Eating the Kool-Aid

Years ago, it was apparently very fashionable in the States to use Kool Aid as hair dye (check its Wikipedia entry/other uses). Now, the stuff is being used to candy-fy pickles.

The New York Times reports:

"The pickles have been spotted as far afield as Dallas and St. Louis, but their cult is thickest in the Delta region, among the black majority population. In the Delta, where they fetch between 50 cents and a dollar, Kool-Aid pickles have earned valued space next to such beloved snacks as pickled eggs and pigs’ feet at community fairs, convenience stores and filling stations.

....

When this writer, lugging a jar of tropical-fruit-flavored pickles, recently asked the 29 students who liked to eat Kool-Aid pickles, 29 hands shot up.

The names came fast: Ladarius, Fredericka and Kobreana, among others. So did the impressions: “It’s a candy pickle.” And “I like it the same as dipping hot Cheetos in ice cream.” And “Have you ever tried one with a watermelon Blow Pop?” followed by a pantomime of how the Blow Pop stick can be inserted so that the candy appears as a knob at one end of the pickle, allowing the eater to alternate between bites of sour-sweet pickle and licks of sweet-sour Blow Pop.

No patent application has been filed, but the name Kool-Aid is a trademark owned by Kraft Foods. Upon learning of the pickles, Bridget MacConnell, a senior manager of corporate affairs at Kraft, recovered, and then pronounced, “We endorse our consumers’ finding innovative ways to use our products.”

Design for the other 90%

"Design for the Other 90%" is a new exhibition running through Sept. 23 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City focusing on sustainable innovation. A few of its highlights will be familiar: The Katrina Furniture Project, the One Laptop Per Child initiative and Lifestraw (pictured), for instance, have both received generous media attention.

In featuring more than 30 innovative tools—each of which addresses issues such as safe drinking water, shelter, health and sanitation, education, and transportation—curator Cynthia Smith hopes to illuminate the critical need for humanitarian design. "It's a call to action," says Smith, who has worked for the Lee Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership and studied at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "We're trying to show that design can change lives."

While these consumers face many issues—poor shelter, limited medical care, and substandard school systems—developing appropriate solutions is easier said than done. To craft low-cost, high-impact remedies, like the ones featured in "Design for the Other 90%," Smith says innovators must "get creative." "There's more than one way to fix the world's problems," she explains, adding that roughly 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. "We're trying to showcase a variety of solutions."

Read more and see a slideshow of some of the innovations at Businessweek online.

NPD in Amsterdam

Postcard 'poop scoop' with fold out bag. Bio-degradable and recycled. Of course.

Balti Wine

Following on from the success of Cobra Beer which cashed in on Brits' love of curry and beer, Balti Wine hopes to capture wine/curry lovers.

The Independent reports:

“One in four people in Britain eats a curry at least once a week. Couple this with British people's growing love of wine and you'll see why Ashraf Sharif's business idea has been such a hit. Balti Wine, his simple range of five wines to complement spicy foods, is already revolutionising the drinking habits of curry lovers and the company looks set to grow from strength to strength.

"It's no gimmick," insists Sharif, 53, whose headquarters are in Newton Heath, Manchester. Indeed, it took four years of extensive research in collaboration with Manchester University's food science department, and samples from around the globe, before Sharif and his advisers were happy with the grape selections.

"At first, Indian wines seemed the obvious answer, but we found people didn't like them because they're not used to them," he says, explaining that the wines they eventually chose come from the Southern Hemisphere. The New World, he explains, tends to make wines that have an upfront fruity style that complements the spice in the food.

"These wines - three whites and two reds - each have a 'chilli rating' from one chilli to five, helping drinkers to choose which one is appropriate for their selected food," he adds.

Since the company's launch in 2004, Balti Wine has sold over 700,000 bottles, which retail at between £10 and £15 in restaurants. Sharif now supplies 65 per cent of the North-west's Indian restaurants and six per cent of all Indian restaurants nationally. "Between 50 to 100 restaurants a day are taking on Balti Wines," he says.”

Having secured VC funding, Balti Wine now has plans to expand into the States. One to watch.