The Best Home Cocktail Machines--and Whether You Need One

Automatic cocktail machines are silly, but also kind of fun. Here's how to choose between the Bartesian and Barsys devices. The machine on my kitchen table is a holy device, if your definition of "holy" is that it looks like a glowing halo and it's filled with spirits. The machine has taken up a task I consider sacred: making me a cocktail. In advance of holiday party season, I have been testing a pair of devices that promise an indulgent future, a life where machines can make you a passable Old Fashioned.