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Printed ingredients could disrupt the beverage category

California-based company Smart Cups releases a line of energy drinks, with microencapsulated ingredients printed on the bottom of a disposable cup that are activated with water.

Smart Cups
Smart Cups

Imagine if you could replace a 10-pack of 9-oz bottled or canned energy beverages with a lightweight flexible pouch containing the equivalent amount of product. Sound fantastic? Well now it’s possible, with the new Smart Cups line of four energy drinks that feature microencapsulated ingredients printed on the bottom of a disposable plastic cup. A joint development between Mission Viejo, CA-based Smart Cups and The Additive Advantage of North Reading, MA, the proprietary 3D polycapsule printing delivery system technology transforms a virtually empty vessel into a self-stirring energy drink through the addition of water (watch video).

Smart Cups Technology™ was conceptualized by entrepreneur and chemist Chris Kanik, now CEO of the company, who first explored how printed technology could be applied to the beverage industry to create instant drinks. Kanik then partnered with Sal Celeste, CEO of The Additive Advantage, who is described by Kanik as “a leading voice for microencapsulation research and technology since 1992.”

“Together we combined our out-of-the-box thinking to invent and commercialize a complete, precisely measured delivery system where the printed microcapsules containing the active and flavor materials are activated by adding water,” Kanik says.

As The Additive Advantage explains, traditional microencapsulation packages solids, liquids, or gaseous materials within a polymer shell, forming small particles called microcapsules. These shells, which protect the actives in the core, dissolve through a specific stimulus, releasing their content at a targeted time and place. “Whereas microcapsules protect the actives, The Additive Advantage’s patented Integrated Delivery Platform (IDP) technology both protects the microcapsules as well as affixes them to substrates through a proprietary printing process.”

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