start-ups

The ‘CHiP’ Promises to Be the Keurig of Cookies

Baked goods aren’t immune to the tech world’s attempts to Keurig-ify every known food: Get ready to make room on your already jam-packed kitchen counter for CHiP, a talking, Wi-Fi-controlled oven that bakes cookies that, for some reason, come in individual pods. The single-serve cottage industry already includes the supposed “Keurigs” of tortillas, marijuana, Jell-O shots, and even single-pot meals, but the creators say what sets CHiP apart is its superlative skill (“each cookie is perfectly baked, every time”). The device looks like an Easy-Bake oven hiding inside an Amazon Echo, and it’s pretty large. If it can get funded on Kickstarter in the next 28 days, it will eventually retail for $249. Buyers can also enroll in one of CHiP’s cookie subscription services, which start at $14 a month.

To get CHiP’s magical ten-minute cookies, you simply scan the pod’s QR code so the app recognizes which kind you’re trying to make; it sends specialized baking instructions to the device, and a four-inch infrared carbon-fiber convection oven bakes them to alleged perfection.

Once their sweets are baked, proud owners of a CHiP can also use the app to send CookieGrams — videos of them eating cookies that could be used to taunt hungry frenemies, who will inevitably respond by texting back pics of all of their free countertop space.

The ‘CHiP’ Promises to Be the Keurig of Cookies