Good Thinking

Have your drink on the rocks - literally

The set of six granite Sippin' Rocks housed in their wooden box
The set of six granite Sippin' Rocks housed in their wooden box

If you order your drinks “on the rocks” and are in the habit of chewing on the ice cubes you might want to double check that the bartender hasn’t taken you literally and chilled your drink with “Sippin’ Rocks” – unless you fancy a visit to the dentist. Sippin' Rocks are highly-polished cubes of granite that are designed to chill your drink without diluting it.

Made from granite “imported from throughout the world”, the hand-crafted Sippin’ Rocks are carved, shaped and polished into elegant drinking stones that bring out the full, undiluted flavor in any drink. The rocks from Sippin on the Rocks, Inc. come in black, red and white and should be placed in a small bag in the freezer for about four hours before (carefully) placing one or two in a glass.

And for those who prefer their granite from Scotland, the company is also selling a Scotch “On the Rocks” gift set containing a set of two crystal glasses and four hand-polished granite cubes made from imported Scottish granite, all housed in a walnut box.

The sharp-cornered cube shape of the Sippin’ Rocks seems a little glass-unfriendly to me, but presumably ‘Sippin’ Balls’ didn’t have the same ring to it. However, it is the perfect shape to allow the set of six Sippin’ Rocks to sit snugly in their special wooden box that can be adorned with an optional, personalized nameplate.

A set of six Sippin’ Rocks, complete with wooden box, is available now for US$55, while the Scotch “On the Rocks” gift set sells for US$75.

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7 comments
sothatsthewayyoulikeit
Ummm... MOST granite contains uranuim and is radioactive... It\'s a fact: read a book.
F***ing duh...
I guess this just serves as further proof that you don\'t have to have a brain to make a few bucks these days, huh...
If you\'d like to increase your risk of Pancreatic cancer (by long and far the worst type of cancer hands down) by thousands of times, then drink up.
Youtube search: Radioactive granite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8JKSbKLp04
You\'ll see what I mean.
windykites
Granite worktop anybody? Seriously, I imagine that granite would need to be in intimate contact with body parts, and as it is a very hard stone, it would not release particles into the drink. I will take a look at Youtube
screamingflow3r
Read a book? Do some research, dummy. Everything you encounter daily is radioactive - the human body is radioactive.
http://www.radon.com/radon/granite.html
All natural products, especially stone, minerals, and sand, contain trace amounts of some radioactive elements called NORMs (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Mineral) that can produce measurable amounts of radiation and sometimes radon gas.
This includes: all concrete products, clay bricks, most non-plastic plates and dishes, coal and the flyash produced in coal-fired power plants, natural gas (contains radon), phosphate fertilizers used in your garden (ALL contain potassium and small amounts of uranium and thorium), and the vegetables grown using those fertilizers, all glass made using silica (even eye glasses, wine glasses, mirrors, windows, etc.), and granite too.
However, the key word is \"measurable\".
You are hundreds of times more likely to be at risk for radon emanating from the soil beneath your home. The US EPA states it simply in the Consumer\'s Guide to Radon Reduction:
\"In a small number of homes, the building materials (e.g., granite and certain concrete products) can give off radon, although building materials rarely cause radon problems by themselves. In the United States, radon gas in soils is the principal source of elevated radon levels in homes.\"
Other helpful links: http://www.graniteland.com/infos/home/is-granite-radioactive http://iaq.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iaq.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5103
randyleepublic
I have to agree with the naysayer. It\'s one thing to have a granite countertop. It\'s quite another to have a piece of granite in contact with water and ethyl alcohol - two of the best solvents known to man, as well as the possiblity of various aquious acids. I wouldn\'t do it...
Frozen, relatively pure water is a much better bet.
Gareth Davies
i think its an awesome idea
Charles Bosse
Randy, clearly you need to spend more time with whoever cooks for you. Are you saying that your counter doesn\'t come into contact with water? Anyway, part of the polishing process involves oil and water, so if the uranium was going to go away from contact with organic or polar solvents it likely would have before reaching you. On top of that, only about 15% of Uranium is radioactive, so you would need to worry about the chemical effects first, and if we\'re worrying about chemical effects then 1) it seems worth mentioning that the plan is to add this to a poison that we metabolize into another poison before we flush it from our system and 2) there are a lot of other heavy metals we should be thinking about. While you might double check your Mexican ceramics (some of those are so hot they make a Geiger counter go off like a whistle) I think you can relax and enjoy your overpriced exotic geology.
Radon gas is indeed an issue in basements where there are large deposits of granite, but in general I would be a lot more freaked out about flying or walking outside on a bright day than I would about some rocks in my drink - and besides, my alcohol already contains some carbon 14, and maybe some tritium, am I supposed to be freaked out about that?
Slowburn
The most dangerous thing most people do is drive, or ride in a car.