The best gadget I bought this year is a milk frother
I bought a milk frother this year too, and I know exactly why this one made the list. It's the cheapest thing on my counter, and it gets used more than anything with a chip in it. The Stagger story lands because it's about the drink, not the gear. A hand-held frother turns ordinary oat milk into something that feels like a treat, and that's a better return than most upgrades I've tested.
What I like here is the honesty about priorities. We spend thousands on espresso machines and grinders to chase a few percent of extraction quality, then a fifteen dollar wand delivers the daily joy. The frother doesn't need firmware updates or a companion app. It just spins milk into foam, and that's the whole manual.
I'd want to know how it holds up after a year of daily use, because cheap gadgets usually fail on durability. But the broader point stands: the best tool is the one that removes friction from a habit you actually keep. That's worth remembering the next time a launch event promises to change my workflow.