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Stop. Think. Has mankind perceived a need, created a product,
developed a large demand and then not developed technology
to crank it out? Think transportation. Walking, then horses,
carriages, bicycles, cars, airplanes. Think information processing.
Charcoal on caves, then parchment scrolls, calligraphy, typewriter,
the pc. Think coffee. Boiling, then filtering it, French
Press, manual espresso, pump system ...
Fullys, superautomatics, automatics ... the coming of age
of 'supers' is happening quickly enough that we don't have
a standard term for them. It was evident at EXPO in Milan
last November, the largest coffee show in the world, that
superautomatics are taking over the world. Supers were the
featured category in the equipment pavilion, with manufacturers
proudly featuring their latest iterations of automatic espresso
technology.
In speaking with the leading manufacturers, their vision
is on providing the fastest production of the elixir we all
love. Make it good, fast and reliable and they will come.
They are coming by scores in Europe.
There has been a long evolution of the superautomatic machine
before the latte every appeared below the Space Needle and
Howard Schultz had even seen a green mermaid. The Swiss have
been manufacturing superautomatics for many years. The Schaerer
Corporation, for instance, has been making them since 1956,
and ONLY super autos since 1970. Out of 27,000 restaurant/hospitality
sites in Switzerland, there are 24,500 superautomatic espresso
machines. Stop and think about that for a minute. That is
almost every restaurant in the country. That large base of
business has spawned an industry to support it. Cafina, Schaerer,
Franke, Egro, Rex Royal and Thermoplan are the major Swiss
manufacturers.
O.K., you say. That's fine for the watch people of Switzerland,
with their obsession for mechanical perfection. But the motherland
of Real Espresso, Italy, would never accept this abomination
of their culinary soul. Romance ... yes, handcrafted drinks
by career baristas ...that's where our legacy lies. They're
never going to sell out to a machine. I won't believe it
until it happens in Italy.
Well, guess what. Cimbali, a leader in Italian espresso
equipment since 1912 entered the world of auto-jo in 1969.
They initially concentrated their efforts in the export market.
The automation development became the top priority in the
80's as Daniel Bert took the helm of the company.
Mr. Bert believes that specialty coffee has an enormous
unexplored market share in most of the world and that this
market will be realized with the availability of the tool
to implement the throughput- the superautomatic. Here is
a broad thinker, not unlike Rockefeller's realizing that
readily available petroleum was necessary to make the put
the car in every garage.
Cimbali's current offering, the M-50 series has now been
produced for more than 10 years, with thousands of machines
around the world. Many are in extremely high volume locations,
producing more than 1,000 drinks/day. Just introduced is
another series of less expensive machines, in the $12,000
range.
Shift to the Land of the Free and Home of the Latte. What
about the real Seattle Latte Purist? The inner circle of
the inner circle. If someone is going to spew venom on supers,
methinks, it will be ... DAVID SCHOMER! I dial up David,
creator of the famous "Latte Art" video, owner
of Espresso Vivace, and fearlessly outspoken defender of
the art of espresso. I ask the question, with no holes barred
and am knocked over by his answer. "You'll beat a handmade
drink to death (with a superautomatic) than if its made by
a frenzied chef or waitperson", he exclaimed. "I've
been trying to get restaurants that have my coffee to use
one for years. Yet from what I've seen so far, the shot will
not match the knife edge result of a good (conventional)
machine in the hands of an expert." Good grief! If I
got it right, even David Schomer is saying that outside the
hands of an expert, espresso shots are best made by a superautomatic
machine.
Going back for a little bit of U.S. history, the first company
domestically to market the superauto in a big way was Acorto.
In 1989 Kyle Anderson and Duke Goss were convinced that the
world needed a better espresso mousetrap to make a great
latte at the push of a button, and by golly, they were going
to make their millions doing it. They were shocked that Torrefazione
wasn't going to let them buy beans for their first trade
show. Such was the respect for superautomatics a decade ago.
