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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

cocktails

Bartesian Focuses on Drinks, Hands Manufacturing to Hamilton Beach

Bartesian said today that it has signed a three-year deal to make Hamilton Beach the exclusive manufacturing and distribution partner of its forthcoming countertop cocktail making appliance.

Bartesian co-founder Ryan Close told us by phone that this move will allow his company to focus on the drink making and development side of the business, while appliance giant Hamilton Beach can leverage its massive manufacturing expertise and retail distribution channels to bring the actual cocktail machine to market.

“It was a soul searching time,” said Close “Do we want to be an appliance company or a CPG company? If we wanted to do both, it would stretch things too far.”

The Bartesian countertop device uses combination of flavor capsules to hold liquors and mixers, which the appliance automatically blends into a variety of cocktails. It would be easy to liken Bartesian to a “Keurig for cocktails,” but Close winces at that comparison, noting that “this isn’t some sugary mix or powder.”

The machine will still be branded as Bartesian, and Close said they will keep their target release date of Q4 this year, as well as the $299 price tag. Bartesian still owns all of its IP, and will work with Hamilton Beach to develop future generations of the cocktail appliance.

This is the second big partnership for Bartesian. Last year they raised a “seven figure” round of funds from Beam Suntory, one of the world’s largest spirits conglomerates. That partnership has helped Bartesian expand its work developing new drinks and drink-concocting appliances. The company will launch with seven capsulized concoctions and will roll out fifty cocktail mixes over time.

While Close wouldn’t share the exact details of the Hamilton Beach arrangement, this seems to be a smart play for Bartesian. The company only has seven employees, and the transition from concept to manufacturing has been a big stumbling block for many upstart drink appliance makers. Having Hamilton Beach take over the production part of the business will hopefully give Bartesian the heft and scale it needs to overcome any obstacles and reach a mass market.

The Instagram Cocktail Community Is Changing the Business of Booze

Thanks to Instagram, cocktail culture is making a nation-wide comeback.

Ok, cocktails have never truly gone out of style, but a cocktail movement on the level of, say, craft beer or cold-brew coffee hasn’t really happened outside the major cities. And even there, you have to go to the bar and throw down at least $15 per drink.

But in recent years, the bars, mixology pros, and independent distilleries began posting pictures of brightly colored cocktails, the recipes for making them, and accouterments like diamond-shaped ice cubes, and it wasn’t long before the everyman jumped onboard the trend. The at-home mixologist, or drinkstagrammer, was born, and now there are tons of them online, sharing their creations with a growing community.

One of the biggest reasons people cite for this movement is that technology is helping to demystify the cocktail. Proper mixology requires not just good ingredients, but precise measurements, technique, and possibly a little chemistry. Before the internet, you either went to school for these things or saved cocktail drinking for nights out. Now you can learn online, and a lot of these drinkstagrammers are eager to show you how.

We’re also getting more alcohol delivered to our homes, which encourages at-home bartending. There are companies and stores that deliver the actual booze, and a handful of cocktail-kit services that provide ingredients. And all of this is considerably cheaper than going out for drinks on a regular basis.

It’s fun, too, as the wide range of Instagram accounts devoted to cocktails shows. Elliott Clark, who runs the very popular handle “apartment_bartender,” humorously describes himself as a “semi-decent home bartender” then proceeds to post intricate creations like a spiced-rum pomegranate sour. Elsewhere, Stir and Strain shows you how to turn things like Everclear into a delicacy. And Melissa Lapido, a self-professed “intoxicologist and garnish master,” makes sculptural drinks that would make for an interesting project to try any night of the week.

Drinkers and amateur mixologists aren’t the only ones to benefit from the online cocktail culture. For smaller distilleries, the movement is a way to get more visibility and recognition. The distilling industry is a notoriously challenging one, being both expensive highly regulated. If you’re not working with the budget of a major liquor company like Bacardi, it’s tough to get distribution, let alone a large following. Either by maintaining their own Instagram feed or appearing in recipes posted by others, these smaller brands and companies look to finally be having their day, too.

Bartesian, Maker Of Home Cocktail Robots, Raises “Seven Figure” Round From Beam

Bartesian, a cocktail robot startup, has received an additional round of funding from Beam Suntory, the company behind such brands as Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek.

This is the second investment by Beam in Bartesian. The first came just over a year ago, and the latest round was a result of a contingency written into the first deal that allowed Beam to acquire more equity in the company.

