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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Reviews

Review: BEERMKR Makes it Easy to Make Beer

The fact that I hate beer either makes me the worst person to do a review of the BEERMKR countertop home brewing system or the best person to do such a review.

On the one hand, I can’t tell the difference between “good” beer and “bad” beer because IPAs, stouts, lagers, and what have you all taste gross. So I’m not the best judge of BEERMKR’s end product.

On the other hand, my particular dislike for beer means I know nothing about hops or grains. It also means I have never tried to make my own beer. So if a device promises to render that process idiot-proof, well, then I’m probably the right idiot.

Avid Spoon readers will know that I included the BEERMKR on my 2020 holiday gift guide. So you already know I like it. For the TL;DR set, despite some of its quirks, I actually had fun making beer with this, and that’s probably because I got all the benefits (beer) with hardly any work.

All the ingredients you need.

And brewing beer at home the old fashioned way takes lots of work. The traditional process involves buckets, hoses, bottles, bottles potentially exploding, babysitting, sterilizing… All that is to say that it’s complicated! And all those complications have turned a lot of people away from making their own beer.

BEERMKR solves this by putting everything in two pieces of hardware: a (big) countertop brewing/fermenting system and a slightly less big BEERTAP, which sits in your fridge and dispenses beer.

BEERMKR’s grain hopper. Just throw everything/anything in there.

One of the keys to BEERMKR’s ease is the fact that it replaces buckets and bottles with a one-gallon plastic bag/bladder (equivalent to 12, 12-oz bottles). Snap it into the brewer/fermenter to make the beer. Then once that’s done, transfer the bag to the dispenser.

We’ve actually written about how BEERMKR works (and shot videos of it) a few times over the years, so I don’t want to get too bogged down with the mechanics of the system. Like the machine itself suggests, let’s get to the fun part!

BEERMKR sent me a test unit along with the ingredients for two different beer recipes: A stout and an IPA. All of the ingredients are separated out in pre-portioned packets. In the accompanying BEERMKR app, you select either a BEERMKR’s recipe or you can DIY it if you’re a pro. Because I’m a n00b, I used the BEERMKR recipe for the Chubby Stout.

BEERMKR app

With my recipe selected, the BEERMKR app used a series of videos to guide me through the set up of the machine: how to install the bag, how much water to add, where to put the grains, what to expect in the first phase, etc.

After you do all that, you push the single, solitary button on the machine, and congratulations! You’re well on your way to making your own beer. From there BEERMKR takes over, keeping your beer at the right temperature, agitating it, and literally doing all the work. When it came time to pitch my yeast, BEERMKR sent me an alert and showed me some more videos on how to do that. Easy peasy.

The app fills you in at each step along the way, telling you what temperature the beer is at, the different stages of fermentation, and the resting (FWIW, I never knew beer had to rest). Once I pitched my yeast, I just sat back and watched on my app over the following nine days or so as the beer came together.

When it was done, the app sent me an alert. I removed the plastic bladder holding the beer, placed it into the BEERTAP, screwed in the CO2 cartridge and waited a day for the liquid to carbonate. Which… didn’t exactly happen the first go-round.

BEERMKR app

BEERMKR is still very much a new product. As such, there are several kinks the company is working out. My beer didn’t actually fizz up all that much because there were leaks in the CO2 lines. But the BEERMKR customer service team is super attentive, identified the problem quickly and sent me some clamps to tighten up the hoses. (A service rep even Zoomed with me to make sure I installed them correctly.)

Once the clamps were in, I waited another 24 hours, then I was able to enjoy a frosty, chocolatey stout. Or, at least my neighbors did (you know, because I hate beer).

One downside to the BEERMKR’s bag system is that it removes the need for bottling. That means that in order to share my beer, people had to come to me. This might be a bummer for hardcore brewers who like gifting their beer, but it was fine for me.

The biggest complaints I have are that during the fermentation phase, the machine gets loud twice a day as it does some kind of vibration something. I couldn’t control the timing of this vibrating, so it wound up waking me up in the middle of the night because it is loud. This is an issue the company said it is fixing in the app, so by the time you get yours, it might not be a problem. I fixed the issue by moving the machine into the garage.

Big BEERTAP

The app also had some other quirks about updates on different stages of my beer, but those didn’t impact the end product and they too are being addressed in updates.

But look. The point is, I had fun making beer! And I hate beer! If I loved beer and knew what I was doing, I would probably have had even more fun because BEERMKR lets you add whatever kind of flair you want to your beer. Want to throw in some raspberries or dandelions or cinnamon? Go crazy! Toss it in the grain bin and let that new/crazy flavor soak in.

At $499, the BEERMKR isn’t cheap, but what’s good is that unlike the now-defunct PicoBrew, it doesn’t rely on some proprietary pod system, so you’re free to go hog wild with your brews. But also homebrewers I know said that the price was good for what it does, given all the time and work it saves you.

BEERMKR didn’t make me love beer, but it made me love how easy it was to make beer.

I Cooked With the BonBowl for an Entire Week and Now I’m Attached

I’m simultaneously the best and worst person to write a review of the BonBowl, a newly released personal induction cooker designed to make single-serving meals in about 15 minutes or less. On the one hand, I tend to make a lot of single-serving meals and, like any good Spoon scribe, I’m into kitchen gadgetry. On the other hand, I still tend to do a lot of actual cooking the analogue way and rather enjoy making a colossal mess in order to put a meal together.

Still, I pre-ordered the BonBowl, which arrived a few weeks ago, and decided to spend a week putting it through its paces. 

