Strangest Coffee Inventions And Innovations | Carbon Kopi
There are few morning traditions as uplifting as sipping on an artisan coffee at a coffee shop in the morning, whether that takes the form of a charming mocha or a creamy latte.
It is by far the most popular drink in the world, with two billion cups gulped every day, 98m of which are in the UK alone. That is 1.4 cups of coffee every day for every single person in Great Britain.
With the coffee bean being so popular and with so many different ways to enjoy a refreshing morning cup, it is perhaps not surprising that there have been a lot of weird and wonderful inventions brewed up by innovative minds to create entirely new coffee-drinking experiences.
- The eDrink Mug
Notably featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the eDrink was a travel mug with an innovative feature based on the simple principle that coffee is hot.
Invented by Ann Makosinski when she was just 16 years old, she used a thermoelectric generator and fit it into a coffee mug, allowing it to generate enough electricity to charge a mobile phone for 30 minutes whilst waiting for it to cool down.
Sadly it has still yet to be mass-produced, but it is difficult to think of a more useful travel mug than this.
- Mokase Coffee Mobile Phone Case
Whilst many innovations are designed around finding effective and elegant solutions to problems, others can sometimes feel like two ideas have been combined almost at random to see if they stick together.
The Mokase smartphone cover is a case in point, as it combines the versatility and form factor of your smartphone with the sharp thrill of espresso coffee.
The system itself consists of a large phone case with a heating element in the bottom part that can take in wafer-shaped espresso cartridges.
Simply slot one into the side of the case, tap a button on the accompanying app, and between five and eight seconds later, you have a piping hot espresso shot wherever you may roam.
Whilst there has obviously been a lot of thought put into the Mokase’s design and technology, it is hard to see when you might use it.
Most of the places where you would be out with your phone are also places with either coffee shops or coffee machines, both of which would provide a far better experience, even if they might take ever so slightly longer. Good coffee comes to those who wait after all.
- Barisieur
Quite a few people over a certain age might be aware of an old and very popular invention known as a Teasmade, which was an alarm clock which boiled a kettle which in turn fed into a teapot.
Whilst that’s great for tea drinkers, people who want to wake up with a delicious cup of coffee were out of luck until the development of the Barisieur, a somewhat strange-looking device that looks like a miniature laboratory but has a much more exciting conclusion.
Similar to the Teasmade, the Barisieur heats up the water, so that does mean you need to fill it up and apply the grounds into the filter before you go to bed, but since the reward is delicious filter coffee the moment you wake up, is that really too much work?