Coffee wars: South Korea's cafe boom nears saturation point

To make decent, heck even good, coffee, you just need to get in the ballpark. A machine is very good at that. But if you want great coffee, there is a lot of craftmanship in it. My experience is that 99.9% of all "baristas" could be replaced by a machine - but the 0.1%, makes a better cup in every way. They continuously readjust the grinder and brew parameters to match the weather and beans.

With time maybe we can apply science to that process, but until then - the 0.1% makes the best coffee.

Starbucks already tried that, from https://consumerist.com/2007/06/22/confessions-of-a-starbuck...

> A few years ago, Starbucks made the jump to automatic espresso machines. Standard procedure for pulling a shot of espresso requires grinding into the portafilter, tamping it down, locking it into the espresso machine, and pressing the button to start the water. The Starbucks machine does all of this with the touch of one button – it also stores the coffee grounds as compressed pucks in a drawer that needs to be emptied only twice a day. This saves a lot of time for baristas, especially when there’s a long line. The shots themselves are very good for an automatic machine. But these machines cost about ten thousand dollars apiece compared to about three thousand for a quality manual commercial grade espresso machine. That’s a lot of money to recoup at about two dollars for a double shot. Not to mention that Starbucks also pays its employees a higher wage than most coffee shops because they don’t make as much tips working at Starbucks. The cost of operating a Starbucks is astronomical. But the quality is there.

And then http://www.idea-sandbox.com/blog/solving-starbucks-problems-... :

> When we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocco* machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista.

This is, at best, a severely autistic view of the world.

Come to Australia, $4.00-$4.50 for a flat white/latte.

In Switzerland, I paid > 10 CHF for a drink and a croissant at Starbucks (and that was...8 years ago).

Most places actually give you a $1-2 discount if you order "take away".

I came here directly from the valley after 16+ years. It's a super safe, clean place to live with almost unlimited (and awesome) places to eat, and tons of stuff to do outside (if you don't mind a little bit of heat), along with super cheap transportation (taxis, MRT, and Buses). Housing is pretty expensive - though you can find some reasonable places - keeping in mind that the locals have never heard of CraigsList, so if you look for a place there, it's targeted at ExPats (PropertyGuru is a more common tool for locals, in much the same way Burpple is superior to yelp). Owning a car is pretty pricey as you would have to pay $60K or so for a "Certificate of Entitlement" just for the right to purchase a car.

But, you asked, as a "Tech Guy" - and, with the exception of SimLim Towers/Squares (which are awesome electronics outlets - even better than Frys) - I feel a little out of the stream of things here, in ways I never did back in the valley. I used to go out all the time and hang out with colleagues who had worked for startups Two, Three, four generations back and were at yet a new startup, building new technology.

That sort of liquidity and networking doesn't seem to be happening here in Singapore (that I've discovered, perhaps there are niches - I know that there is an Ubisoft office here). So, that's the challenge - I know 500+ people back in Silicon Valley that I've worked with through one startup after another - and I know maybe 5 people here in Singapore 3 years later. It's not like you go to work for a company here that starts with 6 people, and grows to 600 in five years (which I've done a couple times now in the valley) - particularly if you are working for a branch of a company based out of somewhere else.

Taxes are great though.

I think it translates to fully automated coffee machine. Grinder+brewing department+UI. Something like a Bosch VeroSelection. They usually have some settings for the grinder and you can select different kinds/sizes of coffee. And that's the problem. There's one container for the beans but you can theoretically select coffee or espresso. What I was talking about was the need for one container for regular coffee beans and one for espresso beans (or just different roast would be nice as well). I agree that everything else would mostly be gimmicky (even though regulating pressure, water temperature etc. in a more open format would be great) but it would be gimmicks I enjoy like remotely starting it from an app if I enter certain GPS coordinates around a certain time (off from work) or when the shower stops in the morning. I'd probably also get a kick out of statistics and graphs of coffee consumption.

p.s.: I do own an Aeropress (+hand-crank burr grinder) and use it but the machine is quicker in the morning where I'm notoriously late no matter when I get up. It's mostly a matter of convenience as the quality is better when I use the Aeropress (but the machine is good enough given great beans of course). I love the control you have with an Aeropress+grinder and that's a good reason to build a DIY machine as the typical ones you get don't allow you to control nearly enough stuff. I also enjoy the process of making the coffee but sometimes I want that tiny extra bit of convenience (even willing to trade it for slightly less good coffee)