A Coffee Machine for the Wii Generation

If Douwe Egberts BeMoved Coffee Machine is the future of coffee then count me in because I am excited. Could you imagine having one of these ineractive coffee machines at work? Productivity would probably go down 15% because everyone would be playing with the coffee maker instead. This is probably as close as we’ll get (for now anyway) to a robot barista.

“The BeMoved concept is innovative in the areas of technology, design and interaction. The machine can be operated by means of a large touch screen, or by activating a motion sensitive camera. Users can choose from a selection of eye-catching interfaces, such as “drag-and-drop” (drag the ingredients into the cup), “explore” (discover your coffee in the “living” tree), “picture it” (the machine has been programmed with the user’s preferences), and a “shoot-em-up-game” (you “earn” your coffee by jumping). In addition there is a selection of different types of flavourings, including hazelnut and caramel. Finally, users can check the latest share prices, weather forecasts, real-time traffic jams and the most recent news, as the machine can be connected to the Internet.”

Blood Energy Potion

I want this. Badly. I want the Blood Energy Potion from Urban Collector just so that I can take one of these IV-like pouches out during my lunch  break and just start drinking from it nonchalantly. Imagine the conversation that would take place after that incident.

“Blood Energy Potion is our newest pre-order. New from the makers of Mana and Health Energy Potion comes Blood Energy Potion: the world’s first synthetic blood beverage. The fruit punch flavor packs 4 hours of energy along with iron, protein, and electrolytes. Not only does Blood Energy Potion have a similar nutritional makeup to real blood, but it has the same color, look, and consistency of blood. Get real blood nutrients without that real blood taste! The re-sealable transfusion bag style pouch provides the convenient delivery of fluids for vampires and humans alike! Contains no real blood, just synthetic”

Buy the Blood Energy Potion from Urban Collector for $5.99.

Whisky Collector Victim of Theft

Now here’s a sad story. According to Whisky Intelligence, a Dutch Whisky Collector had his 183 bottle whisky collection stolen from a storage house. The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think it’s an inside job – someone the guy knew must have been involved. An envious friend, perhaps? Of maybe a competing collector? To view a full list of his Whisky Collection, check out Whisky Intelligence. In any case, here’s a letter he wrote to the whisky community:

Dear Friends,

Unfortunately I have to tell you that a part of my collection has been stolen. 183 bottles from my box in the storage house were I stored most off the total collection were gone when I visited this place last weekend.

I spent a lot of time at the police office to report everything last Sunday and had some serious discussions with my insurence compagny this week.

Emotional I went through a mental rollar coaster for a few days, but am fine again at the moment. Because there are no signs of violence visable towards the box a rent, the insurance compagny for the moment refused to cover the financial damage.

There are some extreme rare bottles gone that will be very hard to find ever again, and of course some bottles that are easy to replace (when I want to, which I very much doubt at the moment).

Underneath the most valuable or rare bottle that are gone. The most painfull (emotionally) for me is the lost of the 4 local barley bottles as I was under the impression that I had the complete collection. Two of them (cask 509 and 496) were only released in Taiwan. It took quite some years to find them.

Please be so kind to inform me when you see one of the bottles somewere. Besides I would be very greatfull if you would be able to help me to replace the local barley bottles.

Hope my next mail will have a more positive message again.

Kind regards,

Michiel Wigman

Beer Wars DVD

I haven’t seen Anat Baron’s Beers Wars, but I definitely want to. It was screened in a few select cities but like most screenings, not in Hawaii. Boo Hoo for me. That means that the only way for me to get to watch this beer flick about a small town brewery going against corporate America (i.e. Anheuser-Busch) is to order direct from the Beer Wars Movie Shop. Thefilm will not be available for purchase anywhere else, including Amazon or Netflix, until next year.

