KFC and Seattle's Best Present the Edible Coffee Cup

What do you think about when you dig into a bucket of fried chicken? Potatoes and gravy? A fresh salad? A tall soft drink?

Well, in the U.K., apparently it's fresh-cut grass and the aroma of coconut sun screen -- oh, and fresh brewed coffee.

This interesting factoid is the basis for a new edible coffee cup that KFC and Seattle's Best Coffee have pioneered and are due to release at KFC outlets. The Scoff-ee cup, which is made of cookie and lined with chocolate, is designed to be eaten. The new concept is due to be released soon when KFC starts offering the Seattle's Best brand.

This type of yummy packaging is often seen with ice cream and yogurt products, but this is a first for patented coffee drinks -- certainly given the choice of aromas, which also include spring flowers.

“Not only do the edible cups taste amazing, but they smell delicious too," says Brandy Wright of the Robin Collective, the food-pioneering company that helped devise the new coffee cup.

And a glance at the KFC's U.K. site suggests the company is probably bang on when it comes to tantalizing its customers with enticing deserts. From malt drinks to decadent sundaes, the U.K. outlets clearly have their finger on their customers' sweet addictions.

Still, it's an interesting, if not provocative, choice in a country that is at the top of the list when it comes to obesity in the EU, and with 6 percent of U.K. residents suffering from diabetes, has created its own notable statistic when it comes to insulin-related diseases.

The government has been battling for years to reign in weight problems in U.K. Some 67 percent of men and 57 percent of women are obese or overweight. Those numbers even top the U.S., where 1 in 3 adults are considered obese.

But admittedly, KFC doesn't seem to be suffering from the call for Brits to lose weight -- or to cut back sugar consumption, and it doesn't seem to be worried about the correlation that has often been made between access to fast food and the prevalence of obesity.  In April 2014, KFC announced that it plans to open another 150 stores across the U.K. and Ireland. That five-year expansion is expected to bring another 6,500 jobs to cities across the U.K. and Ireland, where deep-fried chicken dinners seem to be doing better than they are in the U.S.

KFC hasn't announced any definite plans for launching the Scoff-ee in North America, but if it takes off, chances are we'll see it on this side of the pond sometime soon.

Image credit: Terry Whalebone