When I was a kid, there were a few important rules in my house. One of them was not to throw or kick balls inside the house. While it might have bothered my brother and I on rainy days, it was a rule that made a lot of sense. There were many more things to break inside the house, than outside. But what if you’re brave enough to encourage your kid to play sports inside? You’ll need the right furniture to accommodate them.
The JAN Table was designed to look and function as a soccer (or football, if you’re from anywhere but the US) goal. Sure, it’s not exactly regulation size, but that would be a little hard to eat off of. It sits at two and a half feet high, and a little over four feet long, which is plenty of room to have a little bit of target practice with a ball.
The tables are all hand-made using entirely reclaimed wood, natural products, and eco-friendly processes. The tables come in two different color schemes. Both have a natural wood color on top, but one has a black and white goal, while the other is red and white. Each will set you back around $850, though you may want to set aside a little extra money to cover the broken items that you’ll find in the room at some point.
Have you ever tried limiting your sweets intake? It can be hard to do on a good day, but when someone bakes a fresh batch of cookies, you’re going to find yourself back in the kitchen every few minutes. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way that you could force yourself to wait a specific amount of time before eating the next one? Sure, you should be able to control your urges, but sometimes you need that extra help. Well that’s where the Kitchen Safe comes in.
This interesting gadget looks like an ordinary container, but the lid is what really makes this thing stand out. There is a small screen with a timer on the top. You can set the timer to count down from anywhere from one minute to ten days. Once set and secured, the lid won’t come off until the timer reaches zero. There is no override, and even removing the batteries won’t help you get to your sweets. If your batteries do die, the timer will start from where it left off when new ones are installed.
Food isn’t the only thing you can store in these containers. If you want to ground your child from their Xbox for a week, just pop their controller in, and start the countdown. Somehow it makes the punishment seem even worse when they can actually see the controller sitting out every time they walk past.
The container is made from BPA-free plastic, which is perfect for storing all kinds of food. Should you desire, you can choose a solid white container, which is not transparent. This is good for foods that need to be kept out of the light. It measures 6” x 6” x 6.5”, which is a nice size for storing a variety of goods. The Kitchen Safe is currently a Kickstarter project, though at the time of writing, it has received more than 90% of its funding, and still has 26 days to go. If you order during the Kickstarter funding period, you can get a safe for just $25. After that, the price will jump up to $35.
Father’s Day is just around the corner, so you might want to ensure the entire family has something special for dad. After all, hasn’t dad busted his back over all these years to do his level best and provide for the family? Assuming it is your family tradition to perform a cook-out each year on Father’s Day, and dad being the main cook of the home as he makes the best hamburgers, how about a present that he needs not wrap around his neck (aka the dreaded tie), but rather, the $49.95 Marinade Infusing Meat Tenderizer?
It should be a gizmo that he will appreciate, as this particular meat tenderizer will be able to infuse food with marinade. This is made possible thanks to a built-in plunger which will release marinade into meat through a trio of needle-like applicators, where it will quickly saturating the interior of food with flavor enhancing ingredients. A total of 27 seven stainless steel blades would do the job of severing tough connective tissue, softening the meat in the process. Capable of holding up to 3 oz. of marinade (which for the kitchen challenged, is enough to flavor 2 lbs. of flank steak), the tenderizing blades will feature two depth settings to deliver optimal penetration of thick roasts or steaks. Not only that, when it goes up and about its job, it will not alter the meat’s thickness. [ Marinade Infusing Meat Tenderizer copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Try taking a coffee snob into Starbucks and you might have trouble; that is, unless you’re lucky enough to come across a branch with a Clover machine. The one-cup brewer – borrowing principles from a French Press and a vacuum pot, among other preparation methods, and which allows for far greater experimentation with beans, roasts, and strengths – has slowly found its way into a small number of Starbucks locations, a welcome distraction from big pots of Pike Roast and milk-heavy cappuccino. Even with Starbucks’ might behind it, though, the Clover has been a relative secret among the coffee cognoscenti, but all that could change in short order with signs of a new, super-auto Clover in development.
The original Clover machine was developed by the simply-named startup Coffee Equipment Company, back in 2005. An attempt to mix the flavor profiles of brewed coffee with the one-cup focus usually reserved for espresso-based drinks, it took a new approach to squeezing a mug out of 30-seconds of contact with hot water.
To do that the Clover’s creators came up with Vacuum-Press technology, a combination of French Press and Vacuum Pots. In a French Press, ground coffee is fully immersed in near-boiling water and left to brew, then the grounds separated out by pushing through a fine mesh. With a Vacuum Pot, water heated in a bottom glass globe is forced up into a second globe on top, mixing with ground coffee there. When pulled off the heat, the brewed coffee rushes back down into the bottom half, ready for drinking.