Since then, Acorto has manufactured over 4,000 machines and
gained international recognition in its niche of only marketing
'one step' machines, using onboard refrigerated milk. Acorto
currently has the high ground in this market, where the drink
is made by a single unified step using onboard-refrigerated
milk that is steamed into the cup at the same time the brew
cycle occurs. The 'one step' is especially effective in self-serve
applications, where a real latte or cappuccino is desired
with zero labor.
The M.I.T. Media Lab took one of the Acorto machines a couple
years ago, dubbed it "Mr. Java" and rigged it up
to recognize a user by a microchip implant in the user's
ceramic cup. It automatically made the user's drink of choice,
while chatting to him about the final score of last night's
game of his favorite sports team, weather or other chosen
subject. All this while deducting it from the user's VISA
account. Cute, but not as compelling as the best paid baristas.
The current attention in the U.S. for superautos is auto grind and brew functions with manual steaming. The machines
typically have one group head and one steam wand. Cafina,
Cimbali, Franke and Schaerer are emerging as the major players
in the U.S. market. These machines are being deployed into
delis, bakeries, restaurants, drive thru espresso units,
and now, even espresso bars.
Joe Monaghan, V.P. marketing of Espresso Specialists, distributor
of the Franke superautomatic, La Marzocco and Rio, forecasts
the future of supers. "I think that different levels
of applications are going to happen with superautomatics.
There will be more diverse use of them- like making whole
cups and carafes of American coffee." He goes on to
say that there is a trend towards lighter, cheaper, simpler
and smaller, but warns the buyer not to purchase a cheaper
but underrated machine.
Ron Brigham, C.O.O. of Caffe Diva, an up and coming chain
of drive thrus, sees them as the future. He remarked, "if
you're building a company of any size, it's the way to produce
the best shot in the most consistent manner. That's what
the customer is looking for- a drink that is the same from
location to location, barista to barista." Brigham previously
had managed all the drive-thru locations for Coffee People
and has a decade of experience keeping baristas trained.
Brigham is now using both Schaerer and Franke superautos.
One of Brigham's favorite stories is about drink consistency
at a location that his company purchased. It was run by only
family members- partially to achieve consist drinks. One
of the family members confided in Brigham that consistent
shots were never achieved. Even with striving for results,
every family member pulled shots differently.
Kent Holloway, original founder of Austin Chase and respected
espresso consultant, is starting a new coffee bar concept
called Fox Hollow. His partner asked him to consider the
new technology and he adamantly resisted. Holloway was finally
goaded into looking at superautos and tested his superpremium
beans in them. He admits being shocked at the results of
the quality of the shot and changed his view on the technology.
Holloway joined the techno-camp with a Cimbali M-50 and
may be the first superpremium roaster to have one in his
own flagship retail store. He observed "In 10 years
I have found few, if any, espresso bars where every barista
makes the drink the same. However, at Fox Hollow I'm not
hearing now, 'Is Mary here? She's the only one that knows
how to make my drink'"
Starbucks has been using superautos for a couple years now,
some in it's own coffee bars. The reports back at the barista
level are that their customers overall really didn't make
a big deal about the change in equipment where they use them.
Starbucks is beginning to outfit 800 coffee kiosks in Albertson's
stores with superautos configured with the 'smart' steam
wands. The machines are made by Thermoplan and called the "Black
and White" in some parts of the world, and of course,
are exclusive to Starbucks in the U.S.
What are the distinctions and differences between superautomatics?
The range of features below are found in machines in the
$10,000 to $18,000 range, machines capable and proven in
supporting an espresso business. Let's explore what the various
features are:
Some supers have just one grinder, but most have two- typically
used for caf and decaf, although the second hopper could
be used for a different blend of caffeinated. The higher
capacity machines have more powerful grinder motors and
larger burrs, grinding for a shorter period of time.
The advantage of the superauto's grinder is that because
it grinds for each shot made, it can be very fresh. Also,
because the grinder is working for shorter periods of
time, less heat is produced, resulting in longer burr
life and less heat transfer to the coffee.
