By Andrew Liszewski

From what I gather, the juicing machines made by Austrian-based Citrocasa are some of the finest in the world. At least if you’re a restauranteur, or have a large enough food business to turn a profit on them. But freshly squeezed orange juice is a right, not a privelege, so the company has recently created the Fantastic – a far more compact version of their juicers that can be purchased for home use, or any smaller scale needs. (Though at 121 lbs, it will still dwarf your coffee maker.)

What sets the Citrocasa juicers apart from other machines, or my method of just mashing up some oranges in a pillow case with a hammer, is that it can process 30 oranges per minute. Or cut and thoroughly squeeze one every 2 seconds. That’s impressive! It also has what they call an “SCS Up & Down cutting system” which basically means it cuts the oranges cleanly in half so that none of the bitter skin or rind gets into the juice when they’re squeezed. And the machine has been built to be easily disassembled so that cleaning it is a breeze. Pricing and availability info are still TBA.

[ Citrocasa Fantastic ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looking for an eco-friendly alternative to a styrofoam ‘Esky’ when you’re heading out for a camping adventure? These coolers are made from 70% recycled cardboard while still working just as effectively as their styrofoam counterparts. With just two bags of ice they’ll keep food and beverages cold at around 41°F degrees for 36 hours when ambient temperatures are around 77°F outside. (That 36 hours obviously gets a lot shorter when the thermometer rises.)

The inside and outside of the box are covered with a ‘NorSheild’ waterproof coating which means it’s ok to get it wet, and allows it to be used again and again without the cardboard turning to mush. And when it reaches the end of its lifespan, you can just toss it in your recycling bin. $14.99 each as part of an introductory offer. After that you’re looking at $19.99 per box.

[ Recycled Cardboard Cooler Boxes ] VIA [ Motley Food & The National Post ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’ve ever had to clean gum out of your hair, scrape it off from under a desk or remove it from a carpet, you quickly realize why its hydrophobic (repels water) nature makes it the bane of cleaners everywhere. In fact I was once told that many casinos don’t even sell the stuff because it’s so difficult to clean off their gaudy carpets. But Rev7 is a different story.

Its new gum base was developed, based on research conducted at England’s Bristol University, so that it’s amphiphilic. Which means it’s both hydrophobic and hydrophilic at the same time. Its hydrophobic properties allow it to still be chewable and not just dissolve in your mouth immediately. While it’s hydrophilic properties allows water and liquids to penetrate the gum, making it far less sticky to many surfaces and materials, and far easier to clean.

[ Rev7 Gum ] VIA [ PSFK ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sometimes all it takes is a clever packaging and marketing approach for an every day product to become a best seller. Case in point, parmesan cheese. It’s certainly delicious in its own right, but at the same time it’s not the most exciting looking thing at the grocery store. At least until Germany-based ad agency Kolle Rebbe put a clever spin on it for food cooperative, The Deli Garage.

Instead of having you go at a regular block of parmesan with a grater, it packages the cheese as large ‘pencils’ that you grate with an included pencil sharpener. The shavings not only look decorative, but in lieu of graphite the centers of the ‘pencils’ feature three different flavorings: truffles, pesto and chilli. The back of the Parmesan Pencil packaging also shows the calorie count in relation to the length used, as well as a guide for how much is recommended for a given recipe. Sadly they were only created in a limited run of 500 sets, which sold out in just 2 weeks.

[ Jazarah! - Meet the Parmesan Cheese Pencils ] VIA [ Motley Food & Tessie ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Once a material most commonly used on billion dollar super-secret spy planes, titanium has found its way into consumer products these days like collar stays, iPhone cases and now even water bottles. At a mere 4 ounces when empty the Exotac titanium water bottle, or TiBottle, is not only the lightest metal water bottle you’re going to find, but probably also the toughest.

