Consumers love coffee. Consumers love convenience. That is why coffee inventions like the Keurig sold millions! Keurig took the largest inconvenience in coffee land and solved it: no longer do you have to fumble around with coffee filters and coffee pots or worry about ideal ratios of water to coffee grounds first thing in the morning. Keurig takes care of all of that stuff for you and leaves you with a “perfect cup of coffee” (and a large bill for all those k-cups!).
Here’s a look at some other great, and some not-so-great, inventions created for caffeine-happy coffee consumers:
Heat-Activated, Color-Changing Coffee Lid
Created by Smart Lid Systems, this lid is disposable, and changes color when hot! This lid won a Dupont Packaging Award for packaging innovation. Great if you are the type of person that needs a “Warning: Hot” label on your coffee lid to keep you from suing the pants off of McDonald’s.
Anti-Theft Coffee Mug
We don’t know why someone would want to steal your crusty office mug. We also don’t know why you can’t just find the thief and ask them to stop using your mug instead of spending $22 on a mug that will leak steaming-hot coffee all over your lap. Product reviews indicate that this mug, designed with a plug on the bottom half which is connected to a keyring (so you can take the mug plug with you when the mug is not in use, deterring thieves?) doesn’t really fit into the misshapen plug hole and you might as well spend $22 on a couple sleeves of disposable coffee cups instead of this hot mess (get it?).
Yawn-Activating Coffee Machine
We love this machine because it doesn’t cost anything! That’s right, Dutch coffee company Douwe Egberts created this yawn-activating coffee machine as part of a marketting campaign that ended up going viral. The machine, set up in an airport, used facial recognition software to detect when someone standing in front of the machine is yawning, and once a yawn is detected, dispensed a free cup of joe to the blurry-eyed traveller!
Roadpro RPSC-784 12-Volt Quick Cup Coffee Maker
Here is a two cup brewing system for your car. You are supposed to plug it into your 12-volt cigarette-lighter port, place it on … your lap? The passenger seat? A giant fictional dashboard? And in “under 15 minutes”, you have a lukewarm 16 ounce cup of coffee. I have so many questions! How are you supposed to do this and drive!? You have to measure and pour coffee grounds, set up and/or change the filter, fill the water port (with…?), prepare your coffee… What if you don’t like black coffee? If texting is illegal, we are pretty sure this fits in the category of potentially illegal car appliances.
