Inhaleable coffee, chocolate hits the market

Need a really quick fix? On the run because your alarm was late? A French company has just the thing for you: breathable coffee.

Le Whif, a company based in Paris, France, last week introduced the first in a new line of breathable products: Organic chocolate-flavored powders that you inhale through your mouth. Le Whif's inhaleable chocolate products are packaged in a lipstick-like tube and purport to impart a little less than a single calorie per dose. The website also says that while using their product, you do not inhale any of the powder into your lungs. Initial flavors released include pure chocolate, raspberry chocolate and mint chocolate. Now, it appears that they've come out with the ultimate product for those caffeine-addicted go-go-goers: a breathable coffee powder that gives you the same amount of caffeine as a light espresso. Thus, Le Whif is giving you the "kick of the coffee without the cup." The whole concept of eating or drinking while breathing was the brainchild of David Edwards, a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard University. Edwards believes that small doses of the breathable products will give you the 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." The containers that the products are packaged in are said to be biodegradable poly-lactic acid (PLA) adding yet another potential plus to the saleability of this product. They are actually calling the breathing-in process "whiffing" and each container contains around eight puffs of chocolate or coffee.