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Justin Brady: From the Jethro’s Barbecue Studio, it is the Iowa Business Podcast. I’m, of course, your host, Justin Brady, and the beverage space is brutal. At least that’s what Kevin O’Leary on Shark Tank always says whenever I’m watching that show. I guess maybe that’s true. I don’t know. Um, but the NA movement has mixed literally everything up. Everything is changing. People’s habits are changing, and maybe that’s gonna give one Iowa company m- a little bit of a boost. To talk about that today is Taylor Grasso, the co-founder of Pesche. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you Happy to have you here. Uh, Taylor, like I said, thank you so much for coming in here. Um, Yeah. Um, the bever- so is the beverage space brutal? Is it as bad as they say, or is this NA movement, is this helping you guys? Maybe a little bit of both, uh, and then we’re gonna talk about the Iowa component of this. But let’s start there. Is it as hard as they say?

Taylor Grasso: Yes. Um, I would, I would

Justin Brady: say And scene.

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, and scene. Uh, so we’ve actually had that question. It’s really funny kind of being in the business. We’ve had people that are like, “Oh, I’ve really wanted to start my own CPG or consumer packaged good brand, like would you recommend it?” And I’m always like, “No. Don’t, don’t do it.” Um, no, I really do love our brand, I love our business, but I will say the beverage industry is a really hard one to break into, just being something that stands out on the shelf. Like, you think about when you go to the grocery store, and there’s those beautiful beverage shelves that have so many colors and imagery and branding. Just lots of things that as a regular consumer you probably don’t think about, but now every single time Zack and I, my co-founder and husband, are at the grocery store, those are the things we’re looking at, those are the things we’re noticing. Because making yourself stand out and getting people to try your drink is really what’s going to make the drink explode. Um, so yes, I would say that it is the hard- as hard as probably Kevin O’Leary says, but then to your point on the NA movement, that has helped give us a little bit of a boost. I think there are people who are just looking for an alternative to alcohol, whether they’re completely sober from alcohol and/or just cutting back on their alcohol intake. And a lot of people, the reason they cut back or cut it out completely is for health and wellness. And so they want something that’s providing their body with a benefit of some sort, right? Not just a glorified juice. Um, and that was kind of why we created Pesche in the first place. So yeah, absolutely.

Justin Brady: interesting because it’s, um, as I read the label, as I kinda read up on what Pesche is, it’s not about… Correct me if I’m wrong,

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, go for

Justin Brady: for it Um, but it doesn’t seem to be about removing the bad stuff, but it’s trying to actually add good stuff. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah. Okay. Um, and this is, you know, I think the first time I saw this I was traveling somewhere, and there was a magnesium-infused, um, sparkling beverage. Yeah. And I’m like, “What is this?” I, of course, um, uh, for the last two years have been getting rid of, like, as much plastic as possible- Mm-hmm. filtering water- Yeah um, getting rid of dye, Everything. Yeah. I’ve been Doing everything. and so of course I went for it. Yeah. It was really good. Yeah And so this is, I think, what you’re pushing into. Similar. And, yeah, similar. ‘Cause I am going, you know, when I look at, at the beverage aisle- Mm-hmm … uh, I do see, I mean, a lot of bad labels, honestly. And so this is- Yeah. you know, it’s really bad stuff. So what was the, um, I think there was diabetes type 1 in your family? Yeah. And you’re like, “This ain’t gonna work.” Yeah “We gotta, we gotta find… We, we still want beverages.” Yep. “We still wanna hang with people.” Yep. “But there’s literally nothing to drink.” Yeah. Which has been my experience when I go to a bar. I don’t drink anymore. I haven’t had a drop, not that I have any religious whatever. Yeah. Just I don’t want to… I feel like crap- Yep but there’s nothing to drink. Some restaurants have great mocktails. Mm-hmm But is this kinda why you guys- created this? Yeah,

