How many times have you ordered a really good cup of Joe from your favorite coffee shop (or even Starbucks) and you regret taking it to go for no other reason than drinking it from that tired, old lid is like wasting the coffee away altogether? The mouth hole is the size your nostril, you can’t smell the intoxicating aroma you know is just trapped inside, and you’re waiting for the second when you take that first gut-wrenching sip and you inevitably burn your entire mouth because there’s just no way to take a sip.

That’s pretty much how Doug Fleming felt about the terribly designed disposable coffee cup lid we’ve been using for what feels like centuries now; it was everything wrong with the old lid that inspired him to design the new Viora Lid, a coffee cup lid that he hopes will revolutionize the way we’re enjoying our coffee drinking experience on-the-go.

The main features that separate the patented Viora Lid from the old-school lid we’re all familiar with break down to things that most people have always hated about to-go coffee cup lids but may have never even realized.

Bigger Opening, Better Drinking

The mouth opening on the Viora Lid is three times the size of that on the conventional lids, and it’s designed to help you sip your drink like you would out of a coffee mug — not suck it out like a straw (you know what we’re talking about). The special design of the bigger opening is made so that your drink pools first into a well-like feature before pouring into your mouth, covering more surface area and delivering a more satisfying taste experience. The company says these simple modifications were improvements that they tested until perfection.

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.”

Strategically Placed Opening Delivers an Aromatic Experience

“Taste is generated through several distinct interactions between your nose, tongue, and brain, Viora Lid’s product page explains. “Lots of really interesting research about what generates taste drove our design process, and the Viora Lid improves each of the ways that aroma contributes to your taste experience.”

They weren’t kidding about all that research. Viora Lid is specially designed so your mouth isn’t the only one enjoying the experience of drinking a really good cup of coffee or tea. That specially-designed lid again is not just meant for better drinking but also better smelling. Inspired again by the mug-like experience, Viora Lid designer Fleming said he didn’t want the drinker to miss one bit of the luxurious experience of enjoying a warm drink because there’s more than just taste buds involved.

“The overwhelming science is that what you characterize as flavor or taste is predominantly contributed by odor,” Fleming told CNBC.

Better Design Means Less Splashing

Because really, what’s the point of taking something to go if you know you’re going to be spending more time keeping it from spilling and splashing and making a mess everywhere? The Viora Lid aims to solve that problem with this new design. The product page explains that because the drink opening sits inside of its “drink-over rim,” liquid collects and pools together before dripping back into the cup instead of splashing out and over. Here’s a video explaining how that works:

Improved Spill Resistance of The Viora Lid from Viora Lid on Vimeo.

Constructed of Greener Materials for Less Waste

And finally, something that most people know is a necessary evil of any disposable products, is the amount of waste and destruction it contributes to the environment. But the company behind the Viora Lid says it wanted to do better there, too, making sure it used a material that was more eco-friendly and contributed to that enjoyable drinking experience it was so intent on creating. The Viora Lid is constructed of high-impact polystyrene, a recyclable plastic that’s better for the environment and also has a low-odor quality, the company’s blog states—so as to not interfere or compete with the aroma of your drink.

Fleming’s company, Vaporpath introduced the Viora Lid to the Specialty Coffee Association of Seattle trade show last month. The company is marketing to “Third Wave” specialty coffee shops for now, which are more likely to want to pay the six cents per lid for its discerning customers, before eventually breaking into the larger markets and brands like McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.