Coffee news is big news in a city like Seattle. But the story on Monday originated further down the coast, as a San Francisco company by the name of Cafe X Technologies unveiled its first robotic cafe in the U.S.
For those who enjoy or just plain require coffee as part of their daily routine, Cafe X’s aim is to use machine learning and robotics “to eliminate the variabilities that bog down today’s coffee experience.”
While it all looks like another nod toward eliminating human interaction and letting the machines step in to facilitate timely delivery of a consistently same-same product, founder and CEO Henry Hu said in a news release that Cafe X “won’t replace baristas or the coffee shop experience that so many people have come to love.”
But stories online Monday sure had fun making it look like Terminator java was the way of the future as baristas were warned to beware and Cafe X was billed as a way to avoid judgy, hipster latte makers.
Armed with video of the Cafe X robotic arm spinning and grabbing things inside its glass case, GeekWire headed out into Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood for a new installment of Geek on the Street to gauge coffee lovers’ and coffee makers’ reaction to the buzz around robotic baristas.
Brie Wagner has been a barista for 2 years or so, first in downtown Seattle and now in the University District. She was seated at the counter in Milstead, a cafe in Fremont, on Monday.
“I think there’s merit on both sides,” Wagner said about automation vs. human interaction. “For people losing their jobs, that would be miserable. But for people who are in transit, that would be amazing, and there’s always going to be a large group of people that don’t care if there’s science behind it. They just want the caffeine and they want to get it over with, and for them I think it would be amazing to have something like [the robot].
“I think every individual barista does do that,” Wagner said in regard to whether she thinks she brings a specific skill and personality to making someone’s drink.
Connor McKay was working the espresso machine as a barista at Milstead. He’s been with the cafe for 3 1/2 years.
“I think one of the best parts, at least for me, about coffee, is talking to people and meeting people. I definitely understand the whole ‘don’t want to talk to your hipster barista’ thing, and I feel like, at least here, we try to really combat that and not be about that — the pretentiousness and the cool tunes and what not.
“I guess I’m never in that much of a hurry to get coffee. I make it a point, even if I’m not working for a day, take 10 minutes and come in here or go somewhere else and talk to someone, say, ‘What’s up?'”
McKay said he thinks folks in service industry jobs, like baristas and bartenders, are typically the kind who like to make that effort to patronize and interact with one another.
“I’m pretty introverted, but I’m good at being here and being somewhat extroverted and I really do enjoy meeting people and talking to people and asking about their day and stuff like that. The full automation thing, that is cool for people who don’t want to do that, but I would just steer clear. That’s not something I would ever go to or frequent.”
Jordan Haggard has been a barista for six years and has been working at Miir, a flagship cafe below Fremont’s new Brooks Running headquarters, for six months.
“I guess if they’re targeting people in a hurry, then sure,” Haggard said. “I don’t think it’s an ideal situation. I’m more of the kind of person who thinks hands-on people is more where we should be headed rather than more technology, because you lose the humanity side of things.
“Sure you can get real scientific and make it always consistent, but making milk is not really something you can teach a machine — I guess maybe you can, but there’s so much more thought and love behind it, like with anything, the idea of a machine doing my job is just laughable.”
Kimberly Storey was on her laptop and drinking an Americano at Miir. She figured the robotic Cafe X would be similar to getting coffee at a fast food joint like McDonald’s, which she likes to do now and then.
“If I’m going on the road — I don’t usually work at a McDonald’s — I might go through their drive-thru and grab it. I do like that it’s the same. I actually don’t come to places like this but I was meeting someone and they chose this spot so that’s why I came here.”
Storey said she’s “not opposed to having conversations” with workers at coffee shops, but she doesn’t have a shop that she frequents above all others. She figures a robot might make drinks more consistently the same way each time.
“I will say that, especially at a lot of coffee shops in Seattle, it’s different everywhere you go. I had never been here before, and sometimes I like to get more of a specialty drink but I just wasn’t sure how it was going to be and you’re kind of safe with Americanos. That’s why I ordered that.”
Soleil Kelley is a marketing consultant at a firm in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and he was on his laptop in Starbucks in Fremont drinking a double Americano on Monday.
“I’m a Starbucks fan, I think they’ve done a lot of good things in the world and introduced coffee culture to a lot of corners that have benefitted greatly from it,” Kelley said.
While that giant Seattle-based chain is doing plenty with technology in its own way, Kelley doesn’t think the robotic Cafe X would alter his lifestyle.
“It’s interesting and it’s a fast approach to coffee, sort of like a vending machine,” Kelley said. “I like going to coffee shops for the experience, the aroma, the interactions you have with the person. I think if it was just a cafe that just had robotic baristas, I wouldn’t be as inclined to patron that location because I like part of the experience of walking into a coffee shop and I think some of that would be lost with a fancy machine serving you.
“I’m not one for needing the same tasting coffee every day. I like the variety and going to different coffee shops opens up my palate to trying different things and tasting something and every once in a while saying, ‘Wow, that was a really good cup of coffee. I don’t know exactly why, whether it was some X blend or Y blend, or the way the barista pulled the shot.’ Some days are good, some days are bad and that’s just part of the experience of walking into a service organization.”
Sadie Patraw has been a barista for five years and she’s been at tiny Espresso To Go (etg) in Fremont for five or six months. The 21-year-old said she’s been drinking coffee since she was 12.
“I go for artisanship, which takes critical thinking skills as well as a well developed knack for making coffee continuously for five years. The muscle memory I have at this point probably … I’m sure that a program could match it, I don’t know that it could be updated as continuously as mine is. I’m the one in control of the programming of my own coffee-making skills. And this robot, if it’s making coffee as much as they expect it to make for these large quantities of people, I don’t know if it can stay up to date with how the coffee world changes as quickly as it is already.
“My personal preference for coffee culture is to be as minimal customer service as it can get, whereas I’m not catering to the personal needs of a person, I’m catering to their coffee needs. I am the robot. I am not a person in this sense, I am the person making the coffee. If I can get your drink correctly and you don’t want to talk to me, that’s fine. I don’t have to talk to you and I would say the only way we need to communicate is the transfer of funds and the transfer of goods.
“It’s turning into coffee fast food. That’s exactly what has already happened as some of the biggest competitors in the coffee culture right now — Starbucks, Tully’s, Seattle’s Best, that one down in San Francisco … Blue Bottle … it’s huge corporations. Stumptown — they’re doing it, too. And I’m not talking bad about these because they’re the ones that revolutionized the industry and made it accessible to massive amounts of people — which is what this robot would be doing also. It’s just, they’re lacking quality as opposed to quantity.”
Janine Thorn is a program manager at Seattle Pacific University and she stopped in etg with a friend after having lunch in Fremont.
“The coffee just smelled incredible so I just couldn’t help but come in here,” Thorn said. “I’m originally from Chicago so coffee was never big on my radar. In Seattle, the grey days just kind of blended one into another and I evolved. I am a coffee aficionado now.”
Thorn said if etg was just a kiosk with a robot inside she doesn’t think she would have a very positive reaction to it.
“I like talking to people. I associate coffee houses with being social and meeting people and talking and connecting and when you can’t do that, that seems so impersonal. Also realizing, different things are for different people. Some people just want their coffee and go. They don’t want to talk to anybody. I’m just not one of those people. I’m a social person off the top. What can I say?”
