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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future of Drink

The Kelvin Home Coffee Roaster Enters Production, Ships To Backers in August

Back when the Kelvin, a countertop home coffee roasting appliance, launched on Kickstarter in March of 2018, their promo video made a simple but powerful statement:

“The roast of the bean, the most important factor in our coffee’s flavor, has always been completely out of our control.”

While that’s a bit of an exaggeration – there are plenty of home roasting machines available at the click of a button – the idea of a simple, small countertop appliance was enough to entice me to back the Kelvin. With an estimated ship date of December 2018, I had hopes I’d be roasting my own coffee beans by Christmas.

Two years later, I’m still without my Kelvin. When I’d checked in last August with the CEO of IA Collaborative (the company behind the Kelvin), Dan Kraemer told me via email he expected shipment in November, but another Christmas came and went and still no Kelvin.

But this week, a light at the end of my coffee roasting tunnel appeared in the form of an update that said the Kelvin had entered full production.

From the update:

Now that most parts are made for mass production, the team will begin assembling roasters and loading onto pallets to be shipped in the coming weeks. While our team was testing roasters from pilot production, our manufacturing team was preparing the Kelvin packaging.

Anyone familiar with the hardware crowdfunding knows delays are almost expected nowadays. Still, a year and a half delay is a long one, especially when it seemed much of the research and development of the product appeared completed by the time it showed up on Kickstarter.

I shouldn’t complain too much. Some products never make it to the customer, and other delays can take the better part of a half-decade (I’m looking at you Spinn), so just getting a product you backed on Kickstarter nowadays, no matter how delayed, can feel like a win.

While it might be a couple years later, here’s to hoping I’ll be roasting beans by Christmas.

Food Tech Intelligence Brief: The Lessons From PicoBrew (Spoon Plus)

Last week, an email went out to Picobrew customers informing them that PicoBrew had been sold through the bankruptcy process and had new owners (that won with a $7.5 million bid). The email also made clear the new owners weren’t all that interested in running the business.

And so as they sell off the pieces, I’ve been thinking about what lessons we can pull from the remains of a company that once had so much promise. There were many, in part because the company was trying to do so many things. They made hardware, had a consumables business, and sold into both consumer and professional markets. In a way, PicoBrew was as much a test lab for new ideas as it was a company, providing a fantastic case study for various food tech concepts and business models.

Of course, each company is its own unique combination of people, investors and ideas that ultimately results in a journey specific to them. That said, we can learn some truths from story of PicoBrew that are both instructive and broadly applicable to companies charting similar waters:

This Food Tech Intelligence Brief is available to Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here. 

Review: BLOOM is a Speedier Pourover Coffee Maker for Homes and Cafés

When I worked as a barista, my absolute least favorite drink to make was a pour over. Essentially a single-serving cup of coffee made individually, the process was fussy and usually took five minutes, which held up the line and stressed me out.

Coffee design company ESPRO has developed a new single-serve coffee brewer called BLOOM meant to improve on the traditional pour over method. BLOOM is currently wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign. This week I got to try it out myself to see what all the fuss is about.

Based in Vancouver, ESPRO had already made its own versions of several tried-and-true coffee brewers, including French Press and Cold Brewer. “Now we’re tackling the pour over,” ESPRO’s co-founder and President Bruce Constantine told me over the phone last week.

The main innovation by the BLOOM brewer is its flat bed — that is, the base of the brewer where the coffee comes out. BLOOM’s is larger than average and has 1,500 tiny holes, which means it can brew coffee faster than a traditional pour over device. According to Constantine, this shape also means that the coffee extracts more evenly, so the end result is more consistent. “It’s the first time the pour over has been reinvented in 30 years,” he told me.

Since the BLOOM has a non-traditional shape, it also requires specialized paper liners. ESPRO currently has patents out for both the paper and the BLOOM brewer itself. 

Photo: The parts of ESPRO’s BLOOM brewer [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Constantine says he expects that the BLOOM will be a 50/50 product in terms of customers: 50 percent consumer, 50 percent foodservice in coffee shops and cafes. With COVID keeping more people at home, however, he said that they’re going to focus on the consumer market first. 

