You Probably Missed This Heart-Warming Fact About the Instant Pot
The Instant Pot has become something of a revolution. When it first appeared on the scene, it had all the hallmarks of a trendy kitchen gadget that we’d all want for a year, then use a few times and forget about for the rest of our lives, like the Juiceman juicer or the George Foreman grill in the 1990s. But the Instant Pot has been getting more and more popular every year. Award-winning cookbook author Melissa Clark loves it so much she says she rarely unplugs hers, and she even wrote a cookbook all about Instant Pot recipes.
A big part of the device’s popularity is due to word-of-mouth advertising. The device became hugely popular with health bloggers, and once the company started sending them to chefs and food writers, it became a phenomenon. It seems like the Instant Pot can do everything. It sears, braises, cooks rice (and beans from scratch in an hour, with no soaking!). Some of them even have a sterilize function for sterilizing baby bottles!
People are obsessed with their Instant Pots. The biggest fans call themselves “Potheads,” and one woman even credits the Instant Pot with her 125-pound weight loss.
That passionate community of fans is why Instant Pot creator Robert Wang, Ph.D., told the New York Times that he thinks the Instant Pot’s success will continue. He says the Instant Pot won’t be replaced by a shiny new thing because its fans love it so much.
Wang says the feeling is mutual, and he revealed a secret subliminal message of love to the device’s many fans. In every official photo of an Instant Pot, the device’s timer is set to 5:20. When you say “5-2-0” out loud in Mandarin, Wang’s native language, it sounds sort of like “I love you.”
“It’s a subliminal message,” Wang says. “It shows how much we care about our customers.”
That’s adorable. The Instant Pot loves its fans as much as its fans love it. Personally, I’ve been eyeballing an Instant Pot for a while, but I’ve never actually tried one. This makes me want one even more, and I’d leave it set to 5:20 whenever I wasn’t using it. My old slow cooker was great, but it never told me it loved me.
Do you love the Instant Pot?