Vanishing act

What I talk about when I talk about turning wine bottles into dishware, see-through mice, and the lightest whiskey bottle in the world.

Hello readers. Thank you to my new subscribers and congrats to Ilona Datskovskaya who won the free ticket to next week’s Food & AI Summit at UC Berkeley. Ilona found me by way of reading The Rotten Apple. I love the synergy I get from other Substackers. Anyways, today we’re starting with the tidbits. If you feel like getting your voting fingers ready for November, please comment here to let me know if my tidbits are what you enjoy reading most.

I’m just here for the tidbits:

1. The New York Times wrote about how people are going banana’s for creating customized drinks. I’m intrigued by this but we’ve seen customizable beverage machines for home and office, and they’ve failed. The most recent was Cana One, which I tested in 2023. The machine didn’t work that great and I had a hard time bringing myself to write about it. So, I didn’t. Phew because the startup tanked later that same year. I’ll offer that we want to customize our drinks when we’re out in the world because it’s a relatively inexpensive treat for ourselves. At home we’re fine drinking the old standards. (FWIW my fanciest drink is an occasional almond milk matcha latte from Peet’s with no foam and no sweetener.)

   

   The Cana One, which they called a “beverage printer” — a name that always rang false to me.

2. An ingredient in Doritos — tartrazine or Yellow 5 — is helping scientists see through the skin of mice. While they can’t see through human skin (it’s thicker and less permeable), this could be helpful in the future for early skin cancer detection. Imagine if it could replace a mammogram? On the other hand, Doritos food coloring is a chemical that the scientists said might not be totally harmless. (And to think so many people are eating it?) Read the Popular Science article about it. It’s fantastic.

3. Big Food wants to make your workout drinks more like junk food. You can get Jello-flavored protein powder, Jolly Rancher energy drinks, and soon Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup protein powder. Double Ick. Just give me one Halloween-sized candy bar and I’m good.

4. Amazon launched a no-frills private label line on everyday stuff like syrup, graham crackers and coffee creamer. I don’t understand how it’s any different from its Amazon Fresh line, which uses green branding. The new line is reported to be a value-focused brand but private label is already a value thing. Private label products often outperform name brands in brick-and-mortar locations and its how stores earn more money. I wonder how it plays out online?

   

   I’d rather pay more than buy this stuff from Amazon.

5. If you’ve ever ordered a turkey sandwich at a deli counter then you should be reading about Boar’s Head, which saw dozens (57!) of hospitalizations plus 9 deaths across 18 states due to a listeria outbreak. The company is closing its Virginia plant and will never make liverwurst again. In more shocking news, via The Rotten Apple, I also learned that recently a pregnant woman asked her doctor if she should eat deli meats, the doctor “told her the ‘risk was negligible’”. Welp, she ate Boar’s Head and went to the hospital. She didn’t lose her baby, but it was a close call. I wouldn’t want to be the CEO of Boar’s Head or that doctor.

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