Hotelympia's Innovation Award winners announced
The Love Fruit Tea brand consists of frozen ‘pods’ that melt when mixed with hot water, removing the need of a tea bag. Produced by Love Taste Co, they are made with 100% natural ingredients and are available in four flavours.
Designed for making frappes and smoothies, the Multiplex Blend–in-Cup unit comes with a touchscreen control panel and an automatic rinsing mechanism that prevents any flavour transference between drinks. The standalone unit also has ‘clean-in-place’ ice machine sanitisation.
Graham Veal, vice-president of marketing for Manitowoc Foodservice, producer of the smoothie-maker, said: "We’re very proud. It’s a tough competition but we really enjoyed participating – we’re absolutely jubilant."
Cocktail dispenser
Other award winners were a portable self-stabilising table that can fold 90 degrees from StableTable, and a cocktail maker that dispense up to 1,000 cocktails per hour.
The TenderOne cocktail machine is claimed to ‘precisely’ dispense up to 32 different ingredients to the shaker or glass in seconds. With no initial investment needed, TenderOne Bar Services said the machine allows bars to profit instantly from higher revenues, zero waste and increased efficiency.
Finalists for the awards were asked to pitch their products in a behind-closed-doors arena to select band of hospitality industry senior figures. Judges included: Robbie Bargh, owner of Gorgeous Group; Adam Marshall, chief executive of pub operator Grand Union; Cyrus Todiwala, 2013 National Chef of the Year; and professor David Russell and David Bentley from catering consultancy the Russell Partnership.
Hotelympia ran at London’s Excel Arena from 28 April to 1 May.