Blueshift’s Apple-inspired hydro-nutrient system merges digital age with functionality

10 Mar 2022 --- US-based Blueshift Nutrition is launching its hydro-nutrient system, which includes an app-powered, motion-sensing Wellness Bottle and tasty functional beverage blends. The buttonless bottles are modeled after the latest trends in the technology industry to offer users a digitally-supported hydration experience.

Paal Gisholt, founder and CEO of Blueshift, tells NutritionInsight: “Taking a cue from Apple, we removed the on/off button and have a sleek button-free design. Instead, we use physical gestures to operate the blender, again, like gestures on your phone. There is an Alexa-like light ring that glows blue when you are blending, and it bursts into a rainbow when the drink is finished blending.”

Gisholt adds the app-powered health device has over-the-air update capabilities, “So We can update the firmware on the bottle similar to a phone or a Tesla, so as we come up with new features, we can improve the bottle over time.”

The current Wellness Bottle is Blueshift’s “Ultra” model, with an onboard blender, hydration tracker, Bluetooth-powered app, LED hydration reminders and a stainless-steel internal lining.

The blends cater to a mix of health and wellness concerns.The bottle is meant to be paired with Blueshift’s nutrient-packed blends. Currently, there are 19 blends, with 21 more on the way, including a prenatal blend, a gut health formula, a collagen-boosted skin formula, a vegan formula for women over 50 and a vegan formula for men, who are increasingly looking for more pathways to support their health and appearance.

E-commerce enabled Wellness Bottles
The Wellness Bottle, which comes in black or copper and black, has an additional feature that keeps track of when users took their last sip. The bottle glows blue to remind users to have something to drink per their hydration goals, set via app.

“The bottle contains a digital scale that adds each sip to your personal hydration goal. There is even a silent mode for meetings, just like your phone,” continues Gisholt, adding that users can adjust all of these settings via the Blueshift app. “The app is also e-commerce enabled, allowing you to manage your pods subscription.”

The bottle has a three-pod shifting holder at the top, meaning users can take multiple drinks with them on the go, only having to add water to activate the drink powders.

“The pod format makes it super convenient to make drinks on the go without having to get your fingers dirty or have trash to dispose of. You can basically dial-a-drink.” The bottle also glows rainbow colors to celebrate when users reach their hydration goals.

Gisholt notes Blueshift has other, simpler models in development for different customers' preferences and uses. “We want to make sure we give some time to get input from a wide range of customers before we lock any of those designs down.” 

Blender bottles are essential to plant-based beverages
While not all vegan, a majority of Blueshift’s blends offer a flavor-conscious delivery of plant-based nutrients, which Gisholt flags are still rising inCEO Paal Gisholt says the pods are made from a mix of nutritional ingredients. popularity:

“From turmeric to ashwagandha to berries to pomegranate to mushrooms to beets to greens – plants are hot. Especially when you can make them taste good.”

The blender also has a “Lift-to-Blend” feature that uses a motion sensor to re-blend drinks whenever users raise the bottle to take a sip.

“Plant-rich drinks are prone to settling, and the lift-to-blend feature kicks on the blender for a second every time you lift the drink to keep all that goodness evenly distributed,” Gisholt explains.

He goes on to stress that people are looking to functional F&B to supply the benefits that can’t be found in pill form.

“Pills have enough room for the tiny micronutrients, like B vitamins and vitamin D. They are generally too small for meaningful levels of plant-based ingredients like turmeric, ginger, ashwagandha, berries, mushrooms, beets, pomegranate and greens. So people have turned to the drink format to get higher levels of all this plant-based goodness.” 

Blends for sophisticated palates
“Healthy drinks and drinkable supplements are at the intersection of a bunch of trends,” says Gisholt. 

He cites the trend toward hydration, sugar avoidance, the move to natural, consumer demands for plant-rich products with greater nutrient density, growing preference for whole foods over extracts and “increasingly sophisticated” consumer palates.

“Everywhere from coffee to beer to wine to selzer, Americans are appreciating more complex and less sickly-sweet taste profiles. This is an area where many functional beverages on the market today leave a lot to be desired.”

Each blend contains a mix that caters to a wide variety of consumers, who can use the Wellness Bottles to monitor their hydration goals.To cater to shifting consumer palates, Gisholt says the company chose not to cover up the herbal notes in Blueshift’s blends. Instead, the company chose flavor profiles that complement the botanical flavors of a given formula, “using them as a source of complexity and interest, as with a mocktail. And they taste delicious,” he enthuses.

Stacking blends
Blueshift’s website doesn’t sell multi-blend packs just yet, but this may change in the future.

“The beauty of our system is that you can choose exactly what you want and nothing you don’t need, so we do not sell premade triples. We do have common combinations that we will likely offer as stacks,” which Gisholt says will include complimentary formulations. 

He hypothesizes these may include a “workout stack” including Blueshift’s Pre-workout, Electrolyte and Post/Recovery blends, or a “travel stack” possibly including the Immunity Ultra, Electrolyte and Sleep blends.

Gisholt says the current bottles are only “version 1.0” of the digital experience and that the company has more functional and fun ideas to improve the device. These include connecting to other health apps, adding community-building functions, and potentially integrating other health behaviors into the experience. 

Future features will be based on consumer feedback, he assures.

By Olivia Nelson