The worst part about having bad breath is that you live in constant fear of it striking when you’re miles from your toothbrush with nary a piece of gum or mint in sight. And let’s face it, asking a friend if you have bad breath rarely gets you a straight answer — talk about putting someone on the spot. Today’s product from Japanese Trend Shop looks like it could end this predicament once and for all.

Actually, I take it back. The worst part about bad breath is that you can’t tell whether you have it or not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve breathed into my hands to see if I could smell my breath. Now, the Million Dollar question is does this actually work? Bottom line, I’ve no idea. Sorry folks, we are still a bare bones shop. We can’t buy everything we like and try it out. And until we’ve got some more traffic — are you telling everyone you know about us yet!!? — it’s a hard sell to get freebies. Below is their description of it (typos are theirs not, as usual, ours):

We all worry about how our breath smells and now you can put those fears to one side with the Breath Checker Mini. Coming in three cheerful colors, this does not look like a tool or device at all so you won’t stand out as someone testing their breath! All you have to do is take off the cap, shake it four or five times, blow into the front – and after five seconds you will get a rating from 0 to 6.

I do find it a bit odd that one has to shake an electronic gadget for it to work. For me, the main selling point is that it is small. I did some measurement conversions, also known as eye balling my old school ruler, and 6cm is about 2.5 inches. It’s a little bit bigger than a Certs® container. Despite it’s diminutive size, the price tag isn’t. It will turn off all of the Funs and likely a few Classics. It’s $74. Apparently, piece of mind doesn’t come cheap.  Click here to buy. They also offer a dual alcohol & breath checker.