Wow — I am enthused about the possibilities in this. Using a special material that is designed to melt at 140 F, these stainless steel “Joulies” absorb excess heat from fresh coffee, cooling it down to the perfect drinking temperature more quickly.

As someone who drinks his coffee dead black, I’ve often complained about how coffee can be served way too hot — presumably so that it is still hot enough to comfortably drink when people add double creams to it.

But the Joulies are for more than just cooling your coffee — because they absorb a lot of heat, they can also re-release that heat as your coffee begins to get too cold. In effect, they buffer your coffee, keeping it near the optimal drinking temperature for an estimated three times longer.

That’s awesome.

The two engineers who came up with Joulies have been making them by hand, but they want to ramp up production. So head on over to Kickstarter and pledge!

According to Boing Boing, the inventors seem confident that they can deliver a first batch of orders within 12-16 weeks.

This is one of those things that makes me with I had a coffee shop. Would be an easy add-on to sell at the counter.

I have a proposal that you may like. But first, some flattery:

Whether it’s Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, or your newest show, Castle, I find you consistently one of the most magnetic presences on screen. Frankly, it’s gotten to the point that I will watch something specifically and only because you are in it.

Castle is one of the few shows that my girlfriend and I watch on TV, rather than downloading, partly because we can’t wait to watch it, and partly because we know that downloads aren’t counted as viewership.

I get the sense through your characters, your Twitter feed and your Wikipedia page that you’re the type of fellow who appreciates both good deeds and senses of humour. My proposal combines both of these:

Please buy my office a coffee maker.

Yes, I am serious. But that’s only half the proposal. If you buy my office a coffee maker, I will, in turn, help you buy something that you care about. Read on.

I work in the newsroom at the Brandon Sun, which is located in the near-windowless basement of an old farm implement dealership. We’re currently in the process of selling our building to the city, which plans to tear it down. They’re sending people in white spacesuits to conduct environmental assessments because of asbestos fears.

Although I love the job, that’s just depressing.

One of the only things we had to keep us going was coffee. Here is our office coffee maker:

You will note that it looks forlorn. We have it perched on an upturned basket because otherwise the desk is too low. There’s a flyer underneath because we tend to spill. Hey, we’re human.

This picture was taken Tuesday. The clock has a futuristic blue glow, the red light indicates that the coffee maker is “ON” — but it doesn’t actually make coffee.

This is what happened Tuesday afternoon: I filled it up with water, like normal. I filled the basket up with coffee grounds, like normal. I hit the button to start the process, like normal.

Nothing happened. Not normal.

I fiddled with switches, unplugged it and plugged it back in. I recruited a co-worker to give it a womanly touch. Nothing fixed it. All the lights and buttons work — the coffee does not appear.

Immediately, I posted to my Facebook: “HORROR! The office coffee machine is broken!”

It was a terrible blow.

Down the hall in the office lunchroom, there is automated coffee vending machine. It is imposingly formidible, and it has been in the same location, with the same look (and possibly the same prices) since I first worked for this newspaper as a young delivery boy:

It’s just 60 cents for a cup of “individually ground and brewed” coffee. Note how they assiduously avoid the word “fresh” while still implying that.

Also, the machine taunts us by flashing a message that it is “Temporarily out of service.”

Faced with a crisis, my brain sometimes works at Serenity-speed. I shanghaied a workmate’s kettle, boiled some water, and poured it slowly over the grounds in the coffee maker’s basket to create a cloudy brown brew that resembled coffee.

This took about half an hour, did not make me happy, and is not a sustainable long-term solution.

That’s when I thought of you, Mr. Fillion. I remembered what your character Richard Castle did for the hardworking folks of the 12th Precinct when he learned of their coffee troubles — he bought them a brand-new, top-of-the-line espresso maker.

Now, I note that Castle still brings takeout coffee to Beckett (though, one of my quibbles with the show is that the cups often appear to be weightless and empty) and I note that, even with a fancy espresso maker, the detectives and Castle still sometimes pour drip coffee.

That is all we need here, at the Brandon Sun.

Of course, I’m aware that Richard Castle is a fictional character, a ruggedly handsome and famous author who is not to be confused with the ruggedly handsome and famous actor who plays the role.

I’m not looking for a handout. After all, you don’t know me, why would you just give me money?

So let me sweeten the pot. And in true Internet fashion, I’ll try to make it sound like a scam:

Nathan Fillion, if you buy my office a coffee maker, I will send you back double the amount of money you spent.

Initially, I figured that I would double what you spent, and pledge it to helping you buy back the rights to Firefly.

Then I saw that you had tweeted not to send money to that cause. I was briefly perplexed. But then I decided I had an even better idea: I’ll donate the money to your literacy charity, Kids Need To Read.

I don’t just work in the newspaper business (a reading and writing industry), I also helped found a literary festival in my hometown that is dedicated to aiding literacy where we can.

I am serious in this proposal. Buy my office a coffee maker, and I will ensure that double the amount gets donated to your charity.

