Perfect Company

July 29, 2019

Market Map: Booze Tech in 2019

From countertop devices used in the home kitchen to delivery services, the number of avenues in which companies can get booze to customers has expanded in recent years. And since it’s still the time of year when drinking on patios is a popular sport, we decided to focus our latest market map on all the tech out there currently changing the alcohol space.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption has actually stagnated, according to IWSR, but part of this is due to consumers now seeking quality over quantity when it comes to their drinking. Which might explain the rise in the number of companies offering recommendations apps that rate beers, wines, and spirits as well as at-home devices for the kitchen countertop that give the user a little more control over the quality of their drinks.

For The Spoon’s Booze Tech in 2019 market map, we divvied the market up into several categories where technology is making the biggest impact on the way people get, create, and consume beer, wine, and spirits. That’s everything from apps that update you on the best craft beers available to at-home bartending devices that let you release your inner mixologist to the many ways in which companies are making it possible to get the booze delivered right to your doorstep. We’ve narrowed the companies down to a collection of startups and major corporations alike. As with any post that outlines a market, this list isn’t exhaustive. So if you have thoughts and tips for who else you’d like to see here, feel free to drop us a line.

While we’re on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our 2019 Food Robotics market map and our Food Waste Innovation in 2019 map.

Booze Tech in 2019

March 14, 2019

With USPTO Denial, Perfect’s Lawsuit Against Drop Moves to Trial

The ongoing, multi-year, multi-patent infringement legal battle Perfect Company brought against Adaptics Ltd, maker of the Drop cooking system, will be heading to federal court this summer. This next phase of the lawsuit comes after the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied institution of Inter Partes Review. Perfect announced the decision in a press release yesterday.

Without getting too far into the legal weeds, an Inter Partes Review (IPR) is:

“… a trial proceeding conducted at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to review the patentability of one or more claims of an issued patent.” (via Smith & Hopen, U.S. registered patent attorneys)

Basically, it was Drop’s last chance to keep this lawsuit, which started in 2014, from going to trial. This IPR denial was over Perfect’s Patent 9,772,217, and follows a previous legal win for Perfect over its Patent 8,829,365. With both patents upheld by the USPTO board, the lawsuit moves on to trial in federal court in Tacoma, WA from June 3 – 6, 2019.

At its center, the dispute is over patents around the use of smart scales for weighing ingredients that communicate with apps for guided cooking. Perfect Company products include: Perfect Drink app-controlled bartending system, Perfect Bake app-controlled baking system and Perfect Kitchen PRO app-controlled smart kitchen system. The company also licenses out its technology for products include the Vitamix Perfect Blend and the NutriBullet Balance.

Drop started out in the hardware space, making its own connected cooking scale, but later abandonded that that in favor of integrating its software platform into the likes of GE Appliances, LG, Thermomix and Kenwood.

I spoke with Perfect Company CEO, Michael Wallace yesterday about the IPR denial, and asked him what the end goal of the lawsuit is. “What we’re really doing is protecting our space and our IP with our patents,” Wallace said, “The Adaptics guys have refused to pay a royalty or agree to our terms for a license.”

We reached out to Drop, and its Co-Founder and CEO Ben Harris provided us with the following statement:

“While Drop does not comment on pending litigation, we don’t infringe any of Perfect’s patents and are continuing to challenge the validity of Perfect’s patents in Federal Court. We look forward to our court date in June when a jury will finally decide if Perfect’s patents are valid and remain focused on our mission of building the KitchenOS, a unified solution for the smart kitchen that connects the whole cooking journey, of which Drop Scale is just one of hundreds of appliances.”

What was of particular note in the press announcement surrounding the latest USPTO ruling is that Perfect called out Drop investor Alsop Louie by name. Alsop Louie Partners led the $8 million Series A that Drop raised last year, and I asked Wallace why Perfect mentioned them specifically.

“Alsop made a big bet on them. We thought it was important,” said Wallace, “This is a big investment bet. We decided to call that out. The money they are spending on this case are investment dollars.”

Whether this rattles Drop’s investor remains to be seen, but unless this dispute settles relatively soon, we’ll see both parties in court.

November 9, 2017

Perfect Company Files Second Patent Infringement Claim Against Drop

The ongoing court battle between Perfect Company and the maker of the Drop scale took another turn this week when Perfect announced a new patent and an additional patent infringement claim again Adaptics Limited, the maker of the Drop scale.

