Innovative Food Gift Ideas

Tis the season for food gift giving!

On any given day your beverage selection may range from a morning latte, a day time smoothie, even a soda pick me up, and a glass of wine at dinner. Sounds ok, except that hidden calories or higher than expected sugar content often means that your beverages add up to be a lot more damaging to your health than you realize. Now an innovative company has created a product to help! 

The Vessyl, a cup that automatically knows what’s inside and tracks drinking in real-time! Pour any liquid into your Vessyl, and within seconds, its sensing technology, breaks down the fluid to a molecular level and recognizes key pieces of information such as: Caloric makeup, quantity,  hydration needs and beverage type – yes, the Vessyl can detect if the beverage is, for example, milk or juice. Vessyl can even tell the difference between brands such as Pepsi and Coke!. OK, if this is a gift,  you'll need to wrap up a picture of it first, for now, you have to pre-order your Vessyl which costs $99. Check out MyVessyl.com! 

You may have heard us talk about AromaFork in one of our recent editions of Food News Today, well guess what, for your foodie friends this is a great gift idea!  Grab an “Aroma R-evolution” kit and give the gift of taste! The innovative AromaFork transforms tastes by tricking your mind into thinking that it’s eating what you’re smelling. Take a droplet of one of the liquid aromas -- which is very concentrated – into the forks' handle, and then inhale while biting your food. Add the smell of butter, chocolate, wasabi or truffles, the options are endless. The kit comes with 21 different aromas and retails for $58.95

Ok, this innovation is another one to pre-order, but who wouldn’t wait for a 3D printer for the kitchen?! The team at Barcelona-based start-up Natural Machines is working on finishing up their product, the semi-automated Foodini food replicator.  It can be programmed to arrange raw ingredients into oven-ready meals, such as mini cheeseburgers and ravioli, as well as desserts. Simply fill container capsules with the specified ingredients (anything with a smooth, squeezable texture, such as like dough, sauces, purees and grounded meat fillings), input the recipe and print. 

The company hopes to have these out by mid-2015, but pre-order a foodini now on kickstarter (for about $1000!)!  Finally, a gift idea from one of our youngest innovators yet…Meet Max, who when he was just 8 years old came up with a very creative idea - the mug with a hoop:

MAX ASH, Inventor I came up with it in art class in 2nd grade. I was 8 and they told me to make  a mug and  i made a mug with a hoop to throw marshmallow in hot chocolate…I like basketball and hot chocolate so I combined them. I worked with someone to design a prototype and then I 3D printed it, and then we found a manufacturer. Since launching my mugs, I've sold about 15,000 since September. So this is the original mug that I made in Art class at school, and this is the mug that you can buy…this is the baseball mug that's coming out in January…this is the football mug that I made in Art class

Phil: And like any good innovator, Max has multiple patents pending and is already working on other sports mugs like soccer and hockey.  So, what's the hardest part and the best part about being a young entrepreneur? 

Max: The hardest thing about the mug business is working // 4:08 - My favorite thing about my business is making money.

A portion of the profits from Max's mugs goes to charities that support research and awareness into dyslexia and other learning disabilities, something which Max happens to have. To learn more about Max and his mugs and to find out where you can pick some up for holiday gifts, check out his website MaxisCreations dot com. 

Goodluck holiday shopping!