The Javabot Combines Engineering and Coffee

WormholeFiend writes "The Javabot is the coffee machine of the future — completely next generation. It is the fully-automated system that runs the Roasting Plant Coffee Company in New York and its design is illustrative of what can be achieved using new thinking and methodologies to something that was previously regarded as a black art. The system is part of the experience because the coffee system runs throughout the shop. It's the first walk-in coffee machine in effect, and customers sit there and watch as their coffee beans rush past in pneumatic tubes, as they move from storage bins to staging, roasting station, grinding and a brewing machine where they are dispensed with the repeatable accuracy of a purpose-built machine. Customers can choose from any blend of seven different beans and every aspect of the process is controlled."

Comments

Dilbert had it first

[Saint Stephen]

http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080331.html
http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080401.html

Re:No roast on demand

[dmd53]

If it's just dangerous gases to worry about (??), why not use suction to draw them away?

From Wikipedia:

"Volatile organic compounds (VOC), organic acids, and combustion products are the principal emissions from coffee processing... including alcohols, aldehydes, organic acids, and nitrogen and sulfur compounds. Because roasters are typically natural gas-fired, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions result from fuel combustion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_roasting#Emissions_and_control

I can only imagine it would be better to consolidate the emission control systems for roasting and subsequent de-gassing, rather than have separate systems for the roaster and the bean storage.

I'm no organic chemist, but the byproducts listed above sound poisonous at high levels. Regardless of the safety risk, however, I can only imagine that coffee snobs would frown upon their gourmet beans mingling with random aromatic hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds-- these don't sound too appetizing, regardless of the health risk.

I'd imagine that messing with the cooling process would subsequently mess with the nature of the oils and byproducts formed, again altering the flavor. Further research would be needed to support this claim.

And now for a shameless endorsement: I bought an Aerobie (R) Aeropress to accomodate my coffee needs in close living quarters (read: frat house). To date, it is the quickest, cleanest, simplest coffee apparatus I've ever used, and produces a sweet--yes, literally sweet-- and aromatic espresso/latte/Americano that surpasses the local Seattle's Best or Starbucks by a mile. It's cheap and available from multiple sources, and I recommend that every coffee fanatic here tries one before investing in a more expensive coffee/espresso rig--especially a walk-in one.

Re:Roasting?

[Chyeld]

The roasting is done daily, to allow the beans to 'out gas'.

Most of what the Javabot does takes place on demand. When a customer orders the coffee, the beans shoot from the storage bins over to the grinding unit and drop down into the brewing machine. It takes only about 30 sec to convey, grind and brew the coffee beans.

The roasting process, meanwhile, usually takes place daily but not per individual beverage. "The beans need time to cool and out-gas after roasting. Most people wouldn't want to wait around that long," says Michael Hodor, Roasting Plant's head of technology. So after roasting in small batches, the beans are conveyed into the storage bins, whose tubular shape and bottom-mounted metering system ensure the beans exit on a first-in, first-out basis.
....
Scaling up the Javabot won't likely prove to be too big a deal. "It's been designed for scaleability from the beginning," Youney says. His software, for instance, has all the hooks needed to add more coffee machines and bins. "The software even has a whole bunch of features we didn't use in the prototype," he says. These include Web-based ordering, customer profiles tied to bar codes and a slick roasting scheduler that uses fuzzy logic to predict demand patterns. And the modular design of the bins, with their self-contained metering systems and on-board microprocessors, allows the system to grow with a few extra tube runs.

Caswell says he plans to take full advantage of that scaleability as he opens new Roasting Plant shops. "Another nice thing about automation is that it allows us to replicate our concept over and over again," he says.