According to the press release, Perfect Company has been issued an additional patent for its smart scale and recipe app platform. The new patent builds on and expands the company’s original patent (the basis of the original patent infringement lawsuit) by adding additional claims such as adding user override capabilities to add ingredients out of order and auto-advancement to the next step when an ingredient is added.

This is the latest in an ongoing multiyear legal battle between the two companies who have been tussling over intellectual property related to scale based smart cooking platforms. After the original lawsuit was filed in 2014, Adaptics soon requested a review of Perfect Company’s patent. However, things didn’t go Adaptics way. Earlier this year the US Patent office validated the Perfect Company claims.

I asked Perfect Company CEO Mike Wallace why they’ve decided to pursue Adaptics so aggressively, particularly in light of what seems to be a revised strategy by Adaptics to deemphasize Drop branded smart scales and an increased focus on licensing their software to partners.

According to Wallace, it doesn’t matter how Adaptics goes to market since what they are selling is a scale-based smart measuring system that infringes on Perfect’s intellectual property.

“Their intention is to sell a scale to every end user of the Drop software whether it comes from a sale on Amazon or a large appliance purchase,” said Wallace via email. “I wouldn’t characterize their revised business plan as a pivot as much as an adjustment to pursue additional revenues and marketing dollars to drive users to their scale-based recipe system that competes directly with ours. Bottom line, a scale and an interactive recipe is at the heart of their technology and the way they have implemented it is a gross violation of our IP.”

I also reached out to the CEO of Adaptics, Ben Harris, to get his response about the Perfect Company’s latest legal salvo and this is what he said:

“We believe the cases are completely devout of merit; the patents are not valid because they don’t invent anything that wasn’t already well known and we don’t infringe on the patents as they are defined – so we look forward to our day in court. We plan to vigorously defend the lawsuit, and to date, all the rulings have been procedural – stating simply, that the case can proceed.”

Perfect’s effort to protect its intellectual property makes sense when considering that the company is working with large brands who are using the company’s technology. Perfect has announced partnerships with Vitamix and Nutribullet, both of which utilize the Perfect scale based system and app technology as foundations for their new products.

In late 2016 and early 2017, Adaptics announced their own deals with GE and Bosch that had the large appliance makers using the Drop software to power their smart appliance efforts. It remains to be seen if and how this legal battle will impact these partnerships.

October 25, 2017

Here Are Three Ingredients For Building Services In The Connected Kitchen

Sure, the kitchen of the future will be driven by data and standards, but one crucial element not to be overlooked among all the gadgets and tech is the human touch.

This is one of the insights you can glean from watching the video for the “Building Services for the Connected Kitchen” panel at our recent Smart Kitchen Summit. Brita Rosenheim of The Mixing Bowl moderated this fascinating and forward looking discussion with Lisa Fetterman, CEO, Nomiku; Mike Wallace, CEO, Perfect Company; and Tony Ciepiel, COO, Vitamix.

They cover a wide range of topics, but here are three big takeaways:

Data Brings Out Needed Connections
Connected devices are able to record a lot of data about what, when and how often you eat or drink. This data doesn’t just help the device maker better understand you — but it can help companies throughout the consumption process better serve you.

Perfect’s platform fills in a huge knowledge gap for spirit makers who currently have no idea how their product is used after the sale. And Nomiku’s connected sous vide system, they can identify what types of food you prefer and fulfill accordingly.

Standards are Needed
Right now every connected device has its own app. This can be confusing and overly complicated for the consumer. This obviously is not the best solution for creating a vast interconnected kitchen where your fridge knows when you get home and automatically starts up your sous vide.

The solution, however, isn’t so cut and dry. It’s doubtful that any one company will cede control of a platform to another, but as Fetterman points out, things are moving so quickly that no one has time to invent an independent unifying language. Consumers have shown they can live with a multi-app approach (see: navigation on your phone), but will it be a stalemate rather than superiority that determines the outcome?

The Human Touch is Needed
As 80s rocker Rick Springfield once sang — we all need the human touch. And this is true for the connected kitchen as every speaker on the panel talked about the role of personal interaction leading to adoption. Vitamix does 48,000 demonstrations a year to show people how to use its product. Perfect’s cocktail maker is by nature social and almost becomes like a modern day, boozier Tupperware party.

