"digital" news and stories

All the talk in the wine world these days (besides the imploding economy) centers around one Big Question: how to capture the love and loyalty of the 70-million Millennial generation?

Millennials (born between 1977 and 1998) are already wine drinkers. Data from the Wine Market Council shows that 40 percent of 21-and-over Millennials drink wine. Millennials are willing to try new things, they explore value regions around the world, and they aren't incredibly loyal to specific brands.

Which is why the wine world is falling all over itself trying to capture that loyalty, and in the Millennials' own medium: the Internet. Kim Crawford, the New Zealand winery famous for its zingy Sauvignon Blanc, is on Facebook with events, videos, and podcasts. California's Twisted Oak Winery has a (very popular) wine blog. Wineries from Chateau Haut-Brion, a grand cru in Bordeaux, to Iron Horse Vineyards, a sparkling wine producer in California, are Twittering (or is that Tweeting?).

The question is, are Millennials listening? Part of me thinks wineries have to embrace social media to stay alive, and part of me thinks that wineries embracing social media is about as cool as one's high school teacher dressing like he's still 16. What do you think? Vote in the poll below!

Last year, Sun-Maid's iconic mascot, the Sun-Maid maid, got a makeover so the brand would have a new look. Her overall appearance remained very similar, but she was digitized. The newly three dimensional character talks, does yoga and promotes California raisins, but even though she was one of the first ad icons to undergo this overhaul, she isn't the only one. Orville Redenbacher has recently been digitized so that he can continue to convincingly promote his famous popcorn brand over ten years after his death. The first ad to use digital Orville will air during the Golden Gloves and will depict "Redenbacher [pitching] popcorn while jiving to his MP3 player." A preview clip can be seen here.

With the amount of technology that went into the ad, it is the company's most expensive ever, but as we have seen from the movie industry, an expensive venture doesn't always yield blockbuster results. Opinions vary on whether this was a good idea or a bad one. Some, including Redenbacher's grandson, see it as a way to remember the man and even feel that he would have loved the idea himself. Others think that there is "a certain creepiness" to the revival of a long-dead man.

Click past the jump for a vintage Orville Redenbacher commercial.

Source

The one thing I hate about making candy is having to bend down to try to get a good reading from my candy thermometer. It's not the bending that bothers me, but the fact that I sometimes have to get my face rather close to an extremely hot, bubbling mass of sugar. It's hard enough to get a good reading on a traditional thermometer, trying to angle it in just such a way that you can approximate the temperature, and when you consider the fact that there is usually steam coming out of the pan and fogging the tube, it can be impossible. Unfortunately, more than one batch of fudge has been ruined by inaccurate temperature reading.

The Baker's Catalogue now stocks a digital candy thermometer that takes a precise reading in seconds. You don't have to get close to the sugar and you don't have to squint through fog, either. You can even program it to "beep" when the mixture reaches the desired temperature, or you can have the alarm sound at seven pre-programmed candy stages! It sounds perfect for anyone who wants to try their hand at making candy at home - especially beginners who aren't as confident about hitting their target temperature.

Source

I have a problem. The timer on my oven is broken. Truth be told, I'm relieved because it went out in a blaze of glory - by which I mean that it made its high pitched beeping sound for about 2 days straight. By unplugging the oven, I was able to shut it off temporarily that was only a temporary solution, as I still wanted to use the oven. Now that the timer has passed on and I still have a functional oven, I am forced to rely on a temporary timer until I buy a new one.

I saw on Apartment Therapy: Chicago, they had picked out a list of the top ten kitchen timers, including the Michael Graves Alessi(bottom left, above) for $29.50, the Eva Solo Magnetic (right, above) for $33 and an Old fashioned aluminum timer for $24.99. To be honest, even though the Alessi timers are cute, I don't like any of them. I need a digital timer with a good alarm and neither of their two digital picks (an Oxo and a Taylor) mentions anything about their alarms in their product descriptions.

Digital timers not only come with better alarms than dialed timers, but they're much more accurate in terms of the times you can set them for. You'll never have to approximate, like you do with dials. I'm currently leaning towards the Big Digit Kitchen Timer (top left, above) or the Bonjur Timer, based on alarm noises alone. Is there such a thing as a best timer? What timer do you use?

 

If you're one of those people who always has an iPod on hand, and, you cook a lot, you should take a look at PodGourmet. It's basically 250 recipes that you can load up on your iPod. You can then view your recipes without all those pesky printouts. Just make sure not to splash oil on your iPod.

Source