Kitchen Tech

Let there be light the easier way with the Flamer Windproof Gas-Free Lighter. Featuring an easy to use design, this innovative lighter is actually rechargeable so you can use it again and again. And, because it doesn’t use gas, you never have to deal with refills again. The Flamer has a built-in 400mAh battery inside. With this, you can light the Flamer anywhere from 20 to 40 times. Then, when you need to recharge, you can easily do so with the included micro USB to USB charging cable. Resistant to wind, Flamer gives you a light in just about any condition. Plus, the entire casing is exceptionally hard-wearing. This is all thanks to the real rosewood exterior. This material is super strong while offering a beautiful finish. Measuring under four inches, you can keep the Flamer anywhere you need so it’s always within reach.

The Quick Start Grill Automatically Lighting Charcoal BBQ will improve the way you grill. With charcoal igniting at 660°F, this innovative grill reaches 950°F within four minutes, meaning it ignites the charcoal faster. And you don’t have to bother with lighter fluid or gas because it does it all on its own. Furthermore, this self-lighting BBQ doesn’t just light the charcoal—it also extinguishes it when you’re done grilling. It’s a truly automatic grill that still gives you the pleasure of cooking without the hassle of dealing with fuel. With a charcoal grill like this, you’ll not only be safer but also more environmentally friendly – it’s even UL-listed. By starting the charcoal as quickly as possible, this grill ensures you use the charcoal efficiently. So when you’re ready to grill next time, you can finish up your half-burnt briquettes.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THEIR KICKSTARTER WHICH WENT LIVE 4 MINUTES AGO! 

One sunny day in August Łukasz Woźniak (whom I had never spoken to before) reached out to me via email with a game he had designed. I’ll be honest, when I read the name Valhalla(written in the email) I was unimpressed. Too many games have fallen short in the Viking category, and to be so bold as to have a one-word name that carries so much history and weight behind it didn’t excite me either.

Then I watched his (private) video pitch covering the game: I was instantly hooked.

I responded that I was interested, and eagerly awaited the game’s arrival…

When I opened the box, I got even MORE than what I expected. This is literally the coolest unboxing of any game I’ve ever received. And that’s saying a lot. Lukasz clearly put a LOT of love, design, and business sense into this. It was clear he knows what he’s doing designing games: creating an experience.

I didn’t get the game to the table immediately, but I did have a chance to thumb through the components. The art in this game is STELLAR. This game has variable player powers in the form of Jarls (pronounced YARLs). The base game comes with 25 of them. Below are the 6 recommended for your first game (with the diamond in the upper right corner) and 2 for games with 3+ players. The expansions add even more Jarls, and I assume if the Kickstarter gets overfunded there may be some more as Stretch Goals / Add-ons!

Next, we’ll look at some fierce Warrior cards from the game. They are the Bear Clan, Frost Giant, and Deer Clan (from left to right). The base set also has 2 more clans: Wolf and Boar. The expansions ad Fire Giants, Valkyries, and Dwarves. Plus, there are even more lined up as stretch goals, which you can vote on in the Facebook Group!

The upper left icon is their Strength and Clan color. Beneath that is their Special Features (if any). The framed icons below that are the Weapons (dice) needed to activate the Warrior during an Attack. The bottom left is their Glory Points, which are the victory points you acquire through the game. The Warriors Glory Points are only gained if they make it to Valhalla(your discard pile). This may sound counter-intuitive, racing to get your card in your discard pile, but it is the element that truly makes Valhalla feel like a bloody battle for glory. 

Another cool element of the art is their reuse of illustrations between cards of the same Clan and Strength. Below is a Deer clan Warrior of Strength 5, but one wields an axe, sword, and shield while the other carries a bow, spear, and shield.

PRO TIP: DIVERSIFYING YOUR WEAPONS ON YOUR WARRIORS IS THE KEY TO VICTORY!

When you make your first roll, it’s much better to have options as far as activating the Warriors rather than trying to roll all Weapons of one type or another.

