The Betsy Lee and Sugary Progress

 When I was a child it was mostly sugar bowls and spoons for the dispensing of sugar in cafes. At Wanganui's finest establishment in the 60s, the peerless Betsy Lee, there was even the highly sophisticated choice of coffee crystals. Some more downmarket places used the totally useless 'tip and hope' glass container method. Strangely, this is still the case in The Pavillion at Eastborne, and I don't think they are even trying to be retro chic.    

In the 70s the move to square sugar sachets began. These worked adequately for the purpose, but by the mid 90s were being seen off cafe premises by the sugar straw. Either of these two inelegant solutions seem perfectly adequate, you might think. Well actually - no. Some boffin somewhere was clearly troubled by the stagnation of innovation in this area and so came up with what was before me on Sunday.

These geometric oddities don't fit well into any container, but they are fun to fiddle with. Which is all one would ever really want to do, because who in their right mind would add sugar to either coffee or tea?

If only such energy and creativity was put into other problems that tax our times - solving world hunger or bringing world peace spring to mind. Or, at the very least, how to bring back the Betsy Lee!