
Robot Baristas Serve Up the Future of Coffee at Cafe X - prostoalex
https://www.wsj.com/articles/robot-baristas-serve-up-the-future-of-coffee-at-cafe-x-1485781201
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skrebbel
I feel that most comments here miss the point of a barista. The barista is the
_host_. It's having a boss around. Take the barista out of a coffee shop and
it's more like a subway waiting area with better wifi.

It's the barista that says "no don't do that" when people do something that's
not ok. It's the barista that kindly escorts the loud confused yelling man to
the front door. It's also the barista that serves this other rather quirky
person a coffee like nothing is the matter, because he knows the quirky person
is really just that, quirky, no harm there.

If there's just a coffee machine, I will have to make all those calls myself.
If there's just a coffee machine, people will be less at ease.

The barista is the security person more than anything else and keeps us feel
safe by not looking or acting the part (because nobody feels safer nearby a
security dude). Trying to replace all that by a robot feels very HAL 9000 to
me.

And _that 's_ why we pay 5x the amount for a coffee served by a barista than a
coffee served by a machine.

~~~
lsaferite
So, a busy robot coffee shop still has 1 (or as many as needed) staff on to
handle those situations as their full-time job instead of handling the coffee
and the patrons. The point here is the highly repetitive part of making the
coffee is automated. You lower the number of bodies needed.

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jayjay71
I find videos of robots failing amusing.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKMysMDK8wU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKMysMDK8wU)

I'm sure by now they've gotten it to work though as it's a pretty simple
process. I'll have to head over to the mall and check it out.

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Mikeb85
There's coffee vending machines that can do lattes and cappuccinos. The robot
arm is a waste of time, especially since the coffee machine just does all the
work anyway.

Not to mention, people go to cafes for the same reason they go to bars. Human
interaction, a place to hang out, etc... Otherwise you can get a home coffee
machine that does the same as the one at this "cafe"...

~~~
grrowl
Having a robot tip the milk jug to _perfectly_ froth the milk at a precise
angle, at a precise temperature, and pour it in the coffee cup with a bit of
random/bespoke latte art — that would be impressive. The actual coffee bit
(grinding beans, boiling and pressurising water) is less visually impressive
and pretty solved by now.

Maybe they can self-service, or self-clean, but otherwise I don't see how
they'd be better than regular self-service coffee machines, which just can't
compare (as the whole package) to a skilled barista.

~~~
stephen_g
Automatically producing an _adequate_ coffee shot is easy, but actually making
great coffee by machine isn't solved - mainly due to the subjective nature of
selecting the grind settings to optimise for taste. Really good coffee shops
(I'm sure you have at least a handful in the US, but they're everywhere in
Australia. I'm talking like the little specialty places, not the chains which
generally serve fairly crappy coffee) will spend a decent amount of time
dialing in the grind in the morning, and then adjusting through the day to
account for humidity, ambient temperature, the age of the beans, etc.

Although I'm sure it varies hugely from market to market. On my travels, I've
been very surprised at what is considered good coffee overseas, even across
Europe!

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gambiting
I think it's a market which has a tendency to self-destroy. The more you
perfect the process, the worse it gets(for some customers). Think about beer -
who do you think makes "better" beer? Small brewery where everything is done
by hand, or a massive corporate brewery where every step of the process is
monitored for the _exact_ temperature, pressure and chemical composition? The
corporate brewery produces perfect beer, every single time. Yet, obviously,
that beer is "worse" than beer made by a single person using a manual
process(even though that process is less likely to be repeatable and there's
far less control over it). If the same person buys several more vats, expands,
hires 100 employees, there's a certain point where the beer turns from
"crafted beer"(and by definition, being amazing) to "corporate piss water"(and
by definition, being piss).

I can only assume that coffee made by a machine, no matter how "perfect" will
always lose to the hand made one, for no reason other than the fact that the
latter is hand made.

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fela
Looks a bit like an over engineered coffee machine to me. On the other, if
customers enjoy the experience, why not.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
I would say it's just the opposite - they could have sunk a lot of time and
money into designing an automated espresso machine, but instead they just
combined a multipurpose robot with a typical off-the-shelf espresso machine.
Which of course is also more theatrical than a black box (and I would guess
also reassures patrons that they are getting real espresso).

~~~
gravypod
Coffee is a combination of the following ingreedients:

    
    
       * Water
       * Beans filled with caffine
    

Water can be recived from a good filtering system [0], mixed with a choosen
water profile (common development of breweries), run through an electric water
heater, taken to tempature of 195F to 205F, then finally pushed through the
ground beans.

An espresso is usually steamed so you'd do the same process but use forced
steam then run the evaporated gass through a condensation colum.

It's very doable and probably would yield more ROI/cup because you'll better
be able to use time, power, and grindes to better deliver. Also the user
experiance of walking up to a wall, clicking a few tick boxes, swiping a card
and instantly getting some liquid spit into a cup that is exactly what you
ordered sounds a lot nicer for some people.

[0] - [http://www.homedepot.com/p/Triton-DI100-GPD-Aquarium-
Water-F...](http://www.homedepot.com/p/Triton-DI100-GPD-Aquarium-Water-
Filtration-System-HYDROLOGIC-31051/205616553)

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decker
Looks more like a fancy vending machine than a robot barista. I was hoping for
a portal-style robot eye and multiple robot arm suspended from some form of
track on the ceiling.

