Global Coffee Report talks to industry leaders on why Eversys Super Traditional machines are breaking down established taboos and becoming normalised in a world that requires good quality at scale.
When 2017 World Barista Champion Dale Harris made his first encounter with the Eversys line of Super Traditional (ST) coffee machines, he admits to being “a little frightened” by their sheer productivity.
“When you’re looking at shot variants that can produce 150-plus double espresso and milk drinks each and every hour, that’s an incredible amount of coffee volume from a footprint smaller than the most basic of traditional machines,” says Harris, Global Business and Product Development Manager for Hasbean and Ozone Coffee.
On further inspection of the traditionally designed yet fully automatic and modularised machines, which include the Enigma, Cameo and Shotmaster range, Harris noticed their ease of use and the reduction in strenuous, labour demands compared to situations where he’d physically grind, tamp, and prepare every shot, in high volume, with a traditional equivalent.
“While there is a noticeable loss of some of the satisfying tactile moments of ‘making coffee’, these are always more fun when you’re making a couple of drinks for yourself without pressure compared to the factory-like process you have to work through when managing a morning rush. Being able to produce 100 great coffees at speed and ending that rush with clean hands, a clean work station and a more relaxed composure is also a truly amazing, valid experience,” Harris says.
“As you remove moments when the barista ‘crafts’ the product, the intrinsic quality of the machine has to reproduce these every time, and that means that the basic skills of tasting, recipe setting, and calibration across sites become even more critical. While lesser baristas can be used at reduced cost, the ones you have in key positions can actually be utilised more efficiently and in greater, more professional roles. We’re liberating the skill and the knowledge of the barista from being a cog in a production line to becoming a director of coffee quality, and a maître d’ of the customer experience.”
Harris adds that having technology replace the physical elements of coffee making also enables more staff to engage with customers, create a sense of community and celebrate or educate them on the products being offered.
I’m really interested to see how some businesses will use the technology to either bring the coffee making process closer to customers, empower them in different environments, particularly within self-service. And equally, how some venues may remove the coffee making process from within the dining room and instead focus on high quality products being delivered, in a return to a more premium table side service situation,” Harris says. “Changes in technology allow for greater flexibility, adoption sometimes in ways that can be unforeseen but that ultimately can transform and enhance our customer experiences.”
For Dr Adam Carr, Founder and Director of Highpresso consulting in Australia, the movement towards more automation within the coffee industry is already transforming experiences thanks to automated tampers and milk steamers, grind-by-weight tools, and automated brew ratio control.
“I believe any tool that can simplify a complex task while improving both the customer experience and the consistency of the end product is a job well done,” Carr says.
“Eversys has gone about automating all the tasks that would be done manually inside a café, while also replicating barista methodology within their technology platform. The result in the cup speaks for itself. As the system also facilitates hands-free operation, ST technology enables more eye contact with the customer. This in turn enables staff to have meaningful engagement with customers, while also delivering a consistently high-quality cup of coffee.
Carr says that while it can be tough for baristas to disengage from the familiar motions of manual coffee-making, once they experience the Eversys’ ST range and realise how they help get their job done faster, safer, and at scale with reduced inconsistencies and wastage, more people are likely to enjoy and appreciate them more.
Australian barista and Barista Hustle Founder Matt Perger has believed in the vision of Eversys since 2016 when he first became an ambassador for its Cameo machine. Since then, Perger has been convincing people of its ability and future in the coffee market.
“It’s been a gradual chipping away of prejudice. Back when I started working with Eversys, people were gasping that I dared work with a ‘super automatic company’. Then you slowly convert people once they realise that what Eversys manufacture is really good and they have their biases rejected. That takes time,” Perger says. “It’s like Airbnb – people though it was going to be nonsense, the preposterous idea of hosting someone in your living room, and it has now become normalised. It just takes time. People will slowly come across or they won’t, and their decision will have consequences on their business and careers.”
Perger says it’s also taken time and a lot of finessing by Eversys to balance the “traditional design vibes” of its ST range while retaining its automatic functionality.
“You can’t just put the machine in a more fancy box. Lots of decisions have to be made, from the user interface to how it’s programmed by people who care about the quality of coffee being made, to the style of service intended without compromising on quality – it’s all the little stuff that’s really hard to do. Attention to detail makes all the difference.”
While technology has evolved over the past six years, what hasn’t, Perger says, is customers’ demands for good coffee fast.
“That’s never changed, but in this post-COVID era, things are tougher for business operators. They want lower wage costs, less wastage and to on-board new staff with less training because there’s greater people turnover. There are many forces leaning towards venues having fewer staff that are less specialised which is unfortunate, but that’s where machines like the Eversys’ Super Ts can assist,” Perger says.
For Emi Fukahori, 2018 World Brewers Cup Champion, fourth-place winner in the 2021 World Barista Championship (WBC) and Founder of Mame specialty coffee roastery and café in Zurich, Eversys’ STs have been the perfect solution to many of her customers wanting to serve her coffee in their specialty facilities, but didn’t know how.
“We work with people who are chefs, bakers, and wine producers who know there’s a world of coffee out there but they have no coffee experience and can’t afford to employ a skilful barista to dial-in the coffee. Rather than investing in a capsule machine like most restaurants in Switzerland do, or a manual machine which is beautiful but hard to maintain consistency, I looked for another solution,” Fukahori says.
“After visiting Eversys’ Sierre headquarters and getting to know its range of products, I really believe their ST range is the best available solution on the market for people who want to have better coffees in their specialty venues without having a barista. The machines think like a barista. It’s a revolution for our customers and me as a barista. It’s a relief to give my coffee to more non-specialty venues and know that it will be served correctly and consistently to a high level of quality.”
Before installing an Eversys Cameo machine, Fukahori says one of her customers, a fine-dining Turkish restaurant, didn’t know how to make coffee and found the process quite stressful. Now, the staff taste and discuss the coffee together and serve coffee with a sense of pride and greater confidence.
“If service is complicated, you cannot stay consistent and mindful. Only when it is, can the door of curiosity able to be opened. I see that in my customers’ places. Now, they’re excited and interested in the coffee, flavour and extraction, and it’s really nice to see,” Fukahori says.
“We want more places to be serving better coffee. To do that alone, with two hands is absolutely not possible. But an Eversys Enigma can do six shots at the same time. I can’t even try to compete.”
On a larger scale, Fukahori says STs have the potential to make an even larger impact by sharing a greater volume of quality coffee – and not just the eight kilograms she sourced for her 2021 WBC competition coffee.
“Imagine if more people served better quality coffee [using STs]. We don’t want this to be a trend, we want it to become an intrinsic part of a culture that gets bigger and bigger. And if the end user likes the coffee and wants to pay a higher price for a better coffee, then it’s what we all want.”
For more information, visit www.eversys.com/en
This article was first published in the January/February 2022 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.