There’s two things you need to know about Gourmia’s Fusion Tea Loose Leaf Tea Maker: 1. It makes the best tea we’ve ever brewed in our lives. 2. It looks super cool while it’s brewing it. Seriously, it’s like a mad scientist came up with a tea maker. If you have someone in your life who loves tea, especially loose leaf tea, we can’t recommend this one enough for you. Along with being tremendously impressed with the quality of the tea that it gave us, we were also super impressed with the ease and speed at which it would dole out hot beverages. Also, when you have a tea maker like this, you can stop using infusers which can often let little bits of leaves slip through into your cup. We’ve probably brewed fifty cups so far and there hasn’t been the slightest little crumb in our mugs.
Get yours today at: Gourmia
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Like diet fads, trends in kitchen applications is like clockwork. A new fad catches fire every year and for 2017, it’s the ridiculous amaze balls concept of air frying. What exactly is air frying? It’s the idea that you can fry all your favorite indulgent snacks and food without oil (or at normal amount) which translates into food you can consume without the extra calories. Not only that it’s a breeze to “fry” and clean and you’ll never have to worry about that nasty oil splash back! So how does the GoWISE USA Air Fryer fry? Amazingly! While it’s more of an easy bake oven than a fryer, it is quite versatile and can cook everything from fries, steak, fish, poultry to even cake and pot stickers! It has presettings for easy control like a microwave, as well as a custom temperature range of 170°F – 400°F. Food can cook in as little as 15 minutes but the average will probably be around 30 minutes for chicken wings or a frozen meat loaf. The unit comes with a recipe book and easy to follow instructions. Frying has never been this easy, and while it’s not recommended for a child to operate, they probably could and fairly safely. On that note however, the unit does get EXTREMELY HOT after cooking, so it’s recommended that food extraction be done with long tongs and it should not be cleaned until after it has cooled down. So does the GoWISE Air Fryer live up to all the hype? You betcha, it’s a must own for any family on the go or college students who are on their own for the first time. It’s nice to know that there are options now aside from frozen pizzas and Top Ramen. What a time to be alive.
Get yours today at: GoWISE
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If you haven’t jumped onto the sous vide train, this holiday season is a great time to do it. If you don’t know what it means, it is a way to cook meats, veggies, and more things than I can list here a a perfect, constant temperature. This allows you to cook things to the temperature of its perfect “doneness” instead of cooking it at a high temp and trying to get the inside just right before the outside turns to dust. Imagine the juiciest chicken breast you’ve ever tasted or a steak that is perfectly medium rare all the way through. That’s just the tip of the ice berg and it’s the reason we even sous vide our turkey at Thanksgiving.
There are several sous vides on the market, but we can’t find one that we like more than the Joule. Coupled with it’s app, it is one of the easiest to use and versatile kitchen tools we’ve seen in a long time. Add that to the fact that it’s quiet and about the same size as a small immersion blender, and you’ve got a great kitchen tool that fits neatly away in a drawer, not taking up all the shelf space of most other appliances. It’s pretty hard to narrow down who the Joule makes a good gift for. It really is for anyone who loves to eat from seasoned home cooks to college students who want the ability to make healthy, home cooked meals in their dorm. If you do order one, you might as well order a second, because you are going to want to keep the first for yourself.
Get yours today at: Chefsteps
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We wanted to feature something from the popular world of cold brew coffee in this year’s guide, but most of what we found was too big, too complicated or too expensive for an every day use kind of item. That’s why were thrilled when we found the Hyperchiller. You keep this little guy in your freezer and any time you need to ice down a beverage without diluting it with actual ice, you just pour in the liquid, wait a minute or two, and then pour it out into your glass. BOOM! Instant ice coffee without the water from ice cubes melting into it. What really impressed us here is that it is a surprisingly versatile tool. You can pout hot coffee, straight from the pot, and get just good a result as if you were pouring in some good whiskey that you wanted to chill without getting any water mixed in. This is another one of those items that is really great for anyone who likes cold beverages, but hates when their ice cubes melt into them and dilute the flavor.
