By Marisa Upson on September 27, 2023
According to The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, the Cocktail Renaissance started around 2004. It marked the revival of the art of mixing drinks. While some in the industry stand firm that the art never died, the younger generations hadn’t quite embraced the cocktail culture.
Now, the term is craft cocktails, drinks with complex flavors, and unique ingredients, and created by those unafraid of fire and ice. And let’s not forget the mocktail, a nonalcoholic beverage with many of the same fresh ingredients and wellness spins.
So, how do you embrace this growing demand for specialty non-alcoholic drinks if space is limited and the nearest mixologist is 100 miles away? That’s where Botrista comes in—a brand making craft beverages accessible through the power of technology.
The Problem – Restaurants are losing profits from declining soda sales and consumers are looking for healthier craft drinks. The recent labor shortage and training make menu expansion hard.
The Opportunity – Increase beverage sales and profitability with easy operations, consistency in quality, and recipe costs.
What Is Botrista?
Botrista is an automated DrinkBot with patented blending technology, patented algorithmic dispensing technology, and sugar-level customization. Did someone say premium drinks from the footprint of a fountain machine and a full bar in 4 square feet? Yes, yes they did.
You’re probably wondering what you can make from this autopilot beverage station. The better question would be, what can’t you make? Your guests have the choice of expertly crafted cocktails made with natural ingredients, aqua fresca, and plant-based oat milk drinks.
A few of the top sellers in these categories include passion fruit vodka, watermelon peach, and butter salted caramel. Global-flavored teas, natural lemonades, coffees, smoothies, energy drinks, frappes, and boba tea with its chewy tapioca pearls are a few of the remarkable options.
And, for the eco-friendly, health-conscious, it gets even better. They source their tropical fruits from the highest-quality farms around the world. Tropical fruits, natural sweeteners, plant-based milk products, herbs, and vitamins are combined and packaged in a plug-and-poor system, minimizing waste.
Who Came Up With This Incredible Technology?
And, more importantly, why didn’t I? The mastermind behind Botrista DrinkBot is Sean Hsu, a serial inventor and entrepreneur. His inspiration came from watching staff hurriedly making coffee and milk teas at a busy café. The line grew longer, and guests turned to water when they couldn’t find a drink that interested them. With a background in robotics and experience in liquid dispensing at Tesla, Hsu was ideally suited to find a way to automate the process, only on a much grander scale.
Botrista’s Director of Culinary Development and the guide behind the ingredient compositions is Rex Huang, a one-time Chef de Cuisine at Ninebark Napa and the head of the restaurant and bar at two-Michelin-starred Atera in New York City.
