The Weekend Series: five things we are vibing on in August
In our opinion, August tends to be less appreciated than other months of the year. Perhaps it’s because it’s the last winter month before the delights of spring arrive, or maybe were too busy not ignoring how fast the year has gone that we purposely don’t acknowledge that August exists, but the middle child of the yearly dozen never fails to bring some exciting happenings to the table. This August is packed with coolness, including news of bars serving canned cocktails, cracking new television shows, handy technological accessories and more. See, if you paid attention to August every once in a while, perhaps you’d see all it has to offer.
KWOON Canned Cocktails
Say what you want about tinnies, but there’s nothing more satisfying than cracking a cold one when your thirst is well earned. The idea of canned cocktails isn’t a novel idea, but it’s rare to see a cocktail bar dedicated to serving canned concoctions almost exclusively. KWOON by The Woods is Hong Kong’s (and Asia’s) first artisanal canned cocktail range, which are served at KWOON’s own concept bar. KWOON’s range features a selection of unique flavours ranging from eight to 12 percent alcohol a piece. The mixologists have developed flavours from carefully selected ingredients without artificial preservatives and are made fresh in three different can sizes. Flavours include mixtures of gin, grapefruit and mixed barley, vodka Thai birds eye chilli and lemon, vodka and pineapple shrub, and tequila, vermouth, aperol and salted plum. This is definitely something we can see ourselves sipping come summer.
Image: KWOON by The Woods
Brandless
Look, we’ve come to accept that brands are a necessary evil when it comes to sourcing products. Certain brands pride themselves on offering a reliable, high-quality product, and brands that don’t have as sterling a reputation can be avoided easier. But, wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where brands weren’t forcing themselves down our throat constantly? Last month saw Brandless launch in San Francisco, creating an online grocery store that does away with brands and charges only $3 for most of its selection of products. Brandless has searched for the best quality materials and ingredients while also removing unnecessary taxes to pass savings on the consumer. At this early stage, Brandless is still in its infancy, so don’t expect it in Australia any time soon, but keep an eye on the business and its progression – it could be how we fill our pantry in the future.
Image: TechCrunch
Arnott’s ice-cream
We love it when two differing parties join causes for the good of humanity. The latest titanic pairing to blow our socks off is between Arnott’s biscuits and Peters Ice Cream – two mainstays of our childhood diet. The food giants are teaming up to turn the iconic Arnott’s biscuit range into ice-cream, resulting in a mixture so delicious we could faint. Now fans of Iced VoVos can get an entire tub of the marshmallow, coconut, raspberry jam and vanilla flavour in ice-cream form, as well as Wagon Wheels and Mint Slices as ice-cream sandwiches. Now we no longer have to dip our biscuits in ice-cream to get the ultimate flavour combo (but don’t judge us if we do it again for old times’ sake).
Image: Peters
Get Krack!n
If you are a fan of comedy and cooking, then there is a good chance you’ve already encountered The Katering Show. The satirical webseries created by Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney was a hilarious take on daytime cooking shows, and now the two stars of the show are having a crack at a new project airing on ABC at the end of August. Get Krack!n is a morning lifestyle television series in which the Kates will interview grumpy guests, grill underprepared experts and undertake some unsafe demonstrations for the sake of early morning entertainment. Get Crack!n will run for eight episodes and will feature guests including Rove McManus, Anne Edmonds, Briggs, Trevor Ashley, Nazeem Hussein, Aunty Donna, Deborah Mailman, Nakkiah Lui and more.
HandEnergy
The only accessory more precious than our wallet is our phone, and one of the worst things that can happen when we are out and about is having our phone batteries die on us when we need it most. Earlier in the year a product emerged called HandEnergy, which promised the ability to charge your phone on the move. This pocket electricity generator uses the power of your own body to charge your device. How? Well, users simply rotate the top of the HandEnergy sphere, which in turn spins an internal rotor that transmits mechanical power to produce an electric current. In layman’s terms, you can charge your phone just by using your hand. The device can charge smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, cameras and more using a USB output, so you never need to be offline because of power issues. HandEnergy was successfully crowdfunded earlier in the year, with pre-orders to be shipped in September. If you habitually run your battery down daily, maybe save yourself some grief and consider ordering one.
