Sure, AI will change our lives. Hopefully for the best, but time will tell. There will always be demand for niche roasters of specialty coffees,but never fear, your role has been secured.
I was a certified Bellwether technician and worked on a restaurant's fleet, almost weekly. I've also installed a few V2s. It's definitely for people that don't want to be involved. Although you can source your own coffee and plot your curves, but they become very hands off. Which I find strange. There is also a very high cost of ownership. The PMs for the V1 were monthly for one client and it took 6-8 hours. The V2 shaved a few hours but you need to replace a 4ft carbon and hepa filter. Emissions have to go somewhere. Into a dumpster instead of the air. I've yet to see the much smaller V3 in person.
Also if you want to scale, your yield is 5lbs. Not very much if you want to supply more than just your shop. Then if your machine is down, and you need coffee sometimes they can't get it out to you fast enough.
Overall with AI, we can lower the bar so everyone can generate or roast whatever they want; but at the end of the day I believe most people will value human effort and craftsmanship. I also think that it will never be the magic bullet they think it can be. I also don't think we'll run into any weird sci-fi scenarios. I also don't think we're smart enough to get to go that far. At the end of the day it's all 1s and 0s. They just calculate much faster than ever.
This is among the most insightful comments I've encountered! Thanks for chiming in. Love hearing about your experience servicing the Bellwether. It's an impressive machine, no doubt, but it definitely sounds like the cost of ownership is high. For me, the joy of roasting is roasting itself. I love tweaking curves and adjusting variables, and I have no interest in outsourcing that work to a piece of tech. My education in the craft also came through other roasters—studying with them, cupping with them, becoming part of a tradition that's as much art as it is science. Tech is moving at the speed of light these days, so it's no wonder we're seeing it creep into coffee roasting. I tend to agree with you, though, there is no magic bullet and people will always value craftsmanship.
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. Your perspective on this is invaluable!
Thanks Gary and you’re welcome! I also forgot to add that the coffee this place was making, was one of the worst coffee’s I’ve ever tasted and that is what the owner wanted. He said it was the best coffee he ever tasted. It was called Manos de Mujer, don’t know and it was so dark it would stain the inner drum. Then because of all the costs, they eventually got rid of them when they purchased a production facility. They got a traditional roaster and the owner said to the pastry chef that she could just take it over hahaha. She was like hell no. She used to work for gget and knew what that entailed. Anyhow, that tied back to your bad restaurant coffee post.
I think tech and AI are severing us more than ever from human connection. You’re right, previous advancements seem to have been more about assistance not replacement. I was getting a new phone yesterday and dude was running me through Apple Intelligence, “if you like someone’s shoes or jacket you don’t have to ask them you can just take a picture of it and AI finds it online for you”. Oof. Now, I’m an introverted guy who most likely wouldn’t go up to a person, compliment their attire, and ask where they got it (unless I’ve had some liquid courage), but even I was like… damn. That real, face to face connection whether it’s about clothes, coffee, or whatever, is important in ways I’ve never realized before. Seeing where tech is headed is making me more outgoing and appreciative of human connection in my middle years.
I had the exact some interaction at the Apple Store recently—a rep showing me how to identify and buy someone’s sneakers by taking a picture of them. It was a Twilight Zone sales pitch. I have no interest in snapping stealth pictures of someone else’s shoes. I also don’t want to have random people aiming their cameras at my clothes (with how well dressed I am, it would be a constant nuisance). I’m fine suffering the inconvenience of not knowing that much about a stranger’s wardrobe.
Sure, AI will change our lives. Hopefully for the best, but time will tell. There will always be demand for niche roasters of specialty coffees,but never fear, your role has been secured.
I was a certified Bellwether technician and worked on a restaurant's fleet, almost weekly. I've also installed a few V2s. It's definitely for people that don't want to be involved. Although you can source your own coffee and plot your curves, but they become very hands off. Which I find strange. There is also a very high cost of ownership. The PMs for the V1 were monthly for one client and it took 6-8 hours. The V2 shaved a few hours but you need to replace a 4ft carbon and hepa filter. Emissions have to go somewhere. Into a dumpster instead of the air. I've yet to see the much smaller V3 in person.
Also if you want to scale, your yield is 5lbs. Not very much if you want to supply more than just your shop. Then if your machine is down, and you need coffee sometimes they can't get it out to you fast enough.
Overall with AI, we can lower the bar so everyone can generate or roast whatever they want; but at the end of the day I believe most people will value human effort and craftsmanship. I also think that it will never be the magic bullet they think it can be. I also don't think we'll run into any weird sci-fi scenarios. I also don't think we're smart enough to get to go that far. At the end of the day it's all 1s and 0s. They just calculate much faster than ever.
This is among the most insightful comments I've encountered! Thanks for chiming in. Love hearing about your experience servicing the Bellwether. It's an impressive machine, no doubt, but it definitely sounds like the cost of ownership is high. For me, the joy of roasting is roasting itself. I love tweaking curves and adjusting variables, and I have no interest in outsourcing that work to a piece of tech. My education in the craft also came through other roasters—studying with them, cupping with them, becoming part of a tradition that's as much art as it is science. Tech is moving at the speed of light these days, so it's no wonder we're seeing it creep into coffee roasting. I tend to agree with you, though, there is no magic bullet and people will always value craftsmanship.
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. Your perspective on this is invaluable!
Thanks Gary and you’re welcome! I also forgot to add that the coffee this place was making, was one of the worst coffee’s I’ve ever tasted and that is what the owner wanted. He said it was the best coffee he ever tasted. It was called Manos de Mujer, don’t know and it was so dark it would stain the inner drum. Then because of all the costs, they eventually got rid of them when they purchased a production facility. They got a traditional roaster and the owner said to the pastry chef that she could just take it over hahaha. She was like hell no. She used to work for gget and knew what that entailed. Anyhow, that tied back to your bad restaurant coffee post.
I think tech and AI are severing us more than ever from human connection. You’re right, previous advancements seem to have been more about assistance not replacement. I was getting a new phone yesterday and dude was running me through Apple Intelligence, “if you like someone’s shoes or jacket you don’t have to ask them you can just take a picture of it and AI finds it online for you”. Oof. Now, I’m an introverted guy who most likely wouldn’t go up to a person, compliment their attire, and ask where they got it (unless I’ve had some liquid courage), but even I was like… damn. That real, face to face connection whether it’s about clothes, coffee, or whatever, is important in ways I’ve never realized before. Seeing where tech is headed is making me more outgoing and appreciative of human connection in my middle years.
I had the exact some interaction at the Apple Store recently—a rep showing me how to identify and buy someone’s sneakers by taking a picture of them. It was a Twilight Zone sales pitch. I have no interest in snapping stealth pictures of someone else’s shoes. I also don’t want to have random people aiming their cameras at my clothes (with how well dressed I am, it would be a constant nuisance). I’m fine suffering the inconvenience of not knowing that much about a stranger’s wardrobe.