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contingencies
Non-paywalled article @ [http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-
news/a-robotic-b...](http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-
news/a-robotic-barista-is-now-serving--really-fast-20170130-gu1trt.html)

~~~
Endy
Thank you!

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wimagguc
There's only one thing no vending machine or robotic barista can do: justify
the cost of a $5 cappuccino.

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kodfodrasz
Having coffee made by a barista is about service, serving, that is a premium
compared to coffee made by a machine.

Why would I pay premium price for getting stuff from a will-less machine, that
I can get cheaper from other such machines. Having coffee made for me by a
human with free will, by free will, being made as well as it possible for a
human is what is worth a premium price over the simple cost of ingredients and
maintenance. For me, and I thing the future of economy the quality human
labour with heart and soul put into the product is worth more than automation
( for the sake of automation)

~~~
blazespin
Yeah, no kidding. What's the point of having money if someone can't make us a
nice submissive cup of coffee.

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ehnto
Forgive me if I have read you wrong, but only from a place of ignorance could
a statement like that be said without humor.

You are suggesting that being a Barista is such a low peg on society and such
a suffering to endure that it is akin to subservience.

Many baristas are incredibly talented and proud of what they do and make
coffee an artisan pursuit. Not only that, but it is perfectly alright to enjoy
serving coffee and enjoying customers company even if it isn't an artisan task
for you and is just a job.

Regardless of all that, just because you replace a barista with a robot does
not mean they will suddenly be interested in STEM fields or art or music or
furthering a corporate career. I know you didn't suggest that, but the
implication from others seems to be that if someone isn't doing an engineering
job then they just aren't living correctly and they sure would if only they
didn't have to do their blue collar job. That's clearly not the case nor will
it ever be, no matter the will of progress and innovation.

~~~
kwhitefoot
> replace a barista with a robot does not mean they will suddenly be
> interested in STEM fields

Any coffee shop that does it will do it just for the money. They won't shed a
tear for the barista who is now out of work.

If it doesn't save money, if people remain cheaper than machines, then the
barista will keep the job.

Anyway most people who serve coffee are just _serving_ coffee, giving the
trade a name doesn't automatically mean that the product is better. In my
limited experience of coffee shops (I like coffee but it disagrees with me)
the killer features of the good ones are good quality ingredients and
repeatability. Whether it's made by machine, barista, or druid incantations
it's all the same to me as long as the product is good.

~~~
ehnto
I hear you and that's likely the attitude most people have toward coffee and
coffee places. Coffee can be a product like a bottle of water, and you can buy
it from most places like you would a chocolate bar. For those circumstances
which I imagine is the majority, automated coffee would be perfect. But there
is definitely a coffee culture beneath that, and it's a lot more like a
cocktail bar than a drive through bottle shop for example.

The coffee shops I prefer are usually because the coffee is good, but the
people serving and the venue itself were also a great experience. An example
is the coffee store next door which has a fireplace, great music, sofas and
the people behind the counter are all about getting to know the regulars and
making everyone welcome. They take huge pride in what they do, which I guess
is what my little rant was about. To call them servants undermines a job that
is their passion and that's a bummer.

~~~
lmm
> all about getting to know the regulars and making everyone welcome. They
> take huge pride in what they do, which I guess is what my little rant was
> about. To call them servants undermines a job that is their passion and
> that's a bummer.

Couldn't one say exactly the same about a good butler?

~~~
ehnto
You could and again many buttlers are well paid and passionate about their
work. You could argue that even a high paid engineer is a servant to someone.
It was more about the idea that someone would only do it if they were forced
to by their economic situation, rather than because they want to.

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blazespin
I think there is an interesting relationship with our phones that might make
these things viable. We fetishize them. If Siri can deliver us perfect lattes
- that might work.

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the-dude
Works for us ( [https://mecoffee.nl](https://mecoffee.nl) ), an espresso
machine PID controller with accompanying app meBarista.

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azinman2
It's a robotic arm on an already automated espresso machine that's existed for
years. Calling that a barista is pretty thin...

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nr152522
What would be cool is a robotic cocktail bar. It could keep tabs on when
you're over the limit, perhaps via a "breath before serve" test. If so, order
an uber or notify your self driving car to pick you up. If you're dangerously
drunk, it could stop serving you too.

I'd probably call it RoBAR.

~~~
hug
There are venues like that: You need to buy tokens (from someone who will
judge your sobriety, and at a maximum of five tokens at once) and you insert
tokens for drinks.

I've not seen it done with cocktails, however, only draught beer taps.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Interesting. Where?

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crispyambulance
No. This is not the "future of coffee." This is a gimmicky airport coffee
vending machine.

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jbverschoor
Why not jus push a button from the 'machine' ?

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tempodox
No, it definitely has to be voice-controlled, like a Starfleet replicator.
Until then, I'll just use the machine I have.

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llukas
They do not understand what drinking coffe is about.

For an oversized office coffe machine it is excellent.

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aminok
We've had machines that can automatically produces lattes for years, but
people choose cafes with human baristas for social/relational reasons.