Of course, if Firefly comes back, too, that’d be pretty swell.

So how about it? Email me at ghamilton@brandonsun.com. Ot tweet me @gramiq.

Yours,

Grant Hamilton

PS. I cross-posted this on my work blog, and I tweeted it out, to help this get traction.

PPS. I said that the weightless coffeecups was one of my quibbles with the show Castle. My other was the conceit, on the last episode, that Castle and Becket could freeze to death in a couple of hours in “one degree below freezing” temperatures. You’re an Edmonton boy, Nathan, you should know better.

Iced coffee, too, is a popular product, so it follows that single-serve pouches of iced coffee powder would be a natural. And they are.

But check this out:

It’s a single-serve pouch … and a straw!

Oh! So! Clever!

You can even see if in action, in a video:

Caution: Not yet a real product, just a very cool idea.

(via Yanko)

Now there’s a blog that gives you pseudo-scientific explanations for everyday experiences in that same, completely wrong, spirit.

Check out Fake Science — and see if you can spot the fake!

I’ve got four more of my favourites, after the jump:

(pic from one digital life, originally a screen grab from the Braun website)

Fear not, though, coffee-and-design-loving people! If life goes as planned, we’ll soon see a revised version of this mod classic.

For Richard Wilson has designed the KF 2010. And she’s a beaut:

Wilson’s a design master’s student at the University of Leeds, so it’s not an official Braun design, but once can hope! Can’t you just imagine that red light going all Knight Rider when the coffee’s brewing?

According to Appliancist, you can email him at Richard.Wilson88@gmail.com. So if you’re reading, Mr. Braun, email him.

(via Gizmodo)

Every morning, if you like, you can imagine me, crouched, staring blank-eyed at the drip-drip-drip of coffee being brewed, just like Amy’s photo, above.

Of course, these days, we have an insulated carafe, so we can bring the coffee upstairs and satisfy our internet and caffeine addictions at the same time. But, for me, part of the coffee experience is the sense of anticipation. Actually, because I have kind of a sensitive mouth, and I don’t use any cream, the coffee is generally too hot when it’s first poured, so I have to sit there, fuzzy-headed, while it steams away some of that heat.

Then I can drink it.

It’s strange to remember that, until relatively recently, I didn’t drink coffee in the mornings. For most of my life, still, I didn’t drink it at all. Then I started going out in the evenings, with friends. We had sort of an artistic salon thing, going on, at a 24-hour restaurant. I preferred soft drinks, but coffee was half the price — and free refills, all night long. I soon switched.

Now, strictly because of Amy, I’m a morning coffee drinker. I used to let the shower wake me up, but my morning routine has changed. Coffee has changed me — in some subtle, some important ways.

But hasn’t it changed all of us?

That’s what a great three-part series (1, 2, 3) on Anthropology in Practice is arguing. Says Boing Boing, summing it up:

In 1991, coffee-drinking seemed to be on its way out in the United States. From a peak consumption of 3.2 cups per day per person on average in 1962, coffee consumption was down to measly 1.75 cups. There were good reasons for this: Nobody liked the cheap, nasty sludge generally available and the entire experience reeked of Grandma.

Enter advertising giant Ogilvy and Mather, working for Maxwell House.

Their suggestion: Segment the product by quality, value and personal image—ideas that all ended up leading to the thriving coffee market of today. Just when we thought we were out, they sucked us back in. (Meanwhile, the parallel rise of coffee and decline of tobacco could be a sociology thesis, in and of itself.)

Part One of the series looks at how coffee stormed back to become one of the world’s most vital drinks.

Part Two, structured like a flashback, I guess, tackles the history of the bean and its trade.

Part Three, which I find most interesting, explores coffee’s role in the rise of our “culture of productivity.”

The cultural aspect really intrigued me, and I could have easily read a post four times as long. Consider this, for example, in which coffee is compared and contrasted to alcohol:

Perhaps we can apply [the] term “ritualized inebriation” to coffee consumption as well. We consume coffee as a means of performing the tasks we need to complete in the setting of the workplace. And if we all do it, then it normalizes the behavior and helps us believe that we are achieving optimal levels of productivity.

Coffee and booze. Two sides of my favourite coin.

This poster would not be remiss on the wall of any coffeeshop.

(From here, via here.)

Now I see in today’s New York Times that life is imitating art: Contractors building the replacement World Trade Centre have welded together nine cargo containers, installed a Subway restaurant, and are hoisting it up the building to provide lunch to the workers.

It cost $3 million, but is expected to more than pay for itself in saved time. The Times reports that half-hour lunch breaks can stretch out past an hour as workers queue up for the elevator and head down to street level and back:

The sandwich shop is one of four movable “pods” on hydraulic legs sitting on either side of two tower cranes; the other pods house offices, a shanty where workers can change clothes, and bathrooms for men and women. The bathrooms alone were considered a breakthrough for workers who previously had used bottles and slop buckets. …

It is no different from any other Subway, with a kitchen, a walk-in freezer, a service counter and refrigerators for drinks. One level down, there is a heated and air-conditioned lounge with tables and chairs. A compost tank and an evaporator in the bottom container take care of all the solid and liquid waste.