The device comes in two parts: a cooktop base that plugs into a wall and uses induction heating, and an accompanying bowl from which you can both cook and eat the food. The whole thing currently goes for $149 at the BonBowl website.

Before we get into the food, let’s talk about the setup. That won’t take long, because it’s literally a matter of removing the device from the box and plugging it into a wall. Bonus: I don’t have a ton of counter space in my kitchen. The BonBowl fits nicely into a little corner, where it now lives even when I’m not using it:

As far as what you can cook with it, the BonBowl site offers a range of recipes, including a handful by Trader Joe’s. There’s no app integration (yet), but if you don’t want to drag your computer into the kitchen, a handy card accompanies the device and lists multiple recipes with quick cooking instructions. Think single-serving pasta, mac ‘n’ cheese, or oatmeal.

I picked one of the Trader Joe’s recipes for my inaugural BonBowl meal, a simple tomato soup with gnocchi. The recipe has just four ingredients, and I was also struck by the convenience factor of not having to guess at a single-serving size (which I mess up on a daily basis). The meal took 15 minutes to make.

One huge plus is that the bowl itself is a non-stick dish with thermal insulation, so it heats the food but doesn’t become too hot to handle. Ever yank a glass bowl that’s been in a microwave out with your bare hands? Between the thermal insulation and induction heating of the device, that scenario doesn’t happen with the BonBowl. Cleanup is a matter of washing the bowl and spoon.

I made a couple other recipes from the BonBowl site, but what I really wanted to discover was whether the BonBowl could accommodate my weekly eating habits without my having to change them very much. For instance, every Sunday I make a huge pot of garlic rice and garbanzo beans, which serves as my go-to meal when I don’t have much time. Normally I reheat portions in a skillet, guessing at the serving size. (I don’t like microwaves and have never owned one.) For that week, I simply chucked the food into the BonBowl, set the time for 10 minutes, and went about my day until the machine beeped. 

One small quirk, if you can even call it that, is that a couple times the machine heated the food so well the meal had to cool for quite a while, though that problem was easily solved by adjusting the timer.

Beans, in fact, are an ideal food for the bowl. Garbanzo, black, pinto, the inimitable Heinz baked beans. I tried them all, and in fact the BonBowl is all I use now for heating beans, sauces, and other simple items. I reheated leftover pasta from a takeout order. I made a rice krispie treat that wouldn’t win awards for presentation but tasted great. I even scrambled an egg.

Less successful was my attempt at making a single-serving portion of a chicken recipe that’s been in my family for generations and is therefore about 150 years old, maybe older. The resulting sad little meal (see above) was probably a combination of a very old recipe, my trying to turn a four-serving dish into a one-serving meal, and the fact that the BonBowl is probably not the ideal gadget for highly experimental kitchen projects.

Which is totally fine, because I don’t think the makers of the BonBowl designed the device for complex recipes loaded with ingredients that have to be combined “just so” in order to create an edible meal.

Rather, the BonBowl seems designed as a way to make simple-but-healthy meals at home quickly and with minimal fuss (or cleanup).

But why, you ask, would I not just buy a hotplate for $30? Being able to cook and eat out of the same dish is one reason. Another is that the induction heating and precision cooking sensors properly cook the food, rather than zapping it to death (microwave) or burning it (hotplate). It’s also safer because rather than an entire hot surface, only the tiny button where the bowl sits heats up.

It’s also versatile. I can’t personally attest to using it in a college dorm room, but it seems ideal for that setting. I can attest to having in the past lived in some NYC apartments with dodgy kitchens, where a BonBowl would have saved a lot of money in takeout fees. These days, the BonBowl is not a necessity, but it’s proven itself a valuable addition to my kitchen and my weekly meal planning.

Review: BLOOM is a Speedier Pourover Coffee Maker for Homes and Cafés

When I worked as a barista, my absolute least favorite drink to make was a pour over. Essentially a single-serving cup of coffee made individually, the process was fussy and usually took five minutes, which held up the line and stressed me out.

Coffee design company ESPRO has developed a new single-serve coffee brewer called BLOOM meant to improve on the traditional pour over method. BLOOM is currently wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign. This week I got to try it out myself to see what all the fuss is about.

Based in Vancouver, ESPRO had already made its own versions of several tried-and-true coffee brewers, including French Press and Cold Brewer. “Now we’re tackling the pour over,” ESPRO’s co-founder and President Bruce Constantine told me over the phone last week.

The main innovation by the BLOOM brewer is its flat bed — that is, the base of the brewer where the coffee comes out. BLOOM’s is larger than average and has 1,500 tiny holes, which means it can brew coffee faster than a traditional pour over device. According to Constantine, this shape also means that the coffee extracts more evenly, so the end result is more consistent. “It’s the first time the pour over has been reinvented in 30 years,” he told me.

Since the BLOOM has a non-traditional shape, it also requires specialized paper liners. ESPRO currently has patents out for both the paper and the BLOOM brewer itself. 

Photo: The parts of ESPRO’s BLOOM brewer [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Constantine says he expects that the BLOOM will be a 50/50 product in terms of customers: 50 percent consumer, 50 percent foodservice in coffee shops and cafes. With COVID keeping more people at home, however, he said that they’re going to focus on the consumer market first. 

Home brewers certainly seem to be interested in the BLOOM brewer. ESPRO launched the Kickstarter for BLOOM on April 15 with a goal of $20,000. It was fully funded after eight hours. At the time of writing this, the Kickstarter had raised over $63,000 with eight days to go.

