Reviews

Jones Soda Limted Edition

A few weeks ago, I was at Target with the girls when we saw these sodas.

Obviously, I bought a four pack of each. It was until this weekend that I had some time to test them out. Jones Soda does of lot of interesting things like letting customers submit photos for printing on bottles to creating limitied edition sodas of various flavors.
This year’s Halloween set includes Gruesome Grape, Berried Alive, Candy Corn, and Spider Cider.

Gruesome Grape
Color: Greyish-black
Flavor: Just like grape soda
Comments: Besides the black color, nothing special here

Berried Alive
Color: light whitish-blue
Flavor: blueberry flavor, very sweet with a hint of citrus tang
Comments: Zoe & Mira’s favorite of the set

Candy Corn
Color: bright, almost flourescent yellow
Flavor: amazingly like candy corn
Comments: The flavor was dead on and I expected the waxy aftertaste from the real thing. Subtle, not overpowering flavor.

Spider Cider
Color: pale yellowish-orange, almost like iced tea
Flavor: Noticeable apple flavor, but a little overpowered by the sweetness
Comments: While still very sweet, less than the others. Michele and Michael’s favorite.

While I was testing and taking pictures, Mira insisted that we ‘experiment’ with the soda. The experiment was to mix the Candy Corn with Berried Alive.
Experiment Flavor
Color: khahki greenish
Flavor: horrid
Comments: Made Mira happy to see the new color, made me queasy drinking it
Overall, I feel that Jones Soda is making an effort here to do something different than Coke and Pepsi, taking chances with new ideas and flavors in soda pop. We’ll continue to buy and try the limited editions as they come out.
So if you want to have some fun this Halloween with the kids and need to give them a little more sugar, head down to Target and pick up four pack or two.

The Mocha Dunk Mug

Last week, my friend Sean IMed me a link to the The Mocha Dunk Mug at the Charles & Marie website. I think Sean saw at a Brotherhood of the Bean. Within seconds, I had ordered this amazing mug. Charles & Marie is a neat site with loads of wonderful items, but the lack of a search function (at least one that I could find easily) made my brain hurt as I spent 10 minutes looking for a search box.
The mug arrived this week and I finally had time to use it for the first time this morning.

I made a small pot of tea (coconut tea if you must know…) and began to prepare for a proper morning setup.

Thanks to my co-worker, Cyril, I had a tin of actual English biscuits to go along with my tea. For testing purposes, only the proper test materials will suffice.

Sure enough, the Mug holds two cookies/biscuits easily and they fit with some space to spare.

I walked from the kitchen to the breakfast table and the cookies remained in place. I had successfully avoided the need to use a plate. Of course, Michele simply rolled her eyes at me.

I must make a warning to anyone that might consider buying one of these mugs, you must be right handed.
You see due to gravity and a messy attitude, the cookies want to leap to the table. As you can see above, if you pick up the mug with your left hand, the naughty cookies will take advantage of the situation and make their escape attempt.
Lefties have no fear, my ninja intraweb search skillz have found a place to buy a version for left handers at Mocha Home.
So let’s summarize with a pros and cons list:
Pros:

Stylish mug that holds cookies
Saves usage of a plate at breakfast
Heat of the tea/coffee warms the cookie, which an unexpected benefit

Cons:

For right handers only
Outrageously expensive at $23
Water collects in the cookie chamber in the dishwasher
Wife rolls eyes at you

Zoom Movie Review

My oh my the things we do for our children.
Yesterday I took the girls to see the movie Zoom, about a group of young superheroes. I should have done a little research before heading out to the theater and avoided the movie.
The movie is basically a set of product placements strung together with a few music videos stretched out to 83 minutes. The product placement is so blatant, that characters actually visit a Wendy’s restaurant and discuss how much they like Wendy’s food how eager they are to get some. Heck, there’s even a robot character named Mr. Pibb.
Worse probably is the fact that we only get to see the young heroes use their power once or twice. Truly disappointing, even for children. Actors Tim Allen, Courteney Cox, Chevy Chase, and Rip Torn are pretty much wasted talent with this script.
The waste of acting effort and my tickes can be entirely blamed on a lackluster script tha must have been computer generated by a studio exec. Let’s see Star Talent + Cute Kids + Super Powers = Profit. Too bad they forgot to add in a Good Story.

