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There are two things in this world that were created to make our lives easier: robots and alcohol. Now it is time to finally bring them together.
Two LA entrepreneurs have created Somabar, a mixologist robot that pours you the perfect drink every time with the touch of a button.
The boozy cousin of the Keurig comes with 750ml Soma Pods to house all your preferred liquors and mixers. Once the drink is selected, the system pours you a crafted cocktail within five seconds.
Drinks can be customized with levels of strength and ingredients to be saved into the user’s preferences on the app. Recipes can then be shared on Facebook and Twitter or sent to another user.
“We are really building out the community sharing aspect within the app,” cofounder Dylan Purcell said. “A user in Korea can upload a local cocktail and a user in LA can download that and create it."
The idea generated a lot of buzz on Kickstarter, raising over $300,000 and is in the early stage of production and Purcell was inspired by personal experience.
“The idea was born out of frustration and inspiration,” Purcell said. “ We wanted to be able to make craft cocktails at home and not be totally lost in the cocktail world. We were inspired by a Japanese technology we saw dispensing premade Jack and cokes and we wanted to bring that to the consumer in America.”
With remote offices in Beverly Hills, Purcell and co-founder Ammar Jangbarwala are currently in Hong Kong overseeing the production of Somabar. They are working with the design team responsible for FitBit and the app team behind Beats by Dre to produce a sleek system that will fit on the average kitchen counter.
The product currently costs $429 to preorder but will rise as soon as the product actually hits the shelves.
Somabar received a lot of feedback from its Kickstarter backers and Purcell has been able to implement many of the ideas. They have added in a flush-out system to eliminate any lingering drink residue as well as a mini-Soma Pod for things like bitters or simple syrup. Although there is no built in refrigeration system yet, the product will continue to evolve with feedback.
“The benefit of the app is that it allows us to evolve the tech without having to evolve the hardware,” Purcell said. “We want the users and backers to dictate the future of Somabar and we’re excited to see what people can come up with.”
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