Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Spinn

The Spinn Coffee Maker Is Still MIA For Early Backers

(Update: You can see the December 2018 update on my Spinn journey here.)

In 2016, I backed a high-tech coffee maker called the Spinn.

At the time, I was enticed by the combined grind & brew capability of the Wi-Fi connected coffee maker, but the real reason I bought the Spinn was its patented centrifugal brewing technology. The tech, which I talked to the inventor about on a podcast back in 2016, uses a high-speed centrifuge to extract crema-like coffee brews down to the individual cup level.

It all sounded pretty good to me, so I coughed up $300 and waited for my new coffee maker. However, now with the product’s original mid-2017 and revised first quarter 2018 ship dates in the history books, I’m left wondering: will I ever get my Spinn?

I’m not the only one. A casual perusal of the company’s forums or Facebook page shows that many of early backers of the Spinn are getting restless. Throw in the multiple emails I get per week asking me if I’d heard anything (from the volume of email I get about the Spinn, I gather I may be the only journalist monitoring the progress of the product) and it seems like the company has a bit of a trust problem on its hands.

Now, it’s not like the company hasn’t been communicating. They’ve actually done a pretty good job of sending out periodic updates via its forum. The problem for the company is that once they missed their original ship date of mid-2017, they started telling all the first batch purchasers of the Spinn they’d see their coffee makers by the end of the first quarter in 2018. But by the time March rolled around, the company had moved the goal posts once again and said they were only sending machines out to “beta testers”.

Now as with any crowdfunding campaign, I knew I was taking a risk when I bought the Spinn back in 2016. But I’d backed lots of hardware projects over the past few years, and Spinn seemed to check all the boxes. Not only did they have patented technology that was differentiated, but they’d also licensed their technology to Nespresso to use in the newest line of that company’s pod-based brewing machines.

But almost two years later, I’m starting to worry I may have guessed wrong. Not only has the company missed two ship dates and is being vague about when the product will actually ship, but when I asked to talk to a “beta tester”, the company told me they cannot connect me to beta testers as they are “still going through iterations and bugs.”  Add in other potential warning signs like the departure of the Spinn technology inventor last year and one can see why I and other early backers are starting to worry.

To its credit, the company has offered myself and others a refund, but for now I’m going to continue to hang in there because I still really want a Spinn. However, like other early backers, I’ll be more skeptical about any deadlines the company gives since the company missed a long-promised ship date. At this point, I’m just hoping to see my Spinn sometime before Christmas so I can brew the coffee roasted with the Kelvin home coffee roaster, yet another high-tech coffee gadget I backed through crowdfunding.

Cuisinart & Dash Race To Bring Cold Brew Coffee To You Quicker

If you’re a cold brew coffee fan and want to make your own at home, the bad news is making a batch of this smooth tasting joe can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. Because of this, most folks just end up heading down to the local coffee shop or grocery store and spend anywhere from $4-7 to satiate their cravings.

But I have some good news for those who want to make their own cold brew and don’t want to wait 24 hours to pour the first cup: Over the past few months, both Cuisinart and Dash started shipping cold brew coffee makers that can put a cup of cold brew in your hands in less than 30 minutes. Each uses a slightly different technology to accelerate the brewing process, but both are drastically different than traditional slow steep makers such as the Toddy.

Let’s first look at Cuisinart’s entry into the quick cold brew market.

Cuisinart DCB-10

The Cuisinart DCB-10 Cold Brew Coffee machine, which debuted last fall, uses what the company describes as ‘rapid-spin technology’ to extract the flavor from the coffee grounds.  While the Cuisinart folks didn’t reveal any specific details about the technology, it sounded a little like centrifugal brewing method used in the Spinn coffee system to me.

The DCB-10 can make a pot of mild, ready-to-drink (many traditional cold brew makers like the Toddy only make concentrate) cold brew in 25 minutes, or you can keep dial up the time to 35 minutes for medium or 45 minutes for a bold brew.

The Cuisinart DCB-10 will set you back $99, quite a bit more than traditional drip cold brew makers, but again you are paying for convenience. Early reviews of the DCB-10 on Amazon seem to be fairly positive.

