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GENERAL NEWS KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n APRIL 2017 n www.kitchenwarenews.com 6 Retailers Tap Into Homebrew stores," says Bridges. "Our kits are usually sold in the kitchen or housewares department. They're often in the top 10 selling products during the holidays." But the brick and mortar space still presents some marketing issues. "It's a long process. You can't make the beer there, plus you can't serve it. It has unique challenges in that regard," says Bridges. " W here possible we have videos we can loop to show how easy it is. The way to get people interested is to taste the beer, but we're unable to execute that at retail for obvious reasons." W ith expanding home brewing interests, options other than beer are getting attention. "Last year we introduced Hacked Root Beer. Things like that and some of these hard sodas are trending now. Those seem to be really driving the trends rather than ciders," says Bridges. " The big trend now is barrel- aged beers. We add wood chips, so you don't have to put it in a barrel." KN (cont. from Page 1) Silpat Partners with Food Fanatic Silpat, makers of the original non-stick baking mat, announces a partnership with Food Fanatic. Food Fanatic connects brands and influencers within their large lifestyle network to help companies grow through impactful content creation. Through this partnership, Food Fanatic will highlight Silpat products on its own site and through syndication to their contributors' sites. This will include custom or adapted recipes to match the Silpat product line. Each post will include a giveaway sweepstakes where one lucky winner will be offered a Silpat prize package worth $100. The partnership will run for an entire year showcasing a variety of Silpat classic mats. Recipes will range from breads to classic cookie creations. "Food Fanatic has an extensive network of influencers that will help to raise awareness for Silpat," said Brandon Iacometta, Marketing and Sales Administrator at Silpat. "We are excited for this opportunity and look forward to an increase in both brand recognition and sales." The first post is now live from the Shugary Sweets blog. For more information, visit www.foodfanatic.com. KN Brita Debuts Longlast Filters Brita has introduced Brita Longlast™, a new filter that is certified to remove 99 percent of lead f rom tap water for up to 120 gallons– roughly equivalent to six months of use f rom an average family. The new Brita Longlast Filter marks a major step for the water filtration company, as Brita pitchers with Longlast filters reduce the contaminants people are most concerned about, including lead, asbestos and cadmium impurities, while lasting three times longer than the standard 40 gallon Brita filter. And even as people can now trade-up to this filter, they won't have to trade-in their pitchers, as Longlast is compatible with almost all existing Brita designs. "This innovation will allow Brita to have a real impact on the water in people's communities and their homes. We've seen increased concerns about contaminants in water systems across the country," said Brita General Manager Ed Huber. "The Longlast filter is not only certified to remove lead f rom tap water, but will do it for up to six full months – giving people an effective, long-lasting solution for providing their family with cleaner, better tasting drinking water." The new Brita Longlast Filter is certified by the Water Q uality Association, an independent testing agency that is the industr y standard for water filtration products, to reduce the heavy metals lead and cadmium, the industrial pollutants asbestos and benzene, and chlorine, which causes bad taste and odor in tap water. Brita's new Longlast filter is available now on Amazon for a suggested retail price of $18.99 for one and $34.99 for two. Brita has also introduced the new Brita Stream, a pitcher that filters water while you pour, rather than while the user fills. This means that users no longer have to wait for the reservoir to empty. You can fill an empty Brita Pitcher f rom a tap, and immediately dispense filtered water – providing great-tasting filtered water 10 times faster than the market-leading pitcher system. The new Brita Stream Filter technology allows for faster filtration, and it includes activated carbon to reduce chlorine taste and odor for better-tasting water. The new Stream Pitcher and Filter provide the easiest way yet for people to improve the taste and smell of their water. The new product is part of a flurry of innovation f rom Brita, the market leader in water filtration. For more information, visit www.brita.com. KN Home décor company At Home Group Inc. announced the opening of the Montgomery, Alabama location on Thursday, March 9. The more than 104,000 square-foot store marks the fifth store in Alabama for the big-box specialty retailer of home décor products. Following the store opening, the Montgomery location hosted a grand opening ribbon-cutting Friday, March 17 with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. At Home offered mystery gift cards to customers who visited the store Saturday, March 18 beginning at 9 a.m. At Home has everything decorators need to ready their homes for spring. At Home allows customers to express their personal style with any budget by choosing f rom an expansive selection of more than 50,000 items — including wall art and decorative accents, rugs, housewares, patio furniture, home furnishings, seasonal and holiday décor. At Home is dedicated to allowing customers to affordably make their house into a home. This new location brings 25 jobs to Montgomery and surrounding communities. Other Alabama At Home stores can be found in Birmingham, Hoover, Huntsville and Mobile. KN Trash Can Plus Vacuum Equals Bruno SmartCan Bruno SmartCan has an integrated floor- level vacuum system that will deliver every dog hair, Cheerio and grain of dirt f rom the floor directly into the trash bag. Simply place a broom in f ront of the vacuum inlet to start the suction, and Bruno® will do the rest. No more stopping, no more scooping. Bruno SmartCan is poised to turn the trash can industry upside down. Its patent- pending technology and Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone app creates amazing results in home cleaning maintenance, organization and aesthetic. The Bruno app will remind users to take the trash out on trash day, and alert them when low on Bruno Bags (or any standard kitchen trash bag). Bruno's features include an integrated vacuum inlet, smartphone reminder to take out the trash, a smartphone reminder to order trash bags, the convenient trash bag storage pod, a hands-f ree motion sensing lid and a 14.4v rechargeable battery. It comes in a modern, sleek design, in four colors plus stainless. It accepts 13-gallon trash bags and has an estimated suggested retail price of $149. The product recently signed a manufacturing partnership with the appliance brand, Haier. Bruno will be rolling down the assembly line with other top brands, like De' longhi, Black & Decker, Whirlpool and Vax. For more information, visit www.brunosmartcan.com. KN At Home Opens Montgomery Location Epicureanist™, provider of thoughtful, quality wine and libation accessories, unveiled exclusive owl and octopus inspired wine ice buckets at the International Home + Housewares Show. Crafted from hand-carved mango wood and featuring pewter design elements, along with a removable glass ice bucket, Epicureanist's newest product offerings are luxurious yet functional solutions for chilling wine. "At Epicureanist we are dedicated to designing products that make entertaining at home simple, sophisticated and luxurious," states India Hynes, Epicureanist's Vice President and Lead Product Designer. "We've been intent on adding animal-inspired design to our wine accessory product offering as it's both on trend and unique. To ensure the new ice buckets were created in the spirit of the Epicureanist brand, we worked through many variations of design and payed close attention to craftsmanship. This process led to two unique products that are as functional as they are beautiful." Each owl and octopus inspired ice bucket is individually crafted using three materials: mango wood, glass and pewter. The process begins by creating a wooden shell to encase a removable glass ice bucket. Each shell is hand carved from a single piece of mango wood, hand-stained and delicately shaped to fit the glass ice bucket. After the mango wood casing is complete, an antique finished, hand- polished pewter owl or octopus design is meticulously placed and secured to the exotic wood shell. Each animal inspired wine ice bucket weighs 8 pounds, has a 2,400 mL capacity, measures 8 inches high by 8 inches long, has an 8.25 inch diameter, and retails for $295. To learn more about the Epicureanist Owl Ice Bucket and the Epicureanist Octopus Ice Bucket, visit epicureanist.com. KN Owls and Octopuses on Ice

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