A US technology company, Cana Technology, has raised US$30 million in seed funding to bring their Cana One Beverage machine to market from 2023. It claims to be able to ‘print’ juice, coffee, wine, hard seltzer, cocktails, etc in order to innovate beverage production and replace single-use containers from households.
Cana’s aim is to give people the ability to create any beverage, any time, with the water from their tap – supported by over four years of scientific research. To do that, Cana has created the world’s first molecular beverage printer. This will create in practice a beverage manufacturing in your home with their system providing only the essential 5% of ingredients via a cartridge, which significantly multiplies the number of beverages that can be served. For example, Cana is trying to save the average American household 100 beverage containers a month. Beverages are just the beginning, with the company’s eyes on food and more beverages to decentralise the entire system of production with their molecular beverage printer, whilst providing customers with any drink, any time, with ultra-low waste.
The success or failure of the new enterprise will inevitably be determined by consumers and their desire to bring a beverage solution such as this into their homes. From personal experience having owned other alcohol + tech devices (such as the Drinkworks Home Bar for example), and as someone interested in the drinks industry, one of the key measures for the Cana One will be flavour delivery.
For Reference – previous Alcohol + Tech blog posts by Inside the Cask
“Cana One is designed to give each customer convenience, savings, and an experience they didn’t know they were craving – while cleaning up the planet,” said Cana CEO Matt Mahar, whose team includes Nike, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Google, Apple and food tech alumni.
“It’s like having a personalised beverage aisle in your kitchen – with zero trash or hassle from plastic, aluminium, and glass containers.” Matt Mahar
Maximum variety, minimum waste
Unlike pod-based beverage systems, a single Cana One ingredient cartridge can create hundreds of different beverages and should last on average for a month without needing replacement. The device comes with parental controls including a PIN code to keep certain beverages (including alcoholic and caffeinated options) away from others in the home.
Ingredient cartridges will be automatically replaced, at no additional cost to customers, as they run low. Customers easily return cartridges to Cana in prepaid packaging, where they are reused up to 12 times before being fully recycled.
Customers pay per drink for each beverage Cana makes. Per-drink pricing will range from $0.29 to $2.99; the average cost will be significantly lower than bottled beverage retail prices.
Customers can reserve their Cana One device online, with the first 10,000 orders guaranteed a price of US$499 and after that, the regular price will be US$799.
Science in every sip
Cana’s team spent three years studying what consumers drink at the molecular level, commercialising breakthrough research in flavour and analytical chemistry.
Their scientists identified and isolated the specific trace compounds that drive flavour and aroma for thousands of unique commercially available beverages. Most beverages are mostly water. The compounds that make up the odour, colour, and flavour of a beverage typically represent just 1% of the total volume of that beverage. Soda and juice: 7% sugar, 92% water, 1% flavour compounds; coffee and tea: 98% water, 2% flavour compounds; beer: 94% water, 5% alcohol, 1% flavour compounds; wine: 87% water, 12% alcohol, 1% flavour compounds.
That 1% really makes all the difference.
Based on this fact and the research conducted, Cana then created the world’s first universal beverage ingredient set, which recreates thousands of different drinks using a simplified set of ingredients that can be printed out of a long-lasting ingredient cartridge.
Cana engineers designed, tested, and have now demonstrated a novel microfluidic liquid dispense technology that can affordably, quickly, and accurately combine Cana’s individual flavouring ingredients in a small form factor, delivering a better beverage than the commercially available bottled options.
Cana is building a technology platform to create all household consumables at the point of consumption, with minimal environmental impact. Cana’s goal is to eliminate the need for bottling, packaging, shipping and other manufacturing waste.
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