People have now become more conscious about their sugar intake given that diabetes and other related diseases have become much more prevalent. There are a lot of sugar alternatives and zero-calorie sugar options out there but sometimes, you still need something more than just that. Also, these sugar cube alternatives don’t always melt in iced coffee easily so some go to syrups or powders which are not always still the best options. So a sugar cube that can dissolve in anything and is still zero calories would probably be welcomed by those still needing a little sugar in their life.
Designer: Younghyun Kim and js C
Snowy is a cloud-shaped sugar “cube” that is packaged in a jar with the term “0 Kal” so that you won’t forget that it is the healthy kind of sugar. The playful shape is not just to make it fun but it also serves a purpose if you want to use the additional feature of the jar. There’s a magnet grinder included so holding a cloud is better than just a sugar cube or ball. The grinder is there so you can control how much sugar you want to put not just in your coffee but on your other food that you want to sweeten up.
They say the sugar cloud is also easily dissolvable in iced coffee if that’s the way you want to drink your coffee that way. However whether you drop it directly in your iced coffee or you use the grinder to be able to “shred” it onto your ice and therefore dissolve quickly, that is unclear. But either way, it is a better alternative to what’s currently in the market. And being able to control how much sugar you are able to put in your drinks or food is always a good thing.
Packaging it in a see-through jar with the label of 0 Kal and Stevia clearly visible as well is also a good idea as not only is it informative, it also shows off the design of the cubes themselves. The white cover and grinder adds to the minimalist and soft look of the sugar clouds. It’s a nice piece of kitchen accessory to have in your personal kitchen or at your coffee shop.
Ice cream is one of mankind’s best inventions, at least according to my standards. Whether it’s peak summer or I’m at my most stressed, having a spoonful of this flavored, cold stuff is enough to make my mood a little better. I also love to experiment with different flavors, toppings, and additions to my frozen scoop although just eating vanilla can sometimes be enough. But what I haven’t really thought much about is smelling ice cream.
Designer: Salt & Straw and Imaginary Authors
American ice cream chain Salt & Straw has partnered with perfumery Imaginary Authors to create three fragrances that can also serve as ice cream toppings. It may be weird to think of perfume and eating ice cream in the same breath but it is an interesting concept all the same. In reality, you cannot smell ice cream on its own since the chemicals that trigger smell are frozen at these low temperatures. You can only technically smell the fragrant ingredients once it has melted in your mouth.
So they have come up with three fragrances which you can smell on its own and then add them to your ice cream if you feel like enhancing the flavor. Think of it like a wine or coffee tasting where smelling before drinking actually enhances the flavor and experience. Only this time, with these perfumes, you spray it and smell it before spraying it onto your ice cream. They say that the way you smell your food is actually critical to how you eat it even though it’s something that we don’t consciously do.
The three culinary flavors they’ll be launching are: A Cloud of Cocoa with Ecuadorian chocolate, malted milkshake, and Japanese whisky notes; A Swoon of Citrus that includes the scents of key lime pie, lychee, and Italian lemon grove; and A Plume of Blooms which combines the scents of jasmine, honeysuckle, and wildflowers. There are also travel-size samplers with all three flavors. Spraying them onto different ice cream flavors will give you a fully immersive experience with scents and flavors all blending in your mouth.
These perfumes/toppings will be making their debut on National Ice Cream Day on July 17 Salt & Straw scoop shops. Let’s see if this unique product will actually become a hit with ice cream lovers or those who want to experiment with their desert.
Building your diet and your life around plant-forward meals isn’t exactly easy, especially when you take special care in selecting where the ingredients come from or how they’re harvested. In an ideal world, we’d all grow our own organic food in our pesticide-free yards, but few actually have the luxury of free space in the first place. Growing vegetables and herbs indoors is actually gaining momentum these days, but those aren’t the only things you can cultivate inside your house. Mushrooms are relatively easier to grow, especially indoors, but getting the conditions right isn’t that straightforward and painless as well. Fortunately, Shrooly has your back and makes growing mushrooms not only dead simple but also interesting and attractive as well.
