Editorial: Tall, Grande, Venti, or Aerosal?

About a year after it introduced a chocolate aerosol, a company called Le Whif has released a… About a year after it introduced a chocolate aerosol, a company called Le Whif has released a breathable coffee spray, delivering the caffeine equivalent of an espresso, without that pesky cup.

The product was designed by Harvard professor David Edwards. Each Le Whif tube contains flavor particles small enough to orally inhale through a lipstick size aerosol tube. But the particles are big enough that they won’t dangerously enter into the lungs.

The chocolate Le Whif was created to allow for the taste of chocolate without the calories (each tube contains less than one calorie), and the coffee Le Whif was designed to provide a hit of caffeine, inhaled through the mouth, without the hassle of standing in line at Starbucks, or you know, swallowing.

As with anything that offers this sort of quick gratification, we have to wonder if people will become addicted to this as they do to nearly all other caffeinated substances, especially with the product being sold at candy stores and coffee shops.

Additionly, this method seems to take some of the enjoyment out of the coffee experience, replacing it instead with a means of getting as much caffeine with as little time and effort as possible. After all, some consumers don’t choose coffee just for its caffeine value. Coffee consumption has its own culture. Despite the convenience of directly inhaling caffeine, consumers lose flavor variety, aroma and texture that regular coffee offers, making aerosol coffee a larger threat to Red Bull or 5-Hour Energy Shots than coffeehouses.

Nonetheless, Le Whif coffee inhalers could be a better alternative to energy drinks, as far as sugar and calories are concerned. The small biodegradable tube is also a nice alternative to the paper waste created by disposable coffee cups.