Jelly Belly Sweet Rocks

At the supermarket, I spied a box of Jelly Belly Sweet Rocks, and I had to buy it for a Cruft Labs review. A few years ago, we reviewed Bott’s Beans, the candy based on the Harry Potter books.

The Sweet Rocks are a tie-in to the Ant Bully movie. Evidently the ants eat jelly beans and call them ‘sweet rocks’. Whatever.

The whole point of the Sweet Rocks is really down to the four special flavors. Alka Root, Ant Hill, Caterpillar, and Grass Clippings.

We sorted out the jelly beans from two boxes and here is the total amount of the desired ones to test. I wish they put a bit more in the box. The regular Jelly Bellys are good, but we are really after the special flavors.

On to the testing:
Alka Root – Tasted like root beer to me. Didn’t get any subtle nuance of something else. Everyone else agreed.
Ant Hill – This is dirt flavor. Not kidding, tastes like dirt. I was able to eat and swallow it, but Mom & Dad both spit it out.
Caterpillar – Several of us tried to figure this one out. Just tasted sweet. We expected something bad like vomit flavor, but it didn’t taste bad. I’m sure the flavor scientists at Jelly Belly put effort into this, but we didn’t find the flavor distinctive in any way.
Lawn Clippings – Again, this really tastes like grass. Mom said, “Subtle and delicious. Do we have more?” Michele said, “Disgusting!”
In summary, Ant Hill and Lawn Clippings tasted exactly like Dirt and Grass jelly beans from Bott’s Beans. Nothing new there. Alka Root was root beer and Caterpillar was nothing special.
A bit of a disapointment compared to the strong flavors like Black Pepper and Vomit from Bott’s Beans.

Cruft Labs will continue to bring you any advancements in jelly bean flavor technology as we find them.

Mini-review – Buzz Bites

Just a quick post about Buzz Bites. Michele picked these up a few days ago. She rocks and is always on the look out for things I am interested in trying

Caffienated chocolate?
This morning I dragged my tired butt into the office after a long weekend of sun, children, and fixing a faucet. The line for coffee downstairs was long and I decided to give the Buzz Bites a try.
The taste was like a soft Tootsie Roll with a hint of bitterness. Not terrible, but not delicious either. After about 5 minutes, I could feel the caffiene and what not hitting my system and I was buzzing sure enough.
Rarely do these kind of gimmick products live up to expectations, but this things do. So if you need a burst of energy to kick start you, the Buzz Bites do work. You can buy them at Thinkgeek for a bit less than the Buzz Bites site.

Two by Charles Stross

I’ve been lax in my reviewing duties. Over the last several months I’ve read several books and only reviewed one. Last night I finished my latest and finally have taken the time to review it. The book, Iron Sunrise, is actually a sequel to Singularity Sky, which I finished back in December.
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
Charles Stross is Scottish writer that is very tuned in to the ideas and concepts out there being discussed on the intraweb. He has a good idea how to interleave some of these ideas into traditional science fiction stories while acknowledging the long tradition of space opera style fiction.
In Singularity Sky, Stross introduces us into his universe, in which a artifical intelligence know as the Eschaton has scattered the human race around the local part of the galaxy, creating various civilizations on various planets for some reason unknown to Man.
Stross tosses the reader into the deep end without a lot of exposition as to what exactly is going on. A long term sci-fi reader will likely eat up, but a some may find the jargon hard to follow.
The story basically follows the collision of two cultures and our heroine’s attempt to avoid disaster. One of the cultures intends to circumvent the Eschaton’s rule on not changing the past. To avoid this, it leads the characters on a merry chase across varied planets as various subplots unfold.
This book wasn’t what I was expecting and I liked it immensely. Very similar in tone to Vernor Vinge’s work regarding post-singularity socities.
Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross
This book continues in the same universe that Stross created previously. In this book, we get a lot more exposition to let us know what is going on. Some good hard SF stuff in the beginning to reel you in to the story. A complete who-dunit from the beginning.
Back, central to the story, are Rachel and Martin the heroic troubleshooter couple we saw bond in the first novel. Along with them are a nice cast of characters that Stross brings together in eventually to a nice climax. Most of the motivations are believable, but the villains in the story are almost too evil. Stross tries to bring them back in toward the end with a speech by one of th ebad guys, but we aren’t given enough to understand their twisted motivations.
I liked the surprises that popped up along the way. It was pulled off well, with me saying “Of course!”.
The one thing I didn’t buy was one of the romances that blossoms late in the novels. It didn’t click in my mind.
Other than that, I thought Iron Sunrise was written better than Singluarity Sky and shows Stross honing his craft. I look forward to his new novels.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

