$11,000 Pot of Coffee Made by Robots

Now seeing a machine in your local cafe that retails for upwards of $10,000 is not an unusual thing at all.  And machines come in all types of ultra-modern or retro-futurist styles that are indeed interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but at the end of the day, it’s still an espresso machine and it works the same as all the others.  However since the Clover appeared a few years ago (and was immediately purchased by Starbucks), a few different machine prototypes have been popping up at tradeshows and across the internet that mold science, design and innovation into one interesting coffee brewing machine.

The Blossom One is pretty much a robot.  This machine allows for an amazing amount of control and consistency, and yet can be ultra user and beginner friendly.  The Blossom One allows the user to pre-program coffee profiles in to the machine, download new recipes straight to the machine via its built in wifi and web app, and of course, with that comes the ability to control it from a mobile device, because everything needs to be controlled by an iPhone.  The final product will also have a QR code scanner to load a recipe based on the code.  This scares me, only because its so close to a Keurig (look it up if haven’t been to Canadian Tire lately and don’t know what it is, but I’m not linking to that crap).  Its kind of like realizing that well made clogs, look kind of  like crocs.  You  know its good, but you’re embarrassed because it looks like you might be an idiot to people who don’t know.  The folks at Dear Coffee, I Love You make a good point saying that the Blossom One still has manual agitation and pressing, so yes a lot of room for inconsistency still exists.  And I’ll agree with them, it may be very similar to an Aeropress ( and an Aeropress is $11,089 cheaper ).  Check out their video of the robot in action.

The next future machine out there right now is the aptly titled Steampunk from Alpha Dominche.  Similar to the Blossom One, lots of control is available to the operator through a simple touch screen, and not on your iPad.  Because it is a little more in the the realm of a siphon brewer, or a vac pot, there is no manual agitation or manual pressing, perhaps providing a little more consistency than the Blossom.  And the ability to  brew four different beverages at the same time sure helps with the operator’s experience.

Plus, the thing looks super cool.  The Steampunk name really fits quite well because it reminds me of an 1800’s Royal Balance Brewer with a modern refit.  If you need some more info Coffee Geek has a lot more on the Steampunk here.  And you should look at their video as well.

Alpha Dominche from Alpha Dominche on Vimeo.

And just because we’re all about innovation here at C+C, I’ll leave you with this video, if you ever thought about doing coke but only wanted the same kind of pick me as a cup of coffee.