Molecular gastronomy suppliers Molecule R have introduced the AromaFork and the AromaSpoon. Seriously.
The AROMAFORK™ and its set of 21 aromas offers a fascinating olfactive experience that will trick you mind and might even forever change the way you perceive flavors!
Syllabus: Our taste buds can only recognize 5 primary tastes while your nose is capable of distinguishing the subtle flavors of food as aromas reach the back of your palette upon expiration. The AROMAFORK™ provides a flow of aromas upon inhalation, therefore doubling the flavors your brain can analyse!
The AromaFork kit includes 4 AromaForks, 4 droppers, 50 diffusing papers, and 21 aromas (3 "Beans" aromas - chocolate, coffee, and vanilla; 4 "Fruits" aromas - banana, lychee, passion fruit and strawberry; 3 "Herbs" aromas - basil, cilantro and mint; 3 "Nuts" aromas - almond, coconut and peanut; 4 "Spices" aromas - cinnamon, ginger, jalapeño and wasabi; and 4 "Umami" aromas - butter, olive oil, smoke and truffle.) It is $58.95 and will ship this summer.
The AromaSpoon kit comes with a serving plate, 3 AromaSpoons, droppers and diffusing papers, but no aromas. It is $24.95, and will also ship this summer.
You can order either kit at Molecule R in Canada.
(via molecule-r, found via @CPLAromas at Twitter)
On the one hand, this is completely ridiculous, and their “illustration” of how taste versus smell works is simply wrong. If you want a food to smell like butter or vanilla or cilantro, then put those things into your food and you will smell it as it goes into your mouth.
On the other hand, this intrigues me more than I like to admit.
Ha, exactly!
I’m sure there are more than a few people who will geek out over something like this. I may or may not be one of them, but I’m not rushing to buy them.
I’m not buying them because it would be pointless…I don’t cook in that sort of way. But wish someone else would buy and serve me something with them, LOL…
This does nothing for me except that now I want to eat most of everything on that list. Perhaps a banana coconut sundae!
I actually bought some ‘scented’ disposable razors a while back. The scent was barely there! And didn’t last long at all, lol. Oh well, I guess they shaved pretty decent for disposables.
I’d go for a sundae right now…
The concept is interesting, but the fact that they don’t know the difference between the palate and a palette doesn’t inspire confidence.
Ha, true!
I could see it being fun for a tasting party kind of thing. You could serve the same bite of food on multiple forks/spoons, each with a different scent that would complement the flavors of the food in different ways (and maybe with one unscented as the “control”) and see how the scent affects how you perceive the food.
Outside of a situation like that, though, I’m not sure I see the point, but I still think it might be fun to play with if it weren’t so expensive.
Or for one of those scent dinners where the food is paired with perfumes…