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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future of Drink

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.

Data-driven Winery Winc Raises Over $5.3M in Equity Crowdfunding

D2C winery Winc’s equity crowdfunding campaign Winc Shares is closing today. The company launched Winc Shares on the platform SeedInvest in August of 2019 to raise its Series D funding round. At the time of this writing, the campaign had seven hours left to go and had raised $5.3 million.

If you’re not familiar, Winc is a winery that develops blends based off consumer data and trends. It sells D2C through tailored wine subscriptions, and also supplies its wine to over 4,400 retail and wholesale accounts. Prior to launching the Shares program Winc had raised $41.6 million.

The minimum investment for Winc Shares is $999 per investor. Each level includes perks of Winc credits and bottles of wine. With its new crowdfunded capital, Winc will launch a new “clean wine” brand as well as a line of saké over the next year. On its site, the company also states that it will acquire its first wine company in Q2 of 2020.

Equity crowdfunding has become a bit of a trend for startup companies in the food and drink world. GoSun, Small Robot Company, Miso Robotics, Mealthy and GOffee have all launched their own crowdfunding campaigns to let regular people buy a piece of their company. Winc’s campaign is one of the bigger and more successful, second in scope only to Miso, which is hoping to raise a whopping $30 million Series C round through equity crowdfunding (its campaign is ongoing).

Equity crowdfunding appeals to startups who want greater control over their destiny. If they get all their money from individuals, they won’t be beholden to the intense pressures that can come with VCs — though that means they also don’t get the connections and advice that comes from working alongside venture firms. Considering that Winc’s whole shtick is that it makes wine geared towards the palates of everyday people, not wine critics, it makes sense that the startup would choose to go the equity crowdfunding route.

One thing to note: the recent COVID-19 outbreak is throwing a wrench into the entire food and drink ecosystem, affecting everyone from farmers to restauranteurs. It’s too soon to tell if the coronavirus will negatively affect Winc specifically. But one thing’s for sure: Winc’s campaign is ending none too soon. With so many people losing their jobs, equity crowdfunding may be one of the areas that struggles in our new COVID reality.

These Coffee Bean Delivery Sites Will Help You Get Your Java Fix During Quarantine

Maybe you used to get your coffee at work. Or at a local café on your way into the office. Now that we’re supposed to be working (and staying) at home, how do you get your daily java fix?

Of course, there are plenty of coffee brewing devices out there, ranging from the simple to the high-tech and complex. No doubt you already have at least one kicking around your home.

But one crucial aspect for your home coffee routine that you will need to keep purchasing, quarantine or no, is the beans themselves. Sure, you could pick some up from your local grocery store, provided you’re comfortable doing that and don’t mind picking from whatever’s left on the shelves. Or order your beans via Instacart.

However, for those who seek a more adventurous rotation of beans — or can’t find artisanal beans at their local stores — there are plenty of delivery services happy to help you out. Here’s a list of coffee bean delivery sites that will mail curated packages of beans right to your door.

Photo: Crema
  • Mistobox can mail you over 500 coffee bean blends sourced from more than 50 roasters. Fill out a short survey and the service will suggest specific beans for you, or you can choose your own. Subscriptions to Mistobox start at $10.95 a month and can be delivered every one, two, three, or four weeks.
  • Trade Coffee asks you to complete a short quiz then recommends beans specialized to your tastes. You can either purchase the coffee through Trade or sign up for a subscription service to deliver beans ever one, two, or three weeks. Bonus: Right now Trade will donate $2 from every first purchase to support roaster employees. You can also leave tips for employees directly through their GoFundMe page.
  • Atlas Coffee Club is for java drinkers that want to take a (virtual) tour around the world — something that might be extra appealing now that we’re all stuck at home. Members of their coffee of the month club receive monthly shipments of beans, each sourced from a particular country. You can also buy beans directly on their site.
  • Passion House Coffee is a good option for coffee snobs (hi, it’s me!), especially if they’re having a hard time finding artisanal beans as coffee shops shut their doors. The company roasts each bag of beans themselves so they have absolute control over flavor and freshness. Bonus: They also deliver cans of cold brew!
  • Crema offers a short survey to guide you to a list of coffee beans, sourced from over 40 roasters, tailored to your taste and brew method. Coffees can be shipped every couple of days, weeks, or monthly. You can also buy 5-pound bags of beans if you’re going through a lot right now. Bonus: In response to COVID-19, Crema is currently knocking $1 off of every bag of coffee.
  • Counter Culture Coffee offers bags of beans available for individual purchase or subscription. It’s a single roaster, so you can get direct information about the source and processing of each roast and blend. You can also buy 5-pound bags if you want to stock up.
  • Just Coffee is a good option if you’re trying to prioritize ethical sourcing right now. The company is super transparent about their farmers and the environmental impact of each bag of coffee. You can buy single bags or sign up for a subscription.
  • If you have a favorite local roaster, you can also head directly to their website to see if they ship (they probably do). Support local!

