Gadgets That Stood Out at the 2023 Specialty Coffee Expo

In April 2023, coffee industry professionals gathered in Portland, Oregon, for the Specialty Coffee Expo, one of the largest trade shows organized by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). The event featured a sprawling exhibition hall with more than 500 exhibitors, along with workshops, lectures, cupping sessions, and the United States Coffee Championships.

The show floor was filled with green coffee importers, equipment makers, software firms, roasters, and others. Among the many booths, a handful of new gadgets drew our attention.

Superautomatic Espresso Machines Take Center Stage

Superautomatic espresso machines were a dominant theme in 2023—it seemed like nearly every manufacturer had one on display. A short walk through the hall brought us to the Nuova Simonelli Prontobar Touch, the La Cimbali S20, the Egro Touch Coffee, and the full Eversys superautomatic lineup, among others. This comes as little surprise: automated machines have improved significantly and are gaining traction in the specialty coffee sector. They open doors to new markets such as drive-thrus, hotels, and offices.

The term “superautomatic” might bring to mind robot baristas—and indeed, we met Tom, a robot barista built by Wingman Cobot. But we also saw machines like the Nuova Simonelli Prontobar Touch, a superautomatic that lets baristas adjust up to 20 individual beverage parameters, including tamp pressure, grind size, brew time, and temperature. The machine is built to be compact and user-friendly, featuring the Prontobar’s easy cream wand, which automatically steams milk into a pitcher.

TONE Touch 04

TONE, a Swiss equipment manufacturer, introduced its newest brewing innovation at the expo. In 2021, the company earned a Best New Product award for the TONE Touch 03, a boilerless brewer that relies on a proprietary heating element to bring water to brewing temperature. Essentially, it removes the need for a large boiler to keep water hot throughout the day in anticipation of brewing, thereby saving energy.

This year, TONE debuted the Touch 04, which builds on the 03 by offering larger brewing capacity—up to four liters (the 03 was designed for pour-over style brewing and smaller batches). The 04 can brew coffee within seconds of pressing a button, and baristas can program different recipes using the TONE Beverage Manager app. A key feature of the Touch 04 is its deep, narrow brew basket, which allows baristas to experiment with varying levels of agitation in the brew bed from the initial bloom to the final pour.

In addition, baristas can program up to four dynamic water profiles using the bypass function. This enables coffee shops to brew coffee concentrates and dilute them, or to brew large quantities of tea.

xBloom

The xBloom, which blends the convenience of single-serve pods with the craftsmanship of pour-over brewing, made a strong impression at the exhibition. This high-end automatic single-cup home brewer features a built-in grinder with 48mm burrs, programmed pouring patterns, and an integrated scale to achieve an optimal brewing ratio for every cup.

The xBloom challenges conventional ideas about how pod-based machines operate. Its pods contain whole beans rather than pre-ground coffee and also serve as the brewing vessel. To brew, users place the fully compostable pod on top of the machine, which uses an RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip to detect the beans inside; once the xBloom identifies the beans, it executes specific pre-programmed brewing parameters (or users can program their own).

The xBloom’s pods, called xPods, double as the brewing device—after pouring beans into the hopper, users place the pod in a holder beneath the grinder, and water is dispensed over the grounds. xPods are offered by well-known roasters, including Verve Coffee Roasters, Counter Culture Coffee, Onyx Coffee Lab, and others.

We had the chance to watch the xBloom brew a cup from Verve and enjoyed a bright, well-balanced cup with plenty of berry sweetness.

Precision Fill Mini by SŌVDA

Weighing, filling, and sealing coffee bags is among the most laborious and time-consuming tasks in running a roastery. As a roastery expands, the volume of coffee roasted—and the amount that must be weighed and packaged—grows with it. Weigh-and-fill machines, which automatically dispense a set weight of roasted or green coffee into a bag, have long addressed this challenge. However, the size and expense of such equipment often mean that small to mid-sized roasting companies cannot justify investing in this labor-saving technology.

SŌVDA, an equipment manufacturer based in Portland, Oregon, aims to bring the efficiency of weigh-and-fill machines to small roasting businesses with the Precision Fill Mini, a compact version of its Precision Fill machine. They demonstrated the Precision Fill Mini with live showings of how the machine weighs and dispenses coffee.

The Precision Fill Mini measures 540mm deep, 480mm wide, and 1200mm tall, so it can fit comfortably on a table in smaller roasteries. Its 25-liter hopper capacity allows production teams to fill 4–10 bags per minute, depending on bag size. With the built-in scale, the weigh-and-fill machine can fill bags ranging from 50 grams to 5 lbs.

The Precision Fill Mini also integrates with SŌVDA’s other equipment, including their lift conveyor—a tubing system that moves green and roasted coffee between areas of a roastery or pieces of machinery—which was also on display at the expo.

Latte Art Factory Bar Pro

The Latte Art Factory team poured intricate latte art designs throughout the weekend, showcasing the versatility and precision of their new automated milk frother, the Latte Art Factory Bar Pro.

The Latte Art Factory Bar Pro dispenses hot or cold foam from dairy or alternative milk with the exact amount of foam desired. Baristas use a touch screen to select the type of milk and foam to produce, then place the pitcher in the designated stand. The machine then heats, froths, and dispenses the chosen dairy or alternative milk. A refrigerator and modem are located underneath the bar.

The machine is fully programmable and can handle over 100 recipes, from steamed milk for lattes to cold foam made with oat milk, and can also dispense cold brew beverages. The Latte Art Factory Bar Pro won SCA’s Best New Product award in the Commercial Coffee Preparation and Serving Equipment category.

Honorable Mention: The SCA Coffee Value Assessment

While not a new brewing gadget or technology, the newly announced SCA Coffee Value Assessment was prominently featured in Portland. Posters across the show floor displayed the new format, and attendees could take part in cupping sessions using the updated form.

Designed to examine how coffee professionals identify and determine value, the SCA Coffee Value Assessment tool evaluates both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of a given coffee. The forms are currently undergoing beta testing and will serve as an update to the widely used 2004 SCA Cupping and Grading Protocol once finalized.