Cold inspires, cold creates, and eventually cold will end the universe. (not really, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to introduce this idea, consequently weird segues may abound, oh wait better intro, straight forward honest, but I like this part, so I'm leaving it in, take that coherent writing narratives)
3-D printing and molecular gastronomy* are culinary matches made in heaven. Inventors, chefs, and inventive chefs, are creating technologies and techniques that make you wonder what can't be made into food. While food and drink recipes are moving into the future, culinary ice has only changed at a relatively glacial pace (pun very much intended).
Ice does not need remain to relegated to simply cooling a food item, with 3-D printing, smart chemistry, and a chef's ingenuity ice can do so much more for a drink. Currently when a drink is ordered at a bar, the bartender can only choose from varying sizes of ice cube, the differences in the shape and size of the ice cubes will alter the rate of melting within the clients drink. Over time the melting ice will slowly water down the drink, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, many hard liquors are ordered on the rocks, to expressly have the water change the flavor profile of the drink over time. What if the drink wasn't simply being watered down, but as the ice melted other flavor elements were added to the drink, transforming the relatively static drink into something dynamic. Early generations of this technology would most likely be added to more rudimentary cocktails, where your margarita would intermittently add hints of lime. Future innovators/bar owners hoping to maximize the premium on their drinks would allow guests to custom order specialized 4-D ice that matched their pallete, body temperature, and uhhhhh.. pheromones (?) (the last one is an idea for marketing BS not actually grounded in any real thought).
The year is 2030 and Snowflake and his friends are out to celebrate his acceptance into the AI digitization and upload program, to celebrate they decide to get the most expensive drink on the menu, "Snowflake's Dream". The title of the drink is based off of the overly invasive club's computer system data mining all of Snowflake's data on social media, as well as bio-metric data gleaned from the building's security system. It turns out the programmers were lazy and simply coded the AI to simply make the title of the drink the name of the patron followed by the word dream. While unimaginative on the menu's naming system the programmers did an amazing job on the drink design software. Noting how long Snowflake generally takes to drink various types of drinks, what flavors he finds interesting and complimentary, the AI concocts a drink and ice cube that will perfectly match his desire for a social drink that takes 27 min+/- 4 min to finish. When Snowflake's drink arrives, his friends cheer his achievement and he takes his first sip, the best cocktail he's ever had, 29 minutes later, the profile of the drink has changed, subtly and deliciously, and Snowflake is ready to order another.
The inspiration for this idea stems from a Wired magazine article which you can find here.
*read people taking overly complex cooking techniques to levels that would look appropriate on the set of Star Trek
Man it's been awhile since I wrote a post, damn ADHD/lack of external motivators, a few things.
1. Using 3-D printers was more for hype than actually being the only way to add flavor to a drink dynamically, in theory a smart glass with small fluid reservoirs would be cheaper, but that didn't sound as cool.
2. saying the guy was going to become an uploaded in the year 2030 was arbitrary, I have no real sense of timescale on that, my money is on after this date, but I had already chosen the year and when I came up with what they were celebrating a 21st birthday seemed lame and I was already typing and that was the idea that came tome.
3. from an actual manufacturing standpoint printing like this would be incredibly complex, according to the wired article just using normal water ice, the chamber needed to operated at minus 8 degrees ( I assume Fahrenheit), for additives like sugar water, salt, or whatever inventors might end up using, the cold temperature might not be enough, to be truly effective the machine would need to provide a non-flavored surface coating to minimize cross contamination. This would make it all very complex.
4. the cost benefit on an idea like this is incredibly dubious, I am aware of that, there is a reason why this is on a damn design blog.
I hope you all enjoyed.