It’s not much, but during this time when everything seems uncertain and like kind of a bummer, it’s nice to know you can count on getting something you love and rely on — like coffee beans — delivered right to you. Sometimes it’s the small things, you know?

Daily Harvest Switches to Home Compostable Containers

Daily Harvest makes frozen containers of pre-prepped food that are supposed to be better for your health than most frozen meals. But are they better for the planet, too?

The company has taken at least one step towards sustainability. Starting in April, Daily Harvest will roll out its new Re:generation line of containers which are 100 percent home compostable and made from plant-based renewable fibers. They’re also adjusting its portion size; the savory Harvest Bowls + Soups will be 1.5 times larger, and the Oats + Chia Bowls will be .75 times their current size.

Daily Harvest is also working more upstream to make the entire production process — from manufacturing to shipping — more sustainable. According to a release from the company emailed to The Spoon, Daily Harvest is in the midst of “working to eliminate all single use plastic and non-recyclable materials through our supply chain.” Where exactly they are on that process is unclear.

I tried out Daily Harvest’s service last year and really enjoyed the taste, health, and convenience of the frozen meals. I was happy to learn at the time that the cardboard delivery box in which the meals com is recyclable, as are the meal cups themselves. The liner holding the dry ice included in the shipment is supposedly also biodegradable and made of recycled denim.

Making the cups not just recyclable but home compostable is an encouraging step to cut waste in the very wasteful home meal delivery space — and one that I hope to see other companies following. Some already are. UK supermarket chain Waitrose has debuted fully compostable packaging for prepared meals. Pizza tech company Zume also pivoted into compostable packaging last year, though it’s currently dealing with lack of funding and major layoffs.

Other companies, like NadaMoo, are learning just how complex making home-recyclable containers actually is, especially for leak-prone products like ice cream.

One major question I had when learning this news was whether or not Daily Harvest’s new containers will contain PFAS, or chemicals that do not ever biodegrade. Last week Sweetgreen began rolling out new to-go meal bowls that were compostable and free of PFAS (their old containers were compostable but did have PFAS). As of today, Chipotle has pledged to remove PFAS from its own bowls by the end of 2020.

I’ve reached out to Daily Harvest to find out if its new packaging does, in fact, contain PFAs and will update this post when I hear back. Until then, it’s still encouraging to see a company so synonymous with frozen food delivery taking steps to reduce its packaging footprint. Here’s hoping Daily Harvest’s actions will encourage other delivery-only meal companies to follow suit.

Drinkworks Launches Beer Pods for its Home Cocktail Machine

In this time of social distancing, the question of whether or not to go out for a beer with friends is suddenly fraught with serious implications, or being banned outright. And while we would never suggest you drink alone, Drinkworks announced today that its cocktail machine can now make beer in the comfort of your home.

Drinkworks, which is a joint-venture between Keurig Dr Pepper and Anheuser-Busch InBev, partnered with Los Angeles-based Golden Road Brewing to create beer pods. Pop the pod into the Drinkmaker, push a button and carbonated beer comes out (just be sure to tilt the glass properly as it pours).

I can already see purists out there crinkling their face at the idea of a pod ingredients mixing with water to make beer. But I spoke with Victor Novak, Brewmaster at Golden Road, by phone recently, and he insists that there really isn’t a difference. Golden Road is making beer as it normally does and handing it off to Drinkworks, which then freeze distills it, removing the water and leaving the beer-y concentrate complete with alcohol. This new liquid goes into the pod which pops into the machine (though unlike other Drinkworks pods, the company suggests you keep the beer pods chilled).

Perfecting Your Pour with Drinkworks Home Bar by Keurig & Golden Road Brewing

Despite all this, there are probably a lot of skeptics out there. Even if it does taste like draught beer, the process may seem overly complicated for a drink you can pick up at any corner store. But Drinkworks is aiming for a different kind of convenience. Sure, you can pick up a half-rack, but how many can you store in your fridge? What if you want a variety of different beers? How many different six-packs can the average person keep?

