If vintners can conduct wine tastings via Twitter, it stands to reason that restaurants could do much the same thing to promote their foods. Which is just where TasteCasting comes in, facilitating the use of social media for taste tests and other promotional events to help restaurateurs get tongues wagging about them throughout the socially networked world.

Ohio-based TasteCasting draws upon teams of socially connected bloggers, Twitterers, Flickr users and YouTubers in cities across North America—there are currently 20 with active teams, and more are already forming. Restaurants, cafes and other food service establishments in any of the cities the company serves can host tasting events at which local team members will "taste, tweet, and then repeat," broadcasting their experience of the restaurant across their social media platforms. Specifically, TasteCasting teams post stories, videos and pictures of each event to the TasteCasting site, and each team member adds comments and includes links to their blogs, photos and videos on the TasteCasting profile for that establishment. Grand openings, new menu items and special offers can all be publicized using TasteCasting in exchange for just a complimentary tasting and tour. Currently there is no charge to restaurants and no compensation for tasters, but TasteCasting says it may ultimately consider rolling out an advertising profit sharing opportunity for tasters interested in becoming independent agents.

TasteCasting is looking for sponsorship from major suppliers of food products, equipment, supplies and services. Alternatively, could be one to partner with in food-loving cities around the world—starting with, say, Paris...? ;-) (Related: Foodie podcast highlights curbside cuisine — Food blogger turned intermediary and purveyor — Wine tastings via Twitter.)

Website: www.tastecasting.com
Contact: info@tastecasting.com

Spotted by: Jim Stewart

"Have you forgotten where the vegetables on your table come from?" It's a question agricultural firm Azienda Agricola Giacomo Ferraris asks potential customers. Offering Italians the opportunity to reconnect with the origins of their food, the company's innovative online offering—Le Verdure Del Mio Orto ('The Vegetables from my Garden')—lets anyone build an organic garden right from their web browser.

How it works? Users first select a garden size based on the number of people they'd like to feed; 30m2 is sufficient for 1–2 people and costs EUR 850 per year. The virtual gardener can then choose from 40 different types of vegetables, using a highly intuitive interface that includes information on expected yields and harvest times. Optional extras include a photo album of the garden's progress (EUR 49), herb and fruit beds (EUR 50/75), and even a scarecrow with a picture of the customer's own face (EUR 39). Once the garden has been designed and fees paid, planting begins on the farm, which is located between Milan and Turin in northern Italy. As the organic produce grows, it's picked and delivered to the customer's door within 24 hours. Weekly deliveries are part of the package.

A souped up version of community supported agriculture, Le Verdure del Mio Orto capitalizes on consumers' hunger for locally grown food and—in a wider sense—for anything that's faithful to its roots. As our sister site trendwatching.com would say, it's (still) made here. The time seems ripe for farmers of all varieties to consider setting aside a few lots, adding branding and logistics, and serving it all up for city-dwellers with an enticing online presence. Of course, there's also an opportunity here for smart companies willing to take care of the non-agricultural elements on a farmer's behalf. Better yet, contact Azienda Agricola Giacomo Ferraris and ask if they're willing to license their system. (Related: Innovative olive farmers — Adopt a Maine lobster trap — More homegrown vegetables, without the sweat.)

Website: www.leverduredelmioorto.it
Contact: info@leverduredelmioorto.it

Spotted by: Giulia Cuccolini

Premium ice-cream is a highly sophisticated food category that doesn't shy away from unusual flavours. But none of these stray quite as far from plain vanilla as an x-rated gelato by The Icecreamists that's touted to have the same charge as a dose of Viagra.

Dubbed The Sex Pistol, the new flavour will be available exclusively at The Icecreamists' shop, open in London's Selfridges department store from 10 September – 1 November 2009. Mixed into the frozen treat are ginkgo biloba, arginine and guarana—all guaranteed to increase blood flow and energy level. Before serving, The Sex Pistol is doused in La Fee Absinthe. And since presentation is key, the absinthe is administered from a drip bag into a pink water gun and fired at a heated sugar cube, which drops into the ice cream. The Sex Pistol is deemed so potent that sales are limited to one per customer, although at GBP 11.99 customers might prefer to split one with a special friend.

Besides The Sex Pistol and other 'ice cream cocktails', The Icecreamists will also serve scoops of ice cream, in flavours like Obamarama and Axl Rose-water. All products will be made in the store's open kitchen. The obvious shock-factor aside, it's interesting to see an ice-cream targeted specifically to men. As ever, sex sells. ;-)

Website: www.theicecreamists.com
Contact: www.theicecreamists.com/#/Contact

Spotted by: Erik Dryden

We've already seen a banking service, a wedding boutique and a travel website aimed at gay consumers; now there are wine brands targeting gays as well.

Spanish UO! Wines is a line of three wines created with homosexual men in mind, and its descriptions, packaging and website imagery were all tailored accordingly. UO! Ánima Blanca, for example, is a Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo blend featuring earth tones and "wisps of flowers and fruit – the perfect accompaniment to a gathering of friends on a hot day, whether the heat comes from within or without." Antinoo, meanwhile, is a Monastrell that's "young and mature, fruity, elegant, smooth….Mediterranean.... When you try it, shut your eyes and imagine that you are licking rivulets of syrup from his body," the company advises. Rounding out the line is Oscura Lágrima, a Shiraz and Merlot blend that's "dark, dense and turbulent."

Underscoring the connection it sees between wine and sexual orientation, UO! explains: "Right from the time you see the wine in the display case, we want to insure that the bottle speaks about more than its delicious contents; that it has to do with you; that you are offering whoever you are with something more than a simple glass of wine."

It's certainly true that gay consumers represent a potentially lucrative segment, and apparently UO! is not the first wine brand to set its sights on reaping some of those pink profits—another like-minded competitor, also from Spain, is Mundo Gay. Though it's not clear if UO! makes or blends its wines or simply packages them, it's actively seeking distributors; one to get in on early...? (Related: Heineken's brew for women.)

Website: www.uowines.com
Contact: quierouo@uowines.com

Though several of the contests we've written about in recent months have had unconventional purposes—filling a job, for example, or launching a new car—there's no denying that they're still an effective tool for good, old-fashioned promotion. To wit: aiming to celebrate "6 dozen years" of Krispy Kreme, the global doughnut chain is holding a contest that will allow winners to design their own doughnuts.

Krispy Kreme's search for its "fave fans" invites doughnut lovers aged 18 and older in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines and the United Kingdom to submit a photo with a 72-word (or less) caption that answers the question, "How has Krispy Kreme made your life special?" The contest deadline is Sept. 15, and a period of public voting will continue through the end of October before winners are announced in early November. A Grand Prize winner from each participating country will get a year's supply of doughnuts, a trip for two to Krispy Kreme's Winston-Salem, N.C., home and a chance to design and name their own doughnut. Following the design period, each winner's doughnut concept will be uploaded onto the official Krispy Kreme Fave Fan website for public voting; the winning doughnut will then be sold at retail in April 2010 as a special edition.

Of course, besides simply celebrating the Krispy Kreme brand, this contest also includes a heaping helping of crowdsourcing, giving consumers the much-sought-after chance to have a direct say in the offerings of their favourite doughnut chain. Ask the crowd's opinion, and you can bet ye shall receive—particularly where doughnuts are involved! ;-)

Website: www.krispykremefavefan.com
Contact: www.krispykremefavefan.com/contact