If you’ve been following FoodBev.com keenly on your new smartphone, tablet or perhaps even laptop this Christmas, then you’ll have seen our round-up of the ten biggest news stories from the past year.
But sometimes we’ll hear of something that perks up our ears and makes us pay attention for the strangest of reasons – so here are my five personal favourite stories that we’ve covered during the last 12 months.
Burger on a bike
If you received a bicycle for Christmas, you’ll no doubt be mentally juggling the dilemma of how to carry your Big Mac while still maintaining balance. A novel innovation developed by advertising agency Tribal may be just your thing. First trialled in Copenhagen and with plans to extend the idea to cities such as Amsterdam and Tokyo, the McBike is a cardboard carrying carton with space to suspend two items of food and one drinks cup from the handlebar of any bicycle – making fast food more portable than ever before.
While we’re on the subject of bicycles, I think Casa Espresso deserves an honourable mention for its specially blended coffee for cyclists.
Jam in a sausage
Have you ever been halfway through a sausage and thought, “I wish there was a bit more jam in this”? No? Well a British entrepreneur has developed a solution regardless. The Dausage – that’s part doughnut, part sausage – started crowdfunding an initial £2,500 in June and is currently being manufactured in Cumberland with raspberry jam and pork with strawberry jam varieties. Apparently, the unusual combinations “worked really well together”.
That reminds me, how does Bob Marley like his sausages…?
Which is weirder… black lemonade or black burgers?
Lemonade with a dark secret
Perhaps the weirdest health drink – and by far the blackest – of the year was Juice Supply’s charcoal lemonade, which we first covered on FoodBev.com in October. The eye-catching ingredient is combined with lemon and added electrolyte-balancing Himalayan sea salt, pink peppercorns, fresh thyme and a touch of unrefined coconut palm sugar. The innovation has the potential to create a health trend to rival matcha green tea, according to the US company behind it.
While we’re being all dark and mysterious, let us not forget Burger King’s black Halloween McWhopper, with barbecue sauce baked into the bun for the spookiest seasonal edition of the year.
The beer that makes you beautiful
I don’t know about you, but I expect to be able to drink copious amounts of alcohol this Christmas and still remain utterly flawless. And for that reason, Suntory announced the launch of a new brand of beer in Japan, which contains 2g of collagen in each can. The ingredient is a natural protein that will help to keep my skin plump and supple, and meets demand among Japanese consumers for functional products that will fight the effects of ageing.
The first plantable cup.
Cups you can eat… or grow
A coffee cup made from biscuit and sugar paper sounds a bit like a chocolate teapot – but it’s actually become a reality this year thanks to fast food chain KFC. In February, we revealed how the company had developed an edible coffee cup, which also includes some heat-resistant white chocolate. The creation, dubbed the Scoff-ee cup, resembles KFC’s standard (non-edible) cups and was invented by experimental food development brand The Robin Collective.
Maybe you’d care to accompany your cup of coffee with a bowl of noodles made from wood pulp, as developed by a Japanese company?
And because cups are cool, we’ll finish by remembering the one that could turn into a tree. In March, we spoke to innovator Alex Henige about the world’s first plantable cup, a sustainable packaging concept embedded with native seeds that can be planted once the cup has reached the end of its useful life. The product was in prototype stage, but Henige had plans to team up with commercial partners, including manufacturers, to help bring the cup to the masses.
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