Stuff UK — June 2017

KITCHEN GADGETS

Most baristas these days look

like extras from Sons of Anarchy

who’ve had an accident in H&M.

If you’d rather have your coffee

served to you by an extra from

Alien, Krups’ Movenza eats Dolce

Gusto coffee pods and spits

out a hot black brew without

a tattoo in sight.

It’s bigger than it looks in

the pictures, with a distinctly

3D-printed feel to the machined

plastic, but it’s very easy to

use: just follow the instructions

on the individual pods and

you’ll have the perfect latte

macchiato (or whatever you’ve

loaded it with) every single time.

There’s even a touch panel to

tweak the amount of hot or cold

water you want poured through.

A box of 16 ‘official’ pods will

set you back about £4.50, but

if you like a frothy cappuccino

you’ll need to use two per mug,

doubling your contribution to

the 180+ million discarded every

year. Oh well, at least the coffee

tastes good. The Americano is

way better than your average

powdered instant, and the

latte is frothy and rich. For a

good-morning wake-up hit,

this is a stylish experience.

STUFF SAYS +++,,

A novelty barista replacement

that comes at a cost

You make some toast and it’s a

bit underdone, so you pop it back

in for an extra minute. But you

forget, because of the tea, and

it burns. So you start scraping it

off into the sink, and now you’ve

forgotten the teabag and it’s all

stewed. You groan, and then you

look at your stupid toaster and

yell, “AT LEAST I KNOW WHERE

I AM WITH RICE KRISPIES!”

This isn’t a stupid toaster. It’s

a comparatively intelligent one,

with two hugely useful functions:

‘a bit more’, which heats the

bread for an extra 30 seconds,

and ‘a quick look’, which lifts it

up for a progress check without

interrupting the toasting. All this

happens with motorised slots

that glide up and down like the

doors to a Bond villain’s lair – a big

step up from the spring-loaded

ones that occasionally launch a

crumpet off your worktop and

into the dog’s mouth.

Is this really a ‘smart’ toaster?

No – it can’t be programmed to

switch off when the toast has

reached a set brownness, so it’s

not catastrophe-proof – but it

might be just clever enough to

keep you out of the arms of

those damned Rice Krispies.

STUFF SAYS ++++,

This could be just the friend your

bleary-eyed mornings need

MOVENZA AUTOMATIC

BLACK BY KRUPS

SAGE SMART TOAST

(4-SLICE)

£180 / dolce-gusto.co.uk

£170 / sageappliances.co.uk

If you’re scared of water (or

saucepans), Swan’s big stainless

steel egg can boil or poach up to

seven real eggs at once without

a drop of H 2 O in sight. Just choose

how you like them done, close the

lid and it’ll buzz when they’re ready.

£20 / swan-brand.co.uk

ALSO TRY...

SWAN EGG BOILER

& POACHER

APPS FOR BREAKFAST

DARK SKY

It only takes 10

minutes to walk

to the bus stop,

but you can bet

that’s when the

rain will decide

to turn up.

Dark Sky’s

hyper-local

forecasts give

you enough

warning to stop

you getting

drenched.

from £free /

iOS, Android

NUZZEL

Find out what’s

happened in

the world while

you were in

the land of

nod by fi ring

up Nuzzel,

which collects

together all the

news stories

your friends

are sharing

on Twitter

and Facebook.

£free /

iOS, Android

JUICES

Just oranges

going in that

juicer, is it?

† at’s not very

adventurous.

† is app, from

professional

squeezers

Nourish, has

over 400

diff erent

recipes – a juice

for every day of

the year with a

few to spare.

£4.99 / iOS

Wish.com sells
reusable pods at less
than a tenner for six,
meaning you can be a
conveniently stylish
eco-warrior.