Le Whif: Eating by breathing — The rise of inhaled chocolate

Abby Ellin's June 17, 2009 New York Times story has the details, and follows.

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Chocolate? Breathe In!

Is it possible to eat by breathing? Can an inhaler replace a fork?

David Edwards, a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard University, wanted to know. In the fall of 2007, he came up with the idea of “eating by breathing” while opening the Foodlab at Le Laboratoire, an experimental art and design space in Paris. Later he asked his students at Harvard to think about where the idea might lead.

The result, introduced in April, is Le Whif, a lipstick-size inhaler filled with chocolate particles but with less than a single calorie. (An early prototype of the product, introduced over the past year, became something of a hit in Paris, Dr. Edwards said.)

Dr. Edwards advises taking small breaths for maximum effect. “A little bit of powder on the taste buds gives you all the flavor of a lot of chocolate mass that you chew on and break down in your mouth to accomplish the same purpose,” he said, adding that when you eat chocolate, “the actual percentage of that chocolate that stimulates your taste buds is very minor.”

Le Whif, he said, provides “the best of all worlds. You have your agreeable chocolate experience and yet you’ve not had the calories.”

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4 flavors: Mint Chocolate, Raspberry Chocolate, Mango Chocolate, and Plain Chocolate.

Six-pack of the four flavors (I assume one of each of two and two of each of the other two — but I could be wrong): £9.95.