By going with the pods, Drinkworks reasons, they reduce the footprint of beer. So people can keep more beer, and more varieties of beer, without taking up too much room. It’s the same thesis behind Drinkworks’ cocktail offerings. Instead of having to buy and store big bottles of booze, shrink the complete cocktail down into a pod and throw a party that can accommodate all kinds of tastes (just keep the party small, for now).

The biggest hurdle to most people experiencing this pod-based brew is availability. Drinkworks is in the middle of a slow roll-out and its machine ($299) is only available in California, Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York thus far.

Each beer pod makes a 14oz. drink and is being sold in a variety four-pack of wheat brews: Mango Wheat, Blood Orange Wheat, Pineapple Apricot Wheat and Strawberry Guava Wheat. Four-packs retail for $12.99, which is more than a lot of six-packs will run you, but they will take up a lot less space.

With the addition of beermaking, Drinkworks is separating itself from other home cocktail machines out there like the Bartesian and the Barsys, which can only make mixed drinks. The question now is whether people will pony up for pods of beer. Then again, given the times we live in, you can stockpile a lot more pods of beer than bottles.

Drinkmate Wants to Help You Make Fizzy Water on the Go

Everyone, it seems, is drinking sparkling water nowadays. Growth rates for the fizzy stuff have shot through the roof the last couple years as consumers eschew sugary sodas and embrace healthier lifestyles.

And seltzer water isn’t the only hydration trend that’s taken off. The hydro flask is having its own moment as consumers wake up to the problem of single use plastic and have made their water vessel of choice something of a fashion statement.

Combine these two trends and you’re probably asking what if you could make your own sparkling water on the go?

OK, maybe you aren’t asking that, but that is the question a company called i-Drink wants to answer with a new product called the Drinkmate instaFizz, a personal stainless “beverage bottle” that allows you to add your own bubbles to any non-carbonated beverage.

The product, which the company plans to debut next month at the Inspired Home Show, uses portable 8g CO2 cartridges to inject carbonation into the liquid. The CO2 cartridges are inserted into the lower cap and the gas is released once the cap is twisted. The bottle holds up to 18.6 ounces, but the maximum liquid volume for carbonating is 15.5 ounces.

Home carbonated beverage machines are not new. Drinkmate makes its own, alongside Pepsi-owned Sodastream and office machines like Bevi. But up until this point, there hasn’t really been a product that lets consumers fizz-up on the go.

So will consumers embrace the opportunity? Hard to say. The product’s fairly high price tag (MSRP is $59.99) might be one deterrent, while the ready availability of low-cost stationary home carbonators (the Drinkmate home machine sells for $87 on Amazon, while the SodaStream Fizzi goes for $69) could be another.

Still, if you’re a sparkling water fanatic who wants to make your own on the go, there’s finally a product for you in the instaFizz.

Initiative Backed by Starbucks, McDonald’s Begins Testing Waste-Free Cups in the Bay Area

As a planet we produce the astounding 264 billion paper cups per year. Some of them are recyclable, some aren’t — but no matter their label, the vast majority end up in landfills because of an inner plastic inner lining which make the cups tricky to actually recycle.

That overwhelming amounts of coffee cup waste is the target of the NextGen Cup Challenge, a global competition to create a scalable zero waste cup solution. It’s the first project from the NextGen Consortium, an initiative aimed at reducing food packaging waste that’s managed by Closed Loop Partners as well as big-name food corporations like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others (h/t Nation’s Restaurant News).

The 12 winners of the NextGen Cup Challenge were selected last year, and this week they’re beginning to roll out their cup solutions in participating cafés in the Bay Area. In San Francisco and Paolo Alto, coffee shops will be testing out reusable cups tricked out with chips and tracking codes. Once they’re done with their drink, customers can return their smart cup to any participating café or other designated drop off points. After that, NextGen will collect and sanitize the cups, then re-send them back out into circulation. San Francisco shops will use cups designed by Indonesia-based returnable packing service Muuse, and those in Paolo Alto will feature cups made by British startup CupClub.

In March, cafés in Oakland will start piloting their own waste-free cup solution. Instead of reusable cups, participating cafés will use fully recyclable single-use cups — that is, cups that don’t have pesky plastic liners, which sometimes make other “recyclable” cups difficult to actually, well, recycle.

