Research for your next long-form · Nov 1, 2026 · Notion video page
Food science experiments: what to make
Make Level 1 to 100 Food Science Experiments. Every level is a food experiment, each stranger than the last, from blue tea that turns pink to a grape that turns into plasma. Your birthday dinner is the table where your friends bet on every level. It wraps the experiments and never goes in the title or thumbnail.
The recommendation
Title: Level 1 to 100 Food Science Experiments
Thumbnail: LEVEL 100 over a microwave window where a halved grape throws a bright plasma flame, your face lit orange right at the glass.
Why this one: the Level 1 to 100 ladder is your proven frame on this exact topic. Level 1 to 100 Science Experiments is your second-best long-form ever (36.4M, 9.8x your usual video). Stay Wild reused the same title with a watermelon and fire thumbnail and got 29.4M (on a 26.1M-subscriber channel, and it is a general ladder with a few food levels). Epicurious runs 31 "4 Levels" food videos (median 1.7M, best 29.1M), but those are cooking-skill ladders. Among the 7,852 videos found, none is a ladder of food science experiments. The bet table puts your friends into every level, and comments show people care more about the people than the food.
Where the birthday goes (three short moments, nothing more):
- 0:12, one sentence to the table: "Nine years of doing these alone. This year, for my birthday, you are the test subjects."
- Between levels, the scoreboard is the thread. No speeches.
- The ending, "Level 101": your friends run the fake spice-pill prank on you. One closing line from you that pays off "nine years alone".
The levels
The recommended running order, "the bet table": every level opens with a bet at the dinner and closes with the score. The tag says where it gets filmed. Tap a card for the source clip.
First 90 seconds
- 0:00 to 0:05: plasma flare. First sentence: "This grape is about to turn into plasma."
- 0:05 to 0:12: the full table. Rules in one line: guess the result of every level, the loser of each round does the forfeit.
- 0:12 to 0:16: the one birthday sentence, said to the table: "Nine years of doing these alone. This year, for my birthday, you are the test subjects."
- 0:16 to 0:22: LEVEL 1 bet: "Lemon goes in the blue tea. What color?" Three fast guesses.
- 0:22 to 0:30: squeeze, it turns pink, score +1 on screen; baking soda, it turns green. First payoff by 0:25.
- 0:30 to 0:55: LEVEL 5: bet who can tell onion from apple with a pinched nose, then the bite.
- 0:55 to 1:20: LEVEL 10: lights off, bet whether a mint can make light, everyone bites, scoreboard.
- 1:20 to 1:30: rehook. "Level 70: I froze candy for a day. Bet: bigger or smaller?" Cut away before the answer.
Level by level
| Level | Experiment | Where | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Blue tea turns pink with lemon | At the dinner Butterfly pea tea. The source clip shows red cabbage, which works the same way. | Table bet, payoff before 0:30. |
| Level 5 | Pinched nose makes onion taste like apple | At the dinner | Bet plus face. |
| Level 10 | Wintergreen mints spark when bitten in the dark | At the dinner Lights off. Test it with a low-light camera first: in one source video the spark never shows. | Lights-off bet. |
| Level 20 | Fresh pineapple stops jelly from setting | Set the day before, revealed at the dinner New: no source video does this. The card shows a related jelly test. | Bet on which fruit stops the jello; the honey cup tests a viewer's protease claim (212 likes, on a steak video). |
| Level 30 | Miracle berry makes sour food taste sweet | At the dinner, filmed last It changes how everything tastes after it. | Bet on how sweet a lemon gets; the expected one, early and fast. Filmed last on the night (it scrambles taste), cut in here by level. |
| Level 40 | Fake fried egg made from milk and mango | At the dinner | Pairs race to make the fake egg; bet which pair's yolk survives a poke. |
| Level 50 | Rubber bands squeeze a watermelon until it bursts | Outdoors or a separate shoot Tarp and goggles. It sprays. | Bet on the band count; whoever it bursts on loses the round. Midpoint peak. |
| Level 60 | Spinning odd foods in a cotton candy machine | At the dinner Heating element, no open flame. | Each friend picks a candy for the spinner; bet which one spins. |
| Level 70 | Freeze-dried candy puffs up huge and crunchy | Separate shoot, eaten at the dinner Needs a freeze dryer and about a day. | Lab level shown to the table: pays off the 1:20 rehook, then they eat it. |
| Level 80 | Liquid nitrogen turns cream into instant ice cream | Hired pro at the dinner, or a separate shoot Liquid nitrogen. Safety beat on camera. | Safety beat, then liquid nitrogen ice cream as dessert (hired pro or separate shoot). |
| Level 90 | Food frozen in liquid nitrogen shatters like glass | Separate shoot Liquid nitrogen. Gloves and goggles. | Bet which frozen food shatters; lab clip. |
| Level 95 | Meat glue fuses three meats into one steak | Glued the day before, sliced at the dinner Cook it through, and check everyone's diet before the reveal. | Glued ahead of the night (made ahead); bet how many animals are in the steak, then the slice reveal. |
| Level 100 | Grape halves spark plasma in the microwave | Separate shoot Use a cheap microwave of your own, never the host's. It can damage the oven. | Bet: can a grape make plasma? The plasma, thermal camera, date on screen. |
| Level 101 (ending) | Fake spice-blocking pill tested on hot peppers | At the dinner The friends run it on you. | The friends run the fake spice pill on you and you get the real pepper: the double-prank ask (23,676 likes) turned on the host. |
Finale: Level 100 plasma with the thermal camera, bets settled. Then "Level 101": the friends flip the pill prank on you. Last shot: the final scoreboard over the table, one line from you with a mouth full of pepper.
