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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Raise a Glass for the New Robot Bartender in Prague

The sitcom, Cheers, probably would have been a lot less funny if the role of Sam the bartender had been played by an robotic, drink-pouring arm. I mean, sure, it can serve up glasses of chablis, but it probably can’t yell out “NORM!”

Reuters reports there’s a new robotic cocktail slinger in town, and it probably doesn’t know your name. At the Cyberdog cafe, which just opened in Prague this week, you aren’t clamoring among throngs of people, trying to get the attention of a disinterested bartender to order your drink. Instead, you place your order via a mobile phone app, and BUDY, an orange, articulating robot arm whirrs to life grabbing and opening bottles of wine, pouring them out and then loading the completed order on to a service tray, which travels overhead on rails before descending so you can pick up your drinks.


(h/t to The Washington Post for the tweet)

Robotic bartenders aren’t new. The Tipsy Robot bar in Las Vegas (of course) has been making robo-cocktails since July 2017, and at our Smart Kitchen Summit: Europe, FoodPairing’s robo-bartendar whipped up personalized boozy concoctions. Not to mention the home robo-bartending appliances hitting the market like Somabar and Bartesian.

Foodpairing powers this robot bartender from The Spoon on Vimeo.

Having worked at a bar, I can see why robots would be a bar owner’s best friend. They pour out precise amounts of liquor (no over-pouring), don’t call in sick and don’t steal from the till. Having patronized many a bar though, it seems like there is something lacking when a bar lacks humans. Bartenders are often funny, great conversationalists, and authentic sources of local information when traveling.

Cyberdog’s robot bartender may be a novelty now, but like its drink pouring robo-cousins Briggo and Cafe X (which just added iced drinks to its menu this week), the tireless, automated robotic precision will become common in high-traffic areas like airports, stadiums and anywhere else people want to grab a drink quickly, and faster service is something a lot of people would “cheers” for.

DRINKS Gulps Up $15M to Boost its Boozy B2B Biz

DRINKS, an online platform that powers direct-to-consumer wine sales for brands like Martha Stewart Wine Co. and Wine Insiders, today announced it has raised a $15 million Series B round of funding led by Beverly Pacific. This bring the total amount raised by DRINKS to $25 million

According to the press announcement, DRINKS will use the new funds to scale its “ship-to-home platform that enables online and brick-and-mortar retailers to market wine directly to consumers in up to 41 states.”

The DRINKS platform lets digital merchants as well as brick and mortar stores start selling their own wine portfolios directly to consumers. The company says it facilitates curating wines for its clients, state-level compliance, as well as delivery.

While the funding is a nice way for DRINKS to bolster its coffers, it also reinforces the trend of investors paying attention to logistics and fulfillment of food and beverage. The DRINKS raise comes less than a month after Boxed raised $110 million in part for its end-to-end bulk grocery fulfillment technology, which the company can license to other retailers in the U.S..

Of course, DRINKS faces plenty of competition when it comes to delivery of boozy libations to your front door. Saucey, Drizly and Minibar also connect online customers with retail stores to facilitate home delivery of alcohol. DRINKS’s more B2B white label approach, however, seems to set it apart. And unlike other wine sellers online, DRINKS focuses on straight purchases, not subscriptions.

Based in Los Angeles, DRINKS was founded in 2013 and the company says it delivered more than 10 million bottles of wine in 2017, has delivered to 1 million households since its founding and has 500,000 active households. With today’s news, the people at DRINKS were probably raising a few glasses to celebrate.

Bartesian Ships to Kickstarters this Week, Backers Will Get Two Machines

Bartesian, the startup behind the eponymous automatic countertop cocktail making appliance, gave The Spoon a heads up that it will be shipping its first batch of devices to Kickstarter backers this week.

The fact that a crowdfunded consumer hardware product is actually making it to market is enough cause for celebration. But Bartesian backers will be able to raise more than one celebratory glass when they receive their robot bartender; the startup revealed that they will eventually be getting two Bartesian machines.

