This is exciting. I won't get a chance to watch it until Friday.
Is the lab there and is it FA branded lab or do they just show mixing and bottling and labeling at a generic mixing warehouse?
Oh, it's glorious. They show everything, as far as I can tell. Not the labels of compounds, but mostly everything I could want. "Roxanne" is the big machine where they load in the program of the flavor outcome they want. Compounds are stored on the sides of the machine, and added in PPM through tubes. Really cool seeing all of that. I skipped the interview and just watched the facility portion. Have lotion and tissues on standby.
Lol awesome that's even more exciting because I didn't believe FA actually did it themselves. Will have to watch this week and see.
They talk about using around 700 molecular components, powders in rotating drums and liquids in various glass and plastic vessels, most of which are added to their flavor bases by their robotic machine, Roxanne. Some super potent molecules are added by hand (they show wee little 120ml bottles in a locked case of some components they're adding by drops to ~2 gallon batches of base that turn into many gallons of actual flavoring in later stages.) Other "bulk" flavorings are also added by hand, with vanillin being the example.
The bases are added to large heated stainless mixing vessels later, where water and PG are added to form the final flavorings. They are then filtered (to prevent "spotting" by some of the ~70 natural extract ingredients they use.) They show a worker using a full respirator protective gear while doing this mixing for a banana flavoring.
Interestingly, they believe 90% of their business is eliquid use now, and seem to be putting a lot of their development efforts towards our use. They have a line of finished eliquids I was unaware of, and show their nicotine handling room, with what looks like full CDC movie zombie virus class protections, with airlock and safety shower, nicotine detecting badges, etc.
I can't watch the vid, but is there anything about why it's taking them so long to get their NA facility up? It was supposed to be going in June and we're a day away from October ffs. Do the Italians work on island time?
They show a half-pallet of concentrates that are headed to NA, which is good news. On the other side, the head of the NA facility is escorting a reviewer around the Italian plant ;^)