(via Baller House)

Fine champagne needs an equally fine glass. It follows, then, that drinking the most expensive champage requires the most expensive champagne glass.

Enter John Calleija, designer of a pair of champagne glasses sure to put any others to shame. Adorned with 1,700 diamonds—both white and a rare argyle pink—these glasses were hand carved from a pair of 8kg blocks of quartz crystal. The glasses are nearly 6 inches tall, over half a pound apiece and share between them 15 carats of diamonds.

Calleija, wishing to expand his work into luxury goods, drew diamond-covered letter openers, scissors, chopsticks and even salt and pepper shakers before hitting upon the more conventional idea of a pair of luxurious champagne glasses. An anonymous client, upon seeing the design, immediately commissioned them and plans to make them into family heirlooms.

So how much did this anonymous businessman pay for the world’s most expensive champagne glasses? A mere $400,000 allowed him to secure this sparkling legacy.

Just because the hamburger is undoubtedly a signature fast food item, doesn’t mean that you can’t treat yourself and empty your pockets by tasting one of the world’s most expensive burgers. For those with money to blow, there are some very pricey—and hopefully very tasty—burgers available, and you’ll never guess who has recently come out with the most expensive burger in the world.

The Fleurburger

#4 FleurBurger 5000 - around $75

Are you willing to part with $5,000 for one, though? Renowned chef Hubert Keller thinks you might be. His FleurBurger 5000 is available at Fleur de Lys, a traditional French restaurant located in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. They’ll even mail a certificate to your home just to prove that you ate the world’s most expensive hamburger.

So how do you rationalize a five grand price tag for a hamburger? Well, you could start with the fact that the burger itself is made of Kobe beef. You could, then, move on to the foie gras—that’s duck or goose liver—and black truffles with which the burger is topped. You could even point out that the hamburger is served on a brioche truffle bun and is garnished with a sauce containing even more truffles. Then again, it could be the bottle of Chateau Pétrus 1990 and Ichendorf Brunello stemware, specially imported from Italy, which you get to take home. Yeah, that might be it.

Of course, if you actually want the world’s most expensive burger, rather than the most expensive burger-and-wine combo, then you may have to look elsewhere. The Fleurburger can be ordered by itself for a mere $75.

#3 The Tri-Beef Burger - $125

The Tri-Beef Burger

One expensive burger was created in 2006 at the Old Homestead Steakhouse in Boca Raton, Florida. Called the Tri-Beef Burger, this is made of a blend of three different kinds of beef—American Prime, Japanese Wagyu and Argentine beef. The hamburger is served with signature Chipotle ketchup made with truffles and champagne. As if the beef isn’t reason enough to purchase this expensive burger, the restaurant’s owners donate $10 of every sale of the $125 burger to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

#2 The Richard Nouveau Burger $175

The Richard Nouveau

The Richard Nouveau is a more recent entry into the most expensive burger hall of fame. Named after the fictional writer of PocketChange, an online newsletter about NYC’s most expensive offerings, the Richard Nouveau is available at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe. The ten-ounce Kobe beef burger is topped with black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flakes of gold leaf. Like the Fleurburger, it’s also served on a brioche bun. The burger was created when PocketChange’s Jeremy Abelson suggested that the Burger Shoppe’s co-owner, Heather Tierney, outdo the $120 burger offered by another local eatery. With the Richard Nouveau’s $175 price tag, they’ve clearly done so.

#1 Burger King’s The Burger - about $186

The Burger

Hot on the heels of Wall Street Burger, surprisingly enough, is Burger King. Yes, this monolithic fast food giant has decided to live up to its name by producing the world’s most expensive burger. Called simply “The Burger,” this costly hamburger is available only at a West London branch of the restaurant. Luckily for those who’ll be taking their private jets to Burger King for lunch, The Burger can be pre-ordered by phone so that you needn’t wait.

The world’s most expensive hamburger is made, as usual, with Wagyu beef. It is also decked with white truffles, onion tempura prepared in Cristal champagne and some of Italy’s finest Pata Negra prosciutto. All of this is presented in an Iranian saffron and truffle bun.

