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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

coffee tech

A Look at the Terra Kaffe TK-01, a Grind & Brew Espresso Machine That’s Basically a Barista-in-a-Box

In 2016, I plopped down $300 bucks in hopes I’d soon be in possession of a coffee machine that both grinds whole coffee beans and brews a nice cup of espresso.

Almost three years later, I’ve yet to see my Spinn.

So not surprisingly last week when I tried a new do-everything coffee machine called the TK-01 – a machine that started shipping in May – it made me wish I’d waited and ordered it instead.

I sat down with Sahand Dilmaghani, the CEO of New York City based Terra Kaffe, to discuss his company’s first product as he made me a couple different espresso drinks.

So what does the TK-01 do? In short, pretty much everything. In fact, with its ability to not only make almost any espresso-based drink under the sun as well as inject frothy milk from an accompanying carafe, it’s not too far off to call the TK-01 a little barista-in-a-box.

What I liked the most about the TK-01 was the fairly straightforward touch screen interface that not only allowed you to easily pick your favorite drink and start a brew, but also let you to go one level deeper to optimize your specific drink. As you can see in the video below, when brewing an espresso you can choose coffee amount, set a specific temperature, opt between a single or double shot and even set the amount of crema you want (crema being the “Guinness” froth you get at the top of your drink).

Starting a Brew With The Terra Kaffe TK-01

Automating milk drinks and frothing is straightforward with the machine’s accompanying carafe that injects milk or milk substitutes into the drink. Dilmaghani told me the company also sells extra carafes (the machine comes with one standard) so users can switch between, say, 2% cow milk and soy milk.

The machine’s whole bean repository takes up to a 12 ounce bag of coffee, which are then ground using a conical burr grinder.  The TK-01 also comes with a grinder bypass in case the user wants to brew pre-ground coffee.

Interestingly, unlike so many of the new coffee machines coming to market, the TK-01 doesn’t have connectivity. According to Dilmaghani, that was a conscious design decision. “We decided to focus on one thing with our first product. Let’s get to market with this, and then let’s think about all those secondary features we want to build in.”

The TK-01 isn’t cheap for a home coffee machine at $745, but my guess is the primary customer is going to be coffee aficionados who wouldn’t mind paying more for what is essentially a barista robot. That said, I also think the product would make sense in small offices, though Dilmaghani said the product was designed for the home user (even while he told me about 20% of their orders so far have been small offices).

Bottom line: for those who want a grind & brew coffee machine that automates the brewing of espresso drinks in pretty much any configuration you want, the TK-01 could be the option for you. And, unlike the Spinn, the TK-01 is actually available today.

You can see a video walk-through of the device over on our Spoon Instagram story.

Weekly Spoon: The Intelligent Edge for Food, Specialty Coffee Expo Takeaways, Beyond Moves Beyond Tyson

This is the web version of our weekly newsletter. If you’d like to get the Weekly Spoon in your inbox, you can subscribe here. 

In a previous life, I wrote a lot about consumer broadband technology. As with any industry, the world of Internet and broadband has a lot of inside baseball conversation, and one of the evergreen themes the industry wrestles with is whether or not the intelligence in the network should reside centrally or at the edge.

In the 90s, the industry talked about network computing. At the beginning of this century, it was about fat vs. thin clients. Later we started talking about distributed and edge computing. While the terms change and technology evolves, this a conversation the world of tech has been having – and continues to have – ever since the network became the lynchpin to everything that we do.

Why am I talking about this in a food tech newsletter?

Because for the last couple of years, I’ve been thinking about how the power of technology – digitization, software, robotics – is reversing what has been a longstanding megatrend towards centralization of nearly everything in food. All along the food value chain – from big ag to food manufacturing to food retail – the primary focus of innovation up until the past decade has been towards a concentration of the means of production, distribution, culinary expertise and pretty much everything else to gain massive efficiencies of scale. If we’re going to feed a rapidly growing population, why not apply what we learned from Henry Ford and other titans of the industrial age to food?

But now, through the power of tech, we’re seeing a reversal of this century-long trend, where digitization, software, IoT, AI, and robotics are unleashing a massive reinvention of food systems and unleashing pockets of innovation and the power of creation everywhere you look.

What this means is we are seeing the great decentralization of food intelligence. In food retail, IT, robotics and digital powered micromanufacturing start to make its way to the different storefronts. In the restaurant space, we’re beginning to see automation and robotics to create hamburgers at the quality a Michelin star chef would make them, only without the chef. And at home, we’re witnessing the emergence of digital technologies used to grow food and prepare food and beverages beyond the capability of the home cook.

