Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Quis custodiet the custard?

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Various Sized Sugar Cubes

 For those who never get the right amount of sugar in their drinks
  (+8, -1)
(+8, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

Anyone has his own amount of sugar that's just right for them. The same goes for me and because of that I'm regulary forced to break that sugar cube (and that's hard) in two and put 1.5 sugar cube in my coffee.

As an answer to this, the sugar-cubes producers came up with a box of small ones. However, that means still a limited influence on the amount of sugar in your coffee. So my suggestion is to produce three sizes of sugar cubes, one big, a medium and a small size put it in the right statistic balance in a box and be able to enjoy your coffee in the right sweetness..

(don't tell me about granulated sugar, that has it's disadvantages too)

—BartJan, Jun 18 2001

(??) Sugar Swizzle Sticks http://www.bigcup.c...oddetail.asp?id=253
Sugar on a swizzle stick [goff, Jun 18 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(???) Or in bulk http://www.bigcup.c...oddetail.asp?id=255
[goff, Jun 18 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       You could use one sugar cube and 2/3 of a cup of coffee.
—angel, Jun 18 2001
   

       Angel: Then everyone should know the exact amount of coffee they need for their special wishes. In my case it's easy, but what about the sugarlovers? Should they add only 1/3 of a cup of coffee?
—BartJan, Jun 18 2001
   

       Sugar-lovers are no problem. If such a person preferred, say, four and seven-eights sugar cube equivalents per cup, he need only use four cubes in 0.82 cups.
—angel, Jun 18 2001
   

       I'm suggesting that, given constant bigness of sugar, variable bigness of coffee would answer the needs of [BartJan] for any required coffee-to-sugar coefficient, and that, as the latter is currently available, the former is not the only path to his heart's desire.
—angel, Jun 18 2001
   

       Angel: You allso forget that there are coffee-machines that produce a constant amount of coffee as well. So what's more easy: variable amounts of coffee or variable amounts of sugar? My preference will be clear...
—BartJan, Jun 18 2001
   

       I'm going with [lubbit]'s sugar-string.
—angel, Jun 18 2001
   

       With the right shape of lumps you could get both a box of sugar cubes and a neat three-dimensional puzzle.
—jutta, Jun 18 2001
   

       PeterSealy: To bad you have a lack of imagination, and start offending as soon as you don't get the idea. I discussed this idea with some of my friends and they all recognized the 'problem' of not being able to get the right amount of sugar in their drinks. So try to get my point and I hope you'll have some fundamental annotations.   

       BTW, jutta, good idea.. let's make a 3d tangram of it...
—BartJan, Jun 18 2001
   

       Drop an unopened box of Sugar Cubes from a great height. Cubes will be rendered as unique as snowflakes.
—thumbwax, Jun 18 2001
   

       You know, you could also add a system of food-dye dots to your differently-sized sugar cubes and thereby have as many as six different easily-distinguished sizes. Boxes would be marked like fertilizer, with the different proportions of variously sized cubes within so that you could buy a box of 70-0-0-0-10-20 for 70% small cubes, 10% next-to-largest and 20% largest-size, to match your expected sucrose needs.
—Dog Ed, Jun 18 2001
   

       Thanks Dog Ed, I think we're on the right track with that suggestion you just did. That should ease my (and others?) eager for exact sucrose needs... On the other hand, reading the reactions of others it seems like I really am the only one confronted with this 'problem', and it looks like I'm doomed to breaking sugar cubes the rest of my life... 'boohoo'
—BartJan, Jun 18 2001
   

       Anyone else into occasionally cleansing the palate with salt to cut the desire for sugar?   

       I had a discussion today about the blending of salt into many products to moderate the overpowering sweetness of the sugar or sweetning ingredients. This isn't done with lumps [unimaginative name, 'sugar cube'] and I daresay the market for sugar/salt/butterbud cubes is wideopen for exploitation.
—reensure, Jun 19 2001, last modified Jun 21 2001
   

       This idea, though I don't drink much coffee, makes complete and perfect sense to me. Sugar cubes should come in different sizes because horses do..... small cubes for the ponies, regular cubes for the TBs, large cubes for the Warmbloods, and x-tra large for the draft breeds. I like this! Croissant from the equine members of my family!
—Susen, Jun 19 2001
   

       Sugar isn't only used for drink sweetening. No matter what size the cubes are I'd have to pound them to dust whenever I want to bake a cake. Putting sugar in cubes is pointless in the first place. I suspect a conspiracy of sugar-tongs manufacturers trying to justify inflated prices for their unnecessary products.
—sirrobin, Jun 19 2001
   