Taylor Grasso: absolutely. So it was kinda twofold. So I stopped drinking almost three years ago now. I had woke up from a New Year’s Eve, and I honestly didn’t even really drink that much. I think I had maybe two espresso martinis, but I felt awful. And so I kinda just took that as an opportunity to do a dry January and just, like, see how I felt. It wasn’t even that I was drinking often necessarily. It was just more that, like, every time I did drink, every morning I woke up and was like, “Why did I do that?” Like, I didn’t actually want to do that. yeah Uh, but the social pressure and everybody else is doing it, so you kinda feel like you need to. Um, and as I kind of went on that more sober-from-alcohol journey, I realized kind of what you’re saying. Everything felt like glorified juice. I would go to bars and restaurants, and there was nothing for me to

Justin Brady: That’s a good point. that’s what it is And

Taylor Grasso: I’d go out to parties, or I’d go with friends, and it was just like I had no opportunity to drink. And the primary reason, kind of like you’re saying, that I stopped drinking was just for my overall health and wellness, to feel better. I’m a registered dietician by trade, so that kind of brought up a lot of just, you know… Unfortunately, I know a lot of what alcohol actually does in your body. Um, I had to kinda just block that out in my college years. And then as I got into adulthood, I really started to think about, “Huh, this is really not good for me.” Um, but that kind of led to Pesche. But my husband, mentioning the Type 1 diabetes, the, the same year that I stopped drinking, he got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Um, so- Geez … yeah, it was a little bit

Justin Brady: year. Yeah, wow

Taylor Grasso: he’s also 26. And so Type 1 diabetes is typically diagnosed in childhood, so it was a little bit different. Um, Type 1 is where your pancreas just stops working essentially, so my husband is insulin-dependent for the rest of his life, pending that they don’t find some sort of, like, cure in between now and then. But, um, what he realized then, ’cause my husband still is a social drinker. He’s not completely sober from alcohol, but he realized how much alcohol affected his blood sugar, and then in turn, when he would cut out alcohol and choose the alternatives, how much the sugar in a lot of those drinks would then alter his blood sugar as well. Um, and so that’s really where the idea for the beverages came from, of just wanting, kind of like you said… Our little tagline we say a lot is, “We took the alcohol out, but we added benefits back in.” So we didn’t just want, like I mentioned, a glorified juice.

Justin Brady: Yeah, there are very few. I wanna say there was a bar in Nashville we went to, um, my wife and I, and their, their mocktails were actually… They were, I don’t wanna say… Well, it w- they were almost a mocktail first bar. Yeah. I mean, they had alcohol. Yeah But you could tell, like, they were distilling non-alcoholic-

Taylor Grasso: knew what they were doing in the mocktail

Justin Brady: was like, “Oh, this can be done.” Uh-huh I used to think that it was just, you know, fruit juice with seltzer water essentially. Yeah. You know, ’cause that’s what I’ll usually get if they don’t have anything. Mm-hmm. Is a club soda lime- Yep is what I’ll usually do. But I was like, “Oh, this can be done. This is a category.” This,

Taylor Grasso: It is

Justin Brady: so this is what you’re tapping into. Um, the, you mentioned you’re, you being a dietician. Mm-hmm. What does that actually look like? You mentioned that. Yeah. So I’m assuming that has some advantage to the drinks. You have some, if people can look at the video, you have some sitting on the table here. What does that mean? What did you put in these things exactly?

Taylor Grasso: so basically we wanted to create three different sensations, and the sensations kind of came from this idea, what are people looking for when they’re reaching for an alcoholic beverage? Because a lot of the times they’re looking to feel a certain way, right? Like for example, we have our Lift, which is our peach mango margarita. That one’s meant to help you to socialize, energize, and focus. And when we say these different sensations, what that’s coming from is the different trio of functional ingredients that can be found in each of the beverages. So being a dietician, knowing a lot about nutrition, food science, um, technically our drinks are not supplements, and what are in them are not classified as supplements by the FDA. However, you can kind of categorize them into that category in terms of what I kind of have the advantage of knowing about when it comes to the drinks. Because another thing that I was noticing is there were some drinks emerging in this functional space. However, when you actually understand ingredients and you actually understand a lot about nutrition and food science, I was looking at them and I was like, “Well, the claims that they’re making that these are doing, that’s not actually the right one.” So a good example is magnesium. Magnesium is really popular. It’s really trendy right now, but there’s different types of magnesium. Right.

