Why Do So Many Maple Syrup Bottles Have a Tiny Little Handle?
Ideally, you’d be able to hold the handle of a maple syrup container while you carry it and also while you pour the syrup onto pancakes, waffles, or whatever other foodstuff calls for it. But the typical handle on a glass bottle of maple syrup is way too small and positioned too far up the bottleneck to be functional in either respect.
The most widely accepted explanation is that the tiny handle is a skeuomorph, meaning “an ornament or design representing a utensil or implement,” per Merriam-Webster. In other words, a given item has a design element—a skeuomorph—that might help you recognize what the item is or should be used for, but doesn’t necessarily have a purpose beyond that. The floppy disk icon in Microsoft Word is a great example: It’s what you select to save a file, evoking the bygone days of saving files on physical floppy disks. The fact that it looks like a floppy disk clues you in to what the button does (though the clue is likely lost on the kids of today), but the design doesn’t have anything to do with the actual saving capability of said button.
Smart devices are full of skeuomorphs that reflect the physical version of a piece of technology. Your email icon might look like an envelope; your trash folder might make the sound of crumpling paper when you empty it. But there are plenty of skeuomorphs that don’t involve the transition from analog to digital life, and the useless handle of a maple syrup bottle is one of them.