No matter what we want to call it – digitization of food, the intelligent edge for food (distributed fooding?) – I see it everywhere I look, including in this week’s news…

Photo: Garrett Oden.

One example of the intelligent edge of food is in coffee.  Our coffee tech expert Garrett Oden was at the Specialty Coffee Expo this past week and wrote about how Bellwether is moving coffee roasting from the roastery into the coffee shop with their tech-powered coffee roasters. Others like Bonaverde are creating multifunction coffee machines that give the home coffee user new capabilities through technology.

Distributed, digital powered intelligence.

And last week, we talked about robots bringing micromanufacturing to the grocery store aisles, fresh-tossed salads to vending machines and making amazing burgers in restaurants.  Sure, automation has been a big deal for in food for some time, but mostly in centralized environments. What’s different now is the advancement in software, sensors, and robotics to mimic essentially some of the things only a person had been able to do more recently.

Venture investor Avidan Ross, who spoke on our investor panel last week at ArticulATE, talked about just this topic and how while we’ve been automating food production for decades, it’s only in the last few years where we’ve seen robotics advance to the point where new capabilities in the creation of food using these technologies have been possible:

“I think what’s interesting now is that we’ve been able to move into chaotic unstructured environments at the endpoint,” said Ross.

This, by the way, is the same point made by Google’s robotic chief, Vincent Vanhoucke, at the same event. From this morning’s post by Chris Albrecht:

Vanhoucke’s team is working on taking the things robots do well — moving around — and marrying that with advancements in computer vision and deep learning to make robots more useful in the messy and complicated real world. And it turns out that food in particular, with its different textures and properties, is quite messy and complicated.

In short, technology is enabling us to do things with food at the edge in a way that was not possible before. Whether it’s the peace dividends from advancements software, autonomous cars, AI or what-have-you, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the world of food is seeing the emergence of distributed intelligence that is creating a new wave of innovation that will continue to disrupt the food systems for decades to come.

There was lots of interesting news this week outside of coffee, robotics and the intelligence edge for food, including continued activity in the world of alternative protein. Catherine wrote this morning about the recent exit of protein giant Tyson from its investment in Beyond Meat on the eve of the plant-based meat startup’s IPO. She also covered a new startup trying to create animal-free cheese using a process they describe as “recombinant protein technology.”

In the consumer kitchen, Innit partnered up with contract manufacturer Flex and Google to create a suite of ingredient solutions to fast-track the development of smart kitchen appliances. On the delivery front, Google got approval from the FAA to do drone delivery, while Postmates beefed up its delivery location roster in advance of its IPO.

Finally, there are just a few days left to get the best price of the year for Smart Kitchen Summit tickets with Super Early Bird pricing.  Use the discount code NEWSLETTER for an additional 15% off (use this link to have the promotion automatically applied).

That’s it for now. Have a great week everyone!
Mike

P.S. We’re launching a Future Food newsletter covering alternative proteins, cell-based meat, bioreactors and more! Interested? Subscribe here.

specialty coffee expo

From $200 Bottles of Coffee to Wrist-Saving Espresso Machines: 8 Fascinating Things From Specialty Coffee Expo 2019

April 12th launched the 2019 Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston. As the leading industry event for the western hemisphere, there was no shortage of new gadgets and interesting products to discover—like $200 bottles of coffee, data-driven espresso machines and frozen coffee pods—all while caffeinated beyond reason.

Here are eight coffee tech innovations we loved seeing.

Third Wave Water’s Cafe-Sized Water Maker

Most coffee shops treat their water source to enhance coffee flavor and keep their equipment healthy. This usually involves reverse osmosis, then trying to add some minerals back into the water—but most of the time it’s terribly imprecise. Even with expensive commercial-grade gear, shops often find their water quality to be inconsistent and the coffee disappointing.

Third Wave Water (as seen on Shark Tank) solved this problem for home brewers a few years back with mineral packets designed to create the exact water mineral profile recommended by the Specialty Coffee Association. At the Expo, TWW finally unveiled their cafe-sized solution: the Tethys.

Designed for small to medium-size cafes, the Tethys can create precisely-mineralized water for up to 250 gallons per day.

third wave water

Elemental Beverage Co’s $200 Bottle Of Coffee

Last year we wrote about IceColdNow’s electric chiller that could make cold coffee in seconds from any hot brew. The company has since rebranded to Elemental Beverage Co and expanded its ambitions.

Not only can cafes use the proprietary Snapchill Technology to insta-chill coffee, Elemental has upsized the tech and added a vacuum-sealer that allows the company to seal and preserve the coffee like wine.

