TrendCentral: Grown high up in the Andes, the roots of the Yacon plant are just now making their way into farmers markets and natural food stores around the US. Similar in texture to water chestnuts or jicama, the taste of yacon is often described as a cross between an apple and a watermelon. A high concentration of oligofructose (a sugar that cannot be broken down by the body and therefore cannot be absorbed) makes yacon naturally low in calories and good for diabetics because its sugar does not raise blood glucose levels. In addition, oligofructose promotes beneficial bacteria in the colon, making it a natural prebiotic.

The latest healthy, tasty treat: Yaco [TrendCentral]

CoolHunting: Nothing livens up a cocktail party like talk of tragedy and there may never be a classier catastrophe than the Titanic. With that in mind, the clever folk at Fred & Friends designed the perfect conversation piece with Gin & Titonic. It's an ice cube mold that is shaped to depict miniature Titanics and icebergs that form a dramatic diorama when sunk into your drink.

Gin and Titonic Ice Cube Molds [CoolHunting]

TrendCentral: Putting a "twist" on the standard beverage bottle design, this new airtight cap also serves as a storage device, keeping active ingredients separate from the liquid. Once the cap is twisted, the ingredients are released, creating a fresh, instant, power-packed drink. Activate drinks feature these twist & release caps, which keep vitamins and herbs fresh. Because vitamins and other healthy ingredients can deteriorate in water, Activate promises a fresh, potent beverage, no matter how long it sits on the shelf.

SMART DRINKS: THE PROOF IS IN THE PACKAGE [TrendCentral]

TrendCentral: There may not be lines at Pinkberry anymore now that we know it's not quite as "natural" as they claimed, but the ever resilient frogurt trend shows no signs of defeat, with the number of frogurt stores starting to rival that of Starbucks. While we've yet to reach a consensus as to which is our favorite, we must say we're pretty stoked on the Yogurtland business model. Not only do they have 16 flavors and 33 toppings, but customers pay by the ounce.

Custom-Sized Frogurt [TrendCentral]

jobwerx: New Greenshoot fresh soup range selects the innovative packaging format for ambient soups launched by RPC Bebo Nederland and RPC Containers Halstead.

According to Urban Foods, Greenshoot Soups is the first really convenient individual fresh soup range to be launched for the French market, and the company wanted the packaging to combine practicality and ease of use for consumers with a stylish new look to create maximum shelf impact.

Designed to meet the demands of busy lifestyles, the new pack from RPC offers optimum consumer convenience, being lightweight, easy to open and microwaveable.

The container is co-extruded and thermoformed in PP/EVOH/PP by RPC Bebo Nederland. The multi-layer construction offers significant barrier protection to ensure, in combination with processing, that the soup has a shelf life comparable to traditional packaging.

The cup’s rounded design delivers sufficient durability to withstand high filling temperatures and is compatible with standard in-car cup holders so that soups can be enjoyed safely and conveniently on the move.

The cups are sleeved before being hot filled. The new packaging features a bold design with a black cup and lid and striking graphics in bright colors illustrating each product’s ingredients.

Julien Ponceblanc of Urban Foods says, “Fresh takeaway soups are a relatively new concept in France so we wanted this new product launch to reflect this innovation with stylish, convenient and high quality packaging which attracted attention."

Style and Convenience Packaging on the Move [jobwerx]

Springwise: The line between kid and adult beverages began to blur a few years ago, when vintners began offering wines in Tetra Paks resembling juice boxes. Now, the confusion goes the other way with First Blush's Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay fruit juices. First Blush varietal grape juices are alcohol-free and entirely suitable for kids, with no added sugar or preservatives. Like wine, however, they're also full of polyphenol antioxidants. Launched last May, the drinks are available in upscale grocers such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats, along with delis and restaurants in select states nationwide. Retail pricing is about USD 4 for each 16-ounce bottle.

