Clover has got your Hario V60 right here, pal
Posted by TheShot on 01 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Machine, Starbucks
In what’s starting to look like a Spy-vs-Spy-like dance between a Starbucks acquisition and the unStarbucks set, Starbucks’ Clover Equipment Company’s latest move is the Precision Pour Over: Clover Pour Over « Why Not? Coffee. (Courtesy of Seattle’s Why Not? Coffee.)
As we left off in our story, the once-independent Clover Equipment Company made waves with its brewer back in 2007. With its splashy introduction on the market, half lead by its fictitious price tag, lot of people bored with the espresso routine saw brewed coffee as fertile new ground for coffee exploration. But then Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz discovered it, got his hands on it in 2008, and said he was taking all the toys for himself and didn’t want to share.
Many independent cafés were suddenly locked out of the device, and others still thumbed their nose at the machine’s “sell-out” to Starbucks. In retaliation, many independent cafés replaced thoughts of the Clover brewer with an obsession over Hario V-60s drippers — essentially exhuming the 1908 invention of the Melitta coffee filter with a little spit shine.
Clover’s latest move is a prototype that co-opts the Hario V60 in a new design that stay’s true to Clover’s hands-off, mass-production mission. Between that and even Williams-Sonoma now carrying the Hario drippers (a jump the shark moment?), we can only wait and see how the unStarbucks set will counter.
Any way it goes, there’s still no end in sight for the filter drip faux arms race — with coffee consumers caught in the crossfire.
5 Comments »
Hmm, some news on the first days of the new year!
I think it’s not really total “hands-off, mass-production”. From what I see in the video, some things that can be monitored by the barista with manual pour cannot be done automatically by the Clover’s PPO (precision pour over) machine. For example, how much bloom should you “let go” in the prewet phase before you start to let it “seep” (I dunno the correct term, pardon my bad English), and continuing with the pour?
So, “mass production”, yes, but entirely “hands-off”? Hardly.
I also think the appearance of this kind of machine as the “logical-next-step” in trying to prevent variations and easing the job of brewing coffee with filter method, one aspect or more.
For example (mind you I’ve never tried any of these, just looking and drooling at the pics and videos), the Technivorm eliminates the hassle of verifying/ensuring
that the temperature of water that we used is exactly what we want. The Luminaire lets us control the direction of the flow, and so on and so on… I thinks it’s logical to see people wanting to replace one step or another in the coffee brewing process from our own hands to computer/machine’s work.
And if you talk about S’bux, I don’t think it’s really Cold War per se; the independent cafes doesn’t carry S’bux’s roast, vice versa. So it’s not about “S’bux ultra-auto-pour-machine vs indies’ manual pour method”.
The only thing (IMO) S’bux is trying to do with this machine is to ride in the wave of “filter brew” with their own coffee beans. In many of their outlets. Well I think in many of your posts, you already highlighted the difference between indie roasters’ roast and S’bux’s roast…
Got a tip that my country’s S’bux is also on the verge on riding the filter drip wave…
Just my 200 rupiah (my nation’s currency).
kind regards,
Enrico
Indonesia
Interesting comments, Enrico. (I swear I have to check out the coffee scene in Indonesia soon.) While I think there are many points in the process where a barista can check, monitor, and — perhaps — adjust, I don’t see this as the objective of its design. At least beyond a calibration phase.
Clover’s initial brewer was all about creating multiple calibration profiles for different coffees that could lead to push-button operation by the lowest-wage, lowest-skilled barista available. Which is why it made sense as a Starbucks acquisition. They have common goals: quality, consistency, but with the caveat of the minimum amount of skilled labor necessary.
Now that the Hario V60 has made itself practically mainstream (co-opted by Starbuck’s/Clover’s latest variant of the coffee-making Roomba, Williams-Sonoma retailing, etc.), mark my words: there will be a riposte from the unStarbucks set. As much as many of us think of Starbucks as a quality also-ran, they still represent the 800-lb gorilla of specialty coffee sales and the best measure of public consciousness around quality coffee.
Many unStarbucks cafés have defined themselves by how they differ from a (flawed) standard like Starbucks. One of their worst, counterproductive traits is defining themselves by the things they are not rather than the things that they stand for. They’re like teenagers in that regard: still rebelling against their parents and not quite coming into their own comfortable identities.
I don’t see that changing just yet, which leads me to fully expect an anti-V60/anti-Clover PPO response later this year.
>”quality, consistency, but with the caveat of the minimum amount of skilled labor necessary.”
Just realized this thing about Starbucks! Haha! Well if you’re a gigantic coffee chain with cafes on every corner, those kind of characteristics are kinda logical…
True, I think that the only way for a cafe to “fight” Starbucks is to not play in their game. Differentiation is one of method. When Starbucks suddenly invaded their game.. We’d have to wait 1-2 months to look at the development.
But still, “anti V-60″? Well, maybe the device. But filter coffee and other non-espresso machine based brewing method is still one of the best choice for people who can’t afford an espresso machine at home. Do I have to go to devices like Citiz???? Meh.
And the manual method such as French Press, filter, etc, is also still the best way to introduce
specialty coffee for people who still drinks commodity coffee in its various forms. Here in Indonesia the alternative goes a little bit like this (majority of them) :
- Black, ground, commodity coffee, usually in sachets.
- Instant coffee already with sugar and milk powder.
- Those two above with “premium label”.
- For ones that have more money to spend, to the cafes in which they’d order cold coffee beverages… Frappucino anyone?
It’s hard to say to people around me to switch to specialty coffee. Because if you brew coffee with more time that 1.5 minutes, those people would say “It’s really a pain to do that!” or “That surely took a long time!”
My country is right smack in the middle of the “coffee belt”. It spans thousands of kilometres errr miles, with different coffee characteristics from the western tip Aceh to eastern border Papua. If it’s not explored properly, it’s kinda like looking at Mike Tyson knitting mufflers; You know he’s got the potential NOT in what he’s doing right now.
My friend recently opened a manual brew method-only coffee cafe, I’d like to see how it goes. If these customers can appreciate the specialty coffees my friend provide, I’d be convinced that others can also be convinced. It’s just the matter HOW.
Perhaps “anti-V60″ is too strong a term. But there will be a swing abandoning the commoditized V60 in favor of something else — whether it’s a Coava Kone Funnel or some other implement in the daily pour-over arms race that will ring in the copycats in the new year.
Ha! Just as I suspected… I’ve been wondering, how do people combine V60 and Clever Dripper? A more v-shaped cone plus the ability to stop the flow to control brew time? You just gave me (link to the) one of the best answers this early in 2011… Looking forward to news in the next 2-3 months…
What’s good about producers’ competition is that in the end it’d give consumers more choice. And in some cases, it’s a great output!