What Changes?
As depicted in the pictures, Starbucks has decided to crop-out the green outer ring and the ‘starbucks coffee’ wording. It also loose the black background behind the Siren (the mermaid) and pull her out instead in one clear clean white background while maintaining the circular form. This has been their fourth official new logo in the successful forty years of journey. Now let’s get down to business and answer the fundamental question everyone’s is pondering.

Why?
The official Starbucks statement answers:

“Our new evolution liberates the Siren from the outer ring, making her the true, welcoming face of Starbucks. For people all over the globe, she is a signal of the world’s finest coffee – and much more. She stands unbound, sharing our stories, inviting all of us in to explore, to find something new and to connect with each other. And as always, she is urging all of us forward to the next thing. After all, who can resist her?”

Produk pertama Le Whif datang dalam tiga varian rasa coklat: coklat murni, coklat raspberry, dan coklat mint. Terlihat dari gambar di atas, Le Whif yang berbentuk seperti lipstick ini dinikmati dengan cara dihisap melalui mulut. Seketika partikel kecil akan mengikuti hisapan udara, masuk ke dalam mulut dan dinikmati oleh lidah.

Inovasi Le Whif selanjutnya adalah varian kopi dan vitamin yang juga dihisap (inhaler). Website official Le Whif menyebutnya ‘revolusioner’. Begitu juga dengan beberapa media seperti Oprah, New York Times dan Cosmo yang membantu Le Whif melesat secara komersil. Namun mampukah bertahan atau berlalu seperti sebuah trend / fad? We’ll see about that.

Mungkin buat para wanita, inilah jawaban atas doa mereka. Mungkin quote yang cukup populer di kalangan mereka “a moment on the lip, forever on the hip” bisa jadi sudah tidak berlaku lagi. Mungkin. Kita tidak pernah tahu secara Le Whif belum sampai di tangan consumer Indonesia yang cukup unik perilakunya.

Saya pribadi lebih ingin mencoba satu hisap dua hisap sebelum menyampaikan opini. But oh well, melihat kemungkinan yang cukup kecil untuk sampai di market lokal Indonesia, sekalian saja saya sampaikan sedikit pemikiran saya. =)

Mungkin buat readers yang mempunyai lidah manis seperti saya, Le Whif adalah suatu penemuan yang menarik. Dengan klaimnya yang memberikan full-flavor dari coklat dalam kurang dari satu kalori, tentunya sekarang bisa ngemil tanpa merasa bersalah ketika melihat timbangan di rumah nanti. Hehe. Tapi, melihat harganya yang dipatok di 1.8 Euro alias 22.000 Rupiah per tabung, rasa-rasanya sulit menukarnya dengan coklat. Belum lagi barang import sampai Indonesia bisa hampir dua kali lipat harga aslinya. After all, kalau tidak lebih ekonomis dari coklat / kopi aslinya, buat apa juga toh? Ditambah lagi setiap tabung habis dinikmati dalam 4-5 hisapan saja. Walah! –”

Lagi-lagi menurut saya tidak ada yang bisa mengalahkan nikmatnya potongan coklat asli yang lumer perlahan di dalam mulut, di atas lidah yang berputar menikmati manisnya perlahan. YUM!

Kalau kata penemunya sih, Le Whif tidak diciptakan untuk menyaingi coklat, tapi sebagai alternatif terhadap coklat, seperti layaknya variasi coklat seperti minuman coklat milkshake atau sejenisnya.

All in all, si neophile di dalam saya tetap penasaran pengen cicip. Nah siapa diantara wanderers yang mau berbaik hati membawakan saya kalau sedang berjalan” di Amerika atau Eropa? Ditunggu loh. Upahmu besar di surga. =p

Expectantly waiting,

Fellexandro Ruby

Food Enthusiast & Photographer
Cemal-cemil tweet saya di @captainruby

Sometime in late 80′s and early 90′s, during the Japanese economic boom and the riches were discovering ways to leisure in their extra fortune, the fad at the time was food garnished with real gold. Restaurants in major cities like Tokyo began offering menus ranging from curry to ice cream with gold sprinkles on top. The popular one was sushi wrapped in gold leaf served along with the traditional seaweed wrapped sushi. This trend arise at the time as restaurant owners realized this was a considerably simple way to increase the value of their meals. How’s that possible? That’s real 22 carats gold!


Here’s how. These gold flakes appear to have more volume than it actually weight. And here’s the process. One thick bar of gold are mechanically pressed into 1/100.000.000 of an inch thick. They are cut after, and place in an ox-hide pouch covered by bamboo stripes. They will then be continually beaten using hammer sledges. After approximately 6 hours, the leaf size will increase twelve times in size, and it’s so thin that you could easily tear it apart.

