It started with automatic coffeemakers in the 1970s. Today, countertop and other kitchen machines bring pushbutton convenience to a range of culinary tasks in homes, workplaces and eateries.

Israeli companies are in the thick of the automated kitchen revolution. Two of them, Hyper Food Robotics and Beastro, even invented fully robotic commercial kitchens.

Which blue-and-white appliances are in your home or office kitchen?

SodaStream fizzy drinks

The one most likely to be on your countertop is the carbonation system made by SodaStream, the Kfar Saba-headquartered company acquired by PepsiCo in 2018.

SodaStream is the No. 1 sparkling water brand in the world, available at more than 80,000 retail stores across 47 countries.

The sleek carbonation unit, with a replaceable gas cylinder inside, enables consumers to turn ordinary tap water into sparkling water and flavored sparkling water at the touch of a button. Each SodaStream reusable bottle rids the world of up to 3,000 single-use plastic bottles, the company claims.

Assembled in southern Israel by a diverse workforce including Bedouins, Palestinian Arabs  and Israelis, SodaStream machines are constantly getting a redesign to fit consumer tastes. The newest E-Terra features an electric interface, while the E-Duo comes with a glass carafe as well as the usual reusable plastic bottle.

Ansā coffee roaster

Ansā has put a green-tech spin on coffeemaking with a fully autonomous microroaster designed for on-demand roasting of raw green coffee beans on workplace countertops.

By delivering the beans to the office, hotel lobby, restaurant, or café in recyclable boxes, Ansā (“the answer” in Japanese) abolishes wasteful capsule packaging.

The compact appliance “activates” the beans, working from the core to the shell using a dielectric heating system. This produces the characteristic aroma without smoke or noise. Using computer vision algorithms, the micro-roaster calculates the amount of energy to apply to each bean in real time for a homogenous roast. Users can even program it through a dedicated app.

On August 1, the three-year-old company in Ramat Gan announced a seed funding raise of $9 million to fast-track the North American rollout of the smaller home microroaster it’s brewing up for the coming months.

Solato for ice cream

Solato, based in Rehovot, designed a revolutionary technology that produces single-serve ice cream, gelato, sorbet, frozen yogurt or coffee slushie in a countertop machine using recyclable capsules. The pushbutton process takes 60 seconds.

​Solato machines use proprietary mixes said to contain up to 40% less sugar than store-bought brands and are free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

For now, the appliance is available only to food-service businesses and recently had a booth at the Fancy Food Show in New York. There’s a waiting list for a home machine now in development.

SavorEat personalized meatless burgers

The Robot Chef from Rehovot-based SavorEat creates and cooks up to three plant-based dishes simultaneously, every five minutes, according to individual preferences, using pushbutton 3D printing technology.

Robot Chef has already been cooking up plant-based meals in casual restaurants, quick-service restaurants, office headquarters, and college campuses in Israel. Its first US installation is happening this September at the University of Denver.  

Agwa homegrown greens

Galilee-headquartered Agwa invented the AgwaGarden, an indoor autonomous vegetable farm resembling a refrigerator. It’s operated by artificial intelligence algorithms that control and adjust growing conditions automatically and remotely.

AgwaGarden 2.0 can grow various bug-free vegetables simultaneously – many types of lettuce and other leafy greens, herbs, sprouts and more — year-round, without chemicals, packaging or shipping.

All you have to do is plug it in, hook it up to your Wi-Fi, choose your vegetable pods, drop them in and let the virtual agronomist do its magic until the app tells you the produce is ready to pick.

Cofounder and CSO Alon Wallach tells ISRAEL21c that the product is geared to the home market. “For a family of four, you can harvest about three family-size salad bowls per week,” he says.

It has just become available in Israel on a limited basis, and Agwa is starting a pilot in Europe in collaboration with a large home appliance company.

In addition, the AgwaGarden is being used by some commercial shipping lines to give crewmembers access to fresh vegetables throughout long transoceanic voyages.

Swirl personalized water

Mayu, based near Hadera, has found an enthusiastic response to its Swirl water filtration devices that filter, oxygenate and mineralize tap water with a swirling vortex action that gives the product its name.

Introduced during the pandemic, the system consists of a glass pitcher with a metal connector attached to a porcelain base, plus “micro doses” of minerals to add manually. It’s sold in 70 countries.

Mayu 2, a countertop unit coming out next year, will automate the process with buttons allowing users to get the exact blended water mix they prefer.

Capsulab superfoods

Capsulab of Ramat Gan has invented a countertop “factory in a capsule” to produce fresh, on-demand consumer products ranging from cosmetics to superfoods and nutritional supplements.

Still in the pilot stage, Capsulab intends to enable consumers to pop a capsule into the machine, customize details according to personal taste, and press a button to start mixing the ingredients on the spot.