm and the regenerative and the practices and the processes and the impact of the people that, that we're doing.
Anthony Corsaro - 00:57:31
Yeah, love it. And the brand is such a vessel for bigger missions. I think that's like the coolest part of in my main takeaway um which taken us to the macro to close this thing out. Andres you alluded to this earlier. Final question, would love to get both of y'all thoughts on this. How do we get regenerative brands to have 50% market share by 20
Andres Izquieta - 00:57:50
50? I think it starts a lot with the buyers, you know, because they're the ones that I mean, it's hit and miss it could be the consumer. It's a mix of the consumer and the buyer, right? I think the, if the buyers, for instance, are putting real plans against it, it's not just about staying where regenerative is a priority and then not doing anything about it. It's about staying into it, you know, meaning, hey, we're gonna have a regenerative section. We're gonna, we're gonna highlight regenerate brands and there's not that many brands. So like the brands that are, it would be the first to market to basically take advantage of those things. It's kind of like what's happening. And we've been very fortunate um to be that because we are Latin, but, you know, we have a minority owned certification and that's provided to be a really big advantage for us, not necessarily on say the consumer side, but a lot of it on the retailer side where we take prioritization in consideration in bringing on our brand into certain retailers.
Andres Izquieta - 00:58:34
Um and then in some cases being spotlighted. So I think, you know, if a retailer decides to spotlight it, then that be, that makes it more important and it provides more light for the consumer. Like for instance, I personally think like Whole Foods is very responsible for putting the organic movement, front and center where other grocery stores decided to that patch on the tail. The wave like 20 years ago, an organic section in a conventional market didn't really exist, but they followed them because they started to notice that a lot of consumers started to go there. So they're like, oh shit, I can't have them stealing my customers. I need to keep my customers right. So in that same manner, if regenerative gets prioritized and that story gets told that's one and then two obviously the the the consumer needs to um needs to demand it.
Andres Izquieta - 00:59:33
So it's up to say brands like ourselves to basically create that, that education, that awareness to, to do. So, you know, I wanna say that three, obviously three is in the brands and you need to have founders that are in fired and all that stuff. But the reality is from what I see, the, the heart and the soul and a lot of uh CPG companies isn't there. It's more about the money and the exit as opposed to the impact um whatever I don't fucking care to say it is what it is. I talked to a lot of people that's the vibe I get, you know. So because, because again, doing the right thing is so hard, it's 10 times harder than doing the easy thing. You know, I'm not saying the bad thing, but it's just way easier.
Andres Izquieta - 01:00:18
Regenerative is not easy, no matter which way, shape or form you look, you know. So like um if you find more brands and founders that care, that put that as a priority in and obviously as a Gen Z consumer or the Gen Z founder gets more and more experienced and they start to take on these, that, that's the audience that cares the most because the universe in the world is falling apart um from like a climate change perspective. So I think that I would say that that's obviously one of the most important people. It's obviously the consumer, the retailer and the brand. But in terms of the order, I would say, you know, it's probably gonna be the retailer because they have the power that then the others follow, you know, they're the gatekeeper because if you don't convince them and they don't put a priority, then, you know, no one's going to care enough to do it and consumers aren't gonna be educated to understand what it is like. For instance, if you go to this re retailer in the, in the and then mid Atlantic called Mother's Market. Mom's organic market, right?
Andres Izquieta - 01:01:29
Mom's organic market is one of the best grocery stores in the country, in my opinion, you know, the way that they farm their ingredients, the way that they source their, their produce. It's like, dude, second to none, you know, they're farming regenerative and they're putting these signs and billboards in the store, regenerative, this organic, this solar power, this, you know, uh wild, this blah, blah, blah where I, I think it's more progressive than any progressive grocery store in Los Angeles. You know, so again, that consumer then is getting inspired and, and, and educated as to the why, you know, and then they start doing their homework and they're like, oh shit, I can only buy this now, you know, and then they start to, to demand it. And usually the entrepreneur, you know, we follow, you know, um even though the entrepreneur is supposed to be the innovator, as I said, it's very hard, it becomes very challenging to, to put priority on this.
Kyle Krull - 01:02:41
Well, yeah, I think you made a lot of great points there and I love the way that you, you in particular described mom's organic market and that shopping experience because I really think that retailer education is going to be a critical component of this movement. Um I personally have not shopped at a mom's. Uh I would love to, especially after the way you, you just described that um and kudos to them for being a leader in the space. You know, it's uh like you mentioned, not an easy thing to do. Um And we need to recognize and appreciate the efforts that some of the best retail partners are are making. So, you know, another big shout out to moms for what they're doing.
