Reviews, Chews & How-Tos: Review: Gravity Chopsticks

If you've ever eaten with chopsticks, you know that you have to have somewhere to rest them between courses or in lulls of eating, especially if you're someone like me, who likes to talk with their hands, and you don't want to be waving around your utensils in conversation.

The traditional answer is chopstick rests, but unfortunately, not everyone has them and sometimes there just isn't enough room to rest them on the side of your plate. When this happens, you usually have to find a napkin or something as a buffer between your chopsticks and the table to keep things sanitary.

Gravity Chopsticks is a company that seeks to fix this predicament. With their innovative chopstick design, the eating tips of the chopsticks are suspended in the air when they are laid down on the table.

These sticks are made of a BPA free thermoplastic which means that they are both dishwasher safe and heat resistant for cooking. They are also slightly texturized, which helps with getting a good grip.

Currently, they come in two different colors: black, which start at $5.95, and a limited edition red, which starts at $7.95. They also offer two different case options for storing and carrying around the chopsticks: black velvet sleeves for $3.00 and a hard carry case for $29.95. The hard carry case is currently out of stock at the time of writing.

I was able to try out four pairs of Gravity Chopsticks, two black and two limited edition red. I really appreciated the texture on them, as I find that some of the chopsticks that I've used before were simply too slippery to really use.

The squared design of the chopsticks was also really nice, because that meant that they didn't just go rolling off the table when they were set down.

While most chopsticks have a continual taper along the entire stick, these achieve their suspension by having an abrupt change of width in the middle of the chopstick. This didn't present any problems for the Mister or a couple of friends who used them, but for me, I had a slight learning curve because that abrupt change is exactly where I usually hold my chopsticks.

It didn't take long though, and I was holding them a bit further back and using them with no problem.

The clearance between chopstick and surface is only a couple of millimeters, so you do have to make sure there are no food particles or saucy goodness on your sticks before setting them down, or you will more than likely have contact with the surface of the table.

While I was able to use the chopsticks to saute some onions and garlic for my ramen, I was not able to test out how well they would handle being put through a dishwasher because my dishwasher's utensil basket's grid is too big, and the sticks fall right through.

I can't see how they would not hold up to it machine washing, though, as they did a great job when I cooked with them on the stovetop.

I love these chopsticks, and I find myself reaching for them over my old sticks constantly. I keep a set in my lunchbox for work and the Mister has even requested a pair to take with him to Korea! Gravity Chopsticks have a simple, elegant design that works!