Home brewers certainly seem to be interested in the BLOOM brewer. ESPRO launched the Kickstarter for BLOOM on April 15 with a goal of $20,000. It was fully funded after eight hours. At the time of writing this, the Kickstarter had raised over $63,000 with eight days to go.

Kickstarter backers can get the BLOOM and 50 papers for $35. Constantine said when the device debuts in retail, it will cost $50 for the device and 10 papers. Packs of 100 papers will sell separately for $10 each. The company plans to sell the BLOOM directly through their website, and have already confirmed placements at retailers like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, and Nordstrom. 

Constantine said they expect to start shipping BLOOM to backers in July. As with any crowdfunded hardware product, there’s no guarantee that ESPRO will be able to hit that timeline — especially as COVID is disrupting manufacturing supply chains around the globe. But Constantine said that since they’re producing in China, which is over the worst of the virus, they actually aren’t experiencing any manufacturing slowdowns right now. 

In these uncertain times, things can change moment to moment. But it is comforting that ESPRO has already helmed four Kickstarter campaigns, all of which successfully shipped their products.

I got to give the BLOOM a try to get my caffeine fix this week. The process is extremely simple: put a filter into the brewing cone, place it over a coffee mug, add your ground coffee, then pour in the water. Coffee convention recommends that you “bloom” your coffee first (hence the name), which basically means pouring just a little bit of water into the grounds and letting it sit for thirty seconds to make space and let bitter carbon dioxide escape. After the bloom, I poured in the rest of the hot water and had a tasty cup of coffee in a minute and a half.

The BLOOM brewer ready for hot water. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

A minute and a half is a speedy brew time for specialty coffee. My typical Chemex routine takes around six, and regular pour overs take four to five. The coffee itself was delicious, and cleanup was a snap thanks to the paper liner, which gives it a definite edge over the French Press for me.

There’s no question that the BLOOM is easy to use and looks beautiful. However, after trying it out I was left wondering: “Is it really worth it?”

Sure, a traditional pourover and Chemex both take a few extra minutes to brew. But the amount of required active time is essentially the same. A Chemex costs around $45, on par with BLOOM, while a regular ceramic pourover is roughly half that. I’m not sure if a slightly faster brew time justifies purchasing a BLOOM in addition to these other brewers.

I think that the bigger opportunity for BLOOM is in cafes — where time actually is of the essence. But since COVID-19 has basically nixed pour overs from the menu — and might shutter some coffee shops for good — that might not happen for a while.

Until then, if you’re looking to speed up your morning coffee routine, or just add a fun new gadget to your collection to spice up quarantine, BLOOM could be a good fix.

Taika’s Canned Adaptogen Coffee Ticks the Boxes for Wellness-Loving Millennials

During quarantine I’ve been drinking more caffeine than ever, which means that by 10 a.m., I’m usually about to rocket out of my chair.

Maybe that wouldn’t be the case if I was sipping on the java from new startup Taika (“magic” in Finnish). Founded by an ex-Facebook employee and a champion barista, the company makes cans of “perfectly calibrated coffee.” The startup uses a patent-pending process to reduce the amount of caffeine in each can to 130mg. A 12-ounce cup of regular coffee has 200mg. It also features adaptogens and mushrooms like ashwaganda (for calm) and reishi (for immunity).

Taika is launching with three flavors: Black Coffee, Oat Milk Latte, and Macadamia Latte. The coffee is sourced from a roaster in Vancouver, BC, and the lattes are plant-based and don’t have added sugar.

The caffeine curious can get a variety pack of six Taika drinks, two of each flavor, for $36. A 12-pack of a single flavor costs $59. As of now, Taika’s coffee is available for two-hour contactless delivery in three cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. It also sells product to a handful of retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area and L.A.

Taika is clearly trying to appeal to consumers interested in the beverage wellness trend — especially younger people, like millennials and Gen Z. In fact, if you had a list of all the attributes of a trendy CPG beverage company, Taika would check literally all of the boxes. Cool, brightly colored branding? Check. Minimalist packaging? Check. Cheeky marketing? Double check. Taika’s cans even feature a phone number, which consumers are encouraged to text to make sure they got home safe. (I tried it and got a question about the Turing Test, then no response.)

