mixologist – Backerjack

Somabar intelligent bartender packs mixology into a box

A cocktail is one of those things that is easy to enjoy, but a challenge to create well. Precisely mixing the right ingredients is of utmost importance, but without practice the experience can quickly become a mess or result in less than stellar flavor. For many people, this ultimately relegates the cocktail to a luxury that can only be enjoyed at a bar, and never at home.

Somabar is a Wi-Fi enabled, intelligent bartender capable of creating perfectly mixed cocktails in under five seconds, finally bringing the mixologist home. Dishwasher-safe Soma Pods can be easily connected to it and filled with a user’s favorite ingredients, even boasting the ability to infuse bitters. Somabar thoroughly measures and mixes all ingredients, and the creations that result can be altered to a user’s preference using the companion iOS and Android app. In addition, users can create their favorite cocktails and share them to the Somabar community. The $399 Somabar is slated for a July 2015 delivery provided the campaign reaches its $50,000 goal.

The world of cocktails and mixed drinks can be overwhelming. Products like the Somabar are trying to make delicious beverages much more accessible by offering platforms that pretty much do it for you. Others like the B4RM4N and Connected Ozz also help users make cocktails but do so while teaching how to create them as well. Although Somabar won’t be teaching users anything, it makes up for it with its ease of use and dead simple operation.

Although a bartender’s tricks and talents can seem pretty easy to us inebriated folk, the truth is that it takes quite a long time to perfect the skills necessary to mix drinks that won’t make us grimace while we sip them. Worse yet, when most of us try our hand at making a drink or two for family or friends, the end result is a drink that doesn’t look great and the realization that we really don’t know what we’re doing at all.

To become presentable to the public again, you could buy a bunch of books or plunk down the cash for a mixology course, or you could grab a B4RM4N and let it do all the work. The device is a modern mixologist in a three-piece shaker, comprised of a stainless steel that encloses a Bluetooth LE antenna, an accelerometer, and LED lights all in a one, high-tech package. Pair it with your smartphone, select a recipe with the B4rm4m companion app, the number of servings, and it will lead you step by step in the process of creating the perfect pour. It even tells you how long to pour ingredients and shake them all together. With over 110 recipes and counting, there will never be a lack of ideas. You can even have the app suggest recipes to you based on what’s currently in your fridge, and if that egg vodka mint actually ends up tasting good, you can share it with the B4rm4m community so that anyone can make it. The B4rm4m is currently going for an early bird price of $99, jumping up to $199 upon release. Backers can expect theirs in July 2015 if the campaign achieves it funding goal of $100,000.

The similarly titled Barman is a campaign in the past that is very similar to the B4RM4N. Both have similar features, but the B4RM4N goes about things in a more compact way, while the Barman uses an external scale to help you create your drink. All in all, the B4RM4N is a svelte device that will look good in many scenarios and its social features make it not only useful but very fun, too.