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Takeaway hot beverages have always been problematic. We’ve already seen Coffee Joulies addressing issues with temperature — cooling down the drink to a safe temperature and then holding it there — and now the Viora lid is aiming to tackle a number of remaining issues.

Rather than drinking/sucking coffee out of the small hole usually found in most lids, with the Viora, the drinker essentially pours the coffee into a small well. Coffee drinkers are then able to sip from this well as they would from a ceramic cup, making for a much more pleasurable experience. What’s more, this also enhances the aroma of the drink. According to Viora, the noses deliver 75 percent of a drinker’s taste experience of coffee and even more of the taste experience of tea. With the new lid, the actual drink opening sits beneath the nose, while the dug-in well leaves some of the drink outside of the cup to release even more aroma. The lid even improves retronasal smelling, which occurs when aroma travels through the pharynx in the back of the mouth to the olfactory membrane. When drinkers purse their lips to suck through the small opening of a conventional lid, it closes the soft pallet and blocks the pharynx. With the Viora Lid, lips stay relaxed, and this problem is removed.

Lastly, the lid is designed to eliminate splashes and spills when the cup is jolted. Even if some splash does occur, it should safely collect in the lid’s well. The video below shows the Viora in a “spill resistance” test against a conventional lid.

How else could hot beverages be improved to make for a safer and more pleasurable drinking experience?