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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Take Advantage of these Food Tech Black Friday Deals

It’s the most, wonderful time of the year… for getting a good deal on food tech gear! Black Friday is tomorrow, and we’re on the lookout for bargains to make your connected kitchen even better.

Let us do the work and make your life easier by plucking kitchen-related gear that’s being sold at great prices and list them here. Be sure to check back with us throughout today and Friday as we add more deals to the list! And if you know of any good holiday deals on food tech or smart kitchen gear, let us know in the comments.

ANOVA SOUS VIDE COOKERS
If you’ve ever wanted to try sous vide cooking, here’s your chance: Anova has discounted both its Anova Sous Vide Cooker with WiFi+Bluetooth ($199 $99) and the newer, smaller Anova nano ($99 $75). Anova makes solid sous vide wands (you can read our review of the Nano here), so if you haven’t dipped your toe into the warm water bath of sous vide yet, what are you waiting for?

CHEFSTEPS JOULE SOUS VIDE COOKER
Another excellent sous vide wand is the ChefSteps Joule, which is now 20 percent off at the ChefSteps store ($199 $159). Bonus, this wand features a magnetic bottom so it will stay put in your pot of water with no clips necessary.

HESTAN CUE
Why not give the gift of guided cooking? Now you can get the Hestan Cue for 40% ($499.95 $299.97)  off by using the discount code BLACKFRIDAY18 at checkout. This deal gets you the full Hestan Cue system, including both the smart pan as well as the induction burner.

INSTANT POT
When you purchase the insanely popular Instant Pot 6 quart ($99.95 $70) multicooker, you not only get a versatile countertop device, you also get a rabid online community that can help you get the most out of it.

SMART SPEAKER ASSISTANCE
Smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are getting smarter, more useful in the kitchen, and thanks to Black Friday — more affordable. The Verge has a great breakdown of all the smart speakers from both Amazon and Google going on sale.

GREENPAN VENICE PRO
Like the idea of non-stick pans, but worry about the chemicals that might leech into your food? The GreenPan Venice Pro ($180 $69) might be for you . According to Food52, this ceramic pan “is made without PFAS, PFOA, lead, or cadmium, and is oven and broiler safe up to a whopping 600°F. It also won’t blister, peel or release toxic fumes even if it’s heated up to over 850°F (unlike most nonstick pans).”

BREWIE HOME BEER APPLIANCE
Brewie is knocking knocking $1,000 off the price of its Brewie+ home beer making machine (making the cost $1,500) when you subscribe to their mailing list.

PICOBREW’S HOME BEER (AND HOOCH!) MACHINE COMBO
Bored with just brewing beer and want to try the hard stuff? Aspiring moonshine makers can save bigtime on Black Friday by picking up a PicoBrew Pico C and PicoStill Combo for $300 off ($748 $499). If you already have a Pico C (which you need to use the PicoStill), you can pick up a PicoStill for $100 off($349 $249).

KITCHEN-AID COLD BREW
Cold brew coffee lovers can get their fix at home as Kitchen-Aid has discounted both of their Cold Brew Coffee Makers. Pick up the 28 oz version for ($129 $49) or the 38 oz version for ($169 $92).

WAGYU STEAKS
Wagyu beef is renown for its melt-in-your-mouth flavor, and Crowd Cow is running a sale where you can pick up authentic Japanese A5 Wagyu steaks for your very own. They still aren’t cheap ($192 $149 for one 1.125 lb ribeye), but if you’re looking for a way to indulge yourself and your taste buds, this is about as good as it gets. (Chris here, I’ve tried the CrowdCow Wagyu and it really is delicious!)

DOORDASH’S BLACK FRY-DAY
After all those fist fights for oversized TVs at Walmart, reward yourself with free food courtesy of DoorDash and a handful of major restaurant chains. This Friday, they’ll give an order of free fries to the first 15,000 customers to place a DoorDash order of $5 or more with one of the following: Wendy’s, Wingstop, Jack in the Box, Applebee’s, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Buffalo Wild Wings. The offer is limited to one order per customer, and applies to delivery orders only. You can use the code BLACKFRYDAY to get yours.

MEAL KIT DEALS
If trying a meal kit service is on your bucket list, now would be the time to test one out, with some of the major meal kit companies offering deals in honor of Thanksgiving/Black Friday. HelloFresh has a sale going for $20 off the first four boxes for first-time subscribers, for a total of $80 off. That boils down to $8.99 $5.66 per serving for the Classic meal plan. Sunbasket is running a similar sale, also for $80 off.

