Reader Find: A Coffee Cup “Rim Roller”
By Chuck Cage
Dan writes: “This time of year in Canada, it’s Tim Horton’s ‘Roll Up The Rim To Win’ time, which means millions of people buying way more coffee than they usually would in the hope of getting free stuff. Someone’s finally come up with a tool to ease the otherwise fiddly task of unrolling the rim of disposable coffee cups. It’s specialized, but if you drink as much coffee as some people do, probably worth every penny of the $1.95 it costs.”
The photos above (from Lee Valley) explain this better than words can. And for those in the States, Tim Horton’s is a coffee and doughnut shop.
Dan also mentioned (and we agree) that Lee Valley’s page (link below) “shows an admirably positive attitude towards inventors” — very apropos considering the discussion of the CO2 nailer power pack here at Toolmonger recently and the AutoWrench a while back.
Rim Roller [Lee Valley]
March 19th, 2007 at 6:47 am
Why would you want to unroll the rim?
March 19th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I don’t understand the usefullness. I went to the website and learned exactly *how* it works, but still nothing on *why*. Can someone enlighten us?
March 19th, 2007 at 8:18 am
It is a contest, and the prize you are entitled to is under the rim (clever eh). It is like a scratch ticket but you don’t have to scratch.
Folks like their Tim Horton’s coffee up here, no question!
Tim
March 19th, 2007 at 8:37 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hortons#Roll_Up_the_Rim_to_Win
March 19th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Ugh. It really is a rim roller. I thought it was a coffee cup clip–something useful–to either clip your coffee to a ladder or maybe an empty coffee cup for parts. Oh well.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I saw this at Lee Valley last week, I passed on purchasing it, but now I regret it. Its a Canadian thing
We like our Tim Hortons.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Purchased the Rim roller for my team at work.
Everyone uses it! and someone just won an Ipod Nano 2 days ago, we drink alot of timmies in canada if this was sold at esso or shell Lee valley would be rich.
April 7th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
How lame is this ! I guess there are so many buying so many coffees that the fingers get tired and that rim has “gotta be rolled up”,come hell or high water. People are so gullible. My contribution to Horton’s is about 3 coffees thus far this year……Fortino’s has a much more superior blend.
April 14th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
For someone who works at timmies i think this is a good thing for the people who dont know how to roll up the rim with there finders and have to use there teeth. Do you ever think of the people who have to handle a winning rim and it has teeth marks in it? its discusting! but for the people who know that if u fold the cup the rim is easy to roll up i think it would be a waste of money!
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Timmie’s isn’t just a Canadian addiction! LOL. I live in NY, USA and I LOVE Timmies! I’m a bonified junkie - three cups a day on average! And rolling those lids can be a pain! The rim-roller would be more of a novelty item than anything, but with a little usefulness, why not! Thanks for the find!
April 6th, 2008 at 7:13 am
this could be realy useful to some like last year a little girl found a unrolled cup but could not roll it up so she asked a friend to do it but not only was the coup a winner she won a car! but now the friend wanted it because she rolled it but the girl wanted it because she found it and then the janitor wanted it because he claimes to have purchased the cup and but it in the garbage. ther was a big lawsuit and evan wanted to do a DNA test on the cup to see who purchased the cup. in the end they gave it to the parents of the little girl but it could of all been avoided if she had a rim roller