Large Huski Home Cup Review
Reviewed by Colin Hewitt
Were you paying attention at school (unlike me, who I suspect, would have been staring out the window, wondering what time football practice started) while an over-enthusiastic geography teacher tried to explain the production process of a rice mill? The cutting, the harvesting, the hauling, and how the rice seed was detached from the husk? Well, if you’ve forgotten (or never knew), in a nutshell, or I suppose that should be in a rice shell, one of the critical points is that the husk (or hull), when detached from the seed is a waste material.
If you take a moment to consider how much rice is grown in the world and that each individual grain of rice has a husk, you can quickly appreciate how much by-product is produced during the milling process; it is amassed in colossal quantities. It’s estimated that for each Kg of milled rice there is over 0.25kg of husk.
This waste product has a multitude of uses; from fireworks to toothpaste, however, some of it is ultimately wasted and disposed of through burning. Innovative applications for the husks are being developed all the time, including using it to produce a hard-wearing biodegradable material which in turn can be used to manufacture items such as travel cups.
I had vaguely heard about using rice husk as a material, but I’d never seen or handled any before; therefore I was pleased when Huski Home sent me one of their sustainable rice husk travel cups to review.
The minimalist, lightweight, matt-finished design (the only print being a subtle Huski Home logo) is surprisingly tactile. The screw-top lid sits proud from the top of the cup, meaning that when the cap is screwed on, the container can be filled to the brim without overflowing. The handle (which is also biodegradable – in fact, the only part that isn’t, is the essential but small, non-slip pad on the bottom), neatly clicks into the drinking hole.
The cup did not become too hot on the outside, even when completely filled with piping hot coffee. The contents also stayed warm for quite a long time (much longer than a disposable cup).
The travel cups are presently available in three colours, Duck Egg, Pistachio, and Rose. I was sent the large pistachio version (500ml) to review, but a smaller (400ml) is also available in the same range of colours.
I’ve taken the product to two of my local coffee shops, who both quite happily filled it rather than using a disposable. It should also be noted that both of these shops offered a 25p discount for bringing my own cup. In my estimation, that means that in addition to the environmental benefit of not using 48 disposable cups and lids, the product will have paid for itself in approximately 48 cups.
The over-dependency of the disposable coffee cup has been highlighted for several years, and we should all be doing our bit to help drastically reduce the number of cups ending up in a landfill. Using a product such as the travel mug from Huski Home has the double benefit of reducing the amount of non-biodegradable disposable cups (and their plastic lids) while also reducing the amount of rice by-product which might otherwise be burnt.
Looking at the Huski Home website I can see that in addition to the rice husk travel cups they stock a small, but a lovely range of hand-carved coconut utensils – bowls, knives, forks etc. The 100% natural grass straws, biodegradable and made from bullrush stems, especially caught my attention. It will be interesting to see what additions they make to their range over the coming years.
I’ve already seen the start of campaigns to, quite rightly, cut back on the amount of plastic given as presents over the Christmas period. Any of the products from Huski Home would make ideal and environmentally friendly Christmas gifts and should be seriously considered.
5/5 for a stylish, innovative and environmentally kind product.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £11.99
For more information or to buy visit huskihome.co.uk.
