Dr. Pepper is out. Dr. Poppi is in. Hey, yeah, doc, I got this rash on my ankles. It’s really starting to burn. Josh, Josh, it’s a soda, not a real doctor. Yeah, no, I just need like a cream or something. Maybe some pills to clear it up. The boils are weeping. This is “A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich.” Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast “A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich,” the show where we break down the world’s biggest food debates. I’m your host, Josh Scherer. And am your host Nicole Enayati. And today, Nicole, is a very exciting day. Why? Well, we have all these silly cans in front of us. And nothing to me is more exciting than grabbing a $4.00 silly can on your way out a grocery store. Nicole? I have one thing to state. Please. Do you watch “Married at First Sight?” Do you think I watch “Married At First Sight?” Do you? No, I don’t watch “Married at First Sight.” Well, there’s a doctor named Dr. Pepper and I think she’s a sex therapist on “Married at First Sight.” She’s not a contestant. No. They compete. She is the doctor. They compete, they have people, it’s like a game of guess who? Yeah. Where, “Married at First Sight,” they like flip people over and then they hide them and then you have to? No, the first time they see each other is at the aisle. I hate this, modern American reality television. There’s a real doctor and her name is Dr. Pepper. Does that absolve the show of its general sins? No, they have a real doctor. It’s a great show. It’s good entertainment. There’s, anyways. Sorry. We are diving into the wonderful world of functional beverages. That is what this category is called. This is so interesting to me ’cause I have never dived into this world really. I’ve just, the only alternative beverage I would say I’ve like enjoyed is a kombucha. But these like cool, like nouveau riche like, like nootropic whatever sodas, I’ve never really tasted or dived into it other than OLIPOP. That’s the only one I’ve ever tasted. Nouveau riche is a great way to put it because I did buy all of these from the Erewhon, which is the fanciest grocery store. Every time I walk in there, and it is generally, it’s outside the gym that I go to. Yeah. It’s on my way to my car. So I’ll pop in and if I like need spinach for home, I’ll grab it. Yeah. Give people more details about where you work out, Josh. Great idea. Shut up. But I always passed this gigantic wall of fun beverages and occasionally, if I want to treat myself, I’ll grab one. And it started with kombuchas and a lot of these sodas actually started out, they had their roots in kombucha as well. Really, okay, that’s cool. And also at this Erewhon, I saw Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down. Oh, you did? Looking at two bottles of kombucha. Looking at the ingredients label. Wait, wait, wait. Nicole, he was the first person I ever heard utter the word kombucha. And I need to figure out what that song is made. Can you look up System of a Down kombucha song? He goes, “The kombucha mushroom people!” And I can’t remember what song it is. So did you meet Serj Tankian? No, I didn’t talk to him. He was like, I think he was with his parents. It was really funny. You should have said, “Hi.” He would’ve loved. Oh, it’s “Sugar.” Sugar! You would’ve, oh my gosh. You mean somebody you could have met your favorite like rock and roller of all time? I know. And I, yeah, he was in his kombucha. But anyways, all that is old is simply new again. You know what I mean? Because soda for its first 50 years Yeah. of production, right? 1884 or something was John Pemberton and Coke? Or maybe that was Dr. Pepper. I dunno, we’ve talked about in the podcast before. Yes. But they all started off as, you know, Coca-Cola. Tinctures. They were tinctures. Yeah. They were tonics. Coca-Cola had cocaine in it. Seven up had lithium. Seven up had lithium. Yeah. Pepsi had pepsin, Moxy claimed to cure impotence in men. Oh, cool. All this kinda stuff until like the 19-teens early in the 1920s. FDA, or maybe it wasn’t the FDA, but you know, they started regulating the kinds of claims that they can make. Okay. So we had like a 50-year run of sodas being weird, miracle cures. And then like a 100-year run of them just being tasty, sugary beverages. Sure. You know, diet soda comes out in the midst of all that. But it wasn’t until the 2010s that we saw like a massive, massive decline and that opened up the world for other things. So there’s actually data out there. This is in the last 15 years, soda consumption for teenagers has fallen 60%. So this is the next gen of consumers. Probably ’cause parents just don’t want them in the house ’cause they just don’t want sugar in the house. That’s part of it. I think people are a lot more attuned to the fact that, you know, high sugar beverages, it’s sort of empty calories. High caffeine. High caffeine. Yeah. Like that stuff maybe isn’t good for you. Even diet soda has seen a bit of a fall because of these scares about sucralose and aspartame and all that. And so it’s sort of left this white space because people want a fizzy beverage. That is a thing that we’ve found over history. That we like, humans like the fizzies. I always get back to that phrase that I read about cats, which like. Novel, cats love novel textures. Cats love novel textures. I love novel textures. It’s cool. He says that sentence all the time. I love, I am a cat. That’s why cats like marshmallows. It’s why I like marshmallows. It’s why I like fizzy beverages. It is a novel texture on your mouth. It’s fun. It is fun. I do love, I do love fizzy bubulas. And so you get, you know, the rise of LaCroix. We also see that, but we also want flavors. And now we have this whole new space of potential health benefits that are not 100% backed up by hard science, but. So it’s a circle. It’s 100% a circle. It’s a circle. Yeah, yeah. You know, except instead of cocaine we have things like adaptogens. Reishi mushroom powder. What is it? Gamma. Ashawagandha? Gamma-aminobutyric acid, aka GABA. Yum. And now they’re putting them back into sodas. Okay. And people are drinking these, calling them functional beverages because they think they will somewhat improve their life. And I find it absolutely fascinating. Functional beverages, okay. Kombucha is kind of the first one, right? Because kombucha. Kombucha’s a tea, it’s a fermented tea product that kind of turns into vinegar. Sure. But what, Fizzy vinegar. what is the actual thing that’s happening to kombucha that makes people want to buy it or that leads to health claims? God, I don’t know. I couldn’t even tell