Juice is already well-entrenched in the world of 'snobmoddities', as we've noted before. But rather than focusing on organic ingredients, as so many others are currently doing, First Blush takes a different approach with its use of grape varietals. It just goes to show: not only can everything be upgraded, but there's usually more than one way to do so!

Merlot & other premium grape juices [Springwise]

With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. In the same fashion, CIC Co. also offers Ukon (tumeric) and Aoijiro (kale juice) health drinks.

Bottle Innovations: Instant fresh tea [Trends in Japan]

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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.

What happens to all the moisture when a juicy hunk of sirloin is transformed into chewy beef jerky? Truth is, we don’t know. But the salty, savory flavor of this vitamin and mineral packed concoction will make you think we collected all that sweet, meaty juice just for you.

Flavors: Beef Jerky, Chicken Teriyaki, Texas BBQ, Fish 'N' Chips and lots more!

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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.

Gizmodo: This oversized cartoon-esque pistol can be filled with your favorite condiments and fired at your food for the ultimate in BBQ fun. Naturally, the temptation to misuse this device will be overwhelming, but at least you can take solace in the fact that you will have the upper hand in any food fight you instigate. Tabasco anyone? Available soon for £14.95.

Condiment Pistol Blazes Burgers With Deliciousness [Gizmodo]

Springwise: We wrote recently about the interactive wine bar at Adour in New York City's St. Regis Hotel, and since then we've spotted several mentions of iBar, a related innovation by UK-based Mindstorm.

Unveiled in 2006, the iBar is a customisable surface technology that turns any bar into a giant version of an interactive, touch-sensitive screen. Integrated video projectors can display any content on the bar's milky surface, while built-in intelligent tracking software continually maps the position of every object touching its surface. That input is then used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter, allowing coloured lights, for example, to illuminate, link and follow every movement of hands, bottles and glasses. Multiple people can interact with the iBar at once, and virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers, enabling a game of pinball where players shoot with their thumbs, for example. Content that can be displayed on the iBar includes internet content, interactive games and advertising; bars can also be fitted with Bluetooth technology to allow consumers to download their own content. The iBar is a stand-alone system comprising modules 2m long, and it can be networked wirelessly to allow interaction between two or more separate units.

Interactive touch-bar [Springwise]

Teraoka’s new the Deli Touch pen allows customers to place orders without human contact. Using a menu with barcodes embedded in the photos of the items, the pen’s camera scans the codes and transmits the information via wireless to a server, which is connected to a printer in the kitchen that prints out the order. On both sides an automated voice announces that an order has been placed.

The advantage of the the Deli Touch pen seems more user friendly as compared to a touch screen order system. Besides, the Deli Touch pen is considerably cheaper than an actual waiter.

Via Trend in Japan

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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.

Springwise: Zen Burger aims to revolutionize the fast food world with natural, wholesome vegetarian foods that have the look, feel, texture and taste of meats without the negative effects on health and the environment. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurant specializes in meatless comfort foods that mimic those sold in traditional fast-food environments, such as the ZenSausage breakfast sandwich, ZenBeef burgers, crispy ZenChicken sandwich, ZenTuna sandwich, ZenHotDog, ZenChicken tenders, ZenShrimp and French fries.

The midtown Manhattan eatery, which just opened a few weeks ago, even recreates the ambience—if you can call it that—of the big fast-food chains, with bright lighting and a 1970s colour scheme heavy on the oranges and greens. Also available at Zen Burger are organic soups and chili, organic salads, non-dairy ice cream, organic teas and coffees, and natural sodas, as well as kids' meals complete with tiny toy. Pricing for a standard meal is about USD 7.

Meatless Fast Food Chain [Springwise]

Emerging technology from South Korean fried chicken chain BBQ Chicken. Popcorn chicken rides up top; cola chills out below.

It's perfect for snacking on the move, having it all in one hand. While there're some concerns in the threats of condensation to your food, we think that the idea's innovative and some fine tunes to it would make wonders. It will be an excellent implementation at the cinemas - having your popcorns and drinks all in one (obviously in a bigger packaging).

