The Missing Links

For many people, recycling is almost second nature. As soon as we finish reading newspapers, drinking from glass bottles or using aluminum cans, we give the empties their appropriate burials in their respective bins so they can go on to second lives as reused materials.

Recycling has fit so seamlessly into our lives that it’s impossible to imagine being without it. Specialty coffee and tea gadgets are having a similar affect on our industry, filling vital needs and making us forget what life was like before they arrived. From products that clean smallwares to unique tea brewers, to novel software and hardware, innovators are putting their best feet forward to help the industry evolve.

TECHNOLOGY'S INFLUENCE
Some innovations have stood out as particularly game changing. Where would a coffee shop be without Achilles Gaggia’s 1946 invention of the high-pressure espresso machine? And what would tea shops do without ancient Chinese teaware like the Yixing teapot, a Sung Dynasty invention still used today? While these pillars of achievement continue to hold strong in daily retailer life, modern-day innovators continue to ask simple questions of improvement and build the tools that provide the answers.

One question often asked by specialty coffee professionals is: How can we make coffee taste its best every time it’s brewed? Mike Ferguson of Fresh Ground Consulting puts it this way: “The old saying goes that a man can never cross the same river twice because both the man and the river will change. Given the number of variables involved, in a very technical sense, the same coffee is never brewed twice. I think this feeds an ongoing attempt to capture, then, lightning in a bottle.”

Coffee veteran George Howell has taken a step toward catching that lightning; last year his company, Terroir Coffee, unveiled ExtractMoJo, a universal brewing control solution that applies 21st-century digital technologies to coffee and espresso brewing. Vince Fedele, Terroir Coffee’s chief technology officer and COO, says the product ensures that cafés using Terroir Coffee are making beverages to SCAA Gold Cup standards each time. “In going to our own clients—cafés and coffeehouses—we were not happy with the variations that we were tasting in quality of coffee, and the variations were many,” he says.

To ensure consistency, ExtractMoJo uses a software application featuring the GHCC Universal Brewing Control Chart, which plots the targeted brew formula dynamically and in real time within Gold Cup quality standards, operating in four separate modes—Coffee, Bypass Coffee, Iced Coffee and Espresso. To read the data to plot that formula, ExtractMoJo uses a handheld digital refractometer that analyzes a single drop of coffee or espresso, measuring the percentage of total dissolved solids of coffee and the total brew solids of espresso. If the plotted liquid does not fall within the Gold Cup standards box of the brewing chart, ExtractMoJo provides immediate information on how to make simple adjustments to the brewing equipment to attain the intended extraction and strength. Fedele says that because coffee makes such a long journey before consumers actually taste it, it’s vital that the brewing process showcases it consistently and at the best quality. “The bottom line is, with all that work, you don’t want to blow it in the last five minutes,” he says.

Now that ExtractMoJo is available and garnering praise—including a Best New Product award at the 2009 SCAA Conference & Exhibition—Fedele thinks it will make a significant impact. “It’s so monumental and groundbreaking, it’s really the biggest advance to the state of the art of brewing coffee in 40 years,” he says.

MODIFYING, REPAIRING AND CLEANING
Technology advancements for coffee aren’t relegated to computers. In recent months, Olympia, Wash.-based Espresso Parts has released machine-oriented products that improve the barista’s way of life. One of these is the Elvinator, which—as its name indicates—was developed by Espresso Parts’ Michael Elvin. Designed to work with Mazzer grinders because of their reputation for “Mazzer spray” (a mess of coffee leftover from grinding), the Elvinator doser modification functions as a funnel off the bottom of the Mazzer doser that allows the coffee to drop directly into the portafilter rather than spilling. “The device works really well at keeping the counter clean and saving you a lot of money in coffee by not spilling it all over the counter,” says Espresso Parts founder Terry Ziniewicz.

Dissecting equipment is a universal love among coffee nerds, and it often requires tools. Jeffrey Pelo has answered the calling, introducing coffee tools since 2004 under the Pällo Coffeetool moniker. One product tailored to machine maintenance is the Caffeine Wrench, which works as a screwdriver, boltwrench, thermometer calibrator, basket popper and more. “It’s just like a little drawer utility tool where if you were a tech you could have it in your pocket.” says Pällo owner Jeffrey Pelo.