you. It’s simply like lactobacillus fermentation, right? Or maybe not lactobacillus, but it is fermentation of live microorganisms that are known as probiotics. Like Yakult. Like Yakult, exactly, yogurt. But Yakult isn’t fizzy. Yakult isn’t fizzy. It doesn’t have to be fizzy. Carbonic acid can be a byproduct of fermentation. Yeah. If you’ve ever had, God, I remember. Doogh. I had a salsa at the Sizzler buffet once that was fizzy. Oh. I had a, did I tell you about my fizzy deviled eggs? No, but you told me about your fizzy hummus. The fizzy hummus. But that was because they were treating it with baking soda to break down the skins. No dude, I went to a just like a bar and grill to grab like a beer before a movie recently. Nice. You still go to movies, who are you? I went, it was for the first time in a while. It was “Love Lies Bleeding” and, my God, what a movie. Katie O’Brien, you are fantastic in that freaking film. But anyways, I got the deviled eggs and they had like a house made hot sauce on it. Popped a deviled egg in my mouth and it fizzed like a LaCroix. That’s why I don’t get deviled eggs everywhere. And I did not send them back. Well, you never send anything back. I ate, I just ate the fizzy eggs. You never, you’ve never sent. Nobody really gets sick from lactoba-, you know, like it’s fine. They even call it lacto-fermented hot sauce. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But like it was fizzy as hell. Anyways, point is kombucha is fizzy because there are live microorganisms creating gases Sure. that turns to carbonic acid. But the reason people drink ’em, one, I do it ’cause I like sour things and I like fizzy things and I don’t I love sour things, too. need a ton of sugar. I love sour things, yeah. But the vague promise of gut health, right? Is this all just also like, do these things make you poop your pants? Some of these make you poop. And we’ll get into that because there’s probiotics which are live microorganisms, right, bacteria that is fermenting and multiplying. Yeah. And then the theory is they go into your gut and they effectively prevent the bad bacteria from attaching to your cells. So that’s a probiotic. What’s a prebiotic? Prebiotic is the newest buzzword that I’ve seen. And OLIPOP, to me, is the one functional soda that I started drinking and I started reaching for that instead of kombucha. Okay. Because to me, the idea of a probiotic, it’s a little bit nebulous. People will make wild claims about gut health, right? Yeah. They’ll be like there, “You know there’s a second brain in your stomach?” And they’re like, “Man, I got a third brain on my right.” But anyways, they’re sort of these buzzwords. What are you talking about? You never, there’s like a, like a big brain and a small brain. No. It’s a, nevermind. You could like explain it in detail if you want for people that. I don’t wanna. Okay, nice. I don’t wanna. I don’t wanna. But people make these wide, sweeping claims about gut health Yeah. and what microorganisms and probiotics can do. Yeah, sure. And I’ve never, it’s probably good. I eat a lot of yogurt, I eat a lot of fermented foods. I’m fine. I eat a lot of fermented foods as well. I’m totally fine with where my gut health is at, right? Sure. Prebiotic, on the other hand, speaks to like a very real health problem in America. Which is? Lack of fiber and rise of colorectal cancer. Is this, so prebiotics are fibers? Yes. Yes ma’am, they are. I had no idea. Oh, we’re closing our laptops because we have an array of these functional sodas. Crack open this OLIPOP. Okay. OLIPOP was founded in 2018 officially by Ben Goodwin and David Lester. Ben Goodwin drops outta college in 2013 to help a friend start a kombucha company. So, Okay. a lot of these big brands right now, OLIPOP, they are, God, did $200 million in sales last year. Smells just like soda. Absolutely exploded. They only have 35 calories in it. But a lot of these nouveau sodas have like roots in kombucha, right, because that was the OG functional beverage. He eventually starts his own probiotic soda company called Obi, which failed. He reformulated that into prebiotic OLIPOP with a ton of dietary fiber. So, this right here Cool. has as much fiber in it, and that’s coming from a proprietary blend of marshmallow root and cassava inulin, Jerusalem artichoke. Yeah. Here, chicory root inulin, Jerusalem artichoke inulin, cassava root fiber, nopal cactus, marshmallow root, calendula flour, kudzu root. Crazy, right? And 3% juice. And 3% juice. Read how many grams of fiber are on that. Fiber, nine grams, 32% Nuts. 30% of your daily recommended fiber is now coming from a freaking cola. Well, we’re, okay. Well how much fiber do I need? 30 grams of fiber is like recommended. Men are typically recommended a little bit more because they have higher rates of colon cancer. Yeah. But like that to me, that’s really good. This is as much fiber as two whole apples with skin or a half cup of black beans. And it tastes really good. And it tastes really good, right? Tastes like cola. It tastes like cola. There’s only 35 calories in it. You smell it, it’s got those aromatics of cola in it. Totally. It’s never going to be as good as a full sugar Coke. Full sugar Coke used science to physically manufacture the perfect blend of like salt, acid, aromatic and sugar. Yeah, but they use science to put all these good cool things in there like fiber. I know. And I don’t exactly know, there are a lot of instances in dietary health where when you divorce the nutrient from its whole food, you find diminishing returns. Well that makes sense. Right, taking a vitamin is not going to be as good as eating the whole plant. Sure. Especially because the idea of provitamins, things that react with that, right. Yeah. So I don’t exactly know the data on how say this fiber affects you materially versus eating a cup of beans. Yeah, like the bioavailability of it. Bio, exactly, exactly. But that said, pretty crazy. So Poppi. Poppi. Open a Poppi? Crack open the Poppi because this is its closest competitor. These two are the juggernauts in the functional beverage space. Soda some. You’re soda some today. OLIPOP did. Take me through the journey. Did $200 million in sales in 2023 Shut up. Yes. Poppi did $116 million, but it is having a faster rise. Poppi was founded in 2015 as, this is so funny, as Mother Beverage Apple Cider Vinegar Tonic. So all these things, apple cider vinegar, ACV, yeah. roughly the same concept as kombucha. Apparently, the mother in apple cider vinegar has probiotic in it. But also the acetic acid may influence weight loss. But there’s really inconclusive data. So they found that, Allison and Steve Ellsworth, they start selling at farmer’s markets. They’re approached by a Whole Foods buyer, they’ve got on some shelves, eventually land on “Shark Tank” and close a deal. With who? With, oh God, I can’t remember. Was it Barbara? It was like Roz somebody. Oh it was a special guest. It was a special guest, yeah. But they closed a deal and now Coca-Cola is seeking acquisition of Poppi. OLIPOP is still independent. Oh, my gosh. Poppi, both of these companies are racing to gather sexy, young people because like I said, 60% drop over the last 15 years in teenagers drinking soda pop. So they are like actively gunning for this new generation. This is their Doc Pop. This is the one that’s providing me the rash cream. Very cherry forward, very amaretto-cherry forward. It tastes kind of like a cocktail without alcohol in it. Lemme try it, lemme try it. The vinegar makes it taste like it’s a mixed. It smells like liquor. It smells like amaretto. