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Anheuser-Busch InBev and Keurig Dr Pepper are teaming up with a plan to make single-serve cocktail machines similar to Keurig’s hot beverage machines. A joint venture between the two companies called Drinkworks, will “automate home bartending” with the machine. Jennifer Maloney reports for the WSJ:
The Drinkworks machine is offered for preorder for $299 and is on sale in St. Louis for $399. Using liquid-filled pods, it adds water and carbonation to serve up cocktails like a Moscow Mule, an Old Fashioned, a mojito or a gin and tonic—plus three brands of beer and cider. The machine chills drinks but doesn’t add ice. The pods, which contain the equivalent of a shot of alcohol plus flavorings, sell in a pack of four for $15.99 for most cocktails. To avoid consumption by children, they are designed so that they can’t be opened by hand, according to Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis. The company is working on developing a lock for the machine, he said.
The joint venture between AB InBev and Keurig follows a failed effort between the coffee maker and Coca-Cola to sell single-serve machines for cold soft drinks. In 2016, they discontinued the Keurig Kold after the home soft-drinks machine failed to catch on. Many consumers balked at the price of the machine, which initially cost $369. The pods also were expensive, costing $1.25 to make an 8-ounce drink. And the machine took about 60 seconds to make a single serving, much longer than it took to grab a can of soda from the fridge.
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