April 2010

Two Coffees: One Free, One Ridiculously Expensive

Today I bring you the tales of coffee at two remarkably distinct price points.  The first is FREE COFFEE yes that's right FREE at Starbucks on April 15th if you bring a reusable cup.

This is apparently NOT a tie in with the American tax day deadline.  Even though lots of other places are offering free stuff on the 15th.  (Dunkin Donuts offers free doughnuts, and if you're clever and geographically lucky I guess you can score an entire breakfast this way.)  

Heatswell: Crazy Creepy Self-Inflating Coffee Sleeve

Via the outstanding coffee news website Sprudge.com comes this hypnotic and also creepy video of a breakthrough in scientific coffee sleeve technology.

As you can see from the video, the clever inventors of the Heatswell cup have found a way to attach a thin layer of substance (plastic? Polymer?) to a disposable paper coffee cup.  When the cup is heated (as when you pour coffee into it) the layer self-inflates.  It's a cup and a cup sleeve all in one!  Except icky and weird, and oddly bumpy.