Suffice it to say, the way that we eat and drink in the future is likely to be vastly different than the way we eat and drink now. For instance, we’ll probably consume lab grown meat and seaweed that taste likes bacon. We’ll probably have no choice but to turn to bugs as a source of protein. Heck, we might even start drinking cockroach milk. It’s also entirely possible that we’ll even have vaporized cuisine that we inhale instead of eat. And now we can add edible water bottles to that list.
Designed to counteract the environmental impact of water bottles, the Ooho is a spherical, edible blob of water, that looks like a jelly fish and could very well be the future of hydration. It’s outer layer is designed to be peeled away like a piece of fruit, leaving behind a gelatinous blob that you can consume to quench your thirst. A blob, that the creators say has no taste, although artificial flavoring could be added if so desired.
As the Huffington Post describes, it’s an innovation whose time has come: “It will come as no surprise to anyone with the slightest interest in the environment that water bottles are at the top of the hit list for ‘worst products to buy,’ thanks to their one-time purpose and amount of waste generated. But one London-based company could be changing the whole game with the idea for a water bottle made out of edible materials that delivers hydration in the form of a blob.”
Fast Company adds that, “The new packaging is based on the culinary technique of spherification, which is also used to make fake caviar and the tiny juice balls added to boba tea. Dip a ball of ice in calcium chloride and brown algae extract, and you can form a spherical membrane that keeps holding the ice as it melts and returns to room temperature.”
As great as this concept is I wonder if it will be convenient all of the time. For example, if you’re hiking and only want to take a sip of your water supply wouldn’t it make more sense to have a water bottle so that you can put the cap back on and save some for later? Won’t the Ooho get dirty if you put it away in your backpack after peeling it? Also, if you have a water bottle and drink its contents you can easily re-fill it and keep going. Once you eat the Ooho there’s no way to re-fill it.
So while the Ooho is a great idea that will definitely have a place in the market I’m not certain that it will completely replace the need for water bottles. But it does raise an interesting question: what else does the future have in store for us when it comes to food and drink?
Is Ooho the Greatest Idea Ever?
[…] written in the past about edible water bottles. And now we may soon have edible food packaging as […]