       I'll keep on winding, till the horses stop wanting sugar cubes (thnx [Susen], nice approach)... This discussion seemed to be based on a cultural difference I've never realised before. Here in the Netherlands at almost any public place where you can get coffee, sugar is provided in the sugarcube way. So does this mean that in other countries sugarcubes are neglected, or even worse, forgotten? Or, as [sirrobin] makes clear, are their cultures that totally forgot the advantages of sugarcubes?
—BartJan, Jun 19 2001
   

       Make your mind up, you've just posted an idea highlighting the disadvantages of sugarcubes :-)
In UK, we tend to get little paper sachets of sugar. I use about nine.
—angel, Jun 19 2001
   

       Cubes definitely seem to have gone out of fashion in the UK, though they used to appear in nearly every cafe.

BartJan, rather than rely on the manufacturers 'standard ration' of sugar (which they're unlikely to change), you could carry a nail file around with you and just file off your precise requirement from any given cube *and* make miniature sugar sculptures at the same time; you could leave them around like a personal tag or signature. Your coffee would probably be stone cold by the time you finished though.
—DrBob, Jun 19 2001
   

       Just for the record I'd ike to point out that the early annotations here worked on the assumption that one would wish to use a constant concentration of sugar each and every time. This may not necessarily be the case. You may wish to plonk one cube in, stir your coffee, sip it, and then decide to add a smaller cube, or a larger cube, depending on the resulting taste. The desired final sweetness may also vary according to your mood and the quality of the coffee. This approach also has the advantage of being time consuming, and would give the coffee drinker something to do while waiting for her/his date other than fiddle with a mobile phone.   

       BTW, a question regarding the 3D puzzle: What happens if the previous customer at your table -- or perhaps your date who got there first -- has used up several cubes? Wouldn't the puzzle be rather difficult to solve as the sugar is dissolved?
—Dr Furtz, Jun 19 2001
   

       [DrBob], thanks for that suggestion, a fingernail will be part of my new Rambo-pocket knife ;). However, manufacturers ARE able to adjust their 'standard' products. A few years ago in Holland, they came up with sugarcubes in hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades sculptures (and were gone soon). And [angel], I think both forms has it's disadvantages, what I try now is to cope with the fact that there are cubes here!
—BartJan, Jun 19 2001
   

       I may be being a simpleton here, a lifestyle I much enjoy, but if the manufacturers produce a uniform size sugarcube of smallest need then we can all be happy by using the appropriate number. Except for th e horses, ooops.
—juanmanandez, Jun 19 2001
   

       I haven't really seen a convincing reason NOT to use plain refined sugar - it's the same thing (I ship about half a million tonnes of the stuff a year).   

       I like the North European type sachets - they're like little pipes, made of paper and sealed at both ends. You can measure quite accurately, and as a bonus leave whatever you don't use in the ashtray to annoy the next smoker at the table.   

       'Course if you stopped using sugar you wouldn't have the problem, but I can't recommend that, obviously.
—Pineapple, Jun 19 2001
   

       \\a fingernail will be part of my new Rambo-pocket knife \\

Whose finger is it from?
—DrBob, Jun 19 2001
   

       Or you could continue DogEd's idea, and have all sugar cubes be the same size, but have the sugar cut with a colorful calorie free soluble crystal. The cubes would vary from pure white (100 % sugar) down to a murky grey (5% sugar). So you would be able to add up 5 grey lumps and a blue to get 75% of a white. Given the current market for energy drinks, I predict that the next step is an ultraviolet cube containing 200% of a standard sugar cube.
—tenhand, Jun 19 2001
   

       Baked.
Roll them in saltpeter and leave them in the ashtray to annoy the smokers at the table.
—reensure, Jun 19 2001
   

       Wait -- I got it! Make TINY LITTLE sugar cubes, about the size of a grain of salt, and then use a spoon to scoop as many as you want!
—rmutt, Jun 20 2001
   

       The sugar-cube concept seems to be making them small enough that measurements, but large enough so that they can be easily handled. I can't really see making sugar cubes significantly smaller without making them hard to handle, and making them insignificantly smaller (a half-size cube has an edge measurement approximately four-fifths that of a regular cube) means people will get the cubes mixed up.
—bookworm, Jun 20 2001
   

       The Canadians have a nifty solution to this, apparently, eternal struggle (personally, I tend to saturate my hot drinks so just need a bag of sugar and a shovel!!) They provide crystals of sugar solidified onto a small stick, about the size of a toothpick. Not only does it look fantastic, but you just dissolve as much as you want and leave the rest. No fiddly cubes, no annoying paper bags (well I find them annoying anyway!!), they're just top banana!!!!!   

