My constant companion.

The human body is approximately 65 percent liquid, which means we inevitably do a lot of drinking to keep that waterlogged equilibrium. Whether it's the recommended allowance of H20 or copious quantities of booze, there's lots of the wet stuff constantly flowing down our gullets.

So proper drinkware is no joking matter. But most cups on the market are fallible. They break, they crack, they sweat -- they fail to effectively contain our beverage of choice. Despite Toby Keith's endorsement, even Red Solo cups have their Achilles heel.

Thankfully, mankind's search for the perfect drinkware has not been in vain, because one container has met the challenge. Tervis tumblers FTW. (And no, Tervis didn't pay me in plastic cups -- or any other currency -- to write this. I pay full retail price for my tumblers just like the rest of y'all.)

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troegs.com

The brewing of beer is a technology as old as civilization itself. Since its inception, mankind has steered its innovative mind toward the betterment of this process, as well as making beer more pleasurable to drink.

Many inventions have come down the line, from the beer tap to the beer hat, yet the process of brewing beer (and drinking it) has remained unchanged. The popularity of craft beer is also spawning new ideas to make beer more interesting.

See also:
- Beer Growlers: A Waste of Your Tax Dollars
- CerveTech Brew Institute: You Got Served

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Jihyun Ryou

​Living without a refrigerator can be hard. Indeed, this one appliance alone accounts for at least one sixth of our electric bill. But Amsterdam designer Jihyun Ryou has devised a way to kill the refrigerator from the electric bill with using a non-electric set of five wall-mounted devices that help keep food fresh.

Said devices are designed from something resembling pre-industrial revolution era stuff. They consist entirely of natural materials such as wood, glass, rice and water. The base material for each device is made from maple wood treated with beeswax. They are so low tech, that with the right amount of craftsmanship, anybody could presumably build something similar.

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Hammacher Schlemmer

​Two possible breakfast scenarios emerge. 1) No time or space to oook high end breakfast options. 2) You can't decide what to eat. The raging debate is finally over with the Only Omelet and Waffle Maker.

"One of the biggest things is that the device recognizes a common problem in the kitchen," says Bree O'Day, public relations associate for Hammacher Schlemmer, the Chicago company that markets the omelet-waffle maker."This is just another nifty thing that helps with that."

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​Using a printer to bake cupcakes sounds as crazy as using a jigsaw to cut a meatloaf, but the technology is out there and could provide the answer to your laziness.

One of the many techie-foodie goodies recently unveiled at the Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the Imagine 3D printer made by Essential Dynamics. It can print food like cupcakes, chocolate and even cheese.

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​The LG Smart Refrigerator is one of the many new "smart" appliances recently revealed at the Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month that can be connected to a home network and manage your entire kitchen. Designed to communicate with other devices via Wi-Fi, it can be controlled with a smartphone and can send updates monitoring electricity and food consumption.

The Smart Refrigerator can track mold levels and expiration dates, send updates on what items are running low, and even suggest recipes based on the ingredients stored in it.

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​It can be difficult to justify spending the extra cash for organic food, but with the help of the Environmental Working Group's 2011 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, you can eat healthfully without having to dump your entire wallet on certified organic produce.

Consumers of produce can reduce their intake of pesticides by 92 percent by choosing nonorganic produce from EWG's list of 15 fruits and vegetables that are less likely to have been sprayed with chemicals.

A "Dirty Dozen" list of fruits and vegetables shows that the 12 most contaminated items expose you to an average of 14 different pesticides a day. Of those, according to the EWG app, six are fruits: apples, strawberries, peaches, domestic nectarines, imported grapes, and domestic blueberries.

Fruits least likely to test positive for pesticide are pineapples, avocados, mangos, domestic cantaloupe, kiwi, watermelon, and grapefruit.

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It's a brave new world, brave little toaster.

​The world of toasters just got a little weirder. Research firm IDC released a report predicting that 2012 will be the year when companies start making kitchen appliances that can Tweet and send us notifications via the web; this will include toasters.

Until that happens, it might seem we must settle with convention. But not so fast! There are plenty of zany spins on the plain ol' pop-up that will put the fun back into making toast.

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Hans Scharler

​There's no question that if left unattended, our kitchen appliances can develop minds of their own, but tweeting toasters? What the hell?

This is a prediction from a report released last month by Massachusetts-based marketing research firm International Data Corporation.

IDC predicts that 2012 will see the arrival of microblogging by things, allowing people to follow the status of a device.

"We predict that in the next 18 months, we will see acceleration in the use of microblogging technology...for people to follow the 'state' of things that are relevant to them," says Frank Genz, author of the report. "This could include a Twitter-like feed to 'follow' the status of a connected appliance in your house to see if it's operating correctly or if it needs service."

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​Makers of Denmark-based Scanomat decided that a substance almost as necessary as water should be as readily available. Coffee!

This ain't no typical brew machine. The TopBrewer looks like a a faucet and mounts to your countertop. It not only brews and dispenses coffee but also is equipped with undercounter components including two high-output grinders, a juicing system, the world's smallest milk frother, dispensing lines, and a refrigerator. Quit hating, Starbucks.

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