lollipop star turns candy into a private sound experience
Making its debut inside the halls of CES 2026, Lollipop Star does something radically low-tech at first glance: it asks you to eat it. Developed by Lava Tech Brands, the project reimagines candy as an audio interface, embedding bone-conduction technology into a lollipop stick to deliver music directly through the teeth and jaw.
Positioned online as ‘pure flavor and sound’ and released in limited early access via a waitlist, Lollipop Star proposes an intimate interaction that happens inside your head while you taste sugar. A small electronic module hidden inside the lollipop stick generates vibrations that travel through the teeth to the inner ear using bone conduction, a technology more commonly associated with niche audio wearables. Sound bypasses the air entirely. There are no speakers, no earbuds, and no outward noise. To activate it, users place the lollipop toward the back of the mouth and gently bite down with their molars, where the vibrations become perceptible as rhythm and melody.
all images courtesy of Lollipop Star
flavor, artists, and collectability
Each Lollipop Star flavor is paired with a specific artist and an exclusive track that can only be accessed through the candy itself. Peach and strawberry profiles are linked to Ice Spice, while other flavors correspond to Akon and Armani White. The pairing of taste and sound turns each lollipop into a one-time media object. The translucent color splits and glossy packaging frame the object as something to be shown, shared, and talked about as much as consumed.
On a show floor where many products compete by promising efficiency or optimization, Lollipop Star offers no solution to a problem. There is no screen to swipe, no button to learn, only a bodily gesture that activates sound through taste and pressure. Lollipop Star, amid the seriousness of CES, functions as a reminder that design can still afford to be playful, and that sometimes the most effective innovations are the ones that make you pause and smile.
peach and strawberry profiles are linked to Ice Spice, while other flavors correspond to Akon and Armani White
the project reimagines candy as an audio interface
each Lollipop Star flavor is paired with a specific artist and an exclusive track
the pairing of taste and sound turns each lollipop into a one-time media object
project info:
name: Lollipop Star | @lollipopstarpops
company: Lava Tech Brands | @lavatechbrands
The post this candy lets music travel from your mouth to your ears as you bite into it appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.