Compressed air chambers inside the sugar cubes are progressively exposed as the cube dissolves. As the air escapes the cube spins thus stirring itself.

"My coffee like it's full of piranha." Sounds like a line from a Hunter S Thompson book or a spy's code phrase.

Could also work for ice for your cocktails.

…and if compressed air doesn't work, use something else, perhaps chemical reactiony in nature, the basic idea being the spinning/stirring thing.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 11 2013

Pop Rocks http://www.pop-rocks.com/
As mentioned in an annotation. [Vernon, Dec 11 2013]

How to make this work http://www.youtube....watch?v=2uMBbkSMppM
[doctorremulac3, Dec 12 2013]

The Bird Men of Alka-Selzer The_20Bird_20Men_20of_20Alka-Selzer
mine can dance! [xenzag, Dec 12 2013]

This is possibly the best idea I have read here.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 11 2013


Wow, thank you Max.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 11 2013


sugar weak. no hold air.
-- Voice, Dec 11 2013


Aren't those "pop rock" candies basically sugar with compressed gas in them? So this Idea is basically about specially-shaped pop-rocks, to ensure they spin as a result of the gas escaping.
-- Vernon, Dec 11 2013


I only said "possibly". And the "here" meant "on this page".

Howevertheless, it is a damn fine idea.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 11 2013


It could also release buoys color-marked for calories or perhaps coffee related miniature fauna. Also may function as depth charges for annoying frappucino art.
-- leinypoo13, Dec 11 2013


//Aren't those "pop rock" candies basically sugar with compressed gas in them?//

No, I think those are basically sugary Alka Seltzer.

//sugar weak. no hold air//

I don't know, grandma style hard candy that I've tried to eat could probably restrain a small nuclear explosion. Make it hard but easy to dissolve in water using chemistry 'n stuff.
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 11 2013


From wikipedia on Pop Rocks:

//The candy is made by mixing its ingredients and heating them until they melt into a syrup, then exposing the mixture to pressurized carbon dioxide gas (about 600 pounds per square inch or 40 bar) and allowing it to cool. //

So yes, it is actually compressed gas. However they have a short shelf life, and require a candy rather than a pure sugar, which would greatly slow down the dissolution time in coffee.
-- MechE, Dec 11 2013


Sugar cubes dissolve well because they are a bunch of small sugar crystals that are partially dissolved then recrystallized together, making them very porous. If we can figure a way to add pop rocks to the mixture as it is solidifying without setting them off, and arrange the pop rocks in a spiral pattern in the sugar cubes, this might be possible. I assume this might involve a pressure chamber so they won't explode while the surface of the pop rocks is weakened while drying. One concern is that the water will flow through the pores of the sugar cube fairly rapidly and set off all the pop rocks at once. Then again if it is designed to spin for only a short time, say 1 or 2 seconds, that might not be an issue. I can't image that small volume of pop rocks storing enough energy to stir for very long anyway.
-- scad mientist, Dec 11 2013


Aaannnd THERE you lost me. We want to spin a monastery using compressed gases?

marked-for-tagline :

" I only said "possibly". And the "here" meant "on this page". "
-- normzone, Dec 11 2013


How about the addition of powderised sodium or potassium into the mix when pressing the sugar cubes? (here I'm presuming they're made by simply pressing crushed sugar into a cube shape). A very thin sugar coating on the outside would then make the cube "robust" enough to survive handling, but woudl rapidly dissolve in the hot beverage, exposing the Sodium.

The trick would be using enough, but not too much sodium. We'd also have to be sure that sodium doesn't pull the hydroxyl group from the sugar. In that it can be stored in alcohol (I beleive), this shouldn't be an issue.

Should look a bit line an energetic alka-seltzer.
-- Custardguts, Dec 12 2013


I'm leaving the typos in the above, as a lesson to myself.
-- Custardguts, Dec 12 2013


//We'd also have to be sure that sodium doesn't pull the hydroxyl group from the sugar//

Yea, see? Science! I told you this would be easy. ;)

(see link)
-- doctorremulac3, Dec 12 2013


Metallic Lithium would work as well - your sugar cube would spin, the surface of your tea would have attractive flames dancing across it, and you'd get a healthy dose of Lithium with every cup of tea you drank.
-- hippo, Dec 12 2013


.... or an unsettled stomach cure - see last link for prior creation using same principle.
-- xenzag, Dec 12 2013


Cube [+]
-- 8th of 7, Dec 12 2013


[+] I like for ice!!
-- xandram, Dec 12 2013



random, halfbakery