Sitting in your favourite pub or café is great, but sometimes everyone wishes they could do all of that at home. These 3 gadgets I use do just that!
My mum loves gadgets. A couple of towns over from where my parents live is a shop called Lakeland which sells kitchen gizmos. My mum buys them all!
Some of them are great; really handy and cleverly made. Others not so much. But Mum’s widget addiction has rubbed off on me. I do love a good gadget.
I’ve found three Mrs Romance-sanctioned contraptions that have been allowed to stay for the following reasons:
- They clever little things – the type of cleverness I like – and because Mrs R loves me, she has agreed to keep them.
- They add a dimension to our lives that makes it less necessary to go outside and forage for similar quality products or experiences.
Three Drinks Gadgets That Bring the Outside World Home
1. Tap King – draught beer genius
Too cold (or early!) to go to the pub? Don’t feel like going out? Want to have a night in with your missus or mista but want a pub-style beer too? This is your jackpot!
I was so excited when I got one of these. Gadgets AND beer? I didn’t think such a thing could exist! The mini kegs that come with this barrel-shaped beer pourer fit perfectly inside the mechanism thing giving you instant pub-quality beer on tap!
There are levers and switches, buttons and moving bits all over this thing, which makes it even better as far as I’m concerned. The range of beer Tap King is involved with is ever-growing too. I’ve tried it with one of my favourites – the James Squires One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale – and it’s excellent.
Buy the Tap King pump and beer refills here at Dan Murphy’s.
ED: Unfortunately Tap King equipment and beer kegs are no longer available. I’m devastated.
2. Vinturi – fine-dining excellence at home
It’s a well-known fact that pouring your wine into a decanter makes the wine taste better – regardless of the quality. But what if you don’t have a decanter? What if you can’t be bothered?
There are still some top-end restaurants that will decant your wine if you ask them, but at home – unless you want to plonk your plonk into a juice jug – you might not have the receptacles to make the most of your wine.
This bullet-shaped wonderment pulls air in through little channels on the sides as you pour which oxygenate the wine immediately. It’s brilliant and turns even a mediocre vino into a very good drop.
I’m still impressed with how well this thing works and get the long-suffering Mrs R to blind taste test the wine! She picks it every time.
3. Nespresso Pixie coffee machine – the smallest barista you’ve ever seen
I’ve wanted a coffee machine forever – all those nobs and dials, the steam-makey thing, tamping coffee grounds – brilliant. But Mrs R (quite rightly) just saw a cleaning project.
We’ve got cafés all around us where we live, so availability isn’t a problem. But sometimes I just want to stay in, or not wait for my order, or drink out of my own cup, or just not pay more than 70c for a coffee.
This machine is dead easy to clean, it’s small and fast, and churns out a very respectable espresso or long(ish) black every time.
I do love these little things, and in spite of her lack of gadget appreciation, I think Mrs R does too!
Do you like gadgets? What’s your favourite home gizmo? Tell us in the comments!
Nikki @ Styling You
Love a gadget! Love our Nespresso and have one of those wine airer thingies … can turn a crap bottle into acceptable. Am guess Mr SY will now want the beer thingy!
Mr Romance
How amazing are those wine aerator things, Nikki?! When I got it from Chris’s sister for Christmas, we trialed it by getting all the family (kids not included!) to blind test the wine we were drinking. Every single person picked the aerated wine and said they preferred it too. Brilliant. Apparently it works for spirits like scotch and cognac too!
Mr SY should definitely get the beer thing. It’s brilliant – though not as cost effective as just getting a slab. But where’s the fun in that?! He’s going to love it!
Jxx
Smaggle
I ADORE my Nepresso. Best thing I ever bought. I put shots in my smoothie every morning. I actually think I might die without it.
Mr Romance
Totally agree, Smags. I wouldn’t survive without mine. The thought of going back to instant sends shivers. Even the coffee plunger receives a frown from me these days. Totally spoilt by my Nespresso!
Jxx
Liz @ I Spy Plum Pie
Oh boy, I do love me a gadget too! I’ve been considering one of the beer tap king things, particularly now that they are expanding the beer range. That wine airer sounds like an excellent investment too! The only thing I can’t get on board with are pod-based coffee machines, they make me uncomfortable from a sustainability perspective (although that’s obviously just personal preference!)
Mr Romance
I sometimes get into a gadget frenzy, Liz! I have to be reined in by Mrs R when we’re in those kind of shops. She’s such a realist when it comes to spotting dust collectors! Yes, do get a Tap King. They’re lots of fun and the beer really is better than when it comes out of a stubby. The beer inside lasts for a month too (though I drank mine in about a week! Oops!), and the expanding range is another big draw card. Interested to see what they do next.
As for the Nespresso pods, I know what you mean, but they do have a pod collection system now, where you can take your used pods to have them recycled. The only thing I occasionally feel bad about is that it’s taking business away from cafes… but then I still go to cafes during the day anyway. If you drink a fare bit of coffee, they’re certainly worth looking into. They’re great for dinner parties too. 🙂
Jxx
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[…] that I’m complaining, of course! The most momentous thing that’s happened so far is our 3 Top Drinking Gadgets is up on site now. We’ve given the low-down on three little gizmos that we use all the time to make our […]
Tim Johnson
God, these gadgets look absolutely amazing! I don’t own any of them, but would love to get my hands on all of them. The Tap King looks breathtaking!
Mr Romance
They’re pretty good fun, Tim! Unfortunately the Tap King is no longer in circulation. You can’t even buy the little beer barrels for it anymore. Shame really.
Jim
Paulo Andreas
Its very rare I see a blog post where I literally want to buy every gadget on the page! All of these look amazing, my wife’s birthday present sorted, I always get here as many wine related gifts as possible, he he!. I am certainly going to look into the: Tap King just a must have in the kitchen. Thank you for this post!
Mr Romance
Thanks Paulo. I’m a massive gadget fan – and if it can relate to wine, so much the better! Only problem with the Tap King is they sadly discontinued it a little while ago. 🙁
Cheers Jim