With this wellness focus, Taika is clearly aiming to capture the same demographic as other good-for-you beverage brands, like CBD soda company Recess or Dirty Lemon. Price-wise, it’s in line with both.

Taika isn’t the first company to put adaptogens in coffee, or the first to create lower-caffeine coffee. But combining those two aspects, along with marketing explicitly geared towards wellness-conscious consumers, could help this startup rocket to success.

Vejo Review: The Pod-based Connected Blender Falls Short on Taste and Value

During quarantine, with most of us turning to comfort food and relying on shelf-stable ingredients, it can be hard to eat all your fruits and vegetables. Which is why I was intrigued by Vejo, a blender and pod system that claims to make getting those recommended daily nutrients easier. So I took them up on their offer to try sample their product.

Founded in 2015, Vejo is a connected portable blender. It pairs with the company’s biodegradable pods, which are filled with freeze-dried fruits and vegetables and come in varieties like pre- and post-workout, detox, and sleep enhancement. Just add water, insert a pod, twist on the cap, and the blender will whir up a nutritious drink in 30 seconds.

I got the starter kit, which costs $130 and includes the blender and 8 Vejo drink pods. Additional pods can be purchased a la carte or as a subscription and equal out to roughly $4 per serving. There’s also an app which you can use to reorder pods and set reminders to make your drink, which I declined to download.

The first thing I noticed when I opened up my Vejo box was ‘dang, this is heavy.’ The Vejo blender — which looks like a silicone-coated thermos — was in a padded box, swaddled like an iPad. The pods all came in a separate box, alongside which there was a charger pod, charging cord, and a brush for cleaning. I’m guessing there was so much packaging to make you feel like you’re getting a luxury good — which, considering its high price point, makes some sense. But I felt super wasteful tossing it into my recycling bin later.

All the packaging for the Vejo [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Ready for some healthy smoothie blends, I opened up the instruction manual to see that… I had to charge the blender for a minimum of two hours. It’s nice that the Vejo came with its own charger, but I hate having yet another piece of hardware to lose. And it was annoying to have to wait two hours to charge something up when I was ready to try it out right then and there.

Finally, two hours later, I decided to give the Vejo a go with a Clean Greens drink. Per the instructions, I filled the blender up to the fill line inside with cold water, peeled the top off the pod, and popped it into the device upside-down. Then I screwed on the top tightly until it began to buzz. Thirty seconds later, after the buzzing stopped, I took out the pod and composted it (the biodegradable pods are a nice touch, despite all the other packaging).

The pod is in — ready to blend. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

The smoothie was… fine. It definitely tasted healthy, which is to say it wasn’t very delicious — but it did include spinach, cucumber, and sea buckthorn, all of which are good for you. My bigger quarrel is that the finished drink was tiny. The finished product barely took up half of the glass I use for my morning smoothie. And since most of the pods instruct you to fill the blender with water, this drink would definitely not keep me full. I tried three other drinks and, while some of the sweeter ones like Pina Berry tasted better, none left me wanting to make them again.

The price — pods equate out to be about $4 per serving — is certainly cheaper than buying a smoothie out or even using a service like Daily Harvest, whose frozen, pre-portioned smoothie cups run about $7 each. But Daily Harvest’s blends are a lot more robust — and taste a lot better, too. Plus there’s something to be said about eating real fruit, even if it’s frozen, instead of powder mixed with water.

You can also just use a regular old blender (gasp!) and put your own frozen fruit in, which makes a drink that’s both tastier and more customizeable. For customers looking for a blender of the future, may I suggest the cordless, silent appliance from Millo? True, it doesn’t have the pre-mixed pods, but do consumers really want to be locked in, especially to something that doesn’t taste good?

Vejo’s finished Clean Greens drink. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Vejo also offers a high-end personalization service called Vejo+ which makes individualized pod blends to best fit a consumers’ biology. The company sends one of its phlebotomists to Vejo+ clients to do a blood draw, which they analyze, along with weight measurements, and formulate pods to help the clients reach their health goals. That fits right into the broader biomarker-based customization trend that’s being built by Genopalate, Viome, Sun Genomics and others.

Vejo+ costs $1,500 for three months, which is way over my price range — and about triple the price of other personalized nutrition services. However, in my opinion it’s much more useful, and unique, than Vejo’s current service.