You can see Cuisinart’s head of marketing Mary Rodgers walk through the DCB-10 in the video below:

Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker (DCB-10) Talking Points

Dash Cold Brew Coffee Maker

The Dash Cold Brew Coffee Maker, which claims to make a batch of cold brew in only 5 minutes, was first teased a year ago at the 2017 Housewares show. The company went on to launch a successful Indiegogo and eventually shipped the product before the holidays and can now be found on Target.com.

Unlike the Cuisinart, the Dash cold brew machine uses a technique the company describes as “patent pending cold boil technology” with a pump to “create rapid circulation and create the same results you would get from the extraction of boiling without any added heat.” Also unlike the Cuisinart, you can brew either concentrated or ready-to-drink with the Dash machine.

Early reviews of the Dash Cold Brew system are mixed, with some customers complaining about what one Indiegogo backer described as an “exploding coffee machine” where the top of the brewing chamber comes off during the brew cycle and sprays coffee around the room.

Storebound CEO Evan Dash told me via email that the company is working on “some big improvements” they will be rolling out in the next month or so. Let’s hope one of those improvements is removing the ‘exploding coffee’ problem some users seem to have with the machine.

You can see an explanation of the Dash machine below:

Dash Rapid Cold Brew System

It’s not surprising that as more consumers look for ways to brew cold brew coffee at home, companies look to step up with new products to make the process more convenient. I imagine that we’ll see more solutions in the coming year that accelerates the brewing process.

Now if someone could just figure out how to ferment kombucha quickly to satiate my craving for the fizzy probiotic-laden drink, that’s something I’d be on board with.

Smart Kitchen News Roundup: Mellow Updates, Pico(Cold)Brews, Spinn Spins

There’s been a bunch of news about smart kitchen products lately, so I thought I’d do a quick roundup:

Mellow Updates Software To Address Cooling Concerns

Mellow, a sous vide appliance that utilizes an internal refrigeration unit to cool food until a user is ready to cook, has updated its software to address concerns about the product’s ability to cool food quickly enough. In a January review for Wired, food writer Joe Ray gave the Mellow a brutal 1/10 review because he said the Mellow couldn’t bring the food’s temperature below a USDA recommended 40 degrees Fahrenheit in two hours, meaning the product was a potential food poisoning risk. It appears Mellow was paying attention because the company just released a software update that prompts the user to add ice if it detects if the water in the reservoir is not cool enough. The company will release another update later in March that adds a pre-cool mode to help cooks start cooking the chamber earlier to keep their food out the “danger zone.”

PicoBrew Z Series Adds Cold Brew Coffee To Repertoire

A few weeks ago, PicoBrew announced their latest generation pro-grade brewing appliance, the PicoBrew Z. Not content with just brewing beer, the company announced that their new modular brewing system would also be able to brew cold brew coffee too.

According to the announcement, a standard Z will be able to brew up to two gallons of cold brew coffee or coffee concentrate in two hours, faster than traditional methods (although there seem to be lots of fast-brew methods for cold brew coffee coming to market lately). While I’m not sure it’s the most cost-effective way to make cold brew coffee (commercial systems that make up to 15 gallons cost around $450), it might be a good option for a brewpub looking add another item to the menu.

Spinn Spins Another Update

Like others who’ve backed the Spinn centrifugal coffee machine, I’ve gotten a bit restless as the company has fallen further behind its original ship date. But with the company’s management doing a good job updating backers, I’ve decided to stick it out and wait for my Spinn.

And according to the latest update, it looks like my patience may pay off. For the last few updates, the company has pointed a March ship date for first products, and the latest update indicates they’re sticking to it (but barely).

From the update:

“After Chinese New Year we’ll be assembling the machines and shipping the first units by the end of March. From there on, we’ll be ramping up production throughout the following months. This is a critical step towards bringing our machine into mass production and our teams in the U.S., Europe and China will be working around the clock to guarantee a great coffee machine that we’ll start to ship at a smaller scale at first, increasing the numbers with every batch.

Like I said, barely. For a product that could be described the Tesla of coffeemakers, it’s not all that surprising the company is taking a Tesla-like approach in its slow ramp it getting the product out the door.

Could Suvie Hit a Cool Million?

Suvie, the multizone cooker from the founder of Reviewed.com is trucking along with its Kickstarter. With just over a day and a half to go, the product has raised over $700 thousand.

