[Product] Floome
Hopefully this won’t come as a shock, but I enjoy a cocktail every now and again. Alice even fancies one. Beyond cocktails, we enjoy a nice glass of wine, beers and anything else worthy of trying. Having them at home and out? Both great. The trick is about knowing when enough is enough, especially if you’re out on the town. What if you don’t know? How can you tell? What can you do? What options do you have? That’s where Floome is going to help you.
What’s a Floome? Well, their tag line says it all: when you drink, Floome.
It’s a breathalyzer that attaches to your smartphone, then through witchcraft determines your blood alcohol content (BAC). Once it tells you how much of a good time you’ve had (read how drunk you are), it’ll give you options — such as some nearby restaurants, let you know some nearby cabs, get you to call a friend to pick you up, all very good things if you’ve had too much fun.
That’s right, it’s a smartphone breathalyzer that has your back.
Obviously, these are some pretty fantastic claims, but Alice and I, being worshipers at the altar of science, couldn’t just accept them without testing.
For science, I had to have a few drinks. As usual, it was a tough job, but I was up to it.
Here was our very scientific, not scientific at all setup: to start the day, we went to dim sum. When doing a drinking test, it’s important to carbo load. We ate much, too much, as you do at dim sum, then a few hours later started our very official test.
Round One: I had a Lavender Pisco Sour, as we’d just done that post and someone had to drink it. After finishing it, I waited the request 20 minutes and blew into the Floome. BAC: .013.
Round Two: Time for beer! I had a shot of Shotka (for testing purposes you see) and an Eagle Rock Brewery Populist (22oz.). With this, I had some nibbles of half a sesame ball and some daikon cake. Then I waited another 20 minutes for testing. BAC: .046
Round Three: Let the beer continue! Next on tap for me was Enegren Brewing Co.’s Valkyrie Altbier Ale (1 pint 6 oz.). With that, I had three handfuls of popcorn and two egg tarts with grape jelly (I mentioned we went to dim sum, bringing home leftovers is fantastic. The gape jelly? That’s a trick we picked up in China, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, because it’s AMAZING.) BAC: .097 (legally drunk!)
Round Four: Onto the port! Next was Daniel Gehrs Firesirde port (4 oz.) and various chocolates including, but no limited to, Ghirardelli and Guittard chips and dark chocolate peanut M&Ms. BAC: .070
As you can see, it was working like a charm! Even as I was carrying the Floome around in my pocket, becoming more conversational and less careful, I had no problem getting it to work.
In case you’re wondering, yes, there is indeed a guest feature so that you can have friends test themselves in case they seem a little too drunk. Though it’s not quite as accurate as when you have an actual account because that includes your sex, height and weight to get a better reading.
Will this be a hit at parties? Oh, you bet it will. I must emphasize that we neither encourage nor condone seeing who can get a higher score.
Beyond the attractiveness of the Floome, what they’ve captured here is a smartphone breathalyzer that you’ll be happy to carry with you, which gives you the knowledge if you’ve had too much to drink and then gives you some options if you have.
When it comes to enjoying cocktails, you can have one too many. What you need during those times is a way to know and some options, which is exactly what the Floome provides. We encourage you to check it out for yourself.