Interest around Vejo+ aside, I found that regular old Vejo fell short. Considering we’re all trying to eat more vegetables but restrict our trips to the grocery store, I can see Vejo’s appeal. Especially if you’re an elite athlete or need a reliable way to ingest copious amounts of produce and vitamins. But for me, what Vejo offered in pure health just didn’t make up for its poor taste and bulkiness.

I guess I’ll have to get my fruits and vegetables from regular old fruits and vegetables.

Will Bellwether Coffee’s Plug-and-Play Roasters Help Cafés Survive COVID-19?

Every Tuesday, before I make my weekly outing to grocery shop, I stop by my favorite coffee shop and get a black coffee and a donut. The shop used to be a hubbub of activity — freelancers hanging out on their laptops, friends catching up, kids running around — but now it’s quiet, with a masked barista serving up to-go coffees to patrons who line up outside to be served.

Like most other foodservice establishments, coffee shops are feeling the pain of COVID-19. To compensate some are cutting hours, reducing staff, or trying to incorporate new revenue streams, like selling local products, flowers, and emphasizing bagged coffee.

Bellwether Coffee, a company that makes electric, ventless zero-emissions connected commercial coffee roasters that can go into cafés, is trying to help coffee shops supplement their income by roasting their own beans. To try and get more partners during the pandemic, they’re offering to waive the first two months of roaster fees — provided the shop installs it between May and July. The roasters can be delivered in as little as a week.

On the one hand, coffee shops who are struggling to stay afloat probably aren’t able to commit to purchasing a pricey coffee roaster (the machines cost $75,000 to buy or can be rented for a monthly fee), even with the deal. On the other, Bellwether roasters could offer these shops a new revenue stream as they sell bagged beans roasted in-house. The coffee shops could also use their house-roasted beans in their drinks, so they don’t have to purchase coffee from other roasters.

The only reason this is actually feasible is because Bellwether’s roasters don’t require any special setup or expertise. The device, which is about the size of a standard fridge, is automated, so baristas or café managers don’t have to have any roasting experience to figure out how to use it. It runs on electricity and is ventless, so coffee shops don’t have to build out expensive ventilation systems to start roasting — something which would be especially tricky given the limitations around the pandemic.

The software that controls Bellwether’s roasters also features a marketplace where users can browse and purchase green coffee beans in 22-pound boxes. That way, shops don’t have to worry about setting up relationships with suppliers or buy massive amounts of beans if they’re just trying to set up a temporary roasting solution.

With all of that said, the roaster is still pricey. The Bellwether website notes that shops can lease the roaster for $1,150 a month for 60 months, but that’s still cost-prohibitive for small, local coffee shops — coronavirus or no.

Since coffee shops already have to-go infrastructure set up — takeaway cups and containers, etc. — they might actually have a better chance of surviving the pandemic than, say, full-service restaurants. They can also operate pretty easily with a bare-bones staff, since a single barista could take orders, make coffee, bag up pastries, etc.

That said, coffee shops, like all foodservice joints, still have a significant amount of overhead. Just like restaurants, we’ll continue to see cafés get creative to figure out new ways to cut costs and spark new revenue streams. Roasting their own beans could help coffee shops do both of those things. The question will then become whether or not cafés want to keep their Bellwether roasters after they’re able to reopen their doors post-pandemic.

Rest in Peace, PicoBrew

PicoBrew, the homebrewing appliance startup based in Seattle, is effectively shutting down the Spoon has learned today.

Back in February, the Spoon broke the story about PicoBrew entering the Washington State bankruptcy process in the form of court-managed receivership. Earlier this month, we uncovered news that the company had put up for sale via auction what looked to be most of the company’s warehouse and PicoPak assembly equipment.

And today we’ve learned that the company’s new owner, which our sources tell us is the former bridge lender who pushed the company into the receivership process, has won full ownership of the company as a result of submitting the winning bid.

According to sources, former company CEO Bill Mitchell sent a letter out this week that called PicoBrew and what happened a “noble failure.” And yesterday, the founder team (Bill Mitchell, his brother Jim Mitchell and Avi Geiger) was let go, along with the customer service team.

