Since it’s a fictitious creation, nobody really knows what a Kraken looks like. But the one thing we can all agree on is that the thing is a gigantic sea monster, and almost certainly has tentacles that it uses to snatch ships and drag them to the bottom of the ocean.
I think this Kraken tentacle mug does a great job capturing the spirit of this legendary sea beast, and has no need to show its body to get its point across.
The Kraken mug has a food-grade stainless steel cup insert, wrapped in a hand-sculpted food-grade resin. I love all of the details like the ship’s rivets, along with all of the suckers on the Kraken’s tentacles. Best of all, one of the tentacles serves as the mug’s handle. This mug is just one of the many creepy, morbid, and downright odd items featured in artist Michael Locascio’s Dellamorte & Co. Etsy shop.
It measures about 5.5″ tall, and holds 16 oz of your favorite beverage. I like the idea of some kind of rum since that’s all that pirates drink at sea, right? Yarrrrr! So if you want to be able to say “my mug has a Kraken it!” you can grab one of these cool drinking vessels over on Etsy for $45.
We invented the tea bag in 1904. It took us over a century to invent a place to keep it. Meet the Cupio, a teacup for tea-lovers. Its unique design lets you brew tea right in the cup, and then pull the teabag into its special enclosure, squeezing every ounce of that golden goodness out.
The Cupio as an idea isn’t brand new… but it’s the first to be publicly available. It comes with a two-part design featuring a heat-insulated du-ceramic mug and a bamboo-wood handle that’s great to hold and resists any heat. Between the cup and the handle lies the Cupio’s most defining feature… a special design detail that allows you to pull a tea bag into it, effectively squeezing the tea out, while also giving you a place to store the bag as you sip your tea. Given that teabags are often chosen as the more convenient solution, it seems counter-productive that once you’re done with the teabag, finding a place to immediately dispose of it can often be a challenge. Designer Zeynel Abidin Savrun faced the same problem in 2017 and ended up having the teabag drip all over his college-work as he fished the bag out and rapidly tried to get it to the waste-bin. Cupio just conveniently handles that mess for you by not only squeezing your teabag (so it doesn’t drip willy nilly), but also by conveniently holding onto the bag so you can dispose of it once you’ve finished that great cup of tea. Oh, and it works with all sorts of tea bags (and coffee-bags) too!
The CUPIO features a heat-insulated du-ceramic mug, a bamboo-wood handle and a patented design detail that allows you to pull a tea bag into it, effectively squeezing the tea out, while also giving you a place to store the bag as you sip your tea.
Pull & Drink
Designed for comfort and convenience. First, immerse the teabag and allow it to soak. After brewing, pull the string of the teabag through the opening of the V-Section handle and filter the teabag. You can easily drink from the mug without removing the teabag.
Compatible with all tea bags. Standard tea bags, pyramid tea bags and next-generation coffee bags.
If you ever played any of the Crash Bandicoot games, you’re familiar with the masks that float around the game. The one that offers you help and makes that great “rutabaga” sound effect is called “Aku Aku,” while the bad guy boss is called “Uka Uka.”
If you dig the look of these tribal masks, and you like to sip coffee at your desk, then you should grab this official Crash Bandicoot Uka Uka mug.
The colorful, sculpted ceramic mug features the ugly mug of that evil and grumpy human spirit who came back as an evil mask, and will look great keeping your coffee or tea warm. He’s got quite the scowl on his face – probably because you just poured searing hot beverage into his head. You can grab one over at Firebox for $16.99.
Pac-Man was the first video game I ever played in the arcade back in the day. I remember not making it very long because I was always trying to gobble up the power pellets and didn’t do a good job evading the ghosts. Fans of Pac-Man who prefer to get their power up via caffeine instead of gobbling up dots might want this mug.
The 3D sculpted mug has a large curved yellow handle and Pac-Man’s smiling face. His eyes look a lot like the Pac-Man in the old games. The mug is made of ceramic, which means one drop and no more wakka wakka wakka. It’s not microwave safe, and you also have to hand wash it, just like an actual Pac-Man.
It will hold 20 ounces of whatever you want, and Amazon (affiliate link) will sell you one for $14.99.
You’ve seen the trailer for the latest Terminator movie, now check out these Terminator T-800 hand tankards and split head bookends from Merchoid. The Terminator is back, and this time he’s coming after your wallet.
Both are cast in resin and are hand painted to look like metal. The tankard even has a washable stainless steel insert for easy cleaning. They also both include the Cyberdyne Systems logo. That tankard looks pretty hefty and those bookends are going to look amazing on your shelf. It’s like owning some genuine Terminator parts.
I bet this is just another Skynet scheme to get into your home and take over, then end the world as we know it. Maybe that hand is going to come to life and start crawling around your house while the skull bookends vocally help it navigate. That hand is gonna make a mess of your house.
