Mass customization of food in real time

[mattbell]

I'm not thrilled that this is happening for a sugary beverage, but the concept is fantastic:

Coke has made a custom drink machine that will mix drinks on command

Here are some areas I'd rather see it in:
- Granolas.  Most granolas are way too sugary.  I want to be able to pick the mix of ingredients for my granola, and have the machine mix them in real time.  I suppose I could do this by hand (and I sort of do it already by adding an extra ingredient or two) but this would be waaay more convenient
- Trail mixes.  Ditto to granolas
- Nut butters and syrups.  Yes, I want independent sliders for hazelnut, chocolate, and sugar for my Nutella.
- Vitamins, whey protein etc.  This might be too much work to do locally, but I'd love to be able to pick the optimal nutrient mix for my body and have it delivered custom-mixed to me.

This is one reason I like good bartenders.  They're like the machine, but with a cheery disposition, lots of knowledge, and a voice interface.  :-)  So this one time... I was in a bar in NYC, and there was a yummy-looking drink on the menu called the Angry Lesbian.  I believe it involved tarragon-infused vodka, orange rind, ginger, framboise, and a bit of sugar.  I asked for it with no added sugar since I like my drinks less sweet.  I paused, and then said, "yes, I'd like my Angry Lesbian extra angry." 

Comments

[proctologiste.livejournal.com]

I can envision writing a limited-domain (drink orders) natural language processor that could parse your last statement. However, you would get an Angry Lesbian that either has extra booze or extra ginger, depending on the semantic association skew in the training corpus.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

That was very funny.

[jhogan.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's another step towards star trek replicators!

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

The co-op I used to shop at in Iowa City had a machine that would grind nuts into butters. As I recall, it was pretty expensive, but you could pair a couple of those up with some peristaltic pump assemblies and a mixing blade to build a roll-your-own-nutella bot.

I have not yet gotten around to writing that Arduino control library for the peristaltic pumps I got out of a Swiffer WetJet a while back, and those pumps are definitely too small for something as viscous as nut butter, but that kind of code would be reusable.

[danea.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, the Whole Foods near my house has a Trail Mix bar -- like a salad bar but trail mix ingredients.

[mary-wroth.livejournal.com]

Not entirely related - but my friend wrote an article about exotic vending machines the other week:

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/05/12/you-can-get-what-in-a-vending-machine/

To me the weirdest thing is the BAIT vending machine. Where you can pop in a few bucks and get a bucket of minnows or leeches.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

Bait is absolutely not the weirdest thing to be found in vending machines, though I wish it were. Here's a write up on vending machines in Japan:

http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/panties.asp

[sandrak.livejournal.com]

There aren't any online stores that will compound and deliver custom vitamins to you? I find that hard to believe.

[sandrak.livejournal.com]

Found one; http://www.vitaganic.com/

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I'll look into it.

[uke.livejournal.com]

http://proteinfactory.com/ does some of the mixing that you are imagining, reasonably economically.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

That's impressive. The full-control mixer is really cool, though it's beyond my sports nutrition knowledge at this point. Time to go learn more...

I think I will take one of the existing formulas and then modify it to suit my specific needs.

[sarcazm.livejournal.com]

in dallas we have this shmancy grocery store chain called central market, and every single thing you listed that you wanted they offer, and then some. i would LIVE there, if it wasn't so packed full of people, and so expensive. plus, they carry vosges chocolate and exceptionally hard to find fruit and stuff, like golden raspberries and yellow pomegranates and moro oranges and items i normally would only find in thailand.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Aside from the mass customization stuff, it sounds a bit like my favorite supermarket in the world, Berkeley Bowl.
http://nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com/133459.html
http://nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com/244483.html


Also, if you like Vosges, check out New Tree as well.

[sarcazm.livejournal.com]

thanks for the chocolate rec, i'm going to look for it.