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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

smart drinks

Making Traditional Food Prep Smarter With Vitamix

Vitamix is a household name is the kitchen; in 1949, founder William G. Barnard demonstrated the Vitamix blender in the first U.S. infomercial in the early days of television. Since then, Vitamix has worked to uphold William’s mission, developing kitchen food preparation tools as technology continues to mature and provide new capabilities. As COO, much of Tony Ciepiel’s work is thinking about how the market is evolving and how Vitamix can lead in bringing new technology to traditional kitchen prep devices like the Vitamix Ascent Series.

The company’s smart blender series builds on the traditional Vitamix blender and adds emerging technology and capabilities such as built-in timers and wireless connectivity. “As we began designing and planning for the launch of the Ascent Series, we asked ourselves how we might add value for our customers through intuitive design and maximum ease of use,” said Ciepiel. “Among other things, that line of thought drove us to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology into the containers for our Ascent Series blenders.”

Through NFC, the blender can detect what size container has been placed onto the base and will change blending program parameters accordingly. Those parameters include ramp-up times and blade speeds as well as the overall length of a blending program. “That was really a breakthrough moment that brought us to the forefront of intelligent technology within the blending space. We intend to remain there.”

In addition to the Ascent Series product, Vitamix has plans to launch an app that gives customers control over their blenders and what they can make. The app includes the ability to design blending programs that can then be uploaded to the blender to provide users the ability to customize programs to meet their needs. The app pairs those programs with recipes that go directly to the blender. Vitamix allows users to access those recipes but also works with their Perfect Blend Smart Scale, to let the user know exactly – down to a fraction of an ounce – how much of each ingredient to load into the blender container, and can scale the recipe to desired volume or calorie count.

“When you combine that level of automation, product intelligence and connectivity, you impart the expertise of professional chefs to the novice user, which in turn creates unparalleled joy of use and a real feeling of accomplishment,” said Ciepiel of the app.

But how are consumers reacting to this kind of technology? Tony sees it as both an opportunity and a challenge. “One of the interesting challenges we face as an industry is giving consumers a compelling reason to invest their time and money into learning how to integrate “Internet of Things” features into their daily lives,” said Ciepiel. “We’re in a unique position to evolve a product that people already love for its convenience and reliability…. we need to help our customers understand why we’re integrating new, connected technology into our products, and why it’s more than worth their time to come along for the journey.”

Vitamix recognizes that a unique approach is needed when addressing the future of kitchen technology and communicating its benefits. Through in-depth research, they’ve been able to gain a better grasp on the voice of their customer and from that research, are working to develop products that can be woven seamlessly into customers lives.

“It’s not just creating technology for the sake of technology, but rather creating products that directly fulfill what customers want and help them achieve their personal goals, whatever those may be. This will inevitably include more connected, high-tech products in the kitchen as time goes by,” Ciepiel acknowledged. “The industry needs to create and agree upon technical communication standards sooner rather than later.”

The Smart Kitchen Summit is the first event to tackle the future of food, cooking and the kitchen with leaders across food, tech, commerce, design, delivery and appliances. This series will highlight panelists and partners for the 2017 event, being held on October 10-11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.

Don’t miss Tony Ciepiel of Vitamix at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit. Check out the full list of speakers and register for the Summit, using code VITAMIX to get 25% off ticket prices.

Ember Is The $150 Coffee Mug You Never Knew You Needed

Every year, a host of new “smart” products launch into the connected ecosphere. We’ve seen connected vibrating pants (yes really) and Wi-Fi diapers and smart water bottles – where does it end?

Throwing connectivity into all of our things has led to some pretty dumb “smart” stuff. But then there’s Ember. I have to admit, you probably have to like coffee a whole lot to shell out $150 for this smart travel mug, but it’s basic function? To keep your coffee the right temperature, the whole time you’re drinking it.

The mug, which looks a little like an Amazon Echo (…don’t make that mistake and pour coffee on Alexa) is able to heat up or cool down the liquid inside. The temp can be controlled on the mug itself or via an app (smart!) and is wirelessly chargeable.

Ember Company Video

The folks over at New Atlas have a full review of the Ember mug and they have good things to say, including,

if you fall into Ember’s picky target audience – and want coffee flavor to stay optimized all the way to the end – you’re getting a product that does its job well and without compromise.

Coffee does not taste the same from the beginning of the mug until the end – especially if you have young kids who don’t let you finish a cup in the morning before demanding things from you. So yeah, it’s a little spendy. But if Ember is going to keep my coffee tasting the same from start to finish? I am here for it.

I am not the only one, apparently, because Starbucks reportedly keeps selling out (the company’s only retail location as of now) and the mugs are back ordered until April on the site. Though it’s the company’s flagship product, the website indicates the company plans “to revolutionize the way the world eats and drinks,” indicating more food tech products to come.

Check out the New Atlas full review of the Ember connected coffee mug.

CNET Is Not A Fan Of The Teforia Infuser

As more smart kitchen products hit the market, we’re seeing more consumer-facing reviews of the pros, and of course the cons, of these connected devices. CNET has expanded their coverage into the smart kitchen and reviewer Brian Bennett took a closer look at the new tea Infuser from Teforia, the startup trying to revolutionize how consumers brew tea.

The one obvious thing about Teforia’s flagship product is the price point – $1500 is a lot of money to drop on a specialty beverage maker and CNET harps on this a lot throughout the review.

But price aside, Bennett does mention the sleek design (although complains that it is plastic) and enjoys watching the tea infuse and turn from leaf to liquid. But when it comes to the outcome, he’s generally unimpressed and points out that when he tried the same tea with the $200 Breville tea maker, the Breville came out on top.

When Bennett told Teforia his results, their response wasn’t super reassuring either.

According to Teforia, I’d need to run something truly exceptional through the Infuser in order to really appreciate it — something rare, handmade and close to $100 per pound.

Teforia’s move to elevate the tea business, an ancient beverage and an industry that hasn’t experienced much innovation is noteworthy, even if their first product fails to justify the high price point. Check out the full CNET Teforia review here.

Intel’s Efforts To Connect Collectors To Their Wine

Close to a decade ago, households with wine collections and cellars to house them had only a few choices: spend tens of thousands of dollars on a wine management system and hire someone to catalog every bottle in your collection or lose track of most bottles in your collection. And for wine enthusiasts, losing track of what you own is like throwing money out of the window because each wine has its own “drinking window” and once it’s passed, the wine loses value and drinkable potential.

Today, access to information about wine – whether it’s the wine you’re drinking at a restaurant or wine you personally own – has never been easier to find. But the issue of collection storage and management remains – this is where Sommely comes in. Created by Uncorked Studios, a design & engineering firm and backed by Intel, Sommely is smart inventory management system that comes with “smartcaps” to fit over each bottle of wine and a companion app and database. As you acquire new bottles of wine, you catalog them in your system and pair them via Bluetooth with a smartcap, then placing the cap on your bottle. You can record information like its, year, vineyard, where you purchased it, anything memorable behind the bottle, when to drink it and with what types of food you might considering pairing with it.

The smartcap acts as a sort of guide or flag, especially if you have a large wine collection stored cap-side out in wine racks. The app lets you find wines you own based on whatever criteria you’d like and then activates the smartcap to light up once you’ve selected it, for easy access. You can also tap the smartcap and your app will display that wine’s info, negating the need to pull the bottle completely out.

While not all of us have wine cellars at home or large wine collections to manage, the idea that Intel is putting resources into smart beverage management systems is intriguing. For the full story, visit Beverage Daily.