I Tried Ice Cream, Stir Fry, Beer and Cocktails, all Made by Machines at CES '24
Here's what I thought of all the robot-made eats and drinks from the world's largest tech expo.
If you came to CES 2024 hungry, you were in luck. There was no shortage of robots on the showroom floor whipping up tasty eats and drinks. Brands at the consumer tech expo were touting the robots with a little something for everyone.
The presence of AI-powered ovens, intelligent grills and smart cocktail machines has significantly increased at CES in recent years. The 2024 convention saw several additions to the lineup of smart kitchen gadgets and culinary bots.
But how does the food and drink taste?
Read more: Biggest Trends of CES 2024: AI, Transparent Screens and Off-Grid Tech to Power Your Home
From homemade ice cream in 2 minutes, to push-button ramen and fresh cocktails in a flash, I tried everything I could get my hands on at this year's electronics show in Las Vegas. These are the best (and worst) foods and drinks made by robots at CES 2024, ranked.
9. Yo-Kai, prime beef pho
Yo-Kai is an autonomous restaurant that creates hot orders of pan-Asian food from scratch, all within the confines of a single vending machine-size unit. The Yo-Kai machine cooks and dispenses bowls of hot ramen, pho and udon made from fresh ingredients in 90 seconds. The Japanese food-technology company has engineered a smaller, countertop version too, though it's not quite ready for consumer sale.
I tried three of Yo-Kai's offerings at CES, so the brand appears multiple times on my list. The beef in the prime beef pho was my least favorite, and the meat tasted anything but prime -- though the pho broth and floating rice cakes were excellent. The dish was perfectly edible, but still placed last on my list of CES' robot-made eats.
8. iGulu, IPA
iGulu is a sleek and smart at-home brewer that simplifies the beer-making process. Just fill the brewing chamber with water, add four to five ingredients when the system tells you. About two weeks later, you'll have 40 liters of freshly made beer in a self-cooling kegerator.
The IPA I sampled at CES had a satisfying flavor profile but lacked the carbonation I crave in a hoppy ale.
7. Sweet Robo, soft serve ice cream
This is one of two ice cream robots on the list. The massive Ice Cream Robot is made for movie theaters, amusement parks and malls, but one was planted at CES churning portions of soft serve to hungry passersby. The machine makes swirls of fresh vanilla, chocolate or pistachio in less than 2 minutes. It even lets you choose toppings such as strawberry sauce or sprinkles.
The soft serve I slurped was perfectly fine. It reminded me of, well, most of the soft serve I've had. Creamy, not too sweet, with no corn syrup taste. I would gladly eat it again and watching it being made was fun, but the ice cream itself wasn't unique or memorable.
6. Yo-Kai, chocolate boba tea
Full disclosure, I'm not a big fan of pearl tea, so the placement of this tasting should be taken with a grain of salt. The tapioca balls, the only thing I like about boba, were chewy, toothsome and delicious. A few colleagues of mine who do like boba told me it was great.
5. TechMagic, chicken stir-fry
This industrial stir-fry machine intended to help restaurants streamline their kitchens, nabbed a lot of attention in the food tech section of CES. I don't think I was supposed to taste this one, but someone left a bowl of piping-hot stir fry unattended and I waltzed away with it like a common thief.
The chicken was tender, the vegetables were properly cooked and the teriyaki sauce was delicate and flavorful. All in all, a pretty solid stir-fry, made autonomously in minutes.
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See all photos4. ColdSnap ice cream, multiple flavors
ColdSnap is still working its way through the final stages of engineering, but it'll be rolling out to restaurant partners this year and retail stores in 2025. Of the two robot ice cream makers I tried, ColdSnap -- which turns shelf-stable cans into smooth and delicious ice cream in two minutes -- was the clear winner.
I tasted ColdSnap's instant vanilla, chocolate and coffee. (And, yes, the people handing out ice cream at the booth are definitely sick of me). All of the flavors tasted like they were made with fresh cream and natural flavors with no cheap sweeteners. Even ColdSnap's vegan chocolate ice cream made with oat milk was a hit.
3. Barsys, madras cocktail
Barsys is a more craft version of the original robot cocktail maker, Bartesian. While Bartesian mixes premade cocktail pods with booze, Barsys makes them from scratch. There are six 1-liter reservoirs in which one can put juices, liquors and other ingredients.
An integrated app lets you know which cocktails are possible with whatever's in your machine and then whips one up with the push of a button. The measured drink is dispensed into a special plastic glass below with built-in paddles that mix the cocktail automatically before you serve it up or over ice.
I had low expectations for this one, but the Barsys machine delivered a bright and balanced madras -- vodka, cranberry and orange -- that I happily drank.
2. iGulu, Bavarian wheat beer
iGulu's Bavarian wheat beer was much better than the mostly flat IPA. As you can see, it had a nice head, good carbonation and plenty of classic wheat beer notes like citrus and clove.
1. Yo-Kai, pork tonkotsu ramen
While Yo-Kai's beef pho didn't impress, the 90-second pork tonkotsu ramen was the best robot dish I tried all of CES. The pork was melt-in-the-mouth tender and the miso-based broth was an umami-bomb of the best sort. I will gladly surrender to the robots if they promise to make this ramen for me every day.
See what else was cooking at CES 2024 in our full coverage of the tech expo.