Justin Brady: This confuses people,

Taylor Grasso: and the different types of magnesium do different things. So the cheapest form of magnesium is magnesium citrate. However, what magnesium citrate is actually used for, um, if you’ve ever gotten a colonoscopy- Yep magnesium citrate is what they give you before a colonoscopy. But there are a lot of calming brands that will still use magnesium citrate in their drinks or in their powders and those types of things because it’s the cheapest form to use. But it’s not actually gonna calm you because that’s not the form of magnesium. So we use magnesium glycinate. That’s the form of magnesium that helps to ignite something called your parasympathetic nervous system, or the part of your nervous system that helps you to calm down, unwind, in our Unwind beverage. Um, so in terms of like how my dietician knowledge kind of fed into that, it’s just knowing a little bit further details of the ingredients, a little bit more intentionality behind it, and actually bringing those sensations forward with what we put into the beverage.

Justin Brady: Yeah, and I will say, push back on this if you- Yeah … I, I will say, I don’t think, I don’t want people to get the impression that citrate is a bad magnesium. It’s just different.

Taylor Grasso: Different. Yeah, 100%.

Justin Brady: it’s meant for m- making things go through you better-

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, so it’s basically just that there’s not a bad form of magnesium. There’s just different forms and they do different things. Right. But sometimes they’re classified or categorized on a brand or a supplement as doing something else, per se.

Justin Brady: They see that. magnesium is a budw- buzzword. Yeah. They put the citrate in there even though that’s not gonna give you the effects you

Taylor Grasso: Yes,

Justin Brady: if you drink a lot of them and you need to go to the bathroom, that might help.

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, and there might be other ingredients in that beverage that do kind of give that sleepy or unwind or relaxation effect, but typically it’s not that magnesium citrate in there specifically. But yeah, I think there’s, if I remember correctly, like five different types of magnesium, and they’re all kind of useful for different things.

Justin Brady: So the idea here is that we have all the research and data that shows these things do X, Y, and Z. Mm-hmm. And we put those things in their exact correct form- Yes … in our beverage to do X, Y, and Z. Correct. Obviously without like, you know, giant studies you can’t claim anything, but you know, what you are claiming is, “Look, we already have the research that shows this Does this Yes. “And we put it in- there,” is kinda what you’re saying. Um, you, this is interesting because you mentioned that you wanna create sensations. Yeah. Like, people, so people aren’t necessarily… would imagine people are drinking this for health, but also they’re drinking it ’cause they want a very specific effect. Mm-hmm. And you’re using maybe herbs or supplements or, or certain things to, to generate that. Yeah. What is the list? How many effects can you go after? sensations or feelings or whatever?

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, so we have three. So we have, we kinda thought about- While I’m sitting here on

Justin Brady: on

Taylor Grasso: Yes. Um, and we kinda thought about the different instances where people might reach for an alcoholic beverage. So I think I already mentioned our Lift. Right. Yeah, meant to help you to socialize, energize, and focus. So kind of thinking about going out with friends, going to concerts, maybe weddings. Um, honestly, that one can even be replaced as, like, an energy drink option as well. So the functional ingredients in that one are ginseng, lion’s mane mushroom, and then there’s about 70 milligrams of caffeine from green tea. So typically in an energy drink you would see something called caffeine anhydrous. That’s going to give you more of that, like, jittery, very, like, intense caffeine. Green tea extract’s a little bit more mild, more similar to, like, a coffee or a matcha. So you’re not gonna get that, like, jitteriness that you might get from… Also, energy drinks tend to have like 200 or 300 milligrams of caffeine, so it’s just a lot more in general. Um, and then we have Kick Back, which is meant to help you to decompress, chill, and rejuvenate. So with that one, we kinda thought about when people are coming home at the end of the day from work, bonfires, tailgates. More of those, like, mellow drinking instances. Um, kind of like maybe a beer or a seltzer replacement option. So that one has cordyceps mushroom, ashwagandha, and then rhodiola is the combination of ingredients in that one. And then our last one is Unwind. That one’s meant to help you to sleep, relax, and recover. This one was truly the origination of the idea. There was a big trend on TikTok called the sleepy girl mocktail. Um, it had tart cherry juice, it had magnesium glycinate. Oh, I’ve heard of this. Yep. And then, um, a lot of people were mixing it with, like, a poppy sparkling soda or, like, a sparkling water for example. Do you remember

