We’re in the midst of planning a summer party at our house (the theme is yacht rock), and while I love throwing parties, I’m not a fan of the mess left after an evening of making cocktails. Between people sloppily pouring booze and mixers, it’s a sticky pain to clean up.
Which is why I’m tempted by Mybar.io DIY robot bartender. It’s basically a box that houses up to 9 pumps and tubes as well as some circuitry. You can order one for $299 if you build it yourself, or $399 if you order it fully assembled.
If you buy the kit, there’s an online guide to walk you through how to build it. Once set up, you download the app (Android only, because those tablets are cheaper), place the tubes in your selected bottles, and assign them to a pump via the app (e.g. vodka is pump one, orange juice is pump 2, etc.). Once you have all of your pumps labeled, the app takes stock of what booze and mixers you have and automatically generates a list of drinks you can make. Pick a drink and tap the button and the DIY Bar dispenses your cocktail.
I spoke with Mybar.io Founder Juan Pablo Risso, who told me that he is decidedly going after the DIY market right now. The company debuted the robot bartender at the Maker Faire last month in Portland, OR, and in keeping with that DIY spirit, everything about DIY Bar is open source. You can download the plans for the hardware and the circuit board, as well as the software and firmware from the company’s Github repository.
Right now, Mybar is a side gig for Risso, whose day job is working on IoT for Samsung. Mybar is bootstrapped and Risso said that he’s sold about 50 units since so far.
Risso and Co. are facing some stiff (drinks) competition in the home bartending appliance space. Bartesian (manufactured by Hamilton-Beach) is a Keurig-like countertop cocktail device that also sells for $299 (no assembly required). And on the higher end, Barsys offers a sleek drink making machine, but it will set you back more than $1,000. Which particular cocktail robot you want to buy probably depends on how much work you want to put into your machine, and how much flexibility you want in your mixology.
I just don’t want to spend all my time at my next party making drinks. Perhaps Mybar’s DIY robot is in my future.