drinking

Save lives with Designated Driver app for iPhone

Drunk drivers have killed people I care about. Twice. So if you're a drinker, I urge you to grab a copy of Designated Driver.

This iPhone app has the potential to save not only your life, but also the lives of perfectly innocent others.

Here's how it works: You choose five or more friends from your address book to serve as your "designated drivers."

Later, when you tap the "I Need a Ride Home" button, everyone on your list gets a text message--complete with your location and an embedded Google Maps link.

There's … Read more

Shaken, stirred, and inside out

Father's Day is right around the bend, so you can bet on seeing a lot of gift ideas in the coming days on store shelves, like fancy ties, coffee mugs, and classy bar-inspired dishes such as these Inside Out Martini Glasses.

When your dad pulls the glasses out of the box, he might give you the kind of eyebrow raise and forced, "Oooooh, nice," that accompanies the gifts that end up collecting dust in a storage shed, because they look like ordinary drinking glasses from the outside. But pick your favorite hard liquor to pour into them … Read more

A four-legged gadget with a very special purpose

In my line of work, I run across a ton of gadgets that are the appliance equivalents of one-hit wonders. Some serve unique purposes that are necessary for accomplishing very specific tasks, and some are just plain ridiculous. A few, although not necessary, are pretty enough to warrant owning, even if you can only use them on rare occasions.

A perfect example of the latter is this Brütül Lagerhead Black & Tan Turtle, featured in Popular Mechanic's "Top 10 Wild Kitchen Gadgets You'll Use Only Once." The sentiment written at the top … Read more

Some very refreshing swizzle sticks

In spring and summer, drinks taste much better when they're icy cold, and manufacturers have come up with a vast array of ice shapes to add into your juice pitchers.

What I haven't seen yet, however, is anything like this tray of Ice Kabobs. Made out of silicone, it makes three kabobs out of ice in fun strings of shapes. You can use them as swizzle sticks for a party, cold spears in a water pitcher, or simply as an addition to your own personal glass when you're trying to cool off at home.

The Ice Kabob … Read more

Mixing drinks with a tornado

Presentation is everything. And $20 price tags don't hurt either. Why blend the boring old-fashioned way, when you could be blending in style? In style, that is, with a tornado.The Vortex Portable Mixer is powered by a 9000rpm motor that quickly and effectively mixes whatever liquid-based material you put in it.

Although it is mainly designed and marketed toward protein shake drinkers (who would rather avoid nasty bits of dry clumps in their beverage), the portable mixer has numerous uses. For example, a spinning (and dizzying) tornado in a bottle could be a fascinating twist on old-timey cocktail … Read more

Seal your sips with Autoseal drinkware.

I returned home from five weeks out of the country to discover that the mail hold I'd enabled was essentially rendered meaningless by the zealous work of public relations companies, which had stacked no fewer then 12 UPS packages neatly on my front porch.

My favorite was the company that included fresh flowers with their package. The flowers, I'm sure, were fresh back on March 25 when they were delivered. But I digress. Among the packages, I found some gems I'll tell you about in the next few days, starting with the very cool Contigo Autoseal drinkware. … Read more

BuyYourFriendaDrink gets bought

A reviewing and recommendation company called Living Social, which makes the popular "Pick Your Five" app for Facebook (and other social networks), has acquired BuyYourFriendaDrink.com.

BuyYourFriendaDrink describes itself in a press release as an "automated sampling solution for the beer, wine and spirits industry," but don't let that fool you. It's really a way for you to remotely buy drinks for your friends when you lose bets to them.

You pay up, your friend gets a text-message or e-mail code that the bartender enters into the system, and your friend gets a drink. … Read more

Hot chocolate without a stove

Hot chocolate can be a favorite treat for kids--but I wouldn't trust most children near the stove to make their own, especially with any of the standard tools for frothing hot milk and chocolate. That doesn't mean that kids need constant adult supervision if they want to make some hot cocoa for themselves, though. The Hot Chocolate Maker from Plow & Hearth is a battery-operated hot chocolate pot that doesn't need a stove to combine chocolate and milk into a tasty treat. It requires two AA batteries to power the frother that whips the chocolate and milk … Read more

A very clever cup clip

One of the reasons I bought a notebook computer is so I could get work done in my living room. Until now, this has worked out just fine: I can bring my computer to my coffee table and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee while I write or balance my budget.

But, as they are prone to do in the world of people who still rent, things changed when I got a new roommate.

It wasn't the arrival of a new body in the house that interrupted my typical living room workspace, but rather the arrival of three … Read more