Smart Cups launched the world’s first printed beverage from our 23,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Southern California in 2018. What started as a printed energy drink quickly evolved into a breakthrough platform for sustainable nutrition. Today, Smart Cups is recognized by TIME Magazine as an Invention of the Year and led by Founder Chris Kanik — the Season 1 Winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars. We are proudly based, operated, and manufactured in Mission Viejo, California.

As an American brand, we are committed to building innovative manufacturing in the United States. Our facility has created new, future-focused jobs and helps establish the U.S. as a global hub for sustainable food and beverage innovation.

Smart Cups is now a sustainability-driven technology company reshaping how the world accesses drinks and nutrition without shipping liquid. Our patented zero-liquid printing system allows us to print flavor, vitamins, electrolytes, and nutrients directly onto recycled paper cups and bowls — or virtually any surface. Just add water.

By removing liquid from the supply chain, we create products that:

• Ship 95–97% lighter

• Fit 21–31× more servings per truck

• Use up to 90% less packaging

• Require zero refrigeration

• Cut carbon emissions by 40–57% (validated by UCLA)

Although we began by printing inside a cup, our technology now works on glass, aluminum, plastic, edible films, snack surfaces, bars, and more. This unlocks applications not only in beverages, but also nutrition delivery, personal care, medicines, cleaning products, and emergency relief supplies.

Our mission is simple:

Make high-quality nutrition and essential products accessible anywhere on Earth — sustainably and affordably.

When you support Smart Cups, you’re supporting a future where nutrition isn’t limited by bottling plants, cold chains, or heavy shipping. You’re supporting American innovation with global impact — technology created to help communities, protect the planet, and shape a better tomorrow.

Smart Cups today — for a better tomorrow.

Smart Cups was founded by Chris Kanik, the son of immigrant parents who grew up experiencing food insecurity in Union City, New Jersey. As a child, Chris knew what it felt like to go to bed hungry and watch his family stretch every resource. Those early struggles planted a seed — a desire to one day create something that would make life easier for families like his and for communities everywhere.

Determined to understand the world through science, Chris began working in university laboratories at just 12 years old— years before most teenagers even think about college. He conducted research at Stevens Institute of Technology, then at Rutgers University’s Nutritional Sciences Department, studying metabolism and later supporting NASA-funded Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering projects. He went on to attend Cornell University as an American Chemical Society Scholar.

But Chris’s path wasn’t linear. After graduating, he explored stand-up comedy, creativity, and the uncomfortable space where big ideas often begin. In 2011, driven by curiosity, he successfully encapsulated ethanol in his kitchen using simple tools — a late-night experiment that would evolve into the earliest foundation of Smart Cups.

Chris has always been driven by two things: creativity and impact. As a first-generation American who personally experienced the inequities that shape people’s lives, he made it his mission to build technology that tears down barriers — not reinforces them.

Smart Cups is the embodiment of that mission.

It joins Chris’s scientific training, entrepreneurial courage, and lived experience into one purpose: to make nutrition and medications more accessible, more sustainable, and more equitable for people everywhere.

From the world’s first printed beverage to a global zero-liquid nutrition platform recognized by TIME Magazine and Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, Chris’s goal has never changed: use innovation to empower communities, protect the planet, and serve those who need it most.