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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Bartesian

Barsys Makes Case For Adding Style to Bartender Robot Category With the Barsys 360

Home cocktail-making appliances have gone through lots of phases since we started writing about them in 2016. We’ve seen everything from pod-based systems from Bartesian and Drinkworks to DIY approaches like those from MrBar.io to cocktail robots with names reminiscent of 80s hip-hop artists.

And, if we’re honest, most don’t look that interesting, either presenting as something of an after-dark Keurig or a mini version of the restaurant bar dispensing system.

In other words, cocktail bots nearly always focus on utility over design.

But should that be the case? I mean, shouldn’t home appliances, especially ones focused on entertaining and leisure, actually look good? Barsys, a company that’s been making bartending appliances for the home for the past five years or so, is trying to make precisely that case with its latest product, the Barsys 360. With an interesting-looking ring-shared design allows the cocktail glass to sit within as various ingredients are dispensed from overhead, the Barsys 360 is a significant departure from any home cocktail appliance we’ve seen here at the Spoon

In fact, at first glance, it looked a little heavy on design over function, as I wasn’t sure exactly where the machine’s liquid chambers were located or how to get the liquid inside. According to the specs, it has six, and the company assured me they all sit within the 360’s ring itself. Spirits and mixers are added into the 360 via three holes at the top, using a small adapter called the “spirit funnel” seen in the rendering below. According to the company, each of the six liquid canisters can hold 900 ml in each canister (about 4 cups).

The new Barsys360 looks much different than the previous Barsys 2+, which looks like a 3D printer with a bottle-dispenser mechanism on top. The 360 also comes with a significantly lower price tag (although I’d hesitate to call the 360 cheap) at $475 for pre-orders.

With the 360 succeed? Hard to say, mainly because outside of Bartesian, the home bartender bot market has proven to be a tough market in which to gain traction. Part of the problem is most consumers have a couple of go-to cocktails they like, and, for the most part, they know how to make them. For these folks, introducing a relatively expensive machine to automate the process may seem like an unnecessary step.

However, by focusing on design and something that might look good in the kitchen or entertaining room, Barsys hopes to appeal to craft cocktail nerds who want to add a little technology-powered flair to their cocktail-making routines. And, unlike the pod-based machines, they are removing any need to rely on proprietary supplies from a startup (another big red flag for this category in the mind of consumers).

If you’re interested in a 360, Barsys is launching pre-orders this week. If you do buy one, make sure to let us know how it goes.

You can watch the hero reel video provided by the company below:

Play Bar! The Bartesian Cocktail Appliance Makes MLB’s Opening Lineup Thanks to Aramark

Baseball season is back, which means hot dogs, the national anthem, and cocktail-making robots.

Ok, so the last part is only for those suite-holders at certain ballparks across the US where foodservice giant Aramark will be deploying the cocktail-making appliance from Bartesian.

Aramark’s Sports + Entertainment division announced the partnership last week as part of the unveiling of its new logo and 2022 tech partner lineup. The Bartesian, which makes cocktails by mixing spirits with bitters, extracts, and juices provided via a capsule, will reside in luxury suites at Citizens Bank Park, Fenway Park, Kauffman Stadium, Minute Maid Park, and Oakland Coliseum.

The cocktail-making appliance wasn’t the only new tech Aramark debuted for baseball’s new season. According to the announcement, AI-powered contactless retail checkout systems from Mashgin and Caper will be showing up at Citizen Bank Park, Fenway and Coors Field. Self-ordering kiosks and expanded mobile ordering capabilities will also be available at select parks.

Bartesian’s arrival in baseball stadiums comes almost a decade after the company’s founding. The machine, which has continued to plug on while other cocktail-making appliance companies have struggled or outright imploded, raised $20 million last year from Don Thompson-led Cleveland Avenue and celebrity Mila Kunis.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

One of the stories I missed while I was out of the country in December was the shuttering of Drinkworks.

