Technology, perception and coffee

Slate as an article about experimenting with a new $11,000 coffeemaker, the Clover 1S, that is inspiring rave reviews among coffee fanatics. You can read the article in various ways-- a sign of the amazing ways Western civilization is decaying, perhaps-- but I see it as an interesting example of how new technical capabilities change the way we apportion our attention. Just as the invention of the telescope and microscope in the seventeenth century made it possible to study phenomena that had previously been unknowable, so do things like exceptionally precise coffeemakers encourage us to think about ordinary things like coffee in new ways.

[There are] six variables that contribute to the taste of brewed coffee—choice of bean, grind, "dose" of coffee, brewing time, temperature, and amount of water. The first three, for better or worse, are in the hands of the barista ("Call me when you get a better grinder!" [Clover rep David] Latourell half-teases the Grumpy staff)—but the Clover can precisely regulate the last three.

Adams spends several hours brewing cups of coffee with different temperatures and brewing times, and comes up with some very different results-- and, just as important, exactly the same results when he resets the machine to a previous setting.

I'm becoming a Clover addict, just as I feared. It's not the tasty coffee itself that's drawing me in—although that caffeine euphoria certainly colors my mood. It's the joy of tinkering, really delving into the possibilities of a coffee bean in a way I've never considered before....

The immediate consequence of the Clover and its precision isn't necessarily better coffee, but more attention to coffee. By creating this rigorous laboratorylike brewing environment, it encourages cafes to explore the nuances of different beans, where and how they're grown and dried and sorted and roasted....

Is owning a Clover worth $11,000? Not for the individual—don't be silly. But even a smattering of Clovers in the right hands promises to broaden the way we think about coffee. The very fact that an $11,000 coffee machine is receiving such excited media attention seems like a clear sign that we're headed toward a "third wave" of coffee, an age of terroir, aided by technology that can give different beans the different careful treatments they deserve.

[To the tune of 2Pac, Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman, "California Love (Remix)," from the album "All Eyez on Me".]

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