Wait. What?

Evidently the Bartesians that backers will shortly receive are being considered “beta units.” But fear not, backers! It looks as though you are not getting a knock-off, hurriedly constructed out of balsa wood and chewing gum. Here’s an email exchange I had with Bartesian Co-Founder and CEO, Ryan Close, that explains this unusual situation:

The Spoon: You’re shipping to Kickstarter backers this week. To all Kickstarter backers? Or just early birds?

Ryan Close: Yes, all KS backers this week.

You said you were treating these shipments as “beta units” — what will be the difference between these and production models?

These KS units have been hand assembled in Canada by our team. The retail units will be made in a top tier factory in China that makes other premium appliances. The handle on these KS/Beta units is not as intuitive as it needs to be, so we have already re-engineered it for the retail version coming out in Winter/18. The handle is a big change as it’s the #1 touch point for the consumer. We also made a few design tweaks to decrease the amount of pressure required to pierce the capsule, further increasing the ease of use. The new machine will look generally the same as the KS unit. If necessary, we can also make any design changes we uncover after our KS folks have had a chance to use our product. We’ll harness their input and implement any changes they feel would improve the overall experience.

You said Kickstarter folks will receive a free unit from Hamilton Beach this winter. So will people who receive the beta units ship those betas back to you to receive the full production unit? How will that work exactly?

Our KS backers have been incredibly patient and supportive while we battled through the R&D and production of launching both innovative hardware and customized CPG’s. They will each keep the KS unit, the retail version is an extra and all about gratitude for being with us from the start – extreme patience – and cheering us on from the sidelines.

For a little more background, earlier this year Bartesian entered into an exclusive, three-year manufacturing and distribution agreement with Hamilton Beach. The move, according to Close at the time, would leverage Hamilton Beach’s massive manufacturing expertise and distribution network and allow Bartesian to focus on the drinks that come out of the machine.

Or if you’re one of its backers, both of your machines.

Food Tech News Roundup: Plant-Based Updates, Beverage Fundraising, & (Near) Instant Cake

This was a very meaty week for food tech! No — literally. From Crowd Cow’s $8 million fundraise to our Future of Meat meetup last night, there was plenty to sink our teeth into. Plus we wrote about a French pizza-making robot and Microsoft’s visual food logging patent.

But now it’s (almost) the weekend and time for our food tech news roundup! And since Monday is a holiday, you have plenty of time to sit back and peruse at your leisure.

Photo: Beyond Meat.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods unveil news (and new products)

This week at the National Restaurant Association Show Beyond Meat debuted a new product: breakfast “sausage” patties. According to Food Business News, the patties, which are made of pea, mung bean, sunflower and rice protein, as well as sage and nutmeg, cook just like a pork patty and have twice the protein. This is the latest product from Beyond Meat, who already offer Beyond Sausage, Beyond Chicken Strips, and Beyond Beef Crumble in addition to their iconic Beyond Burger. It’s expected to hit grocery shelves in fall of this year.

Another plant-based meat company also unveiled some news this week. Impossible Foods announced on Tuesday that its “bleeding” vegan burgers are officially kosher. They announced this after they received their official kosher certification from the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency. Which means that those who keep kosher can now officially have a cheeseburger — sort of. Impossible is hoping to get their Halal certification later this year.

 

Craft beverages snag serious funding

Two non-alcoholic drink companies — High Brew Coffee and REBBL — announced $20 million investment rounds this week, according to BevNet. This was the Series C funding round for Austin, TX-based High Brew, whose canned cold brew coffee attracted investment from celebrities like the band Kings of Leon and former MLB pitcher Huston Street. High Brew is part of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group allied brands family.

One of High Brew’s investors, CAVU Venture Partners, also contributed to REBBL’s recent fundraise. Their coconut milk-based beverages are infused with natural supplements like matcha, turmeric, and maca. REBBL (which stands for roots, extracts, berries, bark and leaves) also has a philanthropic bent; it donates 2.5% of its net sales to efforts by Not For Sale to end human trafficking in the places where it sources ingredients.

