Hasta La Ideas

Eco-friendly tasting spoons save the planet one fro-yo bite at a time

Ever wondered what happens to tasting spoons after you’ve sampled the latest fro-yo flavor? Peggy Cross did and found the little plastic utensils usually end up sitting in landfills for centuries. Drawing on her experience as a marketing director, the mother of two boys applied her knowledge of efficient packaging and distribution to spoon design. The result is EcoTensil, a biodegradable scoop made from flat shiny paperboard. Fold the two dots together and presto—instant taste-tester!

Spoons biodegrade in two-five weeks (compare to six months or longer for other biodegradable tasters) and the charmingly simple design packages more efficiently and ships flat, saving on transportation energy costs. EcoTensils come in a tiny version, the EcoTaster, and a full-size version, the EcoSpoon. There’s even an EcoSecurity model designed for prisons and psych wards, an alternative that eliminates the danger of sharpened utensils and is more humane than fingers-only eating.

A starter kit of 1,000 EcoTasters runs $36, with prices increasing from there. They sell online from EcoTensil.

Olive oil chocolates made by a local Italian community (nuns too)

With chocolatiers known simply as “Ivan and Michele” and packaged by local nuns, Nudo‘s new olive oil Cioccolatini are a community project from top to bottom. Based in Italy’s Le Marche region, Nudo (a family-run operation itself) tapped Ivan and Michele to take their astounding olive oil in a sweet direction—but not without a few road bumps along the way.

Because the word nudo translates to naked in Italian, the nuns (based in the nearby town of Tolentino) had to receive special permission to work with the brand—which actually is named for its honest approach to harvesting olives. Known for their adopt-an-olive-tree program which gives anyone a chance to own one of their trees, Nudo oil comes from 100% Italian, hand-picked olives that go straight from the grove to pressing.

That delicious ingredient translates into handmade dark chocolate truffles filled with three flavors of ganache—lemon, mandarin and chili—which is where the oil comes in, nicely complimenting all flavors involved. Like Nudo’s other products the confections come in packaging that’s as appealing as what it contains, and the design keeps it in the family. The work of Nudo co-founder Cathy Rogers’ sister Madeleine, she’s the driving force behind the adorable paper projects at London studio Mibo.

Nudo Cioccolatini sell online where $11 gets you a box of twelve chocolates.

Rhubarb-infused caramel from Iceland gives the ancient veggie a new taste

Nicknamed the “pie plant,” rhubarb is an ancient vegetable known as much for its medicinal qualities during the Liang dynasty as it is currently popular for its unusual tart flavor—perfect for desserts. The stalk is also interestingly a cold weather crop, making it ideal produce for the difficult climate of Iceland, where a few years ago students from the Academy of Arts put it to use in hard candy caramel.

Working with the nonprofit Farmers and Designers United initiative, the then second-year students created Rabarbía—a “factory and a laboratory in one” that experiments with new ways of using rhubarb. The consortium created a tasty toffee-like candy called Rhubarbbrittle, which contains real bits of the vegetable without overpowering the buttery sugar flavor.

With equally delightful packaging based on the colorful rhubarb plant itself, Rhubarbbrittle is a fresh take on the primitive vegetable. It sells at specialty shops around Iceland for ISK 1290 (just over $11).