Product: Drink Container: Glass
Nucleadverts   (+5)  [vote for, against]
See the logo in the bubbles

My boyfriend [jonthegeologist] works for a well known carbonated cola and soft drinks company (the red one) and therefore our kitchen cupboards are full of such lovely items as branded bottle openers, glasses and soft-toy parrots which mimic the sound of a bottle of beverage being opened and poured. Classy, as I'm sure you'll agree. However, I feel the company could go one further.

We know that the dissolved CO2 in fizzy pop needs a nucleation point to form a bubble. With a very smooth glass, you can find the drink doesn't appear bubbly in the glass - though it will still taste fizzy as it nucleates on your tongue. With this in mind, Coca-Cola are actually distributing glasses to pubs which are specially manufactured to have a few nucleation points in the base, ensuring their product always looks good to the consumer in that pub [link].

I propose using similar technology to etch tiny nucleation points inside the glass in the form of a logo, perhaps reflecting the manufacturer of the drink or the name of the pub. When filled with fresh fizzy pop (or indeed beer), the previously unseen logo would appear in the bubbles on the inside of the glass.

One could get special gift glasses with "Flirty Forty", "If you can read this you're too damn close" or "Hands off you thieving git. Buy your own pint".
-- hazel, Dec 15 2003

Coke glasses http://www.nacsonli...R=1&cookie%5Ftest=1
Describes glasses being distributed to UK pubs [hazel, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Coke glasses from Coca Cola http://www.cokepuba.../lic_promotion.html
from the horses mouth [hazel, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Guinness bubbles http://www.realbeer...les/news-000457.php
they go down instead of up [hazel, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Sort of reminds me of one of my own ideas... http://www.halfbake...0Lamp_20Advertising
[DrCurry, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Solutions at the bottom of beer glasses http://www.halfbake...of_20beer_20glasses
By Jinbish. Not the same but in the same postcode, or adjacent. [calum, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Nucleadverts http://tooplyshy.mu....com/photos/album/1
They could have at least sent you a thank you note. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 11 2006]

+ (obviously)
-- jonthegeologist, Dec 15 2003


Uh, oh. The HB's got a cartel. It's all downhill from here.

(Great idea, by the way.)
-- phoenix, Dec 15 2003


I wonder if this would work with Guinness too?
-- krelnik, Dec 15 2003


let's have it. Can you get one knocked up in the lab ?
-- neilp, Dec 15 2003


I was wondering about Guinness as you could potentially get a really good contrast between white bubbles and black stout, but it does behave in curious ways so it might not work. Perhaps I should talk to our glassblower at work and see what he can do about baking one of these with a croissant pattern on the bottom - or alternatively I could crack open the HF and do it myself. Then we can have a testing party to which you're all invited.

<aside> a group of scientists spent ages working out why the bubbles in Guinness go down instead of up. nice work if you can get it </aside>
-- hazel, Dec 15 2003


//Then we can have a testing party to which you're all invited.//

I'm game! Where do you live?
-- Overpanic, Dec 15 2003


Count me in for the party, but I'd rather not get knocked up in the lab, thanks. Or, heck, maybe after a few pints.......(+).
-- lintkeeper2, Dec 15 2003


OOOH, yes. Fizzy bun for you. [+]
-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 15 2003


Rather than soft drinks which tend to have quite large bubbles, the idea might be better suited to those nasty thick beers that aren't lagers as they produce a large number smaller bubbles. When such a pint is poured into a less-than-spotlessly-clean glass, bubbles will cling to the dirtified areas. You could deffo get a Bass Triangle, at least.
-- calum, Dec 15 2003


Where's the warheads?
-- thumbwax, Dec 15 2003


Bristol [OP] in the west of the UK. Scarily close to Wales but with plenty of scrumpy cider to test the glasses.
-- hazel, Dec 15 2003


Can't help but wonder what coca cola company need with a geologist? Perhaps one of their secret ingredients requires extensive mining operations? Plus for the idea by the way.
-- dobtabulous, Dec 16 2003


I have no idea [dob]. Apparently he could tell me but then he'd have to kill me and then who would do the washing up?
-- hazel, Dec 16 2003


[dob] tis a secret.
-- jonthegeologist, Dec 16 2003


oooooh, mysterious!
<off topic> also living just outside Bristol - doesn't the clifton suspension bridge look nice and christmassy with all the lights on?</off topic>
-- dobtabulous, Dec 16 2003


Could you do this by making a brand for the inside of the glass in the shape of the desired logo? Slightly melt the upper (inner) surface of the glass with the brand and then blow tiny particles of something-or-other onto it so's it'll stick. Uses the dirty-surface method of nucleation instead of the holey-method.

Would the creamy head of a decent beer stick better to this nucleation logo as the beer level dropped below it? If so, you could place it 3/4 the way down a pint glass and get it to read "Buy beer now" or "New round approaching, go to the toilet now" or "You know you want another".
-- squeak, Dec 16 2003


Fascinating. Bun +
-- k_sra, Dec 16 2003


That should work too [squeak]. I think the only problem is finding a method which doesn't show when the glass is empty - or at least not much otherwise it would take some of the surprise out of it. I like the foam idea very much and I feel some foam and bubble experimentation is called for. An ideal post-Christmas lunch passtime in the [geologist] household perhaps.
-- hazel, Dec 16 2003


[Hazel] Are you related to [jonthegeologist] then? I always thought you were housemates or something.
-- squeak, Dec 16 2003


in modern parlance, she is my partner.

[dobt] the bridge is looking fab.

<chat> Anyone fancy a SW England Halfbakery Christmas drink in Bristol ... email me and let me know. </chat, sorry>
-- jonthegeologist, Dec 16 2003


He's my boyfriend/partner/significant other, joint mortgagee and co-kitten guardian. We've both got rather engrossed in the HB, having been introduced to it by [jon]'s brother [neilp], to the extent that an evening in the [hazel]-[jon] household often consists of the two of us sat on the sofa with our laptops halfbaking. Who says romance is dead?
-- hazel, Dec 16 2003


certainly.. //Hands off you thieving git. Buy your own pint// bubbles can form more distinct words than that.. don't you think? why not write a whole book? at least one's staring at the bottom of his glass will have a point. I think a design with a marijuana leaf would be cool, though : )
-- sweet, Jan 27 2004


Damn, I was expecting hydogen bombs that were built so as to display the sponser's logo in the shape of the mushroom cloud....
-- normzone, Jan 27 2004


I saw this baked...well etched onto the bottom of a beer glass on the weekend. It had the logo for Reineer, a stylized R bubbling up. I immediately thought of you and this idea, I even took a couple of pictures with my new cel phone and as soon as I finish figuring out how to use the dang thing, I'll link them here
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 09 2006


Wow! That's so exciting. I'm not sure I've had an idea baked before.
-- hazel, Nov 09 2006


Oops I lied to you. It was a Rickards logo.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 11 2006


That is so cool, having an idea stolen from you and making profits for other people who probably will never thank you and most likely are the kinds of people that beat their own mothers while singing "You are My Sunshine".

All the good stuff happens to people with good ideas. That sucks. I mean- Congrats on a job half done!
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 11 2006


Nucleation can be achieved with something as tiny as an alpha particle (search "bubble chamber".)

So why not achieve the same result with an alpha source, and appropriately varying magnetic field? It would be much more complex, (semi-cryogenic), cost a whole lot more, and be substantially halfbaked.

Just a thought.
-- csea, Nov 11 2006



random, halfbakery