This is just some of what was touched on in the panel. Watch the full video right here and leave a comment with your thoughts on the best path for building connected services in the kitchen.

July 25, 2017

Perfect Company Scores IP Win Against Maker Of Drop Scale

The smart kitchen IP battles are heating up.

Perfect Company, maker of the Perfect Drink and Perfect Bake smart scale systems, has scored a win against Adaptics, the company behind the Drop Scale. A request to review a Perfect Company patent by Adaptics has resulted in a US Patent and Trademark Office validation of Perfect Company’s core IP in the area of connected scales.

In December 2014, Perfect company filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Drop Scale that claimed Adaptics had infringed on their patent. The company saw the the Drop Scale in violation of their 365 patent for a smart kitchen scale connecting to a smart device with a recipe app.

In December 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office agreed to reexamine Perfect’s patent based on claims made by Adaptics. Just seven months later, the USPTO decided Perfect’s patent was valid.

While Adaptics has since pivoted slightly to focus on providing the Drop platform to third parties, this ruling still marks an important win for Perfect, who sees its patent portfolio as an important weapon in the increasingly competitive platform wars in the connected kitchen. The company has been aggressive about defending its IP, and has shown itself as somewhat opportunistic when it comes to shoring up its patent portfolio with the acquisition of Orange Chef’s IP last year.

“This reexamination successfully overcomes the prior art and arguments asserted by Adaptics in our ongoing litigation,” said Mike Wallace, CEO of Perfect Company. “We believe that this decision reaffirms our position as the leader in connected kitchen technology, which we will continue to aggressively defend.”

See the full press release below:

Perfect Company Announces Successful Patent Reexamination
Further Strengthening its Place in the Connected Kitchen

July 25, 2017 – Vancouver, WA – Perfect Company, the leading developer of connected kitchen products, announces today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a decision regarding the reexamination of its US Patent 8,829,365 (“‘365 Patent”). The decision upheld the validity of one of Perfect Company’s key patents with no changes and also allowed new claims that were considered during the reexamination.

The ‘365 Patent protects Perfect Company’s system that connects a smart kitchen scale to a smart device equipped with a recipe app – wirelessly or wired – allowing for communication between the scale and the device to ensure the perfect combination of ingredients every time. Current products in the marketplace covered by the patent include the Perfect Drink® app-controlled smart bartending system, Perfect Bake™ app-controlled smart baking system, Perfect Blend™ and Vitamix Perfect Blend™ app-controlled smart blending systems and Perfect Kitchen™ PRO app-controlled smart kitchen system.

On December 12, 2014, Perfect Company filed a suit against Adaptics Ltd., maker of the Drop Scale, for infringement of its ‘365 Patent. On December 2, 2016, the USPTO agreed to reexamine the ‘365 Patent based on arguments filed by Adaptics. Just seven months later, on July 10, 2017, that reexamination came to a successful resolution for Perfect Company.

“Patent reexaminations like this can take years, and often narrow both the claims and scope of the patent. We are thrilled with the breadth, speed and success of this reexamination,” says Michael Wallace, CEO of Perfect Company. “This reexamination successfully overcomes the prior art and arguments asserted by Adaptics in our ongoing litigation. We believe that this decision reaffirms our position as the leader in connected kitchen technology, which we will continue to aggressively defend.”

The ‘365 patent has been filed world-wide and has already issued in several countries. Last year, Perfect Company acquired Orange Chef’s Prep Pad IP, which included one issued patent. Perfect Company is actively filing new patents to cover its expanding technology offering.

March 13, 2017

Vitamix’s Ascent Series Is Focused on Using IoT to Create Memorable Kitchen Experiences

As the premier name in high-performance kitchen blenders, Cleveland-based Vitamix has consistently shown its ability to stay close to and understand its customer base. The company was among the first to use television infomercials to illustrate its benefits. Much of Vitamix’s brand persona is linked to healthy lifestyles as demonstrated in their series of raw, vegan cookbooks.

Working with Vancouver, Wash.,-based Perfect Company, Vitamix is using IoT to strengthening its appeal to millennials and cooks who want to use the latest technology to up their culinary games. The Vitamix Ascent Series, which uses its partner’s wireless technology embedded in its new smart containers, allows the blender to read the container and automatically adjust program settings and maximum blending times. The Ascent Series blenders will not power on if the container isn’t sitting properly on the motor base.

