While recent innovation in the beverage industry tends to focus on improving the quality and efficiency of various liquids and alcohols, a new drinkware set launched out of Chicago aims not to impress your taste buds but rather your sense of sight. Dubbed the LevitatingCUP, this unique new beverage accessory ousts the traditional coaster in favor of an electrically charged magnetic field that, as the name suggests, levitates your cup. Forget whiskey stones, this is the true way to impress friends and dinner guests.
Launched via the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter, LevitatingCUP comes by way of engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur, Joe Paglione. Created with the intent of giving cups “life,” Paglione’s gravity-defying invention adds a significant sci-fi element to the typically mundane world of cups and glassware. By utilizing a system of magnets and an electrical field, LevitatingCUPs partner with a companion base to achieve the mind-bending outcome of hovering in place. Unless someone moves the cup away from its base, it will continue to levitate forever — or up to eight hours if you’ve opted for a wireless model.
“High-end drinking culture has always been shrouded in tradition, but as consumers like millennials start drinking whiskey and scotch more, there’s more and more demand to experience it in new ways, ways never thought possible before,” Paglione’s Kickstarter stated. “While the LevitatingCUP doesn’t aerate or cool libations, it helps make it more novel and appealing to the mind.”
To help market the Kickstarter campaign, Paglione teamed with the popular Chicago eatery Acadia Restaurant to snap a few images of the device being used in a dining setting. The shoot focuses on LevitatingCUP’s two different varieties: wired and wireless. Each model, as expected, boasts either a constantly plugged in wire (former) or a slightly bigger, completely wireless base (latter). Price wise, the wired variation runs $179 for early adopters while the wireless version costs $199. According to the fundraising page, the prices for each model reflect a $50 discount to what the device intends to eventually retail for.
Currently, the company allows adopters the ability to choose between selecting cocktail, beer, coffee, or dessert glasses upon purchase, with each boasting a slightly different size and shape. As the fundraising exceeds further stretch goals, a levitating plate and pillow will then be available for purchase. As of now, LevitatingCUP has raised just shy of $3,000 to its fundraising goal of $50,000 with 29 days remaining in the campaign.
