This is a post about a retail coffee roasting thing that I had never seen before. It’s a series of posts with lots of pictures, but I think you’re gonna like it…
I was on a business trip to NYC last week. In our work session, one of the guys told me that if I was really into coffee, I just had to see a new retail concept just opened. Ok, I said, let’s go.
Now I get a better look at the espresso machine, well, machines, as the counter island has three (3) of them. They are video-screen-driven supercharged versions of the cappuccino, hot chocolate, latte machines mashed up with superautomatic espresso machines.
DavidG attached the following image:
Then, I notice the beautiful series of tubes along the wall – greens by origin on the left and roasted by the same origins on the right. Sulawesi, Kenya, Harar, Costa Rica, HHT, etc.
DavidG attached the following image:
Now for the part that blew my mind: the green bean inventory, the roaster, the roasted bean inventory and the brewing machines are all interconnected with vacuum tubes! Holy Cow. Yep, that’s right.
1. A computer-controlled vacuum loads the green beans from the inventory tubes on the wall.
2. The airbed roaster works its magic based on computer driven profiles.
3. When the roast is done, the vacuum immediately blasts the beans over the roasted inventory tubes on the wall. Here they sit until needed.
4. When a customer orders a coffee drink, the vacuum moves just the right amount of beans from the bottom of the inventory tubes through the ceiling tubes to the espresso machine, where the superautomatic grinds, tamps and brews into the waiting cup! If a customer orders a “regular coffee”, then they are served an Americano.
But wait, this gets even crazier! You can request your own blend – up to four bean origins!! The computer screen allows an selection of up to four equally weighted components for each shot. Unbelievable. I can order a S.O. Harrar espresso, or I can get a Brazil, Sumatra and Yirga blended shot. There are, of course, standard presets for the house espresso blend (which is what I tried.) If you want a pound to go, you can pull it from the gravity-fed spouts on the fronts of the tubes.
They also sell all manner of frozen, iced, blended drinks, typical home brewing equipment, roasted beans by the pound, and frozen gelatos and ice creams. Affogato al caffe, anyone?
Below is the photo showing the roaster, the green/roasted storage tubes and the vacuum-fed super automatic espresso/drink maker.
Turns out this is the brainchild of Mike Caswell, an industrial engineer and former Starbucks executive, and is called the Roasting Plant Javabot (tm). Here is the link to their company site, and better pics than mine. http://www.roastingplant.com/
Just HAD to share…
DavidG
p.s. They have 2 locations, per their website. I visited the one at the intersection of 7th Ave, West 11th St and Greenwich Ave. in the West Village.
DavidG attached the following image:
seedlings wrote:
Baristas can now sympathize with bank tellers.
Laughing so hard I am coughing!
I tried to avoid getting customers in the photos... hard to do in NYC on a sunny Friday. The place had quite a few people in it, and both the real estate rep and the manager on duty said that they were steadily "converting" from the *$ half a block away.
la pavoni | yama | chemex | aeropress | melitta | CCD
wbp1 | wepp1 | bm/hg | co hybrid (coming soon...)
Technically an awesome achievement but the all important thing how was the brown stuff coming out of the superautos or was it average like they normally are Exhibit A is below from their website
Slightly seriously unless all the beans get turned over fairly constantly how is the exposure to repeated bursts of low pressure and air generally going to accelerate the beans going off?
Edited by beanflying on 04/26/2010 02:25
My name is Tim and I have a coffee equipment addiction problem
beanflying wrote:
Technically an awesome achievement but the all important thing how was the brown stuff coming out of the superautos or was it average like they normally are Exhibit A is below from their website
Slightly seriously unless all the beans get turned over fairly constantly how is the exposure to repeated bursts of low pressure and air generally going to accelerate the beans going off?
Tim,
Great questions. Also, how much rest do the tubed beans get? For espresso, this can be delicate, as we all know. For grabbing a bagged pound for drip-brew, not as much.
First impression was a superauto shot served in a small paper cup.
The house blend 'spro was average, at best. The crema was thin, more blond/white than I like, and the body rather flat. However, most serious espresso shops in NYC as a rule serve 1 oz shots using the double-sized portafilter -- powerful, syrupy wonderfulness (maybe my 6 shop tour deserves it's own thread!). So, in comparison to what I had been drinking that day, these were thin and lacked the potency of the standard ristretto (forgive me if I err on the technical 'spro words).
On the other hand, and to their credit, most of the shots would be meeting milk, ice, whipped cream, flavor, etc., before being tasted. So, from that standpoint, consistent production and perfectly good quality.
The part that still blows my mind is that the customer is given the blending choices, if they want, up to four origin components. I think, given enough time, I would line up 12 shots to taste all the differences/combinations. How much fun would that be! (On second thought, other customers might think it off-putting to see a wild-eyed blond guy explosively slurping on 12 espresso shots only to spit them out! ).
David
la pavoni | yama | chemex | aeropress | melitta | CCD
wbp1 | wepp1 | bm/hg | co hybrid (coming soon...)
how many people were working in the shop, and what was there level of education. looks like you might be able to save on baristas in exchange for engineers..Sean Harrington
educate.
thanks for taking time to post this along with pictures. we are getting ready to open our Photo Albums so you can do it all at once.
Ginny,
I thought the issue was me... the other day, I set up my facebook public album to link multiple photos here at HRO to the same post. But, for the life of me, I couldn't get it to work. Maybe I need to use photobucket or some such other cloud album.
So, I prewrote the narrative and posted them up one after the other... let us know when any upgrade goes live...
oh, and thanks for your kind words.
DavidG
Edited by DavidG on 04/26/2010 19:51
la pavoni | yama | chemex | aeropress | melitta | CCD
wbp1 | wepp1 | bm/hg | co hybrid (coming soon...)
Unta wrote:
how many people were working in the shop, and what was there level of education. looks like you might be able to save on baristas in exchange for engineers...
Exactly, Sean.
I asked the manager on duty who had the best latte art -- he said sheepishly, "well, we're all still working at it..." Apparently, they are still working out the kinks in having the superautos also steam and froth the milk. Does that make it a superduperauto? Then, it really is just a push button deal, once the whole thing is dialed in.
Staff was a younger crowd -- exactly the same folks you'd see at your local *$.
up since 4AM, going to hit the bed for bit, should you find more errors please let
me know asap so I can fix or I may need to call in the big guys!!
thanks for your patience and support!
HI I am back from my retreat. A wonderful, peaceful time and I am enjoying my home roast coffee again and trying to postpone contact with reality for a while
Exhibit A is below from their website 
). 
