Puro Caff is a powdered concentrate that is used for cleaning coffee related appliances. I first heard of Puro Caff from a friend who was a barista at a coffee shop. I was able to purchase a 20oz bottle of the powder from my local Cash and Carry, and quickly went to work on all of my home coffee gadgets. Puro Caff cleaned my well-used Sigg Metro coffee mug to brand-new looking status, and removed the coffee residue and old coffee taste and smell from the mug, leaving me with a fresh clean new looking travel mug. Puro Caff also works very well to freshen up your home drip coffee maker, or stove top percolator. I don’t have an espresso machine myself, but I do know that many coffee shops use Puro Caff to clean their espresso machines, grinders, and air pots. While it’s somewhat expensive to buy, in my experience a little goes a long way, and for the price it’s worth every penny and extends the longevity and enjoyment of everything coffee related.

[Note: For those looking to use something you might have around the house, denture cleaners like Fix-A-Dent have worked well for me in the past (a hold over from when I had braces).--OH]

I’ve been brewing beer on occasion for over 20 years, starting when I was in college. Always lurking out beyond the homebrew scene was the idea of making spirits. More complicated than making beer or wine and requiring the use of a still, it seemed out of reach. Being officially illegal didn’t help either. But the idea lingered on in the back of my mind.

Then I stumbled upon a device called an Easystill. Basically, it is a water distillation unit that can also be used to distill alcohol as well. The idea of spirit distillation is simple. Alcohol boils at a temperature less than water, so if you get temperature above 78 °C but below 100 °C, the alcohol becomes vapor, leaving the water behind. A still captures the vapor, cools it enough to turn it back to liquid, allowing you to capture it.

The EasyStill does all that in a 110-volt tabletop device that you can store in the closet or garage when you are finished. The still handles about a gallon of mash at a time, so if you make a small 5 gallon batch of fermented mash, you are running the thing at least 5 times to produce a liter of alcohol. The process is slow to start but does work. I’ve made drinkable moonshine. It’s not for any serious distilling, but for cooking up a batch on occasion.

I’d recommend EasyStill for someone that wants to see if distilling is for them. If they like it, they’ll want to buy a real still with bigger capacity and full features. If it’s not for them, they haven’t spent a lot. Most people getting into ‘firewater’ have already tried homebrewing beer and likely already had all the stuff for the initial fermentation. I did.

[Making beer and wine at home in the US is perfectly legal. Owning a still (for water or making fuel) is legal. But making distilled spirits at home is currently illegal in all countries of the world except New Zealand. However, technological advances, local craft breweries and artisian spirit-making is rapidly shifting the legal landscape in in the US in favor of home production. In the meantime, if you don't sell it and don't kill anyone, no one will likely mess with you. The best source for home distillery information, including legal updates, advice about all types of stills, recipes, what gear works, aging caskets, flavorings, and so on, is a really great website (based in New Zealand) called Home Distiller. It will probably answer any questions you may have about making your own liquor. --KK ]

Chef Knives to Go is a small Madison, WI, company that specializes in high-quality Japanese kitchen knives. They have helped me out professionally (as an editor testing samples) and personally (I own and have made gifts of several different models). The owners, Mark Richmond and Susan Brown, really know their products and have always given me honest, dependable, and prompt service. If you are a professional chef needing a special knife or just a kitchen hobbyist wanting to upgrade, I’m happy to recommend CKTG. Good folks and great products.

I recently picked this cheese grater up on a whim while visiting my parents. I’ve been using it a month now and absolutely love it. It’s the best cheese grater I’ve ever used. It comes with two different graters, large and small, which fit on to the bowl. The bowl has a rubberized bottom that really grips the counter and if you have any leftover, you can simply pop the lid on and put it in the fridge. I find the motion of scraping the cheese across a horizontal surface easier than down a slanted one. IKEA unfortunately only sells it at their stores and not through their website but it occasionally pops up at resellers.

Killer new grill, Montreal steak seasoning, luscious thick steaks. What was amazing to me? That I hadn’t thought ’til then to consider Cutco’s “Table Knife” a Cool Tool.

What must be 20 years ago, Honeypie said to me, “The Cutco person’s coming over tonight.” No clue what that meant, but after a little discussion I put fresh, badass edges on our set of excellent kitchen knives.

Our visitor: “Here, cut this piece of sisal rope with your knife.” I sawed with my Chef’s knife and finally had a shiny crisp end. “Now try the Cutco.” Zip zip, through! Huh, I didn’t expect this…

“Cut this piece of leather with your steak knife.” Our steak knives at the time weren’t good, and it was an embarrassing struggle. Then the “Try this” and another zip, zip gave a good clean cut.

I was absolutely amazed and we bought a set. And all this time later, they’re still amazing. We could ship them back for free sharpening – but we’re still using the original edges, and they still glide through all sorts of meat with ease.

Cutco’s Double-D edges are the thing. We love them.

[Note: My family has owned Cutco knives since I was a kid (I've got the cuts to provei it), and we've only had positive experiences with their products and support. With that ind mind, before you order you might check around to see if any of your friends or their children are working for Cutco as I'm sure they would appreciate the commission.--OH]

Roasting coffee at home is one of the best kept secrets. You get far superior coffee at a much lower cost – and I live in Seattle so I’m comparing this with the best roasters around. It’s easy to do, takes about 20 minutes (basic instructions and links below) and produces about a pound at a time. I’ve been roasting 1-2 times a week for over 2 years.

