From the time you started using an open-topped cup as a child, your brain has learned to anticipate when and where a sip of liquid will reach your lips. If your drink hits your lips a moment sooner or later than expected, or lands in the wrong spot, it feels surprising and uncomfortable.

The Viora Lid mimics the experience of drinking out of an open-topped cup. When you sip from a cup with the Viora Lid, liquid in the cup flows through the drink opening into a drink well recessed in the top of the lid. Liquid fills the drink well quickly and evenly to create a predictable drinking surface. When you sip from a cup with a Viora Lid, the liquid arrives where and when you expect it—just like when you tip an open cup.

The Viora Lid drink well makes it more relaxing and comfortable to drink hot coffee or tea. With a conventional lid, you suck your drink through the drink opening—like a straw—never knowing exactly when the liquid will hit your lips or what the temperature will be. A burned tongue too often results. Like you would when drinking from a ceramic cup, The Viora Lid lets you sense temperature and gauge volume before the liquid reaches your mouth.

Finally, the Viora Lid—like an open topped cup—delivers a wide stream of liquid to your tongue to coat more of your taste buds, which is an important part of experiencing flavor. In contrast, the narrow bead of liquid from a conventional lid hits only the center of your tongue.

The science is surprisingly complex, and it took lots of experimenting to refine the positions and dimensions of the drink opening and drink well. We knew we had it right when we started to forget we were drinking through a lid.