Drinkable Onigiri Is Japan's Latest Snack Invention

When it comes to innovation, Japan is just ahead of everyone else in the game. Their latest invention, drinkable onigiri, is a true testament for their love of convenience. If you’re unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine, an onigiri is hand-sized rice ball wrapped in seaweed, usually stuffed with fish, that people pick-up and eat on their way to work. It’s a snack that one would consider simple enough to eat, but drinkable onigiri proves us wrong. These drinkable onigiris have all the ingredients and nutrition of a regular onigiri and are packed into small pouches that you can just chug on the go.

Liquid foods aren’t exactly a new trend—yes, I’ve heard about soylent —and to be fair, with the help of a heavy-duty juicer, you can "drinkify" any snack. But I never knew the demand for drinkable snacks existed until now. Who knew, for example, that drinkable potato chips actually exist. Although they aren’t exactly liquid, a Japanese company advertise their latest snack range as a "drinkable" snack solution for gamers that are tired off smearing potato chips grease on their phone or consoles. Not exactly a game-changer, it’s really just crushed potato chips, served in a pouch with a rippable corner that’s small and safe for people to chug it.

Then there's drinkable pizza (ugh, barf). People love pizza, so it shouldn’t come to a surprise that someone out there has made a drinkable version of it. A convenience store in Quebec, Canada introduced the world to pizza and spaghetti flavored slushies, but it was a French food truck in Los Angeles that decided to take it to the next level and serve drinkable pizza on its menu. Served with a sprinkle of croutons for garnish, apparently, the drinkable pizza tastes more like tomato juice with a dash of herbs…and cheese. You’ve got to give credit to the team for taking a new spin on enjoying pizza.

Watch: How to Cook From Tokyo's Vending Machines

Last but not least: drinkable insects. Nutritious and sustainable, insects are the latest health foods. But people’s aversion to eating creepy crawlies has made it pretty difficult for people to get on board of the hype. So a Danish company came up with a way to allow crickets to slide pleasantly down people’s throats. Femten Fårekyllinger—literally translated to 15 crickets—is an insect juice that blends exactly 15 crickets into a concoction of apple juice and ginger. It’s said that the ginger flavor is slightly overpowering, enough to get consumers to ignore the remains of chopped crickets at the bottom of the bottle.

Though some people might think that we currently have way too many drinkable versions of snacks than humanity can tolerate, I actually think we need more of them. Starting with these:

Popcorn

Sure, the idea of eating wet popcorn sounds heinous but hear me out. ‘’Liquid’’ popcorn will put an end to those loud and annoying crunches that take us out of our moviegoing experience. It never made sense to me why crunchy snacks like popcorn were even allowed in theatres in the first place. But I’m relieved to hear that some companies are working on silent snacks to be available in theatres. While we wait for that to happen, crunchy snacks should just be liquified or banned all-together!

Instant Ramen

Why stop at drinking the broth? (Technically, you’re not supposed to drink the broth and just eat the ramen?). Sure, instant ramen—or instant anything for the matter—isn’t healthy to begin with, but why can’t companies come up with a healthier alternative that allows us to chug down this college student staple?

Cake

Wait, that already exists. Practically, any frappuccino you’ll find at a Starbucks is liquid cake.

The bottom line is anything can be made into a drinkable snack. All you really need is creativity, a powerful juicer and you could find yourself sitting on a million dollar idea…or on the toilet, suffering from diarrhea from all that food mixing.