You’ll soon find canned cold coffee on grocery store shelves, but more impressively, Elemental Beverage Co is also releasing limited-batch bottles of super high-end coffees. Graded at a score of 90+ (the top 0.1% of coffee beans in the world), these coffees are meant to be uncorked like a fine wine and enjoyed in fancy tasting glasses.

They popped one of these ~$200 bottles open on Sunday for a tasting. I was a few rows down and missed out. I’ve been mourning ever since, because everyone standing at the booth nearly 30 minutes after the tasting was still in shock at how tasty the coffee was.

elemental beverage co

Duvall’s Data-Driven Espresso Machine

Training baristas in specialty coffee shops involves a lot of writing. You write down each espresso shot’s time, yield, taste, and try to discern what kinds of recipes will produce good flavors. It’s a long, confusing process—largely because you can’t remember where you put your sheet of notes in-between customers.

Duvall’s new espresso machine doesn’t only store data from every shot pulled. It enables baristas to program precise recipes into the device, then uses volumetric measurements to make adjustments mid-shot if necessary to match that recipe.

Introducing data into the espresso machine has a variety of benefits that have never been possible before, like allowing coffee roasters to push out espresso recipes to all of their cafes at the same time, or enabling managers to see which baristas are the slowest at pulling shots, or helping trainers connect the dots between recipes and shot flavor for new hires.

duvall espresso machine

La Marzocco’s Wrist-Friendly Espresso Machine (Finally)

There are many reasons baristas burn out (resulting in high employee turnover), but among the top of the list is the bodily wear and tear that comes with the job. Barista wrists, in particular, are subject to much abuse from twisting portafilters in and out of the espresso machine.

It took La Marzocco 20 years to come up with a solution to this problem, and they finally unveiled it this year: the KB90 espresso machine. The straight-in portafilter design is extremely fast to use and feels natural on the wrists.

As someone who experienced life-disrupting wrist pain when I was a barista, I can’t describe how happy it made me to slip the portafilter straight into the machine without having to twist or turn. This sets the new bar for cafe ergonomics.

la marzocco kb90

Bellwether Coffee Roasted On-Site

Our friends at Bellwether were awarded the coveted Best New Product for Commercial Coffee or Tea Preparation & Serving Equipment this year—and we’re not surprised.

The ventless coffee roasters make roasting great coffee easier than it’s ever been in history (no, really). Nathan Gilliland, Bellwether’s CEO, helped me roast a batch myself and I was stunned at how simple it was. The coffee turned out incredible, too.

Nathan also showed me their ‘Tip The Farmer’ feature, which just went live a few weeks ago. With a tap on the tablet, I was able to send a $1 tip directly to a coffee producer (minus credit card fees, of course). Nathan hopes to integrate this feature with popular POS platforms in the coming months to help give consumers easier access.

bellwether coffee

Odeko’s Auto-Replenishing Scales And Software

With coffee shops being low-margin establishments, software and automation companies have largely steered clear from developing targeted solutions designed for the cafe. Odeko, however, is all-in with coffee shops.

Their new automated inventory management platform uses connected scales to track inventory and usage, creates predictive models, and then orders on the cafe’s behalf to ensure they never run out of cups / croissants / coffee / whatever.

Their booth was particularly striking, with a never-ending conveyor belt of coffee beans and oat milk that earned a double-take from every passerby.

odeko coffee shop

Bonaverde’s Green-To-Cup Home Machine

It’s been a couple of years since our video review of the Bonaverde Roast-Grind-Brew coffee machine, so we checked back in at the Expo. Hans Stier, the founder and CEO, roasted and brewed a batch of coffee that had been picked just 72 hours prior to the event. It was certainly the freshest coffee I’ve ever tasted—and will probably ever taste again.

The machine has gone through some design iterations that make it easier to roast, grind, and brew modularly, without having to go through all three steps in one session. Hans is also looking to expand Bonaverde’s unroasted coffee offerings to US-based roasters, who can send their roast profiles and green beans to customers.

bonaverde roaster

Frozen Coffee Concentrate That Actually Tastes Good

The hottest gossip of the Expo surrounded a new concept: frozen coffee extract in Keurig-compatible capsules. At first glance, Cometeer appeared to be just another pod distributor, but with a closer look, I realized they had some really big names on their capsules, like Counter Culture, George Howell, and Equator Coffee.

The idea is that Cometeer sends you frozen coffee extract pods by mail, you slip them into your freezer, and then you have on-demand coffee from well-known specialty roasters. You can pop the aluminum (fully recyclable) pod in your Keurig, or just rip off the top and mix with hot or cold water to bring it to a drinkable strength.