What makes the announcement so unexpected was, overall, things seemed to be generally going well: the company was expanding nationally, sales seemed on the uptick, and they’d even just announced the newest generation drink appliance in October of 2021.

Then, less than two months later, the joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig Dr. Pepper announced it was ceasing operations.

I don’t have to tell you how unusual it is for a company to announce a new product and then shut down just months later. And, now, almost a month after the news, we really don’t have a good answer for what happened, which is why it’s still worth asking: what the heck happened?

Generally, what that type of quick about-face tells me is that the higher-ups – and by that I mean the two companies involved in the joint venture funding – decided the project wasn’t working and pulled the plug.

So what does ‘not working’ mean? It could be any number of things: Appliance or beverage pod sales weren’t meeting forecasts. Customer satisfaction was low. The project was sucking up too many resources. Maybe the two companies didn’t like working together or their strategies diverged. As I said, it could be anything and we may never know (unless, of course, a former insider wants to tell us. Please reach out if you’d like to do so privately).

The end of Drinkworks also begs the question: is this the end for home cocktail appliances? Bartesian – and now Black and Decker – would argue no. As for me, I’m not sure I want a pod-making machine, but I would take a voice-enabled cocktail marking robot.

Watch my video look at the demise of Drinkworks below.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

Bartesian Brings Its Cocktail Robot to Williams-Sonoma & Macy’s

Home robot bartender Bartesian has made the (retail) big time.

According to a release sent to The Spoon, the long-time maker of countertop cocktail makers has announced that its machines are now available at Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s.

Bartesian, which shipped its first machine in 2019 after years of development, has seen a 300% increase in revenue in 2021, which follows a nearly 10x increase in sales in 2020 over the previous year. While the company saw its growth accelerate in 2020 with bars closed due to COVID, its fast growth predated the pandemic, according to company CEO Ryan Close.

From our post in April about Bartesian’s $21 million funding round:

Close said that while his company did get a COVID bump, it was already experiencing triple growth rates prior to the pandemic (they got off to a nice start by being an Oprah pick in the winter of 2019). Close said that the company has generated more sales in the first quarter of 2021 than during the first half of 2020.

Bartesian’s growth stands in contrast to the rough-sailing experienced by others in the home booze appliance business. Somabar, which saw early adulation at CES for its home cocktail bot, has struggled to fulfill its Kickstarter commitments. Barsys suffered early negative reviews for its cocktail robot and has recently emphasized its smart coaster.

Bartesian’s success is perhaps a validation of the company’s early strategy of partnering with larger companies such as Hamilton Beach (for manufacturing) and Beam to gain access to channels and resources in a business. It also was the first home booze-bot maker to build a business around a consumables with its pods, ensuring recurring revenue beyond the initial hardware sale.

Since its launch, Bartesian has witnessed other pod-based drink systems come to market. Drinkworks, the joint venture between Dr. Pepper/Keurig and AB InBev, continues to roll out new cocktail-related partnerships and products as it expands into new states. European startup Smart Spirits is trying to convince folks to use pods to create base-liquor drinks like gin or whiskey.

But now, with its entrance into Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s, Bartesian hopes to gain a leg up on the competition. By securing prime brick & mortar real retail real estate to sell to customers who still buy things brick & mortar retail, the company looks like it may be positioning itself as the market leader in the still-nascent but fast-growing home cocktail-making appliance business.

Bartesian Raises $20M Series A for its Countertop Cocktail Appliance

Bartesian, which makes a pod-based countertop cocktail appliance, announced today that it has raised a $20 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Cleveland Avenue, LLC, with participation from Stanley Ventures.

The Bartesian device has cannisters that you fill up with liquor such as tequila, vodka or rum, which it then mixes with a variety pods that contain different flavorings, juices and bitters. Place a glass underneath and push a button and Bartesian dispenses a perfectly mixed cocktail.