What could lose viewers
- A table cutaway before every level slows the pace: cap each bet at 8 seconds and drop the bet where it adds nothing.
- A full table talking at once: mic everyone, keep one guess per level on screen.
- If the lab levels are filmed after the dinner, the bets must be real blind predictions, never staged reactions (viewers punish staging that looks fake).
- Level 101 can read as a blooper: under 90 seconds, and the pepper has to land.
- Same sound-off test risk as the straight ladder in Levels 20 to 40, softened because every level now has a bet and a score.
Two other running orders
0:00 to 0:08. The Level 100 shot first: a halved grape in a microwave throws a plasma flame with your face at the glass. First sentence: "This grape is about to turn into plasma." Second: "That's level 100. Every level before it is food." The thumbnail, the hook and the best payoff are the same moment.
- Level 1: Red cabbage or turmeric changes color with acid or base
- Level 5: Pinched nose makes onion taste like apple
- Level 10: Wintergreen mints spark when bitten in the dark
- Level 20: Testing how to make jello set firm
- Level 30: Fake spice-blocking pill tested on hot peppers
- Level 35: Miracle berry makes sour food taste sweet
- Level 45: Fake fried egg made from milk and mango
- Level 50: Rubber bands squeeze a watermelon until it bursts
- Level 60: Spinning odd foods in a cotton candy machine
- Level 70: Freeze-dried candy puffs up huge and crunchy
- Level 80: Liquid nitrogen turns cream into instant ice cream
- Level 90: Food frozen in liquid nitrogen shatters like glass
- Level 95: Meat glue fuses three meats into one steak
- Level 100: Grape halves spark plasma in the microwave
- Level 100 (new angle): Thermal camera shows microwaved grapes heating
0:00 to 0:06. Your bare palm holding a perfect egg yolk; a fingertip presses it and bright mango runs out. Line: "One of these yolks is an egg. The other is mango. My friends had to eat both." Same moment as the thumbnail.
- Round 1: Guess which food is secretly soap
- Round 2: Food coloring tricks tasters about flavor
- Round 3: Coke plus root beer mimics Dr Pepper
- Round 4: Tap water sold as luxury water fools tasters
- Round 5: Candy made to look like a real dinner
- Round 6: Fake fried egg made from milk and mango
- Round 6b: Liquid sets into a ball with a gel skin
- Round 7: Plant burger passes for real beef
- Round 8: Meat glue fuses three meats into one steak
- Round 9: Rice Krispie treats made with sawdust
- Dessert: Realistic cake disguised as everyday object
- Finale: Fake spice-blocking pill tested on hot peppers
What the research found
- Nearly half the niche is noise. The 802 videos checked hold 10.46B views, but 170 faceless soda and kids-demo videos hold 4.76B of them, and Coke and Mentos alone is 118 videos and 4.27B. With those removed, the winners are one person doing one impossible thing with a food everyone knows (Jello pool 224.6M, candy that looks like real food 99.8M, a fake burger fed to Bill Gates 83.4M).
- You already own the strongest frame. Level 1 to 100 Science Experiments (36.4M, 9.8x your usual video) is the top level ladder in the niche.
- The thumbnail and first line seem to matter more than the experiment list. On your own channel, fire on a bare hand did 36.4M and a slime hand did 5.6M, and your three LEVEL 99 thumbnails of a hand holding a toy-like thing all sit between 4.2M and 5.7M. Other things differed too, so this is a strong hint, not proof.
