I enjoyed a bit of fresh air this weekend by going for a brisk hike with a friend.  Afterwards, we decided to treat ourselves to a hot beverage at Pete’s.  I opted for a hot chocolate, and we settled down to sip and chat. 

I must have been feeling all worked out by my hike, because I neglected my usual vigilance in stirring the hot chocolate throughout its lifespan.  I know this because when I drained the last of the drink, I sucked up a rude jolt of intense chocolate syrup that had settled at the bottom. 

This of course prompted a conversation about a new mug design.  It would be great if you could add a small paddle to the bottom of a mug that would slowly stir the contents of your drink.  Naturally you’d have to be able to remove the bottom somehow for easy cleanup.   I also noted that I would sell my mug through the Sur La Table catalog because these days it seems like that catalog is just full of single-purpose kitchen gadgets now.  We discussed our product specs in great detail and I returned home with yet another brilliant idea never to see the light of day. 

But then I thought, “SURELY someone else has thought of this.”  So I did a quick Yahoo search for “self-stirring mug” and got back a quarter-million results.  Oh.  Someone HAS thought of it.

When I checked out some of these products, I saw that most, if not all of the results, activate the stirring only when you press a button on the handle.  That probably works better- particularly if you don’t want lingering drops to be spun about when you get to the bottom of the mug.  Depending on the speed, you’d probably also just develop a vortex of doom with the continuous stirrer.  Unless of course you enabled dual-direction spinning. 

Well, I can sleep at night now knowing that some people are out there developing zany product ideas.  So when will I see it in Sur La Table?