I’ve actually been reading a lot lately but have been neglecting my reviewing duties. Friends and family know that I’ve read this book, because I can’t stop talking about it.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is a writer for the New York Times. I heard him speak on the radio about our food and how it is made. It was intriguing and I picked up the book for our trip to Hawaii.
Basically, Pollan looks at how food gets to the supermarkets where the vast majority of Americans shop. The reality he explains is astounding. Now, before you think I’m just some hippy on the net hyping the latest granola-eating idea that comes down the pipe, let me describe my food habits. We buy the majority of our food at Pavilions and Ralph’s supermarkets, with the occasional trip to Trader Joe’s for unique items. We eat fast food a couple times a week as a family and I personally eat out every day at lunch. We do buy organic eggs and milk and when the opportunity arises ‘free range’ and organic meat.
In his examination of the corn industry, I was amazed at the absolute insanity of the system of corn farming. Due to the government’s intervention on behalf of the large food processors (like ADM), the price of corn is less than the cost to grow it and the corn industry has become dependent on oil-based fertilizer (surprise!). The amount of corn produced is huge and the food processors invented high fructose corn syrup in the early 80s to find a use for all the corn produced. Today, with corn syrup in pretty much everything we eat, the new corn product being pushed is… ethanol (surprise!).
Next he looks at what the label ‘organic’ really means. Again, I found this fascinating. In short, organic just means that a farmer doesn’t use pesticide or fertilizer on plants and doesn’t use hormones or anti-biotics on animals. The majority of ‘organic’ food is still grown by mega-agribusiness in huge amounts. Thinking now about people that shop at places like Whole Foods get their food as opposed to the ‘regular’ supermarket is a bit funny. Organically labled food is the same whether you buy it at Safeway or Whole Foods. The silliness of it even gets bigger when you start thinking about buying organic out of season fruits that rode in exhaust spewing aircraft to get from South America to the US in the name of being ‘healthier’.
I do have to say that buy buying organic, you are getting a product that doesn’t have pesticides or fertilizers in them. That is a good thing, but organic foods are not the panacea to America’s food problems.
Polland describes the Polyface farm as an example of a sustainable farming method that by all accounts is the best way you could hope to get your food. I have to admit I was enamored when reading it, but some of the concepts don’t scale to amount of food needed to feed cities of hungry people. If I lived near Polyface Farm in Virgina, I’d go out of my way to buy their food. Pollan leads from hear into a brief desciption of the ‘slow food‘ and ‘eat local‘ movements. Both movements argue that eating food that is produced near to where you live is better in almost every way than eating food that is produced far away and shipped to you.
The point Polland makes about food labeling is superb. When was the last time you went to the store and saw the name of the farm where your oranges were grown? Was it in Florida or California? If you had questions about the farm where your ‘free range’ chicken was raised, who coudl you ask? Big agribusiness does not want you asking or thinking these kinds of questions. They want you to think that all eggs and oranges and apples and milk is exactly the same. You know this isn’t true.
Why do you think the good chefs are picky about the food they cook with? It’s because the little things matter in food. Honey made by bees that live near Clover is much different than the honey made by bees near tupelo. Beef from cows that eat grass is different than that from ‘corn fed’ cows.
After reading the book, I went to our local farmer’s market with the kids. Sure enough, the people there could tell you exactly where the food came from, most of it local. But the selection just isn’t there. Eating local means no corn in winter and no grapes in the spring. I liked the ideas, but it takes real effort to eat local and sustainably. It’s more than driving to Whole Foods.
The last part of the book deals with hunting and gathering. This part was interesting, but not particularly revealing. Those that have qualms about eating meat yet do may find it deeper, but I came to grips with being carnivorous ethically long ago. Each person needs to make up their mind about eating meat. Either eat meat or go vegan I don’t care, but I do care if you haven’t given the matter some thought.
If you can’t tell already, I highly recommend the book to anyone that has a passing interest in what they eat. If you haven’t done much reading about food before, you won’t be disappointed.
Pollan has a good weblog about these idea at the New York Times, but it’s behind the pay wall where most people can’t read it. We read the printed on paper Times, so we get to read it. It’s a shame that the Times can’t find sponors to make the column free to read.