I was skeptical at first. Could frozen coffee concentrate really maintain its delicate flavor? The sample impressed me—sure enough, it was just as delicious as the freshly brewed coffee I’d tasted in ‘Roaster Village’ around the corner.

It’s difficult to say whether the shipped-frozen model will appeal to regular coffee lovers at home, but Cometeer definitely showed up strong in the eyes of industry professionals.

COMETEER COFFEE CAPSULES

We loved seeing coffee being served in new and interesting ways (frozen pods, high-end cold brew), but the main coffee tech trend was clear: data.

Data for espresso machines. Data for roasters. Data for inventory and purchasing. Data for sourcing coffee. The coffee world, it seems, is finally embracing a higher-tech future.

See anything else fascinating or quirky at the Specialty Coffee Expo? Tell us in the comments or tweet us @thespoontech!

Atomo Coffee has Developed Less-Bitter, Sustainable Coffee. The Secret? No Beans.

For many of us, our morning cup of coffee is the only thing that makes us functioning humans. But I’m betting that rarely (if ever) our morning fuel-up do we consider the negative impact of coffee farming on the environment.

We should. Coffee consumption is on the rise, and according to a report by Conservation International, coffee growers may have to triple their demand by 2050 to meet demand. At the same time, global warming is making it harder and harder to grow coffee beans. In January of this year, Science Advances estimated that 60 percent of wild coffee species are under threat of extinction.

Seattle-based startup Atomo claims to bring you all the goodness of a cup of coffee — without the bean. Atomo’s so-called “molecular coffee” is made by reverse engineering the flavor and aroma compounds in coffee bean to make a substance that, when brewed, tastes and caffeinates like java. It’s made with natural ingredients and can be brewed one-to-one for coffee in French presses, refillable K-cups, pour-overs, etc.

Atomo’s original product was a liquid, which the team creates in small batches in their food scientist’s garage. But today they’re launching a Kickstarter to raise $10,000 to sell a ground version of their coffee, which they’re aiming to launch in Q4 2019. During a phone interview, Atomo CEO Andy Kleitsch told me that Atomo’s coffee would cost anywhere from $0.33 to $0.55 cents per cup — at least a fourth of the price of a cup from Starbuck’s. But if you’re a latte lover, Atomo might not be for you: as of now they only make ground coffee for drip, not espresso.

It’s no secret that plenty of crowdfunding projects don’t ever make it to market. But there are two reasons I think Atomo can pull it off. First of all, Atomo’s team has a good experience set: Kelitsch is on the board of the UW entrepreneurship program, and Atomo’s chief scientist Jarret Stopforth has helped develop products at Soylent, Campbell’s, and Chobani, and more. Secondly, Atomo is partnering with food and beverage development company Mattson to help quickly develop and scale their coffee.

In addition the environmental and novelty draws, Atomo is also marketing its product as a less bitter version of coffee. During their re-engineering process, Kleitsch and his team decided not to add back in the chlorogenic acid, which gives coffee its bitter taste. For those who need to doctor their java with cream and sugar, Atomo could offer a welcome alternative. In fact, during a blind taste test on the University of Washington campus, 70 percent of students preferred Atomo’s “coffee” to Starbuck’s. Admittedly, the experiment had a sample size of just 30 students. However, it goes to show that in situations where people are just looking for a pleasant-tasting jolt of caffeine, “to bean or not to bean” might not be such a big deal after all — especially with Atomo’s attractive price point.

Learning about Atomo’s reverse engineering process made me think of Ava Winery. Instead of coffee without the bean, Ava is making wine without the grapes, yeast, or fermentation by mimicking its chemical compounds. It makes me wonder: what other popular foods and beverages will we see “hacked” in the future?

At the end of the day, Atomo might not make the cut for true coffee aficionados. But for the average Joe (ha), Atomo’s “molecular coffee” could be just fine and dancy — and taste all the sweeter knowing they’re saving the environment with every cup.

This Company Wants to Roast Coffee Beans in Space — For Real

If you think you go to great heights to find the best coffee, you’re about to be one-upped. Space Roasters founders Anders Cavallini and Hatem Alkhafaji decided that in order to achieve perfectly roasted beans, there was only one thing to do: head to outer space.

Naturally.

Here’s how it will supposedly work: According to the Guardian, the spacecraft — dubbed the Coffee Roasting Capsule — will launch from Earth filled with 300 kg green coffee beans, reaching a height of about 200km (124 mi). Upon the 20-minute trip back to Earth, the beans will roast in the heat generated by the reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Since the capsule will be zero-gravity, the beans will be free-floating, meaning that they’ll get a 360-degree even roast.