Via Serious Eats

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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.

Cherryflava: Mmmmm - doesn't this, slightly off-colour, slab of meat and seed bun cheese burger look tasty?

Not only does it look yummy, but it comes in a convenient can. No more late night drive-through for you. We're convinced that it may have been fluffed up just a bit for the purposes of this commercial shoot ['cause a round, plump burger popping out of a tin can looking like this, defies the laws of physics] Some quarters seem to be making fun of the groundbreaking invention, but tuna was probably also knocked and made fun of when it was revealed in a canned version over 100 years ago.

Now with a canned BigM close at hand, hiking in the Cedarberg will never be the same again.

Latest advancement in food technology: The Canburger [Cherryflava]

Brand Noise: Ice isn't just for chilling drinks anymore, or for packing fish and treating sprains. It's a hot snack. Some Sonic Drive-In franchises sell it in cups and in bags to go. Ice-machine makers are competing to make the best chewable ice, with names like Chewblet, Nugget Ice and Pearl Ice. One manufacturer calls the ice-loving South the "Chew Belt."

Sales of machines that make easier-to-chew ice jumped about 23%, to 16,673 units in 2006 from 2003, according to data from the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute. Some ice chewers, including country-music star Vince Gill, have had the machines installed in their homes.

Ice chewers swap tips on Icechewing.com. A recipe for preparing the perfect cup of ice: Use a glass, not a plastic cup. Let crushed ice fuse in water. Drink the water. Shake the cup to loosen the ice. Dig in.

A little trading down, a little retro, a little irreverence, a little retro. No wonder ice is gaining commercial steam.

Brand Noise [Crushed Ice Gets Its Due]

Springwise: Customers of You Bar can choose every ingredient that goes into their nutrition bars: the base, protein powders, nuts and seeds, fruits and berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains and infusions. One consumer might select cashew butter with shredded coconut, organic molasses and nutty rice cereal, for example; another might choose dates, soy protein, walnuts, ground cinnamon and dried banana. Special requests such as for organic ingredients or "extra crunchy" can also be accommodated. Consumers can choose a name for their specially designed bars, and You Bar will print it on each wrapper. For those feeling overwhelmed by the list of choices, on the other hand, You Bar offers three popular bar styles—"Honey Cashew," "Great Date with Chocolate" and "Breakfast Bar"—that are still customizable, but based on set ingredients. All bars are freshly made to order in You Bar's kitchens; pricing is USD 40 plus shipping for 12 fully customized bars, or USD 30 plus shipping for 12 of one of You Bar's popular styles.

Custom-made energy bars [Springwise]

Cool Hunting: From hot canned coffee to warm corn soup, Japanese vending machines do their best to meet all your vending machine needs. This May, Kyoto-based company Fujitaka began selling Sapporo-style canned ramen for ¥300 ($2.67) a pop to nerds in Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics district. Yes, you can buy canned noodles! For the country that invented instant ramen, vending machine noodles must be a godsend! The product is so popular and the demand is so strong that the maker is having difficulty filling orders. This summer, Fujitaka also began selling chilled canned noodles and plans to introduce curry udon and Hakata-style ramen.

Since the noodles are made from konnyaku, they won't go soggy and can be stored for up to three years at room temp. No wonder local authorities have even contacted Fujitaka about stockpiling the canned noodles for emergencies. More than perfect nerd food!

Vending Machine Ramen [Cool Hunting]

TerraPass: Chocolate bars. They're supposed to taste good, but can they also be good? We think so!

Climate Change Chocolate bar is meant to educate while tasting great. It comes in a wrapper with 15 tips for lightening your environmental impact. These helpful hints teach you how to save energy by making small changes to your daily habits. And of course, thanks to Bloomsberry & Co., you can be sure the finest chocolate is attached to these green lifestyle lessons.

