Every year, the city of Chicago hosts the International Home + Housewares Show, otherwise known as IHHS. It’s one of the biggest conventions in home and kitchen gear and there’s always a bevy of new, awesome, weird, pointless and intriguing products on display. This year’s show was marked by the dominance of the Instant Pot and the scrambling of its competitors to put up a fight. Below, five new products we can’t wait to try — including, of course, the new Instant Pot.
Oxo 8-Cup Coffee Maker
Few home brew coffee makers are given the Specialty Coffee Association’s seal of approval — only 13, per their website. Oxo’s new 8-Cup home brew machine is likely to be number 14. The catch? We’re going to have to wait until next winter to give it a whirl. Oxo bolstered its coffee lineup further with the announcement of a conical burr grinder and a tiny cold brewer that come out in fall and late summer, respectively.
Instant Pot Max
The latest rendition of the internet’s favorite all-in-one cooking appliance dominated this year’s IHHS. Point blank. The Instant Pot Max, reportedly available mid-to-late May, will cook faster, pack more temperature options and further go about supplanting the appliances stuffed in your cabinets. The Max will allegedly be able to serve as a sous vide, and be a serviceable canning tool, too. Other new features include automatic stirring, automatic pressure-release (if you don’t want to get off the couch) and a fancier LCD display.
Gourmia Cool-Cooker
The Cool-Cooker aims to seize a portion of Instant Pot’s stake in the all-in-one kitchen tech market. Apparently winners are decided by how many appliances you can replace, the Cool-Cooker has upped the number to 11 (it has similar auto-features, too). Other than the expected sear, roast, bake, pressure cook, slow cook and so forth, Gourmia says its variation will also be able to keep the food you cook cold if you so choose, and regulate the temperature beyond the warm-to-hot scale. We’re not sure it will kick Instant Pot of the throne — but it’s at the very least interesting. No word yet on pricing.
Braun MultiQuick 9 Hand Blender
Makers of a great many things (shout out to the trusty Series 7), Braun showed off a tricked-out hand blender with enough features, heads and gadgets to get you blending just for the sake of it. The MultiQuick 9 Immersion Blender is the granddaddy of Braun’s hand blender ecosystem with enough heads and functions to perform quite literally any blending task you can think of — even the attachments have attachments. The MQ9 also promises easier handling, less splashing and an overall more powerful blending tool and won Best in Category at the event.
KitchenAid’s New Look
Sometimes it’s just about showing off. KitchenAid used the event to show the world its world-famous mixer and a slew of other KitchenAid products look really solid in their very first color of the year, “Birds of Paradise.” Le Creuset did something similar and painted their beloved enameled cast-iron a light lavender. It seems the mark of a high-roller at IHHS is to use America’s biggest home event to launch a new color.
