CES 2025: This Adorable Mini Robot Will Cool Your Hot Drinks
I’ve seen plenty of weird and wonderful gadgets at the annual CES, as well as the latest in more serious, heavier hardware , but the Nékojita FuFu might be my favorite quirky gadget at the 2025 show: a tiny cat robot that sits on the side of your mugs and blows on your drinks and food to cool them down. It’s functional and also quite cute.
According to Yukai Engineering , the robot’s Japanese maker, it is “designed to recreate the joy of meeting and interacting with a human child” – presumably because it’s small and playful, not because it blows on your drinks. You can place it on the edge of any drink or dish with a raised edge thin enough for a small bot to sit on.
In Japanese, “nekojita” means “cat’s tongue,” a description used to describe intolerance to hot food and drink (a 2018 survey cited by Yukai Engineering shows that it affects nearly half of Japan’s population). The “fufu” part of the name is intended as an onomatopoeic expression to imitate even breathing.
There’s actually more to it than you might think, beyond stylish and cute designs. The internal fan inside the Nékojita FuFu robot uses a special algorithm that supports up to eight different airflow modes, each with its own name, from a gradual increase in power (“Look at that!”) to a long, continuous airflow mode. stop-kick (“Until you fall”).
Obviously, not all of these modes are guaranteed to make it into the final product, and it appears the bot will switch between them randomly – the idea being that the cooling gadget will then feel a little less robotic or similar to a standard fan. It runs on an internal battery that can be charged via the USB-C port.
The team claims that their creation will cool hot water from 190°F (88°C) to 160°F (71°C) in three minutes and to 151°F (66°C) in five minutes. Without any additional cooling, the comparative temperatures are 176°F (80°C) after three minutes and 171°F (77°C) after five minutes, so you can see how much this speeds up the process.
“We created Nékojita FuFu as a small personal eating partner so you can solve your ‘nekojita’ problem anywhere, anytime,” says Tsubasa Tominaga , director of marketing at Yukai Engineering. “The robot doesn’t just help you enjoy your hot coffee. It can make it easier for the elderly to drink hot soup and make it easier for parents to help children eat with less help.”
The bad news is that the “robot mascot” is unlikely to be available outside of Japan, so if you live elsewhere, you may have to get creative when it comes to ordering one. The crowdfunding campaign is planned for mid-2025, and the final retail price is expected to be 3,800 Japanese yen (approximately $25 US).