3 ms·

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 selec

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!

dzhiurgis 10y ago
Australian piccolo lattes are genius.
gambiting 10y ago
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.
kwhitefoot 10y ago
Reliably making great coffee by hand isn't solved either. The good barista that everyone here is so fond of is not very common.
grrowl 10y ago
In [my native] Australia, look for the tiniest little coffee shop for the best coffee and avoid chains at all costs. In Europe, I found chains produce the best and most reliable coffee, while your tiny little shops produce amateur coffee. I can't vouch for America but I'm expect a similarly vexing learning curve.

dzhiurgis 10y ago

Australian piccolo lattes are genius.

gambiting 10y ago

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.

kwhitefoot 10y ago

Reliably making great coffee by hand isn't solved either. The good barista that everyone here is so fond of is not very common.

grrowl 10y ago

In [my native] Australia, look for the tiniest little coffee shop for the best coffee and avoid chains at all costs. In Europe, I found chains produce the best and most reliable coffee, while your tiny little shops produce amateur coffee. I can't vouch for America but I'm expect a similarly vexing learning curve.