Justin Brady: No, but I can see this is, this where the, one. of the ideas came from kind

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, so I was actually making those mocktails every single night, where I was buying the tart cherry- Yeah … I was buying the magnesium powder, I was buying the sparkling water, and then I was mixing it all together and making that for Zack and I every night. And I was like, “What if this just existed in a can, and we didn’t have to mix it every single night, and people could just have this before they go to bed?” And kind of relating back to those alcohol instances, a lot of people might do a scotch or a wine before they go to bed. Although alcohol might help you fall asleep, it actually disrupts something called your REM

Justin Brady: It obliterates your slee- sleep

Taylor Grasso: It obliterates … it obliterates your sleep quality, even though it might help you to fall asleep. So the goal of this beverage was, like, can we create something that helps you fall asleep but then also actually helps you get high-quality sleep? Right. So the combination in that one, that magnesium glycinate, tart cherry, and then we also have, um, reishi mushroom in there. So that’s kind of the different combinations of ingredients. Each one kinda has that specific trio to help create that sensation that we’re talking

Justin Brady: My first run-in with, and this sounds dumb now looking back, this sounds like the dumbest comment ever. I’m gonna make it anyway. I make a fool of myself all the time on this show. But my first run-in was when I was just, I was not feeling great. I had some weird nerve issues- Mm-hmm … for lack of a better term. Uh, my, my foot would vibrate, which sounds kinda crazy. Ooh. Yeah. we- really weird. Yeah. Um, it wasn’t really vibrating. Anyway, I went into the doctor and he’s like, “Dude, you’re really B deficient.” Yeah. And I’m like, “What? Okay.” So I literally just took some B supplements really, and immediately I had this euphoric

Taylor Grasso: Mm-hmm

Justin Brady: change and I was like… And it, it said if you’re B deficient and you go on B vi- you know, you actually get the proper amount of B vitamins- Yeah … you’ll like start almost having this little high- Yeah … momentarily where you’ll be like, “Oh my gosh, like things are so great.” And I remember I was on a walk. Yeah. And I was like, “Wow, the air smells I was like today, And birds are chirping.” Yeah. And I’m like, What is wrong with me? Like, I sound like a psychopath. You

Taylor Grasso: actually have B vitamins in your body.

Justin Brady: B deficient. Yeah. my body was like, “Oh, “Thank goodness.” Yeah.

Taylor Grasso: We have the vitamins we

Justin Brady: You have low vitamins …Yeah. so like eat, I mean, it sounds dumb now, but eating the right things and putting the right supplements in your body does make a huge change on longevity, on healing, on how you feel. So I can very much see this working, which is, which is nuts. Um, I wanna talk about, there’s, there’s two movements right now, and I wonder if you’re benefiting off both. There’s the NA movement, and then we don’t do politics on this show- Yeah but there is the Maha movement. Yeah. And I’m seeing people of all political persuasions, um, really be careful about their food dyes- Yeah and seed oils and all these things. Is this also kinda driving awareness? Is this also driving business? Um, not just the NA movement, but the f- that fact that people are trying to put more, b- put better food into their bodies.

Taylor Grasso: Yeah. I would say yes. Um, I think that we’re seeing a shift. This is also coming just from, like, my dietician perspective as well. I think we’re seeing a massive shift in what people used to focus on when they looked at a food label was calories and protein. Right. They wanted the lowest amount of calories and the highest amount of protein. They didn’t care what the ingredients were. And that’s where we saw a lot of brands coming out with protein cookies, protein water. Like- Yeah. And people didn’t, people didn’t care that those things were just a bunch of, honestly, kind of chemicals mixed together- Right, right … to create these foods. Because in order to keep something that low in calorie, that high in protein, and have no sugar, no carbs, taste good, you gotta use a lot of chemicals in order to do that. Um, so I think what we’re seeing is that people care more about the ingredients list now. So they’re more so looking at fiber, they’re looking at sugar, and then they’re looking at the ingredients list. And what they wanna see on an ingredients list, ingredients that they recognize and shorter ingredients lists. And so I would say that we leaned into that, but I really, when this idea came into conception, it was in 2023, which I don’t really think the rise of that had really peaked yet. It was more

