Choc art: The sweet treats that look like paints

The set contains 12 chocolates in a slim, dark brown box bearing the name Chocolat. Inside the box are edible chocolate ‘paint tubes’, each filled with a different flavoured syrup. Simple paper labels indicate the flavours, which include brandy, raspberry and coffee, and also function as wrappers to help keep fingers clean while eating.

The chocolate paints were created exclusively for Seibu Department Stores, a Japanese chain of department stores with branches in Hong Kong, Indonesia, the US, Tokyo and throughout Japan. The design ‘combines the childhood excitement of opening a new box of paints and the thrill of opening a box of chocolates you’ve been given unexpectedly,’ says the Nendo website.

This is a great example of a design that treats food as an artistic material. For more on eating as a source of sensory pleasure, see our New Foodscapes microtrend.