Fancy Ingredients Tested: 3D Printed Pasta, Steak Jerky, and a Liquid Garnish

Introduction

Premium food products promise a lot: innovation, craftsmanship, a restaurant experience at home. We put a lineup of high-end ingredients through a proper tasting, comparing how they perform against their price tags and asking a simple question of each one: pretentious or genuinely worth it? Here is how the standouts fared.

3D Printed Pasta: Artisia

Artisia is a line of 3D printed dry pasta created specifically for finger-food tasting, designed to blend art and gastronomy in shapes that traditional pasta making simply cannot achieve. It is made from durum wheat semolina and extruded by printers with 36 individual nozzles, far more than the single nozzle most 3D printers use. That is what makes the intricate, layered, dimpled shapes possible. The Spaghetto 3D shape has even been selected by the ADI Permanent Design Observatory and is competing for the 2026 Compasso d’Oro design award.

Cooked in salted water for anywhere between 7 and 18 minutes depending on the shape, the pasta surprised tasters who expected either mush or something rock hard. The texture landed somewhere pleasant in between, and the consensus was that these shapes work best in a sauce, almost like ravioli, rather than as dry canapés, where they lose the sauce-holding benefit that makes the design clever in the first place. The range comes in individual boxes, including a special edition Geminis shape made in collaboration with fantasy illustrator Diego Casano.

On price, expect roughly £13.77 per box for the Lasagna 3D and Spaghetto 3D shapes, £30.24 for the Geminis 3D, with some shapes reaching as much as £103. As an engineering achievement, it is genuinely impressive, and tasters admired the innovation even if the finger-food serving suggestion divided opinion.

Steak-Cut Jerky: Mason’s Meats

Mason’s Meats makes steak-cut jerky in the UK: hand-trimmed, salted, and dehydrated in small batches using a traditional low and slow method. Instead of the usual random strips, the beef is sliced as steak-cut cross-sections, using thin slices of British and Irish grass-fed beef covered in Anglesey sea salt. The company has also brought on Sat Bains of the two Michelin star restaurant RSB as director of taste to develop recipes and products.

The first mouthful divided the room: crispy on the bite, then rehydrating into something steak-like as you chew. Once past that initial surprise, the flavour won people over, with the wagyu brisket in particular described as beefy and intense, with a fresh-steak aftertaste rather than the strange processed feeling ordinary jerky can leave. Eating the fat was the unexpected highlight, melting in the mouth and delivering something regular jerky never does.

The sirloin comes in at £20.99 and the wagyu brisket at £21.99 per 100g bag, which is undeniably expensive. The verdict, though, was that between the quality cut and the careful process, the price is justifiable. Expensive, but not pretentious.

Liquid Garnish: Salcombe Sea Mist

Salcombe Gin’s Sea Mist is a liquid garnish created to accompany its Mediterranean dry rosé gin, Rosé Sainte Marie. Handcrafted with olive coastal botanicals and Cornish sea salt, it is designed to replicate the aromas and sensation of a morning walk along the shore: fresh sea air and a subtle saltiness from wave spray. It is a 60% spirit, which explains its strength in small doses.

The suggested serve is a large glass of ice, 50ml of Rosé Sainte Marie, topped with 150ml of premium Indian tonic, garnished with a slice of strawberry or a twist of fresh lemon peel, plus a couple of spritzes of the Sea Mist. Tasters picked up the saline character immediately and liked the idea, though some felt it enhanced the gin and tonic rather than dramatically changing it.

The Sea Mist alone costs £22, or £50 as a gift set with the bottle of gin. The panel called it pretentious, but only just: the distillery behind it has a solid reputation, and the concept is at least coherent.

Overall Buying Advice

If you want the most convincing upgrade for real cooking, the Mason’s Meats jerky delivered the best flavour experience relative to its purpose, even at premium snack pricing. If you care about design and want something genuinely new, the Artisia pasta is a fascinating buy, but plan to serve it in a sauce rather than as finger food. The Sea Mist suits gin lovers who already enjoy a saline, coastal style; it is the most niche of the three and the easiest to skip.

Whichever you pick, buy the smallest format first. Every one of these products divides opinion, and it is better to find out which side you fall on before committing to gift sets or larger boxes.

Conclusion

Three premium ingredients, three different verdicts. The 3D printed pasta is innovative but divisive in how it is served, the steak jerky is expensive but earned genuine respect, and the liquid garnish is charming yet firmly in novelty territory. Spend where the experience matches the price, and let taste rather than packaging make the decision for you.