Justin Brady: was there, just kinda undertone

Taylor Grasso: how Zack and I think about our food. I’m a registered dietician who talks a lot about what can you add to your plate rather than take away. So, like, let’s not think about everything we need to eliminate, but, like, if you are gonna go out and have a donut with your kid for breakfast, what can you add to that plate that adds protein, fat, and fiber and is more simple ingredients? So that’s kinda how Zack and I have always thought about food anyways. So when we went into coming up with the ingredients list of these drinks, we wanted it to be super simple. We don’t use any artificial sweeteners, no sugar alcohols, no stevia, no monk fruit. We just sweeten with a little bit of cane sugar and fruit puree.

Justin Brady: Hold up. Is stevia Bad now?

Taylor Grasso: stevia and monk fruit aren’t

Justin Brady: stevia- Oh, I was like, what the-

Taylor Grasso: Well, what’s the- No.

Justin Brady: can’t keep track.

Taylor Grasso: No, no, no, no, Um, and honestly, I don’t see anything as necessarily bad. Same with artificial sweeteners, same with those types just trying to keep things as simple as

Justin Brady: Just curious.

Taylor Grasso: As Trish trying to keep things as simple as possible. And what we are seeing with things, specifically sugar alcohols. So that one was really popular with, like, the keto movement. So erythritol, sorbitol, maltitol, anything that ends in that O-L, that was very popular because it sweetens it significantly, but keeps the calories really low, almost to zero for most drinks, and then also keeps the sugar at zero. ‘Cause your body doesn’t actually process sugar alcohols. Um, and with that, people were seeing a lot of… Sugar alcohols cause a lot of gastrointestinal issues, um, for a lot of people.

Justin Brady: good point

Taylor Grasso: So that was something we wanted to avoid, was we wanted to also make them… We don’t really advertise this, but I wanted to try to keep them as, like, gut-friendly as possible. So- sure obviously we don’t have any, like, prebiotics or probiotics. But people always talk about, like, really heavy carbonation will cause, like, stomach upset, bloating, bubbling, those types of feelings. Like when you drink a White Claw. We all know… Well, if you’ve ever drank a White Claw, you know what that feels like in your stomach.

Justin Brady: Claw

Taylor Grasso: White Claw. We didn’t want it to feel like that in the stomach. And then same with some of these, like, sugar alcohols or popular sweeteners. Just for some people, they can cause things like headaches, digestive discomfort, and that’s not for everybody. And I always just tell people, if they do cause those things for you, then don’t consume them. But if they don’t, there’s nothing wrong with them. Um, so yeah, I would say kind of long story short, yes, that movement in terms of people focusing more on the simplicity of their ingredients has benefited us just because that was our mindset when we went into creating the ingredients list for the

Justin Brady: Do you get responses on people asking about labels and saying, “Now is this sourced this way?” Because it didn’t used to be that way. People didn’t care. Yeah. And it’s, it’s interesting ’cause dieticians- Yeah … used to be, I would say five, seven years ago, people are like, “Pfft. Whatever.” Yeah. You know, like what kind of “What? …you’re a dietician? Who- …Nobody needs that. And nowadays- …it’s like everybody’s like, “Oh my “Gosh, we need more of these people.” Like,

Taylor Grasso: you-” People just think we were for weight loss. Like, that was really all people thought we, we were versus we know so much about the nutrition space. But yeah, we do have a lot of people pick up the cans, look at the labels, ask more questions about them. For example, like a question we get a lot, we’ll say there’s never more gram… There is less than seven grams of added sugar in every single one of the beverages, but our total sugars range from like 10 to 12 grams. But natural sugars because we use fruit purees to sweeten. So, like, that’s something that we answer a lot and something that, like, uh, the stereotypical person just might not know, and that’s just simply because we’re not taught nutrition. Like, one of my taglines for my nutrition content is, “We’re taught how to diet, we’re not taught how to eat.” So a lot of people- Yeah … a lot of people are not taught these things about how to read labels effectively and how to know what nutrients and ingredients are beneficial for your body. Instead, they’re taught, kinda like I was saying, to look at lowest calories, highest protein, and how can we go from there? Um, so yeah, we do get a lot of people that, like, actually look at the labels a lot more.