The Ascent Series of blenders comes on the heels of the Vitamix Perfect Blend Smart Scale & Recipe App, its first collaboration with Perfect Company, announced in October 2016. The app allows users to select a recipe and tailor it to fit their needs based on portion size and nutritional needs. In the new Ascent Series, the lid plug doubles as a measuring cup for additional convenience.

Each model in the Ascent Series includes a 64-ounce smart container with optional attachments that include 20-ounce cup and an 8-ounce bowl, including lids suitable for blending and serving, taking along or storing.

According to Tennant, the partnership between Vitamix and Perfect Company is in its early stages. “We’ve only just begun to imagine the possibilities for our Ascent Series machines and how they will continue to elevate the blending experience,” he says. “Look for new versions of the app in the future that incorporate Ascent Series machines, including our upcoming additional containers through which we can optimize the finished recipe by recognizing the container size and the amount of ingredients to create a custom blend program.”

Aside from their relationship with Vitamix, Perfect Company sells the Perfect Kitchen® PRO Smart Scale and App System, a Bluetooth-connected scale that works with apps for baking, blending and making cocktails.

As smart kitchen ecosystems go, the Vitamix Ascent Series offers a solid experience for cooks using its powerful blenders to make a variety of dishes from soups and smoothies to frozen desserts. As with any IoT-based system, some key questions will determine what level of holistic impact Vitamix will make on the kitchen of the future.

For example, how extensible is wireless connectivity between the blender and its containers? Is the IoT system based on a Bluetooth protocol or an open system that may allow other accessory companies to produce companion products? Are there plans down the road to allow Vitamix to wirelessly connect to other appliances or part of a smart home system? Imagine waking up in the morning and telling your Amazon Echo, “Alexa, make me a smoothie.”

Whatever direction Vitamix goes in, those decisions, the company says, will be based on the feedback it gets from its users. “The home cook will tell us what that invention should be,” adds Tennant. “The product that home cook is looking for may be a network of key tools in the kitchen that sequence the Thanksgiving dinner or the family heirloom cake recipe. We believe the ambitious home cook, young and old, is looking for ways to work smarter, not harder. Connected products have the chance to create those experiences.”

December 22, 2016

Perfect Company Buys Prep Pad IP From Orange Chef Founder

Perfect Company, a company specializing in smart devices for cooking and preparing food in the kitchen announced today that they have acquired the IP for the Orange Chef Prep Pad. Orange Chef, founded by Santiago Merea started out in 2011 as an iPad kitchen accessory brand. Merea recognized early on that consumers were bringing their phones and tablets into the kitchen to follow recipe videos and instructions and started by making a sleeve for iPads to help the device stay clean. Orange Chef demoed the Prep Pad at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2013, introducing the concept of a connected scale with a companion app to make cooking and following a recipe even easier.

The company has experienced a lot of change since that launch three years ago, including an acquisition by recipe discovery platform Yummly at the end of last year. After struggling to launch a line of new countertop products, 60% of Orange Chef staff joined Yummly including Merea himself, as chief revenue officer. Prior to the Yummly acquisition, Orange Chef had also faced challenges with the Prep Pad, dealing with many user complaints around app support.

Merea has since left Yummly to become a startup founder once again, this time to start a baby food company which The Spoon reported in October of this year. The company details are vague, but based on the website will likely “offer an ingredient delivery service and 10-minute prep time for fresh-from-scratch baby food at home.” Despite leaving Yummly, Merea retained the Prep Pad’s related IP including its patented technology and app. So how will Perfect Co use the acquired assets? Automated food tracking, for one.

Mike Wallace, CEO of Perfect Co responded in an email to The Spoon: “As you know we entered the health and nutrition space in 2016 with the launch of Perfect Blend™, which tracks nutrition as the user makes a blended recipe. Food tracking is the most challenging part of using any diet solution, and we see a huge opportunity in automating this process. The Orange Chef’s patented IoT technology, which not only measures nutrition of the food you prepare, but also records the recipes you make for next time, fits in nicely.”

Perfect Company’s acquisition of the brand makes sense; the company currently offers several different versions of the connected scale and app solution, including one to prepare alcoholic beverages, one to help with blended drinks and another to assist with baking. In a market where several of the popular connected scale hardware brands have abandoned their plans, including Orange Chef and Drop Kitchen, Perfect Co seems to have figured out how to make products that thrive.