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Doesn’t it? That’s so funny. It’s crazy. Well, there is amaretto extract in Dr. Pepper so. There sure is. Amaretto and cherry are like the two strongest flavors in taste. What is inulin? Inulin is a type of fiber. I’m not exactly sure what differentiates it, but I know Jerusalem artichoke inulin, Jerusalem artichoke, Fartichokes? Fartichokes. Literally, like literally these are sodas that are making you fart. And farting is good. I mean not. This is a problem. Universally. The interesting thing though about Poppi, only two grams of fiber. Because Poppi was originally started just as an apple cider vinegar tonic, right? Yeah. And it was rebranded. And so this has like significantly fewer sources of fiber in all the prebiotic stuff as OLIPOP. But they are seen ’cause they’re such close competitors as sort of equivalent. Sure. Right? Which to me is absolutely fascinating. Poppi, this year, I saw them come under a little bit of smoke Oh, yeah? because they started a, well they were the party house of Coachella, don’t you know, Nicole? Were they? Sorry, I didn’t go this year Oh, my God. because I’m 30 years old. Yeah, me neither. I had a couple 30-year-old friends there. God bless you, soldiers. I hope you hydrated. What were they doing there? Vibing, seeing Lana, you know? The headliners were not good this year. I like Lana Del Ray ’cause she sings like she got molasses in her mouth. What are four Lana Del Ray songs? “Video Games.” From? The one where she talks about what her nethers tastes like. She says they tastes like cola. Yeah. ♪ Young and beautiful. ♪ “Summertime Sadness.” Okay, okay. Four songs. Guess you’re not a poser. You’re not a poser. Anyways, they had this whole party house and they had a bunch of TikTok influencers. They had Alix Earle there, the new it girl. Oh, the hottest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She’s so hot. Almost as hot as Poppi’s 2023 sales. But you now have this like protracted war between these two companies. They’re potentially both seeking acquisition. Poppi is apparently very close with Coca-Cola right now. Very good. So this is it. This is like the new generation and I’m absolutely fascinated by it. Do I miss the taste of soda? Not really though. Well again, I’m not the biggest soda drinker. I’m more of a Pellegrino girl. So these are pretty, they’re dead ringers for soda. They are sodas and they taste pretty good. And they have added benefits. I kind of love it. Also, this is not sponsored. And they have a fifth, no, this isn’t sponsored at all. It’s truly not. I’m fascinated by this freaking market. Yeah, yeah, yeah. About the fifth of, one-fifth the calories as other sodas, too. Yeah, 25, 35 calories per per bottle. Are they using artificial sweetener in this Poppi? Hold up, hold up, hold up, what? I wanna open up another one of these. Stevia. But you don’t even taste the stevia. No, you really don’t. It’s so sour and delicious. So this is a new gen, but this has also spawned so many imitators in the same way that this is kind of an imitator of kombucha, right? Well, I don’t actually taste any of that fermenty, vinegared flavor in either of them. Not even the the apple cider vinegar tonic. No, but I mean Ben Goodwin literally like left to start a kombucha company, right? Like they’re kissing cousins in the sense that it’s a fizzy, delicious beverage that claims to do something good for you. And now that has launched so many other fizzy beverages that want to do good things for you. And you get into weird territories. Am I gonna get sick? What are you drinking? I’m drinking DRAM Mushroom Cola Adaptogenic Sparkling Cola. Adapt-, Nicole, what is an adaptogen? Well, literally, what is it? Sparkling water delicately infused with real plants crafted in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Created by plant lovers who crave an alternative to sugary soda. Smooth, classic cola flavor with none of the weird synthetic flavoring. We promise it doesn’t taste like mushrooms. I love none of the weird synthetic flavoring. We just foraged a bunch of mushrooms from the Rocky Mountains. Okay, herbal magic, adaptogenic immune support, brain health. This is gonna make my brain get big, but not in a bad way. Not like swelling, but smart. We’re back, we’re back to 100 years ago. Pour in your cup. Brain health. What the hell does that mean? Also, it’s clear. They didn’t put any caramel coloring to trick your mind or anything. Where’s the mushroom color? There was somebody tabling outside of Erewhon selling some adaptogenic drink. And I walk up to them and I just go, “Oh, what is an adaptogen?” Oh, no. And I wasn’t trying to gotcha them. I was curious. Oh, you weren’t? I wanted, no, I wanted to know about their freaking product. And I’d heard that term a lot. And they just go, “You know, like kombucha?” I go, “Yeah, I’ve dranken it.” And they go, “Well, you know, like probiotics?” I go, “Yeah.” And they go, “It’s like that.” And I go, “Well, how?” They need to brief the table people better. They’re getting paid minimum wage to do a job. I’ve tabled before. I understand. Have you? Yeah, like in college, you just. I’ve always wanted to do it. That was like everybody’s job. Really? We did a. Just pay students to do it. No, no, we did focus groups. We were focus group kids. Oh, fun, fun, fun. That’s a good time. I would do some psych studies, which was cool. