Truffle Vending Machine

In October 2022 TRUFFLE GALLERY by FRESH TRUFFLE JAPAN opened in Aoyama, Tokyo: a gallery selling white truffle soy sauce, oil, salt and honey. In one corner stands a vending machine.

Press the button, complete the payment, and the truffle arrives before the jar does. No vending machine anywhere had done that before.

The hard part of a scented vending machine

Selling with scent is not a new idea. The hard part is where the scent goes afterwards.

Push it into the room and the whole shop smells of truffle — including for people who bought nothing, on the shelves next door, in customers’ hair and coats. Truffle is a strong scent; all the more so. And the person standing in it all day is the staff.

To the buyer, at the moment of buying

The machine carries a single Aroma Shooter 2. The instant the payment goes through, it fires truffle at the person standing in front of it.

Nothing is sprayed — the scent rides an air stream, reaches that person, and clears. It does not build up in the gallery, and it does not cling to hair or clothes.

Only the buyer, only at the moment of buying. Putting scent on a vending machine meant solving that first.