Nov 4 – MEATER meat thermometer
My guest this week is Joseph Cruz , Co-Founder/President/Sales and Marketing of Apption Labs, an innovative technology start-up dedicated to developing smarter consumer products connected to the Internet and controlled by mobile devices. Oesph says “Taking cues from our own lifestyle problems, we are not building gadgets, but complete solutions that you want and need to use every day. The topic today: MEATER a high quality wireless meat thermometer using Blue Tooth to connect with the MEATER app on your phone. Really cool piece of kitchen and outdoor cooking technology. We’ll tell you all about Apption Labs and this great product.
Meater is the first truly wireless smart meat thermometer. Along with the Meater app, it will help you cook the juiciest steak, chicken, turkey, fish or other meats perfectly every time for every occasion. Learn more here at the wildly successful Kickstarter site
The company was founded on January 02, 2015 between 3 co-founders with 30+ years of combined hardware and software engineering experience. As close friends, the founders got together over a BBQ dinner, and after a few bottles of red wine and flights of Scotch, decided to take their problems into their own hands and stop waiting for someone else to solve them. This mentality is the driving force that echoes through the company culture that allows progressive ideas, positive thinking, and innovation.
Apption Labs is headquartered in Leicester, United Kingdom and also have offices in Los Angeles, CA, USA and Hsinchu, Taiwan. Our multi-continental background serves as an advantage to not only reach a global market for our products but allows us to gather insight and feedback from people of different cultures to help build and shape products with the right features and functionality. Our product inspirations come from our own experiences and most importantly, from the actual people who need them.
As the consumer market transitions into the Internet of Everything, Apption Labs is poised to lead this space by offering unique products with real world applications. We believe true innovation does not come without substantial risks and challenges; and our mission, as a company, is to face those obstacles head-on, and deliver first-to-market products engineered with laser focus. Visit MEATER.com
About Joseph Cruz:
Riding on the heels of a successful career in computing, product and design development and management as R&D manager for Gefen, Joseph Cruz joined forces with his colleague and business partner to pursue his passion for innovation and bring to life his own “big ideas.” Embarking on this journey as business owner and inventor, paired with the spirit of an entrepreneur, Joseph co-founded Apption Labs in 2015. As an avid fan of crowdfunding and the innate desire to develop his own products, Joseph enlisted the strength of the start-up community via Kickstarter to aid in bringing his first product, MEATER to market. MEATER is the world’s first truly wireless leave-in meat thermometer, paving the way for future innovations and setting a new standard in the consumer space in this product category. Apption Labs is at the beginning of its journey through the creation of innovative products with all-new efficiency tools and user-centric tech enhancements on the horizon.
Joseph Cruz | Co-Founder/President/Sales and Marketing
Teemu Nivala | Co-Founder/COO/CTO
Dauson Chang | Co-Founder/VP of Supply Chain Management
Good Life Guy’s Wine(s) of the Week:
2015 Ste. Michelle Vineyards Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
This special label is in celebration of 50 years of winemaking at Chateau Ste. Michelle. From a warm growing season, the 2015 vintage is sourced from Columbia Valley vineyards in eastern Washington including Cold Creek, Canoe Ridge Estate and Indian Wells vineyards. The final blend is 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Syrah, 1% Malbec, 1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. Cabernet Sauvignon is a standout variety from Washington, with silky tannins, rich complexity and concentrated fruit. That’s why our Columbia Valley Cabernet is the perfect choice to carry the nostalgic banner of our 50th anniversary. Raise a glass and help us celebrate the next 50 years! WE89
2016 Ste. Michelle Vineyards Columbia Valley Chardonnay
Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay is a pleasurable, food-friendly wine. It is crafted in a fresh, soft style with bright apple and sweet citrus fruit character with subtle spice and oak nuances. This special 50th Anniversary bottling celebrates five decades of Chateau Ste. Michelle’s commitment to tradition, innovation and the future. Pairs well with crab, poultry, salmon, and scallops. Try seasoning with ginger, lemon zest, tarragon, or thyme.
Cheers to 50 more years of great wine from Washington! 🙂
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Pick up some of each and join me this Saturday…you’ll love them both!
Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.”
Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist who has written about food, wine, architecture, and technology for The New Yorker online, The Atlantic, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The New Republic. The former executive tech editor of The Huffington Post, she is the author of the critically acclaimed book Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China (University of Hawaii Press, 2013). She lives in New York City. Learn more about Bianca: 
This wine is a blend of 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 13% Cab Franc, 11% Petite Verdot, and 7% Malbec. The oak treatment was 65% new French Oak for 28 months. A wildly expansive nose shows off wonderful herbaceous notes of tea leaf, mint, eucalyptus, pomegranate, olive brine, rubbed sage, fennel, dried red currant, Christmas spice, vanilla bean and cocoa powder. On the palate, this wine is deeply complex, well-structured and delicious with flavors of dried plum, rustic red fruits, blackberry, dusty tannins, cedar and a lingering finish. 
“VINEYARD Sonoma County,” a stunning, large-format collector’s edition coffee-table book featuring over 188 pages of color images by noted photojournalist and wine photographer George Rose. 
Over 40 years ago, George Rose began his long career as a photographer. Throughout the years, he has traveled a long and winding road through the elite world of popular music, film, news, politics, and sports, eventually leading him to California’s Wine Country. During his prolific years as a Los Angeles-based photojournalist, Rose developed a remarkable and historic body of photographic work focused on popular culture. 
2014 Benziger Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon
2014 Benziger Sonoma County Chardonnay
My first guest this week is Kate Welsh from the very informative and fun “Extra Crispy!” Extra what? This is a great site with a weekly news letter published about Food, Drink and Culture and even has a video section. EC offers cutting edge information often in a humerus fashion and is great fun. Kate is part of the editorial team at Extra Crispy, an avid writer, photographer and more. She had two articles recently that caught my attention. Both were taste tests, one about grocery store wheat bread and the other about peanut butter, we’ll tell you about both and more. Click on the pictures below to read both posts at Extra Crispy 🙂
Winemaker Mike Sullivan says: “Maybe the most Burgundian Chardonnay in our portfolio, this seductive Chardonnay displays explosive aromas of lime blossom and William Pear with underlying mineral notes. On the pallet the wine displays tension between bright acidity and cool-climate structure framed with flavors of nectarine and lemon custard. This wine is delightfully elegant upon release but will continue to gain complexity with bottle age for 3 to 5 years.” Robert Parker WA92
The 2017 Wichita Wagonmasters Downtown Chili Cookoff is yet again upon us! Saturday, September 30th one Douglas and St. Francis. $5 all the chili you can handle!! Kids Play Zone, Flyovers, Beer, Live music, CHILI, and so much more! Proceeds go to the Good Life Grant which benefits local charities. Come party with the Wichita Wagonmasters and Good Life Guy. Your sure to have a great time!
All three of these Sparkling wines are made in the traditional method with secondary fermentation taking place in the bottle. The primary grapes are different than French Champagne, in Spain it’s Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada in the blend. While I like them all, especially at a great price of only $8.99, I think the Extra Dry is perfect to accompany most any chili.