Java Juice Coffee

For a while now, I’ve been drinking instant coffee at home. Michele put our coffee maker up in a cupboard and replaced with a hot water dispenser. It’s great for tea, but it leads to instant if you want coffee. I’ve tried various Japanese instants and those found in the regular supermarket from Folgers and Maxwell. They are OK, but nothing great.
When I was in Europe I found these small coffee packets that held instant coffee for one cup. I really enjoyed them and had horded a few that I brought home. When I started searching on the net for how to get them in the US, I bumped into Java Juice. I started reading the site and was intrigued. I bought some and awaited it’s arrival to Cruft Manor.

I opened the box and was pleased with the package. Quite a departure from standard supermarket style, the canister had a good tactile feel and appears to be useful for other things once the coffee is gone.
The coffee is made from organic beans and is even kosher. They even mention that the benas are ‘fair trade’.

The coffee extract comes in a packet. It’s not powdered instant coffee, it’s a liquid. The idea is that it is easily mixed into anything.
Java Juice pitches their coffee as a product for people on the go, that want high quality coffee whether they are camping or at the office.

I open the package and poured the black gold out. A strong, delightful coffee aroma filled the air. I’m not sure exactly how they make it, but this is some serious coffee extract.

I add the hot water from the kettle. (Michele tried to clean the hot water dispenser with vinegar. It cleaned off the calcium deposits great, but the dispenser died. So we are back to heating water with a tea kettle until Michele decides on the new hot water dispenser.)

A little sugar and a little milk and we are ready. The taste? Pretty damn good. Much better than any regular instant coffee I’ve tried in the past. It’s strong and has a more ‘thick’ feel to it that some of the thin coffees you encounter.
Michele gave it a try and she liked it as well. It’s been offically added to the house staples.
Java Juice is great, but it ain’t cheap. A single serving is 75¢ to $1, depending on the quantity you buy. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. I brought a packet to work today, added the hot water from the work kitchen and I had a great cup of coffee. Compared to my usual choice of crappy free machine coffee and expensive yucky Starbucks coffee, it’s well worth the price.

Cruft Labs -> Hefty Serve ‘n Store

A while ago (ok, it was five months ago) I received an email from a marketing guy asking if I wanted to review Hefty Serve ‘n Store stuff for my site. Now I know that marketers are getting saavy to blogs and that this was basically a product pitch, but I thought it would be fun. So, let it be known that I received TWO PACKAGES of plastic bowls for FREE. No hidden astroturfing here at Cruft Labs.

Due to little things like work, my family, World of Warcraft and my general laziness, it has taken me quite a while to do the review that you, the Loyal Cruft Reader, would expect.
Now down to business.

The Serve ‘n Store bowls and plates are a kinda intriguing concept. The idea is that the edges can interlock and close up to form a container. So you eat off a plate, don’t finish it, and with the leftovers, you slap a second one on top and toss it in the fridge. Sounds reasonable.

The first thing I had to check was if it was water tight or not. I filled the bowl up with water, seal the lid and turned it on it’s side. Water poured out. It held food just fine, but it should not be used for liquids if you are used to Tupperware or other water tight containers.

As I took a closer look at the bowls, I was surprised to see the words “Do Not Microwave” on the bottom. At first this didn’t make sense until I condsider that if the closed set was put into the microwave, the steam of the food cooking inside, could cause the bowls to blow open in a messy way.

