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There are days when everything goes according to plan, and then there are days where everything blows up. Today, for instance, I had a lovely newsletter all written and ready to launch at 6 a.m. filled with lovely bits about robots, and our upcoming ArticulATE summit.
And then my boss, Mike Wolf, had to go a break the news about the new Thermomix TM6 do-anything cooking device, debuting in Germany and Austria today. The story’s popularity is currently melting our servers, and judging from our Google Analytics, Germans love David Hasselhoff and learning about new Thermomixes!
So here I am, closing in on a 1 p.m. deadline re-writing the newsletter, and I’d be remiss if it didn’t lead off with the TM 6, which now sports a bigger touchscreen, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and instant access to 40,000 recipes. You should join the throngs of people slamming our site right now to get the full scoop.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention our upcoming ArticulATE food robotics and automation conference happening in San Francisco on April 16th. I did a Q&A with ArticulATE speaker Chas Studor, Founder and CTO of Briggo coffee. In it, he shares that Briggo’s robotic Coffee Haus has made more than 470,000 drinks, and explains why he wants Briggo to be a full-stack coffee company (they source and roast their own beans), and not just a fancy automated latte dispenser
Studor is just one in the killer lineup of speakers we have coming to ArticulATE including high-level execs from Google, Starship, Dishcraft, Cafe X, Sony, Creator, AutoX, Albertsons, Robomart and so many more! Tickets are limited — I know a lot of conferences say that, but for real, get them before they are gone.
Another thing that’s bound to be killer (ironically, with no killing) is Beyond Meat’s forthcoming Beyond Beef, which is a plant-based version of ground beef that The Spoon’s Catherine Lamb wrote about this week. Details are scarce right now, but given how much I love the company’s burgers and yet-to-be-released plant-based sausage patty, I’m optimistic that Beyond Beef will be the base of many of my future bologneses.
As a journalist, I probably was too effusive in my praise of Beyond just then (I like Impossible too! Is that fair and balanced now?), but it’s also honest feedback. However, feedback is one thing when pointed towards a big company about to go public; it’s quite another when you’re rating another human being — like a server in a restaurant.
Jenn Marston wrote about Toast launching a real-time feedback tool for restaurants this week. Basically, guests can leave immediate feedback on their dining experience via tablets and other technology in the restaurant. The goal is to help restaurant staff address issues early and hopefully provide better customer service, and Toast’s new product is actually part of a larger wave of real-time restaurant feedback tools. But being a server is already hard enough, I can’t imagine what it would be like if customers were giving me a thumbs up or down while I try to attend to their every need.
What you need to do, however, is get out there and enjoy your weekend! Happy Friday.
In the 03/08/2019 edition:
Hold Your Bitcoins. Starbucks Isn’t Taking Crypto for Coffee Just Yet
By Jennifer Marston on Mar 08, 2019 12:00 pm
Last summer, Starbucks announced an investment in a company called Bakkt, an open-source platform that enables the buying, selling, and spending of cryptocurrencies. That was pretty much the extent of the news — until now. This week, crypto publication The Block reported that Starbucks had secured “a sizable equity cut” in Bakkt and will be […]
Meet the TM6, Thermomix’s Latest Generation Do-Anything Cooking Appliance
By Michael Wolf on Mar 08, 2019 11:00 am
Back before there were Instant Pots, cooking robots and smart ovens, there was the Thermomix. And today, the original all-in-one kitchen appliance got a little (or maybe a lot) smarter with the launch of the TM6, the sixth generation of the cooking appliance popular with everyone from the world’s top chefs to working moms and […]
ArticulATE Q&A: Briggo’s Coffee Haus has Served 470,000 Cups of Robot-Made Drinks
By Chris Albrecht on Mar 08, 2019 08:30 am
Look in any coffee shop in any city in America (or perhaps even the world) in the morning and chances are you’ll see people lined up to get their first cup of joe. Pretty soon, however, those people could be lined up in front of a robot that automatically and tirelessly slings custom-made lattes 24 […]
Why Philadelphia’s Ban on Cashless Business Is a Good Thing
By Jennifer Marston on Mar 08, 2019 06:29 am
Philadelphia, PA yesterday became the first major U.S. city to ban cashless stores, The Wall Street Journal reports. A new law will “require most retail stores to accept cash” and goes into effect in July 2019. The law would not include parking garages, stores like Costco (which require membership) or hotels, according to the WSJ. […]
MealMe’s Instagram-Meets-Yelp-Style App Helps You Decide What’s for Dinner
By Jennifer Marston on Mar 07, 2019 01:00 pm
The average consumer nowadays will probably use multiple different apps to figure out where to eat on any given night: discovery, recommendations, booking a reservation or ordering food for delivery. As the folks at Hypepotamus recently noted, a new company, MealMe, wants to simplify the food lover’s food journey by bringing its many pieces into […]
Bright Cellars Raises $8.5M Series A for Personalized Wine Delivery Service
By Catherine Lamb on Mar 07, 2019 11:00 am
Unless you’re a sommelier, figuring out which wine to buy at the grocery store (red? white? rose? sparkling? orange?) can be more of a random choice than anything else. Milwaukee-based startup Bright Cellars is trying to make the whole “figuring-out-which-wine-to-buy” thing a little easier with its B2C wine subscription service which matches consumers with bottles curated to […]
Nielsen: Move Into Retail Making Moola for Meal Kits
By Chris Albrecht on Mar 07, 2019 09:00 am
The move into retail has been a smart one for the meal kit industry, as the new sales channel helped drive meal kit growth in 2018, according to a report out this week from Nielsen (h/t Grocery Dive). Overall, Nielsen found that meal kit users (both online and offline) have increased 36 percent throughout 2018 […]
Amazon Closing All Its Pop-Up Stores in Whole Foods and Elsewhere
By Chris Albrecht on Mar 07, 2019 06:45 am
Amazon will close all 87 of its pop-up stores in the U.S., including those nestled inside Whole Foods, by the end of April, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. These small Amazon-branded pop-up stores were typically a few hundred square feet and served as a way to sell Amazon products like Kindles, Echos and Fire […]
Alpro Lets You Have Your Plant-Based Fried Chicken (and Eat the Bucket, Too)
By Catherine Lamb on Mar 06, 2019 03:10 pm
I went vegetarian a few years ago, but one meaty food I still miss is fried chicken. The good news is that starting tomorrow, I’ll have a plant-based option to feed that craving — if I’m willing to take a flight to the UK, that is. In honor of Plant Power Day — which is […]
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