The Burger is priced at £95 (about $186 US). While it has been derided as a cheap marketing stunt, proceeds from The Burger will benefit a local charity, Help A London Child. All things considered, I’d say it’s at least an expensive marketing stunt.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” If you’re fabulously wealthy, though, then maybe your life is more like a steamer trunk full of chocolates. In any case, MarieBelle New York’s Chocolate Picnic Steamer Trunk may just be the most expensive box of chocolates in the world.
MarieBelle has a reputation for making some of the world’s finest chocolates, which is quite extraordinary considering they only opened their doors in 2000. A box of only four pieces of their chocolates costs $12.

Now consider the fact that the Chocolate Picnic Steamer Trunk contains 500 pieces of chocolate ganache, five pounds of chocolate bark and croquettes, eighty ounces of Aztec hot chocolate in four tins, a twenty-ounce tin of Aztec Iced Chocolate, eight Aztec Hot Chocolate Bars, a teapot and infuser, two china teacups, a leather-bound journal and a small library of books on chocolate.

That’s bound to be a bit pricey, isn’t it?

Well, it may come as something of a shock that the steamer trunk only costs $15,000. Of course, you also have to purchase it in person from their New York store. Surely that will make up for the incredibly low price of the world’s most expensive box of chocolates.

(via Los Angeles Times)

In a country where watermelons are rare game, they can be a costly commodity. That’s how a 17-pound Japanese watermelon may have recently become the most expensive watermelon in the world.

Densuke watermelons, a type of black watermelon grown only on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, are usually given as gifts due to their extraordinary rarity. There were only sixty-five of the fruits among the first harvest this season. They are harder and crisper than the watermelons we Americans are used to and, according to Tohma Agricultural Cooperative’s spokesman, they “have a different level of sweetness.”

The largest of the sixty-five Densuke, a twenty-four pound melon, sold for $5,945. It was a seventeen pound melon, however, that was judged the best of the crop and sold at auction for $6,100. As the most expensive watermelon ever sold in Japan, it is likely also the world’s most expensive watermelon.

(via True Sake)
Sake, a word used to refer to any alcoholic beverage in Japan, has come to mean a specific drink in America. While we often call that drink a “rice wine,” the rice fermentation process is closer to the making of beer than wine. Despite that fact, the resulting brew is non-carbonated and tastes [...]

Fans of the immensely successful television drama, Lost, may be the only people who’ve heard of the world’s most expensive candy bar. Aside from making numerous appearances in the show, the candy bar also played a significant part in the show’s accompanying alternate reality game, The Lost Experience.
An alternate reality game, or ARG, is a [...]

(via CBS3)
How much would you pay for a Philly cheesesteak? Stephen Starr, owner of Barclay Prime restaurant, hopes your answer is in the triple digits. The latest draw to this upscale restaurant for serious patrons is the aptly-named $100 Cheesesteak.
While Starr admits that the sandwich is a marketing ploy for the Philly-based restaurant, the most [...]

The Kentucky Derby, also known as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” has been held annually since it was first organized in 1875. This year’s derby drew one of the largest crowds in history, consisting of over 157,000 people. It also marked the 35th anniversary of legendary equine athlete Secretariat’s spectacular win at Kentucky [...]

Tequila, triple sec and fresh lemon or lime juice—these are the components of a standard margarita. The proportions may vary and orange liqueurs other than triple sec may be used, but these are the three main ingredients endorsed by the International Bartenders Association. What, then, are the ingredients in the world’s most expensive margarita?

Johnny Utah’s, [...]

Originally considered ornamental plants, the flowering Macadamia trees have become a valuable crop since they were originally described by John Macadam—after whom they were named—around 1857. The reason for their commercial importance is that two of the nine species of Macadamia produce the most expensive nuts in the world.
While the trees originated in Australia, the [...]

Cognac, like Champagne, is named after the area of France from whence it originates. In order to be considered worthy of the name, the brandy must be produced in the area surrounding the town of Cognac and it must be made at least 90% from three varieties of grapes that grow in the region—Ugni Blanc, [...]

