Latte selfies! Solar-cooked ribs! Let me tell you, it’s a brave new world.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Citizens: I have been to this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and I have seen the future of food. In the future, we will BBQ with sunlight, make meat bags in a bucket, time our bite-chew-eat speed with an obsessive spoon, and watch the contents of our refrigerators slowly age. In the future of food, I gained 45 pounds. I lost 45 pounds. I (almost) met Oprah and Madonna. And I learned new ways to make coffee, brew beer, and toast toast.

Here is what I saw.

In the future, you can drink latte selfies.

Ripples is a strange, charming countertop device that 3D-prints custom images onto milk-frothed lattes using a thin layer of coffee-based extract. The new Ripples app allows anyone to choose images (dachshunds, the Eiffel Tower, cowboy boots, other signposts of this great, strange planet) or upload their own. Obviously, selfies are gong to be big draws. Coffee shops could also print branded content like a sports team logo, or a personalized message.

I spoke with Mark Baird, an expert barista at the Ripples booth. "This is the barista's ticket to freedom, all done through the interface of the ripple," he said. Automatic latte art might mean less work, but he warned, "all the barista art training will go down the drain."

Adrienne Johnson

Honestly, all of our jobs might go soon go down the drain if 3D printers are etching Mona Lisa into milk. So, sure, Ripples isn’t going to save jobs, or change the world, or even make your coffee taste any better. But art is art. Right?

youtube.com / Via giphy.com

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