Bartesian CEO Ryan Close told the Spoon that Beam “had a provision on the original investment that allowed them the option to invest x future dollars (7 figures). They liked what they have seen with regards to production ramp up, quality, and most importantly taste of the finished product – so they decided to execute that option.”

Bartesian’s system utilizes flavor capsules and chambers to hold the liquor and other mixers. The system mixes the spirits and mixers from the four chambers with flavors from the capsules to make a variety of cocktails. According to the company, the Bartesian capsules do not use powder, but instead a variety of real fruit juice concentrates and non-alcohol liqueurs.

It’s an interesting investment for a spirits company like Beam Suntory, one of the world’s largest spirits conglomerates. Beam hasn’t historically invested in technology startups, but a product like Bartesian could extend their reach into subscription services as well as give them a better understanding of what consumers are actually mixing at home. Perfect Company has shown that by extending the reach into the actual cocktail making opens up a treasure trove of data for spirits companies.

The company is expected to ship in 2018. Another home cocktail robot startup, Somabar, is also expecting to ship next year.

You can see Ryan Close talking about the growing use of technology for the home bar in a 2016 Smart Kitchen Summit session video below.

The Smart Bar: HomeBrew to BartenderBots from The Spoon on Vimeo.

Want To Become A Mixologist? There’s a Subscription Delivery Service For That

With alcohol-delivery services becoming the norm, it’s time to take the next step in the evolution of the online drink: cocktail-making kits delivered to your door.

Some might question whether $50 per month for a cocktail kit is worth the money. And sure, if your idea of a mixed drink is tonic water splashed onto an arbitrary amount of vodka, said kit might be a waste of money. But if you’re after high-quality ingredients and a chance to learn the art of mixology, Shaker and Spoon is definitely worth checking out.

The company was born in 2015 in Brooklyn, when designer Anna Gorovoy and animator Mike Milyavsky decided to apply the meal kit concept to drinks. You won’t find any rum-and-coke recipes here. The idea is to recreate the kind of bespoke cocktails found in upscale bars, but in the comfort of your own home. The monthly service aims to turn subscribers into tastemakers and, one assumes, keep them from defaulting to beer cans as party refreshments.

To do that, Gorovoy and Milyavsky enlisted “The People’s Champion of Bartending,” Russell Davis. Davis has some well-documented mixology chops and also owns a high-end spirits company. He currently oversees the creation of Shaker and Spoon’s many recipes that get shipped out with the boxes.

And those recipes will certainly widen your cocktail palette, whether they call for snap peas mixed with gin or lemon-lychee cordial and sake. Each box includes all ingredients needed, except the alcohol itself. (The company has a thorough explanation for this.) Subscribers can preview upcoming boxes to decide if the contents are appealing or if it’s better to skip a month.

As far as cost goes, it’s a lot cheaper than taking a mixology class or trying out new drinks at a bar. Boxes range from $40 to $50 per month, with ingredients to make 12 cocktails (4 per each recipe). Considering that the average high-end cocktail in Brooklyn costs at least $14, often more, a $50 price tag doesn’t seem too steep even when you add the extra money for the alcohol.

Some are calling Shaker and Spoon the Blue Apron of booze, which is fair. I’d argue, though, that the service actually reaches beyond that. It’s going a bit far to say the company promotes an entire lifestyle (yet), but they offer a pretty in-depth education on high-end tastes via the website. Ever wonder how to properly crush ice? Shaker and Spoon will tell you. Did you know the Coupe glass was modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breast? Neither did I until I read about it the site. All things considered, I’d dub the service “mixology school in a box.”

In our transaction-based society where we eat faster, drink more, and hardly stop to savor either, it’s encouraging to see a company favor quality over quantity and grow popular at the same time. Let’s hope they’re paving the way for new era, where we learning the craft of food and drink is as important as getting the materials themselves delivered.

Sous Vide Cocktails? Yes Please.

The French technique of cooking food slowly in a warm water bath is not new. In fact, sous vide has been around since the early 18th century. For a long time, it was reserved for exclusive and high-end cooking and remained relatively unknown in the consumer world.

In the last few years, however, it’s gone from being a well-known cooking technique in the hobbyist and professional chef communities to a being a food tech darling. Startups like ChefSteps, Anova and Nomiku have all worked to bring sous vide to the masses at affordable prices with recipes that feel accessible.

But whenever you hear about sous vide, whether in an online review or story or on a panel, you hear people talking about cooking steak. Fish. Chicken. Sometimes vegetables. But cocktails? Preparing the newest libation isn’t synonymous with a sous vide machine, but Tasting Table is profiling some chefs that are using the warm water bath technique to create some delicious concoctions.