- People watch the people more than the food. Humor shows up in 38 of 44 comment sections and wanting to eat the food in only 17. Friends reacting, competing and getting fooled is the engine.
- Pay off fast. 100 myths in 12 minutes beat 24 myths whose best moment landed at 12:46.
- In three same-channel pairs below, liquid nitrogen with nothing to eat at the end lost. End every cold level on something people eat.
- The biggest unmet asks: "run my item through your machine" (93 comments, 65,422 likes, 9 videos) and "flip the prank back on the prankster" (60,897 likes on one video).
- Trust means delivering the title. The sharpest complaints are broken promises and missing safety gear.
The top 10 food science videos
Creator-led and clearly about food. Kid-audience demo channels and faceless Coke and Mentos farms are left out. Some channels here still skew young (Guava Juice, Unspeakable).
Host swims in a giant edible build; human-in-food payoff
Guava Juice host-led Diet Coke Mentos with Wubble Bubble gag; real host personality
Candy disguised as real food vs the real thing; host-led, strong 3.1x over 99M
Office spherification demo; ASMR style molecular gastronomy
Creator-led 500 water balloons filled by Coke Mentos; number-in-title scale-up, 13x
100 layers of Mentos against Coke; creator-led number-in-title scale-up
World's largest lemon battery
Soda freezes on pouring; one-trick explainer that works on any soda
Creator mixes 10,000 Mentos into Coke; underperformer 1.4x at 34M views
Unspeakable 100 layers of Mentos against Coke; number-in-title scale-up 9.5x
Winners against losers
The same channel, close in time, a big gap in views. Comparing within one channel removes most of the channel-size and era noise.
WINNER 36.4M · 2023Level 1 to 100 Science Experiments
LOSER 5.6M · 2024Level 1 to 100 DIY Science Experiments!
Fire on a bare hand, promised in the first line, beat a slime hand whose experiment sits 6 minutes in. The two also differ in title and pacing, so treat this as one strong hint, not proof.
WINNER 224.6M · 2019World's Largest Jello Pool- Can you swim in Jello?
LOSER 35.3M · 2018World's Largest Lemon Battery
Sitting in a giant pool of a food everyone knows beat a giant battery made of lemons.
WINNER 99.8M · 2017Making FOOD out of CANDY!! Learn How To Make DIY Edible Candy vs Real Food Challenge
LOSER 9.6M · 2017DIY LIQUID NITROGEN vs FOOD EXPERIMENT!!
Fooling people with fake food beat liquid nitrogen versus food.
WINNER 29.7M · 2021Making Coca-Cola Cotton Candy | क्या कोका कोला के बाल बनेंगे? Unique Experiment
LOSER 4.2M · 2021Chips Packet In Liquid Nitrogen | क्या ये सिकुड़ेगा ? How's The Taste?
Turning Coke into something you can eat beat shrinking a chip bag in liquid nitrogen.
Soda turned into ice cream you can eat (made with dry ice) beat the coldest soda made with liquid nitrogen.
WINNER 17.1M · 2016Flavored Oxygen Taste Test
LOSER 1.7M · 2017Are You A Supertaster? Taste Test ft. AsapSCIENCE
A taste test with something strange and new (flavored oxygen) beat a taste test of a familiar idea (are you a supertaster).
WINNER 10.9M · 2021I tried BAKING SODA on $1 Steak and this happened!
LOSER 1.3M · 2022Will COCA-COLA Completely DISINTEGRATE a STEAK? | Guga Foods
A cheap trick that makes a $1 steak better beat a myth test on what Coke does to steak.
WINNER 18.3M · 2019What Happens When You Freeze Dry Candy? This is Freeze Drying TKOR Style!
LOSER 504K · 2020Oil, Food Coloring, Alka-Seltzer = GROOVY BABY
Candy everyone knows blowing up in a freeze dryer beat the classic kids' lava lamp demo.