This popcorn popper is much like the previously reviewed Whirley-Pop Theater Stovetop Popcorn Popper but it is significantly more durable in material (stainless steel vs aluminum), gauge (much thicker) and gears (metal vs plastic). This is important when roasting coffee (vs. popcorn) because it is much heavier and puts significantly more strain on the parts. Also, heavier pots distribute heat better.

Why Roast at Home? Because you have a far bigger selection of beans to choose from so you can cater to your personal taste (chocolate, lemon hints, molasses, florals, etc.). Grean beans are much cheaper than roasted. Freshness is probably the biggest factor in coffee taste and unless you are picking your coffee up from a roaster the chances are you’ve never had really fresh coffee.

Why Stovetop? Many home roasters use old air poppers as roasters. These can work fine but you need to get the correct air popper (new ones usually don’t work). They are much harder to control and they make a serious mess (when fresh beans are roasted the outer skin cooks off as a light chaff which air poppers blow all over the place). Home roasters (previously reviewed here) give you far less control and typically involve somewhat laborious cleaning of parts. Also the inexpensive ones don’t handle the chaff problem. Air poppers and home roasters also provide almost no way to control the considerable smokiness of the process which is why most people use them outdoors.

Stovetop Method: Sweet Maria’s has a whole section on this as well as adaptations made to this popper (have it do the work for you by adding a drill to do the stirring!) and the many cool devices people have hacked together for home roasting using everything from old BBQs to hot air guns which is one of the reasons they are the best home coffee site around.

Stovetop Popper Options: This popper varies in price so you might want to start with the previously reviewed whirley pop. It costs $21 and I used at the beginning. I switched once I knew I would be doing this a lot and for a long time to come. I’ve been using this popper for almost 2 years and it’s never been cleaned and it works like a charm – well worth it. Replacement gears are available for a few bucks online and they will eventually wear out (especially if you use a drill for stirring instead of your hands).

Jump In!: Reading about coffee roasting is worthwhile and Sweet Marias has everything you need to know. The only problem is that it will make you think it is far more complicated than it really is. The bottom line is that it takes a little practice and once you have done it you realize you just have to get the temperature right and watch/listen/smell for the obvious signs of it being ready. Don’t be put off just jump in and try it. I’ve tried many DIY things from the Arduino to making jam and I can assure you that this is the easiest and most rewarding of all them.

[We first reviewed the Stovetop Popcorn Popper and Sweet Maria's here in 2010, but thanks to Charles we're highlighting the wonders of simple home-roasting again!--OH]

I don’t own a fridge with an ice maker, and so for the past few years have been relying on the cheap white ice trays that seem to inhabit everybody’s freezer. They’ve done their job, but never very well. Recently, however, I picked up the Tovolo King Cube Ice Tray, and have been blown away with the oversized ice cubes it produces.

The silicone ice tray produces the largest cubes of ice (they’re 2″ x 2″) of any tray I’ve seen. Outside of being a gigantic novelty, the increased size is a boon as it reduces the surface area to volume ratio. This means the ice melts slower in your drink keeping it cold longer while minimizing how much it waters down your drink. I hadn’t expected it to make that much of a difference, but it’s really astonishing how much longer the ice remains in the drink. I’ve found these large cubes are downright perfect for cocktails like a gin and tonic, and while I’m no whiskey connoisseur I imagine they’d be even more at home in a scotch on the rocks. Simply put there’s something special about having an oversized piece of ice clinking in your glass.

Another design plus is that the silicone tray holds a greater volume of water than other ice cube trays I’ve tried (which all seem to hold a pitiful amount of water), while taking up less valuable freezer real estate (the tray is significantly taller, and not as long as my old trays). Popping the ice cubes out takes a bit of wrangling, but no more so than cracking traditional ice trays, and because silicone is a good insulator you’re not left with ice cold hands in the process.

The only downsides I’ve found so far are that the flexible silicone tray can twist and bend and slosh while finagling it into the freezer, and the fact that it only makes six cubes at a time. This hasn’t been a problem for me as it takes fewer cubes (read: one) to cool down most drinks.

Overall, these big ice cubes are just plain cool, and for $8 it’s a cheap and functional upgrade to any freezer.

We’ve always used a standard, run-of-the-mill garlic press, probably just because it was what was in the drawer. It only used half the clove. It was a pain to clean. And stinky hands were hard to avoid. It’s a device whose engineering is outdated.

We were downtown recently, just having finished brunch, and decided to walk around the square. Just a couple of doors down we have a cute little kitchen store. It’s always a fun place to cruise, and as I’m checking out, with a brand-spanking new garlic press in my hand, there at the register is a box labeled Garlic Twist. It was the same price as the garlic press so I swapped.

This thing is awesome. Give the cloves a whack with the bottom of the press (it’s nice, sturdy acrylic). Remove the outer layer and toss them in the garlic twist. Slip the lid on and twist the top and bottom in opposite directions. Stop twisting when the garlic is the desired consistency. It works equally well with a single clove or a handful.

The package says you can also do ginger or olives or cherries. I haven’t tried that, but it should work just as well.