Photo: Space Roasters website.

Once the device returns to earth, Space Roasters plans to sell the first-ever space-roasted coffee in Dubai, where the company is based (though the website’s contact page lists their location as San Diego, California).

The concept may be ludicrous, but the Space Roasters founders just might have the background to make it happen. Both Cavallini and Alkhafaji have educations in Space Science, and Cavallini has worked at NASA and Orbital and has “over 5 years of experience roasting, brewing, and tasting coffee from around the world.”

But there’s at least one coffee roasting red flag. The Space Roasters team expects temperatures inside the capsule to be around 200°C (392°F) during re-entry. I won’t get too deep into coffee roasting science here, but that’s a pretty low temperature — meaning that the coffee will likely have a very, very light roast. This is just another sign that this stunt is clearly less about creating the perfect cup of joe and more about creating a public spectacle.

Forgive the skepticism. As an ex-specialty coffee barista and forever coffee snob, I’ve seen people go to great heights to achieve the perfect coffee roast. Just not heights as great as this. And honestly, coffee roasted the traditional way is pretty dang great. While theoretically roasting beans in zero gravity would give a more consistent, all-around roast, there’s no way it will taste good enough to justify what is presumably an out-of-this-world pricetag (the company has yet to disclose any pricing details).

In the Guardian interview, the Space Roasters founders said that they were in discussions with private rocket companies like Rocket Lab and Blue Origins to find a launch partner. They’re hoping to launch the capsule as early as next year.

If you’re interested in getting in on this cosmic coffee, the Space Roaster’s website has a countdown clock for a pre-sale campaign which will open in a few weeks. Be sure to let us know if you suddenly get alien superpowers after sipping on a space latte.

Video: Bellwether Cuts Out the Coffee Roasting Middleman

“A lot of people don’t realize just how big coffee is,” said Nathan Gilliland, CEO of Bellwether Coffee at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit. Seriously, though: according to him, coffee is the most consumed beverage in the U.S., with people drinking more cups of joe than bottles of water, wine, and beer combined.

Not only are people drinking a lot of coffee, they’re also drinking better coffee. Consumers — especially millennials — are looking for fresher, higher-quality beans that are roasted locally. And they’re willing to pay for it.

But getting that freshly-roasted product into the hands of consumers isn’t easily done. The majority of coffee today is roasted at a highly centralized place and then shipped all over the world. This “hub and spoke roasting model,” as Gilliland calls it, is expensive and not condusive to freshness.

Enter Bellwether. The company makes internet-connected coffee roasters that can be installed in cafes, grocery stores, or small local coffee shops, and also has a marketplace for green (unroasted) coffee beans. By roasting in-store, Gilliland explains that the shop can provide more sustainable, fresher coffee and save money by cutting out the roasting middleman. “It’s like a roaster meets an iPhone,” he said.

Watch the video below to get the lowdown on the future of sustainable coffee consumption — and how data and IoT can help us get there.

From Soil To Sip: Disruptions In The Coffee Value Chain

For more videos of panels, fireside chats, and startup pitches from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit head to our YouTube channel!

Spoon Newsletter: LG’s HomeBrew Appliance, Spinn Update, World’s First Cell-Grown Steak

This is the post version of our weekly newsletter. If you’d like to get the weekly Spoon in your inbox, you can subscribe here.

When it comes to smart kitchen startups, there is no shortage of companies trying to change how we make our morning cup of joe.

One of the highest profile startups in this space over the past couple of years is Spinn, maker of a grind-brew coffee machine that utilizes a patented centrifugal brewing technology. I was intrigued enough with the company and its tech to plop down over $300 to join the first “batch” of orders in 2016, but almost two years past the promised ship date, I’m still waiting for my Spinn.

The company has hit some snags as they work to get their coffee maker to customers. While many of the Spinn’s early customers have been understandably frustrated, it appears most are hanging on, intrigued by the company’s periodic updates showing progress on the product. If they’re like me, I suspect many are getting frustrated with a company that continues to advertise and sell their overdue appliance, all the while creating more and more distance between new customers and those still waiting at the front of the line.

Still, I know I have no one to blame for investing my money in a Spinn with the knowledge that coffee startup products have been historically risky investments. With companies like ZPM and Arist turning out to be colossal misses and others like Bonaverde sputtering along for years and periodically shipping out products, I knew full well that I might never see the product. In the end, I may have been better off putting my money towards a Tesla like Spoon reader Rebecca:

“I put money down for this machine in Nov. 2016 (I’m a 1st batch-er) and at around the same time my husband put down money for a Tesla Model 3. At least I now have a smooth ride to the coffee shop!”