It’s unclear at this point what the company’s new management will do with PicoBrew. PicoBrew had assembled quite a decent patent portfolio around automated home brewing as well as in other areas such as home distilling. With the cap table effectively wiped clean, one can assume the assets (like the patents) are now fully owned by the winning bidder, so there’s a chance they’ll try to license the IP to future companies building products in home brewing. There’s also the chance they will try to sell the entire portfolio to the highest bidder.

As for continuing in the business under the PicoBrew brand, the chances for that are slim. The auction made it clear that the new owner is getting rid of all of the operational pieces of the business, something that wouldn’t make all that much sense if the plan was to continue on under the PicoBrew brand.

Finally, it remains to be seen what will happen to existing PicoBrew products. The servers that connect to the PicoBrew apps are still running for now, but it’s unclear if that will remain to be the case. Some PicoBrew users have suggested that the company open-source the software and allow the community to take over development, but it’s too soon to tell if the new owners would be open to such an idea.

We’ll keep an eye on this story and update you with any developments.

FDA Approves Perfect Day’s Animal-Free Whey Protein as Safe to Eat

Perfect Day, the startup using fermentation to create animal-free dairy proteins, has officially received approval for its proprietary whey protein from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a letter, the FDA writes that it has “no questions” that β-lactoglobulin — Perfect Day’s proprietary protein for its flora-based products — is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).

Perfect Day submitted the notice to approve β-lactoglobulin to the FDA on May 20, 2019, so it’s taken roughly 10 months for the FDA to officially approve it. The protein is created by fermenting a genetically modified strain of the yeast Trichoderma reesei. Said yeast is submerged in media, where it ferments and excretes the β-lactoglobulin protein. The whole solution is then put through a centrifuge to separate out the protein, which is then filtered and dried to create a raw product. Add fat and water, and you’ve got something that’s essentially animal-free milk — and can be used to make ice cream, cheese, and basically anything that contains dairy.

In the FDA letter, Perfect Day plants an important stake in the ground. The company “concludes that the protein characterization data shows that the sequence of β-lactoglobulin produced by fermentation is identical to commercially available bovine-produced β-lactoglobulin.”

In short, Perfect Day claims that its flora-based milk is essentially the same thing as the milk from a cow you’d buy in the store. The FDA backs that up — at least to some extent — when states in the letter that β-lactoglobulin needs the same allergy labeling as milk. It is, at least for those with dairy allergies, the same thing.

The FDA hasn’t approved Perfect Day to sell its protein willy-nilly. The letter explicitly states that the β-lactoglobulin protein is “not intended for use in infant formula or in products subject to regulation by the United States Department of Agriculture.” But Perfect Day is free to sell its flora-based dairy protein to larger CPG companies to make animal-free products, as it had planned to do all along.

According to Ryan Pandya, Perfect Day’s CEO, this GRAS certification hasn’t affected their go-to-market timeline one way or another. He wrote to me that “we were expecting to secure the certification,” and had essentially been preceding under the assumption that it would be granted. Since the FDA has already approved fermented ingredients to replace animal products in the past — like Impossible Food’s blood-like heme — it’s not a reach that Perfect Day’s dairy proteins are considered GRAS.

Waiting for the GRAS letter may not have been holding up Perfect Day’s plans, but COVID-19 could still wreak havoc on their timeline. Pandya didn’t reveal any specifics about the pandemic’s effects, only noting that they are “adjusting our plans as needed.”

Perfect Day released its first product — animal-free ice cream — last year and plans to announce its first commercial partnerships in early 2020 (as in, any day now).

Soylent Relaunches in Canada as Meal-in-a-Bottle Sales Fuel Up

Starting today, Soylent’s meal-in-a-bottle drinks and powder will again be available for delivery to Canadian consumers, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

This comes after the more than two-year hiatus in Soylent sales in the Great White North. In the fall of 2017, Soylent had to halt Canadian distribution of its products after, as it wrote in the press release, there were “challenges with certain Canadian government filings.” Chiefly, it did not meet Canadian food inspectors’ standards of what constitutes a meal replacement.

Almost three years later Soylent has finally caught up on the proper regulatory paperwork and is returning north of the border. The company will relaunch in Canada with a more limited lineup, including three beverage flavors and two powders flavors. The product will initially be available only online through Soylent’s website.

