Summer in my hometown means free concerts in the park, and nothing beats a sunny evening relaxing with friends and family while listening to a cover band recreate all your favorite hits of the 80s and 90s. Perhaps this summertime high is why I’m so intrigued by the Travel Decanter campaign on Kickstarter.
The Travel Decanter is pretty much what it sounds like: a way to transport booze without bringing along the whole bottle. It’s a hand-blown glass decanter that holds 500 ml of wine, whiskey or whatever your drink of choice is, protected by a double-walled stainless steel case that separates into two tumblers.
While the Kickstarter campaign says its good for travel (no leaky bottles in your luggage), I don’t know if I’m that desperate for a drink on the road. What I do like about it, however, is its simplicity and usefulness. Lugging a full bottle of wine to the park is a bit cumbersome, and you need to pack things like corkscrews and cups. The integrated design of the tumblers in the Travel Decanter distills (pardon the pun) all that down into a simple package. It protects your drink, keeps it from leaking, and provides two cups. Plus the mouth is wide enough for ice so you can pack different types of drinks like margaritas in your pic-a-nic basket.
With 11 days to go in its campaign, the Travel Decanter has already blown past its goal of $24,000 to raise more than $230,000. You can still grab a single Travel Decanter for $44, and it is projected to ship in December of this year (though it seems like there are some complications with international shipping, according to FAQ).
The Travel Decanter continues the recent trend of crowdfunded redesigns of common drinking vessels like the Mosi Tea Brewer and the Bolde protein drink shaker. But as with any crowdfunded hardware project, caveat emptor. A great design and prototype is one thing, manufacturing at scale is another. Just ask the folks who backed the Rite-Press.
While the Travel Decanter won’t be ready for this set of summer concerts, I’m tempted to pledge to pick one up for next year.
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