Although some people might balk after learning about its classification (spoiler alert: it’s a fungus), mushrooms are one of nature’s mysteries and wonders. They can pop up almost anywhere, especially in dark environments, which has become the origin of some idiomatic expressions. Not only are the edible variants great sources of nutrition and flavor, they can also have therapeutic or even medicinal benefits if you know how to grow and use them. Despite their ubiquity, getting your hands on quality mushrooms is ironically difficult unless you grow them, and this unassuming minimalist appliance makes that happen almost instantly.
Shrooly makes growing mushrooms as easy as putting a prepared pod inside the box and turning it on. While many indoor farms take weeks to harvest your produce, Shrooly can grow mushrooms in days. The humble appliance takes all of the guesswork and monitoring out of the equation so that you can just watch your mushrooms grow day by day. And when you yourself have grown into some sort of a mushroom expert, you can easily take control of the whole process as well through Shrooly’s mobile app. Whether you want more humidity or more light, the settings are just a few flicks and taps away.
For Complete Beginners – It is a smart device that allows you to enjoy every aspect of the mushroom-growing process with little to no effort.
Grow Your Own Superfood at Home – Shiitake, Reishi, Lion’s mane, or Enoki, are just some of the numerous mushroom varieties you can easily grow at home.
Part of Shrooly’s magic is the ready-to-grow pods available for purchase. A single block can grow two harvests of mushrooms, which are often three times more than what would have been able to buy from the market. Presuming, of course, you can even buy the mushrooms you want from the market, which often isn’t the case. In contrast, Shrooly pods offer a wide variety of edible mushrooms, including pink oyster and shitake, as well as medicinal breeds like Reishi, Turkey Tail, and Lion’s Mane. The latter group is definitely not something you’ll be able to pick from a supermarket shelf. And going with the sustainability theme, the pod blocks are fully organic, pesticide-free, and made from 100% recycled materials.
Shrooly also has one other special trait that isn’t directly related to the use of mushrooms. The box itself is beautiful, with a minimalist design that will fit anywhere at home, even in the middle of your living room. Its large window is made to showcase the mushroom that grows bigger each day that passes, sparking interest and anticipation. It will definitely be a conversation starter that could tide your family and friends over to a healthier diet.
Convincing people to try more plant-forward diets requires giving them scents and flavors they never knew they wanted and making it easier to acquire these sources as well. Why should you settle for frozen mushrooms which came from who knows where and were grown with questionable methods when you can grow your own batch in seven days and have more than twice the amount? With Shrooly, you can get all the mushrooms you need when you need them, even the ones you can’t even buy in groceries, and all for a $299 starting price that quickly pays for itself in savings.
The brainchild of a group of presumably messy eaters at Johns Hopkins University, Tastee Tape is an edible adhesive tape designed for holding burritos closed so you don’t wind up with burrito guts all over your lap while you’re trying to eat one. That’s cool. In only slightly related news, the Mexican Pizza returned to the Taco Bell menu five days ago, and I’ve already had at least sixteen.
Tastee Tape is constructed from a “food-grade fibrous scaffold and an organic adhesive” and comes affixed to a piece of waxed paper. To use a piece, you simply remove it from the paper, wet it, and slap it on the overlapping portion of a burrito’s tortilla. They won’t say exactly what the tape is made of, but my guess is some sort of seaweed. Or, who knows, maybe it’s just duct tape, and they’re lying to us. I’ve eaten duct tape before.
Alternatively, peel back the wrapper of your burrito as you eat it instead of just yanking the whole thing out at once and leaving yourself wide open to a pant and/or shirt stain. I mean, this isn’t rocket science. This is far, far more complicated. Hey, you don’t happen to have any extra napkins on you, do you?
As much as I enjoy eating, there are certain kinds of food that may taste great but are just too messy to consume. These include thick burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and especially burritos. I mean, I like eating them, but the fact that the ingredients fall off while I’m eating, most of the time on my dress, causes a lot of stress. There must be a way to keep all of it in and prevent them from bursting at the seams, especially if you’re trying to keep your outfit pristine while eating.
Designers: Tyler Guarino, Marie Eric, Rachel Nie, and Erin Walsh
A group of students from the John Hopkins University Engineering department faced this problem when consuming burritos. So they came up with a solution to this problem, bringing a prototype of something called Tastee Tape to help you keep all the ingredients in when consuming a burrito or a wrap. Basically, it’s an adhesive that you can wrap around your food to keep things like beans, rice, vegetables, etc., from dripping onto your clothes. I would have loved to help them test out these different prototypes on all kinds of food as they seemed to enjoy this part of the process.
