Brewtune – The Fortune Coffee Recommender

Inspiration

Grad school runs on caffeine, but most of us pick our drinks randomly: whatever’s fast, cheap, or just sounds good. We wanted to see if we could use data, humor, and a mascot with too much personality to make that choice smarter — or at least funnier.

What it does

Brewtune takes in your health data (sleep, HR, steps), Google Calendar (meeting overload), and local weather to create a Mood Score (0–100) with a confidence level.

Recommends one primary drink + two alternates from a catalog of 50+ coffees, teas, and decaf drinks.
Generates witty reasons and fortunes using the Gemini API.
Features a coffee cup mascot who roasts your choices (especially if you pick decaf).
Confirms your pick with a fortune cookie cracking animation and a sarcastic, coffee-themed prophecy.

How we built it

Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion for smooth animations.
Backend: Node.js/TypeScript API routes for ingesting signals and scoring mood.
AI: Gemini API for fortunes and witty recommendations.
APIs: Google Calendar + OpenWeather + Apple Health/Fitbit (mock data for demo).
Mock Mode: Presets like Zombie Mode, Overworked, and Chill Day so the app works reliably for judges.
Drink Catalog: 50+ drinks mapped to mood + weather ranges.

Challenges we ran into

Designing a transparent mood formula that felt data-driven but still funny.
Making the mascot look cute instead of cursed.
Debugging hundreds of errors as first-time hackers.
Building animations that feel rewarding without eating all our dev time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a full-stack web app in under 48 hours that actually runs end-to-end.
Created a mascot + fortune system that judges will remember.
Balanced data science + sarcasm in a single project.
Designed Brewtune to hit multiple hackathon categories: Most Aesthetic, Most Impractical, Best Mascot, and AI Innovation.

What we learned

APIs break at the worst possible moments, but fallback logic saves the day.
Humor makes technical projects stand out.
How to collaborate across different skill sets — developer, business strategist, data analyst, designer.
That our first hackathon would be equal parts chaos and caffeine.

What's next for Brewtune

Add live OAuth for Calendar + Health integrations.
Expand the drink catalog to 100+ global + seasonal options.
Evolve into a wellness nudging tool — helping people balance energy, focus, and rest with a sarcastic sidekick.

Our Story

This was our first hackathon. Our team included:

One developer who pulled marathon coding sessions,
One business brain who kept saying “sell the pitch better,”
One data analyst who tried to make sense of our inputs,
One designer who gave the mascot life (and sass).

We started with nothing but caffeine and chaos, ran into hundreds of errors, nearly gave up a dozen times, and somehow ended up with Brewtune. It’s impractical, sarcastic, and over-engineered — exactly the kind of project we’re proud to have built.