Keurig revolutionized early mornings by creating a machine that spews out coffee by just dropping a small pod into the dispenser. Now, happy hours are just as simple.
On Tuesday, the company introduced the Drinkworks Home Bar. It's a black and chrome box with a water tank (similar to the Keurig K Cafe espresso maker) that allows pods, which contain the ingredients for a cocktail, to make an instant alcoholic beverage—including the booze.
According to Keurig and their partner, Anheuser-Busch InBev, there are pods for 24 different kinds of beverages that include beer, cider, and over a dozen mixed drinks. Among some of the cocktails are an Old Fashioned, Cosmopolitan, Margarita, Moscow Mule, Mojito, Red Sangria, White Russian, White Wine Peach Sangria, Lime Vodka Soda, and Gin and Tonics.
The pods' ingredients are chosen in advance, so there's not much you can do to control the taste (aside from adding more liquor afterwards). Endgaget reporter Terrence O'Brien put the Home Bar through the taste test, and gave a mixed review.
Here's what O'Brien said:
"The Old Fashioned was a little sweet for my taste and the Moscow Mule definitely would have benefited from being made with freshly squeeze lime juice instead of a concentrate. But I've also been served much more offensive things at a bar and paid three times as much as Drinkworks is charging."
If you're still sold, be prepared to pay a good amount of money for the convenience. A Drinkworks Home Bar costs $299, which is just about the same price of a standard Keurig. Although, the real deal is in the individual pods, which only cost $3.99 each for cocktails and $2.25 each for brews — way cheaper than your local pub.
However, Drinkworks is not available to everyone just yet. Keurig is only rolling them out for customers (21 and over) in St. Louis, MO, as part of a pilot program. The company said in a press release that they plan to release the Home Bar in more markets in 2019.