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.