Get yours today at: Hyperchiller
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We all know someone who sucks at cooking. They mean well, but no matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to follow a recipe and get completely frazzled if they have to change the size of a pan or how many cookies need to get baked. These are the people in your life that need to find a one of the Make It Perfectly scales under the tree this year. We tested out the Perfect Bake Pro Scale with our very worst cook. We watched as the app and scale worked together to help them add just the right amounts of each ingredients and to even make adjustments to recipes when we told them to scale down the size of the batch or we gave them a different sized pan than the recipe called for. It really took pretty much all of the stress out of baking. If baking isn’t your thing, they’ve also got scales for mixing drinks, making smoothies, and they even have a deluxe model that does it all!
Get yours today at: PerfectBake
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We’ve never featured a roaster oven in the guide before because we generally don’t like them. They haven’t changed in 75 years and they just don’t really get the job done. Of course, that’s until Karrsen Products turned the classic appliance on its head and put the heating element in a domed lid instead of along the walls like the classic version. I’m not going to say the sorcery is involved, but the results with these roasters have been magical. They come in three sizes: BR-2 Original which can hold up to a 22 lb Turkey, 9″ x 13″ Bake Pan, 10″ Bundt Pan or 2 Whole Chickens. The BR-2 Junior which can hold up To a 14 lb Turkey or 7″ x 11″ Bake Pan. And last but not least, the BR-2 Mini which can hold up to A 6 lb Chicken or 8″ Round Bake Pan. Over the last couple of months we’ve done everything from bake cookies and make pizza to cook fish, whole birds, and even slow cook a brisket. everything came out perfectly cooked, juicy, and crispy or crunchy where it was supposed to be. The temperature on the oven can go as low as 150 degrees and as high as 450. It manages to keep pretty much all the moisture in your food, but still allows for things like chicken skin and pizza crust to get good and crispy. It’s affordable and a major multi-tasker. The mini is a great gift for single people or couples the Jr is perfect for a small family, and the BR-2 could probably feed a small army.
Get yours today at: Karrsen
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I’ve broken a lot of citrus juicers in my kitchen. It’s not like I go all Hulk on them or anything, but it’s just that the pressure you have to use to get all the juice out of a lemon will eventually snap the hinge off those things. That’s what we loved about the Joseph Joseph Helix juicer. It has no hinge. It has two pieces that you turn towards each other. The effect is more like you are wringing out the juices from your fruit instead of trying to press them out. We also loved that this has slots to release the juice instead of little holes. It makes for much easier clean up. This is an excellent gift for anyone cooks as well as people who just love having fresh lemon or lime to go in their cocktails.
Get yours today at: JosephJoseph
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Electric water kettles are ubiquitous in most of the world, but for some reason they haven’t caught on nearly as much in the USA. Especially during these cold winter months, having hot water at the ready is a lifesaver. What we loved about Cuisinart’s Quickettle is that it’s so damned convenient. At the smaller size of a 17 fluid ounces, it isn’t as unwieldy as some of the larger kettles out there. That makes it ideal for keeping at your desk or even at your bedside. We loved that it sits on a charging stand, but there’s no actual cord on the kettle itself, and then the real cherry on the top is that it has a built in (removable) filter in case you wanted to use the Quickettle to brew up a nice pot of loose leaf tea!
Get yours today at: Cuisinart
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If you love Espresso than you know how hard, and how expensive it can be to get a good cup when you are out. When you are off the grid, camping for the weekend or just can’t get to a Starbucks, it can be pretty much impossible. Enter the Handpresso Pop. Imagine it you would, what might happen if an espresso machine had a baby with a bike pump. That’s the Handpresso Pump Pop! It allows you to manually pump up the pressure in this electricity free machine to the perfect PSI needed to get the extraction you want on your grounds. We tried it with both grounds and ESE pods and got a perfect result every time! It’s pretty much the perfect gift for the coffee geek in your life.
