Gear Patrol

Regardless of what those holiday commercials suggested as you were growing up, you can’t get excellent coffee by just scooping it out of a refrigerated red container. Grinding fresh beans is the fastest way to improve the quality of your coffee, but the way you grind is a big question mark. The Baratza Virtuoso ($249)…

According to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans throw out approximately 25% of the food they purchase each year due to spoilage. Though we’ve never conducted our own study, the moldy strawberries and wilted spinach in the bottom of our waste bins suggest that number is fairly accurate. To combat this problem,…

If you don’t yet have a single cup coffee maker, you probably will soon. And if you’re a ‘Bucks addict, your buy date just got bumped up. The Starbucks Verismo ($199+) maker takes a big step forward in home coffee brewers, providing a multitude of professional-level drinks in the comfort of your own home. Where…

Bang for your buck, though ignored by many snobs who insist on only buying “top-tier” products (with price tags to match), is not dead, nor even floundering. The Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch Chef’s Knife ($27) is a key kitchen tool that beats out competitors costing three times as much. The knife’s blade is made of X50CrMoV15…

We thought LG had destroyed the space war (not the cool, lasers and aliens kind) with their Super-Capacity French Door Fridge. Not so. The LG LFX31945ST Door-in-Door Fridge ($3,500) uses the same extra-thin ice maker in the door and clever shelving as other fridges, but adds an extra compartment within the door to reach an…

As any urbanite living in a tiny apartment can attest, kitchens are love/hate: they’re handy when you’re hungry, but they take up too much damn space otherwise. While some other minimalist kitchens cram everything into a small area, the Miniki actually transforms your kitchen into useful open space when you’re not whipping up a delicious…

If you consider yourself both a Zen master and a warrior in the battleground of the kitchen, the iittala Tools Cookware Series will satisfy your tandem desires for high-performance cookware that delivers and a design that brings peace to your busy culinary world. Beautifully designed by Björn Dahlström in 1998 for the Finnish company, the…

If you’re a man who likes to cook outside the box (and the home) then the Critter moveable field kitchen just might be your perfect mobile culinary lab. Designed by Elia Mangia, the Critter was designed for serious gourmands who need extensive equipment with a view. Whether you don’t have access to a full kitchen…

A good cup of espresso can turn a bad day into a very good one. A bad cup can do the opposite. You can avoid the latter altogether with Fracino Espresso Machines, built in the UK for high end hotels, restaurants, and the best coffee shops around the world. Using ISO 9001 quality standards, their…

Traditional Japanese cooking can be incredibly daunting if you’re not, well, Japanese. Moé Takemura helps confused Westerners and Japanese expats alike in her Guide to the Foreign Japanese Kitchen ($49), which thoroughly and simply details the necessities of Japanese cuisine from ingredients to silverware. Each of the 30 meals in the book is laid out…

Thought there was already a coffee maker for every type of drinker? You’re wrong. The Bodum Bean Set Iced Coffee Press ($45) is a 1.5 liter French press specifically “designed” for making cold-brewed iced coffee. In reality, the only distinction here is an additional lid that replaces the plunger while the grinds steep in the…

Williams-Sonoma and the famed German knife-maker have collaborated to create an exclusive Wüsthof Precision Knife Collection ($500) that are as versatile as they are affordable. Constructed with clean curves from high-carbon stainless steel and slip-resistant synthetic handles, these choppers fit nicely to the hand and accomodate a variety of grips. The set comes with an…

Looking to elevate your home cooking from Boyardee to Batali? Fresh herbs are an excellent place to start. The Urban Cultivator ($2,200) lets home chefs not living in the state of California do the impossible — grow fresh hydroponic herbs or greens year-round. The home appliance, which is roughly the size of a dishwasher, maintains…

Sparkling water has been chipping away at soda makers’ market share, and Sodastream is taking full advantage of health and environmentalism trends with their expanding line of home soda makers. New to the roster is the Revolution, an electric-powered water carbonation appliance. They’ve come a long way since the Source. The Revolution adds power, a…

A dream kitchen can mean different things to different people. To an affluent suburbanite, it may mean double farm sinks and a Sub-Zero. For cramped city dwellers it pretty much means anything with a dishwasher. Somewhere in the middle lies Kitchoo Compact Kitchens ($4700+). The English company boasts a collection of “mini kitchens” that are…