       [Apologies for the UK-isms!! :-)]
—lorddave, Jun 20 2001
   

       That's just like [lubbit]'s sugar-string! Top marks, [lorddave]!
—angel, Jun 20 2001
   

       angel: ta muchly, not bad for a newbie, eh?!!!! ;)
—lorddave, Jun 20 2001
   

       Any links for that, [lorddave]?
—BartJan, Jun 20 2001
   

       reensure: i think adding salt to stuff would just accenuate the sweetness of anything with sugar in it!
—Pallex, Jun 20 2001
   

       Found the very thing!! (see link)
—goff, Jun 20 2001
   

       Nice job, Goff! However, these are expensive and what about the loss of not used sugar? That's where various sized sugar cubes win, no unnecessery losses and therefore cheaper!
—BartJan, Jun 20 2001
   

       [BartJan] It seems to me that the problem you're having is due to a lack of granulated sugar in the coffe houses where you live. Perhaps a pocket-sized sugar grinder would alleviate this problem. Similar to a pepper grinder, but made for sugar cubes.
—Reverend D, Jun 21 2001
   

       Hey, I know this debate seems long done and dusted (sorry, no pun intended) but I'm an art student using sugar cubes as a medium, I'm experimenting with melting, dissolving and random stuff like that. Just wondering what sugar cubes represent to you? I know that sounds funny but would be geniunely interested to know!
—mks100, Mar 28 2003
   

       Metaphysical symbolism.
—sufc, Mar 28 2003
   

       That it's hip to be square...
—BartJan, Jun 11 2003
   

       hiya, does anyone remember the mad hatter's tea party scene in the disney version of alice in wonderland? particularly the bit where the hatter picks up his cup and saucer, dips the saucer into his tea and then takes a bite out of it. as a serious design student i thought i might make saucers out of sugar or bikkies, possibly with some kind of perforated edge design to aid selection of correct sugar quantity. what d'ya reckon? p.s.they represent a bygone afternoon-tea/elevenses type era
—bethan, Oct 01 2003
   

       [marked–for–deletion], baked, tiny sugar cubes or 'granules' as they're known are commonly available, thus facilitating users to add exactly the correct amount of sugar, by using a 'spoon'.
—neilp, Oct 01 2003
   

       Why restrict ourselves to cubes? How about little heads? "Bring me his head in a cup!"
—Eugene, Oct 01 2003
   

       [neilp] Well, this will be interesting. I didn’t know an idea could be tagged after being here for two years, why, that’s positively ancient. [Eugune] How about little heads? Haha, that was the funniest thing I’ve read today. Personally, I divide the cube with my knife. There is a snap and things go flying. One half I manage to keep—sometimes—while the other vanishes somewhere. I’ve left these halves all over the world. If you need one, just look under your table.
—pluterday, Oct 01 2003
   

       bethan - check out the old film of willy wonka and the chocolate factory - I think they had something very similar.   

       nielp - I don't think that qualifies as an mfd   

       pluterday - don't you mean 'am going to leave these things all over the world,' or is the time-travel getting passe?
—yamahito, Oct 01 2003
   

       Time travelers use the past tense for the present and the future. It's not perfect, I know, but it's the standard.
—pluterday, Oct 01 2003
   

       //It's not perfect//   

       First person pluperfect, wasn't it? (groan)
—yamahito, Oct 01 2003
   

       sp: pluterperfect   

       Oh, and I think sugar should come liquid in syringes. They have very precise measurements built in.
—Worldgineer, Oct 01 2003
   

      

If sugar came in syringes, then you wouldn’t drink it, you’d mainline it. I would. I’d be lying in an alley, holes in my dirty clothing filled with newspaper, my arms covered with red marks, needle tracks, sugar tracks.

<pushes plunger> ahhhhh, sweet.

—pluterday, Oct 02 2003
   

       [Pluterday], surely it's still mfd'able, as long as it was baked before it was half-baked ? it's an appalling idea to-boot.
—neilp, Oct 02 2003
   

       Appalling? That a requirement before ANY idea will even be accepted at the bakery. Well, I think I saw that in the help file once.

Here, have half a cube, on me.
—pluterday, Oct 02 2003
   

       [nielp] You're not serious with the mfd thing, are you? That's just silly.
—Worldgineer, Nov 30 2004
   

       When I use a sugar cube I often want just half of it - so I soak it briefly to dissolve part of it in my coffee, then put the rest on the saucer. It invariably turns to a gooey oozy mess... so yeah, bun'd
—rossgk, Mar 10 2006
   

       A teaspoon won't get you that kind of accuracy either. A big syringe probably could, if you don't mind watering your coffee quite a bit.
—Worldgineer, Mar 10 2006
   
      
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