

Show HN: Robotic pour-over coffee - cvdfer
http://www.poursteady.com

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rdtsc
This looks really cool. I haven't tried the pour-over coffee, yet.

Still using a french press. Other members of the family are using a cheap-o
single cup generic coffee maker (the drip kind). I have tried the coffee from
both (both take different grind sizes obviously) but depending on type of
coffee one can be better than the other. Sometimes it is just different. The
drip one tastes almost closer to a cold brew, which I also like.

It seems pour-overs is a realtively new trend. It used to be all about french
press, then aeropress became cool. That "vacuum thing" was cool for those
willing to spend more money and time. But in recent years I started hearing
about pour-overs. Is it just a matter of a cool ritual, or does it do
something different to the taste?

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hadoukenio
French press makes coffee that's way over extracted. You can get a Hario v60
for like $10 and it will change your life (well, at least you coffee habits).

Even since moving to pour overs, I rarely go back to espresso. And this is
from a 3-5 double espressos a day guy.

Next, try cold filter. Wow.

~~~
rdtsc
> French press makes coffee that's way over extracted.

I usually control that with the time the grounds are in contact with water and
the size of the grounds.

But heck at $10 + paper filters I will get it and try it out. Might even have
to get the cute little metal hot water pot. I have to say, like any proper
addiction, the ritual of making the coffee, the anticipation, the smelling of
grounds and so on. I can see how this provides those elements.

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derekwilliamson
Cool! Are you going to sell this to other businesses? If that's the direction
you're going, maybe try to throw some numbers on the speed, consistency and
reliability so a business owner can get excited about the investment? Really
cool product though - it's certainly has "theater" to it.

~~~
cvdfer
We will start trying to sell machines pretty soon. Our background is in
robotics so we thought this would be a fun application for the automation
technologies we use at our day jobs.

We just showed this at Engadget Expand in NYC this weekend and made about 850
cups of coffee over two days. We wrote a scheduler which takes care of the
timing and water volumes so every cup is the same. Parameters are controlled
via an HTML5 app. The machine is built like a piece of factory automation
equipment for good reliability. We've been running them 24/7 in the shop for
months to verify the hardware.

The theater is a big part of it, we're definitely trying to strike a balance
between the robot and the barista.

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BostonEnginerd
I can confirm the awesomeness of the coffee produced by this machine. They
were setup at Maker Faire NYC for the last two years giving away free coffee.
The robotic pourover was excellent!

Best of luck to these guys!

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mikydna
I saw these guys at maker faire. They won a ton of ribbons. I also saw them at
Engadget expand conference.

It's was a tasty cup of coffee. :)

