Disposable cups have long had a bad reputation. So do lazy people who can’t be bothered to bring a reusable, machine-washable drinking vessel, but I digress. The clever people from The Way We See The World are offering a unique alternative with Jelloware, single-use cups that you can eat after you drink out of them.
Yes, edible cups – the tasty alternative to disposable drinking equipment. An entry in the 2nd annual Jell-O Mold Competition in Brooklyn, they’re essentially gelatin that’s been molded into functional drinking glasses.
Jelloware is made from agar agar, a gelatin derived from algae that has long been used as an ingredient in whipping up various deserts. Not only can you eat the actual drink containers, they’re supposedly tasty too, coming in flavors such as lemon-basil, rosemary-beet and ginger-mint. Since the cup is edible, you can munch off pieces of it while finishing your drink, making it a perfect companion to cocktails and other social drinks. Unfortunately, you can only eat the whole cup after you’ve drank all your beverage, so you’ll end up thirsty again (you can also just throw them away since they’re not harmful to the environment).
Of course, we can get rid of all these non-biodegradable waste if people just learned to stop using disposable cups. Got a keg party? Drink from the tap. Having a picnic? Take gulps from your pitcher. Don’t want to wash mugs when drinking water at home? Just put your mouth directly on the water dispenser. There, problem solved.
Kidding aside, Jelloware does offer a tastier, less-destructive replacement to the usual disposables that people fall back on when drinking outdoors. Of course, it’s never going to be as cheap as plastic cups and all your drinks will taste like whatever flavor your cup is (respberry-beet Coke does sound blech), but it’s nice to see people coming up with creative alternatives.
[The Way We See The World]