MindWare Kitchen Science Academy Bubble Barista Kit - Innovative Drink-Making Kit That Combines Fizzy Magic with Kitchen Science - Chemistry Set for Ages 8 and Up

Maybe this is a fun gift, but we don’t know as it doesn’t come with the two necessary ingredients to make the bubbles! My 8 year old daughter received this for Christmas, excitedly opened it up, unpacked and started making the flavored syrup. An hour in (the amount of time the flavor syrup needs to cool) she found out the kit does not come with sodium alginate and calcium lactate. So now the mess of plastic pieces sits on our table as we order and wait for the necessary ingredients. There is no mention on the box that you need to buy sodium alginate and calcium lactate. There is only a QR code to scan for a “shopping list.” Buying the two ingredients on Amazon is setting me back another $20

Update 3/2024... I forgot to come back here and update this... We did use it and it was fun but the boba bubbles are so tiny... My daughter still had fun but I wasn't a big fan of the boba it produced because they were so incredibly tiny.. it just wasn't the same popping sensation in your mouth when they're that small. 12/27/23 .. Will update after use (have to go buy flavorings). I looked this up, before buying, on the official mindware website to see if it was reusable with refills or store purchases. It was on that website that I realized... Oh yeah it's reusable... it DOES NOT even come with the sodium alginate or calcium lactate that you need to make bobba/spheres. You have to buy them on your own. You're basically buying the pitcher set up to make the spherification easier (I had looked into making them before but you have to do these water baths etc and I was daunted... So this easy set up .. just using a pitcher to do a lot of the work seemed like a good idea.) So. While I wasn't happy paying $25 for just the pitcher idea, I knew it should make it much easier to do the spherification so bought it. That said, since it said it had a recipe book, I did think it'd have some flavoring... Nope. There's actually a qr code you can scan to give you a pdf shopping list (see photos) and there's not a lot of recipes. We haven't used it yet bc we have to get the flavorings, but I wanted to leave a review making sure people knew what they're buying... A pitcher to make it easier... And that you need to still buy more items.

This company should be ashamed that this is a half baked product with zero value if you don’t know to buy a bunch of extra costly ingredients. How does it not come with even a sample amount to try it out? Shameful. EDIT: 1 star before given the lack of chemicals, if I could give 0 I would after trying it. So I’ve now bought the extra stuff, followed the steps multiple times ensuring we’re doing it correctly, and when adding the sodium alginate solution into the calcium lactate solution it just disperses throughout immediately, no spherification, and there are no trouble shooting or faq with the product.

Did not include the material/chemical required to actually use this kit. No me tonight of this in description or packaging. Tried to order the material and out of stock. Now I have to pay shipping to return... very unhappy with product and Company.

I should have read what was included in this kit. You can’t actually make any drinks upon opening, which was a bummer for my daughter on Christmas. Only the plastic utensils are included and a small pamphlet with a QR code to a “list of ingredients to buy” separately. Also the list is very vague such as “flavoring - can be found in most baking aisles”. Are they talking about extracts? Not sure, but if talking about extracts then why didn’t they just say that?

Unsure if it works. We was unable to use it. I read that it should have come with enough ingredients to make 2 drinks. It comes with nothing. It only comes with a shopping list that was unclear at the time of purchase. I knew we would need the juice or beverage but be able to make 2 cups. No. When purchasing this you must know that you also need to place an online purchase for some kind of food grade sodium powder and a calcium lactate powder. These items you will more than likely not find at a store.

I would have put Zero stars if I could. DOES NOT INCUDE WHAT YOU NEED!! We got the kit and opened it Christmas morning only to find that it only include the actual ingredients needed to make the popping Bobba. Absolutely ridiculous and so disappointing.

So this thing comes with nothing but the containers. No ingredients or anything else required to make the drinks. It comes w an ingredient list that you will need. It is basically just a set of plastic containers and instructions.