But here’s the thing. All of these mugs and bookends will all activate at once. Here’s the other thing. There are more parts out there and they are all gonna come together like a bunch of Voltrons and kill us all.
Check out this jumbo-sized 64 oz. TARDIS Mug. It’s round rather than square which is much better for coffee sipping. Looks odd at first, but the more I see it, the more I like it. Does it hold more coffee inside than it appears? I have no idea, but I’m going to have fun finding out.
Yes, there are many Doctor Who TARDIS Mugs out there and you probably have several of them in your collection, so why not add this one too? Besides, it’s cool because it’s round and huge. This piece of officially-licensed Doctor Who merchandise will take your morning coffee to the next relative dimension in space. There’s no better way to wake up. Hey, the show is now “woke” and so are you.
It’s my opinion that the TARDIS should only ever have one companion and that’s coffee. Best companion you can have. It doesn’t talk, it wakes you up and it is actually helpful during an adventure. Yep, just give me a sonic screwdriver and a cup of Joe, and I’ll save the universe every time.
Sadly this mug can’t materialize itself from the table to the sink, or from the cabinet to your hand, but it’s still pretty awesome. You can grab one today from ThinkGeek for $24.99.
You know what I love? Cool coffee mugs. You know what I hate? Cool coffee mugs that are ruined only by a square-shaped lip or other weird shape so that your drink all lands on your chest instead of in your mouth. That’s what we have here it seems.
On one hand, this officially-licensed Fender coffee mug from Paladone was designed to look like a classic Fender Twin Reverb guitar amp. That’s pretty damn cool. That weirdly shaped lip, not so much, thanks to the flat face of the mug. They call it “oversized”, but it doesn’t look that huge. I just can’t drink out of these weirdly shaped mugs, so this one will be for guests, so I can watch them wet themselves with their drinks.
But it does look awesome. We need to up the technology in our mugs. This one would be even better if it played some music when it got hot. I’d like to be able to adjust the volume too. Is that too much to ask? Meanwhile, scientists are building killer robots that do backflips and stuff. You guys have your priorities all wrong. Do robots later, and get to work on mugs that can play music.
I have a love-hate relationship with Super Mario Bros. I really like the game, and played it a lot back in the day on my NES. I also died a lot and remain utterly convinced to this day that the game cheated. If you’re a Mario fan, and need a way to get caffeine into your body at warp speed, this is the coffee mug for you.
This Super Mario Bros. pipe mug looks like the green plumbing you would jump into when playing the game to find those secret levels with lots of bonus coins.
I guess if you want to replicate the game experience as much as possible, you could put coins in the bottom of the mug to find after you drink all your coffee, but then again you might choke on those, or poison yourself from the metals. The mug is ceramic and hand wash only, and will set you back $14.99 at ThinkGeek.
The PortaVia Universal To-Go Lid does something quite marvelous. It retrofits onto the top of any drinking vessel (mugs, cups, glasses, usually have roughly the same diameter at the lip) and instantly turns it into a travel cup that you can carry around with you without splashing your drink. It covers the mouth of the drinking vessel almost entirely, not only creating a nice seal that prevents spills, but it also helps in retaining your drink’s overall temperature, keeping your beverage hot and piping for longer, and if any of this wasn’t good enough, the PortaVia lid even comes with an integrated sipper that lets you use the cup and lid together like a travel mug with a sipper lid.
The PortaVia Universal To-Go Lid is made from food-grade BPA-free silicone. It can withstand hot temperatures, it’s dishwasher-safe, and most importantly, it grips particularly well, creating a robust seal around the edge of your mug. Designed for most mugs between the 12-20 fluid ounces, the PortaVia sits snugly on top, almost like a Tupperware lid, turning a regular cup into a cup you can walk (or even run) around with, without worrying about your drink going cold, or worse, spilling. It also makes sipping your drink on the go easier, and is a much better alternative to disposable plastic lids. Plus, the fact that the PortaVia sits so wonderfully on ceramic and glass mugs also helps reduce your dependency on plastic or paper cups. The PortaVia, with its silicone construction, can be used and reused multiple times across almost all cups, mugs, and tumblers. It’s dishwasher-safe, food-grade, stain and odor-free, and also a boon for the planet!