Now is an ideal time for Soylent to expand its sales footprint. The aforementioned press release noted that the company’s return to Canada “comes at a time when many people are looking for shelf-stable, nutritious products that can be delivered directly to their homes.” In short, a pandemic — when people are panic shopping and anxious about having enough food that won’t go bad quickly — is actually kind of a perfect situation for meal replacement drinks like Soylent.

Jamie Sullivan, Director of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs for Soylent, told me over email that the company had seen “ebbs and flows” with their online sales that “seem to be aligned with the demand and worry about access to meals, groceries, and nutrition during this time.” She also noted that most of the company’s sales right now are coming from D2C channels — unsurprising, considering the rise in food delivery and grocery e-commerce as people shelter in place.

Soylent isn’t the only meal-replacement drink that’s navigating shifts in demand during the pandemic. James McMaster, the CEO of Huel, another complete nutrition company, told me that sales of their meal beverage have been “unprecedented.” He pointed out that Huel’s long shelf life (12 months), D2C sales channel, and low price point ($1.90 a meal) are all contributing to its popularity as we enter a time where people want to stay in more, shop less, and, with a recession looming, save money.

Meal replacement drinks could do more than just serve as back-up consumer nutrition for the pandemic. Sullivan also told me that Soylent is making donations to food banks. Thus far Soylent has donated more than 500,000 Soylent meals.

Normally I’d shy away from including blatant PR-y announcements like this in a piece. However, food banks are currently in desperate need of nutritious food, and meal replacements could actually be a viable solution to help pad nutrition gaps in donations. As well as in your pantry.

Just in Time for Social Distancing, Rozum Cafe Launches its Robot Barista

There are two opposing forces during our sheltering in place and social distancing. We are actively avoiding other people, especially those we don’t know, and also actively working to maintain small comforts where they can be found — like in your morning cup of coffee.

While at-home packaged coffee sales have surged during our isolation, sales at Starbucks have dropped precipitously. A massive part of this drop, obviously is that Starbucks had to shut down its walk-in options last month. But once we emerge from quarantine, will those in need of a latté still stand in crowded stores with other people and trust the human hands crafting their drinks?

Perhaps the coronavirus could spur greater interest in robot-powered coffee kiosks. With their lack of humans, consistent product and ability to work around the clock, robo-ristas could become the next hot thing in coffee. Which means that the Rozum Cafe appears to have launched at the right time.

Developed by Belarus-based Rozum Robotics and announced this past weekend, the Rozum Cafe is an enclosed kiosk with an articulating arm that serves up a variety of coffee drinks. According to its FAQ, the Rozum Cafe can serve 300 drinks “per shift,” though they don’t say specifically how long a shift is. It can also be customized to expand drink menus and even serve up pastries.

There’s no official pricing for the Rozum Cafe, with the web site only saying that anyone buying one should actually get three of them for “optimal results” with the ROI. New owners will also have to pay for shipping, installing and setup of the machines.

The Rozum Cafe is certainly not alone in the robot coffee space. Cafe X, Briggo and MontyCafe have all already been on the market for more than a year.

However, the world has changed drastically in just the past few months and the opportunity for automated coffee could wind up being bigger than ever. In a post-pandemic world where we may no longer shake hands, grabbing a cup of coffee is something we’ll still want to do, just perhaps in a more humanless way.

GrapeStars Lets Celebrities Sell Booze to You Through Social Media

Have you ever wanted to buy gin endorsed by Ryan Reynolds? Or a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc curated by Sarah Jessica Parker? Now’s your chance. GrapeStars, the online marketplace for celebrity-endorsed brands of booze, is live to make sure you never have to go without a glass of wine supported by a famous person, even in the time of COVID-19.

Based in Miami, GrapeStars had its soft launch this week. Initially they’ll ship to 45 states in the U.S. The company has plans for a formal launch in mid-May 2020 with a portfolio of 1,495 products from 203 celebrities.

Here’s how it works: consumers can either purchase directly through the GrapeStars app, which currently works on iPhones or Google Play, or they can click on links embedded on celebrity’s social media profiles to be redirected to their GrapeStars store. From there they select their star-supported booze of choice, which is shipped to their door. Cost depends on weight, distance, and timing (e.g. overnight, 2 day, etc), and GrapeStars pockets 15 percent of each sale.