Kickstarter backers can get the BLOOM and 50 papers for $35. Constantine said when the device debuts in retail, it will cost $50 for the device and 10 papers. Packs of 100 papers will sell separately for $10 each. The company plans to sell the BLOOM directly through their website, and have already confirmed placements at retailers like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, and Nordstrom. 

Constantine said they expect to start shipping BLOOM to backers in July. As with any crowdfunded hardware product, there’s no guarantee that ESPRO will be able to hit that timeline — especially as COVID is disrupting manufacturing supply chains around the globe. But Constantine said that since they’re producing in China, which is over the worst of the virus, they actually aren’t experiencing any manufacturing slowdowns right now. 

In these uncertain times, things can change moment to moment. But it is comforting that ESPRO has already helmed four Kickstarter campaigns, all of which successfully shipped their products.

I got to give the BLOOM a try to get my caffeine fix this week. The process is extremely simple: put a filter into the brewing cone, place it over a coffee mug, add your ground coffee, then pour in the water. Coffee convention recommends that you “bloom” your coffee first (hence the name), which basically means pouring just a little bit of water into the grounds and letting it sit for thirty seconds to make space and let bitter carbon dioxide escape. After the bloom, I poured in the rest of the hot water and had a tasty cup of coffee in a minute and a half.

The BLOOM brewer ready for hot water. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

A minute and a half is a speedy brew time for specialty coffee. My typical Chemex routine takes around six, and regular pour overs take four to five. The coffee itself was delicious, and cleanup was a snap thanks to the paper liner, which gives it a definite edge over the French Press for me.

There’s no question that the BLOOM is easy to use and looks beautiful. However, after trying it out I was left wondering: “Is it really worth it?”

Sure, a traditional pourover and Chemex both take a few extra minutes to brew. But the amount of required active time is essentially the same. A Chemex costs around $45, on par with BLOOM, while a regular ceramic pourover is roughly half that. I’m not sure if a slightly faster brew time justifies purchasing a BLOOM in addition to these other brewers.

I think that the bigger opportunity for BLOOM is in cafes — where time actually is of the essence. But since COVID-19 has basically nixed pour overs from the menu — and might shutter some coffee shops for good — that might not happen for a while.

Until then, if you’re looking to speed up your morning coffee routine, or just add a fun new gadget to your collection to spice up quarantine, BLOOM could be a good fix.

Vejo Review: The Pod-based Connected Blender Falls Short on Taste and Value

During quarantine, with most of us turning to comfort food and relying on shelf-stable ingredients, it can be hard to eat all your fruits and vegetables. Which is why I was intrigued by Vejo, a blender and pod system that claims to make getting those recommended daily nutrients easier. So I took them up on their offer to try sample their product.

Founded in 2015, Vejo is a connected portable blender. It pairs with the company’s biodegradable pods, which are filled with freeze-dried fruits and vegetables and come in varieties like pre- and post-workout, detox, and sleep enhancement. Just add water, insert a pod, twist on the cap, and the blender will whir up a nutritious drink in 30 seconds.

I got the starter kit, which costs $130 and includes the blender and 8 Vejo drink pods. Additional pods can be purchased a la carte or as a subscription and equal out to roughly $4 per serving. There’s also an app which you can use to reorder pods and set reminders to make your drink, which I declined to download.

The first thing I noticed when I opened up my Vejo box was ‘dang, this is heavy.’ The Vejo blender — which looks like a silicone-coated thermos — was in a padded box, swaddled like an iPad. The pods all came in a separate box, alongside which there was a charger pod, charging cord, and a brush for cleaning. I’m guessing there was so much packaging to make you feel like you’re getting a luxury good — which, considering its high price point, makes some sense. But I felt super wasteful tossing it into my recycling bin later.

All the packaging for the Vejo [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Ready for some healthy smoothie blends, I opened up the instruction manual to see that… I had to charge the blender for a minimum of two hours. It’s nice that the Vejo came with its own charger, but I hate having yet another piece of hardware to lose. And it was annoying to have to wait two hours to charge something up when I was ready to try it out right then and there.

Finally, two hours later, I decided to give the Vejo a go with a Clean Greens drink. Per the instructions, I filled the blender up to the fill line inside with cold water, peeled the top off the pod, and popped it into the device upside-down. Then I screwed on the top tightly until it began to buzz. Thirty seconds later, after the buzzing stopped, I took out the pod and composted it (the biodegradable pods are a nice touch, despite all the other packaging).

The pod is in — ready to blend. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

The smoothie was… fine. It definitely tasted healthy, which is to say it wasn’t very delicious — but it did include spinach, cucumber, and sea buckthorn, all of which are good for you. My bigger quarrel is that the finished drink was tiny. The finished product barely took up half of the glass I use for my morning smoothie. And since most of the pods instruct you to fill the blender with water, this drink would definitely not keep me full. I tried three other drinks and, while some of the sweeter ones like Pina Berry tasted better, none left me wanting to make them again.

The price — pods equate out to be about $4 per serving — is certainly cheaper than buying a smoothie out or even using a service like Daily Harvest, whose frozen, pre-portioned smoothie cups run about $7 each. But Daily Harvest’s blends are a lot more robust — and taste a lot better, too. Plus there’s something to be said about eating real fruit, even if it’s frozen, instead of powder mixed with water.