By next-gen kitchen appliance standards, Bartesian is a downright old timer. The product launched on Kickstarter back in 2015, where it raised more than $115,000. In 2018, Bartesian decided that it was in the drink business and not the hardware business and licensed manufacturing to Hamilton Beach. The first units started shipping to Kickstarter backers later that year and became more widely available at retail in December of 2019.

According to today’s funding announcement, the Bartesian system has served more than five million cocktails, experienced 975 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2020, and grew its subscriber base 30x compared to March 2020.

Without actual numbers, those stats aren’t super helpful in determining the actual success of Bartesian, and one has to wonder how much the pandemic helped boost interest and use in the Bartesian. With bars and restaurants closed and people relegated to their homes throughout much of last year, having a robot bartender like Bartesian on your counter made a lot of sense. With vaccination rates accelerating, bars and restaurants re-opening, and people being able to once again hangout in person, will consumers still want a home drink system?

Ryan Close, Founder and CEO of Bartesian told me by phone this week that while his company did get a COVID bump, it was already experiencing triple growth rates prior to the pandemic (they got off to a nice start by being an Oprah pick in the winter of 2019). Close said that the company has generated more sales in the first quarter of 2021, than it did during the first half of 2020.

The competitive landscape has also changed for Bartesian over the past couple of years. Drinkworks, which is a joint-venture between Keurig Dr Pepper and Anheuser-Busch InBev, and is also a pod-based drink machine, has been rolling out to different states across the country throughout the past year. And Barsys, which foresakes the pods for straight bottle attachments, is another option for the automated cocktail curious.

The one thing going for pod-based setups like Bartesian and Drinkworks, however, is the ability for people to have a full bar in their homes, without a collection of bottles taking up a lot of space. It’s much easier to store a bunch of flavor pods than a variety of juices, bitters and other drink ingredients. Plus, when people do have parties again, guests can easily make themselves a variety of cocktails with little to no mess.

With its new funding, Bartesian says that it will accelerate its growth domestically and internationally, scale up its production and expand its team. One of the investors, Stanley Ventures, is the venture arm of hardware company Stanley Black and Decker, which, Close said, is looking to bring Bartesian to Europe.

Bartesian also announced today actor Mila Kunis has joined the company’s board of advisors to provide guidance on brand strategy and growth.

Bartesian, a Home Cocktail Robot, is Now on Sale in Over 250 Retail Locations

If you’re still looking for that holiday gift for the cocktail fanatic in your life who has everything, you might want to run down to Best Buy (or Dillards or Bed Bath & Beyond) and pick up a Bartesian.

That’s because over the past few months, the home cocktail robot has started to roll out across the U.S. at a number of different retailers. According to company CEO Ryan Close, the Bartesian is now available at over 250 retail locations across the nation, including Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Beth Bath and Beyond, and Dillards.

The Bartesian, which makes a variety of cocktails using a proprietary capsule system to add in bitters, fruit juice and other mixers to the user-provided spirits, started shipping online earlier this year. According to Close, retail has always been part of the plan.

“5 years (!) of talking about one day being on the shelves of #BedBathandBeyond …here it is,” wrote Close on Linkedin announcing the company’s latest retail rollout.

Bartesian CEO Ryan Close at Bed Bath & Beyond

Close told me via Linkedin that while the company is launching its product in different locations across the U.S., they are primarily focused on higher-density markets like New York, Chicago and cities in California, to maximize awareness.

I’m curious to see how the Bartesian performs at retail. One potential sticking point for consumers is the need to buy capsules from Bartesian to make cocktails with the machine. The capsules, which include fresh ingredients such as fruit juice, are not cheap, selling in packs of six for $15. That’s about two and a half bucks per drink (before alcohol), which is certainly cheaper than a bar but pretty spendy for home cocktails.

