Man Seeking Coffee

For anyone who’s been following the aftermath of the gradually diminishing Clover, there are several new possibilities on the horizon.  Of course, quite a few cafes are opting for completely manual methods such as hario V60’s and Chemex, but there are a few higher end items that promise cafes a more sophiticated, controlled brewing experience.

One of these is Bunn’s Trifecta, which you may well have seen some tid bits on.  The Trifecta brews its coffee in see through chamber with some lights, lots of turbulence and a bevy of brew parameter controls. It seems likely with Bunn’s marketing muscle that you’ll end up seeing this machine in a lot of cafes. My experience with a couple different coffees wasn’t bad. It actually reminded me of the more concentrated coffee you tend to get from an aeropress, however, and not something typical of pour over coffee. The potential for variability seems impressive, but I’m curious whether it will get used.

I got to see the Uber Boiler on display at both the WBC booth and, interestingly, the Intelligentsia booth. The Uber, if you’re not familiar with it, offers instant temperature control of a stream of water you can use for any of several pour over or French Press methods.  Since the boiler is installed below the counter it’s a pretty involved set up. The degree of control is wonderful – temperature, timing, and the built in scale. I’m not sure about speed though. A four station drip stand allows you to keep up with demand. I’m not sure how a cafe would make this work without installing several or brewing big pots.

I saw the Luminaire prototype at the Roust About booth. Roust About is Edwin Martinez company that was and still sort of is Hario USA. It’s the big importer of Hario products, but isn’t exclusively, or won’t be exclusively Hario products. The Luminaire is similar in concept to the Uber only sans boiler. The water is heated instantly inside the unit, meaning that no boiler installation is necessary. Uber or Luminaire? Sharks or Jets?