Cana Technologies "molecular beverage printer" could revolutionize industry by printing any type of drinks

[The NZA]

Cana Technology raises glass to new capital as it readies beverage printer for market – TechCrunch

Cana focused on identifying the basic set of ingredients, basically deconstructing beverages to figure out what makes it taste like a certain drink.

techcrunch.com

 

Following nearly four years in the prototype phase, Cana Technology is unveiling what it calls the "world's first molecular beverage printer" after securing $30 million in funding from venture foundry The Production Board.

If you're wondering exactly what this might be, it's basically a SodaStream meets a computer printer. The smart connected device is about the size of a toaster, sits on your kitchen counter and can produce an infinite variety of beverages, from juice to coffee to cocktails, by recombining it with water in your home, all from one "printer" cartridge, by using a touch screen.

Here's where the "molecular" technology comes into play: Cana focused on identifying the basic set of ingredients, basically deconstructing beverages to figure out what makes it taste like a certain drink, Lance Kizer, Cana's chief science officer, told TechCrunch.

Once you remove the water, there is a small volume of drink that you are actually consuming, around 5% to 10%, so Cana concentrated those ingredients and loaded them into a cartridge that can hold more than 100 different beverages. The company has partnered with certain brands for drinks and also created their own combinations.

"It is all of the same ingredients that you consume in drinks, so we are not recreating them," Kizer said. "Quality is important, and we are focusing on making beverages in a novel way, and we have now created hundreds of them."

Not only do you have hundreds of drinks at your fingertips, you also can customize them to your taste: add more sugar or less sugar, and for the alcoholic drinks, more or less alcohol. While learning about the device, I was able to try a few of the drinks — cold brew coffee, root beer and a black cherry mojito — and thought the flavors were more bold than their traditional counterparts and the overall taste had a smooth finish.

not gonna lie, i'd try it