Climate Change Chocolate comes with a verified TerraPass offset of 133 pounds of carbon dioxide reductions, the average American’s daily carbon impact. This small offset will be the first taste of a lower-carbon lifestyle for Whole Foods shoppers who decide to take responsibility for their climate change impact.

In addition, the carbon emissions associated with the production and distribution of the chocolate bar has been balanced out.

Climate Change Chocolate [TerraPass]

Strange New Products: The Fizz is a plastic cup that screws on to a plastic PET bottle allowing you to create a mobile ice cream float.

Once you screw the cup to a bottle, fill it up with ice cream, then insert a straw, and finally, squeeze the bottle. This fills the cup with soda, allowing you to sip out a mixture of ice cream and soda.

The cup is reusable, but not dishwasher safe.

The Fizz - Screw-on Ice Cream Float Cup [Strange New Products]

Strange New Products: Fruit Stickles are wooden skewers used for sticking together chunks of fruit. Except the skewers are seasoned with cinnamon and tropical fruit flavors that leach into the fruit chunks.

The idea is that gives fruit an extra boost of flavor to tempt children into eating more fruit.

The seasoning contains no sugar, just pure seasoning. It's similar to the cinnamon toothpicks that restaurants used to give out in the 70s, except for making fresh-fruit shiskabobs.

I'm sure this can be extended into meat seasoning skewers, for real shiskabobs.

Fruit Stickles - Flavored Fruit Skewers [Strange New Products]

Trendwatching.com: Get ready to welcome honey to the world of PREMIUMIZATION. Most supermarket honey is imported from China and Argentina, and/or blended from many sources, creating a homogenous taste. But, like water, marshmallows, and beer, honey is now striking back with a sweet vengeance, and artisanal honeys are on the rise. Since honey's flavor and color are determined by the source of nectar, there's a huge variety of very local and exclusive types of honey, with floral sources varying from tupelo gum tree and Tasmanian leatherwood to cranberry and orange blossom. The Savannah Bee Company, for example, sells its honeycomb jars with this awe-inspiring description: "Filled with honey equaling the life's work of two bees, each golden cell brims with the concentrated nectar of thousands of rare and remote Georgia flowers.“

PREMIUMIZATION [Trendwatching.com]

Sense: Y Water’s new bottled drink is aimed at children and highlights many of the factors impacting on the industry. The LA start up’s new product tackles sustainability concerns by packing its drink in a bottle with a second life as a toy. Once the contents of the bottle has been consumed multiple bottles can be collected and joined together in a modular structure. With many US schools banning soft drinks outright and water seeming like a boring option Y Water fills a gap in the market, addressing the concerns of health conscious parents whilst appealing to kids through the sheer wow factor of its packaging. The health benefits of the drink are explained to kids through witty and engaging cartoon style labeling.

Beverage Industry Tailors Drinks To Niche Consumers [Sense]

Entrepreneur: While a bed and breakfast is by definition a lodging that serves breakfast as part of the room rate, there are several different types of B&B properties ranging from intimate family homes with less than a handful of guest rooms to full-fledged country inns with a dozen or more rooms. Part of the charm of B&Bs is that each is a bit different, but they all fall somewhere within five basic categories. A homestay, also called a host home, is a private home with one to four guest rooms that are used to bring in supplemental rather than primary income. Homestays don't typically post signs on their property or advertise, relying instead on reservations services. A bed a breakfast is a step up from the homestay, typically consisting of four to five (but as many as eight) guest rooms and a live-in owner or host family. Bed and breakfasts typically have a sign out front, advertise and conform to zoning, health and other government regulations. Bed and breakfast inns are full-fledged lodging establishments rather than a family home with rooms to rent. With six or more guest rooms and a live-in host, the B&B inn has a well-posted sign, does lots of advertising and adheres to all government regulations. Bed and breakfast hotels are really B&Bs but instead are hotels with 30 or more rooms in a historic building. Breakfast is offered as part of the room rate. Unhosted apartments or cottages are sort of a cross between a vacation rental and a B&B, a self-contained lodging that is completely separate from the host's home.

