Make your beverage ROCK!

Over the years, I’ve brought many carved soapstone eggs and elephants back from my travels to Africa. However, I never entertained the idea putting any type of soapstone into a beverage to keep it cool or warm. But it is a novel idea! Let me explain.

Sparq™ is marketing soapstone rocks to either keep drinks cold or keep them hot. They come in neat cube shapes ~ in 2 sizes. For cold drinks, you place the cubes in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Then gently place 3 or 4 cubes in the bottom of a glass and pour your beverage over them. They keep the drink chilled for over an hour, but the beauty is that they don’t dilute your drink. You can enjoy it full strength to the last drop!

We sell the rocks in sets of 9 or 12. I took 2 sets home and we had a good time trying them out.

COLD ROCKS

We “tested” the rocks in a couple of aperitifs. They were better than I anticipated and the drinks remained cold and unwatery for the duration of our enjoyment.

The rocks worked really well in our wine.

 

After dinner we even tried the rocks in some Baileys and cream…..

…and later in some limoncello, a frozen Italian lemon concoction that in itself ROCKS!

HOT ROCKS

For me this is a very exciting part! If you know me well, you know I love my coffee and I equally love my tea. I’ve been told I have an iron mouth because I drink my hot beverages HOT . I really do enjoy them more while hot. I’ve been known to pop my beverages into the microwave to rewarm them, but that is not optimaI because I find it can alter the taste a fair bit. Therefore, I was intrigued by using these rocks to retain the heat of a cuppa tea or coffee. I tried them in my coffee. I had let my coffee cool down, so put in a couple of the large size rocks and nuked it. I don’t think that was the recommended way, but it worked! The rocks must have heated sufficiently because they kept my coffee hot for a longer time.

I believe that Sparq beverage rocks will be a real conversation piece – they were for us. Santa should add rocks to his Christmas list but, for a change, not for the undeserving.

NOTE:

  • • Soapstone does not contain soap as the name suggests, but possibly was so-named because it can be filed down to be smooth and reminiscent of soap. It’s very carvable and is used in many countries for making art objects
  • • The Sparq™ rocks are non-porous, odorless and tasteless
  • • They work best in small volume drinks
  • • To clean, you rinse them in warm water and reuse
  • • There are a couple of warnings
    [e.g. use by children] so, please do read the instructions before using