Posts in Bloomberg Pursuits
A Tesla Designer Reengineers the Chocolate Chip

Remy Labesque has a compelling day job: He’s senior industrial designer at Tesla Inc. in Los Angeles. But for three years, he’s worked on a side project that’s enviable to people outside Elon Musk’s universe. Labesque has reengineered the classic chocolate chip because, he says, the 80-year-old teardrop shape is ill-suited to its function.

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The Japanese Spice Blend Taking Over America

A good bowl of ramen seems unimprovable, if not for the discrete, red-topped bottle often sitting aside it. Shake the jar and out falls an array of seasonings that brightens and heats simultaneously. This is shichimi togarashi, and it’s making its way from the ramen counter to the spice rack of fine-dining kitchens…

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Oregon Winemakers Turn Wildfire Losses Into Collectible Bottles

As climate change has become more destructive, and unpredictable weather more commonplace, the threat to vineyards has become unavoidable. But in the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon, a test case is unfolding that demonstrates that even in the face of sizable crop loss and broken contracts—and the resulting inability to re-sell a sensitive agricultural product before it rots—wine grapes can be rescued.

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Internet Beef Is Taking Advantage of Not-So-Hot Supermarket Meat

Plant-based cuisine was one of the biggest food trends of 2018. At the same time, beef sales were massive. Nielsen has reported that beef saw the biggest change in U.S. sales in the past few years, with almost 11 percent more pounds sold in 2018 than in 2015. Beef consumption is expected to continue to rise, to 58.8 pounds per person in 2019, 2.8 percent higher than last year, according to forecasts from the Cattle Site.

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Investing in Fine Wine Is More Lucrative Than Ever

Buying rare wines is like investing in a startup: You need ten years of runway to see significant returns. But unlike a startup, wine is a lot more lucrative these days.

Had you allocated $100,000 to Cult Wines, a U.K.-based wine portfolio manager, your money—which is to say your wine—would have returned an average of 13 percent annually. In 2016, its index performance was actually 26 percent.

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Your Next Truffle May Be Coming From Greece

So you’re dining at a fancy restaurant and choose to splurge on some truffles to top off your repast. The server steps up and presents the vaguely ugly tuber. As the pungent slices rain down on your main course, the waiter announces that these truffles didn’t come from Italy, the traditional provenance of this decadent garnish. They hail from Greece.

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A Hedge Fund Pioneer Is Making Some of the Best Goat Cheese in America

Mark Spitznagel is a guy who gives new meaning to the term “gentleman farmer.”

In Northport, Mich., among rolling hills and barns that evoke the mountains of Europe, Spitznagel and his wife Amy are producing French-styled goat cheese such as Idyll Gris, which features a silvery ash coating between fluffy light layers of fragrant goat cheese.

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This Guy Is Trying to Break Hong Kong’s Meat Addiction

David Yeung believes that meat is the new tobacco. But the long-time vegetarian and practicing Buddhist won’t try to get you to stop eating meat. He just wants you to consider eating less.

That’s what he’s trying to do with the citizens of Hong Kong, who collectively have the highest per-capita meat and seafood consumption in the world, according to a 2015 study by Euromonitor. (Surprising, right? We’ll give you a moment to digest.) His life’s mission is to get the citizens of our planet—particularly his home city—to cut out eating animals at least one day a week. And it’s working.

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Rosé Is Seeing Explosive Growth as Its Summer Rival, Beer, Goes Flat

Rosé has evolved into the most clichéd of beverages: it’s a drive-thru, a pool party, a hashtag. At the same time, it's become one of the most powerful forces in the beverage category. It’s now a third channel of revenue for wine makers, retailers, and distributors, elbowing its way alongside the traditional categories of red and white.

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