Another useless unitasker: The Flatev tortilla machine

http://flatev.com/

The box is about $200, claims to make a tortilla from a Keurig-like pod filled with dough (currently flour, corn and blue corn, they may do other flatbreads) in about a minute. The pods are expected to run about $1... per tortilla!

A dollar a tortilla? Wow. I mean. Wow. I guess I'm spoiled because I could get several brands of corn tortillas still warm in the packaging at my local grocer for no more than a dollar a dozen.

Interesting! Yeah, that is some business model-- and they have 9 C_O's of various sorts making it happen. I wonder who their "beachhead market" is-- In my reading, this approach
"It’s for anyone who wants fresh tortillas made quickly and easily. Your kitchen table, your food truck, your restaurant, whatever you’d like."
indicates that they need to focus on one market! (and yes, I did just take Entrepreneurship 101).

It might make a cute gimmick for a fast food joint, but for the home-- I'm not so sure. If you want to serve a dozen tortillas for dinner, do you want to do them individually and wait a minute for each one?

Also, in fairness, they are predicting the price as "the pods will cost less than $1 each"-- if they were 25 cents, you might have something.

It seems to be a Swiss project. Switzerland was the first place I saw the Keurig coffee makers in wide use. At the time, I didn't think single cup coffee brewing had a future, but I was mistaken.

Pie-love wrote:It might make a cute gimmick for a fast food joint, but for the home-- I'm not so sure. If you want to serve a dozen tortillas for dinner, do you want to do them individually and wait a minute for each one?

Also, in fairness, they are predicting the price as "the pods will cost less than $1 each"-- if they were 25 cents, you might have something.

It's hard to imagine fast food joint spending even 25 cents on a tortilla, especially in Chicago where you can get still warm tortillas for way less and just quickly griddle them. But as d4v3 observes, equally unlikely products have succeeded.

Not sure if anyone else watched the video, but I feel very sorry for Rosa.

And perhaps most amazingly, according to homepage call-out: Flatev makes gluten-free tortillas! How do they do it?!

David Hammond wrote:And perhaps most amazingly, according to homepage call-out: Flatev makes gluten-free tortillas! How do they do it?!

Now they are playing on the population's ignorance of what constitutes gluten-free. Of course, if they like their wheat flour tortillas, then they are back to gluten.

Chicago area is fortunate at the quality and freshness of tortillas available to us. Many areas don't have this, where this product might produce the freshest tortilla's they ever experience.

Regards,

Well, not all corn tortillas are gluten free (some rare manufacturers add flour to them), so it makes sense to point that out if you are on a real gluten restrictive diet and want to be sure. (Yeah, gluten-free is a bit faddish, but for people with celiac, it's no joke.)

Binko wrote:A dollar a tortilla? Wow. I mean. Wow. I guess I'm spoiled because I could get several brands of corn tortillas still warm in the packaging at my local grocer for no more than a dollar a dozen.

A dollar a dozen? Wow. Thrifty tortilla shoppers balk unless they get four dozen for a dollar (though three dozen seems to be more common these days).

Armitage Produce, June 2014


Even at the fancy new Walgreens at State & Randolph, a dozen (not always fresh) Atotonilcos cost only 45 cents.

Walgreens, June 2014


Just goes to show what a good tortilla town Chicago is.

Rene G wrote:

Binko wrote:A dollar a tortilla? Wow. I mean. Wow. I guess I'm spoiled because I could get several brands of corn tortillas still warm in the packaging at my local grocer for no more than a dollar a dozen.

A dollar a dozen? Wow. Thrifty tortilla shoppers balk unless they get four dozen for a dollar (though three dozen seems to be more common these days).

Armitage Produce, June 2014

Yep, that's the price I typically see around town - and I bet the tortillas in the box are still warm (although you may need to dig down a layer or two).

Rene G wrote:

Binko wrote:A dollar a tortilla? Wow. I mean. Wow. I guess I'm spoiled because I could get several brands of corn tortillas still warm in the packaging at my local grocer for no more than a dollar a dozen.

A dollar a dozen? Wow. Thrifty tortilla shoppers balk unless they get four dozen for a dollar (though three dozen seems to be more common these days).

I was being conservative with my guess, but also allowing for flour tortillas which I seem to recall being a bit more pricey, I'm guessing at around a buck a dozen. That said, those aren't still warm in their packaging, so I guess corn tortillas must have been mostly on my mind. Three or four dozen to the dollar sounds right, but I never pay more attention than to note they're less than a buck.

I could also just walk down the street to Zaragozas and get the best damned tortillas I've ever eaten, but those are a little more dear at $4 a dozen.