What I find interesting is that they scouted for possible restaurants and Subway wasn’t their first choice.

The story says a local deli was the first choice, based on taste alone. After that, they looked at “a Canadian company” says the story. Unfortunately, they don’t mention which one, but I’d like to know, because apparently their “coffee was deemed too weak for New York taste buds.”

Judging by that throwaway line, I would wager it’s Tim Hortons. The ubiquitous Canadian coffeeshop last year launched a huge push into New York — and the Times panned its coffee in a review.

Sometimes, I take my coffee in an insulated, stainless steel travel mug. I also have a combination travel mug and coffee press which I absolutely love and which is, to be honest, pretty sweet.

But sometimes I get a coffee from a coffeeshop. And, inevitably, they serve it to me in a paper cup, with a cardboard sleeve.

Many coffeeshops tout the fact that their cups are made from recycled paper and cardboard. The better coffeeshops even mention the amount of “post-consumer” recycling there is.

Unfortunately, once they’ve been used as a coffee cup, that paper is at the end of its run. There’s no more recycling.

The people at Betacup want to change that. They’re offering $20,000 in prizes to people who can design a better coffee cup. The best idea gets $10,000, and another five will divide an additional $10,000.

Perhaps someone will come up with a paper cup that can actually be recycled. Or, perhaps a reusable coffee cup that people will actually tote with them and use.

Check out the promo video:

Betacup from the betacup on Vimeo.

Then, go to the website and poke around.

I’m not sure that I have an idea just off the top of my head. But I’m sure thinking about it.

Whoever’s behind them is actually a decent drawer. And it is a Canadian Starbucks:

Check out the entire list at Geekologie. I particularly like the one where the barista is the Borg.

(via Ryan’s facebook!)

The universe tempts me.

But oh, what nice coffee mugs! They’re clean, classic-looking mugs, but the handles add a touch of personalization. Amy will be the first to jump in and say that we already own too many coffee mugs, but if I saw these in a store, I can’t promise that I wouldn’t buy them.

(via Beautiful Life)

I always got the sense that Dave Grohl was manic. Now I know why.

“Fresh pots!” is going to be my new cry to Grant when I want coffee.

(via)

This is the perfect gift for your photographer friend who also likes coffee — so long as that friend isn’t a Nikonista, I suppose.

I read somewhere that these coffee travel mugs — shaped like Canon telephoto lenses — were handed out as swag to official photogs at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. But they proved so popular (and went viral) that they’re being released to order for the general public. I want.

You can pre-order one from Vistek.ca for $30 Canadian. (I’ve ordered from Vistek before, btw, with no issues.) Their estimated released date is the middle of April.

Or, if you want one faster and free-er (but also more expensive) you can order $200 of stuff at the Canon Canada e-store, and they’ll throw one in for free. But hurry — that offer ends March 23.

Hopefully they are electronically stabilized to prevent motion blur and spills.

I like my coffee black black black black black. I don’t let sugar or artificial sweeteners touch any mug I might someday use. And when well-meaning baristas ask me if I “want room for cream?” I snarl at them, “Cream is the devil.”

They recoil — horrified, yet impressed despite their horror — and bring me my coffee, which is black black black black black.

And yet, I can appreciate the art of a good experiment. Once, as a child, I figured that since I like both sandwiches and stirfries, perhaps lunch that day would be a sopping soy sauce sandwich.

It worked out better when I attempted to combine my love of sandwiches with my love of refined white sugar.

So, knowing that you win some, you lose some, in the game of culinary invention, I was intrigued to read of the exploits of one brave soul — a man who goes by the alias Phronk — putting weird stuff in his coffee.

He’s got a whole blog devoted to it here. He’s tried cake, banana, peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly, smoked salmon cream cheese, and even bacon, as above. His rule? “The things I put in coffee must be things that I would tolerate eating on their own. So no, I will not put dog poop in coffee, but you’re right that it would be very weird.” A fair rule.

So, how did bacon coffee taste?

This project was a little daunting at first. The world of meat-based coffee additives is, as far as we could tell, completely unexplored. It could have turned out disgusting. But to be honest, it wasn’t. The bacon added a subtle smokey flavour that did not clash at all with the dark roasted coffee. The bacon grease left a beautiful sparkly film on top and gave the coffee a creamier texture than usual.

At the bottom of the mug is a beautiful puddle of bacon-wrapped coffee.

The only problem is that you’re left with a large chunk of bacon sitting there, which makes it hard to drink the last bit. And what do you do with the bacon? While bacon flavoured coffee is quite delicious, coffee flavoured bacon is bland at best.

If you’re into watching someone else drink weird things, then Putting Weird Things In Coffee is a blog you should follow. Hey Phronk — if you’re reading this — videos!

How to Brew a Good Cup of Coffee from Ben Helfen on Vimeo.

(via BB)