Madsen Pirie

Sometimes you see a new product that you just know you have to have because it will make life a little easier.  Yesterday it was the lemon spray.  It’s a small piece of plastic that sells for £7.99 and sprays juice from a lemon or a lime.  You stick it into the fruit and pump the top to spray out a fine mist of juice.  When the lemon or lime is all used up, a quick rinse leaves the atomizer clean and ready for the next one.  The designer was apparently tired of all the mess involved in chopping up fruit.  I’d add to that the stream of juice when you squeeze that sometimes goes in your eye, the totally superfluous pips, and the annoying fact that you often find yourself wasting half the fruit as it dries out.  The uses of this that spring to mind immediately include adding a citrus tang to salads with a fine spray of juice, and giving your gin and tonic that acidic tang without having a slice of lime or lemon floating in it.  I use lemon juice every day, putting a few drops into black tea. I find that pieces of lemon overpower the tea, as well as being messy against the lips.  A spray of lemon juice might well be a good alternative to the small lemon juice bottle.

Stem was designed by U.S. entrepreneur Tim Houle and developed by American company Quirky. The New York firm was launched in 2009 to help inventors see their ideas come to light. After ideas are submitted, Quirky asks its online community to help develop the products before manufacturing and marketing them. Jaime Yandolino, spokeswoman for Quirky, said: ‘Stem is an clever little kitchen gadget that means you no longer have to cut open lemons and limes and squeeze them to get their juices out.”

Ah, but isn’t human ingenuity wonderful.  My kitchen drawer which is packed with useful devices for coring apples and stoning avocados is about to acquire another one.

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