Jaden Flips The Flavor Script

One of the unexpected joys of our Shark Tank ABC appearance is how it opened doors to classrooms full of curious students. Teachers would reach out after showing our episode and ask me to talk about the journey. It's not scalable but I love it and I would send berries ahead so all the students could get that wow factor. This way a regular Q&A turned into something they remembered.

This week I spoke to an Ohio high school class about choosing a co-founder who complements you. Juliano and I are a good example. I was the kiosk guy who could stop strangers in a mall and sell them on a better phone and plan. He came from restaurants where people came to him. Different strengths.

Every time we ran a demo to the public we would leave saying it went as well as it could possibly go. We would sell out, have a blast and I would watch Juliano go from a little nervous to fully in his element.

So there we were in Erewhon Calabasas, ready for another demo. Juliano had his usual early nerves and I was amped. Travis Barker was chilling at the pizza counter, which set a cool scene. We got started and a crowd formed fast.

Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted Jaden Smith and his girlfriend walk towards us. We ran them through a taste test and, of course, blew their minds. Then Jaden asked something we had never heard. Could they take over the demo for a bit?

He literally asked us to step 20feet away and let them run it for 20-30 minutes. Juliano thought about it for half a second. What else were we going to say? From a distance we watched them crush it like they had been on the team all along. It was unforgettable.

Next week I will share the distribution deal that came from that moment. It is worth the read.

Now for this week’s taste test.

I was in Whole Foods Market and grabbed a bottle of GT's Living Foods red kombucha. Curiosity got me in the kombucha aisle and I brought one home to see what the berry could do.

Before the berry the first sip was tangy, a little tart and had that classic kombucha bite. Different in an interesting way but not sweet.

I chewed Nature's Wild Berry for 30 seconds so the pulp could coat my tongue, then tried again. The tart edge smoothed out and a mellow fruity sweet showed up. It tasted like a sparkling berry soda without needing to add extra sugar. If you tried kombucha once and passed ever since this might change your mind.

This marks the 40th blog and I've done a different taste test each time. If you have ideas for what I should try next add them in the comments. Trying new things never gets old and I would love your picks.

As always there is a hidden alphanumeric code in this post. Spot the odd word with a number, enter it exactly as written, and save 20 percent for the next 48 hours. Thanks for being here and for riding along.

—Hank