Air Shielded Coffee Cup Sleeve | Beating Starbucks

It’s one of the most wanted drinks in the morning, at lunch, and after dinner in pretty much the whole world. Yup, I am talking about coffee. When hearing the word coffee a lot of people think about Starbucks and all of those other multinational companies serving you the hot beverages. They come in all flavors and there’s never a bad time for a cup of freshly brewed coffee. But, there is always that little edge to it. That one factor that makes it a little bit tricky when you’re having coffee at any other place than at your office or at home. It’s that it is hot.

Starbucks started the trend of using coffee cup sleeves which prevented the drinker from burning their hands off while taking their coffee away from the store. If the idea came from a lawsuit I am not sure, but the idea was a good one. I think we all can agree on that one.

So, what’s next then? Well, as we live in a world of constant change it was only time before someone came up with that really simple idea to take the coffee cup sleeve to another level. And in this particular situation it was designer Frank Xing. The idea is super simple but ultimately genius. Using the laws of physics he managed to create a sleeve which can be riddled with patterns that will get inflated as soon as the sleeve is put on a coffee cup containing 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) hot coffee. The pattern will become visible and the puffed up pattern works as a barrier towards the hot coffee thus not burning the drinkers hand at all.

Once the coffee gets colder the pattern will deflate more and more and the sleeve will return back to normal again. This type of design can be used over and over again which will save valuable CO2 emissions to be poured out into the world. The next step I guess would be custom made sleeves where the coffee fanatic will be able to have their own pattern on the sleeve making it more personalized and cool. I am definitely getting one once they are realized and put on the market.