In Clover’s Vacuum-Press, a little of both takes place. On the top of the machine there’s the top of a computer-controlled piston, into which the coffee is loaded; water from a fixed tap above is poured in, and then – after some stirring and brewing time – the piston pushes up, with a 70-micron mesh drawing the grounds up to the top of the machine, while a vacuum sucks the coffee itself out of the bottom, into a waiting container.
Clover 1S Walkthrough:
There’s something of a spectacle to it, but more importantly it allows for a huge range of coffee flavors to emerge. On the one hand, the whole process is far more controlled than the somewhat haphazard French Press, with the water temperature precisely maintained, more consistency in how the barista can stir the brewing grounds, and more even extraction when the drink is ready. The general report from Clover drinkers is of exceptional clarity, with the delicate complexities of different coffees becoming clearer when made with the machine.
The complexity took on a new dimension in 2008, though, when Starbucks bought the Coffee Equipment Company, and announced plans to put several machines in its stores. It prompted no small amount of consternation among independent coffee shop owners, some of whom had already bought Clover 1S machines (at roughly $8-11k apiece) but who suddenly realized they would be beholden to Starbucks for parts and servicing.
However, a greater question was whether Starbucks’ push for coffee making simplicity could at all be balanced with the demands a Clover put on its accompanying barista. Starbucks had originally used gleaming La Marzocco semi-automatic espresso machines – which required the operator to grind and tamp the beans separately – but, in the early 2000s, switched to super-automatic machines that effectively do everything at a single button press. Known colloquially as bean-to-cup brewers, these are certainly easier to use (no complex staff training on grinders, tracking espresso shots, and the like) but give up flexibility and top quality in the process. For the sake of having consistently average shots of espresso, Starbucks lost the expertise that drew out great shots.
In contrast, a Clover 1S is a lot more time-consuming than hitting a button and watching espresso drip out. Though the extraction takes around 30-40 seconds in all, there’s a fair amount of engagement through the process as a whole: the barista has to decide on the water temperature, how long to stir the grounds (not to mention how aggressively), and when to decant the coffee. The spent grounds have to be squeegeed off the piston mesh into a waste chute between uses. Before all that, there’s helping the customer through the decision process of actually picking beans that might suit the clarity a Clover delivers, then grinding them appropriately. How, critics questioned, would that fit with the fast-paced bar of a downtown Starbucks?
The answer was that it didn’t – or, at least, it hasn’t yet. Starbucks’ exact roll-out of Clover machines hasn’t been numerically detailed, though it’s certainly not many; the greatest number are in the US, of course, while foreign locations are lucky if they get a glimpse of one of the brewers. The UK, for instance, has just one Clover in all of its Starbucks stores.
That may well be about to change, however, with the apparent arrival of a new Clover machine. A freshly-filed US patent application – “Apparatus, systems, and methods for brewing a beverage” – spotted by Spudge seemingly describes a multi-brew-module coffee machine that uses the same principles as the 1S, but with a blast of super-auto convenience.
“In one embodiment, a system for brewing a single-cup portion of coffee is provided. The system comprises a first brew module, a second brew module, and a third brew module. The first brew module, the second brew module, and the third brew module are each configured to brew a single-cup portion of coffee in about 30 seconds or less. In such an embodiment, the first brew module comprises a first doser assembly, a first upper subassembly, a first interior subassembly, and a first dispensing portion. The first doser assembly is engaged with the first upper subassembly and is configured to receive one or more hoppers. The first upper subassembly comprises a first wiper assembly for automatically cleaning the upper subassembly after a brew cycle. The first interior subassembly comprises a first piston configured to raise and lower coffee grounds during a brew cycle. The first dispensing portion is engaged with the first interior subassembly and is configured to provide brewed coffee to a drinking receptacle after a brew cycle” Starbucks Coffee Corporation patent application
Where the original Clover was one part of an overall coffee making process, the super-auto Clover takes charge of all stages. It automatically grinds the beans, measures out the right dose, brews, and then cleans itself, all in the space of around thirty seconds or less. Starbucks’ engineers have even seen fit to include a little “visual theater” for the customer, with cooling vents that serve the bonus duty of puffing out aesthetically pleasing steam and letting the coffee smell spread around the store.
A cluster of hoppers on the top of the machine would allow for multiple bean options, potentially giving the mass coffee market the same sort breadth of choice that tea drinkers have been enjoying with their individually-wrapped bags for years now.
For Starbucks, it’s an opportunity to translate an interesting but niche acquisition into something far more relevant to the bulk of its stores. The company knows that a big chunk of its North American audience still prefers brewed coffee to espresso-based drinks, and luring them in with the flexibility of an on-demand, by-the-cup brewing process – perhaps with a little extra on the tab, in recognition of how unique an offering it is – could mean a neat chunk of extra business.
