I’m a fan of good looking and useful kitchen appliances, despite not having a big enough kitchen to house them all, so this Gradient portable electric drinks heater/cooler caught my eye.

Not only does it serve a dual purpose (not at the same time, obviously) but it looks pretty good too.

The bottom hotplate takes care of tea, coffee and other drinks you want to stay hot by maintaining them at a constant temperature.

If you want it cold, the top section contains an impeller and motor for pushing out cold air.

To make it really obvious which function is being performed, the LEDs in the top section turn either red (for heating) or blue (for cooling).

The only problems are that this is currently a concept from designer Dmitriy Shcherbakov, and that it will only handle one cup at a time. A dual unit would be great, though I wouldn’t mind having a couple of these sitting next to each other on my work surface. Maybe they could even start communicating with each other via Bluetooth?

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Hot or Cold… now see for yourself!

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