Now, this isn’t just some Yahtzee reskin with badass Viking art on it. This is a well thought out game of attrition through strategic decisions. And unlike games that lean too heavily on chance, this one has Tactics cards to help you mitigate bad rolls, or create favorable scenarios for activating your Warriors.

And for those who love their minis, the King of the Hill expansion includes an awesome Frost Giant miniature!

There are even more components to this game, but I wanted to leave SOMETHING for you to discover. Below is an explanation of the game from the publisher, Go On Board, and the history of how Valhalla came to be. I hope you enjoyed my preview / review and look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below!

Overview of the game:

Valhalla is a 1-6 players card game with a dice-placement mechanics. Set in the Norse mythology, Valhalla puts You right in the battlefield, where You lead a team of warriors and fight other players.

In Valhalla You manage a hand of cards, build a team on the table, and battle using custom weapon dice. Player turn consists of one each action, followed by drawing 2 cards and picking 1 of them. The game flows smoothly giving players a lot of decisions with a simple set of rules.

The core of the game are the player vs player battles, where players use custom weapons dice. Battles are dynamic, exciting and allow for a lot of tactical decisions. In the battle, the attacking player roll the dice, assign them to the warriors and use rerolls and battle-tactics to help their attack. After the attack, defender has a chance to respond and the battle is over.

Scoring is one of the innovative mechanics, where the winner of the battle sends his activated warriors to Valhalla. They were proven worth of Valhalla and give the player Glory Points. So the players build their team, try to win the battle, and get points for warriors sent to Valhalla. There is no snowball effect and warriors on the table change all the time.

How the game came to life:

Valhalla is a result of a 3-year design and year-and a half of development. Łukasz Woźniak, the author of the game, has 11 games published (King and Assassins being one of the most recognizable), and Valhalla is his second self-published game.

Valhalla was an idea to combine a card game with a dice game, where the player battles will be center point of the game. The design process helped streamline the game to a simple, yet deep and exciting title. It brings a lot of fun and interaction to the table, straying away from a negative player-interaction.

Even though the rules for the game are simple, the game consists of a huge number of cards and vast replayability.

Valhalla had a tremendous success on zagramw.to – a board game crowdfunding website that debuted in Poland this January. The game gathered over 2700 backers, reaching 1055% of the base funding goal. Due to that large community of backers, the game reached around 30 stretch goals, expanding the base game for Polish edition.

The Polish edition of the game is ready, and is being shipped right now to Poland. Now Go on Board is looking for support to publish Valhalla globally. The Kickstarter campaign will launch in October, and all of the expansions unlocked in the Polish campaign will appear as the game content from day 1.

Where do you find out more?

Check out their Kickstarter

Visit the Valhalla website

Check them out on BoardGameGeek

Like them on Facebook

The Mixfit Vue mixes nutrients that are stored inside the device and contain a variety of essential vitamins, minerals and protein that are dispensed incrementally, depending on the unique needs of an individual. Then, there are Pods, which are supplementary, single-use mixes formulated to support an individual’s specific fitness or wellness goal such as supporting vision health or workout recovery. To begin using the Mixfit Vue, the consumer fills the back reservoir with water, turns the device on, connects to their home WiFi network and places the Core Pack cartridges inside the device. From there just tap “Mix It” to dispense!

The Mixfit platform has several different levels of personalization which enable more accurate modulation and precision in nutrient delivery. Each level of personalization is dependent upon providing access to different categories of health data, starting with the Mixfit’s Baseline Goals and Lifestyle questionnaire as the first level of personalization. The next level of personalization occurs when an individual logs their diet and meals, and connects their wearable devices and health apps. As new types of bio-sensing wearables become commoditized and digital diagnostic technologies evolve, Mixfit will integrate advanced diagnostics data from connected devices and leverage new data to improve contextual recommendations and more accurately adjust unique mix ingredients and their quantities. Providing drinks as unique as the individual.