Wallace explained, “A lot of Perfect Company’s success can be attributed to the company’s DNA. Prior to entering the connected scale space, the Perfect team had successfully designed, developed and delivered to market multiple technology products in the toy industry (accounting for over $500MM in retail sales)….The ability to execute is also what is propelling Perfect’s next phase of growth. Having successfully established a retail presence, the company is now aggressively extending its market footprint through partnerships with leading brands.”

We’ll keep an eye out in 2017 to see what becomes of the Prep Pad assets and how Perfect Company leverages them in new product offerings and partnerships.

November 30, 2016

The Spoon Smart Kitchen 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

It’s time for The Spoon’s first annual holiday gift guide! Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness have passed and it’s really the first year we’ve seen many anticipated smart kitchen devices hit the market, it seemed like the perfect time to roll out our guide. Picking this year’s selections was not easy – the food tech and smart kitchen spaces are packed with great stuff. But we wanted to limit the guide to stuff you could actually purchase (not pre-order or back on Kickstarter, with a few exceptions) and hand to your loved one around or shortly after the holidays.

Now you might be thinking – I’m the one who loves food and tech in our house! The beauty of this guide is that it’s easily forwardable – perhaps send to your spouse or loved ones with a wink emoji and some subtle hints, and you’ll find that smart kitchen gear you’ve always wanted under the tree.

High-Tech Kitchen Help

If you’ve got an amateur chef on your list this year, you can’t go wrong with sous vide. Sous vide is an older cooking technique using warm water to slowly and evenly cook foods like meat, fish and vegetables. Recent devices like the Joule from ChefSteps have increased the popularity of sous vide and made it easy to incorporate into any kitchen.

The Joule itself is a long, cylindrical water circulator and can be easily dropped into a pot of water to prepare food. It looks kind of like a high-tech rolling pin crossed with an Amazon Echo – but the noticeable difference between Joule and other sous vide cookers out there is the lack of a screen. The smartphone app does all the work – including preheating the device to the right temperature. The only thing left for the chef to do is season, seal and place the food in the water. The lack of a screen makes it more lightweight and smaller than other sous vide cookers, an appeal for some who want to minimize space in the kitchen.

Once cooking is complete, the dish can be removed and seared or finished on the stove for a perfect crust. Reviews of the Joule sous vide cooker promise some of the juiciest, most tender (insert food here) you’ve ever had.

Price: $199 on ChefSteps.com
(ChefSteps say they guarantee shipping by the holidays!)

Turn A Beer Fan Into A Brewmaster

Craft beer, spirits and cocktail related gifts are popular for those who like to imbibe around the holidays (…that’s everyone, right?) You could go a step up and get the beer fan on your list their own at home brew system. The folks at PicoBrew created the Pico, a simple pod-based brewing device that allows amateur brewers to customize their favorite IPA, pilsner, stout or pale ale in a week’s time. The PicoBrew PicoPaks and unique system take the mess out of home brewing and fermentation and each contains a different combo of grains, hops and yeast for each craft beer.

The PicoPaks are sold separately but come in over a hundred varieties so it’s easy to pair a few favorites with the system for a killer gift. And unlike older homebrew systems, the Pico’s compact design is ready for prime time – it’s cute enough to sit on the kitchen countertop and has a built-in steam cleaning mechanism. The digital display screen allows the user to adjust alcohol and bitterness levels for any brew and it makes up to five liters of beer at one time.

The Pico is one of those smart kitchen gadgets that will probably win you coolest family member award instantly; you might even get to sample the new brewmaster’s first brew attempt. Check out our complete review of The Pico before you buy.

Price: $799 at Williams-Sonoma

Infuse The Holidays With Perfect Tea

Tea and coffee are common holiday gifts for hot beverage drinkers, but for those who have a special affinity for tea, the smart tea infuser Teforia can create a custom cup of tea brewed to the exact right temperature and strength. The infuser looks like a cross between a traditional coffee maker and a high-tech chemistry set and comes equipped with a propriety technology called the Teforia Selective Infusion Profile System (“Teforia SIPS” ™). Sounds complicated, right? Basically, Teforia has created a device that knows the best way to brew tea, taking into account things like steep time, infusion temperature and the varietal of tea you’re using.