 

Miss Jones debuts healthy, convenience-focused dessert

Millennial-targeted baking mix company Miss Jones Baking Co. announced this week that it will be rolling out a new product at Whole Foods: Desserts-in-a-Cup. We’ve all had a microwaved mug cake before (and if you haven’t, you should), but the Miss Jones version come already mixed and pre-packaged — all you have to do is add water and zap for 30-40 seconds. At 150-250 calories per single-serve cake, they’re targeting the health-conscious, convenience-seeking millennial audience that wants to satisfy their sweet tooth, guilt-free.

Did we miss some food tech news? Leave us a comment or tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

Drinkable Meal Startup Ample Foods Raises $2M

San Francisco-based nutrition startup Ample Foods announced today that it has raised an additional $2 million in funds for the seed round, led by the VC firm Slow Ventures. The company has received previous investments from 500 Startups, Hawkshead Capital and Compound. In 2016, Ample raised $370K on Indiegogo, making it the site’s top-funded nutrition campaign of all time.

Ample CEO Connor Young founded Ample Foods to help his friends working long hours at startups eat healthy, convenient meals which didn’t require any planning. And planning they truly do not need. The drinks come in powdered form, so all you have to do is add milk or water and shake. Which means that Ample’s meals don’t expire like other liquid meal replacements; all but one of the varieties have 10-month shelf lives, with the vegan option lasting for 8 months. So you can keep one tucked into your desk at work for when you need to work through lunch, or even bring it with you on an airline (they’re TSA compliant). 

Each bottle is 400 calories and contains 25 grams of protein, 2 to 6 grams of sugar and 10 to 15 grams of fiber. They contain whey protein and collagen from grass-fed cows (except for the vegan version), probiotics, carbohydrates and healthy fats from nuts, chia seeds, and coconut. They also feature some more obscure ingredients, like organic Jerusalem artichoke insulin and acacia fiber. All drinks are gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. 

In addition to their original product, the startup also offers Ample V, a vegan option which skips the whey, collagen, and honey, and Ample K, which is aimed at low carb, high fat ketogenic diet followers.

With these two options, Ample is hoping to cash in on two dietary trends: ketogenic and plant-based. “We wanted to make sure we hit not just a different market with each drink, but a different use case,” said Young. “We don’t do one-size-fits-all nutrition.” Orian Research estimated that the value of the global ketogenic food market was $5.07 billion in 2017, and forecasted it would grow to $6.5 billion by 2023. At the same time, demand for plant-based foods has been steadily climbing. 

Ample Original costs $6/bottle, with Ample V and Ample K priced at $7 and $8 each, respectively. (Prices reduce slightly if you buy in bulk.) That’s roughly double the price of Soylent, though I suppose those acacia fibers don’t come cheap.

The meal replacement business has been steadily increasing over the past few years. Soylent recently expanded its retail operations through a partnership with Walmart (despite a few obstacles last year with recalls, leadership changes, and getting banned in Canada). Meal-in-a-bottle Bear Squeeze, which is both ketogenic and vegan, broke records for first-day funding on Indiegogo (they have yet to ship). And a few months ago bone broth supplement company Ancient Nutrition raised $103 million. These types of drinks cater towards health-conscious people working long hours, who don’t have time to stop for a meal (much less cook one) but still want to have a balanced diet. 

“We’re selling to really busy people who care about health,” Young told The Spoon. “No matter how much they care, it’s difficult to keep up with the latest dietary trends. We’re simplifying the process from a product level.” He also told me that they hope to introduce a heavier focus on health and nutrition knowledge as they grow.

The latest investment brings Ample’s total funding to $4 million. If you want to try it out, or stock up for the inevitable zombie apocalypse, you can purchase Ample’s powdered drinks on its website.

Can the Stircle Unseat Coffee Stirrers and Reduce Waste?

