“My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates."
January 2, 2015 8:51 AM   Subscribe

3D food printing seems to be the next big thing - Create everything... out of chocolate.
posted by misaac (32 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well now I know what I want for Christmas 2015. Here is a link to one in action
posted by 724A at 9:14 AM on January 2, 2015


I want the sugar candy printed by the ChefJet, but they don't seem to actually be selling one.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:26 AM on January 2, 2015 [2 favorites]




I want the sugar candy printed by the ChefJet, but they don't seem to actually be selling one.

DO WANT

SO MUCH WANT GIVE ME THIS THING

maybe not everything made of chocolate
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:52 AM on January 2, 2015


Huzzah! The replicator age is upon us. Now all that we need to do is figure out how to print a cup of tea, earl grey, hot.
posted by batbat at 9:52 AM on January 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


Create everything... out of chocolate.

Maybe not at that $6630 price tag.
posted by Librarypt at 9:59 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


A brief retrospective of the CandyFab project, 2006-2009. (previously.)
posted by phooky at 10:00 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Cool, but I'm not seeing the 3D here. Perhaps I should be wearing special glasses?
posted by echo target at 10:04 AM on January 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


I so so so want these to become mainstream and affordable. My kid's severe peanut allergy means he can pretty much flat out not have 95% of interesting confections at candy stores (most chocolate sold in the U.S. is made on shared equipment with peanuts / peanut butter; a surprising amount of fancy sugar candy is too, and since it's not mandatory for food companies in the U.S. to label for cross-contamination risk, there are a lot of things we just have to skip because there is no way to tell from the label whether or not the item is safe).

I've tried making fancy candy for him at home, but my skills as a food artist totally suck. My kid has never had a swirly lollipop the size of his head. He has never had a candy bracelet, or a real licorice stick, or a chocolate nonpareil. He has never been able to walk into a candy store and get one bag of whatever he wants. I struggle to find him chocolate bunnies at Easter time. I have to order his M&M lookalikes from Vermont.

If I had a 3D chocolate printer I would fucking print a chocolate crown on a chocolate butterfly riding a chocolate cat riding a chocolate unicorn riding a chocolate dragon that has just landed on an alien chocolate world supported by a stack of giant chocolate turtles and give it to my kid and let him eat THE WHOLE THING. Yes I would. Do not judge me.
posted by BlueJae at 10:18 AM on January 2, 2015 [25 favorites]


Now all that we need to do is figure out how to print a cup of tea, earl grey, hot.

You will first have to go through the long phase of getting a cup filled with a liquid that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. Share and Enjoy!
posted by angeline at 10:19 AM on January 2, 2015 [17 favorites]


I won't judge you but I will have to insist that you adopt me.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:20 AM on January 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Have you ever been to Fassbender and Rausch? There are some serious chocolate displays there.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:37 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


If you want a vision of the future, imagine a chocolate boot stamping on a human face - forever.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:41 AM on January 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


WOW, Fassbender and Rausch looks fantastic. A chocolate airplane! Thanks for sharing.
posted by misaac at 10:42 AM on January 2, 2015


Rule 34 suggests that I google that.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:42 AM on January 2, 2015


So...If you had a bunch of chocolate for your 3D printer, why wouldn't you just, y'know, eat the chocolate, and skip the whole "waiting for the 3D chocolate printing to be done so I can eat a chocolate bauble" step?

I mean...Priorities, people!
posted by Thorzdad at 10:49 AM on January 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


If I had one of these devices, the first thing I would make would be a replica of the wrench that they e-mailed up to the ISS the other day.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:59 AM on January 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


If you want a vision of the future, imagine a chocolate boot stamping on a human face - forever.

Now you are just being all utopian.
posted by srboisvert at 11:01 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Eight years previously, 3D printing with sugar
posted by exogenous at 11:11 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was in Fassbender and Rausch last week and it was excellent.

The inventor of the 3d choc printer works in my department. There are no plans to install one next to the photocopier.
posted by biffa at 11:18 AM on January 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Seems to me that a reservoir of sugar at the hard-ball (and a clean nozzle) is most of what you'd need to make a 3-D sugar printer.

Might not even need it that hot.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:20 AM on January 2, 2015


Now all that we need to do is figure out how to print a cup of tea, earl grey, hot.

Well, maybe we could print a chocolate teapot first, and work from there.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:24 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


The first CandyFab (in my "previously" link above) used a hot air gun to fuse granular sugar. Not the best resolution, but they wanted to make big items. This site documents the project pretty thoroughly, including a mod they used to improve fine quality.
posted by exogenous at 11:58 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


cough
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:02 PM on January 2, 2015


A couple of nights ago I woke up out of a cold sleep and typed "custom 3d printed sugar cubes, make money" into my Wunderlist.

dammit.
posted by aloiv2 at 12:33 PM on January 2, 2015


So...If you had a bunch of chocolate for your 3D printer, why wouldn't you just, y'know, eat the chocolate, and skip the whole "waiting for the 3D chocolate printing to be done so I can eat a chocolate bauble" step?

Because then you would miss the opportunity to print out a scale-model chocolate Tokyo and become CHOCOZILLA.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:52 PM on January 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


This seems like fancified electronic icing. I was expecting something more solid.
posted by divabat at 3:11 PM on January 2, 2015


Seems like it would be easier to print a plastic mold.
posted by empath at 3:30 PM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


You can 3D print objects that can not be formed with a mold. Hollows, undercuts, etc.
posted by Mitheral at 4:15 PM on January 2, 2015


Hmm. £3888 plus £280 shipping plus 20% VAT = lots. And you pay via PayPal. And there don't seem to be any consumables (hoho) for sale on the web site. And nobody actually seems to have tasted the product.

Naah, it's bollocks.
posted by StephenB at 4:29 PM on January 2, 2015


This is like stacking up 20 copies of a paper snow-flake and saying, "look, threeee-deeeeee! Ooooooo!"
posted by Brocktoon at 8:14 PM on January 2, 2015


The possibilities that three-dimensional printing enables for us!
Unbelievable.
posted by red_alert_3 at 4:33 AM on January 3, 2015


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