So how do they do it – and why? A good cocktail has an array of vibrant flavors – from fruits to herbs and spices to fragrances, there’s a lot that goes into crafting the perfect drink. Sous vide can be an excellent way, it turns out, to infuse several flavors into a liquid in preparation for turning it into a cocktail later on.

One restaurant in Santa Monica, California that’s known for its beverage menu uses sous vide in several ways to create delicious liquid flavors to include in their drinks. Tasting Table explains the process,

“For his Rome with a View, he sous-vides a mixture of blood orange peels, blood orange juice, sugar and black pepper pods at 150 degrees for two hours; the sugar and the juice slowly draw oil out of the peel, which in turn infuse with the black pepper.”

The slow infusion of flavors into the liquid is what gives these bartenders the edge; it would be impossible to recreate that type of complexity just with muddling or shaking. Another bar in Brooklyn is using a variety of lemon flavors via a sous vide infusion to recreate a cocktail that probably comes with a stigma in hipster bars – the Cosmo.

Sous vide clearly isn’t going anywhere, and the creative ways to use the machine will only attract more curious home chefs who want to recreate delicious meals and drinks in their own kitchens.

To read about the rest of the delicious cocktails being cooked up with sous vide, check out the Tasting Table piece.

The Cool Kids Are Making Sous Vide Cocktails

Sous vide steaks are flawless, but they’re also old news and, frankly, a snooze. Now high-end restaurants and bars are taking their Anova to the next level, using it to make sous vide cocktails like the gorgeous gin and tonic at Betony, featured in the video above.

Before you get the impression that mixologists are dumping a bunch of liquor in a tepid water bath and call it a day, keep in mind that technically they’re using the sous vide to engineer tastier syrups and other elements necessary for a perfectly blended cocktail. Those finished syrups are then added to the spirits and served freshly made.

Why sous vide? “Ingredients like vanilla and star anise are no problem for cold infusions, but lighter flavors like cacao nibs, black pepper, or green apple pose a bigger challenge,” beverage director Vipop “Tor” Jinaphan at Sugar Ray: You’ve Just Been Poisoned, in Bangkok, told Munchies. “It’s better with a sous vide machine.” Sugar Ray serves a take on the classic Martinez cocktail called the Framboise Martinez, with a combination of raspberries, orange, vanilla, and sweet vermouth cooked in a sous vide for hours, then added to gin, lime bitters, and maraschino liqueur. The bar is one of several on the exploding Bangkok cocktail scene to use sous vide, pioneered by mixologist Joseph Boroski.

San Francisco is also chockfull of fancy sous vide cocktails like the Rae Rey at Chino, with lychee-infused Baijiu, Aperol, tea, cucumber, and lime. They used to serve the cocktail only occasionally, as they’d have to wait a year for the lychee to infuse into the Baijiu before being able to make more. Using the sous vide method allows them to make the drink at almost a moment’s notice.

So what’s next: cake?

Investment In Cocktail Mixing Robots Is Heating Up

In the whiskey business, older usually means better. But if you’re Beam Suntory, the company which owns such iconic whiskey brands as Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, sometimes new ain’t so bad either.

Which may be why the company recently became a strategic investor in Bartesian, a startup that creates drink mixing robots. While the exact amount of the investment is undisclosed, Bartesian co-founder Ryan Close puts the amount “in the millions.” The Bartesian cocktail mixing robot utilizes capsules to add the flavors and mixers to the cocktail. Close said they would use the money to expand their capsule selection, put the Bartesian into production and for R&D for the next-generation machine.

Beam Suntory isn’t the only investor taking an interest in the nascent robo-bartender market. Last week, Somabar quietly closed a $1.5 million funding round from Tech Coast Angels, an angel investor network focused on Southern California startups. The round was described as “bridge funding,” which means Somabar is still on the hunt for a larger series A round. This most recent investment follows an undisclosed investment in October 2014 and a round of debt financing in May of 2015.

Interest in home cocktail automation isn’t altogether surprising given the size of the $3 billion ready-to-drink (RTD) market. RTDs,  premixed cocktail drinks largely consumed at home, provide consumers mass-produced cocktail drinks that lack the specific tailoring or flourishes a bartender might provide. A home drink maker would give consumers a way to mix drinks that are closer to what they might get in a bar.

Not surprisingly, investment interest in robotic bartender technology also extends to the professional market. Monsieur, a startup based out of Atlanta, has been working on a robotic bartender since 2012 and received a $1.2 million Series A investment in February of this year.

