This is Highly recommended, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are obsessed with eating, drinking and buying right now.
I have a well-documented obsession with spoons. In the BA test kitchen, I only consider my station to be set up when there are at least 50 tasting spoons in the pot on my counter, and when I leave my pockets filled with spoons ring like the spurs of a villain in a spaghetti western. Trying food, thinking about it, talking about it and deciding if it can be better is at the heart of my job – and my life. So when I discovered a tasting spoon that felt better in my hand, had a softer touch on my lower lip and was slightly larger on my counter, there was no turning back.
This spoon is Umeshiso’s little car.
Designed for cupping coffee (tasting) with a short handle but deep round bowl, these spoons have set a dangerous new precedent in my life. Just like sleeping on 600 thread count sheets for one night all other beds will ruin you. Now that I am eating with it, I can hardly look at a spoon, cook with it and use it in all of my own Photographs (the Rose gold looks good with everything). And I’ve learned that other loyal fans use it to scoop ice cream and portion cookie dough (they don’t bend that easily!), So I’ll probably start with that too.
The excellence of this spoon is no accident. Coffee specialist Umeko Motoyoshi founded Umeshiso with this frequency (if not variety): “I’m in a unique position because only spoons are important to me,” they say. “Most people eat with spoons for a few minutes and that’s it. You don’t have to use a spoon for hours to drink 50 coffees. “That helps explain why everything about it was so highly regarded. Even its weight was tested on site to see what people in the industry liked most (56-59 grams, FYI).
But utility isn’t the only thing these spoons have to offer, either. Motoyoshi started Umeshiso with the intention of making cupping coffee – an experience usually dominated by white men – more inclusive. “The first umeshiso spoon was rainbow-colored to remind me – a strange, mixed race, non-binary femme – that I can come up with my rainbow spoon and be my rainbow me,” they say. “That I deserve to be there and that my perspectives and my palate are valid.”
The overall result is a spoon that is better than any other spoon I own.
Umeshiso Little Dipper Spoon
Umeshiso prices spoons on a sliding scale to sell them cheaper so customers can pay for what they can.