Justin Brady: It’s like learning a new language- Mm-hmm … kind of. Because, uh, I remember years ago when starting on this, I was like, “Dude, there are, like, landmines everywhere in the grocery store and I don’t know where they are.” Yeah. Like, you step one foot in the wrong direction and you, like, lose an arm, you know what I mean? And so it is, now I’ve started to, just like a language, at first you’re really straining. Mm-hmm. Um, and people are like, “You don’t, you have a…” Yeah, I’ve learned a, like, a new language before. I’m terrible at it. Yeah. But, like, at first you feel like you’re straining, and then slowly it becomes easier, and then it’s just like you can hear it everywhere, you can decode anything. Yeah. You don’t even have to look. And so I feel like that’s the same way in the grocery store. Like, a lot of people are going into the grocery store saying, “I know I’m supposed to avoid certain things.” Mm-hmm. But it’s completely overwhelming and they don’t wanna be there for five

Taylor Grasso: Yeah, 100%.

Justin Brady: what are… So this is, you know, n- I’m glad to hear people are reading labels now. Uh, I have other questions, but are there any other, like, of the, the five bad ones that you’re like, “Guys, this stuff is in everything and you need, you know, dietician here-” Yeah be careful.” Are there any, like, top offenders or things that you’re like, “You got, y’all gotta be careful

Taylor Grasso: Um, I would say that what I just tend to focus on with people is more so like emphasizing what I like to call the power four, so more so nutrients. So helping them kind of take away from getting overwhelmed by what I shouldn’t be eating in the grocery store, and let’s fill your cart with more of what you should be eating. So things that fall into the category of carbohydrates, protein, fat, and color is what I really like to talk about. And so when I talk about, like, the foods that fall into those categories, carbohydrates, we’re looking for more of those, like, whole grains. And why are we looking for those whole grains? Fiber, another huge buzzword that’s going on right now, right? Um, I would say that the one thing that I do recommend people looking at in terms of especially some of those more, like, diet products is what I already mentioned. So, like, those sugar alcohols are one that causes a lot of people digestive discomfort. When I’ve worked more in private practice of dietician, as a dietician, I’ve had a lot of people come to me being like, “I’m eating or drinking X, Y, and Z.” Usually it’s like a protein bar or some sort of, like, protein drink or something that kind of falls into that realm. And they’re like, “I’m having all this digestive discomfort. I’m having,” you know, sorry for the TMI, but, like, diarrhea, gas, bloating, just really uncomfortable digestive. And as soon as we cut that out, they feel so much better. Um, so I would say that’s the number one thing that I recommend people to notice, especially if they’re having any sort of, like, gut issues. In terms of, like, other things, I guess with the artificial sweeteners, so you’ll see acesulfame potassium on a label, you’ll see sucralose. Um, those are oftentimes found in things like energy drinks, sodas, diet sodas. Now, those things aren’t bad to have every once in a while. However, if you notice headaches or brain fog or fatigue, those ingredients can cause those in some people. So I would say those are the things that I really tell people to look out for, especially if they’re experiencing a lot of those symptoms that I mentioned. But what I really try to focus on with people is what can we add to your cart that’s gonna benefit your nutrition more? Because I think people get so overwhelmed with what they shouldn’t be having that then they kind of get that, like, F it mindset. Like, screw it, eating healthy is way too hard, so I’m just not gonna do it because I don’t even know what’s bad for me. So instead, what can we focus on in terms of what can we add to your cart that you like and that’s good for you? Yeah. And provide your body with nutrient density

Justin Brady: I wanna talk about the distribution because you have this very unique, I, I, I assume this is unique. It is … partnership with Hy-Vee? Yes. Yeah Like, did you guys launch… Tell, tell us the really quick story here. Did you launch by yourself? Mm-hmm. Did you launch with Hy-Vee? Did y’all know someone over there? Tell us, tell to the other founders out there who wanna get in, not to, not just to CPG, but- Yeah. how did you swing this? ‘Cause they’re an investor. They’re your co-packer too. Yeah. Uh-huh How, like, how did it start? Yeah. How did you get in there?