What the niche is made of
| Format | Videos | Median views | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host stunt with a cause | 4 | 59.8M | The host stakes himself on one food stunt tied to a cause (fake burger for Bill Gates, drinking swamp water); 4 videos, read as anecdote. |
| Faceless soda eruption (clone farms) | 95 | 22.7M | No host and no talking, a staged Coke and Mentos eruption; mass-produced by a few channels, ratios meaningless. |
| Scale-up challenge | 12 | 21.7M | A host pushes one classic reaction to an absurd number (100 layers of Mentos, 500 water balloons). |
| Satisfying process, little talking | 5 | 19.1M | Sound-led process videos; 5 videos, and silent views are inflated by international traffic. |
| Giant build | 17 | 12.1M | One familiar food at impossible size with a person in it or touching it. |
| Numbered compilation | 69 | 7.8M | N unrelated experiments in one video; the value is the list, little story. |
| Turning X into food | 30 | 7.7M | A long lab project turning a worthless thing into food; almost all NileRed and NileBlue. |
| Level ladder | 11 | 5.6M | Easy to extreme ladder (Level 1 to 100, 4 Levels amateur to food scientist); your frame. |
| Kids at-home demo | 75 | 5.4M | Kid-led single demo from family channels; huge raw views from children, no transfer. |
| Contest | 7 | 5.3M | Creators compete or a contest picks a winner (egg drop duels). |
| Head-to-head verdict | 3 | 4.7M | Two real things compared with a lab or blind verdict; 3 videos, anecdote. |
| Food illusion and prank | 9 | 4.1M | Food is not what it looks like and someone gets fooled. |
| Every-X sweep | 50 | 4.1M | One treatment run on many foods (dry aged every meat, will it deep fry); the lineup is the thumbnail. |
| Taste and senses trick | 34 | 4.0M | Taste or smell gets tricked or tested on camera; the faces are the payoff. |
| Gadget build | 7 | 3.8M | Builds a machine to do something to food (laser oven, cotton candy gun). |
| Cooking A vs B | 10 | 3.3M | Kitchen technique A vs B with a verdict; cooking more than experiment, weak with the sound off. |
| Explainer with a demo | 30 | 3.1M | One phenomenon explained with a short demo; talking-head versions are weak. |
| Force and slow motion | 52 | 2.4M | Food meets a press, a helicopter, lava or a 13,000 fps camera; destruction you can watch on mute. |
| One question, one experiment | 137 | 1.8M | One 'what happens if' question answered by one experiment; the most common format, low median. |
| DIY how-to | 64 | 1.6M | Step-by-step food science project the viewer can copy. |
| Viral hack test | 55 | 1.5M | A creator tests viral food hacks with a verdict each; dozens of creators run the same template. |
| Myth bust | 26 | 1.1M | Food myths tested in a marathon or by a chef panel; lowest median, density decides the winners. |
Why people watch
- identity: "Growing up as a kid with Mark as your uncle is honestly a dream" (75,951 likes)
- humor: "I’m surprised frank didn’t make his own frying pan" (44,288 likes)
- curiosity gap: "me: *sees video title* me: "yea right" me: *sees who made the video* me: "oh ok, this might be legit"" (46,657 likes)
- vicarious danger: "Brother, I've seen people disappear for less" (149,870 likes)
- nostalgia: "3yr old: Is cotton candy made from cotton? The parent: No it's not. NileRed: You are not going to believe this." (16,643 likes)
- awe: "This man’s refrigerator top must be the size of an aircraft carrier" (27,415 likes)
- taste envy: ""It started to look like iced coffee, and it was scary how much I wanted to taste it" Was literally thinking of a milkshake right before you said that." (5,333 likes)
- satisfaction/asmr: "The slow-mo shots are just mesmerizing!" (4,009 likes)
What viewers keep asking for
- Freeze dry a honey comb? I would like to see what happens. (14,340 likes, source)
- The crew should've done a double prank and switched the habeneros. (23,676 likes, source)
- Now you should patent the recipe just to troll Coca-Cola (9,154 likes, source)
- We need a part 2 with Gordon Ramsay (22,813 likes, source)
- Set these out at an office with a sign saying “free homemade rice crispies” and up the saw dust percentage by one every day until someone notices (9,913 likes, source)
- Now it's time for Link's revenge.😈 (4,681 likes, source)
- It’s been along time since I’ve made cotton candy… However I think your experiment would go better if you turned the sugar into a powder. The machine is designed to turn a powder into cotton candy not chunks (4,488 likes, source)
- Is there a separate video with their reactions finding out that it is fake?? That's what I need in my life (3,294 likes, source)
- Boys we should use that drone to drop hundreds of darts from the sky! (1,195 likes, source)
- *The ratios shudve been as follows:* *10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%* (737 likes, source)
Questions to answer on camera