But who really needs a tea infuser? Tea is actually considered most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water and can be found in almost 80% of all U.S. households. Most of us, even avid tea fans (raises hand) use a kettle to boil water and a simple tea bag stuck in a mug. But Teforia claims not all teas are created equal, and consuming tea the typical way actually does the ancient beverage a huge disservice.

So bypass the specialty tea box in the gift shop this year as you’re picking out gifts – chances are, if someone is a fan of tea, the Teforia Infuser, maybe with some of their hand-picked varietals thrown in, will blow their mind.

Price: $1499, starts shipping December 1 if you order on Teforia’s website.

Coffee – Right From Your Phone

Onto the coffee lovers – if you’re a true java fan, you know that there’s not one temp fits all for coffee brewing. What makes a good cup of coffee, well, good, often has to do with extraction, or the process of hot water drawing the flavor from the grounds. It’s a delicate process and water that’s too hot will leave coffee tasting bitter. With the Behmor Connected Coffee Maker, that problem is solved through customizable brew profiles that all coffee drinkers to adjust the brewing temperature and pre-soak time before crafting that perfect cup.

And, as the name suggests, Behmor’s coffee maker comes with a connected smartphone app that allows you to program, adjust and monitor your coffee from the comfort of your bed. The app will even text you when your coffee’s done, thus finally giving you a reason to get out of bed on a cold winter morning. In addition to the custom brew control, Behmor’s actually build in some unique technology to optimize coffee extraction with a pulsed water flow and a grounds basket designed to saturate every single coffee ground.

Pair this with a local coffee blend and you’ve got every java lover’s dream come true.

Price: $234 on Amazon

Give The Gift Of An Oven That Knows Exactly What You’re Cooking

An oven might seem like an odd gift to give someone – unless it’s your spouse and you’re in the middle of a kitchen renovation, I suppose. But what if that oven was packed with enough technology to recognize the food you place in it and know exactly how to cook it? That’s exactly what the June Oven is designed to do.

Early reviews on the June are mixed – and some are even downright harsh – but we still think the June could be an interesting gift for those with money to spare who want the most cutting edge oven tech on the market.

Price: $1495 for pre-order on Juneoven.com

For The Person Who Actually Loves to Cook

So maybe you don’t want to spend over $1k on a magical oven, but you do have someone on your list who likes cooking and is always on the hunt for new recipes. The Drop Kitchen Scale with companion smart app is a good way to dip your toe into the world of connected kitchen gear without breaking the bank. The Drop Scale looks like a basic kitchen scale, but when paired with the app, provides a basic guided cooking system that walks the user through a chosen recipe and helps them weigh out ingredients along the way.

One of the best features of the Drop Kitchen ecosystem is its adaptability. Within the app, you can find and customize a recipe for the exact quantity or taste preference you’d like and the recipe will adjust portions and ingredients for you. So no more guesstimating how much flour you should use for a cupcake recipe you’re trying to half, Drop will give you precise measurements for the amount you need. With so many people using their smartphones and tablets in the kitchen to read recipes, the Drop Kitchen Scale and app will make cooking that much more enjoyable.

Price: $78.98 on Amazon (product is being end-of-lifed as Drop transitions into platform based technology)

Alexa, Finish My Holiday Shopping

Ok, this might not technically be a kitchen-specific gift, but the vast majority of Amazon Echo users I’ve encountered (myself included) keep the device in the kitchen – and for good reason. Alexa isn’t just a helpful virtual assistant, she can also be a pretty handy sous chef. From the very advanced – enable the Allrecipes skill and get step-by-step walk-through of any recipe available on Allrecipes – to the basic – ask Alexa how many teaspoons is in a tablespoon (1 tbl = 3 tsp, handy when your tablespoon constantly goes missing), Alexa is a hands-free help during meal prep.

The other helpful kitchen-specific feature, aside from listening to a news flash, a podcast or Spotify with a simple request, is the shopping list feature. Ask Alexa to add things to your shopping list as you run out of it, ensuring the next trip to the grocery store will result in a full pantry restock.

The Amazon Echo is usually $179.99, but is often on sale (and out of stock) around the holidays.

Connect To Your Tea

Maybe you have a tea lover on your list, but the idea of 800 bucks for the Teforia Infuser isn’t realistic. Before Teforia, there was a device called AppKettle, a connected tea kettle with less bells and whistles, but an easier price to swallow.