With most successful Kickstarters going through the same three basic phases –  1) initial burst providing validation 2) a long stretch of yeoman’s work to keep story and interest alive, and 3) a final burst of folks who want in on project – they often look like this:

If Suvie’s campaign holds true to how most successful campaigns go, I would expect a last minute surge in backers and wouldn’t be surprised to see Suvie to see a get close to a million dollars.

Anova Nano On Track For May Ship

Last fall, Anova let customers know that the company’s new smaller (and cheaper) sous vide appliance – the Nano – would not be under tree come Christmas time and would instead ship in May. In an update from mid-February, Anova CEO Steve Svajian has indicated that they are holding to the May shipping window.

No official word from the company on when their Anova precision oven will ship other than a landing page on the Anova website that says “Summer 2018”. The product was unveiled at the Smart Kitchen Summit in October 2016.

My Spinn Check-In: Grind-Brew Coffee Machine Still On Track For Early 2018

May 2018 Update: You can read my latest post on my personal Spinn saga here.

My wife has given me one rule when it comes to my penchant for buying new kitchen gadgets: If a new one comes in, one must go out.

It didn’t take me long to make the calculation and commit when I bought the Spinn Coffee machine a year ago. After all, not only does the machine use a special patented centrifugal brewing system to make crema-like coffee, but it also combines a grinder with a coffee brewer.

“See,” I would tell her. “This two-in-oner lets me eliminate a coffee grinder!”

A year later, one delay and no coffee maker, I’m left wondering if the money was well spent.

I emailed Spinn CEO Roderick de Rode to see how things are going. I’d become a bit concerned after my initial email to company cofounder and one of the inventors of the Spinn’s centrifuge brewing technology, Roland Verbeek (who I interviewed for the Smart Kitchen Show), bounced back.

De Rode responded and, after telling me that Roland had left the company to start a yoga retreat, he assured me that the Spinn is still on track for an early 2018 shipment.

He even offered to refund my money, and I said no, in part because I still want the thing, but also because I believe his assurances. This is in large part because the company has done a good job updating the Spinn community with very detailed breakdowns of the improvements they’ve been making to the Spinn.

In the last one, sent in October, detailed progress made on the grinder, bean reservoir and how they’ve been able to shrink the overall size of the machine from a towering 17.5 inches to 13 inches.

And just this week, the released a video showing the highlights from the development process:

The Making of Spinn

But most convincing for me is the progress the company has made on building out a roaster network. Like many connected kitchen startups, the company is hoping to build a recurring revenue stream through consumables, and Spinn’s spin on that idea is through auto-replenishment of specialty coffee through a network of independent roasters. de Rode told me that as of this point, the company has signed up an impressive 140 roasters.

You can see where many of the roasters are on this map (also pictured below):

Product delays are almost expected nowadays, and anyone who’s bought hardware from a startup takes a risk. Some of the things I use when calculating risk before laying down my own hard earned money on a startup’s product is the founder team, how unique their idea is (patents help), whether they regularly update the community on progress, and if the company spends time building out a sustainable business model.

For the most part, Spinn looks to check all those boxes, and I’m pretty confident I’ll get my new coffee grinder/brewer in early 2018.

And if I don’t, who knows. Maybe I can still get a refund and use it to take the wife to a yoga retreat.

Spinn Centrifugal Grind-Brew Coffee Machine Delayed Until Early 2018

Well that’s a bummer.

The Spinn grind-brew coffee machine which utilizes a patented centrifugal brewing process has been delayed “5-6 months” according to a letter from Spinn CEO, Roderick de Rode, sent this weekend.

According to de Rode, the company delayed the shipment of the Spinn to work on three things: Reducing grinder noise, reducing the size of the machine and speeding up serve time.

From de Rode’s letter:

Currently, we’re encountering two areas (ed note: I think he meant three) that are not yet up to our standards:

(1) The sound created by the grinder – we don’t want you to experience the same heavy sound disturbances typical of a common coffee brewer. That’s why it’s important to us to continue to refine the hardware so that the machine isn’t noisy for you.
(2) The height of the machine – originally, we listed the machine to be 17-18 inches tall, but believe we can achieve better dimensions. We want the Spinn machine to fit underneath any kitchen cupboard, so we decided to spend extra time and resources to decrease its height without compromising the build in other ways.
(3) The serving time – reduce the serving time for the optimal user experience. Tests showed longer serving times than expected so we dedicated resources to improving speed without compromising the quality of the coffee

de Rode goes on to say that rather than ship a product that is not fully optimized, they’d rather delay shipment 5 or 6 months to “continue development.”