The bottle is actually made of 3 separate pieces of titanium which have been welded together, and it holds about 650ml of liquid. And as if being made from titanium wasn’t cool enough on its own, it also allows the TiBottle to be heated directly on a stove for boiling water or preparing a meal while camping. But on the flipside, because it’s made of titanium the bottle also starts at $75, with finish and matching cap options adding to the price.

[ Exotac Titanium Water Bottles ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Just-Eat, the website that makes it easy to order food online from local restaurants, apparently wants to take the whole takeout experience to the next level. Citing their own research which found that 74 percent of people in Britain preferred eating fish and chips with a wooden fork, and half felt that noodles from a carton should be consumed with chopsticks, they decided that their customers needed a way to properly enjoy their meals no matter what they ordered. So they created the Eatensil concept which is basically a Swiss Army knife with utensils.

Instead of nail files, screwdrivers and scissors, you’ll find a wooden ‘chip’ fork, a pizza cutter, a set of chopsticks, a bottle opener and of course a knife, fork and spoon. At the moment Just-Eat is testing the waters to see if customers would actually be interested in the monstrosity of a concept, which admittedly is a bit more environmentally friendly than plastic cutlery. But as far as I can see it’s missing one important tool that I often end up using when eating takeout: a Tide to Go stick

[ Pocket-lint - Eatensil becomes ultimate cutlery for take away fans ]

By Andrew Liszewski

By itself, the West|280 bottle opening iPhone case, cleverly called the iOpener, is just another novelty accessory that most people will probably roll their eyes at. But there’s more than meets the eye. As cases go it’s made from a plastic polycarbonate/ABS alloy which keeps it lightweight but also strong enough to endure the rigors of removing a bottle cap. And the bottle opener, which retracts into the case when not needed, is made from 14 gauge, 304 food grade stainless steel, polished with a special process so it shines without added materials like chrome that can flake off over time. The inventors, Clay Baker and Tom Ramies, clearly didn’t skimp when it came to choosing high-quality materials. But they also realized that the case could be more than just a novelty.

So the iOpener incorporates an accelerometer that knows when the encased iPhone has been inverted and moved with enough force to open a bottle cap, which then triggers an accompanying free app called BevConX. (This ensures the odds of it being triggered accidentally are pretty slim.) Once loaded the app automatically asks the user to specify what beverage they just opened, from a list of 1,200+ options. The time and location are recorded, and you can then of course share your choice on various social networks. You can even set the app to play your favorite song every time it launches, if a bottle opening iPhone case isn’t novel enough for you.

At the moment the iOpener appears to only be available in a black or white version for the iPhone 3G/3GS for $29.95, presumably because it took Clay and Tom so long to develop the original version. So hopefully if it becomes a success an iPhone 4 version will soon be on its way.

[ iOpener Bottle Opener iPhone Case ] VIA [ The Dallas Morning News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Oddly enough it’s not the first pair of chopsticks we’ve written about that feature a knife and fork combo on the end of each stick. But what sets the Twin One cutlery apart is that both utensils can be combined to form a set of hinged chopsticks that are easier to use by those who aren’t particularly well versed in eating with two sharpened sticks. Created by DesignWright the Twin One sets are available in green, red or brown finishes and while they appear to be available from Lékué I can’t seem to find specific pricing info on their site.

[ Twin One Cutlery ] VIA [ Yanko Design ]

By Andrew Liszewski

In an effort to promote Vantage, a stain remover that competes with the top brand in Brazil, the company hired São Paulo-based ad agency DPZ Propaganda to create this clever campaign. Apparently Ketchup is the leading source of stains in Brazil, so they created Ketchup packets shaped like stains with an ad for Vantage on the back with the tagline: “Stains. Hard to avoid, easy to remove.”

Was it effective? Well 100,000 of the custom-shaped packets were distributed in snack bars and restaurants in and around São Paulo, and in just three days they had all disappeared. Either that city consumes a lot of condiments, or the citizens saw the opportunity for a cheap keepsake. Either way, I think they got their message across.

[ Ads Of The World - Vantage: Ketchup Stain Packet ] VIA [ PSFK ]