I've seen plenty of weird and wonderful devices at the annual CES expo, alongside more serious and heavyweight hardware launches, but the Nékojita FuFu might be my favorite quirky gadget of the 2025 show yet: The tiny cat-like robot sits on the side of your mugs and blows on your drinks and food to cool them down. It's functional, and also rather adorable.
According to Yukai Engineering, the Japanese manufacturer behind the robot, it's "designed to recreate the joy of encountering and interacting with a human baby"—presumably because it's small and playful, not because it blows on your beverages. You can put it on the side of any drink or dish of food with a raised edge that's thin enough for the little bot to perch on top of.
In Japanese, "neko-jita" means "cat tongue," a description used for an intolerance of hot food and drink (a 2018 poll quoted by Yukai Engineering suggests it's something that bothers nearly half the population in Japan). The "fufu" part of the name is intended as an onomatopoeic expression imitating steady breathing.
There are actually more smarts here than you might think, in addition to the stylish and cutesy design. The internal fan inside the Nékojita FuFu robot uses a special algorithm that will support up to eight different blowing modes, each with their own custom name: From a gradual ramping up in strength ("Look at That!") to a long, non-stop blow ("'Til You Drop").
Apparently not all of these modes are guaranteed to make it to the final product, and it seems the bot will switch between them at random—the idea being that the cooling gadget will then feel a little less robotic or like a standard fan. It works via an internal battery, which you can recharge via a USB-C port.
The development team says their creation will cool hot water down from 190°F (88°C) to 160°F (71°C) in three minutes and 151°F (66°C) in five minutes. Without any additional cooling, the comparison temperatures are 176°F (80°C) after three minutes and 171°F (77°C) after five minutes, so you can see how much it speeds up the process.
"We created Nékojita FuFu as a little personal meal partner, so you can solve your ‘néko-jita’ problem anywhere, anytime," says Tsubasa Tominaga, the chief marketing officer at Yukai Engineering. "The robot doesn’t just help you enjoy hot coffee. It can make it easier for seniors to down hot soup and reduce parents’ chores by helping kids eat with less help."
The bad news is, the "mascot robot" is unlikely to be available outside of Japan, so if you live anywhere else you might have to get creative when it comes to ordering one. A crowdfunding campaign is scheduled for the middle of 2025, and the final retail price is expected to be ¥3,800 Japanese yen (roughly $25).
