Yes, you read it right. You can now munch an edible, chewable glass!
Imagine yourself with a glass of classic margarita and munching the glass after you finish drinking your favorite cocktail. Wouldn't it be cool or simply weird? Perhaps, your friends will find you with too much to drink for the night!
Brace yourselves because this fancy, interesting and environment-friendly innovation is brought to you by the creators of a London-based startup who just won a $22,500 European sustainability award by the World Technology Award (environment) held in association with Fortune and TIME.. The Ooho team of researchers is comprised of by Dr Koon-Yang Lee, Dr Maria Jimenez-Solomon and Dr Keeran Ward while Ooho is cofounded by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Guillaume Couche and Pierre Paslier.. They have several years of experience working in polymers engineering, with a special focus on sustainability, alginate and membrane science.
Ooho! is the first project of Skipping Rocks Lab, a European startup introducing a new kind of packaging made from seaweed that proposes an alternative to plastic bottles. The spherical water container is easy and cheap to make, strong, hygienic, biodegradable and yes, edible!
The container holds water in a double membrane using "spherification," the technique of shaping liquids into spheres first pioneered in labs in 1946 and more recently popularized by chefs at elBulli in Spain. It works a little like an egg yolk, which also holds its shape using a thin membrane.
"We're applying an evolved version of spherification to one of the most basic and essential elements of life-water," says Rodrigo García González, who designed the Ooho with fellow design students Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche.
Ooho is an edible water "bottle" that turns your disposable drink into something more like an overripe fruit. To make one, a blob of water is frozen then coated with a transparent, dual-layer membrane made of brown algae and calcium chloride. When it's done, the water is held in the bag, and you just take a bite to drink it.
So next time you drink from a glass, try biting the glass. For all you know, it can be an Ooho!