Somabar: Indulgence with a Twist

Could you soon be ordering mixed drinks with the touch of a button — in your own kitchen?

A new kind of tech product will soon be competing for space on your kitchen counter. Bucking the trend for artisanal, hand-crafted drinks lovingly prepared by mustachioed mixologists in suspenders, Somabar promises precisely prepared cocktails in your home ordered from your smartphone: No velvet ropes. No last call. No kidding.

Somabar is the robotic bartender that promises to take the hassle and guesswork out of making mixed drinks. It’s bit larger than a Keurig, but similarly dispenses beverages in about 5 seconds with the touch of a button. The brain of Somabar is in its app, which has over 300 cocktails to choose from; you can also create customized recipes to upload and share. Select your desired drink, strength, and amount in the app and the Somabar machine dispenses it. Not sure what you’re in the mood for? Somabar can make recommendations based on the ingredients you have loaded.

You load alcohols and mixers using six Soma Pods (which are designed to be easily swapped out in case you are mixing a variety of cocktails). There’s also a separate chamber for bitters, and a water storage tank that clears the system, ensuring your whiskey sour doesn’t taste like the last tippler’s Appletini. That water tank also cleans the internal parts, so the only thing you need to wash are the Soma Pods themselves (which are dishwasher safe). Though it can’t make every drink (absent from its current menu are classics such as the Bloody Mary), and you’ll have to add the garnishes yourself, it’s still remarkably versatile.

Like many of today’s new tech products, Somabar comes to the retail market via Kickstarter, where inventors post ideas and visitors contribute to make them happen. Having raised over $300,000, this is one of the more successful products funded through the site. However, like many such products, there’s a significant time between the funding campaign and the finished product. So, though you can pre-order your Somabar now, it may not arrive until 2017.

Somabar retails for $429 as compared to $180 for the Ultimate Keurig brewer, but it’s certain to be a fun gadget to show off at parties — not to mention taking care of the work of mixing while you mingle. See the Somabar in action at somabarkickstarter.com.

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