In doing research for the blog, I came across an advertising for the Margaritaville Mixed Drink Machine or MDM. After some discussions with the public relations agency, I was graciously offered one to review. It was perfect timing as our blog launch was right around the corner.

The MDM is an automated cocktail dispenser. It does all the mixing for you and allows you to pick one of 48 different cocktails. The machine has a full color LCD as well as a speaker for sound effects. MSRP is $399 but you can find it for $299 retail.

Out of the box, the machine is basically fully assembled. There is the main unit with various trays that remove for cleaning and four tanks with caps that dispense the drink ingredients.

Each tank holds one of four liquids; cranberry juice, sour mix, orange juice and alcohol. The alcohol can be tequila, vodka or rum. Your selection of which alcohol will determine which set of mixed drinks you have access to in the menu.

Set-up: Each tank is color coded. Fill each tank with the appropriate liquid, cap the tank and refrigerate overnight. The day of your event, over turn each tank into the color coded slot. Keep the caps on the tanks. Plug the machine in and power it up. The machine will confirm the tanks are inserted properly and ask which alcohol is in the booze tank. Confirm and you are in business with a nice round of applause. Compliment the MDM with a bucket of ice, scoop and cups.

The machine has a captain’s wheel that is used to select which drink you want to choose. It shows what ingredients go into the drink too. Two additional buttons on the machine allow for an extra shot of booze or an “I feel lucky” button which selects a random drink.

—–REVIEW—–

Pros: 

• More Time with Guests – While it can’t make every drink under the sun, it can make a lot of drinks to keep your guests entertained while you finish up some last minute party tasks. It even gives you time to actually hang out with your guests. During the time when guests are flooding into your party and you are greeting, cooking, hanging-up coats, etc, this is a huge helper. I think this is its key feature.
• Easy Clean-Up – While it might sound like an infomercial, the clean-up is really simple. There are a few trays in the main machine and each tank need a quick wash in the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher they are also easy to clean with soap and water.
• Tasty! – This was the most surprising. The drinks are good. They aren’t super high end craft cocktails but they are staples that have been around for years as well as some new ones. I would recommend using fresh juice. Sour mix is pricy to make on your own especially when you are trying to make 1.5 liters but it is well worth it.
• Lots of Fun – I’m a gadget geek and this is a hoot. You get to pick your own drink and watch the machine dispense it for you. It’s also a conversation starter.

Cons:

• Doesn’t keep the liquids cool – Solving this problem would probably ratchet up the price by a few hundred dollars. However, for long parties it does lead to some warm drinks. Once it is poured into ice it isn’t the worst thing ever.
• Annoying – I get what they were trying to do but it’s annoying. If you leave the machine for too long, it tries to draw you back in by spinning the wheel and playing the sound effect. This doesn’t time out. It goes on until you run out of power. The good thing is you can turn this off. It’s not obvious so read the instructions.
• Pricey – $299 is a lot of money and could go toward hiring a bartender for a party. Granted you own this forever so it might workout in the long run.
• No virgin drinks – We burned through the alcohol pretty fast even without double shots. We wanted to start pouring some juice or better yet virgin cocktails to help sober up. This unfortunately isn’t an option. I would like to see this option in 2.0 and maybe an option to put soda in instead of booze.

Final word: Buy it. For the fact alone that you can spend more time with your guests is worth it. This would be a great registry item or shared purchase with roommates.