Bed and Breakfast [Entrepreneur]

Cool Hunting: Bulky design, fussy mechanisms and the trickiness involved in resealing the bags offsets the glory of vacuum sealers' ability to keep our precious Roquefort, pineapples, mushrooms and the like at their freshest. In steps Oliso's Frisper Freshkeeper to the rescue. With its compact egg-shaped design, stupid simple operation and bags that open and reseal almost effortlessly, the Frisper solves all the problems of your grandma's vacuum sealer and then some.

Its patent-pending technology makes sure that it works quickly and powerfully to suck the air out of the specially designed bags. Unlike other models that require alignment with the entire edge of the bag, the device seals along predesignated spots making it easy to position. The modification means that the Frisper is about a quarter of the size of other sealers, not much larger than a person's hand—something that those of us who store their vacuum sealer in the basement, unused, are pretty stoked on. It's great when reinvention improves on usability, but better yet when it makes it useful at all.

Oliso Frisper Vacuum Sealer [Cool Hunting]

Cool Hunting: With the look of fossilized dinosaur eggs, Kakawa Cocoa Beans represents chocolate in five different delicious forms. Covered in layers of white, milk and dark chocolates and finished off with a dusting of velvety cocoa powder, the roasted whole Criollo/Trinitario cocoa bean (some of the best in the world) in the middle provides a satisfying and needed crunch. We like the way you can really taste the different types of chocolates in waves of distinct flavors.

Authentic, rich and with great contrasting textures, the Kakawa Cocoa Bean is available for $28 per 12 oz. bag from Cocoa Puro.

Kakawa Cocoa Beans [Cool Hunting]

Strange New Products: Said to be the world's first "energy potato chip", the line of NRG Potato Chips ushers in a new age of television snacking.

Containing a energy-boosting combination of Taurine, Caffeine, and B-Vitamins, NRG Potato Chips are sure to make a couch potato bounce their legs ad-nauseum throughout an entire sitting of the Rocky Balboa series.

The potato chip's website says its now shipping to stores all over the South-East. I guess that's where people burn a lot of energy watching television.

Energy Potato Chips? [Strange New Products]

Springwise: Combining three unremitting consumer trends—convenience, organics and health—YoZone by YoNaturals is a vending machine dedicated to organic products. Based in San Diego, YoNaturals offers an alternative to vending machines that are typically stocked with junk food.

YoNaturals offers a wide range of items, from fresh fruit to products by well-known brands like Tazo (tea), Clif Bar (energy bars), Vitamin (beverages) and Horizon Organic (dairy). Operators and location managers can choose from more than 150 natural and organic foods and beverages, order through an online ordering system, and have the products delivered in less than three days. YoNaturals is actively seeking locations such as schools, shopping centres, offices, hospitals and fitness centres for placement of YoZone machines, seeking to cater to consumers on the go who are interested in healthier food options.

Vending Goes Organic [Springwise]

Engadget: And you thought non-stick chewing gum was the heat. Turns out, Coca Cola may be plotting a new version of Sprite that actually chills itself upon opening. Apparently, the drink has to be kept at a specified temperature before being snapped up, and once the oh-so-thirsty consumer pops the top, "a mechanism inside creates ice made from the drink, so it is not diluted." Reportedly, the beverage would sensibly be called Sprite Super Chilled, and if it does indeed hit the UK (and prove successful) by "early next year," the technology could then be passed along to Coke, Diet Coke or even "super cold alcoholic drinks, particularly beers."

Coca Cola readying self-chilling soft drinks? [Engadget]

Popgadget: I love tea and I love being able to make a truly personal and original gift to my friends, which is why I love Blends for Friends.

Blends for Friends is run by a former professional tea taster who mixes custom tea blends based on the personality of the intended recipient.

To help create the most unique blend, you're asked to provide some personal information about the individual the tea is meant for, such as his/her job, hobbies, physical appearance, etc. New blends cost £ 27, but if you wish to order previously created blends the cost is just £ 7 plus postage. The gifts can be delivered anywhere in the world.

