Instead of sprinkling fresh herbs or grating parmesan shavings over your food, these flavor-packed crayon-shaped edible sticks let you garnish your food in a playfully fun way! The wacky idea for crayon-based garnishing comes from Montreal-based Nadia Lahrichi, who runs the company along with her brother, Kamil, and mom, Veronique. Together, they call themselves the Foodie Family and with their combined backgrounds in cooking, biochemistry, and marketing, they’re reinventing how we interact with our food! The Food Crayons really don’t need much explaining – traditional crayons are made from wax and dye and are formed into the crayon shape… Food Crayons, on the other hand, are made from food ingredients suspended in an edible substrate, agar-agar. Commonly used as a gelling agent, and a vegan alternative to animal-based gelatine, the agar-agar helps bind the ingredients into the crayon shape. Once the crayon’s been cast, they can easily be shaved over food, flavoring it in an absolutely engaging and exciting way! The gastronomic crayon sticks come in a variety of flavors – both sweet and savory. Perfect for seasoning your dish with, they add a touch of brightness without you needing to grate, shred, julienne herbs, grind peppercorns, or even prepare sauces, compotes, and vinaigrettes. The flavors include classics like basil, lemon, ginger, and shallot, to more exotic ingredients like porcini mushrooms or black garlic, and even interesting combos that include chilli and garlic, balsamic and figs, curry and turmeric, or honey and mustard. Perfect for upgrading your dishes, the creators recommend adding 5-10 shavings on top of your food. It’s an incredibly fun way to make food taste better, and the crayons barely occupy space on your kitchen spice rack! All the flavors are plant-based, gluten-free, and vegan (barring the honey mustard). You could buy individual crayons, or create your own box-set of colors/flavors to choose from. Food Crayon even sells a neat little sharpener to do the trick, so you don’t have to borrow one from your kid’s stationery set. Ultimately, the same way a crayon adds a dash of vibrancy to a blank paper, the Food Crayons bring about vibrancy to your regular meals or drinks, giving them a zing or a pep that’s difficult to miss. Yes, I said drinks, because the company just released a Piña Colada-flavored crayon too! Don’t judge me if I directly chomp right into that one…