Draftmark- Tap Beer at Home

A friend of mine recently told me about Bzz Agent, a site you can sign up for to be a part of new product campaigns and get to try things and review them. 

So right away I signed myself up because I love trying new things, I love voicing my opinion, and hey, I love free stuff! After completing some short easy surveys and telling them about myself, I was invited to join my first campaign for this Draftmark beer system. I was pumped! I love beer because hard alcohol is a bit much for me, and the bf also loves beer so we were pretty excited to try this thing, I had never even heard of it before this.

I got the package in the mail and look how cute with little bees on it :)

I knew immediately when I was going to try this beer machine- MY BIRTHDAY! What better time to enjoy fresh draught beer than when you are having a party, especially a birthday party at my own house with family over. I was so pumped! 

It came with some instructions on how to load the beer and use the machine as well as a card telling me where I can find the beer.

First things first, it told me to charge the battery. So I plugged in the A/C adapter to charge the battery- it lit up green right away and the instructions said a green light meant it was charged, so I assumed it had a charge before it got to me and it was ready to use.

I logged on to Draftmark's website, entered my birthday ( to prove I was over 21) and used their store locator to find out where I could buy the beer refill for my new machine- turns out the liquor store I always go to, right down the street carried the refills! WIN

On Saturday, the day before my party I went to the store and bought my beer refill. I picked up Shocktop, it is a beer I know I like and I figured others would too. The system is pretty new so right now there are only like four kinds of beer you can get but luckily there are two lights and two darks so there should be something for everyone. The other plus side is that the beer stays fresh in the system for up to 30 days! So you don't have to worry about drinking it all at once (although you can if you are a party animal)

The refill was $13.99 at my store which I felt was pretty reasonable for a gallon of draught beer. They are $5-7 when it's not happy hour at a restaurant.

Here is the refill, about as tall as my Keurig. I put it in the fridge the day before my party so it could chill.

Each bottle comes with its own spout too. 

The machine and the beer are labeled with pictures on how to load the beer into the system. It was VERY easy for me to figure out. I went outside to do it though because I didn't know if I would mess something up and make it spray or leak or anything. I put the battery in the machine, took it outside and loaded the beer into my Draftmark in about 30 seconds.

Outside I took a cup and poured a tiny taste just to see how it would come out and if it was good. It came out just fine and tasted yummy.

I then put the machine in my fridge and eagerly awaited my party so I could show everyone this cool new toy I had....That's when things went downhill....................

Everyone arrived and when I started offering drinks to people, lemonade, water, margaritas, or BEER ON TAP FROM MY VERY OWN FRIDGE...someone asked to try the beer, I was pumped, I went over to my fridge and took a cup to fill their beer...it trickled out a little beer and then NOTHING...umm what?

then I tried again, a little trickle and NOTHING.

:( I was confused and embarrassed and not sure what to do at this point, everyone was there, waiting for drinks and I had bragged up my machine.

I took it out of the fridge thinking I could use my magic birthday skills to make  it work, but now. I thought maybe it just needed a quick charge, so I ran around looking for the charger, I found it and plugged it in. My bf is really hand so he has this little machine that can check the voltage on things, he used it and saw the battery was in fact charging, but when we unplugged it from the charger it immediately lost all charge and w         as a dead battery...WHAT?! that isn't how this should work...

SO long story short, the battery that came with my new beer machine doesn't even work.

I think if I had a working battery if the beer would probably come out nice and fast and everyone would have had a great time at my party and I wouldn't have been embarrassed  And since it was a Sunday I had no other options to get them other beer, luckily we all enjoyed margaritas but still...I love the concept, I like the ease of using the machine and would theoretically like having draught beer at home...I do not like that it didn't work. I plan to contact Draftmark directly to see if they can help me because I don't even know where to get a replacement battery since it is unique to this product.

Disclaimer: I received the Draftmark beer system free but all opinions and experiences in this review are my own I was not compensated in any other way and the beer itself I purchased with my own money.

Trying New Foods

Yesterday I tried two new food products! I am always interested in trying new food products, especially if they are unique or are somehow healthier or more nutritious than their counterpart. 

My best friend told me about this site Bzz Agent, and how you sign up to be an agent and take surveys and they will invite you to be a part of campaigns for new products. I think it sounds really cool so I went and signed up. I filled out some short and easy surveys, linked up some of my social media accounts and within a couple days I was invited to be a part of a campaign...where they send you FREE THINGS. Then you try the things and give honest feedback about them. I haven't received my free things yet but I will let you know when I do and give some sort of review on here.

My friend however received a free thing and came over to my house to share it with me.  She got samples of Green Giant's new veggie chips, two large bags and then some smaller snack size bags for sharing with she gave to me. I was really excited to try these because I LOVE salty crunchy snacks and let's be honest, regular chips aren't really great for you.

Obviously these are still chips, so it's not like eating vegetables, but it is somewhat better for you than your average chip and I loved the way they tasted. The ones she had in small bags were Sea Salt Sweet Potato chips. She also had a big bag of their Veggie Tortilla chips which were like a healthy version of Doritos!

My friend said these weren't her favorite chips because she felt they were sort of plain, but they were right up my alley!

Here is the nutrition, (it is 110 calories in case you can't see), and the whole bag is 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus, which is my general limit for a snack type food so that is good.

I busted these open in the afternoon when I usually crave a salty snack at work, just to get my through the last couple hours. They smelled good AND they tasted good. They had  a solid crunch, not the flakey weird texture of a lot of "healthy" chips like Baked Lays- I'm not a fan of those. These however reminded me of thinner, lighter Frito chips! With less corn flavor and more sweet/salty sweet potato flavor. I enjoyed that they were more on the salty side, but my tastes might be more sensitive now because I don't add a lot of salt to my food anymore. I also liked that the chips were small pieces...maybe they were just all broken lol but I liked that, I'd rather feel like I'm getting a lot of small chips and not 5 large chips in my serving. 

Overall, I would definitely buy these on my own, not sure if they sell these snack size bags or if they were just the sample but I like individually wrapped things so I hope they sell them or will sell them. 

The other new food I tried was with dinner, it was something I bought during my Trader Joe's Extravaganza and have been looking forward to trying. 

Beef-less strips!

I paired them with some sauteed bell peppers and mashed sweet potatoes and had a yummy, garlicy dinner!

The texture was nice, obviously not just like steak strips would be, but pretty similar and not weird at all. They just heat up quick in a pan sprayed with cooking spray or a little olive oil and voila! Dinner for one friend plus leftovers for lunch tomorrow :)

Do you like to try new products? 

Did you have a nice Tuesday?