It also stands a good chance of being cheaper to run in the long term, too. Right now, Starbucks’ drip machines make coffee in bulk, and that has a relatively short shelf life. The company’s policy is to dump whatever’s left after two hours and brew up a new batch, no matter whether it’s almost all been sold or just a cup’s worth has gone. In contrast, a super-auto Clover could scale to suit, kicking out a theoretical two drinks a minute per module in rush hour, or idling with no waste during lull periods.
Is the coffee connoisseur missing out by the absence of a more involved barista? There’s inevitably something to be lost when you take control out of the hands of trained, enthusiastic people and give it over to repetitive routines; whether Starbucks’ staff will actually have any real clue about the Clover coffees they’re serving, or simply point to well-rehearsed marketing blurbs on a card by the machine, remains to be seen. Then again, if they’re so potentially clueless to begin with, perhaps it’s better in the long run that they have as little input into the making of your drink as possible.
In the end, it’s the coffee in the cup that’s important. That has far more to do with beans than it does machines. Back when the first Clover 1S started showing up in Starbucks locations, the NYTimes sent down Cup of Excellence co-fonder George Howell to taste the various options. Although there were some “interesting” flavors in his opinion, the overall feedback was of too darkly roasted beans (something often done by roasters to make broadly homogenized blends less dependent on the whims of the supply chain, not necessarily because it makes for a stronger cup) that ended up making underwhelming or even unpleasant cups of coffee. Bad input, bad output. Starbucks may well have solved the Clover convenience issue, but it’ll have to match that with great tasting beans if it doesn’t want all that clarity to show it up.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of having not only good food (especially a BBQ, of course!), but also to have great music to go along with it. What happens when you want both of them together, and yet you are working on a limited budget? This is where the $199.99 MP3 BBQ Grill comes in handy, where it will be able to keep hungry stomachs full with the right kind of fare, in addition to keeping your ears entertained, and to get your booties shaking the next time you throw a poolside BBQ party. Heck, you can also drop the poolside, and the MP3 BBQ Grill will still work just right.
The MP3 BBQ Grill is a clever electric device that was specially developed for outdoor as well as indoor use, sporting a generous 200 square inch cooking surface which is ideal for grilling vegetables and burgers among others. Not only that, it comes with a non-stick coating to ensure easy food release and cleanup, where there is also a center channel that drains away fat into a large grease tray. Thanks to the 10-watt speaker, this is the most complete BBQ grill you can ever look for if good music and food are right up your alley. In addition, you can also crank up the integrated AM/FM radio or plug in any iPod, iPhone or other MP3 device to get your music fix.
They say that cooking is an art, and for those of us who happen to burn the pot while one is boiling water, it goes without saying the kitchen is a whole lot better off without you in it. The thing is, you have this passion to tinker around the kitchen much to the chagrin of everyone else living under the same roof as you, but thank goodness technology has progressed to such a stage where it is able to help out even the most clueless of chefs. Case in point, BBQs are fun, but it is an art to know whether that slab of meat, or row of sausages are well cooked right to the inside. Enter the $79.99 Bluetooth BBQ Thermometer to help you get the job done.
With the Bluetooth BBQ Thermometer, no longer do you need to hang around a hot grill in order to check on the temperature of the food being cooked constantly, leaving you time and opportunity to chat up that sweet young thing whom you have had your eyes on for the longest time already. The Bluetooth BBQ Thermometer would come across as a grilling, cooking, smoking thermometer, where it will work in tandem with an app on your iOS-powered device, or other compatible smartphones. A dual temperature probe will monitor a couple of different meats simultaneously, even up to 200 feet away, and will alert you the moment your food has reached the temperature you set on the base station.
I think it is pretty safe to say that there is nothing quite like a piping hot meal awaiting you at the end of a long, hard day at the office. Of course, when the weather outside is super cold (and wet, assuming it rains in your area frequently), the hot meal becomes all the more desirable. The thing is, some of us do pack our lunch at home and bring it to work, but by the time lunch time rolls around, our lunch is extremely cold and bland to the taste, requiring us to pop it into a microwave oven for a couple of minutes to heat it up. Enter the $39.99 Magnetic Thermopot, which is said to be a more “grown-up” version of the thermos.
The Magnetic Thermopot has a seal that borders on the magical, especially since it is capable of keeping things hot as well as cold, depending on the food that you place inside, for up to 5 hours to boot. The folks behind the Magnetic Thermopot have decided to endearingly call it a food flask, as it sports a vacuum sealed cork lid which is guaranteed to keep your food hot (or cold), while being accompanied by a stainless steel spoon which is attached to the side for that added bit of convenience. Capable of holding up to 17 fluid ounces, those who tend to eat on the go would find the Magnetic Thermopot a decent addition to their collection of dining apparatus.