Get yours today at: Handpresso
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While Cedarlane’s Spherificator isn’t a multi-tasker like the Bellini, the one thing it does, it does amazingly well. Basically, it can turn any liquid into caviar. Don’t confuse this with Boba. This is way better than that. With Boba, you feel like you are getting wet jelly beans, but with the Spherificator, you are getting these little pearls that burst in your mouth with whatever refreshing liquid you could want! The “caviar” can then go into a beverage, be added to existing food or even just eaten plain. We tried everything from making citrus caviar that we added into tequila, to a hot sauce caviar that we swirled into bloody Mary’s, and even a cranberry sauce caviar that we served for fun at Thanksgiving dinner. The Spherificator is great for anyone who loves molecular gastronomy or even just loves playing in the kitchen. It’s also a great gift for someone who entertains a lot. The caviar can be whipped up on the spot as your guests watch and it’s a complete showstopper event.
Get yours today at: Cedarlane
This is something that is not only a must have for any Star Wars fan that you know, but it also makes for an excellent host gift if you are heading to a Star Wars friendly Holiday party or a Last Jedi release party. Salt and pepper shakers are a thing of the past. Once you’ve ground the pepper, it starts to lose its flavor and well… grinding salt is just way cooler than sprinkling powder of a box. These light saber salt and pepper mills not only do a really good job of looking like Anakin and Darth Vader’s light sabers, but they really do make the grinding super simple. To work our old grinder, you had to crank it back and forth like you were giving your little sister and Indian Sunburn. This is just a simple push of the button and you can perfectly season your food.
Get yours today at: Pangea
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Popcorn is pretty much the ultimate snack. It’s great when you want something warm and crunch on a cold winter’s day, and it’s the perfect thing to mindlessly gorge yourself on while binge watching Netflix. We’ve used other air poppers, but we’ve got to say that the Death Star Popcorn Maker is more than just an awesome conversation piece. While other popcorn makers we tried left up to a quarter of the kernels unpopped, the amount of kernels left unpopped with the Death Star was never more than 4-5 for a whole batch. Beyond that, it’s just really freakin cool! The cover for the lid works as perfect popcorn bowl (it doesn’t even get hot from the blower like a lot of other bowls do). Of all the Star Wars kitchen products we got to try this year, this one is probably our favorite!
Get yours today at: Pangea
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If you haven’t used an immersion blender, you are missing out. They make life in the kitchen so much easier! Whether you want to use it in the pot while you are making soup, in a bowl to make and serve hummus, or in a glass to make a no hassle smoothie or milkshake, they are the kind of tool that really becomes useful around the kitchen. These light saber immersion blenders that we tested out not only worked great, but the look like light sabers! Sure, they may not be good for actual dueling, but they did make a hell of a hummus!
Get yours today at: Pangea
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Is there a better breakfast treat than a crisp and fluffy waffle, covered in syrup? If there is, I can’t think of one. Now, imagine if that waffle was shaped like Darth Vader, the Death Star, BB-8, or a Stormtrooper? That’s exactly what you get with these waffle makers. Now, they don’t come out exactly like a traditional waffle, as there are more thinner areas to account for the design, but they they so tasty that none of our testers complained. One thing we noticed about these waffle makers (other than the delicious waffles that have kept us fed for the last few weeks), is that they don’t get as hot as some of the waffle makers you might have tried in the past. We actually loved this, because it made for a much more consistent waffle and we didn’t have any trouble with the thinner parts burning. These are a perfect present for anyone who wants to start their day off in a galaxy far, far away.