You can read my latest update on my Spinn journey here.

Coffee isn’t the only category that can be rough sailing for new startups. The home brew market has been notoriously tough as well, with companies like HOPii and iGulu struggling to ship and others like BrewArt and Brewie failing to get much traction.

Still, this hasn’t stopped South Korean consumer electronics giant LG from jumping into the game. The company recently announced they would debut a new home brewing device by the name of the LG HomeBrew at CES.  The capsule-based beer brewing appliance, which makes roughly the same amount of beer as a PicoBrew Pico per cycle, is expected to ship sometime next year.

What’s interesting to me is a company like LG usually only gets into a business if they see a high volume opportunity, which begs the question what will they do to differentiate their product?  While PicoBrew has certainly raised awareness around automated beer brewing, the company has yet to make home brewing a mass-market hobby, something I am sure LG hopes they can do.

Either way, next year promises to be an interesting one when it comes to tech-powered boozing at home. About a month ago, Keurig and AB InBev launched Drinkworks, a capsule-based instant serve cocktail, cider and beerbot machine expected to ship in limited quantities next year.

While home bev-tech space continues to slowly gestate, the pro market continues to move along at a rapid clip. Just this week, a robot powered bartender by the name of UR5e debuted at Broncos Stadium. The new bartenderbot is essentially robotic arm that grabs a beer cup and fills it (through the bottom, no less) for waiting customers.

Moving beyond beverage bots, this week also saw the introduction of a new sidewalk delivery bot from Postmates that goes by the name of Serve. Serve, which looks like the lovechild of Minion and Starship deliverybot, is expected to roll out in Los Angeles over the next year. And speaking of food delivery, this week Chris wrote about the breakup of Amazon and Instacart, something that’s been rumored ever since the big online retailer acquired Whole Foods.

There’s lots more great analysis to catch up from this past week, including looks at the first cell-grown steak and what the new farm bill means for CBD, so make sure to check it out.

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!

Mike

In the 12/14/2018 edition:

Presto Eats May Be the Most On-Trend Meal Kit Company Yet. But Will It Succeed?

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 14, 2018 11:16 am
Whenever I get word about a new meal kit company, it’s hard not to be immediately skeptical. It’s no secret that meal kits are struggling: Chef’d surprised everyone when it shut down abruptly earlier this year. Boston hyper-local meal kit Just Add Cooking ceased operations this fall. And Blue Apron’s stock continues to underwhelm.

The Denver Broncos Get a Beer Pouring Robot at Mile High Stadium

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 14, 2018 08:04 am
While the Denver Broncos may be in the midst of a losing season, they could win over fans this weekend when a new robot starts dispensing Bud Light at Mile High Stadium (h/t The Washington Post). You’d think that such a mechanical miracle would have a fancy name like the “Robo-Bronco” or the “Elway 3000,” […]

Startups! They’re Just Like Us! Amazon and Instacart Break Up

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 04:00 pm
Like Ben and Jennifer, Brad and Angelina, and Cardi B and Offset*, Instacart and Amazon have broken up. In a blog post today, Instacart announced that it was winding down (consciously uncoupling?) its grocery delivery relationship with Amazon. Like with so many other power couples, this breakup wasn’t entirely a surprise.

The Farm Bill Just Passed — What Does That Mean for the CBD Market?

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 13, 2018 02:08 pm
After months of back and forth, Congress voted yesterday to pass the 2018 Farm Bill. The $867 million bill contains lots of wide-reaching legislative measures, like expanded farm subsidies, SNAP revisions, and permanent funding for farmers markets. But perhaps most interestingly, the bill legalizes the production and sale of hemp at a federal level.

What Bowery’s Latest Funding Round Says About Indoor Farming

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 13, 2018 12:00 pm
New Jersey-based indoor-farming startup Bowery announced yesterday that it has raised $90 million in fresh funding. The round was led by Alphabet Inc.’s GV with participation from Temasek and Almanac Ventures, General Catalyst and GGV Capital (Bowery’s Series A investors), and various seed investors. Bowery produces what founder Irving Fain calls “post-organic produce.”

