This Fork Makes Your Food Smell Better
There’s a new guest at the dinner table, and we’re moving them to the head — seat, that is, they’re already on your head. They’re your olfactory senses and they + your taste buds are about to go for a ride with AromaFork in the driver’s seat.
AromaFork is a utensil that does way more than deliver food to your face. It’s a scent-emitting fork with tiny depressions on the handle that hold blotting papers. You drop aromatic oils on the papers so that when you’re eating, you not only taste what’s on the tongs, but smell what’s wafting from the holes in the handle. Like a perfect wine-and-food pairing, intensifying the smell of what you’re eating seduces your senses and amplifies the taste.
Our taste buds can detect five primary tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami. “Umami” BTW is a “pleasant savory taste,” think olive oil, smoke and truffle. All = yum to our buds. Your nose can detect at least one trillion smells (whoa) and AromaFork captures 21 aromas in different categories like fruits, herbs and nuts. The specific sniffs range from the “mmm” to the “hmm”: lychee, butter, basil and wasabi to name a few.
Scent-emitting utensils are essentially just a high tech way to spice your food if you think about it. Eat your veggie burger with some smoke smells to get that just-BBQ-ed experience from your microwaved Morning Star. Truffle in your fork could turn that blue box mac and cheese into a gourmet meal. Our mouths are watering thinking about it, even if we think that first bite would be a little weird.
The name makes it sound like a gadget from the future from an old TV show but AromaFork is expected to ship this summer. A set comes with four forks (dinner party, anyone?) 21 aromas, four droppers, 50 diffusing papers and a program for one multi-sensory evening (sooo, about that dinner party…). At $59, the Aroma R-Evolution might make a good gift for the foodie who has everything (else). And you thought there was nothing that could beat the Oscar Mayer Wake Up and Smell the Bacon iPhone attachment…
Does AromaFork sound appetizing to you? What would you eat with it?
