We’ve not even finished the first week of the year but already there’s a contender for the most bonkers new musical product of 2026.
It’s the Lollipop Star. Made by a company called Lava, it’s a real lollipop. But as well as providing an instant sugar rush it plays a tune whilst it’s in your mouth.
How the heck does it do that, we hear you ask? Well, through bone conduction, actually - sound vibrations that go through your skull's bones to your inner ear. It should be pointed out that to hear the tune you have to wear earplugs (which are provided) to block out environmental sounds.
Lava says that the Lollipop Star takes you into "a universe where taste meets sound, and every flavour has a frequency." The company also claims that its "teaming up with global pop icons to turn candy into a concert in your mouth," adding that "Each Lollipop Star carries its own beat, flavour and vibe. Bite down and feel the music."
Anyway, the Lollipop Star was one of the many new gadgets showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. It was one of the more, well, lo-tech items on show there, but a writer from CNET tried one and gave it the thumbs up. “I moved the lollipop to the back of my mouth and bit down with my molars,” she writes. “Suddenly, the tiny vibrations, which I mostly felt in the handle, morphed into music that I could hear in my skull.
“It's a muted sound, and I had a hard time making out the lyrics in the busy halls of CES, but it's a wild sensation.”
At present there are just three flavours of Lollipop Star. The peach flavour gives you Ice Spice’s Munch, blueberry is Akon’s Beautiful Day and lime plays you Armani White’s Mount Pleasant. But given the sheer volume of songs in pop history with ‘sugar’, ‘sweet’ or ‘candy’ in the title, the marketing opportunities, you’d think, would be enormous.
So...if the sound of the Lollipop Star tickles your tastebuds (and why wouldn’t it?) head over to its website. They retail for $9 each.