Named as Pantone color of the year for 2019, Living Coral is an animating and life-affirming coral hue that signifies light-heartedness and positivity. The color is the kind that instantly makes one happy, with its touch of vibrance and warmth, and the minute you add it to a product, it stands out. Companies have, for long, used the coral color to make products look and feel youthful, and to make them add a splash of color to a space. Living Coral’s beauty especially lies in the fact that it goes well in any domain, fashion, interiors, consumer electronics, or even appliances. Heck, I’d wager that a Ferrari with a Living Coral paint job would look absolutely dope too. Almost a month into 2019, we’re here to take a look at ten of our favorite products that have wholeheartedly embraced Coral as a hue, using it wholly, or in part, to create a product that stands out, and looks great while doing so! __
01. Apple Watch Series 4 Nectarine Sports Loop The Nectarine Sports Loop (along with the Watch Series 4) came just weeks before Pantone debuted their color of the year, and it’s almost as if Apple either knew, or they had some spectacular CMF Designers who just happened to feel that the color absolutely did justice to the Watch. There’s a silicone version of the Nectarine band too, but we prefer this woven nylon loop that’s breathable yet sweat-resistant. And it’s compatible with all versions of the Apple Watch!
02. Google Home & Home Mini (Living Coral Edition) The coral version of Google’s smart speakers were released shortly after Pantone announced the color of 2019. While the Mini comes completely coated in the Living Coral hue (with a rather remarkable contrast between the woven texture on top and the hard plastic at the bottom), the Google Home does a dual-tone, with white on top, and the addition of a detachable coral fabric grille at the bottom. Don’t make me pick favorites. I like them both.
03. Urbanears Plattan Coral On Ear Headphones The tragedy of these headphones is that Urbanears only produced the Coral edition as a limited run. I still maintain that the Plattan headphones look absolutely heavenly in their coral color, treading a fine line between sporty and fashionable with a color that isn’t as red as the Beats headphones, but is the perfect hue to look absolutely dapper. Yes, dapper’s the word.
04. Retroduck Q Wireless Charging Dock Unlike its previous, wired version, the Retroduck Q comes with two changes. Firstly, the dock works wirelessly, charging your phones simply by placing them on the retro TV-esque stand… and secondly, the Retroduck Q ditches its ancestor’s more orange-heavy color for a delightful coral version, or as they call it, Carmine Red. The Retroduck Q just finished its round of crowdfunding and is still under development at the time of writing this article. We’ll be sure to drop a link when they’re ready to buy online!
05. Kvell Pop Clock Rather strangely titled Pop, the Kvell clock actually comes in a single color, making it quite the opposite of pop… but it makes up for that with the use of such an incredibly rich hue that I’m sure it’ll pop off any wall you mount it on. I’d recommend a white or light teal colored backdrop for this beauty. Even a light blue would work, given that corals are originally found against a backdrop of oceanic blue.
06. Dot&Bo Coral Pantone Clock While most products embrace a hue, Dot&Bo’s Coral Pantone Clock embraces the entire shade card! With multiple hues arranged around the face of the clock, Dot&Bo’s timepiece is much more subtle than Kvell’s Pop Clock. After all, in-your-face vibrant decor isn’t for all homes.
07. Vespa Coral Visor 2.0 Helmet Vespa, the brand, stands on two pillars. Retro-Italian design, and an absolutely delicious color palette. The Visor 2.0 helmet has its share of both. Designed to pair perfectly with the adorable Italian legend-of-a-scooter, the Visor 2.0 Coral helmet will protect your brain and will blow the brains of pedestrians as they catch a glimpse of the Coral-colored helmet blurring past. Pairs well with a coral colored Vespa and the Italian countryside. Both sold separately.
08. Hip Bottle by Karim Rashid Rashid was using vibrant hues like Coral long before Pantone named it the color of the year. A major part of Karim Rashid’s design legacy is his use of CMF as an absolute weapon. Take the Hip Bottle for instance. Add any other pastel color to the Hip Bottle and chances are it probably won’t stand out. Its form is simple, and the bottle isn’t as edgy as most sports bottles out there… but carefully drop the Coral hue on it and the Hip looks stunning. Also available in 5 other colors that don’t match up to the sheer beauty of the Coral variant.
09. Bird of Paradise (2018) by KitchenAid I could totally imagine myself walking into a kitchen with a tropical teal wallpaper with pineapple graphics on it, and surrounded by KitchenAid’s coral-colored appliances. Kitchenaid, in fact, began its own Color of the Year series last year, and believe it or not, Coral was their color of the year for 2018. Titled the Bird of Paradise, the entire collection of kitchen appliances sports the beautiful coral hue, right from the range of blenders to the stand mixer that I personally love most, probably because of its distinctive design, and my obsession for meringues (what, I’m human).
10. Pantone Color of the Year Mug (2019) I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a product from Pantone’s own catalog. Every year, along with their announcement of the COTY (Color of the Year), Pantone also releases their own merchandise, from notebooks to thumb drives to mugs, that feature the Color of the Year in its Pantone-branded color accuracy. The mugs, however, are a standout because notebooks are too basic and thumb drives are practically obsolete. Besides, look at that mug and tell me it isn’t simply the most eye-catching mug ever.
