Ever wish you could turn rock-hard ice cream from the freezer into soft-serve ice cream without having to wait for it to melt? Well, now you can, thanks to this bizarre-looking utensil from Japan. Is it a fork? Is it a spoon? Is it a mixer whisking attachment? Well, it’s a little bit of all of those things. The Aihoi Spoon is a special tool designed by a soft-serve ice cream lover for the sole purpose of turning hard tub ice cream into velvety-smooth soft-serve as quickly as possible. While it may look like just a modified fork, after reading the inventor’s description, you’ll be surprised how much thought went into making the Aihoi Spoon. The main difference between freezer ice cream and soft-serve is the temperature. The first is around -0.4º, while soft serve is only 19.4º. That difference in temperature makes a huge difference in texture, but simply leaving the ice cream tub out to melt won’t help. It will start to melt from the sides, and the core will remain hard. Stirring it, however, you get an even consistency. That’s where the Aihoi Spoon comes in. The utensil’s fork-like holes solve the problem, and the straight bottom of the tool will ensure that you can scrape from the bottom of the cup for the last bit of delicious ice cream. While most modern ice cream spoons are made of aluminum, the Aihoi Spoon is made of stainless steel, because the latter has lower thermal conductivity, so you won’t accidentally melt the ice cream too much with the heat from your hands. The craftsman who came up with this gastronomic miracle is successfully raising money on the Internet to promote and support his invention, and he hopes that the Aihoi Spoon will be available for sale in September for about $10.