To come up with this solution, they first studied how different kinds of adhesives work and the science behind it. After that, they looked for how they could make something edible since, of course, you don’t want to put something on food that can be harmful. They came up with something made from food-grade fibrous scaffold and then an edible organic adhesive that can melt in your mouth once you consume it. The result is something edible, safe, and strong enough that can be used on things like burritos, gyros, wraps, tacos, sandwiches, and other similar food.
The students are still in the process of applying for a patent for the Tastee Tape, so we won’t get details yet as to the actual components and “ingredients” that go into this edible tape. But we do get instructions on how to use it. After you tear off a strip from the sheet, you need to wet it completely before applying it to the food that you need to lock into the wrap. It seems to come in clear and blue colors, although the latter doesn’t look aesthetic when put on your food.
The sharpest of minds have been studying DNA for more than 70 years now, for a better understanding of the human species and how the individual’s biology is shaped. While this subject is as wide as the expanse of the oceans, we’re getting a better idea of each of its properties making us all unique in our own rights. Our DNA affects the way in which our body responds to the foods we eat, and that explains how some of us are allergic to some eatables while some others are good for our body.
A diet plan for one individual might not be the best fit for another, that’s why millions of dollars are invested into health and fitness across the world every year. Understanding the science behind the food we eat, and how it metabolizes is worth its weight in gold. In this quest, DnaNudge has developed a niche wearable capable of recommending and even saving the unassuming shoppers from making bad choices.
More like a fitness tracker that sits on your wrist bone, the wearable dubbed DnaBand performs an on-the-spot genetic analysis of the foods being chosen for the wearer. Basically, all you have to do is scan the barcode of a grocery or eatable item with the DnaBand. If the product is good for you based on the genetic analysis, the green light comes up, and if it’s not the best-suited thing to have, the red light indicator comes up.
As the database of the wearable keeps growing, the recommendations for the best foods to have also keep improving drastically. The result, you’ll never be feeding your body (unless you have the grit and determination) with food items that’ll harm your biology in the long run. Thereby, helping avoid the chances of long-term health problems. These recommendations are stored locally on the wearable band too inside the small bean-shaped capsule.
To make things practical, the DnaBand will only encourage you to adopt healthy eating and drinking habits. For example, it will tell you if based on your DNA, having low sugar chocolate will be beneficial. It’ll be more of a psychological change in lifestyle rather than a complete overhaul of habits overnight. Small changes in shopping habits will gradually put the user on the path to better health, the scientifically proven way.
The DNA analysis will be combined with real-time fitness activities to recommend dietary items. For instance, if you are mostly on a low fitness regime for a week, foods lesser in carbohydrates will light up green, while if some other week you are on a stringent fitness routine, food items with high carbohydrates will trigger the wearable to go green.
Other than the cool health tracking bit, the wearable band is ultra-comfortable to wear with a magnetic leather strap that goes with every wrist size. All the real-time data is saved locally on the band in an encrypted manner to avoid any data breaches. With the DnaBand users will be always aware of what they are putting in their system to make better health-related choices.
The past few years we’ve seen “I can’t believe it’s not meat” options out there. These meatless meats or meat alternatives have been created for those that still want some sort of meat for their diets but would also like to be more conscious about the impact of their consumption on our carbon footprint. The first few ones left a lot to be desired taste-wise but over time, they have gotten a lot better and some can even confuse meat lovers and vegans or vegetarians alike.
Designer: Air Protein
One new addition to these “miracle” meat products is Air Meat, created to re-create the taste of meat like beef, chicken, and pork. But instead of using actual animals, it uses microbes that turn recycled carbon dioxide into protein. Unlike other companies that use normal, captured CO2 emissions from the atmosphere to create meat and dairy substitutes, its creator Air Protein uses the emissions from factories.
Air Meat is created using the same process and principle that NASA used back in the 1960s to create carbon dioxide into food specifically for space travel. Microbes that will be used to convert the carbon dioxide are grown in bioreactors and then combined with water and energy. The protein created out of that is purified and dried to create the protein-packed flour. Ingredients and flavors are then added to make it taste like beef but can also be used to “mimic” chicken, pork, and seafood.