ImpactVision Raises $1.3M Led by Maersk

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 10:11 am
ImpactVision, a startup that uses hyperspectral imaging to assess food quality, has raised $1.3 million, according to VentureBeat. The round was led by logistics and transportation company Maersk, and brings the total amount raised by ImpactVision to $2.9 million. As we wrote last year about ImpactVision: Using a combination of digital imaging, spectroscopy and machine learning, […]

Postmates Debuts its own Bright-Eyed Delivery Robot

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 06:00 am
You know what you can look forward to in 2019? More robots (but more on that in a later post). Case in point: delivery service Postmates announced today that it has developed its own autonomous delivery rover that will be hitting sidewalks next year. Dubbed Serve, the li’l robot is a bright yellow square-shaped box […]

Hi Fidelity Genetics Raises $8.5M for AI-Driven Plant Breeding

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 04:00 am
Hi Fidelity Genetics (HFG), which combines sensors, data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve plant breeding, today announced that it has raised an $8.5 million Series A led by Fall Line Capital and Finistere Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by HFG to $11.5 million. There are two parts to the HFG system.

Deliveroo Goes Back to the Future with Brick and Mortar Food Hall

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 12, 2018 04:00 pm
You know how they say that in fashion, everything old comes back around and eventually is new again? It seems that the same might be true for restaurants. This week London-based food delivery startup Deliveroo opened up its first brick-and-mortar location in Hong Kong (h/t CNBC). The so-called Delivery Food Hall is home to five […]

Waitr to Acquire Bite Squad for $321.3M

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 12, 2018 02:00 pm
Online delivery platform Waitr has announced plans to acquire third-party delivery service Bite Squad for $321.3 million. The purchase price is a mix of cash and shares of common stock of Waitr. Both companies serve small- to mid-sized U.S. markets. Waitr is a full platform from online order and delivery. Restaurants partnering with the company […]

5 Interesting Things We Saw at the Specialty Coffee Expo 2018

This past weekend was the Specialty Coffee Expo in Seattle, and it was a playground for all things java, joe, and bean juice-related. We saw robot baristas, we saw electric coffee roasters, we saw coffee connection apps — and we also drank lots and lots of free samples.

Here are five things that piqued our highly caffeinated interest on the show floor. Maybe they’re hinting at the new wave of specialty coffee trends to come?

Beanscrop’s handheld espresso machine

For those who love their espressos (and macchiatos, cappuccinos, etc.) but don’t have a few grand to drop on a home espresso machine, Beanscrop might be a good investment.

From South Korea, Beanscrop’s coffee makers require no electric power, disposable filters, or cups. Their Cafflano Klassic is a coffee grinder, filter, and travel mug all in one — just add hot water. But the product that really caught our eye was their handheld espresso maker: it weighs less than 6 ounces and uses hydraulic water compression to help users push down with exactly 9 bars of pressure — the magic number for espresso-making. The coolest part? According to their team at the booth, it works with hot or cold water. The Kompresso is available on Amazon for $109.95.

The Klassic and Kompresso.

Ground Control’s flashy batch brewer

Ground Control‘s Cyclops coffee brewer machine won Best New Product (Commercial Equipment) at the expo. The machine looks like something that would be in Frankenstein’s lab, complete with coils and glass bulbs. What Ground Control says makes its coffee so special is the multiple infusions. Basically, the machine siphons hot water over a bed of coffee grounds, then extracts all that coffee and siphons it out into the glass bulbs on top of the machine. It then re-infuses the grounds with more hot water and combines the two extractions, resulting in what is, apparently, an amazing cup of coffee.

I couldn’t taste the difference, but I did really enjoy the awesome-looking brewing process as the coffee spews out of the top.

 

SpeedETab mobile ordering platform

You know when you really want a latte but the line at your local coffee shop is too long to mess with? SpeedETab wants to help you skip right to the front by allowing its users to order and pay for drinks and food ahead of time.

The Miami-based company provides a white label ordering platform independent coffee shops. Other companies like QuickCup and Joe Coffee also let users order their coffee ahead and skip the line, but what sets SpeedETab apart is its malleability. They work with their coffee shop clients to make specialized apps tailored to their particular brand. SpeedETab starts with their templated app, then adds in the icon, logo, and color palette of their clients’ coffee shop in an effort to push brand loyalty.

SpeedETab charges shops flat fee for all their services and ingrates directly into their PoS system. The platform seems like a valuable tool for smaller coffee shops which don’t have the money or staff to design and run their own app, but want to get in on the order-ahead trend.

 

Individual pourover coffee bags

Quite a few booths featured single-serving pourover coffee bags. Individually packaged like tea bags, these pre-filled coffee filters balance over your coffee mug. All you have to do is slowly pour hot water over the top, stirring once or twice to agitate the grounds and extract all the flavor. Coffee Blenders and Twin Peaks are two that I noticed specifically, but this coffee delivery system was definitely out in fine form at the expo.