Andres Izquieta - 01:03:13
Yeah, I think, you know, part of it too is in brands like Chicky in terms of like making regenerative, like pop and making it like fun and exciting. So, you know, obviously you're gonna have 95% of your regenerative brands are gonna keep that natural nature granola vibe, which is cool. I'm not saying, you know, against it uh because that's kind of it lends itself to that vibe. Um But I think when you're loud and bold, you know, you're able to make kind of like a bigger claim and statement. So, you know, you know, it could be something where, you know, uh a farmer dancing like a song on a Chicky tiktok at least gets the attention for the consumer. Like what is regenerative, what, what does that mean? And then they start to, you know, do a deeper dive into it and then they become more like, oh, I only can buy this, you know, it's, it's kind of like the, the thought of like why a lot of consumers now uh choose to drink oat milk instead of almond milk because of the like of the amount of water that it takes to make almond milk is like an in and to make almonds is like an insane level of water.
Andres Izquieta - 01:03:56
I'm not that educated on the topic, but I've read very briefly on it and it's insane. It's insane. Right. And that's why things like oat and flax milk and blah, blah, blah are more popular now. Um, but as the consumers get more, more, more educated like me, for instance, what I read about all those things pertaining to al milk, I don't ever drink almond milk anymore. It's to me like a faux pas because of the amount of water that it takes to make it, you know, and it's not sustainable.
Andres Izquieta - 01:04:42
So I think as the, you know, it's interesting because the gens like I describe this as like, ok, the older consumer called the Old Millennial, right? The old Millen will look at a label, just look at like sugar and calorie and like that's it maybe a little organic logo, right? The younger millennial consumer, they'll like read the nutrition panel as well, right? The gen Z consumer will do all that plus like go on the Instagram or on tiktok and on the website in order for themselves to make a buying decision and obviously for the companies that are doing good, then they become highly prioritized because they check all the boxes, right? So I think that, you know, ultimately the powers in the consumer but the retailer as you said, as you, you, you said, Anthony's a big gatekeeper to be able to inform that consumer about that. Um So they all play hand in hand but you know, they, they, they, they serve their importance on two different levels that they all have to happen.
Andres Izquieta - 01:05:42
Because if the retailer puts forth and decides to make this a big priority, you need to have the demand from the consumer, you know, and then ultimately, you need to have enough demand for a consumer to inspire founders to source things in a better manner.
Kyle Krull - 01:06:06
Hey, man, I think you're spot on, you know, they all have to happen in parallel. Um It's hard to say which is the most important because if, if any one of those three sectors doesn't take place, none of it really matters, right? So I think you're spot on. Awesome. Well, guys, super appreciate, you know, the time. Um It's been very interesting to learn about chicky as a brand, as a cultural piece, you know what you're trying to do. Um Also, we didn't really paint the picture for those who are not watching. One is sitting with with what looks like a fake background behind him of the Valley of Longevity, which is like this green paradise with mountains of blue sky and clouds. It's just uh absolutely beautiful and he is on the farm. Yeah, I know. And it's, it's real.
Kyle Krull - 01:06:32
Um So yeah, just again, guys, super appreciate the time. Thanks. For sharing your story. Um Just to be clear on the website, it's Drink Chicky Chik I dot com. Um For anybody who wants to learn more or potentially order. Um I'm assuming you guys do some D TT business there.
Andres Izquieta - 01:07:03
Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah, thank you very much dot com.
Anthony Corsaro - 01:07:11
Yeah, appreciate y'all. Thanks for joining us.
Andres Izquieta - 01:07:14
Thank you guys. Sorry about the background.
Juan Jaramillo - 01:07:16
Thank you very, very much
Anthony Corsaro - 01:07:20
for show notes, episode transcripts and more information on our guests and what we discuss on the show. Check out our website Regen-brands.com. That is Regen-brands.com. You can also find our Regen recaps on the website. Regen recaps, take less than five minutes to read and cover all the key points of the full hour long conversations. You can check out our youtube channel ReGen Brands Podcast for all of our episodes with both video and audio. The best way to support our work is to give us a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform. Subscribe to future episodes and share the show with your friends. Thanks for tuning in to the ReGen Brands Podcast brought to you by the Regen Coalition and Outlaw ventures. We hope you learn something new in this episode and it empowers you to use your voice, your time and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.