Aveine was born out of an encounter between three entrepreneurs with a shared passion for wine and technology.It was naturally over a bottle of wine that they came up with an idea for a device that would reinvent winetasting. Tapping into France’s heritage as a great wine-producing country, and today’s advanced technology, Aveine creates connected objects and services that allow people to embrace authentic French art de vivre, which is all about exploring and sharing new experiences. Crafted as a lifestyle brand, Aveine is presenting its first product – the Aveine Smart Wine Aerator – perfectly calibrated to any bottle, giving everyone the opportunity to enjoy wine at its best.

• Preciselycalculates the ideal aerationof any wine, allowing immediate consumption upon opening of the bottle.
• Uses patented technology to recreate the aeration process in a controlled manner by mixing air into the wine as it flows from the bottle, exposing it to more oxygen.
• The process does not alter the wine’s intrinsic qualities (no chemicals are involved).
• The wine aerator can be used with all types of wine bottles.

Somabar is the world’s first robot bartender created for beer and wine restaurants.

After three years of development, Somabar announced the completion of manufacturing development of its robot bartender at the 2018 Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, where it won Best Product of the Year. Originally crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2015 as a consumer product, Somabar found heavy demand from the foodservice and hospitality industries where bartending has become increasingly regulated and expensive. Somabar made the decision to completely redesign its concept to be robust enough for high volume restaurants and meet sanitation standards required for all restaurants in America. Somabar was officially granted NSF certification in December 2018 allowing it to operate in all restaurants in the U.S. and began shipping its original Kickstarter backers with these commercial robot bartenders.

Why restaurants? Restaurant owners are used to working through endless regulations, but liquor licensing and rules for human bartenders are the most costly and complicated. Regulations vary by state, and costs can be dizzying, especially in areas that strictly limit the supply of licenses, usually through lottery systems. In parts of New Jersey, among the most expensive states, the cost of a restaurant full-liquor license has reached $2million.

Somabar’s goal is to help restaurants navigate this bureaucratic minefield with its robot bartender. Somabar currently operates exclusively in beer and wine licensed restaurants which typically do not have a bartender nor a full liquor license. Beer and wine licenses are unrestricted in number, can be issued in a matter of weeks and cost as little as $500. Somabar helps restaurants make the leap from serving just beer and wine to serving highly profitable cocktails. Operating under a restaurant’s beer and wine license, Somabar uses 24% ABV low-proof spirits like agave wine for traditional tequila cocktails, soju for vodka cocktails and over 20 other varietals of low-proof based spirits. The Somabar robot bartender suggests thousands of low-proof cocktails that can be made with the press of a button by any restaurant employee, including waiters and bussers, automatically and legally from the Somabar robot bartender, with virtually no bartending training required.

Somabar launched this month, following its NSF certification, with a number of restaurants near its headquarters in Los Angeles including the well-known luxury supermarket chain Gelson’s, for their new line of wine and tapas restaurants. What’s the verdict? According to Gelson’s general manager, Tony De Lucrezia, “Somabar’s low-proof cocktails have been a hit with our customers and dramatically improved our per-drink profit margins.”

GAF678 Digital Air Fryer A powerful, all-in-one 7-quart air fryer that also works as rotisserie and dehydrator. It helps families eat healthy as it air fries, heats, roasts, and dehydrates food without the fat and calories that come when cooking with oil – 100% oil free! This air fryer features 10 preset cooking modes, an extra-large glass viewing window, RadiVection 360° Technology and an express heat system that cooks food up to 30% faster than a standard oven. The GAF668 is proudly used and endorsed by world-renowned chef, television personality, health and fitness expert, and mom Cat Cora.

Ovie Smarterware will let you know if you need to hurry up and eat that spaghetti before it goes bad. Smarterware is basically a Bluetooth button you can stick on your container of leftovers. Using it is supposedly as simple as sticking it to your container when you scoop in your leftovers, and telling Alexa what they are. Ovie’s database will take care of the rest.