Blends for friends [Popgadget]

Springwise: Appealing to a 'not leaving the beach yet' kind of spontaneity, Danish Sommergrill offers seaside barbecue on speed dial. Consumers can call or SMS Sommergrill from the beach, and the service will deliver a ready-to-go bbq set: marinated meat, salad, bread and dessert, plus a disposable barbeque, plates, napkins, etc. A set for two is priced at DKK 180 (USD 33 / EUR 24 / GBP 16).

Instead of waiting in line for mediocre beach-side (fast) food, Sommergrill's customers have access to gourmet grub, with the convenience of having everything delivered, and the pleasure of grilling it themselves. Sommergrill is a seasonal offering by local restaurant Ricky's Køkken. Vans deliver to two urban beaches near Copenhagen, Amager Strandpark and Islands Brygge, and payment is in cash or by debit/credit card.

Beach Barbecue on call [Springwise]

TrendHunter: It was only a matter of time until someone applied the green-business model to pizza. Pizza Fusion offsets 100% of energy used with renewable wind. They use hybrid vehicles. They use 100% certified organic ingredients in their sauce, dough, and vegetables. The chicken they use is all-natural, free-range. The beef is 100% certified organic and is free of any hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and insecticides. Save the earth - eat a pizza.

Environmentally Conscience Pizza - Pizza Fusion [TrendHunter]

Creative Match: An observational study and consumer workshops revealed just how peckish people get when they see and taste this delicious, healthy snack and Ziggurat Brands. The new Munchy Seeds tubs will be launched in September, feature a host of hungry birds created by hand models and a skilled body painter.

A toucan, goose and rooster appear to peck at the Munchy Seeds typography, which also features seed-shaped counters in the lettering. The Munchy Seeds branding also incorporates other hand-animals – zebra, horse and crocodile which unify the product range and ensure consumer recognition via the single creative idea. It has immediate impact, effectively disrupting the fast growing seed category. The branding works across all marketing collateral and will appear throughout corporate stationery and website communication.

Ziggurat and Munchy Seeds conducted workshops to understand the consumer’s mindset and category nuances, ensuring that the client and the agency shared an understanding for the brand’s essence and desired brand positioning. It was not surprising that the workshops revealed that many parents are increasingly health conscious, wanting to encourage children to eat nutritious foods.

Ziggurat rebrands Munchy Seeds [Creative Match]

Treehugger: Downtown Manhattanites with a case of the lunchtime munchies can mosey down to Battery Park for a bite at Picknick, a new sustainable food kiosk that considers itself a "mini-model of consumer and eco-conscious food service."

Serving a medley of sandwiches, salads, and sweets, Picknick sources most of its ingredients from small farms and local businesses, while any global vendors must meet social-responsibility standards. A percentage of the company's profits is piped back into the Battery Conservancy gardens surrounding New York Harbor, famed for their views of the Statue of Liberty and assemblage of imitation-Rolex peddlers.

Takeout containers, cutlery, and cups are made from biodegradable bioplastics. Even the kiosk's menu boards are made from Richlite, a fiber composite manufactured using Forestry Stewardship Council-certified paper.

Picnick: NYC's New Sustainable Food Stand [Treehugger]

Springwise: Heineken is about to soft launch a sparkling cider brew for the fair sex. Christened Charli, the drink combines cider, barley malt and fruit flavours. Although barley malt is one of Heineken beer's main ingredients, Charli is marketed to the 63% of women who, according to Heineken, don't like its main product. The brew is also being presented as an alternative to white wine, the quality of which varies widely at Dutch bars.

Charli contains 5% alcohol, has a fresh, fruity flavour and will be sold both bottled and on tap. Like its aforementioned sister sips, the drink is packaged in attractive bottles. Heineken has also gone one step further by creating a svelte and sexy tap for Charli, which should help draw attention to the new brand in bars.

Heineken's New Brew For Women [Springwise]