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah. But so anyways, adaptogens, brain health, nootropics, very similar to me, to this idea of gut health and probiotics. There are two things that we don’t necessarily understand and the science is very new. Did you taste it? Oh, no, no, I’ve had it before though. Taste it, taste it. Very vanilla on the nose. Very bland. It’s not giving. Tastes like nothing. It’s not giving. There are zero calories in it. This is only scented carbonated water. It’s pretty upsetting. It’s LaCroix, right? This is LaCroix. This is mushroom scented LaCroix that promises benefits. But I was doing some research on adaptogenics because I’ve heard of that, right? Ashwagandha, reishi, cordiceps. So much, so much. Mushrooms, all this stuff. And I never kind of believed in it ’cause I have like a high, I’m allergic to BS. You’re a little cynical. I’m a little cynical. But I looked up a study from the National Library of Medicine and according to them, “Studies on animals and isolated neuronal cells “have revealed that adaptogens exhibit neuroprotective, “anti-fatigue, antidepressive, anxiolytic, nootropic, “and CNS,” that is central nervous system, “stimulating activity. “In addition, a number of clinical trials “demonstrate that adaptogens exert and anti-fatigue effect “that increases mental work capacity “against the background distress and fatigue, “particularly intolerance to mental exhaustion “and enhanced attention.” These things work on, On animals? on animals, but also on. What animals? But also on an individual studies on rats. But like on an individual cellular level. Okay. They’re not miracle cures, of course. And they probably. Well, they’re not saying they’re miracle cures. Certainly not. Like cocaine in the Coca-Cola original formula probably gonna be stronger. But there does seem to be actual evidence that these things work on a Sure. you know, neural, molecular level. See, I’m not looking at it from that angle. I’m glad that it’s all written there in like bold letters or whatever, but I’m just trying to get the closest thing to Coke without drinking Coke. Well, that’s a great point. What do you think that is here? Is it that OLIPOP? So far it’s the OLIPOP. Do you like, does that sway you, it having fiber? Because it genuinely sways me. No. I’m rocking. Well you probably eat a high fiber-ish diet, right? Do I? You cook a lot of fresh vegetables and eat a lot of grains. I eat a lot of leafy greens. Yeah. So, I don’t know if there’s fiber in that. It’s good. I actually have no idea what I’m eating half of the time. And like you, after World War II. Oh, no. No, but the fact that we have. Let me pop open another one while he’s talking. The fact that we have like ample vegetables and whole grains available. Yeah. Like Nicole, you cook a lot. You’re not eating mac and cheese and Ruffles for every meal. I really am not. You’re probably getting. I haven’t touched a Ruffle in months. You’re probably, I like the new Thickems. They got the Thickem ridges. Oh! Those are good. One time when we ate those Thickems and they had a basketball player on them. Do you remember? It was Jason Tatum, I think. Such good chips. Jason Tatum. I think he could be, him, Anthony Edwards, like I think they’re the next stars. Jason Tatum, we partied in Miami together. Shai Gilgeous. Did you really? I forgot about that. Yeah, you were like, “Who’s the basketball player that looks like Drake?” I’m like, “Jason Tatum?” Oh, my God, I’m such a dork. I didn’t sign an NDA so I’m fine. But I’m saying you probably are getting all the nutrients and fiber Yeah. that you need if you eat just like a healthy balanced diet with vegetables. Yeah, and I poop well, I poop good. I tend to poop pretty good, but it’s not without work. Really? I’m eating 200 grams of protein, 10 grams of creatine per day and I can’t eat beans ’cause Julia’s allergic. Oh, well, I’m sorry about that. And so I’m sort of fighting for fiber sometimes, you know? Oh, I’m sorry. That’s why I just buy this miniature from Erewhon ’cause I’m like, well let’s just speed run some fibes. What do we got here? What’s this one called? I’ve seen Recess a lot. More adaptogens? I’ve, well let me pour it. Is that enough? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I afraid this is gonna make me poop my pants. Well it, yeah, we’re gonna all poop our pants after this. Oh, my gosh. But, Josh, I can’t poop my pants. We’ll do it on the podcast. I’ve got stuff to do. This is magnesium and adaptogen infused sparkling water. I take magnesium pills. That was pretty eloquent. You take, why do you take magnesium pills? Because my doctor told me it’s supposed to relax me and help me digest my food. What? What are, like Doctor Poppi making those claims makes sense. I don’t know if you know this. I think Dr. Poppi is on the payroll, just like Alex. They’re all for Poppi soda. But like real medical doctors, ’cause I’ve had like my medical doctor be like, “Oh, just take ashwagandha.” I’m like, “What does it do?” And they’re like, “I don’t really know. “It makes you relax.” Well, also on TikTok. It’s a little bit weird to me. Also on TikTok they’ve been saying like, “Oh, rub magnesium on your feet to fall asleep better.” Have you seen those? I just stick my feet in honey to fall asleep. That relaxes me. But there’s different kinds of magnesium. They use magnesium ascorbate in this one. I’m so bad at like the last. This is good. I haven’t tasted any. Just sour as hell, man. What is the flavor? Raspberry lemon. It’s lovely. I’ll try it. That is absolutely lovely. One of my favorite ones in the category. Oh! Grab me the tepache. Oh, oh, you know what I like about this? ‘Mon. It tastes like tea. Yeah, it does. This is just tea with, it’s fizzy tea. Which one is tepache, this one? Tepache. Isn’t tepache alcoholic? So tepache is typically alcoholic. You can ferment it a lot heavier. Yeah. But what it is is a legit Mexican beverage that I believe goes back like well before Spaniard colonial days. That’s right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So tepache is a fermented pineapple drink. Yes, yes, I’ve had it before. And it turns naturally fizzy. Pineapple has a ton of like, what is it, bromelais in it and a ton of natural occurring bacterias. It’s a high heat fruit. It, you know, now I put pineapple in the fridge that I cut up and three days later, it’s fizzy. Sure. Right, pineapple ferments super quickly. And so tepache, I’ve had this at like Mexican restaurants where they’re just like, you know, it’s a 4% like a light beer. But now they’ve pivoted it because this fetishization of probiotics. And so like, you want anything fermented? Well, how about this like pre-colonial Mexican village drink made from fermented pineapple. We’ll put it in a cute can. De La Calle. And it’s delicious. I love pineapple. It’s my