And of course, robots aren’t the only game in town when it comes to bringing new tech to mixology. Late last year, Perfect Company, which makes the Perfect Drink scale system for home cocktail mixing, received a $4 million investment from Oregon Angel Fund. Perfect Company CEO Mike Wallace has indicated the company has sold hundreds of thousands of its Perfect Drink products.

Related: See Bartesian cofounder Ryan Close speak at the Smart Kitchen Summit

(Video) Are Cocktails An Art Form Or Something You Can Delegate To Robots? Both.

Is cocktail making an art form or something you want to let the bots do?

If you’re Ryan Close, the cofounder of Bartesian, the answer is both.

At last month’s Smart Kitchen Summit, Close talked about how some people initially resented the idea of letting a robotic drink mixer do the work.

“Early on we had some people at CES thumb their nose at the idea of (automated) cocktails,” said Close. He would tell them that he wasn’t there to tell them how to make a cocktail, and yes, it is an art form, but then suggested that they’re not competing with bartenders or self-styled mixologists, but instead the huge market for ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, a $3 billion market market growing at almost 7% a year.

RTDs are “high fructose, high sugar,” said Close. Not only that, he said, but bartenderbots make fresher cocktails since they are still local mixology while a mass-produced cocktail is not. RTDs are “batch made; you can’t offer variety to your guests. There is not anything visceral to it, it’s twisting a cap off, whereas the art of mixology is still happening in our machine, you can see the liquor coming in, everything is being reconstituted, so it’s incredibly fresh.”

He also pointed out how bartenders themselves like the idea of using their recipe-driven drink capsules, since it allowed them to do something they’ve never done before: Extend their reach beyond the bar.

“Some of these bartenders who are very proud of what they created, they can only offer it in the restaurant,” said Close. Now, “they can create mixology, and we can put it into our capsules, and they can brand a ‘Nobu Malibu’ line of capsules.’

This recipe licensing model is similar to the one PicoBrew if offering, only instead they license recipes from master brewers at craft breweries from around the world such as Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale.

This allows novices “stand on the should of giants, great brewers, and great recipes,” said Bill Mitchell, PicoBrew CEO, who appeared alongside Close in a panel moderated by Digital Trends Jenny McGrath.

Check out the video above to hear the full session.

What’s the Most Popular Cocktail in Your State? (INFOGRAPHIC)

If you’ve ever wondered whether your at-home cocktail of choice is modern or momish, well, POC Metrics has your answer. The consumer analytics company has put together this nifty data visualization to show you the most popular cocktails, spirits, and ingredients by state during the 2015 holiday season.

Recently we discovered that the Moscow Mule is in a dead heat with the margarita in competition for the most-popular at-home drink, replacing the Cosmopolitan as the most popular vodka cocktail. I’m disappointed to tell you that the other three most popular vodka drinks in the country during the holiday season are Sex on the Beach, Long Island Iced Tea, and something called Rainbow Dee-Lite, which apparently is a rainbow-colored cocktail made with raspberry syrup, orange and pineapple juices, vodka, and Blue Curacao.

Surprisingly, spiked egg nog, hot toddies, and anything with pumpkin spice did not feature highly on any list. Vodka remains the most popular ingredient while almond milk was the least popular, right below celery bitters.

The results are based on data from 50,000 users of the Perfect Drink Smart-Bartending Platform, (If you’re not familiar, the platform helps users measure perfectly portioned cocktails from its stash of recipes or user-uploaded ones.)

Given the explosion of craft cocktail bars, speakeasies, and other places to posture with a martini glass in hand, I’m surprised that people’s at-home drinks of choice are so uncreative. Why the disparity between what people drink at home and what they drink out?

It all comes down to ingredients and ideas. There’s clearly room for a better cocktail discovery system, perhaps with recipes from bartenders and mixologists, so that people can step outside the Long Island Iced Tea comfort zone without investing in tons of mixers to accompany their vodka. How about taking the vodka-lime idea from a Moscow Mule and instead making a Salty Dog (add grapefruit juice), a Twister (add soda), or to be really retro, a Sea Breeze (add grapefruit and cranberry juices)? The power of suggestion would go a long way here.

Liquor stores can also capitalize on POC’s data to group mixers with the spirits that make the most sense by state, increasing sales with very little extra effort.

And perhaps most obviously, someone needs to start offering a premade version of some of these cocktails that doesn’t “taste like disappointment.”