At the time, a plate of gold sushi worth about 5000 Yen or $40. This trend grows to the neighboring countries such as South Korea where you can find restaurants and coffee shops serving fish, pork, coffee and liquor sprinkled with gold dust to customer who believed that it helped clear waste in their body.  One serving of ten fish with ‘special seasoning’ could cost as high as $1,500. Of course, despite of the ‘healthy’ claims, Gold in that tiny amount has no direct effect whatsoever to the body.

Me, myself, I happened to try one of these gold flakes. Or should I say, drank one. It was back in December 2009 when me and a group of friends were on a trip to Bromo mountain. We were chillin’ at the villa and found an abandoned bottle of champagne in the shelf with a ‘gold leaf 22 carats’ on the label. The bright shiny tiny yellow flakes was like calling us to have a sip of it. And we did, opened the bottle, drank it. I felt good afterwards. It was most likely the ‘placebo effect’ but oh well. I feel accomplished having scratched off one extreme cuisine from my list. As many fads come and go, I’d like to see if gold makes it comeback anytime soon. Well maybe, if it ever goes cheaper compared to the rising chili price in Indonesia. =P Until then, I’ll see you in my next foodventure.

Oh, and now I finally gets Flight Facilities lyrics in Crave You: “I walked into the room dripping in gold, yeah dripping in gold”.   =P

Smile on, Shine on.
Fellexandro Ruby
Food Enthusiast & Photographer

The first Le Whif comes in three varieties of chocolate: pure, raspberry chocolate, and mint chocolate. As you can see in the picture, this lipstick sized inhaler is meant to be enjoyed by taking a short whiff naturally, then the tiny particles will be picked up by the air stream, entered the mouth and tasted by the tongue. The next Le Whif innovations are the breathable coffee and breathable vitamins. The sites claimed it ‘revolutionary’. Hmm, we’ll see about that. Being featured in Oprah, New York Times, Cosmo and many other media has helped Le Whif took off rocketfast. While I can imagine the amount of ladies dancing happily singing hallelujah as it definitely write off the popular quotes “a moment on the lip, forever on the hips”, I’d say it would take some more time to see if the success sustained.

I personally would like to give it a breathe, before verbalizing my verdict. Here’s some thoughts anyway.

Its definitely interesting for me and many who has a sweet tongue. This might just be the answer for us to enjoy chocolates in its entirety without worrying about the scale (and the guilt) after as it delivers all the flavor in less than a calorie! However, being priced at 1.8 Euro (equals to around 22.000 Rupiah) per unit might makes me think twice in using this alternately with real chocolate. First and foremost, the price will most likely one-halved or doubled once it reached Jakarta, and secondly, each inhaler only gives about 4-5 ‘puffs’ as published by Oprah. Also, in my opinion, nothing beats the scrumptious munch on a thick milky chocolate bar and having it lingers on the tongue. You coffee aficionados will most likely in the same page as me. A whiff is much less intense that holding that cup of Starbucks’ latte and sipping it hot. Right?

In the inventor’s defense: “This is not against chocolate anymore than eating bars of chocolate means I don’t eat a chocolate milkshake, this is just a new way of experiencing chocolate, and it’s sort of an addendum to how we normally eat chocolate.”

Oh well, the neophile in me still very much intrigued though. Now, would you be so kind to bring Le Whif from abroad and once again made me one happy foodie? =D

Expectantly waiting,

Fellexandro Ruby
Food Enthusiast & Photographer

Munch on my tweets @captainruby

What did you start day one with? Tweet me @captainruby with the hashtag #istartdayone and share some interesting stuff you do first thing today (aside from your morning ‘unloading’ session of course –”). As for me I decided to work on something creative with the new Facebook profile. Here’s a screencapture of what I did. Initially I hate the new design, but now, I think it gets quite idea-provoking, I might challenge myself every month for something fresh. And I challenge everyone of you too. =) I learn something as well, when we see something we dislike, we have the options to (1) complain about it (2) complain then do something to make it better. I did the number two (not that number two =p). So can you, let’s start this year with a positive thought. =)

Also, I’d like to thank you for tuning in to this blog. I reviewed the stats today and throughout the year I’ve received more than 5000 visits according to Google Analytics and Posterous counted over 14.000 visits. I’m humbled and honored that this startup receive such a support. To the truth, I’ve been pondering on revamping this blog into a full website with custom domain, design, and much more interactivity. It’s gonna take a while to develop (ehm, faster if anyone would like to sponsor =p), in the mean time, I’ll welcome suggestions and inputs. Practical inputs such as domain names, yep the web address like www.rubybites.com or the likes. Or anything you haven’t see here and would like to. Feel free to drop comments below or again tweet me @captainruby.

Looking forward for a delicious and fruitful year ahead.

Smile on (Munch on) Shine on!
Fellexandro Ruby
Food Enthusiast &  Photographer