Mini Episode: Extracts and Essences (Tea, Coffee, and more) with Vibrant Ingredients
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus mini episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Bill Hayes, Director of R&D Applications at Vibrant Ingredients, to finally answer a question that trips up a lot of product developers: what's the actual difference between a tea extract and a tea essence?
Bill breaks it down in the most satisfying way — that irresistible aroma that hits you the second hot water meets a tea bag? That's your essence. The body, color, astringency, and mouthfeel that makes a tea beverage actually taste like tea? That's your extract. Together, they're what makes a great RTD tea tick.
Vibrant Ingredients is the world's largest private equity-owned natural ingredients provider, and they're doing a lot more than tea. The conversation covers cold brew coffee extracts, natural flavors, functional ingredients like L-theanine, EGCG, and natural caffeine — all using a pure water-based extraction process that keeps things clean and natural. Bill also shares his tips for formulators and brand founders on how to move quickly from concept to commercialization by knowing your "must haves" vs. your "nice to haves" and partnering with ingredient suppliers who actually understand your brand's mission.
If you're working on a tea, coffee, or functional beverage — or just curious how your favorite RTD gets that fresh-brewed character — this one's for you.
🔗 Get in touch with the Vibrant Ingredients team: https://bit.ly/4d9gWjJ
🔗 Connect with Bill Hayes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-hayes-83008764/
Listen in as they discuss:
- The real difference between a tea essence and a tea extract (and why both matter)
- How Vibrant Ingredients uses pure water extraction to keep things natural
- What categories use tea essences and extracts (hard teas, RTDs, functional beverages, and more)
- When and why alcohol or other solvents might be used instead of water
- Functional add-ins: L-theanine, EGCG, natural caffeine, antioxidants
- Tips for formulators: how to move fast and partner effectively with ingredient suppliers
- The full scope of what Vibrant Ingredients offers — from concept to commercialization
Episode Links:
Get in touch with the Vibrant Ingredients team: https://bit.ly/4d9gWjJ
Guest: Bill Hayes, Director of R&D Applications, Vibrant Ingredients
Website: https://vibrantingredients.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-hayes-83008764/
About Startup CPG: Startup CPG is the largest community for emerging CPG brands: 35,000+ Slack members, the #1 podcast in CPG, 100+ events per year, and award-winning resources to help brands grow. Join free today: https://startupcpg.com/sign-up
Show Links:
- Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
- Follow @startupcpg
- Visit host Daniel's Linkedin
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
- Episode music by Super Fantastics
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Guys, it's a bonus episode. Okay, today on the podcast, we have Bill Hayes from Vibrant Ingredients. Finally, he explains to me the difference between an extract and an essence. He also gives us amazing insight into the world of making ingredients. |
| 0:24.4 | They do lots of cool stuff, including cold brew, tea, natural flavors, |
| 0:28.4 | so much more using water-based extractions. |
| 0:30.5 | I'm excited for you to learn all about it on this mini episode. |
| 0:34.5 | All right, if you want to get in touch with the vibrant ingredients team, |
| 0:37.4 | check the show notes. |
| 0:38.2 | We've got a link for you. Enjoy. |
| 0:44.6 | All right, Bill, my friend, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited to have you and Vibrant |
| 0:49.1 | ingredients on here. We love people who help us put out the most important resources that we can, including the product developer database. |
| 0:56.9 | So thank you, Vibrate Ingredients, very much a huge part of this whole ingredient ecosystem that we have. |
| 1:03.1 | First, could you just tell us a little bit about Vibrant Ingredients? |
| 1:06.2 | Yeah, sure. Thanks, Daniel. |
| 1:07.7 | Vibrate Ingredients is a natural ingredients provider to the food and beverage industry. |
| 1:12.1 | Actually, we're the world's largest private equity-owned natural ingredients provider. |
| 1:17.0 | We're talking about flavors, cold-brew coffee extracts, tea essences, tea extracts, functional ingredients, |
| 1:25.8 | also includes some herbals, fruits, vegetables, And then I'd say lastly, one of our |
| 1:31.8 | other last primary categories is performance of protection for food. All right. So I know one thing |
| 1:39.0 | that I was interested to get into today is what is a tea essence? What is a tea extract? Like essences, extracts, oras. It sounds like |
| 1:47.7 | we're talking about Gen Z slang, but we're not. We're talking about capabilities that you guys have. |
| 1:51.7 | So first, what is a tea extract? Yeah, tea extract, tea essences are both extracted from tea leaves, right? |
| 2:00.3 | That's where they start from tea leaves. And we brew them |
| 2:03.7 | essences. If you think about it, I like to think about it this way, Daniel, or explain it this way. |
... |
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