You can also just use a regular old blender (gasp!) and put your own frozen fruit in, which makes a drink that’s both tastier and more customizeable. For customers looking for a blender of the future, may I suggest the cordless, silent appliance from Millo? True, it doesn’t have the pre-mixed pods, but do consumers really want to be locked in, especially to something that doesn’t taste good?

Vejo’s finished Clean Greens drink. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Vejo also offers a high-end personalization service called Vejo+ which makes individualized pod blends to best fit a consumers’ biology. The company sends one of its phlebotomists to Vejo+ clients to do a blood draw, which they analyze, along with weight measurements, and formulate pods to help the clients reach their health goals. That fits right into the broader biomarker-based customization trend that’s being built by Genopalate, Viome, Sun Genomics and others.

Vejo+ costs $1,500 for three months, which is way over my price range — and about triple the price of other personalized nutrition services. However, in my opinion it’s much more useful, and unique, than Vejo’s current service.

Interest around Vejo+ aside, I found that regular old Vejo fell short. Considering we’re all trying to eat more vegetables but restrict our trips to the grocery store, I can see Vejo’s appeal. Especially if you’re an elite athlete or need a reliable way to ingest copious amounts of produce and vitamins. But for me, what Vejo offered in pure health just didn’t make up for its poor taste and bulkiness.

I guess I’ll have to get my fruits and vegetables from regular old fruits and vegetables.

Enrichables Powdered Protein and Kale Packets Let You Make Any Meal “Healthier”

If I had my druthers, I would eat mac & cheese for dinner several times a week. However, since I’m adult and know that’s not exactly a healthy dietary choice, I usually opt for a more balanced meal.

But what if I could health-ify my mac & cheese? That’s the promise that offered by Pampered Chef, a kitchen equipment and dry goods company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, with its new Enrichables line. Enrichables are packets of nutrient-dense powders meat to be added to your normal meals, from smoothies to soups to dips, to make them healthier.

The line’s first two flavors, Pea Protein and Kale & Fiber, launched in October of this year. According to Sandy Wolner, Pampered Chef’s in-house food and trend innovator, the company decided to start with these two products because they’re universally appealing. “Right now, everyone is trying to get more protein into their diet,” she told me over the phone last week. “And everyone knows that kale is a very nutritious vegetable.” 

The pea protein packet contains 10 g of pea protein, and the Kale & Fiber pack has 2 cups of kale, which contains vitamins A, C, and K, as well as 8 grams of chicory root fiber. And that’s it. I like that the packets are made of super-simple, transparent ingredients, unlike lots of other meal supplements and protein powders. The Enrichables packets are also vegan and free from soy, gluten, and nuts.

Left: Enrichables Pea Protein. Right: Enrichables Kale & Fiber. (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

Pampered Chef sent me some Enrichables so I could try them for myself. The first thing I noticed after opening up the box was the size of the packets themselves. I imagined they would be a little bigger than a sugar packet, maybe the size of a tea bag. However, the Enrichables packs are about 5-inches by 4-inches — significantly larger than I’d expected. In fact, they were a little too large to fit into my pocket or slip into my outer backpack pocket, which made keeping them with me on-the-go slightly inconvenient.

Reading the back of the packets, I realized that Enrichables aren’t single-serve. Each one is meant to be incorporated into a recipe that feeds four. That might work well if you’re a parent trying to sneak some fiber and protein into your family dinner, but as someone who mainly cooks just for herself, it was slighly awkward to keep these partially-used packets around my kitchen or office kitchen.

So how did it taste? On the whole, not bad. In fact, both powders chiefly tasted like nothing — and that’s a good thing.

I tried them stirred into a plain lentil soup — one-fourth of a packet in each serving. The Kale & Fiber pack turned my soup vaguely green but didn’t really affect the flavor, which was nice. Similarly the Pea Protein didn’t taste like much and didn’t have the bitterness that sometimes goes along with pea protein. However, it did thicken my soup so much that it became a paste, which was slightly unappetizing. That could be an issue if I was adding the Pea Protein powder to smoothies or other liquids.

Left: Enrichables Kale & Fiber. Right: Enrichalbes Pea Protein (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

That hiccup aside, my lunch tasted good. I’m not sure how much of a difference 2.5 grams of protein powder and a half-cup of kale, the equivalent of one-fourth of each packet, will really make in my overall health. It could’ve just been in my head, but I did finish my lunch feeling uncharacteristically virtuous and full.

Placebo or no, I think Enrichables concept is an interesting way to tap into a few food trends we’ve been seeing here at the Spoon. First, it fits into the move towards so-called “clean label” products with shorter, more transparent ingredient lists. Enrichables is also taking advantage of growing consumer demand for protein, specifically plant-based protein. Finally, Enrichables plays into the overarching trend for mealtime convenience. Want more fiber in your meal? Just sprinkle on this powder and you’re set in an instant.

As for me, I think I’ll use the rest of my Enrichables packet on some mac & cheese for dinner tonight. Hey, it’s healthy!

I Tried Burger King’s Impossible Whopper (and so Did a Lot of Other Customers)

I’m pretty sure I haven’t been in a Burger King since they were giving away The Empire Strikes Back commemorative glasses. But I, and it seems like a lot of other people, are now stopping by the BK Lounge to try the new plant-based Impossible Whopper.

We’ve been watching Burger King roll out its Impossible Whopper nationwide with great interest to see if and how consumers would take to the heme burger. Early results from BK’s market tests showed that Burger Kings serving the Impossible Whopper saw an 18 percent increase in foot traffic over those that did not carry it.

The Impossible Whopper was certainly enough to get me in the door. I honestly didn’t even know there was a Burger King near my suburban Washington home until I Googled it to see how far I’d have to drive to try one.

