An electric appliance for making cocktails

[jsmeeker]

While surfing through Amazon, I stumbled upon something that I had never seen before. There are all sorts of specialty appliances out there these days. Something just to heat frozen pizzas. An appliance to make iced tea. Electric egg poachers.

The bar has been pretty safe. Maybe the worst thing I have seen is a frozen margarita machine. Well, I have found something that takes the crown of useless appliances for the bar.

The The Waring Professional Electric Martini Machine

It's $100.

Yup.

One hundred US Dollars. (and that's the sale price)

Edited November 25, 2007 by jsmeeker (log)

[Marlene]

OK. I confess. I have the margaritaville maker and we love it. We used it endlessly this past summer. I think the martini shaker thing is cool. Not needed, but kinda fun anyway.

[eas]

ok, I confess too, I was eying this Fisher Scientific to step up my stirring at home...but not for martinis

https://www.fishersci.com/wps/portal/!u...g=&fromSearch=Y

Edited November 25, 2007 by eas (log)

[Rebecca263]

I clicked on the link for that martini maker. I notice that no one has written a customer review and there are no markings that anyone has bought one.

Could that be an 'Easter Egg'--- you know, a little joke listing?

Edited November 25, 2007 by Rebecca263 (log)

[Pierogi]

I clicked on the link for that martini maker. I notice that no one has written a customer review and there are no markings that anyone has bought one.

Could that be an 'Easter Egg'--- you know, a little joke listing?

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Nope, I've seen 'em in other catalogs as well, maybe even Williams-Sonoma. And for sure Linen's 'N' Things has them. While they certainly *are* a joke, they are being marketed quite seriously.

I dunno. One of the many joys of my perfectly made martinis is the sound of the ice hitting the sides of the shaker, and that veil of coldness that develops along the sides. But then, I like to chop things with knives too, and not in a food processor. I guess I'm just weird that way.

[KatieLoeb]

Wow.

That's just amazing. Whodathunk such a thing was necessary. You'd have to be pretty lazy to need a gizmo to stir or shake for you. Not like it's that much effort for your average able bodied person...

Edited November 25, 2007 by KatieLoeb (log)

[cocktailgeek]

Wow. 

That's just amazing.  Whodathunk such a thing was necessary.  You'd have to be pretty lazy to need a gizmo to stir or shake for you.  Not like it's that much effort for your average able bodied person...

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This is just the thing for those people who circle the parking lot to find the closest possible parking space to the front door... of the gym.

[HungryChris]

Although I must confess to never having had a martini, I'm neither shaken nor stirred by this gyzmo.

HC

[prasantrin]

This is just the thing for those people who circle the parking lot to find the closest possible parking space to the front door... of the gym.

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Some people have severe knee or hip joint problems that make walking (and therefore using much of the equipment at a gym other than the pool) very difficult, and parking right in front is sometimes a necessity for those people.

Just as, perhaps, someone with severe carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, or rotator cuff problems may not be able to grip and shake a cocktail shaker, so this kind of tool might be helpful.

I'm stretching on that one, but I'm quite serious about the gym thing.

Edited November 25, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

I love to watch someone who knows what they are doing mix a drink ..especially since it is not my best skill that is for sure..... I wouldn't get the same pleasure watching that machine ..wow talk about taking the fun out of a cocktail

and hey at 99 bucks it is marked down 47% whoo hoo for that one ...

even my sister who is not into any form of work when it comes to eating or drinking would scoff at this ..she loves to make a martini and calls it "dancing with good gin"

Edited November 25, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[lancastermike]

We were at Linens and Things the other day. I saw one of these gadgets on display and it stopped me dead in my tracks. For a few seconds I was literally speechless. Maggie saw the stunned look on my face and brought me back to reality.

Please don't get me one of these for a Christmas gift. Many should be available at next summers yard sales at a big markdown

[slkinsey]

I could see the point of a bar that might serve multiple dozens of Ramos Fizzes during weekend brunch might invest in a paint shaker modified for cocktail shakers. But, this contraption would hardly stand up to such use. I also have my doubts as to how well the appliance could really shake a cocktail.

As for prasantrin's hypothetical example of a cocktailian with such debilitating carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, or rotator cuff problems that shaking was impossible, I'd suggest that handing the shaker to a friend would be a better solution. Failing that, I'd stick to stirred cocktails (most traditionally shaken cocktails that do not include egg or cream turn out reasonably well if stirred). And, actually, even stirring is not strictly required. I've done Martinis using cracked ice where I've simply let the spirits sit on the ice for a little while, given it a single stir and strained into the glass.

[Splificator]

This is just an update of the electric drink mixers they used to have in the 1930s (I belive Waring made those, too). Those weren't too dopey for the famed Floridita in Havana, which had several, and if Constantino (hands down one of the greatest bartender/mixologists in the history of the profession) thought there was some utility to it....

That said, I'm in no rush.

