Playing with Zubbles: Blowing Colored Bubbles in the Kitchen

At the end of June, I heard that after many years of waiting, Zubbles were finally available for pre-order. I first learned of these magical colored bubbles in 2005, and have been waiting around patiently for them, ever since.

Though I’ve mentioned it before, it’s worth noting that the inventor of Zubbles, Tim Kehoe has been working on bringing Zubbles to the public for nearly 15 years now.

When this arrived at my desk around lunchtime, I had no idea what it was. Did I order something? Oh, wait!

At first, I was a little hesitant to blow bubbles in my office. I was debating going outside, but then remembered that the bubbles… though colored, didn’t stain. Moment of truth.

I sent out a quick email announcement to everyone in the office, letting them know I’d be trying out the Zubbles in the kitchen. I was a bit nervous, as a lot of our table and counter space is white, but… these things don’t stain, right?

Closeup of the two bottles that I got: pink and blue.

On hitting the floor, the bubbles left a small circular stain where they landed. Several folks went over to test the solution on their hands, and did indeed find that it disappeared quickly from the skin.

I let the liquid remain on the floor and we eventually cleaned things up with a wet paper towel (and easily, I might add). I left one spot untouched to see if it would disappear on its own, and it did.

As a test, Chris rubbed a little onto his shirt. While it didn’t instantly disappear it eventually did, and did so without a trace.

Ben, watching some blue bubbles sail by.

Sarah, trying out the blue.

Utopia trying out the pink.

Justin, building a massive multi-bubble.

Chris, helping to keep the bubles aloft.

A random thing we noticed: sometimes, the bubbles would hit the floor and bounce a little bit, before popping. I remember reading that one of the early colored bubble formulas attempted by Kehoe resulted in a bubble that bounced like a ball. Sadly, he could never re-create that batch… but the idea of a more solid bubble is almost as awesome as a colored bubble.

Megabubble launch!

Zubbles are fun, and the story behind them is pretty great. While we were playing around with them, I think everyone present was smiling like a kid.