Pällo’s most well-known and commonly used product is the Coffeetool, which Pelo says he designed to combat a common problem faced by baristas while cleaning espresso machine groupheads. “When you’re cleaning you’re getting scalded,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out why there wasn’t a better brush.” The Coffeetool features long-lasting, replaceable bristles for scrubbing the portafilter, as well as a long neck with water-deflecting fins to protect the barista from hot water. “You see for the first time that you’re not getting burnt while you’re actually cleaning your machine properly,” Pelo says. He adds that since its release about five years ago, the Coffeetool has caught on rapidly. “It seems to be the standard pretty much everywhere nowadays, internationally.”

Among Pällo’s other tools are the Grindminder, a grinder brush and counter sweep to clean leftover grounds, and the Steamy Wanda, a brush for cleaning steam wands and portafilter spouts. “What we’re trying to do is provide innovative tools for the coffee industry to help elevate coffee making in general,” says Pelo. “There’s a lot of thought put into ergonomics … and solving what I see as little nagging problems that need to get fixed.”

LIQUID ASSETS
Espresso Parts’ new Pitcher Rinser is a pulse-activated device that conserves water while rinsing the steaming pitcher—a sanitary preparation practice and a boon to proper production of steamed and textured milk. “[It’s] something that’s been long overdue for the industry,” says Ziniewicz. “If a café rinses their steaming pitchers, they’re usually filling them up to the top, maybe rinsing them out twice. So they’re using anywhere from 20 to 32 ounces of water to do that every time.” The Pitcher Rinser uses two to three ounces of water.

The Espresso Parts staff came upon the idea for the Pitcher Rinser simply by thinking like baristas. “Everybody on staff at Espresso Parts has worked as a barista,” he says. “That’s often where we’ll find our products is we’ll get back behind the counter and go, ‘It sure would be cool if we had this.’ We found that when we were steaming milk, we went to another sink to rinse it out and then came back.” They developed the prototype in a six-by-six knockbox pan, set it in the knockbox hole next to the espresso machine, and found that it made their routines much easier. “When customers saw it in the café, they started requesting them … and so far it’s probably one of the most popular things we’ve released in recent years,” Ziniewicz says. Trevor Corlett, owner of MadCap Coffee in Grand Rapids, Mich., says the addition of the Pitcher Rinser to his shop four months ago has been a game-changer. “I can’t imagine going back to rinsing the pitchers in the sink.” 

Another gadget-like rinsing product is the Rinse-O-Matic from Vita-Mix. Designed to rinse any 64-ounce or smaller blender container, the device can attach to a standard sink, operates entirely on cold tap water pressure and uses less water for maximum performance. Dirty containers are rinsed in less than five seconds—a hit at coffee shops, where both making and cleanup of blended drinks can lead to line logjams. “If you had a whole line of people waiting for a blended drink, cleaning that container may pose a very substantial issue on your customer service or speed of service,” says Mark Fleming, senior product manager at Vita-Mix. “The Rinse-O-Matic is a way to increase that speed of service.”

UTILITY PLAYERS
Though Penn Scale has been making scale products for more than 85 years, the company recently stepped onto the coffee map with its food-grade plastic Don’t Spill the Beans scoop. Operators use it by scooping beans into the back of the scoop’s bowl, weighing them, then pouring them through the spout. Because of the product’s shield and spout design, beans will go directly into a bag rather than scattering across the floor. “It sits flat on a scale, so you can scale your beans,” says Andi Levin, Penn Scale’s president and owner. “It gives you total control in pouring them, so it’s just one easy motion to scoop and pour.” Penn Scale has offered the scoop in stainless steel for years, and its new plastic scoop is just $29.99.

