Dubai: The next time you give a greeting card to someone for a special occasion, why not try making it extra sweet — literally — by giving a 3D-printed candy-card?
Two three-dimensional (3D) food printing machines at Candylicious in The Dubai Mall can now print candies to your liking and even print logos, photos, and greeting cards.
The machines, solely dedicated to printing candies, were unveiled for the first time in Dubai on Monday. The US will follow suit in May.
“We thought of bringing it here in Dubai because it’s something new and unique for the market in this region. The candies printed in the machines are not only for kids, they’re for people of all ages, basically, anybody with a sweet tooth,” Senthil Kumaran, retail operations manager at Alabbar Enterprises, told Gulf News.
“You can make your own Valentine’s Day card using candy, write your name, whatever you want to fill the paper with, it’s yours,”
The candies are printed layer by layer using a sticky and gooey jelly material resembling that of gummy bears on a 4.25 inch by 7.25 inch edible “paper”.
Some 20 selections of candies are available on-hand like dinosaurs, snowflakes, pyramids, but customers can also customise their design and add their names on it.
Ahmad, a visitor from Bahrain, was amazed at the technology when he saw it. He said this “new thing” is something his nephew would be interested in.
“It’s a great idea. You can use it for birthday parties, you can give it as a surprise gift to kids. You can do so many things with it.”
A European resident, who was visiting the shop, said the 3D-printed sweets are great for birthday cards but said she does not plan on trying it any time soon.
According to Kumaran, the candies have eight fruity flavours and are all natural, vegan-certified, halal, gluten-free, dairy-free, and nuts-free.
The actual candies take between three and five minutes to make and cost Dh50 for the initial offer and Dh65 for the regular price.
No information was available on the sugar content of the candy, however.
