All good things come with a twist – a dance, a game and of course a twist in one’s cocktail.  Here’s another one –

When I opened my generous box of Wilton goodies with cake and decorating supplies, I was very intrigued by their product called the Twist Quick Coupler Set so I decided to give it a try and write a review.

If you’re new to using decorating tips with a pastry bag or even a parchment cone, a traditional standard coupler comes in two parts – the threaded part that goes inside the decorating bag and protrudes slightly from the cut end point of the bag, and the ring which twists onto the threaded coupler holding a decorating tip in place on the end of the coupler.  This system allows the decorator to change decorating tips and therefore design patterns.

Wilton’s Twist Quick Coupler is much larger than a traditional standard coupler due to it’s half turn locking mechanism.

This set also has an ‘extra’ part compared to the traditional coupler.  The tall middle part, in the above photo, is like a go-between to the threaded coupler part that goes inside the pastry bag and the ring that secures a tip.  On the Twist Quick Coupler, the ‘ring’ of the traditional coupler is replaced by the purple cap.

The little bumps inside the purple cap fits with the spiral grooves of the tall part of the go-between coupler thus enabling a half twist to lock and release.  I was surprised how much I really did like this.

Here’s the quick coupler all ready to decorate!

It also comes with an additional purple cap that twists onto the coupler end, without a tip, to store the icing in the bag for a later use.  Although this is a good idea, personally, I think the storage cap should accommodate the decorating tip to still be attached to the coupler.  The cap should be able to go over the tip and coupler combo.  Just my preference.

Otherwise, I’m doing this –

…sticking a toothpick in the end of the tip that I plan on still using.  It’s a quick fix  because I don’t want the opening of my tip to dry out.  The toothpick trick just works for small round openings but it’s the tips I usually work with.  If the storage cap was just a little longer it would at least take care of one tip no matter what size opening the tip had.

So here is my recap.

The things I like about the Twist Quick Coupler –

1.  It really does allow for quicker changes of decorating tips when working with a single color.

2.  If ease of finger and thumb dexterity is a challenge, then this makes it much easier than the repetitive motion of twisting a standard coupler ring on and off.

3.  Sometimes marrying the standard coupler and ring can get wonky.  This is completely eliminated with this set.

4.  The tall ‘in-between’ coupler piece, as I call it, secures the icing in the bag like nobody’s business when attached to the internal coupler.  I can’t foresee any icing making its way out of that connection.

5.  A storage cap is included with the coupler set to seal the icing in the bag for later use.

4.  Removing the internal coupler to clean is easy with just a squeeze at the end of the bag in the opposite direction (towards the top of the bag).  This isn’t always an easy thing to do with a standard coupler.  I’m all for quick and easy clean up at the end of a project.  Yay!

5.  Because it’s larger, it’s less likely to end up in the garbage disposal by accident.  I can’t tell you how many tips and couplers I’ve ground up not knowing they had fallen into the dark abyss where only my hand fits to retrieve it.  Yuck.

My only improvement is what I stated above –

1.  Make the storage cover long enough to accommodate a decorating tip still attached to the coupler.

Of course, the unit costs more than the little 2-piece standard coupler and takes up more room to store but it is nice to have at least one or two in your decorating arsenal.

I hope this review was helpful to you.  🙂

So, tell me, what do you think of the product?  Here’s a link from Wilton to see the Twist Quick Coupler Set in use.