Coffee Joulies

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Coffee Joulies are small, stainless-steel capsules containing a phase-change material; the capsules were designed to be placed in a cup of coffee in order to cool coffee that is too hot then slowly release the heat to keep the coffee warm. The company was founded by Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson, mechanical engineers from Pennington, New Jersey. [1] [2]

They made prototypes in their basement, then in 2011 started refining and producing them in rented space at Sherrill Manufacturing in Sherrill, New York, a former Oneida silverware factory that had changed its business model to hosting startups and small companies in 2010, after Oneida had moved most of its manufacturing overseas in 2004 but had left a small amount of business with the factory under contract. [1] [3] [4] The company received help on manufacturing costs from Sherrill and raised money on Kickstarter in 2011. [1] [5] The team decided to continue with production in the United States, rather than moving to Mexico, as was their initial plan. [6]

A similar concept using phase change materials, but integrated into the walls and bottom of a cup, had been invented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in 2009. [5] [7]

Some reviews show Joulies work [8] while others have expressed doubts over the product's effectiveness. After doing some tests, they reported that the product does not work very well if at all. [9] [10] [11] [12] Specifically it is stated that the promised effect, while existing, is "barely noticeable", especially when compared to adding other objects of similar heat capacity, thus being far from the creators' claims that the drink “will be ready to drink three times sooner and will remain hot twice as long.” [10]

In 2013 the founders were contestants on Shark Tank and raised $150,000. [13]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Wortham, Jenna (21 April 2011). "Online Help for Those Who Want to Make Tangible Stuff". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
  2. ↑ Buchanan, Matt (30 March 2011). "Cream, Sugar and Some Endo-Exothermic Phase Change Material for Your Hot Coffee?". Gizmodo . Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  3. ↑ Baber, Cassaundra (30 May 2011). "Coffee Joulies' young inventors bring new life to Sherrill plant". Utica Observer Dispatch. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  4. ↑ Campbell, Ned (November 11, 2013). "Sherrill Manufacturing adapts to survive". Utica Obersever Dispatch.
  5. 1 2 Adams, Paul (March 31, 2011). "Coming Soon To Your Mug: Temperature-Regulating Coffee Widgets". Popular Science.
  6. ↑ "Coffee Joulies Save you from Scalding Coffee". ABC News . Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  7. ↑ "Phase change materials for the perfect cup of coffee". Gizmag. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Coffee Temperature Regulator". Cooks Illustrated. Retrieved 2013-03-29.
  9. ↑ Gibberish Is My Native Language (2012-02-05). "Coffee Joulies(tm) Beverage Cooling Beans Review | Gibberish Is My Native Language". Journal.drfaulken.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  10. 1 2 "Review: Coffee Joulies –". Marco.org. 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  11. ↑ "Coffee, tea, and Joulies - All this". Leancrew.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  12. ↑ "Blog Archive » A Swift Kick in the Joulies". Jeff Ammons. 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  13. ↑ "Coffee Joulies gets $150,000 investment on "Shark Tank"". Utica Observer Dispatch. Jan 12, 2013.
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