A couple of engineer/designers named Dave have a Kickstarter project to fund production of "Coffee Joulies," a little gizmo that brings your coffee down to the optimal temperature and keeps it there.
One of my big beefs with many of the Kickstarter projects I see is that their originators don't give any indication of their ability to see a project (any project!) through to completion. I want to know that my money goes to people who have at least some track-record of finishing what they start. So I wrote to the Daves for more background on their own work and project history and they obligingly sent along a link with some background that makes it clear that while this might be more ambitious than anything they've done to date, they certainly have made stuff happen in the past (Dave P adds, "We have firm quotes from
a manufacturer (the one that usually makes Oneida flatware) and a
pretty firm development timeline of 12-16 weeks before we can fulfill
our orders from Kickstarter."
Coffee Joulies work with your coffee to achieve two goals. First, they absorb extra thermal energy in your coffee when it's served too hot, cooling it down to a drinkable temperature three times faster than normal. Next, they release that stored energy back into your coffee keeping it in the right temperature range twice as long.
This amazing feat of thermodynamics happens thanks to a special non-toxic material sealed within the polished stainless steel shell. This material is designed to melt at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and absorbs a lot of energy as it melts. This is how Joulies cool your coffee down three times faster than normal. Once it reaches this temperature, the special material begins to solidify again, releasing the energy it stored when it melted. This is how Joulies keep your coffee warm twice as long.
Coffee Joulies – your coffee, just right
(via Red Ferret)