- Does this glitch still work or did it get patched yet? (17,885 likes, source)
- "so easy to drink" WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN????? (3,906 likes, source)
- Why not deep fry the deep fryer? (3,162 likes, source)
- Everyone: *'nice video!'* Me: *'how the F did u clean this up?!'* (2,349 likes, source)
- Pokes the mouldy bread then eats crisps with presumably the same gloves? (1,610 likes, source)
- Did the safety guy take the day off? (1,557 likes, source)
- Yo what if the vitamins actually stop heat (1,055 likes, source)
- Would'nt it be "scented" not flavored? (973 likes, source)
- William literally making plywood in your mouth: how is it getting harder as I chew it? (766 likes, source)
- So turns out coke isn’t a soda but a carbonated tea? (570 likes, source)
Do and don't
- A level ladder or a big count where food is the material (you 36.4M, Stay Wild 29.4M, Epicurious 29.1M)
- One danger or body shot on the thumbnail, said in the first sentence, paid off (fire hand 36.4M vs slime hand 5.6M)
- A food everyone knows at impossible size with a person in it (Jello pool 224.6M, giant freeze-dried candy 35.9M)
- Fool someone with food, then show the reveal (fake burger 83.4M, fake luxury water 12.3x)
- Taste tricks run as a fair test with a placebo and a scoreboard between friends (spice pill 11.54x, flavored oxygen 11.98x)
- One hero machine viewers can hand items to (93 comments, 65,422 likes asking)
- A visible safety beat before any cold or fire stunt
- Turning X into food (NileRed): borrow the alchemy framing, not the lab project
- Myth marathons: density is the lesson (100 myths 8.99x vs 24 myths 1.76x), format median is the lowest
- Slow-motion destruction (How Ridiculous 10.12x, Slow Mo Guys 20.98x) as a beat, not a whole video
- Every-X sweeps (Guga 11.81x, Will It Deep Fry 18.24x): the labeled lineup thumbnail
- One-question experiments (137 videos, median 1.77M): use the question as a segment title
- Untouched chapters (emulsions, color and pH, mouth buzz, the body) only with a spectacle twist
- Coke and Mentos as the headline (118 videos, 94 of them faceless clone farms)
- Kid-channel demos as proof of demand (75 videos made for children)
- Viral food hack tests (55 videos, median 1.50M; your own 0.68M, 0.18x)
- Cooking A vs B and plain how-tos (weak with the sound off)
- Talking-head explainers
- Any title promise the video does not keep
The other options
All four are packaged as science experiments, with the birthday wrapping them. The ladder wins because it is your proven frame and none of the 7,852 videos found is a food science version.
Your friends at the dinner are the lab rats: every test runs on their tongues, noses, eyes and ears, and a scoreboard tracks who gets fooled most.
Thumbnail: A friend biting into a whole peeled lemon like an orange, juice running down the chin, eyes wide after the miracle berry.
What is new: Taste and senses tricks are 34 videos, but 18 of them are Good Mythical Morning, two hosts at a desk. In the merged map 24 of the 25 taste-trick concepts are novel (1 or 2 sources). The topic brief marks the tongue map, crunch sound, plate color, Sichuan buzz, menthol cool and the cilantro gene as untouched, and two unmet asks fit it directly: flip the prank back (60,897 likes on one video, the second-biggest gap) and a placebo arm (1,055 likes).
Birthday wrap: Cold open: "I've tested everything on myself for nine years. Tonight it's my friends' turn." Thread: the fooled-most scoreboard carries between tests, no extra lines. Ending: the last test is run on you by the friends.
Every course hides one fake made with food science (a mango egg yolk, a steak glued from three meats, a soap donut), the friends guess which, and a wrong guess means they eat it.
Thumbnail: Your open palm holding a perfect raw egg yolk, a fingertip pressing it so bright orange mango runs out.
What is new: The 9 illusion-and-prank videos fake food with cake, candy, soap or relabeled drinks. The science-made fakes (fake yolk, glued steak, plant burger) each come from a different format (a silent molecular office video, How To Cook That, Mark Rober), and 6 of the 6 fake-food concepts are novel. It answers three asks the source videos did not serve: run it on people who do not know (18,878 likes), show the moment they find out (4,547) and flip the prank on the prankster (60,897).
Birthday wrap: Cold open: "I've spent nine years fooling the internet. Tonight I'm fooling people who know where I live." Thread: one fake per course, and the friends start suspecting everything on the table. Ending: the friends secretly made the last fake for you.
One bag of candy goes through every machine viewers keep asking about (freeze dryer, vacuum chamber, liquid nitrogen, microwave, deep fryer, cotton candy spinner, slow-motion camera), and the strangest results get chained into the next machine.
