Welcome to TPB’s first newsletter of 2026! I’m so excited to get back to writing and connecting with you all, sharing the stories of the best founders across the food and beverage industry.

I’ll be including this week’s episode below as usual, with the wonderful Benno Nelson of Five Corners Beverage (scroll down for a code for readers!). In addition, I’m sharing what I’m calling storytelling “secret ingredients”: those elements of storytelling that founders on The Perfect Bite perform particularly well that you can use in any of your own personal or brand storytelling! I’m also including a few example of other brands I think do a great job showing off the weekly secret ingredient.

Thanks for being on this journey together as we lean into what makes The Perfect Bite so special—the stories that inspire us and how we can continue to each craft our own. And very aptly for this week’s topic—cheers!

I was joined by Benno Nelson this week on The Perfect Bite! Benno is the co-founder of Five Corners Brewing, a Chicago-based brand crafting deeply flavored, globally inspired non-alcoholic canned drinks for adults.

Benno shares how his journey into sobriety — paired with a lifelong love of food, beverage, and global storytelling — sparked the idea for Five Corners. Rather than creating sugary substitutes or imitation cocktails, Five Corners honors traditional non-alcoholic drinks from around the world, focusing on the five foundational tastes: salty, sour, bitter, savory, and sweet.

This episode explores the evolution of the non-alcoholic beverage movement, why Chicago is the perfect testing ground for innovative drinks, and how intentional flavor design can create true alternatives—not compromises.

To learn more about Five Corners or order your own packs around the country, head to www.fivecornersbev.com. Get 10% off your online order with code ‘BITE’!

You can purchase and experience Five Corners Beverage at retailers, restaurants and venues throughout the Chicago area.

You can follow Five Corners on Instagram @fivecornersbev.

Look how clear that label is!

As I chatted with Benno on this week’s episode, he mentioned a moment with Five Corners’ labeling that really struck me and that the team learned greatly from. As the first cans of Five Corners were being put together, Benno and Shelby were unsure how to describe their beverages. Sure, they could have said non-alcoholic cocktails, or beverages, or mocktails even, but because the word “hard” has been used so much to describe alcoholic canned beverages, they thought they’d go with the traditional term “soft drink.”

They learned quickly that just because a phrase or decision made sense to them, it doesn’t mean that a potential customer or audience member necessarily knows what you’re talking about. In this case, many of us think of sodas, lemonades or fizzy waters when we hear “soft drink,” which led to confusion on the pricing and ingredients of what makes Five Corners so unique.

As soon as the team changed the label to read “non-alcoholic cocktail,” it instantly made sense to consumers seeing the product on the shelves. Customers now understood this was A) For adults and B) Something special and in lieu of an alcoholic cocktail, justifying the price (competitive to other non-alch products on the market) and that these drinks have a complexity to take the place of an alcoholic beverage.

This is where context matters so much for positioning. We can learn from Five Corners’ storytelling that by keeping it simple, perhaps reflecting what’s already accepted by the market, messaging becomes so much clearer. My other tip for a scenario like this, such as when you’re naming your product or platform or explaining it as a new concept to folks, is to conduct customer discovery with your existing customers and your network to see what phrasing resonates the most. What you think may be a good idea may not be what your customers dictate they understand!

Storytelling secret ingredient: Try not to overthink your messaging and gather customer insights to make sure you’re on the right track for market positioning.

Great job, Benno and Shelby!

Here are a few brands and accounts I think do a great job positioning a new or difficult concept across F&B!

Remember when we all heard about adaptogenic drinks for the first time? I for one was confused—what’s an adaptogen? Is it weed? Is it CBD? As it turns out, it’s types of herbs! Recess does a great job on their labeling, the product information on their site, and their social media to explain the ingredients in their drinks and what their effects will be for the consumer.

Nam Prik Pao by Pink Salt Kitchens is one of my favorite examples of a product that may be new to a market like America, but has been used for generations in Thailand. Throughout Pink Salt’s Instagram, founder Palita Sriratana does a great job including content on what Nam Prik Pao is (a Thai chili jam), how it’s in a different category than chili crunches, and all the incredible ways you can use it! Palita’s a context champion by not only explaining something new in a clear cut manner, but also by showing that the product can be used in so many different ways—not just for Asian dishes. You can listen to my interview with Palita here!

I heard the term “Swedish hot dog” for the first time this September in L.A at ’s Jubilee! Chef Amelia Eudailey (coming soon to TPB!) focuses on the history of her Hej Hej Swedish hot dogs, the ingredients involved, and her pop-ups and event tabling to spread the word about what makes Swedish hot dogs so special and delicious—it helps to have a bite! She even started her own Substack, Hot Dog Hustle, to share more behind-the-scenes stories of her product and building a business in this space.

Thanks so much for being part of The Perfect Bite’s journey. Feel free to respond to any of these messages with thoughts on how I can improve my storytelling in the future or if you have any guest ideas!

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