[YUZUCO] Basil Beshkov

On today's episode, I sit down with Basil Beshkov, co-founder of ⁠YUZUCO⁠. YUZUCO is importing specialty citrus juice and makes citrus ingredients with yuzu at the center of the business. Yuzu has been used across Asia for a long time, and it's recently become more visible in the U.S. through fine dining, cocktails, bakeries, and specialty food. But YUZUCO is built around a harder question: how do you take an ingredient that chefs and bartenders already want and make it available in formats, quantities, and prices that can actually work across restaurants, beverage programs, bakeries, and consumer products? In this conversation, we get into the early decision around launching with Super Juice for bartenders, the work of sourcing from Japan and other growing regions, why peel, powder, oil, and ready-to-drink products all play a role in the business, and what happened when a random sample request turned into a Starbucks bakery launch. I learned a lot during my conversation with Basil, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.