Thumbnail: A gummy worm freeze-dried to forearm size held up next to your face, a normal gummy worm pinched beside it for scale.
What is new: The biggest gap in the comments: "run my item through your machine" (93 comments, 65,422 likes, 9 videos), led by "Freeze dry a honey comb?" (14,340) and freeze-dried Mentos into cola (12,772), plus the chain asks: freeze-dried candy powdered into a cotton candy spinner (6,840) and "deep fry the deep fryer" (3,162). No mined video uses more than two of these machines.
Birthday wrap: Cold open: "Every machine I own, one bag of candy, and on Saturday my friends eat the results." Thread: each result goes into a labeled jar for the dinner. Ending: the friends pick the best and the worst jar at the table.
Classic food experiments rebuilt at absurd size: a bathtub of cotton candy dissolving, a giant gel-skin ball, a 600-foot straw of Coke, the biggest freeze-dried candy, a watermelon under 1,000 rubber bands.
Thumbnail: You chest-deep in a bathtub heaped with cotton candy, the pile collapsing into pink water where the tap hits it.
What is new: After host stunts, the two highest medians a talking host can enter are scale-up challenges (12 videos, median 21.7M) and giant builds (17 videos, median 12.1M), but each scales one thing (100 layers of Mentos, 500 water balloons, a jello pool, a donut). Nobody scales a set of experiments, and viewers ask for it: "do the bigger, higher or weaponised version" (16 comments, 3,172 likes, 8 videos), including a pool of cola and a gelatin monster.
Birthday wrap: Cold open: "For nine years my experiments fit on a desk. These needed all my friends to carry." Thread: the friends are the crew on every build. Ending: the giant dessert lands on the dinner table.
The 31 strongest experiments
Ranked against your past review rules. The other 268 are in Notion as Candidate and Backlog. None of these repeats something you already filmed.
What no video titles cover
From the food science primer (On Food and Cooking, Gastrophysics, The Food Lab), mapped against all 802 video titles:
- Plants, colour and pH: butterfly pea tea or red cabbage changing colour with acid, and jelly that never sets with fresh pineapple or kiwi. No title has it, though Stay Wild's ladder shows red cabbage inside the video at 13:24.
- Emulsions: why oil and water split, and how mayo holds. No titles.
- Mouth feel beyond chili: Sichuan pepper buzz, menthol cold, carbonation bite.
Level 1 (colour-changing tea) and Level 20 (jelly that never sets) come from this list.
Jokes that already land
- "sorry for your car accident tomorrow" (131,498 likes)
- "i can’t wait for the sequel: turning literal rocks into rock candy" (84,534 likes)
- "“Mars Rover and Mr. Yeast” is going to be the title of our upcoming buddy cop movie." (79,289 likes)
- "NileRed was so enthralled by the question of whether he _could,_ he never stopped to think if he _should..._" (36,268 likes)
- "Somewhere out there is a curious teenager putting a whole bundle of grapes into a microwave because he wants to take this plasma thing further. What have you done Derek. What have you done." (21,333 likes)
Buy or book this week
The dinner is six days away. My list, not price-checked; order the online items first.
- Butterfly pea flower tea, lemons and baking soda (Level 1).
- Fresh pineapple, kiwi, canned pineapple, gelatin; set the cups the day before (Level 20).
- Miracle berry tablets, Amazon.ca, check the delivery date (Level 30).
- Sodium alginate and calcium lactate for the mango yolks, the supplier in the dinner plan, plus syringes (Level 40).
- Wintergreen mints for the spark test; check Canadian stock (Level 10).
- About 500 rubber bands, a watermelon, a tarp and goggles (Level 50).
- A cotton candy machine (Level 60).
- Meat glue (transglutaminase) powder, online only, so order now. Wear a dust mask when sprinkling it (Level 95).
- A cheap second microwave for the plasma, and a thermal camera if you want the hot-spot shot (Level 100).
- Hot peppers and an empty pill bottle for the prank on you (Level 101).
- Book a freeze dryer and a liquid nitrogen pro, or plan a separate shoot day for Levels 70 to 90. Liquid nitrogen indoors needs open windows and the host's OK.
Not decided yet
- Which friends, and whether they are fine being filmed. The table levels need them.
- Filming at the venue still needs the host's written OK.
- The paper taste strip from the dinner plan is a familiar taste test, and the one pair above suggests strange and new ones do better. I left it out of the levels.