Another handy foodservice device is the Tightvac, a multi-purpose container available in five sizes with a vacuum-closure system that displaces air to create an airtight, water-resistant and smell-proof vacuum seal. The product has applications in many industries, but one of its initial target markets was tea. “In Asia, we’ve sold way over five million Tightvacs to the tea industry,” says company founder Justin Marquis. A button is used to create a vacuum seal, keeping whatever is inside the Tightvac fresher for longer. “You could actually leave a dried good in a Tightvac for way over a year and it’s fine,” says Marquis.

Tightvac is being marketed toward the coffee industry as a storage option for both green and roasted beans. Marquis says its vacuum-sealing system works similarly to the release valves built into coffee bags, allowing carbon dioxide to escape while not letting in oxygen, helping beans maintain freshness. Coffee and tea wholesalers are offering Tightvacs to their retail customers, and Marquis says the response has been positive. “Their customers are so happy because they’ve never had a container like that before, and it’s inexpensive compared to some other things that are on the market,” he says.

MORE OF THE LEAF
While a Tightvac preserves dry tea’s freshness, other products target its brewing. The t-sac, for one, has a filter for brewing loose-leaf tea equipped with a sliding opening for easy filling. A newer spin on the bag-it-yourself approach is Teas Etc.’s Get Real, Get Loose, a line of teas that includes filters with its packaging, building them into the product to make it even easier for the consumer to go from leaf to drinkable beverage. The product won the Best New Product award in Packaging at the 2009 World Tea Expo. “The innovation is simple really,” says Teas Etc. founder Beth Johnston. “We have added all-natural, compostable tea filters to the outside of the package. This gives consumers who generally avoid loose tea because it’s complicated an easy-to-use, green solution.”

Another familiar concept with a recent update is the Teastick from Gamila Design. The one-cup, loose-tea infuser serves as a scoop, measuring device and infuser, and is a popular item offered by teahouse proprietors to their customers for home use. New from Gamila Design is the Teastick Gem, a colorful product aiming to lure a younger market to tea. Using the same three-in-one design as the Teastick, the Gems come in translucent colors and have a fine stainless-steel mesh ideal for smaller-leaf teas and herbal infusions. “We were really trying to incorporate that fine mesh,” says Ty Beddingfield, partner at Gamila Design. “A lot of herbal teas have really small particles.” The Gems retail for about 35 percent less than the original stainless-steel Teastick because they’re made of Tritan, a new polymer designed for foodservice by Eastman that is BPA-free, heat-resistant and safe for food applications.

Another new tea-brewing product is the Tea Pin, a handcrafted “pin” that lays across a tea cup and supports an infusing pouch that dangles in the water. Maria Mavromatis, founder of Tea Pin creator Tulia, says she created the product because she was frustrated with the work involved in brewing loose-leaf tea, so she sought an easier brewing approach. “I wanted to find a simple way to be able to use loose tea in a bag,” Mavromatis says. “Basically the birth of the idea was having this scepter-like implement that would pierce the tea bag and brew the tea in your cup. Cleaning up is easy: You just throw the bag away. You don’t have to worry about getting little tea leaves out or anything like that.”

While product advancements are often meant to increase speed, that sentiment may not carry over to the world of tea, where a relaxed atmosphere and peaceful pace rule the roost. “The biggest Achilles heel for tea’s continued growth is that the intended preparation and consumption requirements are contrary to typical American consumer behavior,” says George Jage, president of World Tea Expo. “The mindfulness and reflection typically associated with brewing high-quality loose tea just doesn’t fit with our fast-paced, fast-food, fast-lane lifestyles.” What lies in the future, Jage says, is an increased development of quick-brew techniques and gadgets that make it faster and easier to make tea.

THE FUTURE
Whether or not the move toward a faster-paced environment is a good thing is a discussion for another day. What remains clear, however, is that innovations are pushing both coffee and tea forward, and as long as innovators have the curiosity to continue their pursuits, new gadgets should continue to roll into the market. “Some of the best product ideas we get are from just sitting around with people,” says Ziniewicz of Espresso Parts. “You’re just sitting around talking and somebody says, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we did this?’ ‘Yeah, it would be cool, I wonder if we could do that …’”

Purchase this issue

Back to Top