Cannabidiol, grasshoppers and powder – we ate the meals of the future so you don’t have to, yet.

Instead of just writing about some of the weird and wonderful food trends that we can expect to see creeping onto our plates in the new year and beyond, we thought, in the interests of intrepid, frontline journalism, we would go out and try them. Below, three of our bravest staff members eat, drink and report on the joys (and shortcomings) of CBD cocktails, insects and Huel.

Mr Chris Elvidge, Marketing Editor, MR PORTER

The logical part of my brain – the one I like to think is usually in control – had no problem whatsoever with eating bugs. I’ll happily rip the head, legs and shell off a crustacean before devouring its fleshy innards, so why should I feel different about chowing down on a deep-fried beetle? It’s not considered unusual in Southeast Asia, where “malang tod” (that’s Thai for fried insects) are a popular snack in bars. I tried them in London at Lao Café, where a trio of black beetles, silkworms and brown grasshoppers were served solo before being tossed in a fiery salad of ginger, birds-eye chilli and mint. How did they taste? Earthy, salty, crunchy, oily… A bit like dry-roasted peanuts, but meatier and with more moving parts. I rather enjoyed them, even if I was aware of the legs. Later that night, though, the primitive part of my brain began to take hold. My head filled with strange dreams. I was in a shop, some kind of insect emporium. All around me were monstrous grubs and beetle larvae in baskets stacked on wooden shelves. I woke up in a sweat. What did it all mean? Was my mind truly open to eating insects? Or had growing up in a culture that finds the idea completely alien, even a bit gross, left me with a subconscious bias that my rational mind couldn’t fully shift?

Mr Adam Welch, Editorial Director, MR PORTER

The name says it all, really. It’s onomatopoeic. It’s the noise you make after you’ve replaced three of your regular meals with a nutritionally complete food supplement powder. The idea with this, of course, is that rather than um-ing and ah-ing about what exactly you should put into your body, you opt for a scientifically engineered substance that has all the right things, at the right time, with, unfortunately, all of the taste, at once. It saves a lot of time and money, but it’s also got little weird red bits floating in it – judging from the list of ingredients, it must be… tomato? Life was certainly much easier in my week on Huel, but also much bleaker. Turns out when you remove the question of “What shall I have for lunch?” from your life, you’re left with all the other ones that are much more terrifying, like, “What will I be like when I’m old?” and “Is this whole fashion thing, at base, transitory and futile?” In short, a liquid diet is not quite as fun as a liquid dinner, if you know what I mean.

Mr Ashley Clarke, Staff Writer, The Daily

CBD, or cannabidiol, is the fashionable cannabis derivative that has recently found itself dripped into everything from moisturisers, bath bombs and e-liquids to lattes and protein powders. Noted for its supposedly anti-inflammatory properties – which can provide pain relief, combat anxiety and aid more restful sleep – CBD has been touted as a hempy panacea for an anxious age. But what is it really: a veritable health booster or merely a school-of-Goop snake oil? The jury is still out for the most part, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t being used in interesting and delightful ways. Cocktails that are “spiked” with CBD are becoming a big thing in the bartending world, but some do it better than others. Farmacy, a Notting Hill mecca for health-conscious epicureans, does a non-alcoholic “syringe shot” of CBD and flaxseed oil. The Mandrake hotel’s edgy Waeska bar, a paragon of ethnobotanical mixology, has a hemp cocktail on its experimental menu that sings with deliciously grassy notes of sorrel and basil that blend with the CBD oil. The cocktail didn’t get me high, but after a few I did get nicely tipsy, which is almost as good, if a little old-fashioned.

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