This robot cat blows on your coffee to stop you burning your tongue – yes, really!

Ever wanted a cat to cool your coffee for you? Of course you have, and you’re in luck as Yukai Engineering recently debuted a portable robot cat that can do exactly that. The Nékojita Cat FuFu sits on the rim of your mug or bowl, and blows cold air onto your food and drink to cool it down for you – yes, really!

Japanese start-up, Yukai Engineering specialises in fun robotics that are designed to fit into your everyday life. While most robot products on the market tend to clean your floors or mow your lawn, ala robot vacuum cleaners and robot lawn mowers, Yukai Engineering take a slightly different approach with petite robots that sit on your bag and even bite your fingers – I don’t know why you’d want that, but each to their own.

More recently, Yukai Engineering has created the Nékojita Cat FuFu, and it might be my favourite launch from CES 2025. The Nékojita Cat FuFu is a small robot in the shape of a cat that perches on your mug and blows cold air onto your drink to stop you from burning your mouth. Is it the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen? Yes, but do I want it? Absolutely.

The name of the robot, Nékojita Cat FuFu, is actually more clever than you might think. ‘Néko-jita’ translates to cat tongue and ‘FuFu’ is an onomatopoeia word that describes the sound humans make when blowing on hot food or drinks. While the Nékojita Cat FuFu doesn’t make much sound when in action, it’s a fun little anecdote to keep in mind.

As you can see from the photos, the Nékojita Cat FuFu looks like a tiny cartoon cat. It has a rounded stomach and hands that hold onto the edge of your mug or bowl, and a small mouth opening which expels the air. It’s a very small device that can fit in the palm of your hand, so you can take the Nékojita Cat FuFu with you on the go.

The Nékojita Cat FuFu uses what Yukai Engineering calls a ‘Fu-ing’ system, where the mini robot cat uses an internal fan to generate different types of breaths that mimic human breathing. The breathing comes in different strengths, rhythms and intervals, and it has eight modes to play with.

The different modes have fun names, like I’ve Got This! and The Princess Elegant. The main basic mode delivers steady medium strength and length blows in short bursts, while other modes like Look at That! ramp up the blow strength gradually whereas ‘Til You Drop delivers strong, non-stop blows.

It’s unclear from the design and the details surrounding the Nékojita Cat FuFu whether it has a button to flick through the different modes or if it’ll be connected to an app to customise these controls. But what we do know is that the Nékojita Cat FuFu is meant to cool your food or drink down to the right temperature within three minutes.

The Nékojita cat FuFu is currently impossible to find online, but it’s been announced that it’ll launch later this year on Kickstarter and will cost $25. Many people are speculating that it’ll likely not be available to buy outside of Japan, but I definitely hope that’s not the case as I’d love to get my hands on one!