AppKettle is a connected tea kettle with a companion app that allows users to heat water on demand, from anywhere. With a nice stainless steel finish and both app and native device controls, this is a nice little upgrade to your traditional tea kettle. With the ability to control the temp of the water, AppKettle might be a perfect gift for new parents on your list who are bottle feeding. There’s nothing worse than waiting for water to heat up while your new baby cries for milk.

Price: AppKettle sadly is only shipping in the UK for around $160, but the CEO told The Spoon they have plans to ship in the US in 2017 with added Alexa integration.

Celebrate The New Year With A Perfect Drink

The season of gift-giving will soon be over which means it’s not too early to be making New Year’s Eve plans. And generally speaking, the most vital part of a good New Year’s Eve at home, whether you’re parenting a toddler and stuck home playing Cards Against Humanity or single and hosting a fancy dinner party with a DJ and a large crowd, are the beverages. And if you’re going to be at home, you want cocktails that taste like they were made by a professional mixologist at a swanky bar, no?

That’s why the Perfect Drink 2.0 Smart Scale and Interactive App make such a great gift – it’s the smart kitchen substitute for an expensive bartending course. The Perfect Drink scale has over 400 drink recipes and walks you through ingredients, letting you know when you’ve poured the perfect amount of each. And if you pour too much, let’s say, gin, Perfect Drink Scale will help you adjust the rest of the ingredients so you don’t ruin the drink. The Cabinet feature lets you keep track of what you have on hand and there are recipes for every season, along with tried and true favorites.

Price: $39.99 on Amazon

Make Spaghetti Out Of….Everything

Tech lover or not, everyone loves a good kitchen gadget that’s useful and helpful without many bells and whistles. I once asked a well-known chef what he couldn’t live without in the kitchen and he said – basically – a good pan and some heat. But the extras can be fun too, which is why we’re putting the spiralizer into our first-ever gift guide.

The spiralizer is one of those low-tech gadgets that has amazing utility and, as a result, has a huge following. It’s basically a handheld device that turns average vegetables into pasta, creating a healthy (and delicious) meal. The spiralizer is best known for its ability to make zucchini spaghetti, but pictures (and testimonials) indicate it can be used to create garnishes and turn other vegetables into a pasta shape, too.

For anyone on your list looking to eat healthier, add this to their stocking and tell them to look forward to a spiralized 2017.

Price: Depends on the model, this basic one is $12.99 on Amazon while this slightly fancier (maybe less labor-intensive version) is $39.95 at Williams-Sonoma.

Read Up On The Future Of Food + The Kitchen

One of my favorite gifts to give and receive are books – you can’t go wrong. And there are a few books in the food tech and food science space that would make excellent presents under the tree.

The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt – The Food Lab is a tour de force – the food bible for anyone looking to infuse science through simple techniques to enhance everyday cooking. The 1000+ page plus recipe book is quite a departure from ordinary cookbooks; authored by Serious Eats managing culinary directorJ. Kenji López-Alt, also a James Beard Award winner, The Food Lab focuses squarely on food science. Looking at the interactions between heat, energy & molecules and how they all work together to create truly delicious food. The techniques to achieving better food aren’t necessarily complicated, and for anyone interested in nerding out over the science behind your favorite recipes, this book is a perfect (and heavy!) gift.

Modernist Bread: The Art and Science by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya – The first Modernist Cuisine book series spawned a cult-like following of the brand and its founder, former Microsoft CTO and technologist turned food connoisseur, Nathan Myhrvold. These books – hundreds of dollars worth – are truly for the hardcore food science nerd, someone who wants to dive deep into the art, science, design, techniques and research on human diet staple: bread. Housed in a stainless steel case, the five-volume series delivers over 1500 recipes, a wire-bound kitchen manual and over 2300 pages of knowledge on bread. While it’s not available until 2017, the right person will swoon over the gift of a Modernist Bread pre-order receipt.

sousvide Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals – From Lisa Fetterman, the founder of Nomiku, one of the first mainstream sous vide machines, Sous Vide at Home just hit the shelves in early November. Sous vide is becoming increasingly popular as a technique using the slow heat of a water bath (described above in our Joule write-up) and this cookbook is a guide to creating chef-quality food using any sous vide device at home. It would pair well with a brand new sous vide machine as a perfect foodie gift.

So there you have it – our first annual holiday gift guide! We hope you find something for every food and tech lover on your list.

Happy Holidays!

Perfect Company

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