Hasta La Gadget!

We may just have found the perfect partner for Gadget Lab’s most beloved employee, the Beer Robot. A testosterone-pumping, twist-grip throttle toting, gas-powered blender.

The two-stroke, 43cc engine spins a blade inside an 85oz stainless steel pitcher, which should make enough margaritas to keep even our cocktail-guzzling NYC bureau chief John C Abell happy on his train-rides home. And because it is self powered, the blender can be used anywhere. Just make sure you bring enough ice.

A match made in robot heaven? Yes, but it’ll have to be a long distance relationship. California emissions laws mean that the gas blender can never visit the Beer Robot at home in San Francisco. $285.

Product page [Kegworks via Uncrate]

See Also:

• How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator
• Beer Robot
• Help Wired Pimp Our Kegerator, Win Free Beer

When I go camping, I take a saucepan and the biggest pack of coffee grounds I can stuff into my (or preferably sneak into someone else’s) pack. As long as it’s strong and plentiful, it doesn’t need to be pretty, and running a spoon around the edge of the pan drops the grounds to the bottom (it’s a great trick. Try it out).

For the soft-handed dilettante, though, something altogether fancier is in order. Enter Brunton’s new Flip-n-Drip. The three-part maker takes care of everything. Boil water in the base and then attach the “brew-chamber”, a section which holds the grounds. Flip and wait as the water percolates through, picking up aromatic, life giving flavors and oils as it goes.

The coffee ends up in an integrated cup, ready to drink. The whole thing is made from aluminum for lightness and comes with a carrying bag. I’ll stick with my ghetto method: uni-taskers are even worse in the field than they are in the kitchen. For you wusses who think otherwise, the Flip-n-Drip should be live on the site soon for $45.

Product page [Brunton via Oh Gizmo]

Press release [Doc Stoc]

This lovely pair of jugs updates the measuring cup, although they’ll end up being a rather useless investment. Why? Batteries. The SmartMeasure Cup weighs whatever is inside and gives the readout on an angled LCD screen on the handle. This makes it essentially a usefully-shaped weighing scale.

But when the battery runs out, it’ll be just the same as every other jug in the cupboard, and you probably won’t ever get around to buying a replacement button-cell. The evidence: I have an excellent glass and metal digital scale from Salter. I have owned it for many years, and yet I almost never use it, despite its convenience, accuracy and good looks. The batteries died long ago and the only time I ever remember this is when I need to weigh something. I will never, ever remember to buy new ones when am out shopping, so I may as well toss the thing.

At least the jug will still work manually, but why go to the expense for a few months worth of digital action? Available this fall.

Really Really Smart [Yanko]

If you have an oil or a jam-making thermometer, a specialist deep-fryer is uneccesary. You just dump a few bottles of oil into a big, heavy pot and throw it on a high flame, watching the temperature slowly climb. The trouble with this is that you need lots of oil, and it’s messy filtering it back into the bottles (when cold, of course).

So we actually like this mini-fryer from Deni, which sits on the countertop or can be stowed full, and best of all can fry with just a quart of oil (around one liter) thanks to it’s compact form and tall, narrow shape, meaning you don’t need a huge investment in grease just to get started.

There’s also a frying basket, a magnetic safety cable (like the MacBook Mag Safe connectors) and a thermometer, which should on no account be trusted: use your own to double-check it. The fryer maxes out at a French-fry-browning 375ºF (190ºC) and costs a reasonable $45. Buy it now and enjoy the health benefits of quick-sealed, deep-fried, low-fat food. Can anyone say “Mmmmm. Donuts”?

Product page [Chefs Catalog via Oh Gizmo!]

If you visit Barcelona, Spain, don’t drink the tap water. Depending on which part of town you are in, water from the faucet either tastes of chlorine, gives you cancer, or both. This is why almost everyone buys giant eight-liter (541 tablespoons) bottles of water and drags them up the stairs of their seven-story, elevator-free apartment buildings.

Yes, yes, the environment would be better if only I used a water filter. The problem is that they are so frikkin’ ugly. And plastic. Here, though, is a glass and steel beauty, a jug so fine it doesn’t use boring old everyday charcoal cartridges but real lumps of Binchotan charcoal and louseki stones, all the way from the “mountains in Kanazawa, the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast.”

This is, clearly, the home-made equivalent of Fiji bottled water.

The cost is a not unreasonable $85, fine for something used several times daily. The refills come in at $25 each, which – even if one lasts just half the promised six months – is a whole lot less than the money spent on water, plus the environmental costs of trasport and plastic bottle disposal.

The best part? The refill is called “Purifying Sticks and Stones”, with which you can also, presumably, break somebody’s bones.

Product page [Design Within Reach via Uncrate]