Stop steaming your tongue with tea and soup. This $25 robot cat “blows” on your drink to cool it

Think of the noise that comes from your lips when you blow on food that is too hot to eat. It probably sounds a bit like “fufu”. It is from this onomatopoeic sound that the Nékojita FuFu robot cat gets its name, and the CES show floor in Las Vegas I experienced Nékojita FuFu’s cooling breath for myself.

Unlike my real cat, who only ever sneezes into my hot drinks, this little robot cat hangs on the side of your bowl of soup or cup of coffee and blows gentle gusts of cool air over whatever you want to cool down. Inside is a ventilator that generates “breaths” in a random rhythm designed to mimic human breathing.

As it breathed softly on the back of my hand with its button-sized feline mouth, it occurred to me that it would probably be much more effective at cooling hot food than warm human breath – because it was really cold. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to taste anything the robot blew to make sure it didn’t burn my tongue, but it should bring your food and drinks to the perfect temperature within 3 minutes.

“Nékojita” translates to “cat’s tongue” in Japanese, a phrase used to describe an intolerance to hot food. Many adults have sensitive tongues, but the idea for the robot originally came from one of the Yukai Engineering team members who wanted an easier way to cool food for his baby.

The robot is small enough to fit easily in the palm of your hand, making it easily portable. There is absolutely nothing to stop you carrying it in your bag to take out to a cafe or restaurant if you have a particularly sensitive tongue.

When it becomes available on Kickstarter later this year, the Nékojita FuFu will cost just $25. If you’re the type of person who buys Christmas gifts all year round rather than putting it off for the chaos of the holiday shopping season, this would be a perfect stocking stuffer for 2025. I’m already earmarking it for some of my younger family members, who I know would be instantly fascinated by a robot cat that could cool their hot chocolate.