favorite fruit in the world. Okay, this has erythritol which is a sugar substitute. Artificial sweetener, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s a, that makes you poop your pants. That’ll make you poop your pants. But how good is that? A little ginger tepache. That’s pretty good. I shouldn’t have gotten the ginger. It’s a little strong, I don’t like the ginger in it. No, it’s kind, it tastes like ginger beer, I like it. I normally like ginger. Yeah, but no, I know, I like to taste of the tepache. I like the taste of tepache. That’s quite pleasant. Other things we got, this one’s great. I regret, this is a brand called Charmlee. Okay. This is probably the one that makes the strongest claims. And I regret that I did not get the one labeled libido. You were gonna buy horny soda for us? I was, yeah. But then I was like, is this inappropriate? Awe! But now I really wish we could talk. Why would it be inappropriate. Not like inappropriate. I was like, do we want the podcast to go there? But now I’m talking about it. But this is their brand of calm. So this has my other favorite. This is the cryptocurrency of the beverage world. What is it? CBD, baby! Oh, my gosh. Cures everything. Can I ask you a question about CBD? According to the guy that wore the poncho on my freshman year dorm floor, it’s just a plant, man. People knew that they could cure everything for thousands of years. Does this get me high? H-I-E. Yeah, you’ll get high. Let’s get high. No, it doesn’t do anything, it’s CBD. Awe, come on! It doesn’t do anything. CBD doesn’t. I don’t know, it probably does. It smells. Smell it, smell it, smell it. I’m sure CBD does something. Smells like that Devil’s Lettuce. Got that, dank, baby. That got that dank in it. It smell like Devil Lettuce. But just to be clear, this is not psychoactive and it’s not THC. Also it’s all legal in California. Did you shake it? Are you supposed to shake it? It says, “Shake me and serve chilled.” Do you read? No. You were just reading all the ashwagandha and CBD. What about the directions? Ashwagandha promotes homeostasis. Oh, my gosh, I love talking about homeostasis. Why do you, what is, homeostasis mean to you? Homeostasis means regulating your body. But like to what? What do you mean? Like when you’re hot, you sweat. That’s homeostasis. Yeah, I guess so. And when you’re cold, you shiver. It’s homeostasis. Or like what I’m yelling on a podcast, I get calm. I think that’s a little, we gotta unpack that a little bit deeper. This smells like mari ju wanna. This smells, it literally smells like pot, man. It’s like drinking bong water. Oh, my God, it’s bong water. Holy smokes, that is so horrifying. Tasting trauma. I’m so sorry. Oh, my God. This is for people that like are taking a tolerance break. I watched somebody once drink bong water ’cause they tried to take a bong rip upside down on an inversion table. Wow. You know, it happens. You hang out with really cool people. This is not in the last, no, I don’t. Other ones to try, kefir. Keef! This is a brand called Keef. Kefir. Kif is a character from “Futurama.” And he is a? Alien in love with Amy. And he’s homeostasis. No, that’s his, the captain. No, that’s Calculon. So speaking of, you know, traditional beverages found around the world that we have now shoved into cute looking cans because they might do something for you, this is kefir. Kefir also has its. Kuh-feer is how I say it. What? You say keefer, like Kiefer Sutherland. I thought that’s keefer. Like Kiefer Sutherland? How are you actually, it’s what, Icelandic? It’s Scando? Kuh-feer? I don’t know, but I have a bottle of kefir in my hand. Will you look up kefir pronunciation? K-E-F-I-R. I have it in my fridge at all times. I don’t know if it’s kuh-feer, I don’t think that’s right. And I just, you know what I do if I’m ever feeling a little bit squirrelly, I just have like an espresso cup of kefir. Passion fruit lemongrass. This just tastes good, buddy. Oh, it smells good. Wait, wait. Play it. Kuh-feer. Kuh-feer, wait, hold on. Look up the native language that kefir is in. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay. This Kif drink smells phenomenal. It’s Turkish. It’s Turkish? Why do you think kefir was Scando? I don’t know. Maybe ’cause you’re thinking of skier. Maybe I’m thinking of skier. But anyways Uh, just burped. Yeah, kefir fermented dairy. This is probably my favorite tasting one. Yeah, it smells good, it tastes good. Does this have lactose in it? Because that’s really gonna make me poop. We got more, we got Revel, we got Hops. Josh, I don’t have a, wait, I have so much in my. Nicole, you gotta chug it. This one, sparkling probiotic grapefruit Citra hops. Oh my God, I. Hops are a natural. Drunk person? Antioxidant? Or no, antimicrobial. That’s why hops are added to beer. I hate hops. I love the flavor of hops ’cause it reminds me of drinking and I like that. I hate drinking hops. I hate hoppy beers. I like pilsners. I think this is really, this is tight, this is great. Revel. Oh! Revel Beverages from Ojai, California. Oh, I am a huge Ojai guy. Oh, hi, guy. I’m an Ojai guy. Oh, hi, guy. That’s great. It has 12 grams of sugar. It’s very sugary. Is it? Twelve grams ain’t that much. How many calories? Fifty. It’s not bad at all. No, it’s, it tastes like sweet beer. Yeah, I like sweet beer. Crack this one open. This is sort of the last go around. CARE LAB Divas? We got another sparkling probiotic. We got another. Oh, vegan collagen, has CoQ 10 in it and 74 C minerals. Grapefruit hibiscus flavor. I take CoQ 10 as well. CoQ 10 is an antioxidant. It’s a. It’s a coenzyme. A what? It’s a coenzyme. What’s a coenzyme? That’s what it says on the fricking packaging. Am I a scientist? Isn’t coenzyme a form of antioxidant? Antioxidants are substances that combat what are called free radicals. Free radicals are something that is created when carbon molecules. Tastes like armpits in a good way. Break down, right? Yeah, collagen. The thing about any collagen thing, collagen, Nicole, you know more about collagen than I do I bet. Oh, I take collagen peptides every morning. I take 18 grams of collagen and my skin has never looked better. I just rub olive oil on myself and then I shine and I bake in the sun. Josh, do you think grapefruit kind of tastes like a male armpit sometimes in a good way? That’s a, ugh. You don’t like it? That’s the collagen that’s tasting like male armpit. That’s that ain’t grapefruit. I love it. You love this drink? I like, it’s very like, I can’t explain it. It makes you feel alive, I guess. One more, I got this one because this is called Kin Euphorics, a functional