After several years and prototypes, Cana Technology is presenting an interesting, innovative product. Calling it the “world’s first molecular beverage printer,” it combines the idea of a SodaStream machine with printing technologies to produce a large variety of beverages. It can fit on a kitchen counter, use water from the tap and produce anything from that morning cup of coffee to a whisky sour, all with the help of a touch screen and impressive, concentrated liquid cartridges.

Cana identified a set of basic ingredients to begin the process. Water makes up about 90% of the drinks consumed, so with that removed, the other “mix ins” were concentrated and loaded into cartridges. Just one cartridge can make more than 100 types of beverages.

100 different drink options and less waste produced in American households. Source: Cana Technology

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

Drinks can be customized to a user’s preference; sweeteners can be adjusted to their specific liking, alcohol amounts can be reduced or increased as needed. From root beer to an ice-cold brew coffee, one cartridge could keep serving drinks for three months.

Building a beverage empire

This technology could rebuild the trillion-dollar beverage industry with its sustainable drink options. Less waste would be produced, less water used and time saved. Cana has stated that the prototype could potentially save the typical American household 100 beverage containers a month.

Bharat Vasan is the president and COO of The Production Board (Cana’s holding company). He feels concentrated beverage technology is the future of how Americans will consume drinks but could also expand to fragrances and cosmetics.

“It’s about changing the way things are made and shipped out,” he said. “Distributed manufacturing is made in one place and then shipped out to retailers. Now there is a different system of delivery that is directly to your house that can bypass supply chain constraints. The beverage printer is one manifestation.”