ReubenMiller

Mast Brothers Chocolate

People in the know who live in the NYC tristate area go to Artists & Fleas in Williamsburg to find the best and the newest stuff to buy - from jewelry to chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, we've been noticing some talk about Mast Brothers Chocolate. These chocolates are the work of two artisans and brothers, Michael and Rick Mast. I couldn't help but notice their chocolate bars, which come wrapped in pretty Italian papers. They make a gorgeous presentation when stacked side by side. I suspect they will gather quite a following based on some of the tasting reviews of their chocolates, which are made from some spiffy single origin cacao beans. As something of a chocolate fanatic, I'm pretty excited about discovering this great new arrival on the artisan chocolate scene - on the east coast no less.

More pictures below.

(discovery made at coolhunting)

Pepsi Raw

The kings of sparkling refreshing goodness are now joining the natural and healthy revolution. Enter Pepsi Raw. This new version of Pepsi is made from natural ingredients like apple extract, coffee leaf, cane sugar, and sparkling water. Sounds delicious - and I'll bet very Pepsi-like but in a good sort of way.

The bottles are also very svelte and have a more high-end feel than ordinary Pepsi. I am unsure about the typographic treatment of 'RAW' - it could be this type treatment was selected to fit in with primary Pepsi mark. The mark was designed by Ziggurat (read more about the identity here).

Pepsi Raw is launching in the UK in bars and clubs before rolling out globally. The US identity design may likely be different the UK version shown above. We'll have to wait and see what we get in the US, then!

Read more details about this new product launch here and here, including some ads.

(via BrandonBlog)

Eat Them Pixels

Yummy cookies made with a primitive pixel system (how about 4 dpi resolution?) Get the how-to here.

(via Core77)

Guns 'N Eggs

What do you make of this?

[thanks DumpTrumpet]

Tcho-colate

Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired magazine, has turned tech into taste with his new start-up, TCHO Chocolate. One of the few companies in the US that make chocolate from the bean (not just remelt pre-made chocolate), TCHO is joining the ranks of true chocolate makers like Scharffen-Berger, Theo and old giants like Guittard.

We thought the subtle tech-references were cute - they call the first version of their bars 'Beta chocolate', and their 'latest release' is 'Beta Batch: C Ghana 0.1' - all references to software and tech-talk.

Still, the packaging is appealingly low-tech with simple print on unbleached recycled paper. I'm curious if the packaging is beta, too and will get 'upgraded' over time!

Here's more info, from Financial Post.

Nikka Japanese Whiskey

Nikka whiskey is made in Japan by Asahi Brewery Group - one of the largest beverage conglomerates in Japan. This unusually rugged bottle for Black Nikka Whisky was designed by renowned product designer, Michael Young. Michael is famous for his product design for such brands as Artemide, LaCoste and Giant. We think this bottle is beautiful and striking. The matte, tactile surface fairly begs to be picked up. It also seems obvious that this bottle was designed to appeal mainly to men.

via Coolhunter.net

Recchiuti Hip Halloween Chocolates

Michael Recchiuti is famous for unique, delicious handmade chocolates. Recchiuti chocolates are decorated with beautiful and artistic colored cocoa butter designs. This is the latest from his collection just in time for Halloween. I've never seen Halloween chocolate look so elegant.

Michael also works with local artists like Liz Saintsing, Brian Barneclo and Michele Carlson to feature their artwork directly on the chocolates in limited edition collections. Previous artists include Sherry Olsen, Beth Weintraub, Kelly Tunstall, and Paul Madonna.

These stylish chocolate morsels are $18 a box of eight.

Tokyo Does Chocolate by the Number

Tokyo's 100% Chocolate Cafe serves up lots of fresh chocolate concoctions, but doesn't stop there. They sell prepackaged chocolate in no less than 56 varieties! Flavors include unusual ones, like no. 40 royal milk tea, no. 42 black pepper, no. 50 basil. They also have healthy types, like no. 53 collagen. Plus, the collection includes a wide range of single origin chocolates from around the world.

The in-store display showing the range of colorful chocolates is pretty impressive (more images after  the jump.)

(thanks, Andrew!)

Now Veggies are as Cool as Cheetos

A Stanford University study had kids taste food in McDonald packaging and unmarked packaging and asked which they preferred. The kids preferred the McDonald packaged food not realizing that they went for it because they were conditioned to believe "it must taste good."

You can be negative about the effects of advertising and packaging, but I think if you apply the lesson learned from the study noted above, you'll find that you can use this information positively.

After being inspired by the Stanford University study on McDonald's packaging effect on kids, I came up with an idea to get kids to eat their veggies as enthusiastically as 'snack'. If zip-seal bags would be pre-printed with cool graphics like those on national brand snack packaging (which kids love), then they might be more inclined to take, display and eat their healthy snacks in school with zest.

Well, Mobi has already created this product! They make a great array of appealing sandwich bags, pre-printed with various designs that can even give cut-up celery sticks a zap of show-off cool factor.

Mobi's bags would be perfect for influencing kids to see healthy snacks as the 'cool thing'.

As an added bonus, these bags are environmentally friendly. The materials used to make them are recycled and recyclable. Furthermore in 2008 the company plans to use strictly biodegradable films in their products.

In addition to the environment, they are also passionate about helping endangered species and global aid.

(sources: Mobi, Fancy Food & CNN)

Drink Your Bot

bot is a healthy, low sugar alternative to the regular juice box drink. And besides for what's in it, bot's branding is probably a hit with kids and adults alike. I'm noticing more and more Japanese style characters/mascots on US products - which is a good thing! Also check out their website.