Maker of NotMilk raises $85M Series C from investors including Jeff Bezos | Hacker News Reader

Maker of NotMilk raises $85M Series C from investors including Jeff Bezos

inc.com

11 pointsadrian_mrd14 comments

>he company that makes NotMilk, a nondairy milk-like beverage designed by artificial intelligence

PR is really something else.

Indeed. I am absolutely sure their design process went: Mix a bunch of different stuff, teste it. Feed results of teste evaluation into computer, train ML model to accurately pick out the mixture which was rated highest in evaluation for that sweet sweet ml pr-boost effect.

If that's not the case then I am extremely curious for them to release an actual tech run through of how ML contributed to their process.

This seems the same story as Incredible Burger: take an existing alternative, jiggle the pieces a bit and invest a few million in marketing and celebrity endorsements. A silicon valley high tech story underlying the whole thing...

Combining different ingredients is basic food science and you'll see fantastic things in the ingredient list of most modern industrial foods. No need for a made-up AI or stories about finding a match of 'molecules'.

Happy to see the veggie space grow but this marketing is just outrageous...

P.S.: I've been veggie for more than a decade and Incredible Burger despite all its advertisement tastes rancid and sad compared to many existing alternatives. If you don't like it don't be fooled into thinking that all veggie/vegan stuff tastes bad ;)

I have to agree, as someone who's been veggie their whole life these fake meat burgers are the bane of my culinary existence. Give me a black-bean burger or a sweet potato burger or a lentil burger or a plain old soy burger anyday!

Mushrooms make a nice patty too!

Unless you hate mushrooms, and they’re very low in nutrition density. :)

A mushroom cap is a slice or two of bread worth of protein and a good source of a few minerals and b vitamins while being low in calories. There are way worse things to eat (if you like them) if you weigh a twidge more than you'd like.

Which could be a plus: they're also VERY low in calories. And when it comes to a "burger" like Americans use, there's plenty of calories in the bun and if that's not enough, the amounts of sauce some people use.

It's going to be a lot healthier than a standard burger.

Do you mean impossible burger?

I wonder if your tastes have just changed. I’m not veggie, and I love the impossible and beyond burgers. Easily the best fake-meat I’ve had, and for the cause I think that’s really important. I.e, better for the cause to match taste of carnivores than those who have been veggie for a decade.

Curious what existing meat alternatives you think are good. I’ve always been really disappointed with anything besides like picking tofu in Thai food or paneer in Indian food.

I love the naming. The milk industry has been trying to keep soy (and other) milk producers from using "milk" in their name, arguing it confuses consumers, and that "milk" = cows. Such FUD nonsense. I'd love to see them try this argument with "NotMilk"

Reminds me of "I can't believe it's not butter"

I imagine one of these milk-substitute brands will become something like the next Coke: a recognized and widely available brand across the world. Personally I hope it's Oatly, I really liked both their oat milk and their oat yogurt.

Does it make NotCheese?

Why would you need that when you can have any of these?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_analogue

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