Silicon Valley startup Cana has unveiled the world’s first molecular beverage printer, and it cam make thousands of different drinks. Named Cana One, the touchscreen device can fit onto almost any kitchen countertop and uses flavor, sugar, spirits cartridges and CO2 to make anything from sports drinks, coffee, wine, and juices to cocktails.
The team of scientists behind Cana One have spent the past three years studying popular drinks at a molecular level in an effort to isolate the trace compounds behind familiar flavors and aromas in order to create the drink options.
Cartridges can reportedly last around a month and Cana will automatically replace cartridges at no cost, however drinks from the machine are dispensed on a per-drink basis, with prices for each drink ranging between $0.29 and $3.
Through what the company calls “novel microfluidic liquid dispense technology,” the molecular beverage printer gives people the option to customize levels of alcohol, caffeine, and sugar in their drinks. And to keep things family friendly, alcoholic and caffeinated options can be locked and only accessed via a pin code.
The device has been heralded as a way to reduce water waste as well as limiting the waste and emissions associated with the traditional packaging of drinks.
“Every home in the industrialized world has water,” said The Production Board, which produced Cana, founder and CEO Dave Friedberg. “We take just the 1% that differentiates water into coffee, tea, juice, beer, wine, and liquor and just ship that 1%, effectively making a beverage printer. Everyone will find a beverage brand they love. A better fit for them individually instead of being participants in the lowest common denominator solution that the big brands created for all of us.”
Cana CEO Matt Mahar explained: “Cana gives people the ability to create any beverage, any time, with the water from their tap – it’s like magic. Cana’s molecular printer is beverage manufacturing in your home – our system provides only the essential 5% of ingredients in a highly optimized cartridge, this significantly multiplies the number of beverages that can be served.”
Mahar believes Cana can save the average household “100 beverage containers a month” and hinted, “beverages are just the beginning, with our eyes on food and more beverages we are taking ‘climate failure action’ to 10.”
Clear drinks will be offered first and the company notes that some traits such as viscosity, opacity, and pulp are more difficult to achieve until future versions of the device are brought to market.
Cana One will retail at $499 for the first 10,000 orders and $799 thereafter. It is available for pre-order on Cana’s website with shipping expected for early 2023.