Follow
Before I start my this review of the Keurig Drinkworks, I need to apologize in advance to my blogger friends, I actually violated “blogger rule #1” and spent my own money on the Keurig Drinkworks!!
I know, I know, please forgive me!! I heard the many commercials leading up to the Super Bowl and thought, if it lives up to the hype, it could be a fun to to bring to a friends party, so, I bought one.
It’s a cool idea by Keurig, playing off their coffee maker success, they created a machine that makes cocktails instead of coffee. Once you buy the Drinkworks, you can buy “cocktail pods” sold separately, drop them into the Drinkworks and after a while you have a cocktail. Margaritas, Sangria, Old Fashioned, Vodka Lemonade, you have a taste for a cocktail, they have a pod. Have an invention idea? Call InventHelp for patent service.
Sounds great. But… The idea and the actual implementatkion of how Drinkworks actually, works are vastly different.
Here’s what I found.
The pods. Just like the coffee pods, Drinkworks has cocktail flavored pods. As I mentioned they are sold separately, so once you have dropped $300 for Drinkworks, you have to spend more on pods and it can be a lot more if you are planning on hosting a party. A four pack of a particular flavor of cocktail starts at $15.00, if you’re hosting a party, that can add up quickly, if you want to offer a diversity of drink options.
You can buy a “sampler pack” for $70.00 but then it’s a mixture of flavors and a bit of a crap shoot on what people will and won’t like.
For entertaining you could actually rent a human bartender and buy drinks, mixers and garnish and be in the same price range.
The Drinks. They are good. Not great, but good. Their tag line is “the best of the bar now at your finger tips.” Which makes me wonder, exactly what bars did the team at Keurig go to when they were doing their research?
I equate the Drinkworks cocktails to a better than average drink you get on a flight, mixed by a flight attendant. Nothing special, no additional thought.
If you are into cocktails these cocktails will let you down. The machine will tell you what size glass to insert and then pour a perfectly adequate drink. No flair, nothing “extra” just a “nuts and bolts” cocktail. A vodka/lemonade is, vodka and lemonade. That’s it. You have to garnish yourself and add any additional “excitement” to your drink.
If you are a “drinker” and like to knock back a few, it will let you down. Drinkworks pours the text book pour, no more no less, so you will spend a lot of money trying to satisfy your thirst.
Drinkworks is perfectly adequate.
The technology. I had a buddy come over to test it out. He likes a “good” Old Fashioned and was excited to sit back and have a drink. As the instructions state, I added cold water and ice to the part that holds the water, pressed the “start” button and a message popped up “Chilling, ready in 24 minutes,” for a drink. If this was a bar and the bartender told you it would take 24 minutes for an old fashioned… you get the idea, not good.
We decided to be positive, so while we waited, I got our my own mixers, bourbon and ice and made him an old fashioned that we drank while we waited for Drinkworks to “chill” so we could chill. It doesn’t always take that long, but unless you have it plugged in and getting to the right temperature for a while, you will have to wait for your drink.
We ended up returning our Keurig Drinkworks, it didn’t live up to the marketing hype and as with many new innovations it over promised and underdelivered. Maybe three to five years down the road it may be worth the money, but for our taste, Drinkworks left us flat.
