I was skeptical when I first heard of a pod machine for cocktails. The same eye roll: must we automate everything? Is nothing sacred? But then I thought about how I press a button for my coffee every morning. It’s so convenient. It’s delicious. And despite the upfront cost, it’s still cheaper than going to a cafe every time I need caffeine. So, when I got a chance to try the Bartesian, a pod system for cocktails, I took it.
The Bartesian is designed to be a one-stop shop for cocktails. Five glass bottles surround the machine. All you need to do is fill each with a booze of your choice, pop in a pod-they range from lemon drop to Mai Tai to a margarita-choose your desired strength on the touch screen, and that’s it. The machine will pull the booze from the bottle, mix it with the capsule, and your cocktail is ready in mere seconds.
If you’re having a dinner party, the Bartesian can be both the bartender and the entertainment. It can make a huge variety of cocktails without any effort or foresight or trips to the store for 15 limes. You can let your guests choose whatever capsule they want (and judge them if they choose the Witch’s Heart with edible glitter shimmer). It even tells you what type of glassware to use and says a friendly “cheers!” on the touchscreen when you’re done.
If you like experimenting with cocktails but don’t want to fill your bar with obscure spirits and mixers, this thing is gold. Want to try an Aviation? You don’t need to go to the store to pick up créme de violette. It’s all in the recycle capsules.
“There’s definitely a market for it because some people definitely love gadgets and convenience,” says Jeannette Hurt, prolific cocktail writer and author of Drink Like a Woman. “They make it easy for consumers, but they also play on their doubts and insecurities, that they can’t bake a cake from scratch or that they need a margarita mix to make a perfect margarita. But I think it has an entertainment value.”
As someone who loves to partake in the party but doesn’t like to drink all that much, I love that you can customize your drink strength. When I was trying the machine out, I could even make my pregnant sister a mocktail, while mixing a strong Old Fashioned for my brother-in-law.
What’s more, this thing is fast. I tried a little competition to see who could make a cocktail faster: machine or human. Unsurprisingly, the machine won out every time. It’s always a little frightening thinking about machines taking over the world, but at least this one makes a good drink.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the Bartesian, there’s a fair amount of eye roll involved if you’re thinking about a pod system for cocktails.
First, the machine is expensive. $349.99 expensive. If you do happen to go out very often and drink a lot, it’s possible that it’ll save you money in the long haul, but it’s not a cheap thrill and you still need to buy the pods and the booze. It also has a fairly significant footprint, so you’d need a dedicated home bar where it can exist as the centerpiece.
Also, pod life is sugary. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the capsules I tried were very sweet-in a way that might make your hangover come early and stay late. You simply can’t replace fresh ingredients with pod ingredients. The same way bottled lime juice doesn’t have the same acidity or pungency of just-squeezed limes. While you may get a wider breadth of mixers and ingredients, they often won’t be able to capture the freshness of the real thing.
“I can see that it could be fun to play with, especially with a group,” says writer Kara Newman, author of numerous cocktail books and this story about robot bartenders. “But I suspect it would get old fast, since you can’t customize drinks easily. Seems like your money may be better spent on a great bottle and a cocktail class.”
If you’ve got money to burn, space in your home bar, and love experimenting with cocktails, the Bartesian is a home run. It’s a cute cocktail robot that will make you feel like a kid again, while drinking grownup drinks. You can try lots of concoctions without committing to bottles upon bottles of obscure spirits. It would make a spectacular holiday gift for someone who geeks out over cocktails, but doesn’t sweat the lack of fresh ingredients or the sugar-fueled hangover.
As I sip coffee made from my Nespresso machine, I can’t help but think that at some point in the past, coffee snobs everywhere scoffed at this coffee-at-the-press-of-a-button nonsense. Actually, they’re probably still scoffing, but here we are. If it can work for coffee, why not your next cocktail?
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Ariel Kanter is a freelance food and lifestyle writer living in Highland Park, Illinois. You can find her bylines on Serious Eats, New York Magazine‘s The Strategist, Edible Brooklyn, Refinery29, and more. If she’s not writing, cooking, or eating, she’s playing with her terrier mix, Pippin.
If you’re a fan of the royal family (because “fan” is the more socially acceptable way of saying obsessive internet stalker), this is your year. Netflix’s The Crown has returned for its second season, the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant with her third child, Prince George and Princess Charlotte continue to be the cutest heirs to ever walk the face of the earth, and Prince Harry has finally been wrangled from his former wild ways to marry Meghan Markle this spring. All of this royal family news has us in a tizzy, and we need a stiff drink to calm our excitement back down to inside voices. Thankfully, the royal family are drinking icons. Here are the favorite drinks of all the main figures of the new Elizabethan era, so you can properly drink along with all the upcoming royal festivities.
Much has been written about the Queen’s legendary drinking habits , with many articles claiming she drinks as many as six glasses of booze a day. Insiders have disputed this rumor, saying that she “would be pickled” if she drank that much, but we all know that the queen is a creature of habit, and probably does enjoy these drinks fairly regularly. Her all-time favorite cocktail is the Dubonnet Cocktail with a lemon twist, which is gin mixed with the sweet French fortified wine the drink is named for. Her staff always carries the two bottles and lemons wherever the queen goes in case she gets thirsty. Additionally, Queen Elizabeth II is said to drink wine with lunch, the occasional Dry Martini in the afternoon, a glass or two of Champagne with dinner, and some port wine after dinner. For someone that looks 91 years young, this monarch seems to know a thing or two about the secret to a long life .
