A tweet seemingly suggesting a clever new way to snap apart disposable chopsticks turns out to be an awesome product prototype for Muji.
The last time you pulled apart a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks, chances are did it in such a way that you split the thicker, conjoined end pieces up the middle. But a recently trending tweet led to dozens of people mistakenly believing that not only were they doing it wrong the whole time, but there exists a much better way of snapping apart one’s hashi.
Posted by Twitter user @bortofdarkness the following photo took the Internet by storm, seemingly suggesting a new way to break apart any set of disposable chopsticks: just snap off the end piece. If true, this novel technique would not only leave a clean cut at the top, but also provide a handy hashioki, or a chopstick rest that keeps the end you grab your food with off the table.
▼ Too good to be true, right?
At first glance of the tweet, we too thought that this was a phenomenal discovery and it had us wondering how it has taken so long for this technique to come to light. We weren’t alone in our amazement, and of course other net users set out to try the technique for themselves, but sadly they came up with less-than-stellar results.
▼ Yes, too good to be true…
So, what’s the truth behind this “new technique”?
Further research suggests that the picture featured in the tweet was not suggestive of a new technique, but instead, a new kind of disposable chopsticks. So while it may be too good to be true for any pair of disposable chopsticks, there may be some that do break apart like this on the market soon.
A product/graphic designer from Hong Kong, known online as Orange Terry, writes that these chopsticks are a prototype designed for an international contest held by MUJI, the simplistically hip Japanese company.
▼ Final prototype and mock packaging of novel chopstick design
The new chopstick design is inspired by the Japanese toothpick design, which has a notch at the end, allowing it to be easily broken off to become a rest for the pointy end when you set it on the table.
▼ Hold on, we didn’t know about this! This is mind-blowing in itself!
The designers took that idea and transferred it to the most commonly used utensil in Asia — which was pretty brilliant if you ask us.
▼ They seem pretty proud of their design, and we don’t blame ’em!
So, although the hype on the Internet suggests that this technique can be done with any old pair of disposable chopsticks, it seems that it probably won’t work unless you have this specially designed prototype. Fingers crossed that MUJI, or someone, picks up this cool idea!
Sources/Images: Behance/Orange Terry via Twitter/@bortofdarkness, Yukawa