In spite of the spectacular failure of Juicero—A $ 400 machine that made freshly squeezed juice through squeeze juice-filled pouches– There are still companies that want to bet on instant pod-based food machines. The latest is the ColdSnap that creates on-demand soft serve ice cream and other frozen treats when you still have a piece of counter space to sacrifice to the pods’ life.
It’s understandable why companies are still trying to hit gold with the pod-based instant food approach. Last August, Keurig Dr. Pepper anticipated his earnings by 2020 would be over $ 11 billion, and with just a little more effort, anyone can make a cup of coffee at home that far exceeds the quality of what a Keurig machine can brew; consumers like convenience.
But the main concern with pod and pouch instant food machines is not the quality of the food or drinks they produce, but the pods and pouches themselves. The machines generate a lot of unnecessary waste, and although coffee pods are usually recyclable or compostable at this point, the manufacturing and recycling process still consumes resources that don’t have to be spent just for convenience. half awake in the morning.
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Instead of coffee or ‘fresh’ juice, the ColdSnap makes single serving servings of frozen treats, including soft serve ice cream, frozen yogurt, iced coffee, smoothies, ‘healthy shakes’, slushies and even cocktails in 60 to 90 seconds. It’s like having one of the McDonald’s ice cream dispensers and a 7-11 Slurpee machine in your kitchen for your own personal use – a very tempting pitch admittedly – but as pod-based machines go, the ColdSnap requires more kitchen space than most.
Not only is the ColdSnap machine much bigger than a Keurig, but the pods it uses are the size of a can of hard seltzer. They are shelf stable, meaning the cans and ingredients don’t need to be refrigerated, but they will still fight your cans of LaCroix and White Claw for pantry space.
There’s no pricing information yet as the ColdSnap launches this summer with a limited beta rollout in the Boston area, but you can expect the machine to cost hundreds of dollars given its ability to quickly freeze ingredients in less than two minutes – plus the cost of the pods for one serving. Will it be worth the cost? Again, the biggest selling point is here ease, but for less than $ 100, you can get an ice cream maker that makes frozen treats in about 20 minutes using the ingredients already in your fridge and cabinets. With a little patience you can probably save yourself a lot of money and a trash can full of discarded pods.