“Beer Wars begins as the corporate behemoths are being challenged by small, independent brewers who are shunning the status quo and creating innovative new beers. The story is told through 2 of these entrepreneurs – Sam and Rhonda – battling the might and tactics of Corporate America. We witness their struggle to achieve their American Dream in an industry dominated by powerful corporations unwilling to cede an inch.”

DVD Features:

• Sound Mix 5.1
• 16:9
• Not Rated
• Runtime 89 minutes
• + 40 minutes of SPECIAL FEATURES

SPECIAL FEATURES include: Beer Wars Live Panel Discussion, Deleted Scenes and Trailer

Buy the Beer Wars DVD from Beer Wars Shop for $18.

8-Bit Vintners

The thing that often scares people away from wine is the snob factor. 8-Bit Vintners takes definitely takes the snobbery away from drinking wine with their inaugural red, Player 1. The term 8-Bit is of course a throwback term referencing games from the early days. NES anyone? A bottle of Player 1 is reasonably priced at $18 and 8-Bit Vintners is offering free shipping on orders of 6 bottles or more.

“The inaugural vintage of Player 1 displays the quality and diversity of fruit that is being produced in Eastern Washington. Player 1 is blended from various vineyards throughout the Columbia Valley, Wahluke Slope, and Walla Walla Valley. 2007 was a moderately warm growing season with long, dry, sunny days that allowed for extended hang time during harvest. This wine shows an accessible and approachable style that is both fun to drink now and has the acidity and tannins to hold up for 5 years plus.”

Appellation: Walla Walla Valley, Wahluke Slope, and Columbia Valley
Blend: 50% Syrah, 30% Tempranillo, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Carmenere, 5% Malbec
Harvest Date: August and September 2007
Bottling Date: July 2009
Cooperage: French, American, and Hungarian for 18 to 22 months
Alcohol: 14.1%
pH: 3.74

Buy Player 1 from 8-Bit Vintners for $18.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user 8-Bit Vinters.

Jura-Capresso Automatic Coffee Center

This piece of coffee making hardware both scares me and impresses me at the same time. I went shopping for a coffee machine at Williams-Sonoma over the weekend and oh my god do some of them have hefty price tags! Seriously, $2,500 for a coffee maker!

So I wonder, what do you guys use at home when brewing a cup of joe in the comfort of your own abode? Inquiring minds want know! Leave a comment below and let Call Me Thirsty know what your weapon of choice is.

And just in case you’re wondering, the Jura-Capresso ENA 3 Automatic Coffee Center features:

• Espresso machine with stainless-steel-lined thermoblock and 18 bars of pressure
• Grinds, tamps, brews, and cleans in under 60 seconds–at the touch of a button
• Conical steel burr grinder; pre-ground coffee funnel; removable water tank; frother
• Customizable strength, temperature, and amount; rotary dial for easy programming
• Measures 17 by 9 by 14 inches; 2-year limited warranty

Buy the Jura-Capresso ENA 3 Automatic Coffee Center from Amazon for $891.07.

Cocktail Chemistry Set

I hated chemistry in high school and college. I never saw the appeal in playing with acids and bases. Nonetheless, this Cocktail Chemistry Set from Perpetual Kid is super cool and geeky all at the same time!

Includes:

• 1 Shaker (Measures: 6 1/2″ tall x 2″ wide, holds 10oz./plastic)
• 1 Flask (Measures: 7″ tall x 3 1/2″ wide, holds 20oz./glass)
• 1 Stirrer (Measures: 8″ long/ glass)
• 4 Test Tubes (Measures: 6″ tall x 1″ wide, holds 2oz. each/glass)
• 1 Stand (Measures: 5″ tall x 13 1/2″ wide/metal)

Buy the Cocktail Chemistry Set from Perpetual Kid for $32.99.

Why Monster Fails In The Age of Social Media

So you’ve probably heard by now about the Little Guy vs. Big Guy, Samson vs. Goliath, Entrepreneur vs. Corporate America battle between Rock Art Brewery and Monster Energy Drink. The story of how a small Vermont based brewery is being sued by the maker of a popular energy drink has taken the Internet by storm.