beverage for modern rituals. And finally we’re getting into the witchcraft and wicca portion of today. Oh, man. There is one person on TikTok that does think that I am a practicing wicca because I talk about it so much. No, I don’t think you’re. And that is not the case. I just kind of find it fascinating. I like how pink it is. Stop. What’s in this? This has rhodiola rosea, which is an adaptogens. This has 5-HTP. This has GABA and it has 50 mils of caffeine. We have another one that you haven’t opened. Yeah, it’s just a probiotic. It’s, oh, this is the same one. I shouldn’t have gotten this. This is a repeat of the one with hops. This is bitter. This has a bitterness that I don’t enjoy. Ah! This one tastes like rich, like rich. Dude, that is horrifyingly bad. That’s really bad. What’s in it? Well, no, it almost just tastes like, oh, my God, is it, wait. Is it taurine and guaranine? No, this is gentian. Is it gentian leaf? Dude, I swear to God this is gen-, I know gentian when I taste it. Is it, it’s a leaf, right? Am I imagining it? Ugh. Oh my God, it’s gent-, it is gentian. It’s gentian root extract. Dude, you can taste that ’cause it tastes like quinine. It tastes like an amara, or not an amara. What’s the? No club, some of the sodas. Oh my, God. Yeah, ugh, it’s so bitter. Is this a scam? Is this overrated? Is it a scam? Many of these, I believe, are potentially overselling the health benefits of the things that they do. The one that really, really impresses me, and I am biased in my own view of science and my own daily dietary needs, of course, is OLIPOP. OLIPOP, Pretty damn good. nine grams of dietary fiber. Pretty damn good. Is pretty freaking nuts. It also tastes very good. I enjoy Poppi as well. I don’t think I get anything from the health benefits of it. But again, the best thing you can do is eat whole foods and eat a whole diet and act with reasonability and rationality. And at the end of the day, these are all expensive as hell. A 12-pack of Coke costs about eight bucks. A 12-pack of poppy costs $30. How much does this all cost? Yeah, it is like $70 bucks. On the company card. On the company card. Baby, that’s what’s up. And also, governments are trying to tax full sugar sodas in major cities. Shut up. And we have actually seen with initial data coming out of Oakland, passed their soda tax in 2017, that there’s a purely elastic relationship, meaning a 30% tax is a 30% decrease in soda consumption, which many people view as a win. But it might just be us punishing poor people again ’cause this stuff costs four times as much so. Very expensive. It’s all very complicated. I don’t think all of these are a scam. I think the industry. Concept as a whole? Yeah, it has a kind of history, a long 150-year history of scamdom. Yeah. But ultimately I enjoy many of them and I’m still gonna be reaching for that OLIPOP on my way out the grocery store, spending $4 on me and Julia’s shared account for groceries, despite the fact that I’m the only one drinking that. Looking to dive into the world of healthy soda? Spark tasted a bunch of OLIPOP flavors and Poppi flavors and ranked them. Check out both articles on sparked.com. All right, Nicole. My tummy hurts. I’m all messed up from them sodas. Man, we’ve heard what you and I have to say. Now it’s time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. It’s time for a little segment we call “Opinions Are Like Casseroles.” My tummy. Oh my goodness. But before we get to your thoughts and opinions, we are going to go to everybody’s favorite segment. Nicole, I know it’s your favorite segment. It’s “Review a Review.” It’s “Review a Review.” That is the segment where we review a review that you have left us on an Apple Podcast to try and stimulate you to write more reviews because we are thirsty for positive feedback. That’s right. Negative feedback, not so much. We gotta show our bosses that people care. Yeah. Five stars, the ice within, “My favorite duo “during LASIK recovery. “As I lay here recovering from LASIK, “I go through dozens of “Hotdog Is a Sandwich” episodes “to cheer me up while pretending the tears “are from laughing too hard.” Awe. “It’s the only podcast that makes me feel calm “and happy while learning something “and not feeling like I’m wasting my time.” That feels really good. Five stars. That’s definitely five stars, yeah. I think I wanna get LASIK. I’ve been thinking about it, but oh, my God. Have you seen the movie “The Voyeurs” with, what’s the one, she’s the new Amanda Seyfried. “Euphoria,” “Reality.” Sydney Sweeney Sydney Sweeney. is in it with a guy that should have been Billy Magnuson, but wasn’t. I’m so good at describing movies. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Sexy thriller. She’s a LASIK technician though. Okay. And there’s like a, she uses it to harm instead of to help at some point. And like spoilies, but. Oh. That’s freaked me out since so. I wanna get the ocular lens that Joe Jonas has. I don’t know what Joe Jonas has. It’s an implant. I don’t know what Joe Jonas has. It’s an implant, it’s a contact implant in your eye. Oh, God. I have a really bad eyesight. I do, too. I’m a negative seven in both, a negative 6.75 in both eyes. I think I could be like significantly more attractive without glasses, too. I actually really like your face with glasses. Yeah? I don’t like my face with glasses. But I love your, I love you with glasses. I think you look very handsome with glasses. Thank you very much. I hope your eye surgery went okay. Thank you for watching, listening, and all that good stuff. I got the bubble guts. Bubba Gut Shrimp Company. Hey, Josh and Nicole. Hi. This is Gerald, I’m from Arkansas. Oh. Hi, Daryl. One of my unpopular opinions is that chocolate pudding is best served hot. Oh Oh. With heavy whipping cream for a topping. Oh. Whippin’. Not whipped. Liquid. Oh! Ah! Thank you, enjoy your podcast so much. Listen all the time. Oh, I like this opinion. Have a good day. Bye. Okay, go, go, you go. Me? Okay. So I used to work at a chocolate store and one of the things that Yvonne Cipos, one of my favorite people I’ve ever worked with, she used to take chocolate cake, microwave it, and then just pour cream over it. Uno leche cake. That’s that uno leche. That’s budget, baby. And it was really delicious, but I never understood it. I’m like, I don’t need this. I would just like warm up the cake. I don’t need the cream over the top. So this reminds me of that. But hot chocolate pudding, I don’t love. I don’t love. And if there was salt on it, I might like it more. I never know like what temperature to serve certain things. Like pie, right? Like