The Kirin Electric Salt Spoon was debuted at CES 2025, as a way to add salty tastes to any food, without actually adding salt.

The trick it provides is by way of actually shocking your tongue, which is a dubious way to get us to use the product, if we’re honest.

Having set 9-volt batteries against our tongue as kids, we can verify that the little shock it provides does leave a lingering salty feeling. Though the idea of eating with the spoon as it tricks our tongue is a little less than appealing.

Still, for people on a strict low-sodium diet, the Kirin Electric Salt Spoon could be the tool they need to stick to their eating regimen and still get a flavor boost.

Supposedly, when eating with the spoon, testers found the food to taste 1.5 times saltier than without it.

Available in Japan only for now, the spoon retails for $125. Via New Atlas.

When the person puts the spoon in their mouth, they complete an electrical circuit, allowing a weak electrical current to flow through the food.

According to Kirin, this current draws sodium ions from the food to the tongue’s taste buds, increasing the perceived salty flavor. Ordinarily, a large percentage of those ions would stay dispersed throughout the mouth, never contacting the tongue.


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Ben VanderVeen is the founder and editor of Moss & Fog, one of the web’s longest-running visual culture destinations. Since 2009, he’s been finding and framing the most beautiful, surprising, and thought-provoking work in art, architecture, design, and nature — reaching over 325,000 readers each month. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

4 Comments

  1. butterfly9591

    Great for those watching their salt intake

  2. Rhonda K Temple Evans

    How creepy….

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