Get yours today at: Pangea
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Toast with a little butter or jam is pretty much the perfect way to start your day. Have it along side some eggs or even just a cup of coffee and you are go. Now, imagine that you are pulling that toast out of the Death Star’s exhaust port or out of Darth Vader’s brain and the toast has designs like Tie Fighters and Darth Vader cooked into them! We really liked these toasters for a couple of reasons. First, they look cook as hell. I mean who wouldn’t want Darth Vader’s head or a Death Star on their kitchen counter, but secondly (and more importantly), our toasters actually made good toast. A lot of times with image toasters, it only toasts in the design and neglects the rest of the bread. These toasters actually gave us a nice, crispy toast with the added bonus of a Star Wars logo or a Tie Fighter built in for some fun!
Get yours today at: Pangea
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Keurig style coffee makers are bad news. When you compare it with the liquid gold that comes out of a French Press, it’s hard to imagine that the coffee even comes from the same beans. That’s why we wanted to find a French Press that was worth recommending this year and we think we’ve done it with Thinkgeek’s Star Wars R2-D2 Coffee Press. Yes, the fact that it’s R2-D2 doesn’t hurt, but it’s got a lot going for it. There was a previous version of this item out from Thinkgeek in the past, but there were some problems with it. They took it back to the drawing board and made big improvements so that this is now a great all around coffee press. For us, one of the added benefits is that it holds a lot of coffee (32 ounces). That’s enough to make 4 normal sized cups of coffee, or one for the person who just spent all of last night watching the entire first season of The Punisher on Netflix.
Get yours today at: Thinkgeek
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Fondue may have gotten its start in the 70’s, but there’s something timeless about sitting around a table full of friends and family, and dunking stuff into melty cheese. It’s amazing how many people overlook fondue sets as a great gift, but between the tasty factor and the interactivity, it makes an excellent gift for couples, people who enjoy entertaining, and anyone hosting a holiday party this season. So, what did we like about Artestia’s fondue set over other ones? Honestly, it looks like a cow!
Get yours today at: Artestia
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Raclettes (grills that has special areas just for melting cheese to pour on to food) are getting really popular right now, so we wanted to feature a few of the ones we liked the most in this year’s guide. This particular model is a great gift for people who entertain. It not only gives you the chance to cook on either a griddle or a grill surface, but the other half of the unit gives you the chance to cook directly on a hot stone, something that is not only a lot of fun, but is a definite conversation starter. Adding to this unit’s charm is the fact that the stone and metal cooking sides are set up so they can be placed next to each other for a small group around a round table, or they can be set up end to end to accommodate larger groups and longer tables. And let us not forget the thing that interested us in this raclette in the first place. It has 8 different trays for people to melt cheese that they can pour directly onto their cooked meat or veggies. We tested this out and we loved it. We honestly loved all of the ones we tested as you’ll see in our other recommendations, but this unit’s ability to have two different cook surfaces and to swivel really make it unique!
Get yours today at: Artestia
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We’ve already explained what a raclette is, and you’ve seen the swivel model above. This model is different in a few important ways. It’s still great for large or small groups and it can still accommodate up to 8 cheese trays, but instead of having a long, narrow metal cooking surface and a long, narrow granite cooking surface, it has one wider metal surface. It is still reversible to allow for flat-top or grill style cooking, but it accommodates larger pieces of meat or more of whatever you want to cook on a solid surface. What we loved about this one was that it not only worked great on a T-bone, but it just had a slightly more intimate feel to it.
Get yours today at: Artestia
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There are two different versions of this set, but we think they are an excellent gift for couples. Imagine cooking a meal together on a hot stone, right at the table. It’s intimate, it’s tasty, it’s romance! With both models, you get a beautiful pair of cooking stones that you can heat up on the stove or in the oven. It’s great that they come with two stones because you can leave one in the oven and swap them out when the first one starts to cool down. They also both come with a bamboo platter for the stone to rest on, so you don’t burn yourself or your table. Where the models differ is that one of them comes with a lovely little ceramic dish to eat out of and a couple sauce bowls, and one doesn’t. There’s only a dollar difference between the two models, so it really just depends on if you want to eat from a dish that is close to the cooking surface, or if you want to move your food to a plate and eat it someplace else. Either way, both versions are truly fantastic!
Get yours today at: Artestia
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