Thankfully it was only fifteen minutes away, but before leaving I actually called ahead of time to make sure that a) they carried the Impossible Whopper, and b) that they were in stock — Burger King had warned the Impossible Whopper would be available “while supplies last.” They didn’t pick up the phone so I drove up with a little trepidation.

Evidently, I overthought it because the people taking my order had no reaction when I asked for the plant-based burger. A little more than six bucks (the Impossible Whopper is $5.89 plus .50 for cheese) and it was mine. This was a popular order at the time: the customers before me in line ordered three Impossible Whoppers and the customers after me ordered two more.

I asked one of the managers how well the Impossible Whopper was doing and she replied “We sell a lot of them,” complete with a head roll gesture to emphasize the point. She could just be toeing the company line, but given the number of Impossible Whoppers I saw served up, I’m inclined to believe her.

I unwrapped my Whopper and disassembled it to take some pictures. Seeing the patty “naked,” I was surprised at how fake the Impossible patty looked. It was like a large coin with perfect edges. Like an MS Paint drawing of a burger patty.

I reassembled the Whopper and took my first highly-anticipated bite. It was… fine. I mean, it was good, but it’s missing some of the deep flavor complexity and texture of ground beef, and the Impossible patty was a little more dry. It definitely wouldn’t fool a meat eater. I much prefer the Impossible burger served at my local waterfront restaurant. Perhaps Burger King needs more training in the preparation of the patty, so it tastes less mass market.

My thoughts echoed Spoon reader Tom G‘s, who sent us his Impossible Whopper review awhile back. And a favorite food podcaster of mine, Dan Pashman of The Sporkful posted pretty much the same thoughts on Instagram:

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Side by side taste test: original whopper vs impossible whopper. (I’ve had some impossible burgers before, this was my first impossible whopper.) Bottom line: when eaten side-by-side you would never mistake the impossible burger for real beef. It just doesn’t have the same beefy flavor or juiciness. (And my classic whopper came without cheese although I had asked for it, so that one was at a disadvantage and still tasted better.) That being said, the impossible whopper is definitely tasty. I would eat it again. If it’s better for animals and the planet, great. If it helps vegetarians and kosher people experience something closer to a real cheeseburger, great. And if it’s healthier, which it seems to be (at least marginally), also great. Final point: I find the impossible whopper logo’s resemblance to the German flag unsettling.

A post shared by Dan Pashman (@thesporkful) on

I asked the customer next to me, an older gentleman, if he liked his. He said he did, but not in a particularly enthusiastic way. When I asked why he ordered it, he said it was for environmental reasons.

And that’s where I net out. I don’t think I’ll drive out of my way for an Impossible Whopper, but if I find myself in a Burger King, I’d get one again. Not because of the taste, but because I feel better about eating a burger that is better for the planet.

Anecdotally speaking, the Impossible Whopper seems to be drawing lapsed customers back into Burger King, so I’m sure the fast-food giant will see a spike in initial sales with the nationwide introduction of the Impossible Whopper. The question that remains now is how many people will come back for another.

Interested in more reviews and news about the Impossible Burger and other alternative protein stories? Subscribe to our Future Food newsletter!

KetoCoach is a Home Blood Test Kit for Keto Dieters

I was legitimately nervous about the needle. I realize this makes me a big baby, especially since it’s not even a real needle — it’s the teen-tiny pointy tip of a lancet cartridge. But like a four-year old, I asked KetoCoach Founder, Matt Payne, if his companies ketone blood test was gonna hurt.

This is the second time I’ve gone on the ketogenic diet for a story. I did at the start of the year to test out the Keyto, which measured acetone in your breath to see how deep into ketosis your body is. But while exhaling may be easier, Payne told me that KetoCoach’s blood test provided more accurate results.

So back into a diet heavy on avocados I went to see how the two tests stacked up.

The KetoCoach system has three parts: a lancet, the digital meter and test strips. For anyone who monitors their blood glucose, this should all seem familiar. Place the test strip into the meter, prick your finger (after washing it), place a drop of blood on the test strip and wait a few seconds for the results.

The test is looking for ketones in your blood that show up when you are in ketosis. According to the FAQ:

If you are monitoring your blood ketones, you will be measuring beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), the most common ketone the body produces. Since the blood cannot get altered as much as urine can, blood is considered a more accurate, and more consistent measurement of ketosis. However, be aware that blood levels may still fluctuate (although not as greatly as urine).

There are other keto blood testing kits out there, but Payne says the difference with KetoCoach is that its test strips are individually wrapped in foil, which results in a cleaner test.

Before we begin, I should reiterate that I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, nor do I actively recommend the keto diet. Check with your physician before embarking on dietary changes.

Much to my (big baby) surprise, the actual needle prick was the easiest part of the test. The hardest part early on was getting enough blood out for a test. Payne said to get a matchstick head-sized drop of blood to have enough for the test — but I wasn’t supposed to “milk” or squeeze the lancing site, as I could introduce other substances from my skin and impact the readings. I actually went through about three or four test strips (and lord knows how many pin-pricks on different fingers) before I was able to figure out how best to get out enough blood (one trick, getting a thicker gauge needle).

Once add your blood to the test strip, the device gives you a numerical reading: Lo, .5 – 3.0 is nutritional ketosis, 3.0 – 8.0 is high ketosis. I wound up doing two separate trials as I ran out of test strips early on and it takes about three days to get into ketosis.

