Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch have joined forces to create Drinkworks, which is basically a boozy Keurig.
The Drinkworks Home Bar will first be launched as a pilot program. The pod-based personal bartender will be available only in St. Louis, Mo., through online retailers and a few brick-and-mortar stores. The Home Bar is designed to prepare cocktails, brews and ciders. You insert the pod with your desired flavor and the machine calculates the amount of water and carbonation to add based on each proprietary recipe. Just what my life needs: more pod-based technology.
The initial offering will include 24 different recipes crafted by in-house Drinkworks mixologists and beverage scientists. The Classic Collection includes popular drinks like the daiquiri, cosmopolitan, Long Island iced tea, mojito, Moscow mule, old fashioned and white Russian. I mean, we’re not talking rocket science when you make a gin and tonic, but at least the pod has elderflower tonic.
The Paradise Collection has mai tais and margaritas, and the Brews include pods to make Bass Ale, Beck's and even a Stella Artois Cidre that is actually 17.3 percent alcohol by volume if you just crush the pre-mixed pod. It’s about 4.3 percent after the drinkmaker mixes it.
Brew or mix time will vary. For example, a margarita will take 25 seconds while a Moscow mule will take about a minute.
It will not be a cheap endeavor as packs of four pods will retail for about $16 — or $4 a drink, which wouldn’t be too bad if you weren’t also including the appliance, which starts at $300, as well as other necessary accessories like CO2 cartridges ($15), cleaning tablets ($8) and water filters ($9). So, the first four drinks will run about $87/each, but the more you drink, the more you save.
Drinkworks is headquartered near Boston and also runs an experimental distillery and production center in Williston, Vt. And hey, they’re even hiring a production coordinator, operator and a design engineer, in case you want to get in on the ground level of this rocketship to success.
According to Nathaniel Davis, CEO and head of this operation, the appliance was created to make “the entire drinking experience ... more remarkable." Well, if anything, he made it easier to drink fancier, more expensive drinks in the dark.
The appliance was built for those who want to "enjoy complex cocktails at home, but it’s time-consuming, expensive and messy." The Drinkmaker has already had a bit of fanfare, like our friend Jon, who said "Finally!" and is likely looking for a mutual acquaintance with a St. Louis mailing address.
Pod fever is back. But I’ll be the first to say it, those pods look like baby food jars.