The Vermonster (that’s the name of the beer that Monster Energy Drink wants banished) story just goes to show you how the game has changed and how social media is definitely a force to be reckoned with. A decade ago, a story like this would probably go unheard in the media. Monster would have simply sent a cease and desist to Rock Art Brewery, and the small brewery would comply because, well, they wouldn’t be able to afford the legal bills. However, In 2009, a bully tactic like the one pulled by Monster Energy Drink doesn’t work just quite the way it used to.

Rock Art Brewery was smart. The founders knew how to leverage social media so that their story would be heard by the masses. All it took was a simple YouTube video, a couple of tweets and all of sudden, the story of how Monster was being a bully was being featured on Masahable, Yahoo, MSNBC, and the New York Times.

And just like that, the little cease and desist letter from Monster equaled big fail. Let me tell you how:

1. Boycotts. Once the article on Mashable was up, smaller blogs began picking the story up, many of which started to call for the boycotting of Monster Energy Drinks. Monster Boycott lists so far 30 different blogs that have written about the Vermonster story. Now, multiple 30 by maybe 500-1000 (readers per blog). That comes out to roughly 30,000 people being pissed at Monster Energy Drink. Now multiply 30,000 by maybe 2-3 (people they’ll share the Vermonster story with) and you get about 90,000 people pissed at Monster Energy Drink. Then imagine that each of the 90,000 then either made a tweet, posted the story on their facebook, made a boycott Monster video on YouTube and, well, you get the idea. The amount of people pissed at Monster multiplies uncontrollably and that equates to lost sales and ton of bad word-of-mouth.

In the age of social media, it does not pay to be a douchebag, especially when a single tweet has the ability to reach thousands of people within a second. Monster, you might have been protecting your intellectual property but at the end of the day, all this trouble probably wasn’t worth the hassle.

Save Vermonster In The Media

Monster Cease and Desist Letter from Monster Energy Drink

Rock Art Brewery Respnse To Monster Energy Drink to Cease and Desist Letter

Tea-Mergency

What to do when you’re feeling down? Tweet about it to @Teemergency! I just discovered this interesting concept on Twitter and am pretty intrigued by the whole idea. Essentially, the people at Teamergency are scouring Twitter to find people who are having a Tea-mergency. Get it? Tea + Emergency! Research shows that 68% of people in the UK sip on tea in response to trouble or dilemmas.

Teamergency will select 100 people to receive Direct Line Tea-Mergency Tea. “Formulated by master tea-blender Alex Probyn, this delicious black tea should be kept within easy reach at all times. After all, you never know when your next tea-mergency may strike.”

“Using his ten years’ experience as a tea taster and blender, Alex has created The Tea-mergency blend especially for Direct Line. A combination of North Indian Assam (warm, malty, rich and soothing), Sri Lankan Uva (light, refreshing and uplifting) and Kenyan (bright, strong and rejuvenating), this tea is for trouble.”

To be sure that they read your Tea-mergency, be sure to add the hashtag #teamergency at the end of your tweet. I’m not sure if the promotion is done since Teamergency.com says that the promotion runs through the end of August but a quick search on Twitter shows that people are still receiving Tea-mergency teas. Nonetheless, I thought that the idea was a brilliant way of leveraging social media and let’s not forget to mention how sexy that packaging is!

Samovar Kevin Rose Tea Starter Set

This Starter Set from Samovar includes: 3 cans of tea: (Ryokucha Green Tea, Maiden’s Ecstasy Pu-erh Tea, and Samovar Masala Chai Black Tea Blend), and an infusing basket. They’ve even got a useful (albeit infomercial like) instructional web video featuring Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg.com) and the founder of Samovar, Jesse Jacobs. If you’re new to tea, the video shows you how you would go about using the set. I think I might just get this to get started and familiar with loose leaf tea.

Buy the Kevin Rose Tea Starter Set from Samovar for $25.