kukki - mix of love and sensor systems

It's not often that one associates engineering with enjoyment. But when you add a good dose of passion and the spirit of innovation, the mix is right. Two engineers who want to revolutionize the beverage market have started up in Berlin with an ice machine that they designed themselves and innovative 'cocktails to go' – ready-made drinks with fresh fruit and cold ice in one bottle. Their new product, the culmination of countless hours of work, also incorporates modern automation technology to safeguard quality while ensuring that the growing demand can be met in the long term.

Would you like a fresh cocktail, but there's no bar anywhere close? If Berlin startup boozeME is a success, that problem may soon be over. Take the bottle out of the freezer compartment, warm it up briefly, shake it, open it and insert a straw, and you have a complete kukki drink with the best ingredients. Only the ingredients that should be mixed are mixed. The fresh fruit remain unchanged and the frosty ice clinks in the bottle. What sounds amazingly simple is the result of extensive tests and many years of trials – including one with the prototype of a special ice machine that produces ice cubes which are not actually ice cubes – at least not in the usual sense.

A mini-glacier in Berlin

A machine as special as this doesn't just have a model designation, but its own name as well. This one is called "kukkifant". It is capable of producing the ice for cocktails in the right shape (cylinders instead of the usual cubes) and consistency, with a nod to the image of eternal ice in glacial regions. The details are still a company secret, but one thing is clear: The system components of the prototype are monitored by three inductive sensors to ensure problem-free production.

The Berlin cocktail mixers rely on autosen sensors. The reasons for this are technical: The AI054 is a proven model and even the standard version is especially precise and resistant. Add to that practical advantages like fast delivery, even for small volume orders. But time is not the only enormously valuable consideration, especially in the prototype phase. Josef Klemm, Managing Director of boozeME talks about autosen's terms: "They are great for the bottom line in the founding phase, but also later when we need to scale our devices for considerably higher volumes." So-called Standard Class devices are used. A higher protection class is not required at the periphery of the machine.

Large amount of manual work

But how does the ice actually get in the bottle? First, a lot of manual work is required. "Handmade with love" is the slogan of this Berlin startup and in this case that means each individual bottle goes through ten hands before it is dispatched. Even the cylindrical rods of ice are also inserted into the bottles manually. They keep their shape due to the special manufacturing process with precisely defined temperatures and pressures. There is no need for preservatives.