[cramper]

As a cocktail consumer advocate I consider it my duty to acquire and test one of these wondrous inventions but the Waring people haven't responded to my inquiry yet.

I think it would be even greater if it came with liquid 'martini mix' that you could just add with ice into the mixer.

In the meantime, I'm saving up for the winner of the current cocktail robotics competition.

The last thing I want to do when preparing cocktails is burn calories.

[jmfangio]

Saw one today at Sur La Table. Maybe, just maybe, if it's powerful enough it would be good for drinks like Ramos Gin Fizzes, so you can mix up a few without throwing your shoulder out. But it seems to me that you can actually stir or shake your cocktail yourself in far less time than it would take to put that contraption together.

That set, I would love one of these Stevens Electric Mixers

Edited November 25, 2007 by jmfangio (log)

[jsmeeker]

My guess is that the "shake" mode is probably a more aggressive/faster stir. I don't see how it could possibly shake something, like the aforementioned paint can shaker machine.

[bostonapothecary]

My guess is that the "shake" mode is probably a more aggressive/faster stir.  I don't see how it could possibly shake something, like the aforementioned paint can shaker machine.

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i've used an art deco malt mixer to make a ramos. dry shake, add ice, malt mix... turns 90 seconds of shaking into 15 seconds of electric stirring... we have one free outlet behind the bar so we keep it back there and sub it out for a hot plate in the winter... you can make a merangue in seconds to put together a drink like leo engel's knickebein...

great for drinks like the peanut malt flip... ramos... "mailard fizz" or any attempts to work with egg when you have a massively busy bar or potential ass kicker of a service bar...

[lostmyshape]

huh... didn't know i needed one of those.

i'd only buy it if it did the dishes, too.

however, i really thought that this thread would be about the crazy obsession some people have over cocktail makin' robots -- Roboexotica

Edited November 27, 2007 by lostmyshape (log)

[fatdeko]

I'm a less ambivalent about the Waring WM007, in fact I'm kind of intrigued.

Like Dave I kind of see it as part of the progression of shaking tech. There's some turn of the century patent and catalog illustrations of a floor standing cocktail shaking contraption that was powered by a hand crank. (Dale has a picture of it in his book). And I hate the thought of parting with my ca. 1940 "Chron-Master Mix-All".

Recently I witnessed the latest gizmo from Guinness that uses sonic waves to agitate a special "flat" bottled Guinness into the frothy, luscious, only-available-on-draught texture of the "real" thing. So looking at the architecture of the Waring, I could'nt help but wonder if the WM007 uses sonic waves as the mixing medium. It probably doesn't, but what if it did?

While the first Waring blenders gave us slushy drinks ala the Pina Colada and the Chron-master style Malted mixers were the tools of choice for many of the Tiki masters, what would the Eben Klemms of the world do with a sonic mixer?

Just sayin'

myers

Edited November 30, 2007 by fatdeko (log)

[slkinsey]

Dude. How many cases of Malacca do you have back there? You bastard!

[fatdeko]

Dude.  How many cases of Malacca do you have back there?  You bastard! 

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How I wish it were true! Actually it's a trick of a bad photographic angle. In reality what you see are the remnants of 2 sleeves of Malacca nips that are sitting on the bar just behind the mixer. I might have 20 left and I use them (almost) only for Pink Gins.

But a floor stack of Malacca cases...now that's the stuff that dreams are made of.

myers

[cocktailgeek]

Dude.  How many cases of Malacca do you have back there?  You bastard! 

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How I wish it were true! Actually it's a trick of a bad photographic angle. In reality what you see are the remnants of 2 sleeves of Malacca nips that are sitting on the bar just behind the mixer. I might have 20 left and I use them (almost) only for Pink Gins.

But a floor stack of Malacca cases...now that's the stuff that dreams are made of.

myers

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While touring the 209 gin distillery here in SF, I peeked into a side room whose door was ajar and spied dozens of bottles of Malacca...

[slkinsey]

I'm on my way right now. I'll bring the grappling hook and lock picks if you can lay in an appropriate supply of ski masks and black jumpsuits.

[arctan]

Just as, perhaps, someone with severe carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, or rotator cuff problems may not be able to grip and shake a cocktail shaker, so this kind of tool might be helpful.

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i could certainly see this as a solution for people with those problems. of course, i'm sure that was not the market that the manufacture had in mind.

[KatieLoeb]

...I could see the point of a bar that might serve multiple dozens of Ramos Fizzes during weekend brunch might invest in a paint shaker modified for cocktail shakers...

←

How about a

instead? I just saw one of these contraptions in Chinatown here in Philly for the first time. I still don't really like bubble tea (the bubbles texture is too mucoid for my taste) but this could definitely make Ramos Gin Fizzes a hell of a lot easier on the arm. You could probably float a small child on the head of foam you'd create with mechanical help. Especially if you did the dry shake of the egg whites with a Hawthorne spring first.