After 7 Years, Startup Reveals $199 Cup

Vessyl can tell you exactly what you're drinking
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2014 10:38 AM CDT
Updated Jun 15, 2014 8:57 AM CDT

It took seven years for startup Mark One to finally make its big product reveal: the $199 Vessyl—a cup. But as Valleywag notes, it's not so much a cup as "a 13-ounce, Bluetooth-enabled, smartphone-syncing, battery-powered supercup." It works like this: Fill the Vessyl, which looks something like a Thermos, with any beverage and the cup's display will tell you, very specifically, what you're consuming. Ellis Hamburger at the Verge got a chance to pour roughly a dozen beverages into it, and it nailed every single one, from Vitamin Water XXX to Crush orange soda. "Yes, this cup knows the difference between Gatorade Cool Blue and Glacier Freeze," he writes.

The point isn't to remind forgetful people what they're about to sip: As a "smart cup," Vessyl measures sugar, protein, calories, fat, and caffeine, and tracks hydration. (It can even correctly calculate the caffeine difference in strong coffee versus weak, or crunch the nutrition in a homemade smoothie.) "Consumption is as important or more important as what we track through exercise," says Justin Lee, co-founder and CEO of Vessyl's parent company, "so we developed a sensor that could instantly analyze the nutritional content of what’s inside a beverage … on a molecular level." The cup won't ship until early next year, but if you're interested now, you can pre-order it for $99. (This study shows just how bad our sugary drink habits have become.)

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