While all the improvements described by de Rode seem reasonable, it’s always worrisome for backers (like myself!) when a startup delays shipment. Particularly worrisome about this news is it’s clear from de Rode’s letter that the company got all the way to the expected shipment date without having pushed the product into the tooling phase. From the looks of things, they are still working on overall design and plan on continuing doing so over the coming months.

Bottom line: Unless the company has built in time for tooling and ramping up production into the 5-6 month “design” window, an early 2018 ship date could be tough to hit.

Perhaps one ray of light in this story is Spinn is a little further along than traditional hardware startups in that they already have a licensing deal for their centrifugal brewing process. They’ve licensed their technology to Nestle for Nespresso for the Vertuoline of coffee makers.

You can read the full text of the letter to backers below:

This is Roderick, co-founder, and CEO of Spinn, Inc. Thank you for taking this journey with us from the very start. It’s been a crazy yet amazing ride so far.

I’ve listened to the questions our customers have asked through social media, email and our support channels. One of the most common questions was regarding the timeline for developing the Spinn machine, and I want to answer this directly.

My team and I have spent the past few months tasting tons of coffee and perfecting the Spinn machine to be everything we promised to you. Starting with sourcing the highest quality hardware components, to developing an easy-to-use and intuitive software experience. As we continue to test the prototype, we’ve become more and more excited by the results and especially Spinn’s unique aromatic taste. We hope it will be to your liking, and invite you to take a peek at one of our first demo videos:

Along the way, we’ve also encountered technical challenges that come with building brand-new technologies. Right now, we’re so close to being ready, but there are extra tests, developments, and features we want to consider in order to deliver a flawless machine to you. So, I want to share the specifics about where we’re at in the process.

For the last 7 months, our engineering team mates based across three continents have put the Spinn machine through rigorous tests. Brewing over a thousand cups of coffee, they’ve been working to perfect the following:

Hardware – identifying and eliminating every problem we find.

  • Brewer – increasing the brewer performance during spinning at multiple speeds. Spinning ground coffee mixed with hot water at speeds up to 7000 RPM requires very precise engineering. Reducing vibration and the loss in water temperature are the main focus points.
  • Design – Our talented team of industrial designers has built numerous prototypes over the past few years to bring together a highly advanced brewing technology with precision electronics in a robust and compact design. We understand that preserving space on our customers’ kitchen counter top is of paramount importance, so Spinn is developing the first Bean2Cup coffee maker with the world’s smallest footprint.
    Materials – sourcing, testing and selecting the best and highest quality materials for our machines.
  • Seals – making, testing and improving the brewer’s seal performance between 2000 RPM and 7000 RPM at different coffee volumes and water temperatures, to ensure a leak-proof brew chamber.
  • Bean Funnel – finding and testing the optimum amount of coffee and optimal coffee flow to pass through the bean funnel while filling the brew chamber and creating Spinn’s unique 360-degree coffee bed.
  • Heater – sourcing, testing and selecting the heating element with the best performance to achieve the optimum and adjustable water temperature needed for the different coffee extractions per coffee style for 110V and 220V power outlets.
    Temperature Management – precision engineering combined with material and heat loss analysis for the best in-cup temperature.
  • Conical Burr Grinder – testing a variety of bespoke grinders and develop one that can generate a constant & steady grind flow, adjusted via the control panel in the Spinn App to the required ground size per coffee style. The hardened steel grinder is adjustable through the app. The grind result of the average particle size is between 240 and 1150 micron.
  • Grinder motor – grinders can be noisy so we set out to develop a high-performance grinder that creates less noise than any other grinder on the market. By using a high-quality DC motor with accurate gears and insulation we believe to have achieved our goal. Current endurance testing will provide more data about the robustness of the entire component.
  • Display – test and optimize the sensitivity of the display buttons.
    Filter Material – we developed a unique 360-degree filter mesh with holes as small as 30 Microns (µ) to reduce the amount of coffee grounds ending up in your cup. This unique mesh combined with back pressure generated by 3 nozzles is key for Spinn’s unique aromatic coffee taste.
  • Tea – Americano – a separate hot water spout for tea and Americano was created and tested. The test results turned out positive and the spout will be implemented in the machine.
  • Crema – some of our customers prefer crema in their coffee and some don’t. Spinn set out the challenge to create a machine that can brew both. It took us many months and pounds of coffee but we are happy to announce that we have achieved the way to brew coffee by centrifugal pressure with and without crema.

