126. Sugar cubes

A BBC article a few days ago was entitled South Asia hit by sugar shortages. I learned that India is the largest consumer of sugar in the world, and that people in India and Pakistan were seriously outraged by the shortages of sugar in the days previous to the beginning of Ramadan: don’t mess with my sugar! I didn’t think that some people would be compelled to rebel because there isn’t enough sugar to go around. It seems that sugar cubes were invented around mid 19th century in Moravia as a matter of convenience. Early domestic sugar was formed into loafs that one had to cut to get a small amount of crystals, and that was messy and inconvenient. Sugar cubes were easy to store and count, and provided the right amount of sugar in an easy way. It interests me to think about this as an objectification of a raw material; sugar crystals are formless and need to be contained. Forming them into cubes, puzzle pieces or fancy chocolate-shaped units is a process of forming the amorphous. This improves handling, hygiene and quantity control. But, does the shape matter? Is the cube the best form for a sugar cube? The examples in the image above have to do with marketing rather than design. An interesting design competition would be: finding the right form for the sugar cube, the main problem being the relationship between form and volume (amount of sugar per serving).

125. Sugar stirring stick

I don’t remember exactly when I first saw a sugar stirring stick but I remember thinking the object was as ingenious as it was superfluous. A web site that commercializes these things suggests: why just add sugar when you can make a fashion statement with these fun and memorable swizzle sticks? I am still trying to understand what kind of a fashion statement do these crystallized sugar-encrusted wooden sticks make. I am also wondering in which way are they fun and memorable. A good question would be: what is the cultural territory for these things? Are they only available in elegant New York restaurants, or could they also be an interesting object for middle-class households, or hospitals, for example? Although wasteful and superfluous, the real novelty this object holds for me is the premise of a new category of partly edible objects, products that change form and function after a part of them is eaten. The chupa-chups (lollipop) would be in that category, as would the ice cream on a stick, although the problem with those semi-edible objects is that the non-edible part is useless and disposable. What if it were not but, instead, it would have a function? You put your sugar stirring stick in your coffee and after the sugar melts, the life of a new, fully functional object begins. That is, of course, if we accept the premise that adding the sugar with a spoon is not fashionable enough.

124. In-flight stirrer

In-flight service has always intrigued me. At present, it is slowly disappearing not because airlines realized that having uniformed people serving you in your seat is closer to a distant past than to the fast-changing present, but because they need to reduce costs and they think a good way to do it is making passengers pay even for their water. Perhaps the solution would be to equip airplanes with snack machines so that whoever wants to eat or drink can do it on demand, without the need to call the flight attendant and be served. I kept a coffee stirrer from my last transatlantic flight –the only flights where you get a meal nowadays- mainly because I wonder if its aerodynamic shape had to do with its context rather than its function: no doubt it is a poor stirrer; but it does suggest the formal vocabulary that goes with the idea of flying, a mixture of aerodynamics and ephemeral comfort. I must be one of the few who enjoys in-flight meals not because of their quality –needless to say- but because they are a ritual attached to my personal history. I have also noticed that they are very wasteful –everything is disposable, including the small stirrer I kept as a souvenir. At the same time, the fact that airplanes need to reduce weight, and their tools and objects are designed for lightness, gives this small injection-molded plastic utensil a whole new meaning.