Without getting into too many numbers, the KetoCoach worked as promised. By day 3 of being on a keto plan, the test said I was in ketosis. I never got above a 1.0, which could be because while I was pretty strict about adhering to the keto diet, my carb counting may not have been accurate enough.

Since I still had the Keyto, I decided to use that simultaneously with the KetoCoach. Each test was done around the same time every day. While the two devices operate on different scales, they seemed to line up — with the exception of only two instances. In particular, for the last reading I took, Keyto said I was in high ketosis, but KetoCoach said I was just in nutritional ketosis. Again, it’s hard to verify, but I certainly felt keto-y, if that’s a thing, and like I should be in high keto.

Without a full-on scientific lab to verify results, it’s hard to say that KetoCoach is any more or less accurate than the Keyto, though the theory behind it (a cleaner test) seems solid. The KetoCoach is definitely more complicated to use at first, but pretty easy to run after you get used to it.

For those wanting to measure their progress on their keto diet, it may come down to cost. The KetoCoach costs $50 for the starter kit, with additional 50-packs of test strips costing $35. For comparison, the Keyto breathalizer costs $250, but you can keep using it over and over. There is a little more to carry with the KetoCoach, but it comes with a floppy case that’s easy enough to fit in a gym bag or duffel.

It’s hard to give a flat out recommendation for either device without further testing. But the KetoCoach did seem to do as promised, and after getting over my fear of needles, was easy to do on a daily basis.

An Impossible Whopper Review from a Spoon Reader

Living in the Pacific Northwest has a lot to offer: Trees, mountains, a Starbucks on just about every corner. But one thing we don’t have right now is the Impossible Whopper from Burger King. It’s only available in a few areas in the country, and was recently launched in the Bay Area as it starts to roll out nationwide.

It’s hard to justify a 13 hour road trip just to try BK’s plant-based burger, which is why we were lucky enough to have friend of The Spoon, and Bay Area resident, Tom G submit his review for us. His order of an Impossible Whopper, small fries and a small Coke cost him $11.85, after tax. And what did he think?

“It was good. Probably 85% of the way there. I should have ordered with cheese,” Tom texted me, “I think with cheese and had no one told me it was fake I probably wouldn’t notice.” He went on “It did have a slightly artificial taste but since the Whoppers do already that’s ironically in their favor.”

In addition to the positive review, the good news for Burger King is that Tom doesn’t typically ever go to one of its restaurants and went specifically to try the Impossible burger. Tom’s not the only new customer Burger King has attracted with the new Whopper:

This type of anecdotal evidence helps reinforce that the Impossible Whopper could bring an entirely new, or at least long-dormant, set of customers back to BK. In St. Louis, Burger King locations that offered the Impossible Whopper outperformed the chain’s national foot traffic average by 18.5 percent. The question now is whether these Impossible-curious customers are one-offs, or if they will come back for more.

In Tom G’s case, he said he’d go back to BK for another plant-based Whopper, though there are enough other restaurants serving the Impossible burger that he wouldn’t go out of his way for it. He prefers The Melt’s Impossible burger, even though it’s more expensive.

Have you tried the Impossible Whopper? What did you think? Did it bring you back to Burger King, and will you go back for more? Drop us a line and let us know!

Review: Magic Spoon is the (Expensive) Kids’ Cereal for Adults, and is Magically Delicious

I have an 8 year old, but we don’t ever buy him sugar cereals, in part because I know I would gobble up most of the box. At my age/metabolic rate, the effects of Lucky Charms tends to linger a lot longer than I’d like them to.

Which is why I was excited to learn about Magic Spoon, which brands itself as “Childlike Cereal for Grown-Ups.” The cereal comes in four varieties: Fruity, Chocolate, Cinnamon, and Frosted, and boasts that it is high in protein, keto-friendly, non-GMO, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, wheat-free and has nothing artificial.

Magic Spoon is able to get all the sweetness without all the junk through Allulose, which can be found in certain fruits like figs and raisins.

It all sounds too good to be true and there must be some catch. There is, and it’s the price. You can only buy Magic Spoon in four-packs for a whopping $40. That’s ten bucks for a 7 oz. box of cereal. You can pick up two, 40 oz. boxes of Cheerios for less than $8 on Amazon.

OK, so it’s expensive, and you have to order it online, and thus wait for your breakfast. I actually bought mine about a month ago and had to wait for delivery because the backorder wait time was so long.

So, how does it taste?

Awesome. Magic Spoon tastes awesome.

I dug into a bowl of the Fruity cereal this morning and it tastes just like the sugary cereal of my youth, but has only 8g of carbohydrates 0g of sugar and 3 net carbs for keto counters (Froot Loops has 26g of carbs, 12 grams of sugar and 23 net carbs). It doesn’t really taste like any actual fruit, it tastes “pink” to my tastebuds (which is probably influenced by its shocking pink color), but Spoon Founder, Mike Wolf thinks it tastes exactly like Froot Loops. Regardless of any synesthesia, I ate a whole bowl and was ready to eat more.

If I’m honest, I preferred the Cocoa flavor, which was more in-line with what was advertised on the box and had a mellow chocolate flavor. I’ll update this post when I try the Cinnamon and Frosted (there’s only so much cereal I can eat in one sitting).

My one complaint is that there is a slight aftertaste, it’s not bad, it’s just more like a slightly metallic and, ironically, artificial feeling reminiscent of pre-packaged protein shakes (which is probably because of the whey protein isolate in the cereal). But that’s a minor quibble.