While his wife loves her gin tipples and wine, the Duke of Edinburgh just fancies beer-and none of that fancy craft stuff. His lifelong favorite brand was Boddington, a regional brewery in Manchester. Unfortunately, the brewery ceased operations in 2005, forcing Prince Philip to drink other, still unassuming, beers. He is even said to have muttered, “Get me a beer. I don’t care what kind it is. Just get me a beer!” when he was offered fine wine by former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato while dining in Rome.
The long awaiting king-to-be enjoys a wide variety of stiff drinks. His favorite whisky is a peaty Islay single malt, Laphroaig 15-year. Prince Charles also helped produce his own whisky, Barrogill ; HRH personally selected the single malts for the blend, which was distilled by Inver House Distillers and North Highland Products. The bottle features a watercolor of Barrogill Castle that was painted by Prince Charles himself. Additionally, Prince Charles is said to enjoy plenty of wine with his wife Camilla, along with his go-to cocktail, a 50/50 Martini made with equal parts gin and dry vermouth .
Prince William seems to take after his grandfather when it comes to drink preferences, opting for straightforward beers over cocktails or rare wines; His two favorite beer brands are said to be Stella Artois and Guinness, but he occasionally also enjoys shots of Sambuca. He didn’t always have such simple tastes, though. In his youth, the Duke of Cambridge was said to have ordered (on more than one occasion) the “Treasure Chest” from Piccadilly club Mahiki, which is a $180 cocktail consisting of brandy , peach liqueur and a bottle of Champagne, served in a smoking treasure chest with tons of extra-long straws, flowers and ignited sparklers.
Nowadays, you’ll find the Duchess of Cambridge publically drinking whatever is served at the many events she attends with her husband (when she’s not pregnant, of course), from Guinness at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in London to wine at a vineyard in New Zealand-where she exclaimed she was “really enjoying being able to drink again” after the birth of Prince George. But in her pre-duchess days, according to sources, Kate enjoyed fruity cocktails like Piña Coladas and the “Crack Baby,” which was served at Prince Harry’s favorite (now-defunct) nightclub, Boujis, and consisted of vodka , raspberry liqueur, passion fruit and Champagne. Rumor has it the future queen also still enjoys her go-to whiskey, Jack Daniel’s, from time to time.
The once infamous party boy may be settling into married life soon, but we reckon he’ll still enjoy his favorite drink, Cîroc Ultra-Premium Vodka , from time to time. Hopefully his bride-to-be Meghan will curb his questionable cocktail of choice, a Red Bull Vodka , and encourage him to try her far more interesting drinks of choice.
The name on the tip of everyone’s tongue this year is Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s beautiful betrothed and an American former-actress to boot. Because Markle was famous prior to her engagement, she gave decidedly down-to-earth interviews, including one with The New Potato where she said, “God, do I love wine-a beautiful full red or a crisp white. But if it’s cocktails, I love a spicy tequila cocktail, Negroni or good scotch (neat).” Markle also named her former lifestyle website, The Tig , after Tignanello red wine. If that wasn’t enough to make her your new drinking hero, Markle also once told Delish , “French fries and vino are my vices,” going on to say that she’d “forgo a gooey, chocolate dessert for a ‘big, beautiful red’ just about any day. … In the summer, though, when I’m out with my friends, it’s rosé all day.” A future duchess after our own hearts.
The Duchess of Cornwall is said to be a big fan of wine, having once said she was “brought up as a child drinking wine like the French.” But Camilla was also rumored to have exasperatedly said, “I really need a Gin & Tonic ” after exiting a conversation with Prince William over the nature of her relationship with his father, Prince Charles, back in 1998.
Queen Elizabeth II gets her proclivity for Dubonnet from her mum. The late Queen Mother was much heavier a drinker than her husband King George VI, who didn’t imbibe much during wartime due to nationwide rations and his unfortunate love for cigarettes instead. Elizabeth would allegedly start at noon with a cocktail that was one part gin and two parts Dubonnet, garnished with a lemon or orange twist (some people actually refer to the Dubonnet Cocktail as the Queen Mother Cocktail). Then at lunch, she would drink red wine and a glass of port after the meal. A biographer wrote that if people asked for water, Elizabeth would ask, “How can you not have wine with your meal?” At around 6 p.m., the Queen Mother would enjoy a Martini , and at dinner she would have some Veuve Clicquot. Other drinking-related quotes attributed to her include: “I couldn’t get through all my engagements without a little something,” and, after being told by a host that they heard she liked gin, “I hadn’t realized I enjoyed that reputation. But as I do, perhaps you could make it a large one.”
Princess Margaret is enjoying a posthumous fan obsession, thanks to her fiery, scene-stealing portrayal in The Crown. The show never depicts Margaret without a cigarette in hand, but the princess loved scotch almost as dearly. Her favorite drinks were neat scotch with a drop of water and a Scotch & Soda , both made with The Famous Grouse and Highland Spring mineral water. Her staff instructed those within her circles to always keep bottles of both on hand, in case she stopped by for an informal visit. A staff member claimed that “if you didn’t serve Famous Grouse, she could identify exactly what was in its place.” Allegedly Princess Margaret even asked for the scotch while visiting The Macallan distillery in the 1980s. A decanter of The Famous Grouse was always present at Margaret’s apartment, and though she was “always a delight,” according to a friend , “there could be unpleasantness with staff if her glass wasn’t kept full or if the ice melted. That was one of her tiny weaknesses.” Today, the royal family continues to support the whisky brand; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge opened The Famous Grouse Experience at the Glenturret distillery in 2014.
The late, beloved Princess of Wales wasn’t much for imbibing; she opted to skip the booze in favor of maintaining her iconic radiant skin. But when she did drink, she preferred something light, like chilled white wine, Champagne or a peachy Bellini. She is said to have ordered a Bellini on her infamous night out on the town with Freddie Mercury when she disguised herself as a man.