Software – optimizing user experience, bug fixing, and functionality development

  • Wi-Fi – develop wifi communications on the user side and control the machine’s parameters. We teamed up with our cloud provider Ayla Networks for connectivity to get a great user interface and experience.
  • Spinn Marketplace – we have developed the world’s first connected marketplace for independent coffee roasters to fulfill the orders when machines are running low. Around 150 roasters signed up on the Spinn platform and the first orders are live. When we ship, you will have the option to connect your new Spinn machine to the market, so that your favorite pick of roasters can deliver beans to your door when you’re running low. Developing the world’s first automated platform for deliveries of coffee roasters has been quite an undertaking, but we are proud to deliver a website and system that we trust you will like.
  • Spinn App – will be launching soon for Android and iOS, and we’re running a beta user test as we speak.
  • Roaster platform – developing an intuitive roaster platform for an easy sign up process and implementing recipes.

After many field and lab tests, we’ve resolved these technical challenges that came our way, all taking time and focus to complete. Currently, we’re encountering two areas that are not yet up to our standards:

(1) The sound created by the grinder – we don’t want you to experience the same heavy sound disturbances typical of a common coffee brewer. That’s why it’s important to us to continue to refine the hardware so that the machine isn’t noisy for you.
(2) The height of the machine – originally, we listed the machine to be 17-18 inches tall, but believe we can achieve better dimensions. We want the Spinn machine to fit underneath any kitchen cupboard, so we decided to spend extra time and resources to decrease its height without compromising the build in other ways.
(3) The serving time – reduce the serving time for the optimal user experience. Tests showed longer serving times than expected so we dedicated resources to improving speed without compromising the quality of the coffee

So what’s next?
Between delivering to you in mid-2017, and making sure that the above three improvements were carried through, we made the hard choice to focus on perfecting the product. That means that we’ll be needing an extra 5-6 months to continue development. While we’re getting close to delivering the Spinn machine, we’re not ready to ship this to you yet.

We want you to be confident and happy as you wait another 5-6 months for us to make this happen, and get it right the first time. You’ve already shown our team a lot of patience, but I would love for your continued support.

If you have any questions about anything I’ve shared, or think there’s something we can do in the meantime to help you be more confident waiting for us, let us know.

Thank you again for being part of our journey. Without people like you – who not only believe in ‘better’, but support and instigate ‘better’ – none of this would ever have been possible.

–Roderick, CEO of Spinn Inc.

If you want to want to hear about the future of coffee and the kitchen, make sure to come to the Smart Kitchen Summit. Use the discount code SPOON to get 25% off of tickets. 

Here’s The Most Exciting New Coffee Tech Of 2017

Ready for a jolt of innovation with your morning caffeine fix? Good thing, because 2017 looks like it could serve up a double shot of disruptive coffee technology.

Due to a combination of emerging taste trends, technologies, and good timing, 2017 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the world of coffee. Here are the products that I’m most intrigued about:

Spinn Coffee

(Update: Read my November 2017 update on the status of Spinn here). Spinn Coffee is a San Francisco startup that is expected to ship its centrifugal brewing system this summer to early backers.  The Spinn coffee maker uses the same centrifugal technology that Nespresso uses in its Vertuoline coffee and espresso maker line (Nespresso licenses the technology from Spinn), only instead of creating a centrifuge within the pod, the Spinn uses its patented technology within an internal centrifuge system.

The new machine will grind whole beans for each cup and brew the consumer’s choice of espresso or drip coffee. The centrifuge spins the brewing coffee spins at a high rate within the chamber to extract flavors from the ground coffee beans.

