Mugs are great. They hold coffee and make it easy for the coffee to make it to my face. But if Iโve said it once, Iโve said it a thousand times: why canโt coffee mugs be overly complicated? A new mug called the Ember looks to solve the over-underly-complicated nature of cups and the problem of cold coffee at the same timeโฆ with the addition of a heating system.
According to Popular Science, the Ember is a ceramic mug with a stainless steel core and a โmicroprocessor-controlled heating system [that] gathers information from four separate temperature sensors.โ When the liquid in the cup goes below the desired temperatureโset using a smartphone app that connects to the mug, because everything connects to a smartphone nowโthe Ember โactivates its adaptive dual heating mechanismโ to keep and hold the liquid at that temp.
It also has an LED light to tell you when your coffee is at the ideal drinking temperature and also when your coffee cup is running out of batteries, something I never thought Iโd say. The Ember is also able to detect when there is no liquid in the cup and will put itself to sleep (to save the one hour battery life) and even has โa three-axis accelerometer to recognize movement and wake the mug back up.โ
Call me old fashioned, but I actually enjoy the way a cup of coffee changes as it cools. Part of the dynamism of great coffee is how the flavors evolve as the temperature shifts. And sure, maybe people donโt like drinking cold coffee, but if you canโt get through 10 ouncesโthe size of the Emberโbefore your beverage is room temperature, then you most likely forgot about your cup and letโs face it, that one hour battery life isnโt probably going to be long enough to save your forgotten friend.
But what do I know? Time gave it a Best Inventions of 2017 award. And I used to think cell phones were stupid, โbecause why would I want people to get of a hold of me no matter where I was?โ Now I canโt live without it. Maybe I just donโt understand how much I need the Ember because I donโt have one yet.
The Ember retails for $80, and if you buy me one for Christmas Iโll use it. Iโm willing to be wrong. But for now, Iโm going to keep my coffee warm in my Zojirushi thermos; those things are actually magic.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.
*top image via Popular Science