According to an email conversation with a GrapeStars rep, the startup recently closed a seed round, raising $3.7 million with a mix of convertible debentures and equities. The company will launch a Republic Crowdfunding Campaign to raise an additional $1 million sometime in the next few weeks.

This concept is obviously on the sillier side, but GrapeStars may actually hitting the market at an ideal time. Since everything is stressful right now and meditation apps can only do so much, sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. rose 55 percent in the week ending March 21, according to Nielsen data. Since bars are no longer to sell you the good stuff, people are turning to grocery stores and e-commerce to get their booze fix. Consequently, online alcohol delivery services like Drizly and Minibar are seeing a huge spike in sales. Wine subscription services, like Winc and Vivino, are also seeing rapid increases in sales and higher ticket sizes.

Plus, since everyone is turning to social media to feel connected amidst social distancing, celebrities may find themselves with a captive audience that’s bored enough to, say, order specialty booze endorsed by their favorite movie star.

Is GrapeStars going to solve any of the very significant challenges that COVID-19 is imposing on the food system? Absolutely not. But is it fun, entertaining, and a relevant service in our new Netflix-fueled normal? You bet.

As It Auctions Assets and Lays Off Employees, It Appears Time May Have Run Out for PicoBrew

When I headed down to PicoBrew headquarters near the University of Washington in early February to talk to Bill Mitchell about his company’s recent entry into receivership, I had already heard of the fast-moving virus that had emerged out of the Wuhan area of China called coronavirus.

And still, despite the fact I was also aware that the first documented person in the US to contract COVID-19 was recovering just miles away from where we met that day, I had no idea just how much the virus would change our lives within the span of just a few weeks.

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to find a buyer for my company. Mitchell, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. He had a company to sell, something I imagine in normal circumstances is probably pretty challenging. Add in a global pandemic, and it’s a task that seems practically impossible.

So now that it’s a couple months later and business has pretty much ground to a halt everywhere, I’ve been wondering just how far Mitchell and PicoBrew had gotten. While the company had announced it had shut down production and fulfillment facilities in the Seattle area due to COVID-19, there’s been no outward signs of an outcome for the company’s financial situation.

Unless, of course, you consider the curious development of one online auction for “surplus equipment no longer needed” by one PicoBrew, a sign of something potentially bigger.

While the auction describes what is up for bid as “surplus equipment”, many of the items look like equipment the company would need to operate their PicoPak production facility. For those of you not familiar with PicoBrew, PicoPaks are the ingredient pods needed to make beer with one of the company’s home beer brewing appliances and, at least originally, a core part of the company’s monetization business plan.

Some of the things included in the auction include two large industrial conveyors, a large industrial ingredient filler, four forklift machines (four!), and a bunch of other industrial gear. Throw in a bunch of actual products that PicoBrew sells to consumers like the Pico beer brewing appliances (over 100 of those), 200 or so PicoPaks and 150 brewing kegs and it looks like a liquidation.

The auction is not the only canary in the coal mine. Starting late last month, the company started to lay off key employees. Annie Johnnson, PicoBrew’s master brewer since the company’s early days, announced on Tuesday evening via Facebook that she had been abruptly laid off.

So what do auctions and abrupt layoffs mean for PicoBrew? While I can’t say with certainty the company is shutting down or just shuttering the PicoPak ingredient business, neither sign seems very encouraging.

I emailed Mitchell to ask about the auction and he responded saying he can’t comment on the record. Not a surprise, since ‘no comment’ seems like something an executive participating in a court-monitored receivership process should say.

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether PicoBrew has found a new strategic buyer or the lender has seized control of the company and is selling off parts (or shutting it down altogether). When we talked in February, Mitchell indicated that the lender had no intention at the time of shutting PicoBrew down. At the very least, the auction and departure of Johnson (who helps make the recipes for the PicoPaks) tells me there is a good chance they are getting out of the consumables business or, worse, the lender had a change of heart.

I suspect we should know soon. As for now though, if you own a PicoBrew and want to stock up on PicoPaks, you could always bid on them.