Consider the Stircle. A new invention that aims to reduce the amount of waste surrounding your morning cup of coffee by replacing those wasteful stirrers with a small machine that spins your morning joe to mix in all your cream and sugar. Although what might be more interesting is to consider all the chatter the Stircle is stirring up.

First, let’s agree that disposable coffee stirrers are a real source of waste. They’re used once for a few seconds and then discarded. I couldn’t find an exact amount of waste generated by single-use coffee stirrers (Today’s Homeowner said that 138 billion were tossed every year), but if you consider there are 24,000 coffee shops in the U.S. and Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee a day, it’s easy to imagine the number of stirrers adds up quickly.

The Starbucks Stircle ?

That’s where Scott Amron comes in. He’s a product designer and inventor of the Stircle. When you talk with Scott, you can hear that he really wants to try and make a positive impact on the world. “For years it’s bothered me that you use a stick or a plastic stick to stir your coffee,” said Amron, “it’s not just about the trash. It’s about the waste.”

Amron’s talking about all the resources that go into making, transporting and storing those stirrers. To him, those little sticks are a big problem.

So he invented a small countertop device that spins drinks around, stops, then reverse spins to mix them. Technically, according to Amron, the drinks aren’t just spun. Because people don’t put the drinks in exactly dead center, the contents rotate and oscillate. Plus, since the sides of the cup angle upwards, there is another dimension to the mix.

Amron says he built the Stircle with large coffee shop chains in mind and that the device can be installed by the milk and sugar for customers to use, or behind the counter for other drinks that need mixing by the barista. It requires a plug, and Stircles can be daisy chained, so multiple ones at a single location don’t each require a separate plug.

“You can stir 50,000 cups on ten cents of electricity,” Amron claims, “It requires very little money and very little energy.”

All this green stirring doesn’t come cheap, though. The cost of one Stircle is listed at $345. That seems high to me for a drink spinner. Plus, $345 is a lot of up-front money for large (and small) coffee chains who tend to think in the short term. Especially when that $345 (for one!) Stircle is up against a $5.65 pack of 1,000 plastic stirrers for a cost-conscious manager.

Amron published the Stircle video on YouTube earlier this month and the debate around it has been robust. Mashable thought it was “nifty,” Spruge hated it, and while TechCrunch was more positive, it called the device’s concept “ridiculous.”

Commenters have pointed out that a spoon, presumably many that are washed after each use, could achieve the same thing at a fraction of the cost. And it seems to me that even though the Stircle cycle is only 7 seconds, that would still cause a pile up of agitated people at the milk station, waiting to agitate their drinks.

But Amron may prove them wrong. He says he already has a number of customers, and part of the reason for the high cost is that he’s making each one to order. If it takes off, he can invest in manufacturing and bring that cost down.

All this aside, I’m more interested in the Stircle because of Amron. Unlike so many of us who have probably known forever that coffee stirrers are bad and kept on using, he is actually trying to do something about it. Even if he winds up just spinning his wheels.

Coffunity Makes Anyone a Coffee Expert (Yes, Even You)

Unless you’re a barista by trade, you might not know all that much about what type of coffees you like. Ethiopian? Light roast? Notes of milk chocolate or stone fruit?

That’s where Coffunity comes in handy. The company, which is based in El Salvador, developed an app which lets users rate and review coffees, discover new brands and varietals, and determine their overall coffee preferences. Founded by Andrea B. Pacas, a 6th generation coffee producer, and Federico Bolanos, a professional roaster, cupper, and barista, the Beta version launched in March 2018.

The app made quite a splash at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Seattle last weekend when it won the Best New Product Award for Technology and the overall Best of Show.

Here’s how it works: Users take a picture of a coffee label and Coffunity will use a Google Vision scan and identify the label’s text. If that label is in their database, the app will give users a rundown on the beans’ taste attributes, origin, processing methods, and quality. It can get pretty granular, down to the exact varietal of the beans, the altitude on which they were grown, and even the name of the farmer(s) who grew them.

