Earlier this year, Berlin-based Bonaverde announced the successful development of a new roast-grind-brew coffee machine that seeks to revolutionize coffee creation and consumption. The Bonaverde Berlin Coffee Maker has been in our minds for some time now, as it debuted on Kickstarter back in 2013, and is set to automate the normally arduous process of transforming raw beans into real coffee.
This first-of-its-kind roast-grind-brew coffee maker allows you to use raw beans purchased directly from specific growers. It also connects you to the source, so it’s ideal for coffee connoisseurs who want to know exactly where their coffee is coming from. Relying on high-speed connectivity, Bonaverde uses IoT technology to enable a direct line to coffee growers all over the world. This system allows you to put faces to names and know who’s behind the beverage you enjoy so much. It’s inspiring to think that an automated machine is allowing us to enjoy coffee with a more human touch. So, how does it work?
The nuts, bolts and beans of the machine
Coffee harvests from year to year always vary. As a result, beans are never the same, so a one-size-fits-all approach will not work when it comes to roasting. Different roaster settings need to be used for different types of beans… But how could a consumer machine possibly adapt so easily to different types of fresh beans? To do this, Bonaverde relies on a simple but brilliant solution. Each compatible bean pouch you can purchase includes an RFID chip pre-programmed with required roasting protocols, which informs the machine how to roast/grind/brew the beans in the most optimal way.
Cloud technology also has a large part to play in the process. Every batch of coffee available in the Bonaverde marketplace has a unique serial number, programmed into the RFID chip in the bean pouch. Coffee growers use this serial number to build their brand by storing content into the ‘Coffee Cloud’. When the machine reads this number, the Coffee Cloud not only sends in return the ideal roasting protocol for your beans but also provides stories and additional information about the grower, videos, photographs, and other facts straight to you. This empowers the growers, allowing them to enter the market as their own brand and show their personality.
It’s a great innovation, one which helps both the grower and the customer. I don’t know about you, but I do not have time to roast and grind fresh coffee beans each morning; having a machine that can do it for me in time for when I wake up is perfect. Coffee lovers can also find their favorite one on-the-go, through a mobile app showing in which coffee shop they can stop. This is one of the many reasons we at Gemalto are proud to support this product.
The Internet of ‘Get Us Through The Morning’
As we’ve highlighted, all the bean packages are equipped with RFID tags… but how do they connect? A tiny Gemalto cellular module, perfectly fit for humidity and high temperature environments, is placed in the machine to secure connectivity and delivery of these perfect roasting parameters.
On top of the module, Gemalto IoT services and device-to-cloud platform hosts the Bonaverde Coffee Cloud. The platform allows Bonaverde to connect any of their coffee machines in the world, over any network. It ensures that real-time data coming from private or enterprise coffee machines is treated and transformed into business intelligence to provide the best coffee consumption experience possible.
The platform handles all the complexity with ease – taking it out of Bonaverde´s hands – to manage a seamless communication between end user and grower, as well as end user and bean distributor. Information such as favorite beans, consumption frequency or regular travelling places can be shared; this then provides visibility on coffee lover profiles, making sure one never runs out of their beloved beans or is perfectly aware of the machine’s maintenance needs so they can keep enjoying the coffee they love every day.
We’re very excited to be part of the Bonaverde adventure and to bring enabling technology to a new offer, helping all parties involved. Let´s make sure we follow the development of this crowd-funded great idea as it reaches mass production later this year…
What do you think of the Bonaverde Berlin and the work so far from Coffee Changers? Let us know by tweeting to us @Gemalto or @GemaltoIoT. And to find out more about how IoT innovation is disrupting the coffee ecosystem in a positive way, make sure you read our case study, available here.