 

Foodie Inventor Dave Arnold Is Making a Centrifuge

Dave Arnold wants to help you make the most delicious food you’ve ever tasted. The energetic, food-obsessed owner of experimental cocktail bar Booker & Dax and director of the Museum of Food & Drink has already created the Searzall torch attachment to help you, well, sear it all, and now he’s working on a centrifuge for home and restaurant use.

He uses the centrifuge at the bar to make his signature milk-washed spirits (think egg-white cocktails without the egg white), among other things, but practically speaking, a standard centrifuge is pretty impractical for anywhere but the lab. It costs about $8,000 and is “the size of a washing machine,” he said, and it doesn’t even allow you to make large quantities at a time.

Arnold’s centrifuge, on the other hand, is “designed for kitchens,” meaning that it operates at a lower rate (think 2,000 times the force of gravity instead of 4,000) and is much safer, smaller, lighter, and less expensive. He actually designed the centrifuge himself, quite a technical feat, and is micromanaging the manufacturers in China and the States to make sure they get every detail right.

He’s hoping to start discounted presales on Amazon Prime by the end of 2016 for less than $1,000.

That means restaurants will be able to afford to run four at a time, automatically increasing their ability to innovate and experiment.

What the heck would they be innovating and experimenting with? Well, clarifying any liquid you could ever want, for starters, especially fruit juices or even coffee. But where the centrifuge really “blows everything else out of the water” is with flavored and infused oils. “I don’t anticipate there being any other tool on the market that will touch it,” Arnold said. “Throw [the spices] in a centrifuge and the flavor is just like, ‘Sploooosh!’” Same for other recipes that don’t yield high amounts, like the famous pea butter from Modernist Cuisine, which he said is better made at home for a small family than in a restaurant with lots of hungry patrons.

Now, this isn’t going to change home cooking forever: Few people can afford a $1,000 gadget that makes flavored oil. And only the highest-end kitchens will probably consider using it. But those who do use it will find their food improved with little effort, which I personally hope will translate to higher standards for all food going forward.

Of course, Arnold acknowledges that there might be a little (read: giant) learning curve. “The way I tend to think about things isn’t the way most users think about things,” he said. “I’m not thinking about the recipe, I’m thinking about what’s happening inside the machine.” So he’s completely rewriting the protocols of how to use this thing (which he originally outlined in Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail).

“The problem is that people are going to go off the reservation, and it’s not going to fail in a predictable way,” he said. In other words, follow his directions. Or else suffer the wrath of a cloudy cocktail or imperfect curry oil. And no one wants that.

The Moscow Mule Is Officially the Lamest Drink of 2016

So you thought you were cool, did you, sitting on your couch drinking a Moscow Mule and watching some TV? Nope, you’re just like the rest of Middle America.

Turns out the Moscow Mule is in a dead heat with the margarita in the competition for most-popular at-home drink, according to POC Metrics’ 2016 report “At-Home Alcohol Consumption Is Now Measurable.” And over time, it will only continue to get more popular, aka become the type of drink your weird Aunt Judy drinks while watching Wheel of Fortune.

The company analyzed data from 100,000 repeat users of the Perfect Drink smart bartending platform over two years to find these insights. (If you’re not familiar, the platform helps users measure perfectly portioned cocktails from its stash of recipes or user-uploaded ones.)

The report indicates that the Moscow Mule has almost tripled its market share in the past few years. It’s also replaced the Cosmopolitan as the most popular vodka cocktail (don’t tell the Sex and the City gals) — valuable information, as vodka is the number one at-home spirit base.

via GIPHY

POC Metrics has even dialed down to tell you that the Moscow Mule gained overwhelming popularity in the Midwest first, with the Northeast, South, and West coming a year or so later and that people are more likely to drink margaritas at brunch or lunch during the weekday and Moscow Mules in the evenings on the weekend.

“So what?” says Aunt Judy.

She’s right. The most interesting part of the report lies in its implications: What happens when cocktails get connected?

-Retails, distributors, and manufacturers will now know precisely where to stock inventory, as well as the regions on which they should focus advertising.

-Using a more-refined version of Perfect Drink’s “cabinet feature,” retailers could alert consumers when their vodka supply is running low and prompt them to reorder it, or even put that reorder on auto and have it delivered seamlessly to their door (or ready for them at their local liquor store).

-Based on the last few cocktails you’ve consumed, a platform could suggest other cocktails with similar ingredients, to aid discovery and mix things up (literally and figuratively).

-Perhaps most importantly: We’ll all realize we’re super boring and predictable and drink the same damn thing every night.