Keurig Applies Its Pod-Based Drink Machinery to Cocktails

Kids have Soda Stream to make unlimited carbonated beverages in the home. Working adults have Keurigs, to make instant coffee from pods at the office. But what about party people? Must they always buy a bunch of shakers and strainers to get cocktails made correctly at home? Not if Drinkworks has anything to say about it. A collaboration between the caffeine purveyors at Keurig and the beer giants of Anheuser-Busch, Drinkworks is a Keurig-like device that makes mixed drinks immediate. Depending on how your tastes run, it can also chill and carbonate, so beer (or “lager,” for our international friends who legitimately enjoy warm, flat beer) is an option too (Mmmm, beer…). Though since all the alcohol and mixer concentrate comes in the proprietary pod, we can imagine some enterprising types buying them separately to make Jell-O shots, or something like that. At $3.99 or so, they beat bar prices.

We first heard about this miracle device from The Verge, where the staff taste-tested the $299 machine and declared the Moscow mule “nice to drink” and the Margarita similar in flavor to a Budweiser Lime-A-Rita. There are many more options at Drinkworks’ official site, and non-alcoholic options are expected to be added in the future. For now the machine itself is up for preorder, but should hit stores in Missouri and Florida by next summer, and California in 2020.Don’t try to improvise an Irish coffee withe  Keurig pod, though — to avoid nasty surprises and kid confusion, the different pod types will not be compatible.Is this new conveyor of cocktail convenience going to make a buzz at your place? Will James Bond someday say, “Drinkworks, not stirred”? Belch out your thoughts in comments.

Image: Drinkworks