With all the different industries getting in on 3D printing in unique ways, even for us, bars and coffee shops are an unusual pick. But now, various companies that serve beverages can add a little something special by personalising their drinks for the customer. The Ripple Maker AM customises and prints messages onto the surface of a foamy drinks like beer, cocktails or coffee. This fun little gadget adds a harmless, entertaining twist to your dining experience.
Ripples, the developer of the device, made it for cafes and bars looking to spice up their offerings. It’s essentially meant to help foster better relations with customers and give them a personalised experience. While the Ripple Maker AM doesn’t make or alter the drink in any meaningful way, it does let companies get artistic with their offerings. It takes a few seconds per drink, scrawling a design onto the foam using malt or coffee extract inks. These enable to make complex designs and also stabilise the foam, retaining the image and preventing spillage.
Personalise Your Beer and Coffee
The device is wifi connected and draws the designs off of a web database. Ripple Creative regularly creates and updates available designs on the Ripple Maker, so users gets access to a web portal where you can upload and control images on the device itself. However, their customers can also get their own designs in the mix if they want. All they have to do is download the Coffee Ripples app and send any image from their phone to a Ripple Maker nearby.
The Coffee Ripples app allow users to upload any photo or image, from selfies to screenshots, and to print on their drink. Additionally, it gives them the ability to locate shops with Ripple Makers nearby. Designs can be 1700 x 1700 pixels, 600 dpi and best with high contrast and bold lines.
The device really helps improve customer engagement and gets them taking pictures and posting to social media. While that’s not doing anything particular to the drink, it does increase social media buzz.
Featured image courtesy of Ripple Maker, retrieved via Beverage Daily.