While the process of using emissions from factories doesn’t directly reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, it potentially uses these emissions elsewhere. The bioreactors are also being powered by solar and wind energy, hydrogen, and oxygen. Plus of course, the fact that you don’t use animals or land and they are able to emit less carbon when producing this “meat of tomorrow”. They also want to eventually create the first “carbon-negative” meat company.
They are now trying to come up with options to make Air Meat close to the traditional meats that we might buy at the supermarket. They experiment with oils and nutrients to give their “meats” the flavors that consumers may be looking for. They want to be able to give an environmentally-friendly option to meat lovers while also giving them added health benefits like more protein per kilogram and it is also rich in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
Some say that when traveling, one of the best ways that you can get to know the place better is by enjoying the city’s street food. Some of my best memories of my travels have been eating the often affordable and always interesting street cuisine of whatever place I’m visiting. But there are people who might not be that comfortable with the hygiene of street vendors, especially in the advent of COVID-19. A designer has come up with a possible solution to help both the vendors and to make people more secure about consuming street food.
Street food is of course famous for its “cuisine” and culture but not so much for its hygiene. Having a small cart or place on the street doesn’t really give much space for cleaning and disinfecting as thoroughly as we would expect from an actual restaurant. The AAVI is a design concept that aims to make it easier for street food vendors to disinfect their plates and maybe even other utensils by utilizing the power of steam.
At first glance, it actually looks like a lamp or a decorative device. But the design and functionality of the AAVI is actually based on the steamers that are used in dumplings and rice cakes. In fact, the designer says since it’s based on that, it can also be used in preparing dishes that need to be steamed. So it’s both a disinfecting and a cooking device, at least on paper. I’m not really sure if people would be comfortable seeing a device that does both.
The AAVI has a rotating base that will spread the disinfecting steam to all the plates stored. There is a jar in the middle where the water is stored and where the steam will be coming from and will come out of the head which will disinfect the plates that are placed in the container. There is also a water outlet faucet to remove the water because of course stagnant water is not good for hygiene and for the food being served as well.
This seems to be a pretty interesting and useful device to have on a street food cart. I haven’t eaten at one lately but pre-covid, hygiene wasn’t really an issue. Now though, it would put me more at ease if I knew there was better disinfection happening.
I know what you’re thinking, and I couldn’t agree more – how has it taken so long for someone to make a SPAM-themed dice game? Well, in better late than never news, The OP has just released $17 Yahtzee SPAM, a spiced ham-inspired version of the classic dice-rolling game. And just when you thought playing Yahtzee couldn’t be more appetizing!
The game’s dice include images of popular SPAM cuisine, including SPAM musubi, SPAM sushi rolls, SPAM ramen, SPAM kabobs, SPAM fries, and a classic grilled cheese & SPAM, along with the classic numbers. Is anybody else’s mouth-watering? I think my dentist must have given me too much Novocaine because SPAM-themed Yahtzee just isn’t doing it for me.
So, yeah, it’s Yahtzee with pictures of SPAM dishes on the dice. I’m not sure what else to tell you, except if you aren’t shaking the dice around in your mouth before a roll, you aren’t trying hard enough to get kicked out of game night. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic! Good lord — and even if we weren’t!” I imagine my hosts yelling at me before asking me to leave and never come back.
Clearly designed with deliciousness in mind, the LOAFA is the brainchild of rapper TOMM¥ €A$H in collaboration with artist Gab Bois and, allegedly, IKEA. Tommy recently took to Instagram to claim that IKEA told him if his post reached 10,000 comments, they’d make a limited run of the LOAFA. The post blew through that goal, so will we actually see the LOAFA reach production? Well, I didn’t just buy 80 pounds of butter and the world’s largest toaster, hoping it doesn’t.
I assume the production model would be constructed of cushions printed with a realistic bread finish. Or, who knows, maybe they’ll make them out of actual bread. I mean, who doesn’t want a rat problem? Still, I think we can agree it would make the perfect sofa for loafing around on a lazy weekend afternoon. It would also make the perfect sofa for trying to eat when you want a snack but don’t feel like getting up. We’ve all been there. Shoot, I live there.
But does it smell like bread? And where’s the deli meat ottoman and cheese wedge coffee table? Because if we’re going in with a bread sofa, I want to go ALL IN with a complete sandwich-themed living room set. Fingers crossed, they start giving them away as prizes on The Price Is Right!