Marmalade, often served with toast as part of a full English breakfast, is usually made from fruit (usually oranges), sugar, water and, possibly, a gelling agent. Add in gold, vintage champagne and Dalmore 62, the world’s most expensive scotch, and you have Duerr’s entry into the World’s Original Marmalade Festival in Cumbria. At £5,000 ($9,743 [...]

Outside of Japan, we often think of sushi as a dish consisting of some sort of raw sea creature. This is, in fact, sashimi, which is wholly distinct from sushi. The term “sushi” actually refers to any dish made with a vinegared rice, called shari, and a number of other ingredients which made include fish, [...]

A goliath tigerfish. (Photo by
Sergiokhatulistiwamandagi. Distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license.)
A giant, golden tigerfish recently caught off the coast of the province of Guangdong in southern China made news when it became the world’s most expensive fish. The 105 lb fish was purchased last April by a restaurant for the price of 580,000 [...]

Kai, a London restaurant formerly known as Mr. Kai, recently served a bowl of the most expensive soup in the world. The primarily Chinese restaurant’s expensive dish was priced at £108 ($214 USD). They call it “Buddha Jumps over the Wall.”

(Photo by SunSuke. Distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license.)
So named because, as a [...]

The most expensive hot dog in the world wasn’t exactly a special hot dog. Sure, it was a limited item available for only a few days in Stockholm. Sure, it cost 999 Swedish kronor ($130 USD at the time) to get one. The pricey hot dog itself, however, was no better than your average street [...]

Læsø, a large island off the coast of the Danish mainland, is part of the Danish “desert belt.” The island’s dryness during the summer months has resulted in ground water that can be up to fifteen percent salt. In the Middle Ages, the island was well known for its salt industry which, eventually, led to [...]

Harrods, London’s luxury department store, has recently started selling what is possibly the world’s most expensive honey—in their pharmacy. Life Mel honey is being sold as a nutritional supplement for £42 (around $83) per 120g pot.

The expensive honey, which is popular with celebrities like Sienna Miller and Kylie Minogue, is made in Israel by honey [...]

PEZ may be one of the most iconic candies of the modern era. Invented in 1927 by Viennese confectioner Eduard Hass III, the first PEZ flavor was peppermint. In fact, the name PEZ is derived from the German word Pfefferminze, meaning “peppermint.” The most remarkable aspect of PEZ candy, though, is the PEZ dispenser. These [...]

Movida, a London nightclub catering only to the most affluent, has just launched Flawless, the most expensive Christmas cocktail in the world. At £35,000 (over $71,000 USD), Flawless is several times the price of Trader Vic’s Mai Tai, the former most expensive cocktail in the world (£750, over $1,500 USD).
The cocktail’s less exciting ingredients include [...]

Marks and Spencer, a UK-based chain of department stores, offered a lavishly appointed Christmas gift basket this year. This basket is so well-endowed with gifts, in fact, that it may just be the most expensive Christmas gift basket in the world.
At $1,500, Marks and Spencer’s basket ought to be full of gifts fit for a [...]

Have you ever looked at your toaster and thought, “This toaster just isn’t good enough for me”? If so, Dualit has the toaster for you. The British company’s Combi 2×2, the world’s most expensive toaster, is guaranteed to put your puny toaster to shame.
What can Dualit’s expensive toaster do that yours can’t? It has adjustable [...]

A very expensive bottle of scotch was just sold in New York, prompting us to wonder at the most expensive scotch. As it happens, that wasn’t it. The most expensive bottle of scotch was a Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, sold in 2005 to an anonymous buyer for £32,000—over $58,000 at the time [...]

The hamburger is undoubtedly the signature fast food item, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a nice, gourmet hamburger. Are you willing to part with $5,000 for one, though? Renowned chef Hubert Keller thinks you might be. His FleurBurger 5000, named no doubt for its price tag, is the most expensive hamburger in the [...]

If this year’s turkey prices didn’t discourage you, then maybe you should check out the chef’s table at Café Gray in the Time Warner building. Traditionally, Thanksgiving Dinner at their chef’s table runs $10,000 for 12 seats. That’s around $833 a head. It’s the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner in New York City and possibly even [...]