An image of Chinese panda named "Si Xue" by 3D printing on the milk foam of a cup of coffee. (Xinhua/Du Zhen)
by Xinhua writers Du Zhen, Chen Wenxian
JERUSALEM, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Do you feel romantic when a cup of coffee in hand with a personalized image on the milk foam?
The magic is brought by the Israel-based company Ripples, which utilizes 3D printing technology to make the dream of creating personalized coffee come true. Ripples is also the first of such kind in the world being involved in this business.
"It is a very good tool to give more hospitality to our guests," said Yaniv Knafo, assistant food and beverage manager in a five-star hotel in Tel Aviv, a coastal city and the economic hub of Israel.
Knafo asked a waiter to use a 3D printing machine, named Ripples Maker, to print a lovely image of the Chinese panda named "Si Xue" and the logo of Xinhua News Agency on the milk foam of cups of pre-made coffee. It took only several seconds to "print" each coffee art.
The logo of Xinhua News Agency by 3D printing on the milk foam of cups of coffee. (Xinhua/Du Zhen)
According to Knafo, guests are always surprised to see sweet phrases such as "good morning," "I love you" and "happy birthday" being printed via the 3D printing technology.
"This printing technology is a mixture of ink jet printing and 3D printing," said Ori Gover, business development manager of Ripples, which was fully established in 2014.
The milk foam on the top of coffee is like a blank page, which is exactly the idea for Ripples to print images, logos, or phrases on it, Gover told Xinhua.
The wifi enables the sophisticated printer to be connected to the Internet. Users just upload the images that they want Ripples app to install in their cellphones and send the content to the Ripples Maker. Then the machine does all the work.
"What we print on top of the coffee is coffee-based abstract made from a high-quality mix of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, and it is not simple to print natural ingredients," said Gover.
The Ripples Maker uses a tiny amount of coffee extract as ink, which means that the ink-jet-style printing head dispenses a very fine spray of targeted ink.
With the support of 3D printing technology, the printed image is made up of very fine layers of the coffee extract, which are built up to define the areas of light and dark in the image.
"We bring printing technology to the food industry, which nobody did on beverages as we do before," said Gover.
Except for uploading an image via Ripples app, users can also choose from the Ripples library installed on the Ripples Marker.
"Customers can easily create their own ripples for their business such as brand logos and icons, or even promotional messages," said Gover.
Currently, Ripples has jointed hands with hospitality industry such as hotels, restaurants, bars and offices as well. The company is operating business in close to 15 countries.
In China, where the number of coffee lovers is increasing, the company has cooperated with nearly 100 well-known Chinese enterprises.
In order to expand its business and meet the demand of Chinese customers, Ripples has adapted all of its apps to WeChat, one of largest social media in China.
"We see great potential in China and expect to grow the Chinese market in the future," noted Gover.
Besides coffee, Ripples has also been trying to use the 3D printing technology on beer foam. Several weeks ago, the company launched its new application in the same strategy which is printing on beer with a new ink made out of malt extract.
The company has its own food department and operates a factory in Israel now that creates two types of ink, Gover added.
