Latte Art, Now Available at the Touch of a Button
An image created with the Ripple Maker. Photo: Ripple Maker
Do you take your latte with sugar, milk, or with your likeness etched into the foam? That last option just crossed over from the realm of science fiction and into real life courtesy of Ripple Maker, a new gadget that marries the technologies behind 3-D printing and inkjet technology.
The machine itself is small — only 10-by-8 square inches in size — and features a touch screen from which an image is selected. Once chosen, a mechanism like that of a 3-D printer “prints” the image onto the waiting foam of a latte below, just like an inkjet. Instead of ink, it uses a coffee extract specially formulated by Ripple’s design team.
Here it is in action:
The idea is the brainchild of Israeli industrial designers Eyal Eliav and Danny Lavie, who nearly a decade ago found themselves working long hours from various Tel Aviv coffee shops. According to Ripple Maker CEO Yossi Meshulam, they’d look at the foam floating atop their lattes and think, “How great would it be if we could send messages on it?”
Meshulam told Yahoo Food that they hope to get the machine into coffee shops, which, in exchange for Ripple’s $999 price tag, could offer customers a little extra something. A free Ripple app will allow them to choose from any number of images or text treatments, like for instance a daily zen quote, an Instagram of their golden retriever, or even a surprise message sent to them by another Ripple user (a la the barista in this Inside Amy Schumer skit).
A look at the Ripple Maker app. Photo: Ripple Maker
Businesses are already lining up. On Wednesday, Ripple Maker announced that the German airline Lufthansa will be the first global brand to adopt the technology. Ripple Makers will be installed in Lufthansa’s first and business-class lounges later this year.
So how will latte artists respond to Ripple’s encroachment on their territory? Meshulam isn’t worried about any backlash. “I went to a latte art championship, and they were fascinated!” he said. “It’s like photography and painting. Both of them can live together.”
In fact, Meshulam believes latte artists can use Ripple to create an entirely new art form. “They do the latte art and they put it in the ripple on it,” he said. “It’s beautiful, and completely complimentary.”
More food art stories:
Vintage Menus to Make Modern Hearts Go Pitter-Patter
Illuminated Bread Loaves Put Christmas Lights to Shame
These Skylines Look Good Enough to Eat
Would you enjoy an image printed on your latte? Tell us below!
