Enjoy Your Cocktail, Then Eat The Delicious Cup

Coming from innovators Loliware, this edible cocktail glass is made from a seaweed base and is available in a range of tasty sounding flavour options including yuzu citrus, matcha tea, vanilla bean or an unflavoured ‘natural clear’.

Moving one step beyond concept of a biodegradable cup, these cups have the added environmental advantage that they effectively disappear upon consumption. ‘Ít’s really meant to be eaten, and we’ve designed it to be something that would taste good and that you would want to eat,’ says Loliware co-founder Leigh Ann Tucker. Each cup is 135 calories and if you don’t feel like eating it, it will decompose in a home compost within 60 days. When left sealed in their package, the cups have a shelf life of 1 year.

Tucker adds that if this edible cup happened to end up in a stream or waterway where it’s not supposed to be, it’s going to quickly break down like a banana peel would, for instance. She notes that is a big improvement as compared to other corn-based bioplastics, for example, that are actually still a huge issue in waterways as they require significant periods of time before fully decomposing.

These edible cups are quite sensibly intended as as a beverage serving option at festivals, street parties and events where disposable cups that end up in the trash would otherwise be used. In addition to the disposable party cup crowd, the flavours mean the cups can be paired with deserts or drinks, be it a margarita or amaretto sour. The cups are therefore also being marketed towards restaurants, bars and caterers as part of a culinary experience. Loliware’s edible cups are in fact already being used at the Four Season Hotel chain.

The design of the cups is according Tucker still evolving. ‘The design initially began as a type of jello mold and took a significant period of time to perfect,’ she says. ‘The main thing has always been – and we’re still trying to perfect this – is finding a balance between something that is structural enough to be functional as a container, and be something that you can hold in your hand and drink from, and also something that you can enjoy eating.’

So far Loliware have run a successful Kickstarter campaign (in 2015) and received a round of seed funding, led by Mark Cuban, earlier this year.

Could it be the cup of the future?