Gun Vending Machines

We have mentioned about different vending machines on this blog before, however this vending machine is slightly worrying:

It was actually installed into universities and shopping malls in South Africa by the Gun Control Alliance to demonstrate how easy it is to obtain and gun in Africa.

The money collected was used to support the activities of the gun-free society.

I don't know how long this machine was in operation for, or even if the guns were real, but it isn't something you would find on Paddington Station in London. Chocolates, Cigarettes and Coffee vending machines are the norm in the UK.

Where have your coffee beans been?

Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are inhabited).

But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these coffee beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."




Nice smelling coffee beans
Would you drink this?
Then read on!





Kopi Luwak is a rare and gourmet coffee from Indonesia that is made from beans passed through the digestive system of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), also known as the Common Palm Civet or the Toddy Cat, simply put it's Monkeys POO!

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States.

Exotic it maybe, but I wonder if this coffee bean is available for the standard coffee vending machine?

The History Of The Teasmade

What? I hear you ask. A post about tea on a coffee blog?!? Well, to be honest, the design of today's coffee machines owe a lot to that of the eccentric automatic tea making contraptions being invented as early as the 19th Century. So today I thought we'd take a little look at the history of the teasmade (photos from teasmade.com).

The first patent for an automatic tea making device was granted in 1892, a year which also saw the invention of the diesel engine and basketball (well, official basketball anyway). The inventor was Samuel Rowbottom, an electrical engineer whom also helped invent the first armed tank with Frederick Simms.

In 1902 Albert E Richardson designed what is widely
believed to be the first commercial automatic tea making machine. The device incorporated an alarm clock and a small kettle that physically tipped hot water into the waiting cup as the user awoke. The rights were subsequently sold to Frank Clarke, a reputed gunsmith, and it was at this time that the term teawaker was used to describe these new-fangled contraptions.

The word "Teasmade" was in fact a trade name for Goblin's version that was released in 1936. The design incorporated a tea pot, lamp and shade, as well as clock all arranged in a symmetrical combination - and available in a range of
colours.

In the fifties designs began to get smaller and more compact and the teawaker boom was in full swing. Goblin, Pifco and Pye all saturated the market and by the sixties the lamp and shade aspect of the earlier teasmade was phased out completely, and was often replaced with one or two bulbs encased and at one with the more typical rectangular shapes of the time.

Into the 70's and designs began to change again. By the end of the decade Goblin wowed the market with it's release of the 870, a teawaker that even included a radio, keyboard switches and also included a tea set.

By the 80's, designs that resemble those of modern day coffee vending machines began to fill the market. Companies such as Russell Hobbs and Swan brought out designs that incorporated mugs in a vending style.

Not only, do the styles of yesteryear look familiar when compared with today's multi-function hot drink machines. Even the technology of the oldest Rowbottom teawaker, by which water is heated with the result of shooting it through a thin spout into a cup is almost exactly the same, so too is the age-old desire for multi-functionality.

Today, only a few manufacturers remain in the business but I'm sure the teasmade is due a resurgence...maybe all they need in the 21st century are USB capabilities and remote control...