Teresa Martin: A transformational coffee-warming mug?

There really is an app for that! Just when I thought I’d maxed out at something like 200 apps on my phone, I received a holiday present — something I didn’t know I needed but discovered I quite liked.

And now the app count rests at 201.

Folks, I’m talking the Ember mug. Now, normally I’d be suspicious of something simple (a warm liquid holder) that comes with a user manual.  However, I confess that I tend to leave a trail of mugs behind me. I get a morning coffee, enjoy a few sips, then get pulled into a Zoom call. And a half-hour later I am stunned by the flavor of the now-iced coffee. My nice mug of afternoon steaming tea too-often becomes a half-filled vessel of forgotten amber.

Sometimes I gulp it all down anyway.

If necessity really is the mother of invention, then I guess I’m not alone in cringing over beverages because we’re looking at a whole company selling phone-app temperature controlled mugs and travel mugs. I could not make this up if I tried!

For everyone who ever sat in a restaurant and uttered the phase “yes, please warm it up” while holding a mug in outstretched hand, tech delivers a solution — or at least one that buys you a couple of hours of beverage at the exact temperature you specify via the app-controlled Bluetooth commands.

This product shouts out 2020s — it exists because Bluetooth and smart phones weave into every aspect of life and because enough tech natives have become adults with expendable income. It exists because online marketing supports fast launches and because Amazon sells and sells. It exists because smart sensors reach everywhere, because lithium-ion batteries deliver big payload in tiny packages, because global manufacturing opens new doors, and because design drives product. Mostly, though, it exists because technology gives a go-to for every need.

The history of inventing holds a lot of self-heating and stay-warm beverages — in 2005 celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck launched a self-warming latte. Within a year, mass recalls for burning and leaking cans canned (sorry, couldn’t resist a good pun) the concept.

Nescafé tried and tossed the approach in 2002. Its slogan “Warm as You Want” turned out more like “Warm as We Want,” and consumers frowned. Heck, the first attempt at tech-enabled heat + beverage came about in 1897 from a Russian engineer named Yevgeny Fedorov, who was embracing the possibilities of then-new tech of “tinned” products.

Who doesn’t remember some tiny, college-era, plug-in heating plate that held a coffee mug — and usually burned both coffee and mug? Or the idea that microwaves solved the cold coffee dilemma by zapping it into some strange-flavored brew? The quest for warm coffee seems a very American quest.

Ember has lots of company. Brands including well-know Yeti and Mr. Coffee have warming mugs on the market. A product called Ui from OHOM promotes that its warming base doubles as a wireless phone charge.

Ember’s founder, Clay Alexander, seems to be a product of the 1990s startup culture. He came of entrepreneurial age when California startups still loved the invention as much as the cash-out. He launched his first company in 1999 at age 23 and went on to develop various lighting and lighting control products. His latest venture already looks beyond coffee into some vague transformational mission.

So, I’m not sure quite how to take my coffee mug into the next dimension nor do I particularly want to. But Alexander apparently does: “Ember Mugs are just the beginning. Our mission is to harness the power of temperature control to transform how the world eats, drinks and lives,” proclaims its marketing material.

Ember represents that next generation of tech mashup, where sensors go to work for everyday activities, controlled by our ubiquitous mobile devices. The nicely designed warming mugs give it a consumer footprint, provide revenue, and create a functional company, the dream of inventors everywhere. It even integrates the trendy capacity of sending data to AppleHealth (yes, you can use Ember to track your caffeine consumption!) and sending phone status notifications to you.

However, when you consider the emergence of  Ambient Intelligence (AmI) —  the trendline that combines artificial intelligence, sensors and the physical environment — you have to wonder what fires Ember actually wants to flame. As I sipped my not-cold coffee a little bit ago, one part of me wondered if I’m sitting on a Pandora's box of future tech.

Right now though, I’m OK with the small ways sensors, combined with my overloaded phone and Bluetooth connectivity, make mornings a tad easier. Will I keep my eyes open for scope creep, invasive data collecting or other unwanted functions? You bet!

In the meantime, I’m just enjoying the nice warm brew, set to maintain at exactly 138 degrees Fahrenheit.

Teresa Martin lives, breathes and writes about the intersection of technology, business and humanity.