Coffunity users can rate coffees after they drink them and leave public reviews. So before you invest in a bag of beans, you can check and see if it matches your coffee preferences and find out what others wrote about it (i.e. tastes best with milk). If the app doesn’t recognize the coffee label, you can enter in its information and add it to the database.

Users can also search Coffunity’s library to determine the best coffees for them to purchase. For example, if you know you like fruity coffees, you can enter that in and see which brands and roasts might be a good bet for you. You can also search for coffees based on parameters like price, origin, retailer, or overall rating.

The company is even working on integrating geolocation services into their app so that users can discover nearby highly-rated coffee spots. So if you’re in a new city and want to source some nice beans for your Airbnb, you won’t have to wander aimlessly or settle for Starbucks.

And if you don’t know what you like, Coffunity will keep track of all your coffee rankings and create a profile of your taste preferences. The more coffees you rate, the more data it has to generate your profile, the more you can discover which coffees you like — and which you don’t.

There’s also a social aspect to Coffunity: you can follow friends on the app (or local baristas) to see which brands and varietals they’re drinking and liking. Sort of like Spotify, but for coffee. And if you just want to follow the crowd, the app keeps a list of the top-ranked coffees each day according to their global user base.

Coffunity hopes that their app will create the world’s largest coffee community. But they also want to encourage people to drink better coffee, be more aware of the variables and minutiae that goes into producing the beverage, and get more familiar with coffee producers, who are often isolated from the people drinking their product.

It might be surprising to some that at an event rife with barista robots and connected roasting machines, something as un-flashy as a coffee community app stood out as Best in Show. Their win indicates a movement in the craft coffee market towards democratization and accessibility.  You no longer have to be an SCA-trained expert to know a thing or two about high-quality coffee beans.

They’re not the only app geared towards educating people about and connecting them with good coffee. Apps like Cupper and Beanhunter help people find good coffee shops near them, while Acacia and Intelligentsia help you find the optimal home brew method. As specialty coffee becomes more and more accessible, I bet we’ll see more apps geared towards education and democratization of everyone’s favorite morning beverage.

The app is free and iOS compatible, though a version for Android is in the works. So far Coffunity has 950 downloads and over 150K coffees in their database. Coffunity currently has a staff of 12 and has been downloaded in more than 54 countries, though with this recent SCA Expo win under their belt, I bet they’ll soon be expanding.

Bartesian Focuses on Drinks, Hands Manufacturing to Hamilton Beach

Bartesian said today that it has signed a three-year deal to make Hamilton Beach the exclusive manufacturing and distribution partner of its forthcoming countertop cocktail making appliance.

Bartesian co-founder Ryan Close told us by phone that this move will allow his company to focus on the drink making and development side of the business, while appliance giant Hamilton Beach can leverage its massive manufacturing expertise and retail distribution channels to bring the actual cocktail machine to market.

“It was a soul searching time,” said Close “Do we want to be an appliance company or a CPG company? If we wanted to do both, it would stretch things too far.”

The Bartesian countertop device uses combination of flavor capsules to hold liquors and mixers, which the appliance automatically blends into a variety of cocktails. It would be easy to liken Bartesian to a “Keurig for cocktails,” but Close winces at that comparison, noting that “this isn’t some sugary mix or powder.”

The machine will still be branded as Bartesian, and Close said they will keep their target release date of Q4 this year, as well as the $299 price tag. Bartesian still owns all of its IP, and will work with Hamilton Beach to develop future generations of the cocktail appliance.

This is the second big partnership for Bartesian. Last year they raised a “seven figure” round of funds from Beam Suntory, one of the world’s largest spirits conglomerates. That partnership has helped Bartesian expand its work developing new drinks and drink-concocting appliances. The company will launch with seven capsulized concoctions and will roll out fifty cocktail mixes over time.