However, while consumers have shown a reluctance to use proprietary pod systems outside of coffee, Bartesian isn’t the only company betting that home-based cocktails might be the next market to break open new capsule category. Drinkworks, the joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch, has rolled out to select markets in the U.S. Unlike the Bartesian, however, Drinkworks pods include alcohol.

The Bartesian, which launched over five years ago on Kickstarter, now faces a more crowded market than when it first launched. In addition to Drinkworks, Barsys has begun to ship its second generation bartender bot while newer upstarts like MyBar and SirMixaBot (best name ever) have started to make their way to market.

Market Map: Booze Tech in 2019

From countertop devices used in the home kitchen to delivery services, the number of avenues in which companies can get booze to customers has expanded in recent years. And since it’s still the time of year when drinking on patios is a popular sport, we decided to focus our latest market map on all the tech out there currently changing the alcohol space.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption has actually stagnated, according to IWSR, but part of this is due to consumers now seeking quality over quantity when it comes to their drinking. Which might explain the rise in the number of companies offering recommendations apps that rate beers, wines, and spirits as well as at-home devices for the kitchen countertop that give the user a little more control over the quality of their drinks.

For The Spoon’s Booze Tech in 2019 market map, we divvied the market up into several categories where technology is making the biggest impact on the way people get, create, and consume beer, wine, and spirits. That’s everything from apps that update you on the best craft beers available to at-home bartending devices that let you release your inner mixologist to the many ways in which companies are making it possible to get the booze delivered right to your doorstep. We’ve narrowed the companies down to a collection of startups and major corporations alike. As with any post that outlines a market, this list isn’t exhaustive. So if you have thoughts and tips for who else you’d like to see here, feel free to drop us a line.

While we’re on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our 2019 Food Robotics market map and our Food Waste Innovation in 2019 map.

Booze Tech in 2019

Smart Spirits Uses Flavor Pods to Re-Create Booze (but Not Mixed Drinks)

Smart Spirits is a new entrant in the at-home, pod-based, connected countertop cocktail appliance market (hat tip to The Drinks Business). Though unlike it’s competition, Smart Spirits doesn’t make mixed cocktails, it’s system creates a simulacra of straight up booze like whiskey, gin, rum and more.

Smart Spirits is basically a Keurig for spirits, with four parts to its system: A Bluetooth enabled dispenser, a bottle of “grain neutral spirit” drink, and a variety of flavor pods like “The Taste of American Bourbon,” and a mobile app you can use to control everything. Once set up, you create your drink and can even control the strength of the drink or add water.

Smart Spirits is taking a different approach from other alcohol-related home countertop appliances like Bartesian and Drinkworks. Those devices mix together actual cocktails like mai-tais and cosmopolitans. Smart Spirits just makes the base booze that you can either drink straight or use with other ingredients to make mixed cocktails on your own.

Whiskey and gin snobs will undoubtedly scoff at such a machine and Smart Spirits’ claim that “it is now possible to replicate the taste from the aging process with natural and nature identical flavours…” But aficionados are probably not Smart Spirits’ target market.

When I think about it further, however, I’m not sure who the target market is. Figuring this out is even harder as there isn’t any pricing information on the site for either the machine or the grain spirit or the flavor pods. So we don’t know how much any of it costs, or if there’s a subscription.

At first, this seems to be a fit for space-conscious millennials as there’s no need to buy or stock a full bar’s worth of bottles when you can get all the boozey flavor you want from easily stored pods. But since this only makes base drinks, you’d still need mixers like vermouth or curacao or Tide pods or whatever it is the kids are drinking these days.

Like so many other things, however, the success or failure of Smart Spirits will come down to execution. If it can indeed recreate “The Taste of Irish Whiskey,” it may find its niche among people the tech savvy who like to drink, but don’t want a bunch of bottles cluttering up their place.

We’ll see as the Smart Spirits System will roll out this year across the U.S., U.K., and European Union.

The Bartesian Home Cocktail Robot Will Ship in March

Sometimes a good cocktail takes a while to make.

