I wonder if the Germans, who have a word for everything, have a word for “impatiently trying to scoop ice cream before it thaws so all you get is small little unsatisfying discs.”
While it isn’t German, SVANKi (inexplicably pronounced “Swanky”) is a word people who have those ice cream related problems might want to know. Now running a Kickstarter campaign, SVANKi is an electrically heated ice cream scoop that promises to cut through that rock hard rocky road to dish out perfectly round balls of Instagrammable bliss.
Let’s just get this out of the way, SVANKi is solving perhaps the most first world of first world problems — serving dessert. But if you love ice cream (like me) and are impatient (also like me), then SVANKi might actually be… useful?
SVANKi sits on a wireless charging station. Push a button and the SVANKi will, according to the Kickstarter campaign, heat up and maintain a temperature between 140 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The batteries are rechargeable and last a half hour when topped.
That Ben & Jerry’s Americone Dream at the bottom of your freezer doesn’t stand a chance.
You can pick up a swanky SVANKi via Kickstarter for the low, low price of $39. That’s only twice as much as one that uses body heat to warm up. But that $39 is just for early backers. It looks like the retail price will be $89 for one SVANKi when it comes out next year.
But do you really need one? And by “you,” I mean “me.” I asked a couple of friends who bascially shot it down saying that if I needed a heated ice cream scoop I was eating too much ice cream, which, is probably true.
Sigh.
However, I could probably make a case that I could get forty bucks worth of use after a couple of holiday gatherings and kid’s birthday parties. But, given that limited use case, crowdfunding’s spotty record when it comes to hardware actually making it to market, and the fact that I could, you know, just wait a few minutes before scooping, there’s a different word I’m trying to avoid: “sucker.”
Why did it get cancelled?