Retired Sioux City chemistry professor unveils flavor-changing beverage

SIOUX CITY | A retired chemistry professor from Sioux City has developed a new beverage technology that allows consumers to change the flavor of a drink with each sip.

Larry Martin demonstrated his patent-pending product, called Shaka, at the Journal offices Tuesday. He poured small packets of chocolate- and strawberry-flavored Shaka milk into a glass of low-fat white milk. The three flavors didn't dissolve, but remained separate from each other, with a horizontal stack of solid bands of white, chocolate and strawberry.

Martin then shook the liquid. The flavors didn't blend together, but the movement formed tiny balls, or globules, of various sizes and colors floating around the glass, similar to the appearance of a lava lamp.

The name Shaka, pronounced (Shey-KA), refers to how users can easily change the drink to their liking. The more you shake, the more numerous and smaller the globules become.

"If you want to taste big flavor bursts that fill your mouth with cherry or fill your mouth with chocolate, you just shake a little bit before you drink it," said Dick Herschaer, Martin's assistant. "If you want more of a homogenized flavor, then you shake it more and the flavors are distributed more throughout the drink."

Herschaer said Shaka has the potential to revolutionize the global beverage industry.

"It's the only drink in the world where the consumer can change the flavor without adding anything to the drink," he said.

What's the secret behind Shaka? It's the use of gelatin, a natural foodstuff that keeps the flavors from mixing together on their own.

Martin, a former Morningside College professor who holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, spent years in a lab in the basement of his Sioux City home testing different measurements of gelatin and flavorings before perfecting his formula.

"That was the trick, getting to the correct level so it would be fluid but not just dissolve," he said.

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Retired Sioux City chemistry professor unveils flavor-changing beverage