If Magic Spoon catches on, I suspect bigger CPG companies will have to look at jumping in with similar cereals, though they will have to figure out how to appeal to nutrition-conscious customers without cannibalizing their existing sales.

Will I plunk down another $40 for more? I’m not sure yet. That probably depends on how long these 28 oz. of Magic Spoon in my pantry lasts.

The bigger point is, I went from zero boxes of cereal in my house to four, which I will happily eat and share with my 8 year old.

Maybe.

HowUdish Says It Helps You Eat Like a Pro Athlete, but Fumbles on the Execution

A couple years back, Dwayne Johnson revealed his diet: 10 pounds and 5,000 calories of high-protein meals per day. Perfect for building muscle, not so great for the world’s supply of cod. I know that I’m never going to be as huge as The Rock, but there is a hopeful part of me that thought if I hit the gym enough and follow his diet, I could get jacked (bro).

It is this type of aspirational meal planning that got me intrigued by HowUdish. The iOS mobile app is one among many nutritional apps out there, but its hook is that it has enlisted real-life pro athletes to share how they eat. There is the pro football player Brandon Marshall, Bobby Portis of the Washington Wizards, wrestler Jordan Burroughs, MMA’s Cat Zingano, and track and field’s Queen Harrison.

I spoke over the phone with HowUdish Founder, Michael Gayed, who explained these pros are supposed to share the meals they eat both at home and at restaurants as well as nutritional/fitness advice via paid channels on the app. HowUdish users can access this “pro dish” guidance for just $4.99 a month. According to a HowUdish press release announcing the pro feature’s launch in February of this year, these athletes are supposed to post “regularly about their pro-dish-style on their social media accounts and within HowUdish itself.”

Evidently “regularly” is a relative term. I downloaded the app and subscribed to CrossFitter (yeah, i do CrossFit, don’t @ me), Dani Speegle’s channel. But she actually hasn’t posted an update to HowUdish in at least a month. And even then, she’s only posted three times ever: one restaurant recommendation, one actual tip for making a breakfast burrito, and one reminder to log and track your food. Bo-ring, and not really that useful, especially for $5 a month. Thankfully, I was still in the free trial phase for the app, otherwise I would have felt ripped off.

I can’t confirm how prevalent those type of anemic athlete posts are because you can only subscribe to one pro at a time, and you can’t look at what the other pro athletes are posting. Also, I didn’t see a place to unsubscribe from the one pro I’d chosen so I could have a do over. I’d have to cancel and start again.

I’ve only used HowUdish for a couple of hours, but these types of severe limitations don’t bode well for it having a permanent place on my phone’s homescreen.

I followed up with Gayed who said that unfortunately, the sponsorships were done through a third party, so he doesn’t have too much control over when an athlete posts to his app, but he reassured me that other athletes like Jordan Burrows post more regularly. Gayed also confirmed that there currently isn’t a way to unfollow or change pros in the app, though he said that a fix for this was coming in about three weeks. UPDATE: After the publication of this article, Gayed reached out to say that Pro athlete posts were just a part of their offering, and that the service will match a restaurant meal in your area to what that pro athlete would eat, so you can find food that matches your diet.

Gayed said that HowUdish currently has about 30,000 registered users, but it was “still too early to tell” how much of a boon these pro athletes would be for the service. This pro post inactivity, in part is why Gayed is trying to pivot and make HowUdish more of a service that connects people one-on-one based on their nutrition. Kinda like a Tinder for eating. These features still haven’t launched, but the idea is if you are a high-protein eating person, you could connect with another high-protein eating person and the app would pick a high-protein restaurant you could meet at.

I’m old and married, so I could not have less of an interest in this type of service. But people are potentially finding love from inside their fridge, so what do I know? Maybe healthy-eating millennials would like it.

I’m disappointed that the app didn’t work as well as I had hoped when it came to following pro feeding advice. I could actually see people with high hopes subscribing to a service where a pro athlete walked them through meal prep and planning for a week. But HowUdish isn’t that. So for me, it’s back to smellin’ what The Rock is cookin’.

Proper’s Vegan, Gluten Free and Allergen Free Cookie Dough is a Raw Deal (That’s Good!)

A couple months back, I realized that I was slowly turning vegan, thanks to all of the wonderfully delicious plant-based products coming to market. So I was excited when the team behind the vegan and gluten-free Proper Cookie Dough, told me about their Kickstarter and sent me a couple batches to review.

It’s probably best to define Proper by listing what it lacks. As my colleague, Catherine, pointed out to me, it’s not that hard to make gluten-free or vegan cookies, but making them both vegan and gluten-free is tricky. If that weren’t enough, Proper is going beyond all that, making cookie dough that anyone — even those with food allergies — can eat. To wit, Proper has:

  • No dairy
  • No soy
  • No eggs
  • No nuts
  • No corn
  • No trans fat

Proper is also organic, non-GMO and can be eaten raw or baked (more on that in a moment). The company sent me jars of the Chocolate Chipper and the Triple Chocolate varieties. For each, a serving is 2 tablespoons (HA! Sure.) and contains 130 calories, 9g of sugar, 7g of fat and between 115 – 120 mg of sodium. For comparison, JUST’s brand of eggless chocolate chip cookie dough has 150 calories per 2 tbsp serving, 11g of sugar, 7g of fat, and 105mg of sodium. So the two are pretty similar, though JUST isn’t gluten-free and has soy.

So how’d it taste? Proper Cookie Dough is actually quite good when eaten raw. Both the Chocolate Chipper and Triple Chocolate had a nice, rich flavor with a pretty smooth texture. As you can probably guess, I ate more than 1 serving at a time.