Before you wonder whether SPRiZZi is actually the name of a new fizzy carbonated drink, let us cut to the chase for you – it surely has something to do with carbonated drinks that the world have come to know and love. In fact, the SPRiZZi is touted to be the first full-service, in-home beverage dispenser of its kind that is capable of delivering over 60 ice-cold carbonated and non-carbonated drinks thanks to its practical design and easy-to-use, one-touch dispensing procedure. So much so that there has been much ado about it, that SPRiZZi has finally made its way as a Kickstarter project, so if you believe in it so much, put your money where your heart is, and keep your fingers crossed that there will be enough investors around to help make SPRiZZi a reality.
Just how did the idea of SPRiZZi come about? Michael Breault, Founder of Sprizzi drink-co., said, “As an active baseball and football coach with four sons, the number of soda cans and sports bottles we recycled as a family was outstanding, and that’s where the idea to build a personal beverage dispenser originated. Other household options like the SodaStream only carbonate your beverage – you still have to fetch your own water, refrigerate it and manually pour the syrup. SPRiZZi, on the other hand, chills water below 40 degrees, carbonates it automatically, adds just the right amount of flavoring, and pours your drink for you, allowing you to create up to 60 types of beverages with the single press of a button.”
The SPRiZZi Drink Machine has a new patent-pending revolutionary technology that clearly places this as the first of its kind which can carbonate, refrigerate, mix and dispense over 60 exclusive SPRiZZi flavors. It won’t occupy a space that is larger than a standard coffee machine, making it the perfect addition to your home, office or even dorm. Greenpeace activists can sleep in peace knowing that the SPRiZZi Drink Machine is eco-friendly thanks to its utilization of tap water in order to filter and pour beverages, boasting of thermal cooling technology, and 100% recyclable plastic flavor bullets. Individual syrup-infused flavor bullets will pour a 16-ounce, ready-to-drink beverage, where you can choose from classic flavors (colas, orange soda, etc.), non-carbonated options (such as lemonade and tea), old-fashioned gourmet flavors (cream sodas and more), lite flavors (ranging from tea to soda), sports drinks, fruit juices and vitamin/protein/energy-enhanced drinks, to Kidz (made with half the sweetner) and Kidz plus flavors (enriched with vitamins and electrolytes).
$197 is the starting pledge required to receive a SPRiZZi Drink Machine, which is still far more affordable than the projected retail price of $399 when SPRiZZi starts to ship later this August should all go well.
You can say that R2-D2 is the one major Star Wars character who does not have the emotion of a human, and neither does it have the power to manipulate the Force, but it has done more than its fair share in order to make sure the good guys always win, before the Emperor ascended his throne and ruled the galaxy with fear, and after that as he helped out the Rebel Alliance. Well, if there is another thing that R2-D2 might help you in your home would be this – to be able to ensure no fights break out among the family as it goes about its business, cutting your pizza perfectly. After all, how can anyone have anything against the $19.99 R2-D2 Talking Pizza Cutter?
The R2-D2 Talking Pizza Cutter will naturally come with its fair share of sound effects, which means it runs on some sort of power source. Of course, since there are no X-Wings in existence just yet, don’t bet on a mini-sized nuclear reactor powering the R2-D2 Talking Pizza Cutter, but rather, it would go around its business thanks to a trio of LR41 cell batteries that were included right out of the box to get you started there and then. For those who are a fan of pizza as well as Star Wars, this is definitely the droid you’re looking for!
If you are a sucker for attention, then perhaps you might want to check out the $7.99 Eat’N Tool Dark Edition, which is definitely not something you would see on the dining table every single day. This is truly a unique tool to carry around, where it has been described as the ultimate multi-tool, doubling up as an eating utensil, too! It does not matter whether you are in a tight position, you will still be able to have your spoon, fork, bottle opener, screwdriver/pry tip, metric wrenches, and carabiner with you.
Not only that, the Eat’N Tool Dark Edition will not bog you down on your travels, considering it tips the scales at a “mighty” 1.5 oz. Invented by NYC designer Liong Mah, it does resemble a distant cousin of the spork at first glance, but also comes with a plethora of other capabilities as mentioned above. The trio of metric wrench reliefs (10 mm, 8 mm, 6 mm) should come in handy in tight spots for sure! There is a large central hole that is suitable for finger gripping, while it ensures the tool remains nice and light.
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Where the original Clover was one part of an overall coffee making process, the super-auto Clover takes charge of all stages. It automatically grinds the beans, measures out the right dose, brews, and then cleans itself, all in the space of around thirty seconds or less. Starbucks’ engineers have even seen fit to include a little “visual theater” for the customer, with cooling vents that serve the bonus duty of puffing out aesthetically pleasing steam and letting the coffee smell spread around the store.
