The Challenge of Süssli Technology

Cyclamate and saccharin, a lethal combo or so we're told. I was recently in Germany. There was no sucralose or stevia to be found. Many kinds of sugar, everything from natural, to cubes, to raw, and kandis.  For sweetener, however, I seemed to have one option. This option.

For only a couple of euros, I purchased the container so that I'd have sweetener. I peeled off the blue plastic sealing ring. I tugged, twisted and turned the blue lid. Nothing happened. I was stumped. Despite the fear of splitting my finger nails, I pryed. Still no luck.

I looked at the bottom of the container, imagining some kind of secret. Yes, "Secret", the stick deodorant that you push up from the bottom is what came to mind when I espied some kind of scaffolding underneath the container. Do I push it up? I tried. I pushed. Still no luck.

Push? Push? Could it be? Such a high level of technology on a sweetener cylinder?

I started at square one and tried the obvious. I pressed down on the blue lid. Success! My tea would be tart no more. The tiny tablet popped out of the bottom of the sweetener container. I pressed again, then 3 more times. After all, there were 1200 stück in the container. What could a few or even a few dozen experimental presses matter?

I find it amazing when I think about the mass production and the minimal price of such a thing. I could have pressed the top and watch those little saccharins fall out the bottom all day long. Isn't it great have this much fun with such simple technology? Oh...and yes, I did manage to use a few.