Even though big chains aren’t using sustainable cups yet, this a still big step for the NextGen Cup Challenge. Launching in small, local cafés is an important proof of concept, as well as an opportunity to see which type of waste-free cup is the easiest to implement and most popular with consumers. The end goal is to roll out the most successful solution on a large scale — to national chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks.

NextGen Cup Challenge isn’t the only group out there fighting coffee cup waste. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Nestle-owned chain Blue Bottle is also testing a zero-single-use-cup program (featuring reusable cups) as part of their initiative to go waste-free by the end of this year.

Back in January, my colleague Jenn Marston predicted that 2020 could well be the year of the waste-free coffee shop. With NextGen Cup Challenge, a project backed by industry giants, finally starting to take off, there’s a chance that might actually happen.

Starbucks’ New Store Format Could Be the Birth of the AI-Powered Airport Coffeeshop

Sometimes the airport feels like my second home, which makes trips to airport coffeeshops a frequent part of life. But so often, those trips involve at least 20 minutes of shuffling through a long line, carry-on bag in tow, worries about missing the flight in the back of my head.

Starbucks’ latest moves at the airport seem aimed to eradicate exactly that situation, not just for me but for the millions of people who fly in and out of airports each day. As announced earlier this week, the coffee retailer will expand its presence in airports and introduce new store formats (including pop-ups) in airports thanks to new partnerships with airport retailer/restauranteur Paradies Lagardère and airport hospitality group OTG Management.

The new partnerships come less than one week after airport foodservice company HMSHost ended its longstanding exclusivity contract with Starbucks. With the OTG and Paradies Lagardère deals, Starbucks will introduce things like mobile ordering and payment options as well as pop-up stores that can move throughout the terminal and deliver coffee orders straight to customers’ gates. Storefronts will be able to move around based on the time of day, according to a press release from OTG, and the mobile ordering integration will make it easier to purchase a coffee and have it waiting for you at the gate before you board the plane or even when you arrive at your destination city.   

What the actual stores will look like is not yet clear, though I suspect it will be some sort of kiosk-like structure that’s easy(ish) to move around, breakdown, and reassemble.

While the prospect of not waiting in a ridiculously long line for a latte is good news in and of itself, I’m more intrigued by what the new partnerships could mean for the future. Starbucks is one of those QSRs that’s made technology — and what that technology could enable in terms of guest experiences — a central part of its strategy for years now. The company has arguably the best mobile app of any restaurant business out there when it comes to quickly and seamlessly ordering, customizing, and paying for a drink. It has been vocal about making AI a key part of its operations moving forward.

Right now, QSRs use AI technologies to gather information like weather, traffic, a customer’s location, and their order history to suggest more relevant upsell items, improve order accuracy, and speed up lines. That last point is especially relevant to the airport where waiting in a long line could mean missing your flight.

If Starbucks were to integrate more AI and predictive technology into its airport operations (that feels more like a “when” than an “if,” honestly), it could utilize more data to make these new pop-up locations more available to a wider potential audience. If Starbucks knows that come Monday morning, the terminal will be jammed with business travelers, it could plan accordingly in terms of staffing and the number of mobile locations it makes available. If data could tell Starbucks that the flight over at gate C7 is delayed for an hour, workers could set up a storefront nearby. 

This is a little speculative on my part, as Starbucks hasn’t actually mentioned any of the above scenarios, nor has it officially dropped the phrase “artificial intelligence” in reference to airports. I imagine data collection at airports comes with its own special set of security issues and regulations as well, so it’s doubtful this granularity in data will happen immediately at the airport.

The new pop-up store format will, however. Starbucks plans to open these stores around airports in 2020, along with more traditional storefronts as well. So at the very least, you’ll soon be able to skip the 20-minute line when it comes to getting a coffee before the flight. 

The PicoBrew CaskForge is Like a Time Machine for Whiskey

When it comes to most types of food, the fresher the better.

Unless, of course, you’re talking whiskey or rum or any other type of spirit where aging is a key contributor to the flavor of the finished product. With the ‘good stuff’, the older the drink, generally the more valuable and desirable the product.

This business of aging spirits works well for established distillers who already have lots of their aged brew sitting in barrels and on store shelves, but for a new craft distiller of a spirit like whiskey or rum, chances are pretty good they’ll need to sell some of their non-aged white dog (also known as moonshine) spirit just to pay the bills.

But what if a distiller had a machine that could create many of the same flavor effects that come from putting your distillate into an oak barrel for years and years? Would they take it?

