Imbibe some innovation with the best drinking gadgets out there | WIRED UK
It’s the weekend. It’s time for a well-earned drink. But you’ve got home and only just realised that although you’ve been looking forward to that Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1951 all day, you forgot to tell Brabinger to set it out to breathe! Well, you’ll be damned if you’re going to just slosh it out as if it were a bottle of Hardys. If only there was a fancy new wine aerator that could produce a perfectly aerated glass, instantly? Well, there is (see below).
WIRED has raided the office drinks cabinet as well as tapping up a good few contacts with one eye on the very latest kit to make home entertainment be about more than just TVs and soundbars. Charitably, for those looking to take on fluids of a more ordinary nature, we’ve got you covered here, too. Though, in all honesty the Heatworks Duo Carafe could easily be employed to make an excellent hot toddy as well as good cup of tea.
It was David Sedaris who remarked in his book Naked speaking of his sister’s wedding celebrations that “no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well-made cocktail”, and some might argue he was right. Either way, cheers.
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Negating centuries of tradition in a single pour, Aveine’s “smart” wine aerator uses a piezoelectric precision pump to accurately control the speed of the reaction wine has with air. The result promised is a perfectly aerated glass, instantly. Unlike a handful of other aerating gadgets, you can adjust the equivalent aerating time from a few minutes up to a full 24 hours – by sliding a finger up the scale on the touchscreen – and with the help of the app (iOS, Android), you can scan the wine label to figure out precisely how long is needed to get the best from the grape.
L’Orbe Caviar Vodka
Five years in the making, L’Orbe represents a wholly bespoke approach to spirit-making that has deftly blended the characteristics of caviar – in this case cultivated and sourced from ecologically minded Sturgeon farms in the Gironde estuary of south-western France – with the clean, crisp hit of pure Swedish wheat-grain vodka. Encapsulated, via a unique pearl technology, in a bespoke glass vial in the middle of the bottle, the caviar’s subtle flavours are gradually diffused without the fragile eggs simply disintegrating: so what starts as a soft buttery flavour slowly matures to bring out nuttier tones, both ideal served over ice, as a natural accompaniment to (of course) caviar, or as a delicious twist to the classic martini. For a taste, L’Orbe is currently being mixed at three notable London establishments, Sumosan Twiga, Dukes and Tramp.
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Igloo Recool
Due to our “special” climate, people in the UK buy cool boxes and end up using them about once every three years, condemning them to a dusty existence at the back of a cupboard. Disposable cool boxes, that can be bought, used and chucked would be one solution. However, such convenience often comes in the form of polystyrene boxes which sit in landfill, taking hundreds of years to break down. Igloo claims its Recool is the world’s first eco-sensitive cooler, made from recycled tree pulp and paraffin wax, making it 100 per cent biodegradable. Despite the egg-box aesthetics, the Recool is a rugged, hard-sided cooler with a capacity of 18 litres. It can keep your ice solid for up to 12 hours, carry 34kg, and hold water without leaking for up to five days. What’s more, Igloo says the Recool handles bumps and drops better than polystyrene and, perhaps crucially, has another major benefit – none of the teeth-clench-inducing squeaking of the white stuff. And you get all this for just $10 a pop.
Price: $10 | Igloo Coolers
Sulapac straw
It seems like the world needed a microplastic-free, marine-degradable and mass-producable straw years ago. Better late than never comes the Sulapac straw, which is all these things. This patent-pending straw is made from wood and natural binders and can be turned out in numbers using existing machinery at a competitive price. If one ends up in the ocean, naturally occurring micro-organisms can digest and transform it into CO2, H2O and biomass. If it ends up in landfill, the straw decomposes quickly and can be recycled via industrial composting. Now you can have that mojito or milkshake and enjoy it from the moral high ground.
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Price: £TBC | Sulapac
Heatworks Duo Carafe
Designed for the herbal tea drinking or the artisanal pour-over coffee crowd who demand precise temperatures to extract the perfect flavour for their brew, this prototype battery-powered jug can heat water instantaneously as you pour – to within plus or minus one degree Fahrenheit – without warming the water in the jug itself. The engineers claim it is 99 per cent efficient as it uses something called “Ohmic Array Technology”, which sends a current through the water as it pours, rather than using a traditional energy-hungry heating element. While it can’t boil, the Duo Carafe is the closest thing we’ve seen to a wireless kettle, and one that pours filtered cold water too.
Price: £TBC | Heatworks
Bristan Gallery Smart Measure
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No doubt one to be seen on the set of a competitive cookery series soon, the Gallery Smart Measure is a single-lever tap with an incredibly useful spout. Twist the collar to one of 17 desired volumes and it will automatically dispense the precise amount of water before turning off. A godsend to keen bakers or anyone not up to speed with the conversion rate between cups, spoonfulls, millilitres and fluid ounces.
Price: £499 | Bristan | Amazon
Kyrö Juuri New Make
Pictured (L-R): Kyrö Juuri New Make single malt; Boskke Till Planter; Thermomix TM6
Founded in the Finnish village of Isokyrö, Kyrö Distillation Company is the world’s northernmost gin and whisky distillery. It creates small batch rye whiskey using 100 per cent malted wholegrain rye – and Juuri (meaning “root” or “origin” in Finnish) is the company’s first Nordic un-aged single malt. At 46.3 per cent ABV, it is the ideal base for cocktails, with a sweet and mildly spicy nose, notes of liquorice and aniseed, and the unmistakable taste of traditional Finnish rye bread.
Price: £36 for 50cl | Kyro Distillery
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Keurig Drinkworks Drinkmaker
Home is where the bar is. Surely one for the instant imbiber, the Keurig Drinkworks Drinkmaker can produce cold cocktails in under a minute. A collaboration between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig, this countertop gadget uses “Quick Cool KOLD” technology, an on-board chilling and carbonation system, to prepare your cocktails, brews, ciders and more at the touch of a button. It’s like a Sodastream for adults. There’s even a Drinkworks App to help you unbox and set up your drinkmaker, and, crucially, order libations from your lounge.
Price: $300 | Drinkworks
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