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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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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.

Will a Combined Keurig Dr. Pepper Bring Back the Kold?

We have banned the headline “X company hopes to become the Keurig for Y” here at The Spoon. But perhaps we should make an exception since it could literally be applied to today’s news that Keurig Green Mountain plans to buy Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a deal valued at $18.7 billion. Will the addition of Dr Pepper make Keurig the, uhhh, Keurig of sodas?

It wouldn’t be the first time Keurig tried to pop into the soda market. In 2015, Keurig launched the Kold to use its pod technology to create name brand sodas, even lining up Coca-Cola as a partner. But the Kold was shut down just ten months later in June of 2016 amidst complaints that the machine was too expensive, too loud, and too big.

By bringing on Dr Pepper Snapple, Keurig now has its own full stack soda solution, as it were, with brands like Dr Pepper, 7Up, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, A&W Root Beer and more. And according to the analyst call Keurig and Dr Pepper held today for the announcement, merging of the two companies will expand distribution opportunities for Keurig into new markets like convenience retail (7-Eleven, CVS, etc.).

But even if the two companies can create new efficiencies and better technology, has the opportunity for a soda spouting Keurig passed? Sugary sodas have been the target of new taxes, and consumption has been declining. Bottled water sales surpassed soda last year, and millennials love their LaCroix, which leads the $2 billion and growing carbonated water market.

Then there are other factors to consider. People are used to putting in some “effort” when it comes to brewing coffee, so popping in a K-cup and waiting is not that big a deal. But is it the same for soda, where people just grab a can and go about their day? Additionally, with the proliferation of same day grocery delivery options, it’s easier than ever to make sure that your soda selection is fully stocked at all times.

Perhaps Keurig will be able to make a more environmental pitch for conscientious consumers. During the analyst call Keurig said it will be expanding the roll out of its recyclable K-Cup pods and is on track to have that completed in the U.S. by 2020.

By then, we’ll see if anyone can become the Keurig of soda machines.

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