Sip Smarter with the Viora Coffee Lid
After nearly 30 years, the to-go cup cover gets a redesign with craft brew consumers in mind
With a conventional coffee cup lid, even the slightest jolt can send scalding liquid out of the porthole, only to be caught by the dish-like design, awaiting a second opportunity to splash onto you. Further, the lid traps all aromas inside, rendering your $4 pour-over barely more flavorful than a mediocre, sub-dollar cup. To address all this, Seattle-based Vaporpath recently launched the Viora Lid, the first well-considered design innovation in the field in decades—aside from Smart Lid‘s heat-sensitive option of course.
“Because there hasn’t been any choice, people don’t think about what matters,” explains Barry Goffe, president of Vaporpath. With Viora Lid, the company aims to offer an alternative to the conventional design that’s survived in one form or another for nearly 30 years now.
Shaped like a baseball stadium—with the drink opening where home base would be—the lid is designed to funnel all spills back into the cup, while also simulating the experience of drinking out of a ceramic mug. The vertical drink opening allows liquid to pool when the cup is tipped, delivering a more natural drinking action. Additionally, the thrice-bigger opening, combined with an exaggerated ventilation hole, increases aroma detection by the nose to boost flavor—after all, up to 75% of what we taste comes from our sense of smell.
Aimed at craft coffee enthusiasts, the odor-free, recyclable Viora Lid is made just outside of Philadelphia, and officially launched earlier this month at the Specialty Coffee Association of America trade show in Seattle, alongside the Ninety Plus custom Slayer espresso machine. And of course, the Viora Lid works to improve tea flavor and consumption as well. Visit Viora Lid online for ordering directions.
Images by Graham Hiemstra