And a good home cocktail robot? That can take almost half a decade to get things just right, at least if you’re Bartesian.

Of course, taking a long and circuitous route to market wasn’t originally part of the business plan for this Canadian startup. Like many companies who have initial Kickstarter success, Bartesian came out of the gate strong with plans to ship their hardware and capsule-based cocktail machine in a year. But, as is the case with so many Kickstarter hardware campaigners before and after, the original ship dates came and went as the company was hit with the hard reality of getting the product into production.

Over time, however, the company realized that their secret sauce – or rather, liqueurs, bitters and juices – was their capsule delivery system and not the robot itself. So last year,  the company decided to hand over manufacturing to an established housewares brand in Hamilton Beach as part of a three year manufacturing agreement.

“It was soul searching time” said Bartesian CEO Ryan Close last year when asked about the deal. According to Close, the company had to ask themselves, “Do we want to be an appliance company or a CPG company?” Eventually they decided to focus on the capsules after realizing doing both a replenishable and hardware would too difficult.

However, the decision to sign a manufacturing partner came only after the company had spent nearly three years working on getting a product ready to ship to Kickstarter backers. Because of this, the company made the interesting decision to hand assemble over 300 units and send them to their backers and – once manufacturing started – send the same backers an additional Bartesian when final production units were available.

“Our Kickstarter backers have been incredibly patient and supportive while we battled through the R&D and production of launching both innovative hardware and customized CPG’s,” said Close in a June 2018 interview with The Spoon. “They will each keep the KS unit, the retail version is an extra and all about gratitude for being with us from the start – extreme patience – and cheering us on from the sidelines.”

And so now in early 2019, the company is finally ready to ship production units to backers and into retail this March. According to Close, the retail price will be $299 and capsules, which are purchasable through the website, will go for $14 per six pack.

You can see the Spoon’s interview with Ryan Close at last week’s FoodTech Live @ CES below.

The Spoon Talks with Ryan Close of Bartesian (a home cocktail robot)

Keurig’s Pod-Based Home Bar Mixes Up Cocktails, Beer, and Cider on Your Counter

Today Drinkworks, a joint venture of Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch, unveiled its first product: a countertop appliance which can prepare cocktails, ciders, and beers with the press of a button.

Available through an early access program in St. Louis, Missouri, the Drinkworks Home Bar is a pod-based system that can chill, mix and carbonate a variety of alcoholic beverages, from Margaritas to Mai Tai’s. Initially, there are twenty-four boozy pods to choose from, developed by “mixologists and beverage scientists,” according to the press release. The appliance also pairs with your smartphone to give system info and “fun tips.”

Though cocktails seem to be their main focus, you can also buy flights of beer pods, which include (surprise!) brews from Anheuser-Busch, including Beck’s beer and Stella Cidre. I can’t imagine a beer made by adding water to a flavor-concentrated pod filled with malt and hops would taste better than one from a can (or brewed from a PicoBrew), but I suppose some people would pay for the draft experience.

The Drinkworks appliances cost $299, and the company recommends pricing the cocktail pods for $3.99 each and the brews for $2.25 each. While we don’t know how the drinks taste, $3.99 is a pretty good price for a cocktail. Yes, you can make a bunch of drinks with a $30 bottle of rum — but if you want to make a cocktail like, say, a Mai Tai, you’d have to also have fresh lime, Orgeat syrup, and orange liquor on hand. All those extra ingredients add up. If you’re a super-cocktail enthusiast, or just entertain a lot, it might be worth the investment. Then again, most “mixology” nerds I know (cough, me) are too snobby to drink a cocktail made from a pod when they could mix it up themselves and have greater control over the finished drink.

Insert a drinkworks pod to get an Old Fashioned cocktail.