While Close wouldn’t share the exact details of the Hamilton Beach arrangement, this seems to be a smart play for Bartesian. The company only has seven employees, and the transition from concept to manufacturing has been a big stumbling block for many upstart drink appliance makers. Having Hamilton Beach take over the production part of the business will hopefully give Bartesian the heft and scale it needs to overcome any obstacles and reach a mass market.

Wired’s Joe Ray Reviews The Spinzall And The Results Are Cloudy

Let’s get this out of the way: I love to read Joe Ray’s kitchen gadget reviews. Perhaps more than any modern cooking gadget reviewer, Ray not only keeps real-world consumer concerns front of mind as he evaluates new products, but he does so in a way that shows off a strong understanding of advanced culinary concepts all while explaining new technology in an approachable way.

And oh yeah: he’s funny too.

The result of this unique combination of skills makes his reviews a joy to read, and so when I saw he’d written a review of Dave Arnold’s new home centrifuge, I suspected it’d be the definitive wrap-up of this intriguing product.

I was right.

For those of you not familiar with Arnold or his newest contraption, here’s a quick catchup. Arnold himself is a modern day culinary renaissance man: part mad scientist, part award-winning food writer, part museum curator. In 2014, Arnold won the James Beard award for the book Liquid Intelligence, a Modernist Cuisine for the craft cocktail set, which added to an already sizable cult following from years of writing, podcasting and inventing interesting culinary hardware products.

So when Arnold announced his latest product, the Spinzall, there was understandably a lot of interest. The product is an $800 countertop centrifuge. While that price may be somewhat eye-popping, it’s a downright bargain compared to most high-end centrifuges which can cost thousands of dollars.

The excitement was also fed in part by Arnold’s emphasis on the use of centrifuges in Liquid Intelligence. Here at the Spoon we’ve been following the Spinzall’s journey to market, all the way back when Arnold first started pre-selling the device and through his crowdfunding efforts. We even had him on the podcast.

And now the Spinzall is finally shipping, which brings us to Ray’s review.

Ray begins his review in a way that reminds of how my wife reacts every time I bring home a new product: shoulder-shrugging indifference combined with bemusement at how excited I am for something that, for normal people, doesn’t seem all that life-changing:

NOT LONG AGO, I poured a bottle of fancy whipping cream into the gadget I was reviewing, started it up and watched in awe as the machine’s rotor began spinning rapidly, creating a vertical wall of solidified dairy that stayed in place after the machine wound down.

“Behold,” I exclaimed as my wife Elisabeth passed through the kitchen. “I made butter in a centrifuge!”

“Wow,” she said with a tone that foretold bubble bursting. “Did they run out of butter at the store?”

Before long, Ray rolls up his sleeves and jumps into the review with vigor. He makes two versions of a clarified lime juice recipe, one with the Spinzall and one with a method the same Dave Arnold wrote about in 2009 in which he said, “Not only do you not need a centrifuge, you don’t need the bag and you don’t need the vacuum.”

At the end of his lime juice journey, Ray found he got better results with Arnold’s 2009 non-centrifuge technique.

He then tried out making spreadable yogurt and flavored oil to decent but somewhat eventful results:

I made the labneh and spun up some basil oil, and they were tasty but the machine had a hiccup while I was making the oil where the lid rotated toward the open position while it was running. I couldn’t get it to open any further, but it no longer felt fully secure, which is disconcerting when the rotor below continued to spin away at 4,000 rpm.

In the end, Ray suggests Arnold’s centrifuge probably makes sense for bartenders and craft cocktail enthusiasts trying to take their art to the next-level, but the Spinzall didn’t seem worth it for someone without $800 and a surplus of counter space to spare:

The Spinzall certainly has some neat tricks up its sleeve. It might solve a problem or two for owners of small bars (a larger bar would need several machines) or make for good entertainment for food nerds who like to throw parties and have $800 to blow. For the most part, however, it’s hard to justify awarding it a space on your counter.

Go read Ray’s full review here. I think you’ll enjoy it.