The Sorapot is a teapot designed by Joey Roth to be for white and green teas, which are very heat sensitive.
The stainless steel arch acts as a large heatsink that quickly dissipates the water’s heat as the tea steeps, preventing the bitterness that comes from oversteeping in too-hot water. The tea is poured at a comfortably warm drinking temperature after a few minutes of steeping.
The arch’s natural flexibility allows it to act as a clamp that creates a watertight seal at either end of the central glass tube. This clamping action is controlled by the ball strung on the wire that runs under the tube. When the ball is in the upper position it sits in a circular cut in the arch and holds the wire tight, clamping the arch around the tube. When the ball moves down its distance to the front of the arch is decreased just enough to release the tension on the wire, allowing the tube to be removed for cleaning.
Although this is a concept design piece, I hope it gets picked up as a product by a company such as Alessi that appreciates modern design.
I haven’t experimented much with brushes in Photoshop. Most of my work is image editing, not much in terms of design. But I caught this post by Darren Barefoot on the Coffee Stain brush designed by Jelena Jovović and I just had to try it.
We spent the weekend in Bellevue for a wedding. Scott Beale was there and on his way back home he made an amusing observation about coffee in the Seattle-Tacoma Airport:
You know you’re in Seattle, when in addition to signs for restrooms, food and cocktails, they also include one for espresso.
You know coffee is ingrained into our culture when Baristas appear as toys:
This BARISTA figure is named Nico. "She’s the barista who pours your morning espresso. No other barista in town makes a latte like Nico. Her beans are always freshly ground, she never tamps the filter basket too tight and her foam is perfect: thick and decadent, like a pillow of edible clouds. Each 5 inch tall hard plastic Barista Action Figure has moveable arms and legs and comes with two interchangeable heads and two different sized cups (tall and grande) that she can hold in her hand. Comes on an illustrated blister card with Nico’s history and other valuable information on the back."
I think I’ve seen it all now. And love the tattoo.
A coffee advertisement by Lavazza has been deemed as too risque by Swedish authorities. The ad was criticized as using a sexualized photo of a woman to sell a product completely disassociated from the image.
"Coffee brand Lavazza has received a rap on the knuckles for its Swedish ad campaign after the Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) judged it to be discriminatory.
“Intercoffe marketed Lavazza coffee. The pictures showed a woman lying on a bed drinking coffee, wearing a flight captain’s cap and a uniform shirt. The shirt is unbuttoned and the woman’s bra is visible,†according to ERK’s description of the offending campaign…
Sweden’s Ethical Council has a lower tolerance for the use of scantily clad women to advertise products than comparable regulatory bodies in other countries.
“Throughout Europe there is a big difference. If you just go over the bridge to Denmark you see that they accept a lot more,†ERK Secretary Jan Fager…
And regarding the Lavazza campaign ERK considers “that the woman is used as an eye catcher without any connection to the advertised products, and that it is insulting towards women.â€
In its defence Lavazza wrote that the 2006 calendar from which the images were taken used humour and irony to recreate a 1950s feel. The company claimed that the images depicted glamour, style and a lust for life and were in no way discriminatory…"
