These schnozberries taste like schnozberries!

Imagine being able to taste a candy bar before ever reaching for your wallet.

Then imagine doing the same for soda, alcohol or chocolate.

That's exactly what Adnan Aziz - a 2004 Engineering and College alumnus - wants you to do.

Aziz, 24, is the founder of two-year-old First Flavor, Inc., which is about to release Peel 'n Taste, an edible piece of filmy substance - similar to breath-freshening strips - that can replicate the flavor of a product.

He plans to distribute these strips through magazine advertisements and through in-store placement.

And Aziz credits one man as the source of inspiration for Peel 'n Taste: Willy Wonka.

He specifically recalled how a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which children lick the fruit-printed wallpaper and can taste the different fruits, sparked his imagination.

Although Aziz does not have an exact date or location for the launch of the product - which will be introduced to test markets in a few months - those lucky enough to have scored samples already have only positive things to say.

"It actually hits your senses," said Weiss Tech House Director Anne Stamer, who has tasted a cherry-vanilla soda version of the product.

Aziz, who was recently named one of BusinessWeek.com's 'Best Entrepenuers Under 25,' made his entrepreneurial debut here at Penn, where he started developing his idea.

When Aziz was a sophomore, he received a grant from the Weiss Tech House, as well as from the Wharton Venture Initiation Program.

After he developed his concept and presented it to the Weiss Tech House - a student-run hub that helps budding student entrepreneurs find appropriate mentors and funding - he was put in touch with Jay Minkoff and Josh Kopelman.

Minkoff and Kopelman - two other Penn alumni who have developed their own, similarly innovative companies - eventually invested in the company and now serve as its president and chairman, respectively.

First Flavor also received funding earlier this year from MentorTech Ventures, an early-stage venture-capital fund formed by Penn alumni Michael Aronson and Boris Kalander.

First Flavor, Inc. is "very much a Penn team," Stamer said.

Stamer pointed out that, "when a company receives funding from outside, that means than an idea has really been validated."

But for Aziz, the real validation will come when he sees Peel 'n Taste become the norm.

Minkoff shares these visions, speaking of a day when consumers can walk down the supermarket aisle and take Peel 'n Taste out of a shelf edge dispenser to taste the product before buying it.

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