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AI for Drinks: Cocktails, Coffee, Wine, Beer and Running a Bar

A few years ago a "smart" drink meant little more than a coffee maker with a timer. Today an app suggests a cocktail from what is on your shelf, tells you how to change the grind for your next espresso and reads a restaurant wine list from a photo. In bars AI tracks every pour, and in some coffee shops robots already make the drinks. Here is what actually works and how to choose a tool for your task: at home, as a barista or as a bartender.

All the tools in this article are collected in the "Drinks" subcategory of the "My Home" section of our catalog.

In short: where AI already helps with drinks

Cocktails at home: what to make from what you have

The most popular scenario is simple: you tell the app what you have, and it shows what you can make. Cocktail Builder shows every cocktail you can make from your bar for free and remembers what is in it. Mixel and Cocktail Flow sort recipes by what you have at hand, and Mixology also suggests ingredient substitutions and a shopping list.

If you want something new, AI generators can help. Mixologia invents a cocktail for your ingredients and mood and keeps a "My Bar" section. dr.inks has about a thousand recipes and creates your own to match your taste, and the Spanish-language GuIA del Cóctel offers an AI cocktail for your party theme.

For inspiration and technique there are guides and media: Difford's Guide with thousands of recipes, Liquor.com, PUNCH, Imbibe Magazine, VinePair, Kindred Cocktails and Cocktails Distilled. Developers will find TheCocktailDB useful, with its free API.

You can go further and automate the process itself. Barsys offers a smart cocktail maker, a shaker and a scale coaster, and the free Barsys AI app works even without a device. Bartesian makes cocktails from capsules, and MyBar from your own bottles; its case can be 3D printed. If you do not want to hunt for ingredients, there are delivered kits: Shaker & Spoon and Cocktail Courier.

Non-alcoholic drinks

A non-alcoholic drink can be interesting too. Sharbat has more than 500 recipes for mocktails, juices, tea, coffee and smoothies, and dr.inks has a separate section for mocktails and lemonades. Shaker & Spoon offers a zero-proof version of its kits. SodaStream carbonates water at home and shares mocktail recipes, Cirkul adds flavor to water, and Vitamix is for smoothies and juices. For fermented drinks there is Kombucha Kamp with kombucha and kefir recipes, and Teafinity identifies tea from a photo and times your steeping.

Coffee: an AI assistant for baristas

Dialing in espresso always takes a few tries. Now AI helps with that. Dial In logs dose, yield, time and taste and tells you which way to move the grind for the next shot. Pucky explains why your coffee turned out sour or bitter, and Extraction builds the next recipe from your best attempts. Coffee Notes offers settings from people with the same grinder and machine, and Beanconqueror connects Bluetooth scales and other devices.

Equipment is getting smarter too. Meticulous Espresso is a robotic espresso machine with roaster profiles. xBloom automates pour-over from bean to cup, and Decent Espresso and the open-source Gaggiuino project offer detailed pressure profiling. More familiar options include JURA, Terra Kaffe, La Marzocco, Ratio Coffee and Acaia scales.

For roasters there is Cropster with Roast AI, Roast Master with an AI coach, the open-source Artisan software and roasters from Aillio, IKAWA and Bellwether Coffee. Trade Coffee and Bottomless help you find coffee for your taste: the Bottomless scale orders a new bag by itself. You can learn the profession at Barista Hustle and the Specialty Coffee Association.

Wine: an AI sommelier in your pocket

Most often AI in wine helps with choosing. Sommo knows what is in your cellar and picks a bottle for dinner. VinoVoss finds wine from a plain-language description, Hello Vino suggests a bottle for a dish and an occasion, and VinoLens reads a photo of a wine list to help you choose in a restaurant. Vivino, Delectable, CorkAI and WineDiscovery scan labels. For collectors there is CellarTracker with AI recommendations and InVintory with 3D bottle finding.

For business AI works differently. Sommelier.bot adds an AI sommelier to a wine shop's website, Preferabli and Tastry model taste preferences, and InnoVint, vintrace and Commerce7 help wineries with production and sales. You can study with Wine Folly, WSET and the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas.

Beer: from homebrewing to the brewery

For homebrewers AI helps most with the recipe and fermentation. Brewfather recalculates recipe stats in real time and turns the recipe into a checklist with timers, while BeerSmith and Brewtarget are classic recipe programs. Tilt Hydrometer and iSpindel sensors send gravity and temperature, and Fermentrack and Brewblox control fermentation.

If you do not want to get into the details, you can choose an all-in-one machine: iGulu, Brewart, MiniBrew, Pinter or Grainfather. Breweries will find PLAATO with AI production analytics, Ekos, Breww and Arryved useful.

Beer lovers can use Sipstr, which predicts whether you will like a new beer, Brewzy with AI recommendations, and the Untappd and BeerAdvocate communities.

Whisky and other spirits

MaltIQ scans a shelf in a store or bar and suggests which bottle to try based on your taste. Whiskey ID recognizes whiskey, bourbon, gin, rum, brandy and vodka, and Uncasked estimates a bottle's market value. Distiller and Whiskybase are handy for tracking a collection.

Running a bar: inventory, pours and forecasts

In a bar money is often lost unnoticed: an extra pour, inaccurate counts, overpaying a supplier. AI services help you see it. WISK combines inventory and purchasing and forecasts sales using weather, events and holidays. Craftable automatically matches invoices to orders, and MarketMan and Apicbase automate counting and costing.

For fast inventory there are BinWise, Backbar, BevSpot, Bar-i and Partender. BarVision and Berg Liquor Controls control pours, and iPourIt and PourMyBeer systems let guests pour for themselves. SevenRooms manages reservations and tables with AI, and Provi simplifies ordering from distributors. You can learn bartending at BarSmarts and the European Bartender School.

Robots behind the bar

Robot bartenders and robot baristas already work, though not everywhere. Makr Shakr robots mix cocktails, including on cruise ships. Artly and Cafe X run coffee shops where robots make the coffee, and Richtech Robotics built the ADAM robot barista. Doosan Robotics has shown a robot bartender that picks a cocktail based on a guest's facial expression. Botrista forecasts beverage demand and prepares drinks automatically, Blendid makes smoothies in an autonomous kiosk, and RobotAnno sells robotic kiosks for coffee, tea and cocktails.

How to choose a tool

Drink responsibly

AI will suggest a recipe, but it will not count how much you have already had. Remember that alcohol harms your health, and you must not drive after drinking. The non-alcoholic recipes in this article are just as tasty, so choose them when you need to stay sober.

Summary

AI already helps with drinks at every stage: from a cocktail idea at home to bar inventory and robots behind the counter. At home the most useful tools are recipe generators and espresso journals; for professionals, inventory, pour control and training. All the tools mentioned are collected in the "Drinks" subcategory of the "My Home" section of our catalog.