Taylor Grasso: So I think it was a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck is how we kind of got this unique partnership that we did end up getting. So we did launch by ourselves. So we came up with the idea in 2023. We started working on it in 2023, and we have e- the entire business is bootstrapped, so we have never received overarching capital from anybody. Um, thank you. Um, we really need some, so if you’re listening and you are interested in investing in a beverage company, you just hit us up.

Justin Brady: I have some dollars in this

Taylor Grasso: Um, but anyways, everything has been bootstrapped up until this point. So besides a friends and family raise that we did at the beginning, and then our own money going into it to start, that is how the business launched. We launched in March of 2025. Um, and we actually launched utilizing a different co-packer at the time, and we just launched D2C, so direct to consumer through a Shopify website. Um, at that time, we were doing 9,000 can product runs, so basically the smallest run that they could possibly do ’cause we couldn’t afford more than that. Um, I was also 36 weeks pregnant when we launched. Um, that was not a part of the plan, but it was what it was. Um, how that relates to the Hy-Vee conversation is that the week that we were supposed to have the meeting with the Hy-Vee CEO, I was 37 weeks pregnant. Our meeting was on Thursday. I went into labor on Wednesday. Um, so we did in fact have to email the CEO and be like, “I’m in labor, so we will not be at the meeting tomorrow.” And we did end up rescheduling and doing a meeting in June. So we first met with Hy-Vee in June of 2025. Where the partnership kind of originated from, I was a dietician for Hy-Vee. Um, so I actually worked at Hy-Vee since I was 14. Um, I don’t even know if they still hire 14-year-olds, but my very first job was at Hy-Vee when I was 14. I was a sack or a checker. I worked there all of high school. Um, and then in college I was a dietetic intern, and then I was hired on as a dietician. Um, and so one of the dieticians who is now, I believe her title is the SVP of the health market, so senior vice president of health market, um, she reached out to me via my social media. ‘Cause I’ve kind of been sharing our social or our journey along, like, my social media channels as well as our own Drink Pesche channels. She reached out and was like, “I think this is something that Hy-Vee would be really interested in.” Um, Hy-Vee also cannot carry THC beverages because they have a pharmacy. So kind of their functional… I don’t really know what the laws are with that,

Justin Brady: Are yours THC?

Taylor Grasso: a THC? No, they’re not. Oh. Um, but that’s kind of, I think Hy-Vee was looking for something that fits into this functional category of people who might be drinking or reaching for more of these THC beverages, and I think that we were something that was attractive ’cause we were that middle ground of, like, you know, we’re not THC, we’re not CBD, we’re not alcohol, but we kind of fall in that middle ground. Plus, we’re a local company, and so I think that was something that they were really, really excited about. Um, and so we went into the meeting, and it went really, really well, and they kind of proposed the idea of what if we partnered on Both the co-packing and manufacturing side, and then also on the retail side. And we were very excited about that because that brings everything local. So the entirety of the business is done here in Des Moines. It’s manufactured and co-packed in Ankeny. Um, we go pick it up in our little Honda Pilot when we wanna pack orders for people. Lomar, so Hy-Vee’s distribution center is who distributes it to all of the retail locations. We luckily don’t have to do that. Um, but that’s kind of… So it makes it a lot easier for us, reduced a lot of our costs. Um, but yeah, that’s kind of how the partnership originated. Like I said, you know, I think Zack and I worked really, really hard. But in terms of, like, for other CPG founders, I think we did have a little bit of luck in terms of the connections that we had and the people that we knew within, like, the Hy-Vee ecosystem and Hy-Vee space. But I will say Hy-Vee does run a lot of, like, I believe they just had what’s called their Opportunity Summit, where you can go as, like, a small local brand and pitch and get put into certain stores. So if you’re interested in that type of space, keep an eye out for those things because they definitely have a lot of those experiences where you can get your foot in the door and introduce yourself to some of those higher up people

Justin Brady: I think there, there is a lesson there though, because I hear a lot of founders, the listeners know I actually have a, a business in, you know, PR and GTM and content and stuff, and there are a lot of founders that are like, “Oh, well you had a relationship though. That doesn’t…” I’m like, “Guys, the lesson here is create relationships.” Uh-huh. “Stay in touch with people.” Yep. “Be nice.” There are people I’ve worked with in the past that have backstabbed me- Mm-hmm or been jerks, and there are opportunities that come my way that I don’t pass their way- Yeah … because they were mean. Yep And so when you’re nice to people and you build relationships, that’s actually an incredible business, business strategy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, I think we’re over time, but um, I think the last question I have is, um, you got pregnant.

