So rarely do we know the origin and creation behind common objects we use every day. Whether it’s Super Glue or a bun for bratwurst, someone had to think there was a better or easier way to do something.
Take for example the paper straw and the bendy straw. The Atlantic tells the tale of the drinking tube’s transformation. For centuries the straw didn’t vary from the form of the earliest known drinking tube found in Sumeria that dated back to 3,000 B.C.
In the late 1800s people used tubes made of rye as straws. In my opinion the grassy flavor it added to every drink would definitely not be a bonus, although apparently it was overlooked or considered a treat back then. Sippers must have liked it or they could just drink straight from the glass. It’s interesting how the mind works to solve a problem. Unhappy with his grassy beverages, Marvin Chester Stone used paper in tube form to eliminate the extra flavor in the glass. A young girl’s struggles to drink her milkshake from a tall glass led a father to devise a bendy straw. Joseph B. Friedman came up with accordion sector in a straw that makes it perfect not only milkshakes but hospital patients.
I doubt if Stone nor Friedman ever anticipated a digital straw in a Hershey’s chocolate milk app.