Most of us need another kitchen appliance like Lebron needs to reconsider leaving Cleveland. The Nomiku, a KickStarter project, is an effort to bring pro-grade sous vide to the home kitchen, without incorporating an industrial-size immersion circulator. Sized to fit in a drawer and priced (~$300) to fit the amateur’s budget, the Nomiku is a…

The Cafino Coffee Maker ($165) is a lean coffee brewer with a tasteful aesthetic meant to ease the daily grind. Made of borosilicate glass (thermal stress resistant — think Pyrex) and stainless steel, this Tassilo von Grolman designed brewer utilizes a steel mesh sieve to reduce waste while extracting the perfect flavor. After brewing, remove the…

Classy as it may be, sniffing a milk carton to see if its contents have spoiled isn’t terribly precise. That pensive moment right before the sniff (or worse, taste) is downright Neanderthal. In an attempt to get us beyond this is the Milkmaid, winner of a Quirky and GE sponsored innovation contest. Basically, the Milkmaid…

Juuri Storage Containers from Danish homewares design company, Menu A/S, are made of very durable and heat-resistant borosilicate glass and stripped of unnecessary decoration or adornment for a very masculine aesthetic. A flexible silicone collar placed between the glass sections creates an airtight integrated container, perfect for dry goods, while the top and bottom can…

Are you having trouble getting a rez at WD50? Did your connections at elBulli or The Fat Duck across the pond fail to pan out? Well, you could own kitchen into an experimental food lab this weekend with the Cuisine R – Evolution Molecular Gastronomy Set ($60). Yes, with some time and a little experimentation,…

Featuring one part cutting board and one part food storage unit (with a waste disposal unit to boot), the Curtis Stone Workbench slicing and dicing the most exciting part of your meal — in the off chance it wasn’t already. Made from an Australian grown Victorian ash wood (from an eco-sustainable plantation), there’s no need…

Behold: a coffee maker that would make both Norman Foster and Bill Nye the Science Guy proud. Bodum has, as usual, done it right with their PEBO Stovetop Vacuum Coffee Maker ($80). With a form that’s as elegant as its function, this brewing device boasts a stovetop-safe borosilicate glass which is extremely strong, scratch and…

Move the Salad Shooter and make some room on your countertop. SodaStream recently partnered with Yves Béhar, founder of design and branding firm Fuseproject, to give the home soda maker not only a facelift, but a complete redesign. Long attempting to fight the burgeoning problem of plastic bottle waste, the irony of SodaStream has always…

We’ve previously discussed the virtues of the Keurig brewing system and its thankfully-ubiquitous K-cup as a handy solution for a quick fix of caffeine. Now after years of success, it’s time to introduce K-cup’s second act – the Keurig Vue ($212). Gone are the days of having only one “brew” choice, and only physical buttons. Now…

Owning something unmistakably yours has been a tradition for centuries. It could be a simple iPhone cover or shirt monogram, to something more elaborate like  Da’Vinci experts claiming that the Mona Lisa is actually Da’Vinci himself painted as a woman. Well, you might not be Leo D, but thanks to Kudu Fridge Magnets ($50+) you…

Like a lot of discoveries on Quirky, we’ve filed this away under “unnecessary, but cool”. The Stem ($5) is the latest bit of esoterica from the online incubator, and its design and purpose are both simple, straightforward and a bit ingenious: plug the plastic stem (see what they did there?) into your citrus du jour,…

The Atomic Espresso Machine, designed by Giordano Robiatti in 1947, is lauded by many espresso fans as a mid-century masterpiece. The OTTO stove top espresso maker (~$852) pays direct homage to this legendary machine (or outright copies it depending on your perspective) and has been somewhat of a Moby Dick of the coffee world. After…

Do right by your taste buds and support those less fortunate than you by purchasing a Plant Studio Mobile Spice Kit ($20). Each organic kit is assembled in Poughkeepsie NY, by a team of workers at the Hudson Workshop for the disabled. Four versions are available including a more general set for the mobile foodie,…

We’ve blabbered more than Scatman Crothers about how to manually brew better coffee, but if you still can’t wean yourself from the convenience of the K-cup, foodie and tech writer Matt Buchanan points out that the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter ($19) offers some reasonable middle ground. This exclusive filter for the K-Cup system…

Le Creuset’s wares have always been a staple of upscale kitchens, but we’ve never particularly liked their boisturious color options. This exclusive gunmetal gray version ($300) of their classic 7.25-quart round french oven done in collaboration with one of our favorite Southern publications, Garden & Gun, however, provides a tasteful upgrade to the deep black…