Taylor Grasso: Yeah.

Justin Brady: And you have a beverage company at the same time. Mm-hmm. Did that change the way you look at prod- product at all? Like you’re thinking about pregnant customers- Uh-huh … and like tell me about, did this, Did

Taylor Grasso: you know that we’re developing a drink for that right now? Did I tell you that ahead of time?

Justin Brady: let’s talk about that

Taylor Grasso: Um, I’m actually going to taste it tomorrow.

Justin Brady: Oh, tomorrow?

Taylor Grasso: literally tomorrow. Um, so yes, we… Especially with the audience that I’ve garnered since having my son, so my son is 17 months old. I breastfed him for 14 months, obviously was pregnant for nine months. So what we have to say with the Pesche beverages specifically, the functional mushrooms that are in there, they’re just not studied in pregnancy, um, or breastfeeding. And so we have to say consult with your OBGYN. Basically, we just do not have research and data to say they are or are not safe. And we never will because people don’t do studies on pregnant and breastfeeding women because we don’t like to be test subjects when you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. So with that being said, um, we have wanted to create a beverage that doesn’t have any functional mushrooms and actually has beneficial ingredients for both pregnancy and breastfeeding. So things like hydration, electrolytes. B6 can actually really help. You mentioning B vitamins, B6 is really beneficial for first trimester nausea. Um, and so we’re currently working on a beverage. It’ll fall more into kind of the hydration space inste- in terms of the function. However, it’ll still be with the line of the other beverages. We’ll consider it a mocktail. It’ll look the exact same, so that if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding and you wanna carry around a drink that still looks like a fun alcoholic beverage, you are more than welcome to do so because we will create it. Um, so I’m literally going to taste test that new one tomorrow. We have a couple of different flavor variations that we’re working through to just see which one we like the best, and we’re hoping we can launch that in dry January. Um- Dry January …yeah, so that’s what we’re hoping for, but we shall see. Kind of everything in the beverage business takes longer and costs more than you think it’s going to, so I never like to give hard timelines. Um, but that is the goal, is to launch that. It’s coming. Yes, it’s coming.

Justin Brady: Yeah. It’s coming. Yeah. Taylor Grasso, the co-founder of Pesche. Thank you so much for coming on the show- Yeah … coming on Iowa Business Podcast. If people wanna reach out, they wanna buy something- Mm-hmm how do they do that?

Taylor Grasso: So you can follow @DrinkPesche for all of our social media channels. We’re on Instagram and TikTok. Pesche can be found in Hy-Vee across the Midwest. Um, we do have a store locator on our website, so you can see every single Hy-Vee store that we are in. Our website is http://www.drinkpesche.com. And also, if your Hy-Vee store does not have Pesche, they have it in the distribution center, so you can ask your manager to order it in.

Justin Brady: it’s g- what is that called? They call that like a pull-through or something if you go-

Taylor Grasso: You can basically just go to customer service and ask to ask a manager and say, “I want Pesche at my store,” and they can order it

Justin Brady: Get it in

Taylor Grasso: and we sell by the single can at Hy-Vee as well, so you can mix and match as you please. They’re not in, like, four-packs or anything like that. Most of them are in the wine and spirits section of the store. Um, some stores carry it in the center store, so, like, where you’d find energy drinks, we can also be found there. Um, but that’s kind of the two locations. And then we’re also online if for some reason you don’t live in Iowa and you’re listening to this podcast.

Justin Brady: Awesome. There are people who listen to this that aren’t in Iowa. They stay, they listen- to this to stay connected with Iowa. You know what I mean?

Taylor Grasso: what I mean? Yeah

Justin Brady: Uh, Taylor, thank you so much for coming on the Iowa Business

Taylor Grasso: Yeah. Thank you for having me