Our friends and partners at KeepCup have a new product coming to market next year, and you saw it here first: meet the brand new KeepCup Glass, designed with what the brand calls “barista standard” functionality, and featuring customization options similar to their original product. Call it KeepCup 2.0 if you want (they’re calling it KeepCup Brew), and consider it a major volley in the Melbourne-based brand’s ongoing war against disposable cup convenience culture.
The KeepCup Glass is still very much in prototype testing phase, which is what we observed at their Collingwood neighborhood HQ in Melbourne. KeepCup estimates these new cups will be available in spring 2014, but first there’s significantly more bench testing to be done. Working with glass is completely different from working with plastic – every KeepCup, like every Chemex or any other glass product, will be just slightly different from the last one.
Here we see some of the new cups being tested for lid tightness:
These all-glass KeepCups come with a redesigned lid – it’s similar aesthetically to the KeepCup Original lid, but has some major changes under the hood. These 2.0 lids come with redesigned usability on the flip side, allowing for easier sipping, storing, and removal for cleaning.
Speaking candidly on the development of their new product, staff at KeepCup told Sprudge that while the brand’s original product was successful worldwide, some potential users expressed concern to KeepCup over putting hot beverages into plastic containers. This new glass KeepCup effectively addresses these concerns, while keeping the brand’s mission statement intact: reusability as a means of reducing cafe waste. One is meant to use this cup instead of the countless take-away disposable cups that populate even the finest specialty coffee bars.
The plastic bands are identical to the ones on KeepCup’s original line of cups. There’s some sweet customization coming for the new ones, including cork sleeves, etched glass, and a literally endless line of possibilities for brand collaborations with folks around the world. How about a classic leather tassel by Oregon’s Will Leather Goods? Or maybe a bodacious Northern California wet suit surf sleeve by O’Neill?
There’s also been some thought given to double-walling the glass KeepCup in a protective plastic, for heat insulation and for aesthetic unity between the original and glass models. The brand has spent months designing and redesigning how to make this work – matching uniform plastic to subtly changing glass is a challenge – before finally settling on a kind of “boot”, which you can see below.
When the boot is combined with the lid you wind up with a cup that looks strikingly similar to the original KeepCup product.
The glass KeepCup is expected to be released in the first half of 2014. Follow @KeepCup for updates.