ATLAS COFFEE CLUB SUBSCRIPTION
Atlas Coffee Club, who curates coffee from around the world and delvers it via subscription service, will offer $15 off the first shipment for new subscribers to the Coffee of the Month Club. The coffee subscription company is also offering up to $50 off for 12 month subscribers in a Black Friday sale that runs from November 23–25.

EMBER MUG BUNDLE
The expensive-but-worth-it temperature controlled coffee mug just got a little bit cheaper… when you buy two of them. Get a pair of ceramic Ember mugs for $149 (normally $159).

GOSUN SOLAR GRILLS
GoSun makes portable grills that harness solar energy to cook food. Perfect for the camper in your life that doesn’t want to bring fuel into the forest, or anyone looking to make outdoor cooking a little more clean, you can pick up the GoSun Sport ($249 $199), GoSun Grill ($699 $599) or the GoSun Portable ($139 $99).

GOURMIA AIR FRYER. Let’s face it, people either love or hate the air fryer. For some like Wired’s Joe Ray, the air fryer overpromises and underdelivers, while for others it’s hot crispy love from the get-go. If you’re looking to figure out where you stand on one of the day’s most heated (sorry) issues, you can pick up this Gourmia air fryer for $59 through Friday only.

FARMBOT
Forget cooking robots. It may just be time to get a robot to run your garden. You can now pick up the Farmbot Genesis XL garden robot for a full $600 off.  Of course, the deal doesn’t come with a backyard or labor to put it together (that’s for you Farmer Ted), but we can guarantee this will be a one of a kind gift for your home gardening loved one.

GROW DUO
If you’re looking to add some smarts to your garden but aren’t ready to fully outsource it to the robots, try out the Grow Duo, which is on sale for 50% off through Monday.  The Grow Duo comes with everything to start your back porch smart garden, including a smart planter, two grow kits and organic potting soil.

NOMIKU
Mike Wolf recently wrote about how Nomiku reinvented itself as a sous vide-powered food delivery business, offering meals ranging from Five-Spice Short Rib to Minestrone Soup, all ready in 30 minutes. If you want to sample some of that food delivery for yourself, now’s the time — you can take $25 off any order placed on Cyber Monday, and you’ll automatically get a $15 credit applied to December orders. Nomiku is also offering free shipping on all orders over $99.

LARQ
Despite your best cleaning efforts, reusable water bottles can start to get a bit, well, smelly. LARQ’s water bottles use UV-C light to kill bacteria which can cause bad odors, purifying your water at the same time. They’re also pretty stylish. LARQ’s bottles are 15% off today, so you can snag one for $80 (normally $95).

Study: Smartphone Shoppers Want Smart Shopping Assistance

A new survey from the Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab shows that smartphone shoppers are interested in a smart assistant to help with purchase selections, automatic re-stocking of certain items and to receive deliveries when they are not at home.

The Beyond smartphone shopping – the rise of smart assistants report, released this month, used an online survey of 5,048 “advanced internet users in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo.”

Some key findings from the survey include:

  • 67 percent of smartphone shoppers regularly pay with their phones in-store
  • 36 percent of smartphone shoppers believe that “they should pay lower prices in stores than online if they take the trouble to go there”
  • 43 percent of smartphone shoppers want shopping assistants to help narrow down purchasing choices
  • 47 percent of smartphone shoppers want a service that automatically restocks every day items
  • 44 percent of smartphone shoppers want a digital assistant to receive deliveries when they aren’t at home
  • 69 percent of augmented and virtual reality users thing that smartphones will deliver all of the benefits of brick and mortar stores in three years

The first thing that jumped out when looking at these findings was just how much of this Amazon is already working on. In addition to driving down prices, Amazon’s Dash system inches customers towards automatic re-stocking of staple items, Amazon Key is a new service to accept deliveries in your home or car when you aren’t there (and Amazon might even be working on a robot assistant), and the company is even experimenting with AR.

The study also points to the important role AI will play in our shopping. As we are inundated with tons of choices for everyday items, an intelligent assistant who is able to understand our history, preferences and probably even genetics (some day) will be able to whittle down that list to find the right product for us. As the study notes, smartphone shoppers are also looking to smart speakers from Amazon and Google to provide smart shopping assistance and handle routine house shopping needs.

While this survey should be considered a data point and part of an overall glimpse into the current and future state of shopping, anyone in grocery retail should take note and smarten up.