Aqua Libra Co unveils tech enabled flavour taps

Smart touch taps company Aqua Libra Co has unveiled Flavour Tap, a new solutions that allows customers to dial up fruit flavours with the touch of a button, while at the same time cut back on calories and single use packaging.

Ideal for workplaces, hospitality and retail, the Flavour Tap uses state of the art technology to dispense still, sparkling and flavoured water. Each tap comes with the technology needed to learn from drinkers in real time and adjust the flavours offered to meet their palate

Launching with four refreshing fruit flavours – Blackcurrant; Orange & Yuzu; Cucumber, Mint & Lime; and Raspberry & Peach – each serve contains zero calories and every tap reduces packaging waste by 99% when compared with traditionally packaged soft drinks.

The Britvic-owned business has developed this technology as part of Britvic’s Beyond the Bottle strategy – a long-term exploration of what is next for soft drinks as consumers seek more sustainable choices.

Noel Dickson, product director for Beyond the Bottle at Britvic, said: ““Our decades of experience with liquids and equipment combined with a priority to develop industry-leading experiences has led to the creation of the Aqua Libra Co Flavour Tap. While developing the ground-breaking product, Amazon Web Services has supported our ability to innovate in-house.”

“The Aqua Libra Co Flavour Tap truly defines the term healthy hydration, with quality and sustainability credentials at its heart, and has the opportunity to revolutionise the market. One flavour cartridge change takes only 30 seconds, and effectively replaces 1,000 plastic bottles.

“The solution is reducing road miles and packaging, ensuring a low carbon footprint per serve and meeting customer and consumer demand.”

Britvic’s Aqua Libra Co Flavour Tap sits on a cabinet-sized unit in office kitchens and retail shops. The distinctive, streamlined design includes a simple touchscreen interface that provides users with a selection of products and dispenses a finished drink in seconds.

Under the countertop, a high-tech cartridge powered by Internet of Things technology releases micro-doses of sugar-free flavouring into the water. The digital interface, data analytics on flavour tap usage, and Internet of Things capabilities all use Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Britvic said it was able to create a feature-rich prototype within four weeks, thanks to collaboration with AWS, winning support for the project across the business and approval to create a production-scale product.

Throughout the development process, the ability to use AWS to analyse real-time data on the tap’s usage has helped Britvic generate insights that improve the product.

By studying usage, Britvic realised the amount of flavour added to the water varies by location, so it can tailor the flavour cartridges based on whether the flavour tap is in a workplace or a retail outlet.

Tracking customer behaviour led Britvic to provide recyclable cups alongside the flavour tap, as not all consumers carry refillable bottles, and to adjust the tap’s minimum container weight so a wide range of cups can be detected.

Collecting data on flavour tap usage has also helped Britvic customers to understand the needs of their employees and shoppers, and to gain insights that help them to work towards corporate sustainability and wellness goals.