A limited number of Drinkworks drinkmakers are available for pre-order in St. Louis. While they’ll initially be available solely on the Drinkworks website, on November 19th local St. Louis brick-and-mortar stores, including all Total Wine & More locations, will carry them. They’ll roll out to more locations in Missouri and Florida in 2019, and California in 2020.

When Keurig announced plans to buy the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group earlier this year, my colleague Chris guessed that some sort of pod-based cold beverage appliance wouldn’t be too far behind — though maybe not one that sprouted soda. It seems Keurig was thinking along the same lines and decided to try to enter the booming craft cocktail market instead. By launching a home appliance, they’re also cashing in on the growing number of consumers who are staying home to get their buzz on (we’re looking at you, lazy millennials).

Bartesian cocktail maker.

Drinkworks will have to compete with other at-home cocktail concocters, and the one that immediately springs to mind is Bartesian, which makes a countertop device that also mixes up pod-based cocktails, and also retails for $299. Bartesian offers six cocktail pods which it sells for $11.99 for a pack of six; almost half the price of the Drinkworks pods.

While they might not have the massive warchests, reach, or name recognition of Keurig or Anheuser-Busch, Bartesian did raise a seven-figure round in September of last year from Beam Suntory and has handed their manufacturing operations off to Hamilton Beach.

It also has a head start: Bartesian shipped the first round of its countertop drink-mixing robot to Kickstarter backers in June of this year (in fact, it shipped two). While the next round, which is available for preorder now, won’t ship until March of 2019, that’s basically in line with Keurig’s timeline to ship its preordered Drinkworks machines sometime in 2019, at least in Missouri and Florida.

The other thing to consider is that Dr. Pepper and Anheuser Busch bring with them a number of well-known brands. That recognition could come into play as a key differentiator for cocktail mixes: for example, people might gravitate towards a Moscow Mule made with Canada Dry ginger ale, or a G&T made with Shweppes tonic. As of now they don’t seem to be using any Dr. Pepper branded sodas in their cocktails, but it’s something to keep an eye out for.

While something like branded vs. unbranded soda in your mixed drink may be a relatively small detail, Bartesian and Keurig are competing in a zero-sum game. I can’t imagine why anyone in the world would want two pod-based countertop cocktail machines, so any little thing that could give them an edge is worth exploring. It seems like this next year (or two) will be a race to see which robotic bartender can carve out the most space in this niche market — and on our countertops.

Celebrate a FoodTech Fourth of July

It’s weird when a major holiday falls on a Wenesday, right? Do you take just the day off? The first half of the week? The last half? The whole week? Regardless of how much time you take off, we can help make your time at the grill a great one with these FoodTech finds.

FOOD
The Fourth–and most summertime grillin’–is all about the meat. Normally, we’d suggest you purchase your steaks and burgers through CrowdCow, which meticulously sources all of its meat from small ranches. But your guests will be hungry tomorrow, so here’s a twist, maybe try a meatless option this year?

I know! I know! “Heresy!” you cry! But really, we love the Beyond Meat burger patties available at many local grocers. The company says it wants their plant-based meat that “bleeds” in the supermarket butcher section, but I’ve only ever found it frozen with the other alterna-meats.

Personally, I think the Beyond Meat patty is a delicious replacement for the traditional meat burger, so much so that I stock up on extra when I’m at the store just to have it around when I crave it. Beyond Meat won’t fool any carnivores, but it’s a tasty substitute and perfect if you’re trying to cut back on your red meat intake.

BRING THE (CONTROLLED) HEAT
Everyone has an opinion about the best way to grill, we won’t waste your time with some obscure technique. We will however, recommend a pair of devices that can help make your steaks and other proteins turn out great.

Photo: Anova

Sous vide-ing your steak is a fantastic way to get juicy meat with no overcooking. There are a ton of sous vide wands out there that will turn any pot of water into a precision-heated circulating bath. We like the ChefSteps Joule and the new Anova Nano (review forthcoming). They are small, well built, and work with an accompanying mobile phone app to bring your meat to a desired internal temperature. Sure it takes a little longer, but it also helps remove the risks of over- or undercooking your precious steaks.

