The Spoon is at the Housewares Show in Chicago this week and is stopping by some of the booths at the Smart Home Pavilion to see what the companies have brewing.
At my first stop I visited with Joe Behm, CEO of Behmor, a maker of high quality coffee brewers and roasters for specialty coffee connoisseurs. Back in October, Behmor was the first coffee maker manufacturer to announce Alexa integration and, according to Behm, the Alexa integration will roll out in about 30 days.
Behm also disclosed some other news: the company expects to drop the price on their connected brewer from $299 to $199 from mid-April onward.
“That price point is going to change the dynamic,” said Behm. “Once you drop below $200, then they (the consumer) start to see the benefit.” Behm explained that the Behmor Connected Brewer is the only certified “Gold Cup” connected brewing machine on the market today. Gold Cup certification is a designation overseen by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA).
In a way, Behm sees his connected coffee maker as having a similar benefit to that of sous vide circulators. Much like a sous vide circulator adds greater precision to the cooking process, he believes his connected brewer can more easily bring greater precision and control to the coffee brewing process by enabling the user to tailor the brew with the machine’s app that highlights the specific flavor notes and, by adjusting the brewing temperature slightly, creating different coffee profiles from the same coffee.
You can hear our interview with Behm by clicking play above.