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July 28, 2008
The world's best cup of coffee
Below, David Latourell, head of sales and service for Clover, the $11,000 machine's manufacturer, explains the process.
Below, Clint Newlan, barista at the Roasterie in Kansas City, Missouri and a semi-finalist at the 2008 United States Barista Championship, prepares a cup of Buena Vista from the Columbia Cup of Excellence Auction for a customer.
Guess I won't be using one of these at home until I get big — real big.
There are only 250 of these machines in the world, according to Mathew Honan's article in the August 2008 issue of Wired magazine.
And since Starbucks purchased Clover in March of this year the company apparently no longer sells the machine to individuals or independent cafés, instead placing them in its own shops across the U.S., where "by the end of 2008 there will be 80 machines installed in upscale urban markets across the country," wrote Honan.
July 28, 2008 at 04:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Starbucks will kill the company. Their bean supplies are just too old (post-roast) and are spread too wide (to cover many outlets for buyers) to really notice any of the nuances with a machine like the Clover. It's the $30,000 stereo to listen to AM talk radio. And with them no longer being sold to independents, essentially Starbucks is torpedoing CEC as they've done to pretty much all their other higher-quality acquisitions. Get them off the market and kill the potential for competition.
CEC now can't showcase their devices with fresh, Cup of Excellence-quality coffee, and places with fresh, Cup of Excellence-quality coffee can't use Clovers. So it's a dead end. CEC, RIP.
While I've had some pretty good cups of coffee from Clovers over the past 18 months (why is Wired a year late and a dollar short on this story? aren't they supposed to be "bleeding edge" with technology?), the best one still came out of a Chemex brewer. Oh well... technology isn't everything.
Posted by: greg | Jul 28, 2008 9:12:38 PM
You coffee drinkers. Pish-tush! Bah! My mother was a coffee freak, and every damn time we got together to go out for lunch/dinner, she'd wind up sending the coffee back. It's too cold! It's too lukewarm! Too strong, too weak, too old ("This coffee has way too much experience," she'd say), weird looking, bizarre tasting, etc. Always snobbing around for the perfect cup. Always demanding a fresh pot be made. No matter how much it might've discommoded her dining companion.
What about what us iced tea drinkers have to go through? Same thing. It's especially horrible when some joint makes iced tea that manages to taste like coffee. How the hell do they DO that?
Anyhow. The best consistently fabulous SWEET iced tea on earth is, so far, at Melear's Barbecue in Fayetteville, GA. (I don't care for their barbecue, especially not their Brunswick stew, which is a sacrilege.) Never had a bad glass. Never. Perfect, perfectly sweet, clear as a bell, pure tea (and nothing else) taste. No pre-lemoned crap. Huge, huge glasses it's hard to get your hand around. Damn it's good. Slurp. Drool. They won't tell me how they do it. Maybe I wouldn't want to know...
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=229&RefID=229 (last paragraph of review)
Posted by: Flautist | Jul 28, 2008 8:04:31 PM
I'm sorry, but as much as I like beverages and as much of a snob I am, there is only so good something can be.
I *LOVE* wine...I can tell the difference between a $5 bottle, a $20, a $100 and one the I couldn't afford (I have great friends though). Guess what? The difference between the $5 and the $20 is marginal with a little research. The $20 and $100 is even less marginal with a little research. The big difference? Someone else did the research on the biggest bucks one...but I've had a $20 that was well researched that stood up to that of the pricey one.
What does the Clover give you? Consistency. That's it. Nothing more. Great coffee, but no variability. I'd rather have the chance of bad coffee than the same thing over and over and over and over again. What happened to the idea of life being an adventure. I *NEVER* want to find the best...this means the rest will all be subpar.
Anyhoo....
Posted by: clifyt | Jul 28, 2008 5:56:13 PM
I wonder how much more they'll charge for a cup from that machine... and how they'll not make their "old" coffees look bad in the process.
Posted by: Matt | Jul 28, 2008 4:58:10 PM
Correction--- SOLIS PALAZZO SUPER AUTOMATIC
Posted by: wistrade | Jul 28, 2008 4:57:56 PM
Without a doubt the Slis Palazzo super auto is the best tasting and easiest on the pocket book and least messy of them all.
Made in Switzerland -under 1000 dollars US
Posted by: wistrade | Jul 28, 2008 4:53:28 PM