people, fresh, warm apple pie outta the oven, whatever. I prefer pie like ice cold outta the fridge. Cake, Really? I hate outta the fridge. Oh, really? People have these like, you know, icebox cakes or whatever. Yeah. I want cake to be like room temp. And so these things are, to me, variable. Okay. Pudding, I initially would say I love ice cold outta the fridge. But I’m thinking of when, especially when you describe pouring that cream over the top, the slate of Vietnamese pudding-like desserts called che. You love those, right? I absolutely love them. Yeah. And I prefer them hot. My favorite is taro and they’ll pour like a salted, I think it’s salted coconut milk over the top. And God, it is so good. Like that cold, like slightly salty cream on top of this hot, sweet, starchy thing. Mexican arroz con leche, right? That served hot. Dude, rice pudding, hot rice pudding is so good. It’s so good. Why not hot chocolate pudding? I don’t know. I think this is a great opinion. I’m, God, I’m hankering for a hot chocolate pudding right now. I mean, I’ve had like a pudding cup that I left in my car. No, it can’t be, it can’t be lukewarm. Oh, it needs to be hot. It’s gotta be hot. Piping hot. Yeah. But the skin forms, I don’t. Did you know that the phrase lukewarm utilizes linguistic thing called the cranberry morpheme? Yes, you’ve told me about it actually on this podcast. And I don’t need you to reiterate it. Next. We have nothing left to say to each other. No, we have so much to say. This relationship has grown stale. No, no, no, no, no. We resent each other now. I do not resent you. I appreciate you. We walk in the park having our own conversations in our own heads. I will always hold you accountable and try to make you better because that’s my job. All right, next opinion. Hi, this is Grayson from Connecticut. Hi, Grayson. And my opinion casserole is that chocolate milk made with like chocolate syrup is not very good. And making chocolate milk with a drink powder like Ovaltine is far superior Yep. and tastes significantly better. You know what you’re talking about. That’s it, thanks. No lies detected. This is brilliant. I appreciate it. I think sometimes chocolate syrups can taste a little bit metallic and a little bit gross. But the powder, oh, my God. I think whenever they use like Ovaltine and like a NESQUIK powder, there’s like milk in it, too. There’s like milk powder and I think it’s so brilliant. I used to, my mom used to make me something called sheer nishasta, which was literally just starch and milk. And she would put it on a plate and then she would put NESQUIK powder over the top. And that was like my food when I was like feeling sick. And I love the flavor of powdered chocolate multi-beverage a lot. It is so funny that I’ve never thought about this, but I’ve never had a chocolate syrup-based chocolate milk that was anywhere near as good as any chocolate powder-based chocolate milk, right? Chocolate powder-based milks are so good. But surely they could utilize the same ingredients. I guess the syrup you’re adding, like you’re taking the dairy outta the equation because you’re diluting it with like corn syrup, right? So good. As opposed to having powder that sort of just, you know, absorbs. You’re not adding more liquid to the equation. The Ovaltine though is far and away the best chocolate milk mix and it’s for a very specific reason. Is it, is Milo the same thing? I think so, yeah. It’s just, it’s malt. Yeah, malt. Right, it’s the malt powder in there that makes Ovaltine. I grew up on Ovaltine and oh, my God, I wanna make like some Ovaltine cocktails. Do it. Love me some milkahol. Do it. Yeah, that’s like a fascinating thing that I never thought about. Me too. Thanks, Grayson. Hi there, it’s Connor and I’ve got a life hack that might actually change the way you prepare your meals for the day. Love that for me, Connor. I’m a con-head. So what you do is the next time you’re making scrambled eggs in the morning, you just make about an extra portion or so. And then once you’re done eating, you throw some mayonnaise in, mix it up, bam, bam, bam, egg salad. Ah! Boiling your eggs is a waste of time. I’m also a con-head. This is wild. Hold on. Are you just gonna glaze over the fact that we did a succession? We talked about a succession right now. Yeah, well I thought it would be like a fun little Easter-eggy reference. I didn’t think we’re gonna get into Connor’s politics. God, so hard dealing with you sometimes. Our man, Connor, is talking about scrambled egg egg salad. Sounds pretty gross. Have you ever done that? No. Me neither. I don’t make egg salad. I do make egg salad, I do make egg salad. I make tuna salad. I’m a tuna salad, we are a tuna salad household. We are not an egg salad household. I love egg salad. It’s one of my favorite things in the entire world. And to me, like, you can do it fully hard boiled eggs. Definitely don’t do it with fully soft boiled, but you get that like the yolks a little bit fudgy but still mostly cooked. Ugh, okay. Oh, God, that’s so good. I’m not having a good time. Sorry, that was my phone. I think part of the reason egg salad is successful is because the yolk blends with the mayonnaise. So I’m not sure how the scrambled eggs salad would be, but the fact that he enjoys it, that’s great. I don’t know if I’d call that a life hack per se. It is just mixed mayonnaise with your leftover scrambled eggs. I don’t love it. But I do love that you found something that brings meaning and joy to your life, Connor. I don’t love it, Connor, sorry. I am gonna try it. I will tell you that, I’m gonna try it. I respect you, Connor, but I just don’t like that. It’s like using chicken thighs for chicken salad, it doesn’t taste right. You gotta use chicken breast. No, it does not taste right. It’s because the meat doesn’t shred and absorb all of the fun liquids that you’ve put in. Right, right. I also don’t make chicken salad at home. We just, Oh, my God. we just make tuna salads at home. Why are you so disappointed in me? Shrimp salad? I’m, I don’t eat shrimp in my house. Kosher house, kosher house. God, Josh, keep up. Hey, guys It’s Michael from Queens, New York and I just wanted to call in and ask you your thoughts on using AI, artificial intelligence, to make recipes to cook. Oh, funny, funny, funny. You now, you don’t have a cookbook, you don’t know what to cook. You put it in the little AI machine and it creates a recipe. So yeah, let me know what you guys think about AI. Thanks. Love the Queen’s accent. Me, too, loved it. Gosh, do I like, let me tell you what you can use AI for. I think there’s also a website that does