Of course, the only way to know was to test the bowls out in a real test. So I placed some chicken leftovers in the bowl and popped it into the microwave for a few minutes. Everything came out of the microwave fine and I had a nice buffalo chickens andwich and a beer.

After eating, I took a look at the bowl and noticed that it had indeed deformed slightly from it’s brief time in the microwave. My recommendation is that one reheat will be fine but more than that will wreck the bowls further. Of course, Hefty’s lawyers are wigging out that someone would disobey the clear instruction “Do Not Microwave”, but I’m a rebel.

Now on to more crucial tests. Once of the key roles that paper plates fufill is as makeshift frisbees. I took the girls outside and had them try throwing the sealed plates. They flew surprisingly well. The girls had fun with them and I guess that’s all that matters.
The second critical test was whether the Server ‘n Store could be used as maracas. Anyone that has participated in children’s crafts knows the way to make a maraca is to put some pinto beans in some paper plates and then staple the edges shut. It made sense that the sealing action of the bowls would make them perfect for the test, but a real test was in order.
And so I present a Cruft video, made especially for you:

As you can see, they passed this test with flying colors.
Overall, the Serve ‘n Store stuff works as advertised. We’ll probably keep some around the house from now on, but I think they should offer a microwave safe version to placate the worryworts out there.

5+1=6 blades

Of course, the best commercial during the Superbowl was for the Gillette Fusion razor. At first I didn’t know what the commecial was about, but once I did I stood and began applauding since i knew they we about to announce the 5 bladed razor.
I have waited for the 5 bladed razor for a long time. I reviewed Shick’s 4 blade razor and there was the Onion’s post about the 5 blade razor, but it has not been a reality until now.
As a man with a heavy beard, meaning that I get a five o’clock shadow by about 10:30 AM, I am keen for improvements in this realm. Due to my tight industry connections (actually Michele got me one at the supermarket), I got my hands on a new Gillette Fusion razor.

First you’ll notice that Gillette is now boldy claiming orange as a ‘man color’ moving beyond the traditional blue and green. I will mention that the package was easy to open. Unlike many products that are encased in plastic requiring assault with pliers and knives to open, the package was easy to open with only my fingers with no difficulty.

Notice that the razor really has SIX blades. OUTF*CKINGSTANDING! The line has been drawn and it’s now at six blades!

The shaving head itself is a slight modification of the previous 3 blade models. Besides the addtion of the blades, the little rubber strip at the bottom has been widened significantly. The handle obviously has some metal in it since it has some heft and is not as light as many of the complete disposable razors. I’m not sure why, but a little weight makes the handle feel better in the hand.

The trim blade on the back is a novel idea. For those that don’t shave, all the rigamarole on the main shaving face can make it difficult to get a clean edge on your sideburns, leading to uneven and ragged edges.

The blade exchange system looks exceedingly simply, even easy to do with wet, soapy fingers. Now if only Gillette built a toothbrush attachemnt that you could swap onto the end of the handle…

So, how was the shave? It was superb.
I am serious about shaving and use Kiehl’s Shave Cream at the end of my shower when my face has been wet for a while.
On the first few pulls of the razor, it felt so smooth that I thought it was just wiping the cream off and not cutting. I had to check and and sure enough, a clean shave. The smoothness of the pull is significantly better than any other razor I have used. A light tough was all that was needed, and I didn’t have to go over the tougher places like my chin two or three times. I’m not sure if it’s the rubbery part or the five blades, but the razor lives up to the hype. It’s the smoothest shave available.
I tried the single blade trim part and that is a great innovation. It worked great and didn’t feel as if I would cut myself as I positioned the blade to trim my side burns.
The only drawback of the Fusion is that with it’s massive head, it doesn’t fit into the typical razor hold, like the kind you see attached to the mirror. I had to hang the razor on one of the hooks through the center of the razor. Not a huge deal, but to those of you that prize symmetry, it might bother you a bit.
Obviously, IMHO, the Gillette Fusion is the new king of the hill in manly razors and is a significant improvement on shaving technology. Going forward, it will be in daily use at Cruft Manor.