While automated beverage appliances have provided countless numbers of families with the benefit of crafting personal drinks from the comfort of their home, one critical fault remains: the kitchen is getting crowded. Fret not, 21st century appliance adopters, because General Electric and the automated beverage brand Keurig just unveiled the Beverage Center — i.e., the perfect solution to the problem of diminishing counter space.
In essence, the Beverage Center does everything any beverage appliance does, brewing coffee, whipping up a Coca Cola, or blending a smoothie all in one convenient package. Conceptually built directly into a wall like an oven, this GE and Keurig collaboration would be just over two feet wide and stand a foot and a half tall. Like the many Keurig-powered machines before it, owners would have the ability to craft their desired drink by simply inserting a beverage pod. For smoothies, users would need to just secure a companion blender to its intended attachment area, add fruit or vegetables, and blend.
“We know that cooking is a big part of making a meal, and we have appliances that do this very well. But creating beverages is also part of the dining experience,” said Chris Bissig, GE Appliance’s manager of Concept and Brand Development, to Tech Insider. “We wanted to stretch beverage creation to imagine a stand-alone appliance that could do much more.”
Though the appliance only exists currently as a working prototype, GE still has the ability to show off much of what the Beverage Center can do. As mentioned above, brewing coffee and tea, carbonating soda, and blending smoothies are its biggest claims to fame. Furthermore, future owners would not only be able to whip up a cup of coffee whenever they see fit, but they’d also be able to preset the machine to dispense coffee at certain times (i.e. in the morning when waking up).
Considering this exists as a pure concept at this point, both GE and Keurig remain mum on when they plan to manufacture this futuristic appliance and how much it might cost. Despite this lack of information, one could reasonably assume the two wouldn’t bother to make such a commotion with a concept — one as promising as the Beverage Center, no less — without some intention of bringing it to market in the near future.
