Seeing is believing. It’s the whole reason people tour the Guinness factory. Because we all stare in awe as hops get crushed, tableside chefs prepare Japanese cuisine or even when our cars get washed.
Following in-step with experiential branding principles, Mike Caswell founded Roasting Plant in New York’s Lower East Side. After years developing technology to make the freshest cup of joe, the coffee stop has attracted a loyal, highly-caffeinated following. It’s no surprise given the technology they’ve developed to automatically roast, brew, and serve your drink of choice. It’s more of a coffee restaurant than a coffee shop.
With a menu ranging from mild Guatemala bean to stronger Sumatra, shots come a-la-carte to customize. As soon as you say ‘for here’ a micro-batch of the beans you chose flies through overhead pipes to get roasted in front of your eyes. The product never even gets touched by human hands.
And if even Howard Schultz acknowledges that the Starbucks experience is being commoditized, its no wonder new sensory-engaged coffee shops are popping up.
Check out this video to see the operation in action.
-contributed by Katie Sherman
Problem is that as poor as most cafés are at using truly fresh-roasted coffee, there’s also a point of “too much of a good thing”. Most freshly roasted coffee needs at least 24 hours to “gas out” its CO2, otherwise it tastes rather off-flavor.
I’ve recently been to a café that ran out of their usual supply of beans roasted optimally 4-8 days prior. And even the three-day old roast they opened up produced a “gassy” cup.
A system that roasts, grinds, and prepares coffee all in one fell swoop shows no awareness of the importance of this resting period.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I’ve been to the Roasting Plant (it’s down my block), and I left scratching my head whether all the sci-fi fuss was worth any improvement to the taste. One thing’s for sure, this place isn’t for those who like their cuppa joe brewed with any nostalgic coziness.
What’s the next step here, a re-fueling hose that connects into a feeding tube permanently inserted down my gullet? “That’ll be $2.50, sir.”
Anyone know where you can by Sanka in the LES?
February 10th, 2008 at 11:32 pm