That’s the question PicoBrew is posing with their new CaskForge spirits aging technology. The company, which as I wrote last week is up for sale, has developed a technology that they claim can mimic esterification and other effects that result from the aging process a spirit undergoes and essentially produce basically the same magic elixir overnight.

Of course, there’s no doubt most master distillers and spirits snobs would turn up their ester-sniffing noses up at the very idea that a good bottle of scotch or whiskey could cheat time. But, over the past few years there has been a number of new entrants into the accelerated-aging market and PicoBrew’s CaskForge is just the latest.

Approaches to spirits aging run the gamut. One company called Terrassentia uses machines called “Rosies” to pump ultrasonic waves that they claim enhances the flavor profile.

Another company with aging-acceleration technology is Lost Spirits. Lost Spirits exposes spirits to varying light and heat within bioreactors to create simulated aged spirits in a matter of days.

Then there’s Cleveland, which uses a combination of exposure to wood staves and varying levels of pressure and oxygenation.

And Hudson makes bourbon by putting their distillate into small barrels (to get a better ratio of wood to liquid) and literally serenades the liquid with music to agitate the molecules as a way to accelerate the aging.

Jim and Bill Mitchell

So how does PicoBrew’s CaskForge do it? While the cofounder brothers of PicoBrew Bill and Jim Mitchell wouldn’t disclose the exact specifics (patents are still pending), they explained how they approached spirits aging in much the same way they did to creating their beer brewing appliance: they broke down every part of the process and used technology to simulate the various aging effects.

“It’s very similar to the way we invented the Zymatic and the whole process where we were able to shrink down the elements of a brewery,” said Bill Mitchell. “We took each element, asked how can we create that separately, and systemize it and see how we can sequence it in program steps.”

Ultimately it will be up to the market – and spirits experts with much more refined palates than myself – to decide if the CaskForge works to create a desirable facsimile of true aging effects, but a quick tasting tour at PicoBrew headquarters of rapid-aged spirits created by Jim Mitchell (PicoBrew’s chief science officer) showed promise.

Mitchell had me taste a mix of spirits, ranging from white dog (non-aged spirits bottled straight from the still) to a variety of rapid-aged whiskey and rum.

On the rum side, they had me taste a “flight” of Bacardi rum, going all the way from straight Bacardi Superior (the rum giant’s low-end, unaged white rum) up to the rapid-aged Bacardi equivalent of Bacardi 8.

Overall, the more “aged” the rum, the more complex the drink’s flavor characteristics. With all the the rapid-aged drinks they had me sample, it seemed the trademarks of aged spirits – heavier mouthfeel, flavor notes like vanilla, smokiness of peat when tasting accelerated whiskey/scotch – were all there. Granted, I’m no spirits sommelier, but the CaskForge-aged spirits seemed similar in taste and characteristics with beverages that sat in a barrel for years.

Ultimately the Mitchell brothers will need to convince master distillers, not a occasional sipper of whiskey like myself, that rapid aging really works. To do so, they’ve been reaching out to a number of craft distillers to talk about and show off the abilities of the CaskForge and some have begun to experiment with the technology.

The CaskForge system comes in both a professional version and a mini version meant for home cocktail enthusiasts or craft bartenders looking to take their creations next-level. In fact, PicoBrew believes craft cocktail makers themselves are a big potential market as they see drink artisans embracing the idea of creating specialty drinks with their own uniquely created base alcohol.

The CaskForge Mini

Of course, before all that happens, the company needs to navigate the process of receivership. As I wrote last week, PicoBrew has been put up for sale as an action forced by their bridge lending group, who hopes to take full ownership of the company through an open bidding process. It remains to be seen ultimately who will take ownership of PicoBrew and what they choose to invest in. Spirits aging is a growing business, but it’s a vastly different business than coffee or homebrew gear.

Bill and Jim both think they’ll get some takers, in part because of the smaller form factor and portability of their technology. Unlike other spirits-aging technologies, they believe their product is unique in part because it can go into smaller craft distilleries or even bars themselves rather than a centralized aging facility outfitted with bioreactors or spirits-aging robots.

I myself can envision craft cocktail nerds getting excited about aging their own liquor with specialty woods and flavors (Jim also had me taste a whiskey aged with coffee beans). If CaskForge or similar technology takes off, I can see an “aging” machine as another tool of the trade just like a strainer or even a centrifuge.

Let’s just hope the Mitchell brothers get their chance to get the CaskForge into the world and your favorite bartender a chance at making his or her own base liquor.