Different machines have different diameters of brewgroups.
There will always be some compromise, because a single
shot is being made in the same diameter chamber as a
double. Generally smaller diameters are better for
lesser volumes of coffee, and larger ones are good
for larger doses, especially where doubles and triples
are standard.
Ultimately, the best way to judge the quality
features of the machine is to take your coffee to the machine,
have it dialed in by the machine expert and let your palette
be your guide. Some distinctions of the machine that will
play into that are the materials used for the brewgroup
and preheat features. What are the features that maintain
constant temperature in the brew cycle and is there preinfusion
an available feature?
How long does it take to steam your typical pitcher of
milk? After steaming a gallon or so of milk, can you
steam as well on this as your conventional machine? One
of the best features for superautomatic is the 'smart'
steam wand that automatically shuts the steam wand off
at the desired temperature. The slick thing about this
feature is that after the right amount of foam is developed,
the pitcher can be left under the watch of the smart
wand and the labor can attend to another task. In busy
locations, this amounts to gigantic labor savings. This
feature is found on Franke and Schaerer machines. If
the smart wand feature is available, make sure that the
probe is bullet proof when it is jammed to the bottom
of a steaming pitcher. How reliable is the thermostat
on the 'smart wand'?
What is involved with the daily cleaning process? It's
great if it's short, but does it really get to all
the parts needed to clean? Can a manager go into the
program mode to see when the last cleaning was performed?
I would encourage you to ask the technician what the
3 most common problems are and how they're fixed (confirm
this with your 5 field users that you've interviewed).
Go through a dry run with the technician of what it
takes to fix them. How much of the machine has to come
apart? After the warranty period, how costly are the
parts? Does each technician always travel with those
parts? Part of the unseen differences in machine vendors
is their commitment to their user base in parts inventory.
It represents significant difference in the investment
that a shop has in keeping your business running and
one that rarely shows up in a buyer's decision. Ask
to see the parts inventory.
In choosing a super, I suggest starting with the service
support side of the equation. Who is servicing, how long
have they done it for, can I see and talk to 5 other customers
using this machine and see how their service has been? There
are many more moving parts on a super than a conventional
machine. The trade off for the speed and reliability in the
shot quality is the issue of more moving parts. There will
be more mechanical failures than a conventional. Period.
Any other statement cannot be true- be concerned about anyone
who tells you otherwise. How will those "non-scheduled
service events" be addressed? What's your plan when
entropy comes knocking at your door?
We address these issues head on at where I work at Caffeine
Machines when an espresso business is considering a superauto
for its core livelihood. After servicing superautomatics
for 9 years, we know that even when well taken care of, an
expectable number of 'non-scheduled service events' (breakdowns)
is 2-3 times per year. What's the backup plan for the hours
before the machine is repaired, how long can you count on
technician to be and does he carry virtually everything ever
needed to fix the machine?
The largest variable we see in users' incidence of repair
is the maintenance of the machine- both the daily cleaning
procedures and the Preventive Maintenance (PM) by a technician.
If it's not cleaned regularly, drive components are working
harder and much more apt to failure. The result is down time
and usually costly repairs. The PM that is important with
a conventional machine is doubly so with a superauto. The
well trained technician can both provide deeper cleaning
for less wear on parts as well as head off failure which
always seems to happen when you're slammed. It stuns me that
people buy a $10,000 to $15,000 machine and then don't follow
the maintenance schedule.
It's clear from every angle and perspective, like it or
not, that superautomatic espresso machines are going to have
a dominant profile on the espresso landscape. If the machines
deliver the goods as promised, we'll be able to drink everything
we buy and 40% of the lattes out there won't be throwaways.
Start talking to your kids about being espresso technicians.
Watch for my follow up article in the March 2010 issue of
Fresh Cup, titled "10 Ideas for Garden Fountains with
Vintage Espresso Machines". |
