Coffee drinkers love their morning coffee so much that it’s basically a long-term committed relationship. Korean designer Jang WooSeok compares a sip of coffee to a warm, comforting kiss. And he points out that while coffee is always available, a kiss with a loved one isn’t always possible.

He took the idea of a coffee kiss and began sketching a face-like lid for a coffee tumbler. When you put your lips to the lips on the lid, it’s a bit like kissing a warm mouth. A hole in the bottom lip dispenses sips of your favorite warm beverage, bringing you two types of comfortable happiness at once.

When Jang began work on his idea, he outfitted it only with lips, but something felt off. He added a nose and facial muscle contours to make it more lifelike and kissable. The result is a shape that is definitely human-like, but still just so very weird.

The designer sees it as a fun product that will be great marketing for businesses that use it, and we have to agree there. Everyone will want to know where you got the creepy coffee lid with a face on it. The lids are already in production and are being sold in Korea in quantities of 100 or 1000.

The post Love Coffee? Give This Face-Shaped Lid a Big, Warm Kiss first appeared on Gajitz.

Free of glues, screws and other complexity, this snap-on simple coffee cup holder is the perfect way to set down your favorite caffeinated beverage safely while biking to work through the city each morning.

The Bookman cup holder is made of plastic and steel, easy to attach then remove and take with you if you are worried about damage or theft during the day.

Pressing the rings together opens the clamp portion and allows you to slide it onto your handlebars.

The rings are designed for differently-sized drinks and come in various colors as well including red, green, black and white.

The company also makes bike stickers, reflectors, whistles and lights for bikers as well, all likewise designed to be fashionable and functional alike.

More about Bookman: “Three years ago a group of 5 friends all with different skill sets, came together over a mutual passion for cycling. Living in Stockholm, a very bicycle-orientated city, cycling is our main form of transport and we believe it is absolutely the best way to get around the city (and beat traffic). In amongst our comings and goings we saw a need for urban bike accessories with a twist so we decided to combine function with style and design and create Bookman. Our inspiration comes from the humming bike life we see in urban Europe where it is evident that getting on a bike is not reason enough to disregard dressing well. Our goal is to inspire more of you style-conscious people to see that traveling in the saddle can be a way of life that combines style, convenience, design and fun.”

The post Snap-On Cup Holder for Bikes Clamps Onto Any Handlebars first appeared on Gajitz.

Keurig and its equivalents are so convenient it is hard to conceive of going back to something less handy, but important to find something that produces less waste, hence this minimalist solution using sugar-based containers that dissolve when used.

The Droops Coffee Maker system is centered around pods that melt away when exposed to hot water, visually inspired by variously-shaped colorful candies from their creator’s childhood.

The device itself is a modular stackable system involving a heating unit and water container which, when joined, form a circuit and allow you to brew your coffee.

“Droops coffee maker identifies the issue of unnecessary packaging waste cause by the massive consumption of coffee. Therefore, by reinventing the packaging as the content of the coffee, the packaging will be part of the coffee upon consumption.”

The post Dissolving Pods: Design Solves Disposable Plastic Problem first appeared on Gajitz.

With the potential to convert nearly 150 billion trashed coffee cups per year (in the US alone) into regional seed bombs, this product aims to go beyond simple recyclability to help replenish native wildflower populations in regions around the country (or eventually: the world).

The creators of Plant Trash boast compost-certified cups that created with post-consumer paper contain organic seeds of indigenous species, starting with various parts of California – they are also testing to make sure the seeds will be able to survive the heat of being adjacent to a hot beverage.

“We have taken those fibers from local recycling centers, which would usually be too rough to implement back into a packaging product, and created a cup that we are happy to truly name the most eco friendly disposable coffee cup.”

The paper cups themselves will biodegrade naturally in about half a year and help the surrounding soil grow the seeds contained within them. The seed mixes all include a tree seed as well as various region-appropriate plant seeds.

“The consumer drinks their coffee from the coffee shop.  If they choose to take the cup with them, they can plant it in several scenarios based off of the seed variety embedded within the cup. They can see the seed variety displayed on the front of their cup as well as planting instructions on the bottom of the cup.  ”

“Where does our trash actually go?  With our current waste stream, as consumers none of us really know.  In America we discard over 146 billion cups from coffee consumption annually.  Even when we think we are recycling and doing a good deed, the paper itself within these products can only be reused 2-3x before the fibers are unusable and discarded into local landfills without consumer’s knowing.”

“Currently, we are testing the Coffee Cup CA Blend prototypes in a variety of soil types to pin point our germination periods as well as time range of decomposition for our bio based papers and liners. We are testing seeds types to find their temperature variability when exposed to high heats within the paper press processes as well as when they are exposed to the heat of hot beverages. We have a partnering company in which we are working with to further develop commercial grade prototypes for large scale production.”

The post World’s First Plantable Coffee Cup Contains Local Seeds first appeared on Gajitz.

When you feel that morning brain-lag coming on and you need caffeine, you need it right now – not when the barista finishes texting, not when Greg from accounting brews a new pot of the office swill. The Minipresso from Wacaco is a hand-powered espresso machine you can use right at your desk for fresh, hot coffee goodness. Unlike other desktop coffee makers, this one actually produces high-quality espresso in small quantities.

The process of making an espresso looks a bit fussy in the video, particularly the parts when you have to tamp the grounds and then pump the button a hundred times. But compared to buying, cleaning and maintaining a full-size traditional espresso machine, this is a breeze to handle. If you don’t like the idea of messing with the grounds, the Minipresso can also be fitted with an adapter to accept Caffitaly pods.

The Minipresso even includes its own cup, so other than the grounds and hot water you have to provide, it’s a self-contained espresso maker. Cleanup couldn’t be easier: rinsing the parts in water and drying out the water chamber are the extent of the cleaning process. It’s not just for office slaves, either. The Minipresso can accompany you hiking, camping, or on road trips – provided you always have a supply of espresso grounds and hot water available.

The post Hand-Powered Espresso Maker for a Portable Jolt of Java first appeared on Gajitz.