The Future of Coffee is NOW - “ALEXA, please make me a World Barista Championship coffee!”

My parents grew up with filter and instant coffee, while I grew up with espresso and capsule coffee. Being now a coffee professional myself, I am currently witnessing the rise of ready-to-drink and cold brew. Most recently, I also see specialty coffee roasters moving into exactly these instant, capsule and ready-to-drink segments. For me, specialty coffee and especially the World Barista Championship stage was the innovation platform for coffee. Yet, is seems that we have reached the end of coffee innovation. What comes after the capsule, which has been invented already more than 40 years ago? And why are specialty roasters now following the commercial roasters, instead of pushing the boundaries of coffee?

Let’s first turn back time to better understand why instant and capsule coffee had and still has such a tremendous success, and why ready-to-drink is moving in the same direction, before we go back to the future. In a second step let’s also have a look, why specialty coffee is still niche and never really took off in many countries.

In today’s food and beverage industry CONVENIENCE is the big buzz word. This is for sure also the case in the coffee industry, especially when it comes to the daily caffeine kick (in the morning). During that particular drinking occasion, taste often only plays a secondary role.

Coffee has to wake us up and make us feel alert and ready for the day.

The coffee has to be immediately ready and will often be consumed with milk, sugar or even both, regardless of the brewing method. Later in the day, the self-indulgence aspect becomes more relevant.

Coffee drinkers then want to reward themselves, and suddenly quality becomes more important.

Instant and capsule coffee deliver definitely both very well on convenience. To prepare a cup of instant coffee, you just need a water kettle, not even a grinder or a coffee machine. And when it comes to a capsule coffee, the capsule coffee manufacturer has already set the perfect grind thanks to their state-of-the-art roller grinders. You just need to push one button to drink your cup of coffee. Even my two-year-old son can do that. Everything is easy and in addition, everything is clean. There is absolutely no mess in your kitchen. A bottle or can of ready-to-drink coffee is even easier to enjoy. Open the bottle or can – done. In Japan you can buy such bottles and cans at every corner out of a vending machine. The product is omnipresent, and you can choose from a hot or chilled product.

What about coffee quality and indulgence? Instant, capsule and ready-to-drink coffee all have the potential to be premium. You can now enjoy for example an instant espresso, which comes with a thick crema on top – thanks to technology. Various specialty coffee roasters have also entered the instant coffee segment, as for example The Barn with Voilà instant sachets. Capsules can be filled with the most prestigious Panama Geisha from award winning coffee farms. My latest experience - with Savage Coffee from Finca Deborah - showed that such high-end coffees are even ground on state-of-the-art roller grinders. Furthermore, specialty coffee roasters around the world offer their coffees in cold brew and flash brew formats in cans or bottles.

But why do we not all drink specialty coffee at home? First of all, specialty coffee is very different from what a commercial coffee lover is normally drinking. Specialty coffees are mostly light roasted and therefore come with a much higher acidity than commercial roasts. They are also mostly prepared by “third-wave baristas”, who do often also not speak the commercial coffee consumers’ language. And yes, they are more expensive, as they are often more sustainable.

Nevertheless, there is a number of specialty coffee enthusiasts, who would love to prepare specialty coffee at home. From my personal experience, specialty coffee is extremely difficult to prepare. I had to extract 23,000 espresso shots myself until I was ready to extract espresso consistently. In addition, you require the right water, the right beans, the right roast profile, the right grind setting, and the right brew recipe, etc. For someone who just wants to have a great cup of coffee in the morning at home, this is far too complicated, hence the convenient formats will always win. But why can technology not help us?

Two years ago, I wrote a post about my vision and how ALEXA will make the perfect cup of specialty coffee for us based on IOT (Internet of Things). Soon, you do not need to know anything about coffee and coffee making anymore.

Without any coffee knowledge, anyone will be able to prepare a World Barista Championship espresso at home.

In the USA there is already a microwave oven, that you can ask: “Alexa, please prepare my jacked potato!” Alexa will search the internet and feed the microwave oven with the required information about the best temperature and the recommended cooking time. The microwave oven will then prepare the potato to perfection. Two years ago, I was already convinced, that this will also soon be possible for our beloved coffee. And look where we are today. ARRIVED (nearly!).

You want to enjoy my World Barista Championship coffee at home? a double espresso shot from Honduras - Finca El Puente, Washed Geisha. For the roast profile, you just have to ask ALEXA. ALEXA will search the internet and find for example the World Barista Championship roast profile of a certain André Eiermann in the IKAWA Roast Profile Gallery. DONE. For the water, ALEXA will search the internet and find the SCA Water Booklet, written by Dr. Marco Wellinger from the ZHAW. ALEXA will then instruct your filter system to set the water quality automatically to WBC standards (SMART Water Technology is already available since 2018 in the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia Wave).

For the extraction, you also just simply ask ALEXA. ALEXA will search the internet to find my brew recipe for Finca El Puente Washed Geisha and will find it on the Victoria Arduino E1 mobile app.

The app even includes an espresso card, so you will already know in advance, how your espresso is going to taste like (taste balance, flavors, and tactile - similar to the WBC Sensory Score Sheet).

For the time being, you have to dial-in the grinder yourself, but self-adjusting grinders are also already available.

So! The future of coffee is HERE and NOW!

The world is changing fast. Especially during this pandemic, the digitalization moved at the speed of light. (Digital) sharing became even more powerful: we will share roast profiles, particle size distributions, brew recipes, and final espresso flavour notes. We will learn from each other simultaneously and therefore grow together. Thanks to our global coffee network.

Connect to a new world of possibilities. Become a World HOME Barista Champion today. Brew any specialty coffee with zero barista skills thanks to technology. Maybe I move a little too quick, but it was not long ago, the mobile phone of my father was as big as a suitcase. Back then nobody - except Steve Jobs - would have thought, that a few years later we will all run around with a mobile device in our pockets, that has today much more to offer than the original 2,000 songs. It is an office, a photo and film studio, a music box, etc.

If that is too futuristic for you, I will join you for a cup of traditional filter coffee. Kenya, ok? I am happy to do so. Some ideas seem to be odd or even totally crazy at first sight, but a few years later they simply become reality.

You want to make a bet about Alexa making a championship coffee in the years to come. I am ready to put my money on the table.