"world record" news and stories

Metro.co.uk reports that eighteen year old Kathryn Ratcliffe from Newcastle, UK broke the record for eating grains of rice during the Chopsticks Championship. How does someone win this honor? She ate 96 grains in two minutes - breaking the existing record of 64 grains in three minutes.

Kathryn broke her first world record at the age of 12 and she now holds four records! Her other records are for eating Smarties with chopsticks, eating jelly with chopsticks, and separating jelly beans by color into separate pots with a straw.

I wonder what Kathryn has planned next. More with chopsticks? More with straws? Perhaps she'll retire after her fourth win. I doubt she'll quit now. I see many records in her future.

Pernod Ricard is launching a new champagne at a price that will make Cristal and Dom Perignon look like two-buck Chuck, as $400 per bottle price tags seem small when compared to this one. The wine and spirits group said that it would be launched under their Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque brand and it will be priced at $1,270 (€1,000) per bottle. This makes it the most expensive champagne in the world. Unfortunately, aside from the price tag, the company was fairly quiet about the other details of the release, though chairman Patrick Ricard did say "We won't do many cases and won't be offering it in France."

The group is actively pursuing ways to increase the perception of their brands as very upmarket, so perhaps this will be the first of many releases from the company. Regardless it will certainly set a benchmark in the champagne industry.

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At the rate at which new "world's biggest burgers" are cooked up by restaurants all across the world, we should probably give up in trying to say which one is the biggest. After all, it will only be a few weeks before it is replaced with something larger. That being said, there is a new giant burger on the block, this one from the Clinton Station Diner in New Jersey. The Diner was previously known for its 50-pount Mt. Olympus burger, which is nothing compared to the 8th Wonder of the World. The massive cheeseburger weighs 105 pounds and is 28 inches across and 11 1/2 inches tall. After measuring the heavyweight sandwich for the Guinness Book of World Records, it was carved up and passed out to customers - in 7 pound slices.

More photos after the jump.

[via Competitive Eaters]

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Lyle's Golden Syrup, manufactured by the British sugar company Tate & Lyle, has just been honored by the Guinness Book of World Records with the title of world's oldest brand. The sweet syrup is a byproduct of sugar refining and was first put into the distinctive green and gold tin in 1885. The packaging and the syrup have remained almost completely unchanged since that time. The product is found in more than 85% of British households and is popular in countries all over the world.

In the US, the syrup is found at some specialty stores, but is not terribly easy to come by. It has the consistency of corn syrup, but a much more unique flavor that carries over into whatever it is used to sweeten. There are any number of recipes that the syrup can be used in, but treacle tart and ANZAC biscuits are two that are well loved world wide.

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We already heard about the world's largest pizza party, but this gallery has pictures of some of the biggest pizzas in the world. It's not complete, since we don't know what some of you are doing in your homes when the record keepers aren't there to measure your creations, but it definitely gives you a reference point the next time you walk into a pizzeria that serves unusually large slices.

The world's record for largest pizza belongs to a 122.6-ft. pizza that was made in Norwood, South Africa in 1990. This monster pie used almost 10,000-lbs. of flour, 3,968-lbs. of cheese, 1,984-lbs. of tomato puree and 200-lbs. salt. For perspective, 4 cups of flour is the equivalent of one pound, and that would make plenty of dough for a large pizza. That means that the record setting pizza could have fed a slice or two to at least 40,000 people.

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