this where you can like put like, “Hey, I got a bag of dandelion greens and some feta cheese “and a bottle of ketchup and some eggs. “What can I make with that?” And there’s a website where you can type that in and it’ll tell you some recipes you can make with those ingredients. And I’m sure AI can do the same thing. Do I love it? Not really, but it’s, I mean like, I’m not the arbiter for using AI and like technology and for like good or for evil. I don’t have a good moral compass when it comes to using technology one way or another. Unfortunately for me, I’m just not, my finger’s not on the pulse on that stuff. Like I just don’t care about it that much. I don’t think about it too much. It just doesn’t, it’s not a part of my everyday life, AI. Love the movie though. “AI,” great movie. During the dawn of the nuclear age, people must have had this incredible amount of future shock looking forward being like, “We are in unprecedented territory “that could just destroy the world. “And this is very frightening.” And then, you know, roughly 70 years have passed and we’re still doing okay. And now I think with AI we’re sort of hurdling towards that again. The only thing that gives me solace is that knowing that like workers will always need sandwiches and I’m very good at making sandwiches. Yeah, but a machine can also make sandwiches. No matter how, never as good as me. I firmly believe You think so? that a machine cannot make a sandwich nearly as good as me. What if I made a? I toast the bread, right? I spread the mayonnaise on, right? I get make fun little aioli, some pickles, whatever. What if you made me a sandwich once and then I made a robot that could make that sandwich 50 times faster than you and 2% better than you? They couldn’t, the robot can never do it. I don’t think we have the technology. But the thing with AI, I’m saying like, I don’t, like Nicole, I don’t know. People are freaking out about any sort of AI-generated art, et cetera. And they probably have good reason to do that. But I imagine a buckminsterfullerene future where automation leads to us just not having to have jobs. Don’t think it’s actually gonna happen. What I will say about AI and food, Okay. we did an episode of “Aprons Off” on “Mythical Kitchen” where we tested to see if we could see if a menu was made by AI or not. Right. So we’d ask AI to make like, “Hey, make upscale pizza restaurant in Los Angeles menu.” And we printed that out next to an actual upscale pizzeria in L.A. Every single time I thought I could spot a tell, I was like, “Oh, that ingredient “doesn’t actually go with that ingredient. “But they’re both buzzwords. “AI definitely put that together.” Yeah. I was wrong. Yeah. It was the actual restaurant. You were wrong. And every single time the AI menu sounded delicious. It’d be like pizza with like merguez sausage, preserved lemon, things that I wouldn’t have thought of. And I’m like, damn, I want to eat this AI pizza. Yeah. So I will say that that’s a little frightening. Also, AI is already being used to write cookbooks. Sure, oh, sure. There’s a very, in books in general, this really weird thing on Amazon where they’re creating, effectively, fake authors that don’t exist. That’s so scary. And it’ll just be like the new crockpot/slow cooker cookbook and then it’ll be AI-generated, or as it reads, AI-generated text. It makes no sense and the recipes are kind of haphazard and don’t actually work. So that’s already happening right now. I do think that, especially in regards to cookbooks and things, like people didn’t buy our cookbook and I’m on the “New York Times” bestseller. Shout-out. Because the recipes are also great, I think they are, I think they’re fun, but they bought it because it’s. They like us. They like us. It’s a cult of personality. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so, you know, recipes divorced from context are never actually going to have the same amount of steam. But surely AI is a very valuable tool and potentially an inevitability that we all just have to like gigitty get down with. Yeah. You know, so who knows, man? I don’t know. I’m pretty good at making sandwiches. If the robot overlords take us out, I’m just gonna set up shop with some bread and some meats, you know, sell ’em for car parts when we all barter. But I do agree that we’re, I think we are gonna lose all of our jobs and I think there’s going to be an art renaissance. Oh, my God. Oh, can you just gimme a paintbrush? I really do think once the robots take all of our jobs, we will have no choice but to be creative again. Yeah or we’re just gonna like rot in the salt mine ’cause a robot can’t squeeze in between the cracks to get the salt. Of course they can build a robot that can squeeze between the cracks. I don’t know, man. They could make a human. Dude, they couldn’t do it to save those kids in the cave in Thailand. You’ve seen. They had to get a guy, they had to squeeze through the cracks. You’ve seen “Snowpiercer.” We can train octopuses, sure. Too many times. Well, that was a hell of a note to end the podcast on. Yeah, I know, right? I need to read your paper ’cause I can’t access this laptop. Oh yeah, what does the script say? No, we can ad lib it. Okay, fine. Like, we have a podcast. It’s this one that you’re listening to. Yeah. The episodes, Wednesday is audio, Sunday video, which you may or may not be watching. And then the next thing you say is. Oh, and if you wanna be featured on “Opinions Are Like Casseroles,” hit us up at 833-DOG-POD1. The number again is 833-DOG-POD1 And then I’m gonna come in with the classic upsell, right? You go and say, “Hey, you’re already listening to this. “We do other things as well. “We have lovely cooking shows “and interview shows on “Mythical Kitchen.” We won a Webby. We’ve won multiple, we won like a ton of Webbies now. No, but for “Last Meals” you won. So we’ve won four People’s Choice Webbies all day. Have we? One Judge’s Choice Webby for “Last Meals.” Excuse me. You know what I mean? So we do those things. Pretty damn impressive. Those are cool. Nicole, where can people find you? You got anything else to plug? Yeah, you can find me on Instagram, Nicole Hendizadeh. What about you, Josh? Oh, that’s it. No, I’m cool. I’m probably gonna delete my Twitter soon. My cat has an Instagram now and I’m pretty mad about it. Oh, my God. I love, I love Pippin’s Insta. Prince Pippin, right? Also, she was totally like, “I’ll have the dishes done by the time you get home,” and then I come home. Stop talking about your, stop airing your dirty laundry on the podcast! I love her! I just, you know. Stop it, stop it, stop it!