As would be expected from a modern coffee maker, the Spinn is connected and app-controllable. The company is also working to develop a coffee marketplace that delivers beans from local roasters. While the first batch of Spinns is sold out, the company has made a second batch available for preorder that is expected to ship in the second half of this year.

Spinn - The key to the Best Cup of Coffee

Bonaverde Berlin Roast-Grind-Brew Machine

(Update: You can see our November 2017 video review of the Bonaverde Berlin here). Bonaverde is one of the connected kitchen’s longest running crowdfunding sagas, having raised funding for its roast-grind-brew coffee machine back in 2013. While over two years late, the company finally started to ship to beta testers (aka Kickstarter backers) and are fine-tuning the product for a broader release.

The Bonaverde Berlin is a unique idea and will test just how far coffee lovers will go for a unique cup of coffee. While the home coffee roasting movement has picked up steam in recent years, the typical method for home roasting is to use a dedicated home roaster.  By combining roast-grind-brew into one single device, the Berlin will certainly provide extra convenience and space savings for those interested in home roasting, but it’s too soon to tell how many average consumers are willing to go this far for a unique and fresh cup of coffee.

The Berlin, which will be available to non-Kickstarter backers at the end of this year, will run for $800 or more at retail. The device requires its own special filters to mask the roasting smell as well as – at least initially – that you purchase the coffee pouches from the company that can cost between $1 and $5.  Consumers will eventually be able to insert their own beans to roast, but for now users of the Bonaverde will need to buy their green coffee through the Bonaverde curated marketplace.

You can watch a CNET video review of the product below.

Seva Coffee

In many ways, Seva is a similar concept to the Bonaverde Berlin in that it has created a roast-grind-brew machine that starts with green coffee beans and delivers a full cup of coffee, but the main difference being that Seva uses a proprietary capsule system. The capsules, which are compostable (unlike traditional Keurig based pod system), will allow the user to create a single cup of coffee, unlike the Bonaverde system which brews between 5 and 8 cups with a pouch of their coffee.

Pricing and availability for the Seva Coffee machine are currently not available.

Dash Cold Brew Coffee Machine

While companies like Toddy have enabled consumers to make cold brew coffee at home for decades, a recent surge in interest in the low-acidity coffee brewing method has some wondering if there’s a faster way to make coffee than the usual 8 to 12 hours required for a cup of cold brew.

Enter Storebound, the company behind the PancakeBot and the SoBro connected coffee table. The company showed off a prototype of its Dash Rapid Cold Brew Coffee Maker at the Housewares Show, a device that is expected to short cut the process of cold brew coffee to 10 minutes.  According to Digital Trends Jenny McGrath, the Dash Cold Brew machine uses something called ““cold boil” and lots of filtration.”

Storebound isn’t the first company to take a swing at a quick cold brew machine. First Build, the incubation group for GE that created the Paragon precision cooker, had a fast cold brew prototype called the Prisma that it came about $3 thousand short of funding on Indiegogo last fall, which caused them to put the brakes on development.

Chime Chai Tea Maker

Ok, so admittedly I’m cheating here by including a chai maker, but hey, who doesn’t like chai tea? The Chime connected tea maker, which is expected to start shipping later this year, uses a pod-based system that allows you to brew a highly optimized cup of chai.

Jacked-Up Nitro Cold Brew Keg System

Since so many us like our beer to taste like coffee, it’s only natural that we’d eventually have coffee that tastes like beer.  Or, at the very least, coffee that has a Guinness-like head in the form of nitrogen-injected coffee.

While nitro-injected coffee has been gaining in popularity in recent years, it’s still hard to find unless you live near an adventurous coffee bar. But don’t worry, you can always make nitro-coffee at home if you’re willing to try some of the early nitrogen coffee makers such as the Jacked-Up Nitro. The system, which is available online through a home brew specialty retailer, is available today for $230 and looks fairly straightforward to operate.

However, being the tech nerd that I am, I’m still on the hunt for a home nitro system that is connected and doesn’t require me to go to a home brew specialty shop. Who knows, maybe there’s an innovative startup (hint hint) that will create one that I include in my top coffee tech list of 2018.

Want to meet the leaders defining the future of food, cooking and the kitchen? Get your tickets for the Smart Kitchen Summit today.