As someone who is quite the coffee snob and sometimes finds myself in situations without good coffee, these little on-the-go bags could be lifesavers. Many are also compostable, so they would be great options for camping or other trips where you’re not sure you’ll have access to a high-quality cup of joe.

Twin Peaks pourover coffee bags.

 

IceColdNow keeps your cold brew chilled

We’ve seen products that can keep your coffee hot or keep it cold, but how about one that can go from one to the other? Ice Cold Now‘s electric chiller, the Cafe Cold Wave, takes hot, freshly-brewed coffee and cools it in one minute thanks to a refrigerant-filled stainless steel coil. Users can set their desired temperature on a screen on the machine.

“Basically all iced coffee being served is old,” said Ice Cold Now founder David Dussault. “This is going to be fresh, just like your hot coffee.” This enables coffee shops to serve cold coffee without spending 12 to 24 hours cold-brewing, which requires a lot more coffee beans and also doesn’t extract all of their flavor. With Ice Cold Now, you also don’t have to use ice, so there’s no dilution.

Here’s a video we took of the Cafe Cold Wave in action on the Expo show floor. The product is available for preorder now on Ice Cold Now’s website.

Did we miss any other cool coffee gadgets, tech, or trends at the Specialty Coffee Expo? Tell us in the comments or tweet us @thespoontech!

Coffunity Makes Anyone a Coffee Expert (Yes, Even You)

Unless you’re a barista by trade, you might not know all that much about what type of coffees you like. Ethiopian? Light roast? Notes of milk chocolate or stone fruit?

That’s where Coffunity comes in handy. The company, which is based in El Salvador, developed an app which lets users rate and review coffees, discover new brands and varietals, and determine their overall coffee preferences. Founded by Andrea B. Pacas, a 6th generation coffee producer, and Federico Bolanos, a professional roaster, cupper, and barista, the Beta version launched in March 2018.

The app made quite a splash at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Seattle last weekend when it won the Best New Product Award for Technology and the overall Best of Show.

Here’s how it works: Users take a picture of a coffee label and Coffunity will use a Google Vision scan and identify the label’s text. If that label is in their database, the app will give users a rundown on the beans’ taste attributes, origin, processing methods, and quality. It can get pretty granular, down to the exact varietal of the beans, the altitude on which they were grown, and even the name of the farmer(s) who grew them.

Coffunity users can rate coffees after they drink them and leave public reviews. So before you invest in a bag of beans, you can check and see if it matches your coffee preferences and find out what others wrote about it (i.e. tastes best with milk). If the app doesn’t recognize the coffee label, you can enter in its information and add it to the database.

Users can also search Coffunity’s library to determine the best coffees for them to purchase. For example, if you know you like fruity coffees, you can enter that in and see which brands and roasts might be a good bet for you. You can also search for coffees based on parameters like price, origin, retailer, or overall rating.

The company is even working on integrating geolocation services into their app so that users can discover nearby highly-rated coffee spots. So if you’re in a new city and want to source some nice beans for your Airbnb, you won’t have to wander aimlessly or settle for Starbucks.

And if you don’t know what you like, Coffunity will keep track of all your coffee rankings and create a profile of your taste preferences. The more coffees you rate, the more data it has to generate your profile, the more you can discover which coffees you like — and which you don’t.

There’s also a social aspect to Coffunity: you can follow friends on the app (or local baristas) to see which brands and varietals they’re drinking and liking. Sort of like Spotify, but for coffee. And if you just want to follow the crowd, the app keeps a list of the top-ranked coffees each day according to their global user base.

Coffunity hopes that their app will create the world’s largest coffee community. But they also want to encourage people to drink better coffee, be more aware of the variables and minutiae that goes into producing the beverage, and get more familiar with coffee producers, who are often isolated from the people drinking their product.

It might be surprising to some that at an event rife with barista robots and connected roasting machines, something as un-flashy as a coffee community app stood out as Best in Show. Their win indicates a movement in the craft coffee market towards democratization and accessibility.  You no longer have to be an SCA-trained expert to know a thing or two about high-quality coffee beans.

They’re not the only app geared towards educating people about and connecting them with good coffee. Apps like Cupper and Beanhunter help people find good coffee shops near them, while Acacia and Intelligentsia help you find the optimal home brew method. As specialty coffee becomes more and more accessible, I bet we’ll see more apps geared towards education and democratization of everyone’s favorite morning beverage.

The app is free and iOS compatible, though a version for Android is in the works. So far Coffunity has 950 downloads and over 150K coffees in their database. Coffunity currently has a staff of 12 and has been downloaded in more than 54 countries, though with this recent SCA Expo win under their belt, I bet they’ll soon be expanding.