Awesome Stuff: Have A Cool Drink This Weekend
from the you-deserve-one dept
For this week's awesome stuff post, we're going to suggest it's about time you kicked back and had a cool drink. You deserve it. Thankfully, there are a bunch of crowdfunding projects to help you make that cool drink a reality.- First up, The Ice Baller, for those of you who think your ice cubes are too cloudy, too small, and too... cubed. It's a device designed to make larger, clear, round ice balls. Pretty self explanatory.
- Ice is so last century. How about some ChillBottles -- little stainless steel refreezable bottle-shaped devices to cool down your drinks. They even come in a small "six pack" stainless steel case that will keep the bottles cool outside of the freezer. This reminds me of another Kickstarter project -- called pucs which closed a couple weeks ago. That one was much more popular, but the ChillBottles are still available (and cheaper).
- Okay, maybe you shouldn't just be thinking about what to put inside your drink to cool it down. Some designers have come up with a funky looking device called TurboCool to (they claim) quickly cool down any canned drink. I have to admit that I'm not sure I understand how or why this works, but it's basically a cannister in which you put water & ice, and then your can, and you pump the top so the can spins. Sort of the same functionality as a salad spinner. I can see how this would get the drink marginally cooler faster, but still seems like it would take a while to get a drink really cool.
- Finally, what good is a cool drink if the drink isn't very good. Rejigger seems like an easier way of making mixed drinks without having to carefully measure each component. Basically, it's a cup with three separate compartments, sized to the usual different ratio of "parts" in various classic drinks. Just pour in the right liquids to the right ratio slots, and you've got a quick mixed drink.
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Filed Under: awesome stuff, crowdfunding, drinks, ice
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ChillBottles - Just like ...
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Re: ChillBottles - Just like ...
So maybe the steel does a better job...
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http://compare.ebay.com/like/350545975281?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=s bar
like these?
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Those molds are probably adequate for most people, but these guys were looking for a better (read cheaper/easier) way to make the ice clear. The examples that you provided clearly produce cloudy ice.
It's the same mechanic that's employed by an ice cream machine. Spinning the can/water speeds up the thermal exchange process. They claim that it only takes 60 seconds.
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Thanks, Mikey! I think I'll have a nice, ice cold glass of MILK!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVaYKhYTH1k
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Ice Baller
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PATENT PENDING‽
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That said, the most useful would be the ChillBottles as they are reusable and they should cool any drink reasonably fast since steel will exchange heat with the liquid a lot faster plus it would not dilute your drink.
The big cooler doesn't seem a wise choice for carbonated drinks. And the last one doesn't appeal. At least not for me.
So Ninja's awesome choice of the week goes for the ChillBottles with an honorable mention for the ice balls because they are sexy ;)
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No, the sphere has a smaller surface area compared to a cube of the same volume. In fact, a sphere has the absolute minimum surface area for a given volume. So it would last longer precisely because it's not as good at cooling your drink.
Another possible factor is that the lack of air bubbles in clear ice means that a given volume of the ice actually contains more mass and is denser. So a sphere of clear ice would last longer than an equal volume sphere of ice-with-air-bubbles.
That said, the most useful would be the ChillBottles as they are reusable and they should cool any drink reasonably fast since steel will exchange heat with the liquid a lot faster plus it would not dilute your drink.
These would suck for the same reason whiskey stones suck (see posts above), except that steel has a lower heat capacity than stone so they will suck worse.
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