Perfectly copy the hand-flushing technique of the world coffee champion? Is the iDrip coffee machine really that good?

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Machine brewing coffee is not big news, but recently, there is a sensational new product in the boutique coffee industry [iDrip], which is known as the world's first "smart hand brewing" coffee machine, which focuses on the complete restoration of champion hand brewing techniques and the exclusive cooperation of the world coffee champion, attracting the attention of many media and consumers before the official launch.

How hot is it? This intelligent hand coffee machine was built by Ye Jianhan, a serial entrepreneur in Taiwan, and the new team. A grand launch event was held in Taipei on November 15, attracting more than a thousand coffee lovers and the media to participate. After it was officially launched on Taiwan's largest crowdfunding platform that night, it broke through 1 million crowdfunding (NT $) in 37 minutes and the crowdfunding barrier of NT $5 million within 25 hours. At present, it has reached a good result of exceeding the standard by 808% and NT $8.08 million (about 1.8 million yuan). Recently, "iDrip" announced the completion of the NT $100 million (about 22 million yuan) Pre-A round of financing. next, iDrip has plans to enter the more mature coffee markets such as Japan and the United States, and cooperate with local enterprises to sell.

However, today, the editor is not here to endorse this intelligent hand coffee machine. I really feel that this "complete restoration of champion hand coffee brewing techniques" is a bit too strong.

Before explaining why, let's take an objective look at this intelligent hand coffee maker, which is produced in cooperation with more than 10 world coffee champions around the world.

This product was personally operated by Xie Rongya, a well-known industrial designer in Taiwan, and the iDrip team brought in the world champion baristas. Including Agnieszka Rojewska, the first Polish female barista who won the 2018 World Coffee Masters (WBC) championship, 2016 World Brewing Competition (WBrC) champion Pak Gu Zhe, 2016 World Coffee Masters (WBC) champion Wu Zelin and 2014 World Coffee Bean roasting Competition (WCRC) champion Lai Yuquan, everything from barista, brewer, bean baker, cup tester, coffee bartender, etc. It seems that it is a good product with a good design, strong marketing and a hard foundation behind it. But why does the editor question it?

From coffee beans to brewing techniques are handled by the coffee champion.

This intelligent hand coffee machine exclusively obtains the manual brewing technique of the champion barista, and cooperates to launch the exclusive filter hanging coffee bag supervised by the coffee champion. After reading the bar code of the exclusive filter hanging bag, the machine can automatically match the hand brewing technique set by the coffee bag supervisor, and through the patented water injection head, it can accurately restore the parameters including water temperature, number of turns, spiral path and so on, just like the coffee champion himself. The filter-hanging coffee bag specially made for iDrip is not simple: the bean seed and roasting degree are all guarded by the champion barista, and the perfect brewing method is set for the coffee bag. In addition, if you want to know the reason behind this cup of coffee, iDrip's App also promotes the flavor of the coffee bag and the story of the producer champion barista.

There is a problem with product positioning.

The editor has not personally tried the production of this intelligent hand coffee machine, but has no doubt about its strength. If there are more than a dozen world coffee champions behind it, there are champion brewing techniques, roasting champion beans, and almost automatic control. If the coffee produced in this way is not delicious, it would be ridiculous.

However, even if there are many champions blowing up this coffee machine, it will not change its hard wound-it can only be used to "hang up earbags". Yes, it's a bit helpless to say that the price of this intelligent coffee machine is NT $33600, which translates to RMB 7500. The price of crowdfunding is much lower, but it costs at least NT $16800 (RMB 3750). Even the ordinary American coffee machine on a treasure supports freshly ground coffee powder, and this world's first "smart hand-made" coffee machine can only hang earbags.

If you have to modify it by yourself, it's not impossible to add filter paper coffee powder, but in this way, there will be no blessing from the "champion barista hand-brewing technique," and it will be no different from the ordinary American machine.

In the editor's view, consumers of earbag coffee generally have two characteristics: no money, or no time.

As we all know, one of the selling points of hanging earbags is portable, for office workers or go out to play, it is not convenient to bring a complete set of hand flushing equipment, and do not want to succumb to instant coffee, canned coffee, hanging earbags is the best substitute. Another selling point of hanging earbags is that they are cheap. The editor does not look down on people who drink coffee with earbags. He is really playing with his hands to make too much money. Bean grinders, filter cups, filter paper, hand pots, electronic scales, a whole set of down, play one or two thousand, and with equipment to learn technology, casually flushing may not be good to drink, drink and hang ears is good, coffee quality is guaranteed to a certain extent, technical requirements are not high, the key is to save money.

You see, doesn't this conflict with the positioning of this intelligent hand coffee maker? With these three to five thousand yuan of spare money, it is enough to buy a set of medium-level hand-brewing utensils. If you make a good cup of coffee, you can't take it with you, and you can only put it at home. Used to hang up earbags of coffee?

What is the championship technique of hanging earbags?

Of course, the editor did not deliberately ignore the bright spot of "champion baked beans hanging earbags". Some people may say, ah, the beans baked by other people's champions, even if they are pre-ground, can still hang and beat the beans bought by a certain treasure of yours! Indeed, the source of raw beans and baking technology, iDrip found the world champion to personally check, to make a certain quality hanging earbag; brewing, is a copy of the champion's method, this hand brewing coffee machine has basically taken into account the three major elements of raw beans, baked beans, and brewing.

But! It is not impossible to use the machine "copy hand punch technology", but you use the coffee champion technology to hang the earbag, which is a bit of deceiving consumers. There are people who play hand flushing, will certainly study the filter cup, filter cup opening size, groove design, exhaust efficiency, these are all knowledge, even if iDrip learned the technique, but still used to hang ears, then may I ask, does the ear bag have a groove design?

Or some people say, what if the technical parameters of the coffee machine hanging the earbag is the way the champion hangs the earbag in the same style? So the editor would like to ask, which world champion is the world champion who uses earbags to make coffee? Known as "complete restoration of champion hand brewing coffee technique", is it the technique of champion hand flushing V60, or the technique of champion hand flushing earbag? If iDrip does not deceive consumers, then ask them to ask Miya Zhe to brew a cup with V60, and then a cup with earbags. If the two cups are equally delicious, the editor will take iDrip.

Finally, with the emergence of iDrip, the editor believes that it has a certain level. However, is it really worth buying an intelligent "earbag" coffee machine for thousands of ocean dollars? Is it true that its main game "drink the champion's coffee"? With such a high budget, do you have a better choice? This will be left to coffee lovers to think for themselves.

Making coffee by hand is indeed a knowledge that is difficult to replicate. It is not easy to brew well and to maintain the stability of the cup without long practice. Some people will always say that the coffee made by the machine is soulless. What is the soul of the hand? Is it the water temperature? Is it grinding? Or modus operandi? What do you think?

Photo source: Tut-tut

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