The Smarterware button made its debut at this year’s CES, and the Chicago-based startup is now launching a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of shipping it in February. 

There are also specialized containers and bag clips to go along with the button, but these are just holders for the tech. The button is the star.

Smarterware will work with both Amazon’s assistant Alexa and Google’s assistant (just called Google Assistant). If you have a smart speaker with either assistant (an Amazon Echo or a Google Home, for example), you can hit the button and tell your speaker what’s in your container. Alexa and Google will communicate with Ovie’s cloud, which has a database supposedly containing all common foods and how long they tend to last in the fridge.

Pressing the button sends a Bluetooth signal to your phone, and Alexa or Google will talk to Ovie to match that particular button with the food you just identified. If you don’t have a smart speaker, you can just hit the button, then use the Ovie app to identify your food.

Once you’ve matched your button to a container of leftovers, Ovie will track the elapsed time, and a light ring on the button will slowly change from green to yellow to red as it gets closer to when you need to throw it out.

Tracking your leftovers with Alexa or Google sounds cool, and I’d also imagine the colors of the button will help you prioritize at a glance when you look at the fridge. A yellow light means you better eat up soon — and you’ll get a phone alert so you don’t forget about it.

The functionality is similar to what we’ve seen on the Samsung Family Hub fridge, but instead of spending thousands for a new appliance, a three-pack of buttons will cost $90 when Smarterware hits the market. The price converts to roughly £67 and AU$119.

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Have you ever thought that regular knives get a little too boring? I mean, sure they’re sharp and all, but there’s not much to get excited about in the advancement of knives. Well, now you make your own knife out of pasta.

YouTuber and cutlery lover Kiwami Japan shows us how you can take regular pasta and turn into it’s own dicing tool. Now, basically he just hardens some pasta in a knife mold and spends the next 16 months sharpening it on a whetstone, but it’s still a lot cooler than whatever you did last weekend.

Oh, and when you done using you fine Italian cutlery to slice tomatoes for a sauce, you can boil the knife itself for a hearty meal.

Hit the jump for the video.

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Dry ice is very cool stuff. It’s got lots of practical applications, most notably keeping food very very cold, since its temperature is nearly -110 degrees Fahrenheit and it doesn’t melt. That’s all well and good, but the only reason I would buy a machine that can make dry ice is for slightly less practical (but way more fun) uses. I’m not just talking about fog and frothing drinks… Dry ice is capable of a lot more, some of which is borderline dangerous. Just search for “dry ice” on YouTube and you’ll get the idea. This particular machine can produce a 1lb block of dry ice in about 60 seconds from a supply of liquid CO2, which you can find all over the place, since paintball guns use liquid CO2 as a power source. It’s not terribly efficient, producing a maximum of only 11 pounds of dry ice from a 50lb liquid CO2 tank, and the machine itself costs $500 from Hammacher Schlemmer, which is a bit steep. If that’s out of your price range but you still want to fool around with dry ice, you can usually get some for cheap at your local ice cream shop.

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Dogs say “hi” by smelling each other’s behinds. It’s a bit of a funny practice, and even funnier to imagine what the world would look like if we did the same thing… In any case, the makers of Bottom Sniffer Dog Beer decided to try to capitalize on this behaviour by launching a non-alcoholic brew that is meant to give your pooch a better smelling rump. This way he can… I dunno, be the envy of the other neighbourhood dogs?

Bottom Sniffer Dog Beer is a beer for your dog and it’s destined to make their lives better; raising their status in the pack and drastically improving their chances with the opposite sex. The brew contains Dandelion & Burdock along with an array of other herbs to endow your pooch with a delectably-scented sphincter. All the other dogs will either be chasing after that arse or wishing that they possessed such a fragrant rump.

Considering some of the ridiculous things people buy for their pets, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this product do well. It’s not outrageously priced either, at £12.99 (about $16USD) for a 4-pack.

[ Product Page ]

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