However, Proper’s dough didn’t quite make a, well, proper cookie when baked. I balled up the dough, and used my June oven’s cookie setting to bake them. The dough never melted into a cookie shape and stayed spherical, so it was more like eating a chocolate chip lump. The cookie itself was dry (even when not burned) and not that pleasant to eat. Of course, I should probably have different expectations of a vegan and gluten-free cookie. If that’s the only way you could eat a cookie, it’ll probably be delicious. (Sidenote: Proper should send its recipe to the Big Data, Yummy Cookies guy.)

The good news, though, for this cookie dough, is that Proper has successfully met its campaign goals and raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter. The campaign still has five days to go, so if you’re looking for an allergen-free cookie, you can still grab a sampler pack at the $45 dollar pledge level (you’ll have to wait until September for it to ship though).

Blow it Out: How the Keyto Device Gamified Me Into the Keto Diet

Listen, this post is going to make me seem like the world’s biggest hypocrite. After writing about gradually turning vegan last week, I’m doing a full 180 to write about how I spent this past week piling up meat and heavy cream to go on a keto diet.

In my defense, it was to try out the Keyto, a breathalyzer and mobile app that tells you when your body is in ketosis — the state where your body burns fat for fuel. As someone who has struggled with his weight for most of his adult life, the opportunity to get paid to shed a few pounds (by doing my job, no consideration changed hands with Keyto) was too good to pass up.

We wrote up the Keyto back in November, when the company raised $2.5 million and launched an Indiegogo campaign (where it raised another $1M). The good news is that unlike so many other crowdfunded hardware devices, there is an actual device that I actually used, and the company says it is shipping the first batch to early backers (who paid $99, the device will retail for $179) this coming week.

As a refresher, the Keyto is roughly the size of a vape pen. After you start your keto diet (very few net carbs, lots of fats), you blow into the device three times a day. The Keyto measures your breath for acetone, a by-product that your body makes when going through ketosis.

The Keyto talks to the accompanying app on your phone which calculates your “Keyto Level.” A level of 1 – 3 means your body is still using carbs for energy, 4 means you’re in “light ketosis” and your body is using fat for fuel, 5 – 7 means you’re in full ketosis and using mainly fat for fuel, and level 8 is “Deep Ketosis” which I think rips open the space/time continuum, allowing you to travel back in time and inhabit your 22-year-old body.

In addition to rating your ketosis level, the Keyto app also provides food recommendations. There’s a quick list of foods to eat and avoid, as well as recipes and meal plans. The app also has a community feature and some general advice about following the keto diet.

So. How well did it work?

Before we go any further I should say that I am not a nutritionist, do not advocate the keto diet for everyone, and suggest you consult with your doctor before making any changes to your diet.

Having said that, first, let’s talk about the device. The box comes with the main breathalyzer, four mouthpieces, a battery and a travel bag. The Keyto itself feels solid and is easy to self-assemble. My one issue with the build is that the button you push to turn on the device sinks below the line of the rest of the device, so it feels “stuck” when it’s not. It’s not a big thing, but it cheapens the feel of the product.

The app is still in beta, so I had to get a special link to load it onto my phone. Installation and registration were easy and I could get up and running with my first Keyto breath check in just a few minutes. The app looks fine and is easy to figure out, but it’s pretty dull. We’re living in a golden age of app design and Keyto’s boxy UI feels hobbled together.

Oddly, the instructions for blowing into the device were surprisingly complex. The app counts you down to get you ready to blow (but don’t inhale too deep!). When you do blow the app starts by saying “Blow powerfully” and then almost immediately it says “Blow normally.” Which is it? And how does it impact my score? A company rep told me that it doesn’t really matter as long as you blow till the end of your breath, where most of the acetone will register.

I spent last Sunday pigging out on cakes and ice cream, knowing that I’d be giving them up the next day. I did my first breath test in the midst of that sugar rush and sure enough, I blew a 2: my body was still using carbs for energy.

With that carb caravan was behind me, I became pretty strict about being on keto. I haven’t had a slice of bread or piece of candy since that Sunday. The general food guidelines offered by the Keyto app were actually quite helpful (especially if you love avocados), and provided me with enough food variety to where I didn’t feel bored by being on this diet.

By the end of Tuesday, I had blown my first 4 — light ketosis! I had broken though a barrier, and it was enough to keep me going. Then on Thursday I blew a 5 – full ketosis. Jackpot! Now I was addicted and started blowing into the Keyto more than three times a day. It was a game, and I wanted to win.

To be honest, it’s become such a game that I stopped and blew once while writing this post (I got a 6).

Now would be a good time to say that I have no way to verify the Keyto’s results here at home. I could go get a blood or urine test, but I can’t do that every day (let alone multiple times a day). From a product review perspective, the device seems to work as advertised. You blow into it, it gives you a score. The longer you adhere to the keto diet, the higher your score goes. Whether or not that score is entirely accurate, I can’t say.

I can also see how this gamification could get extreme and possibly unhealthy. I became obsessed with my Keyto score, checking it more than three times a day (see above) and trimming away anything that might lower it. I wanted to win. Win what, exactly, I wasn’t sure, but I certainly don’t want it to come at the expense of my overall health.

This has been a good experiment, and the Keyto made cutting out processed sweets and constant snacking easier than writing what I eat in a food journal. But now that I’ve blown it out, I’m ready for moderation–and to bring back those vegan treats.