Stylish holder/charger.

Regardless of whether you sous vide or not, you can use the Meater thermometer to get just about any type of meat to the proper temperature. The Meater is kinda big (like a beefy nail) that sits in your protein while you cook it. Using the Meater app on your phone, you can keep track of both ambient and internal temperatures, and Meater will even tell you when to pull out and rest your meat to achieve optimal results.

If you’re going camping and want a greener experience, you could grab a GoSun portable grill that cooks food by simply harnessing the power of the sun.

BEER
The good news is, if you live in the right location, you can still run out and buy your own PicoBrew to make homebrewing much easier. The bad news is that even if you bought one today, there isn’t enough time to brew and ferment your beer before tomorrow. (Maybe just pop by Spoon founder Mike Wolf’s house for a bottle of his.)

PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
It’s never too early to start planning for an epic Independence Day celebration next year. Here are some items to put a pin in and revisit next summer:

  • If it makes its crowdfunding goal, the Ambassador 5-in-1 grill features rotating cooktop that spins through flattop and grate surfaces.
  • The Bartesian cocktail robot (due out by the end of this year) can whip up delicious boozy concoctions on demand.
  • And for the truly adventurous, you can throw a slice of ketchup, yes, a “slice” of ketchup on next year’s burger.

No matter how much time you’re taking off, have a Happy Fourth of July, everybody! Be safe.

Bartesian Ships to Kickstarters this Week, Backers Will Get Two Machines

Bartesian, the startup behind the eponymous automatic countertop cocktail making appliance, gave The Spoon a heads up that it will be shipping its first batch of devices to Kickstarter backers this week.

The fact that a crowdfunded consumer hardware product is actually making it to market is enough cause for celebration. But Bartesian backers will be able to raise more than one celebratory glass when they receive their robot bartender; the startup revealed that they will eventually be getting two Bartesian machines.

Wait. What?

Evidently the Bartesians that backers will shortly receive are being considered “beta units.” But fear not, backers! It looks as though you are not getting a knock-off, hurriedly constructed out of balsa wood and chewing gum. Here’s an email exchange I had with Bartesian Co-Founder and CEO, Ryan Close, that explains this unusual situation:

The Spoon: You’re shipping to Kickstarter backers this week. To all Kickstarter backers? Or just early birds?

Ryan Close: Yes, all KS backers this week.

You said you were treating these shipments as “beta units” — what will be the difference between these and production models?

These KS units have been hand assembled in Canada by our team. The retail units will be made in a top tier factory in China that makes other premium appliances. The handle on these KS/Beta units is not as intuitive as it needs to be, so we have already re-engineered it for the retail version coming out in Winter/18. The handle is a big change as it’s the #1 touch point for the consumer. We also made a few design tweaks to decrease the amount of pressure required to pierce the capsule, further increasing the ease of use. The new machine will look generally the same as the KS unit. If necessary, we can also make any design changes we uncover after our KS folks have had a chance to use our product. We’ll harness their input and implement any changes they feel would improve the overall experience.

You said Kickstarter folks will receive a free unit from Hamilton Beach this winter. So will people who receive the beta units ship those betas back to you to receive the full production unit? How will that work exactly?

Our KS backers have been incredibly patient and supportive while we battled through the R&D and production of launching both innovative hardware and customized CPG’s. They will each keep the KS unit, the retail version is an extra and all about gratitude for being with us from the start – extreme patience – and cheering us on from the sidelines.

For a little more background, earlier this year Bartesian entered into an exclusive, three-year manufacturing and distribution agreement with Hamilton Beach. The move, according to Close at the time, would leverage Hamilton Beach’s massive manufacturing expertise and distribution network and allow Bartesian to focus on the drinks that come out of the machine.

Or if you’re one of its backers, both of your machines.