The Intel Developer Forum is coming to an end, meaning its execs get to go wild and show some of the oddball concepts under way at the tech giant. These include a processor so efficient it can pull all the energy it needs to run from a glass of red wine.
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Are you tired of being told when and where you can and cannot drink? Taking advantage of the fact that everyone carries around reusable water bottles these days, the BottleCamo blends right in. But instead of filling it with water, you unscrew the bottle, stash a brewskie inside, and don’t let any silly laws prevent you from downing a cold one when you want to.
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Would you buy a robotic drink maker from these men? I sure would. These are the creators of Monsieur, a robotic bartender that will squirt out a great margarita or a nice Manhattan in about a minute using Android, a bunch of pumps, and some booze.
Created by Barry Givens and Eric Williams and launching at Disrupt SF 2013, Monsieur allows you to select a drink – it includes pre-designed recipes and you can download “packs” that add different types of drinks to the mix – and the machine does the rest. Nozzles squirt out very specific amounts of plonk and mixers and your drink is ready. Every drink is exactly the same and, barring a bit of shaking, they’re ready to drink.
“Bartending and drink service have not been innovated in centuries,” said Givens. “There have been a couple attempts to create machines that pour cocktails but they failed to make a product that is intelligent, fun and elegant.”
Givens and Williams met at Georgia Tech. Givens has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and Williams has a Master’s in CS. He worked for Panasonic and Siemens before he began in on Monsieur. Angel investor Paul Judge, cofounder of Pindrop and VP at Barracuda, handed the team a bit of funding after seeing an early prototype.
Monsieur was born when Givens ended up waiting for an hour for a cocktail. “In frustration I asked why there wasn’t a machine to just make my drink. After leaving dinner that night, I started reading more about bartending and soon enrolled in bartending school,” he said. Early prototypes worked but didn’t have enough pizazz.
The team has deployed beta units at restaurants and bars in Atlanta and they’re working on partnerships with drink brands and sports arenas. They see this as sort of a “bartender in a box” that staff can roll into a room and let users order drinks without having staff on hand. The system maintains a log of what was served and the venue can ring up a bill at the end of the night. You can even change the strength of the drink from “regular” to “boss.” I had a “boss” drink when I tested the machine and it was, without a doubt, pretty darn good.
In short, it beats a bottle of vodka in a bucket.
“Our drinks taste great, people love using Monsieur and it helps businesses be more profitable,” said Givens. Plus who doesn’t want a robotic drinks butler named Monsieur? The team could put the box in a pair of spats and give it a pencil-thin mustache and you’ve got a real winner.
Do you want a beer, or do you want a cocktail? The answer is yes. You want both. Right now. Simultaneously. In a single glass.
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As the name suggests, there are really only two components to a gin and tonic (unless you count the lime), which means only two ways to screw it up. It’s easy enough to avoid a bad gin. Bad tonic water, though, is the rule, not the exception. Look at a label and you’ll see cheap high-fructose corn syrup is the first ingredient in almost all of them. There’s a better way.
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If you’ve been to an even moderately progressive bar in the last five years you’ve undoubtedly seen a Sazarac on the menu. Rye whiskey, Peychaud’s Bitters, simple syrup, and an absinthe wash. Wait, what the hell is an absinthe wash? Trust us, you want to know.
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You can fit an awful lot of information into the classic Periodic Table—and here, Brazil-based designer and illustrator mayra.artes has taken advantage of it to communicate the contents of… booze.
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If you need a little something in the evening to take the edge off of a hectic day at work, just stop and imagine what your toddler has to go through. Constant diaper changes, being force fed pureed crap at every meal, and pre-arranged playdates with whiny, crying kids they can’t escape. If a martini helps you relax, there’s no reason to believe this adorable martini glass rattle wouldn’t do the same for your kids.
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Did you have a few too many cookouts this summer, and maybe pack on a few too many pounds? Here’s a refresher on some healthy booze to get you drunk while keeping you trim.
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Summer is waning, but remains a punishing, sticky mess. So here’s a re-introduction to an old friend, alcoholic ice cream, which originally ran November 18, 2011.
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