i have mentioned clover in this blog before but thought i would update now that this press release has been distributed. i'll get one soon enough for brown. but not at first. can't justify the cost for opening.

Coffee Equipment Company Launches Revolutionary Brewer
Introduction of Clover 1™ brings the specialty coffee industry its highest-quality filter coffee, by the cup, in under a minute.

Starting Tuesday, January 10, some of North America’s premiere coffee roasters will take delivery of a breakthrough new coffee brewer, Clover 1. Vancouver B.C.’s Caffè Artigiano will be the first to launch Clover 1, the only commercial, single-cup brewer that delivers speed and flexibility along with un-compromised coffee quality.

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Why the excitement over Clover 1? The development of the specialty coffee industry has taken an interesting course over the last twenty years. Though the traditional coffee beverage of the North American consumer has been filter coffee—affectionately known as “drip” after its most common brewing method—the principal focus of quality-minded roasters and cafés has been on espresso. Many technical improvements have been seen in espresso machines and much labor given to espresso blends over this time, leaving filter coffee to languish, ageing in air pots or burning on the office coffee maker. Yet roasters have always understood the glory of individual, single-origin coffees. Much like wine, coffees exhibit the complexities of place, season, and process, bringing forth characteristics of each growing region, each coffee varietal. Until now, roasters have been hamstrung by the state of filter brewing technology, either making large batches that stale, or delivering individual servings in a painstaking, messy and time consuming process. As Doug Zell, CEO of Intelligentsia, says “Clover will revolutionize our customers’ appreciation of single-origin coffees.”

How has this been accomplished? "We set out to design a brewer from a unique point of view.” says Zander Nosler, The Coffee Equipment Company's president. “We asked ourselves, if we were a roaster/retailer, what kind of filter coffee maker would we want? We arrived at three key principles to guide our design process: brewed quality, speed, and customization. Clover 1 is an embodiment of those principles." The machine employs the innovative Vacuum-Press™ technology, which borrows from the two traditional methods considered best for brewing filter coffee: the “French press” and the vacuum brewer. Both of these technologies were developed well over 100 years ago, and take five minutes minimum to deliver their brew. Now mechanized with Clover 1, the brew time is shortened to about a minute, while the quality remains. Other developments that help achieve this enormous leap include computer-controlled water temperature regulation and volumetric sensors for correct water dosage. The most important aspect of all of these technological advances is that they are completely customizable.

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Recognizing the individuality of single-origin coffees requires that each bean receive its own treatment. Grind size, coffee dose, water temperature & volume, extraction time, all these parameters are at the barista’s fingertips. And since each cup is brewed individually, these can be reset cup by cup, using Clover 1’s intuitive user interface. All of sudden, the roasters’ customers can chose any of their coffees and receive the highest-quality brew in about a minute.... Clover 1 delivers not only quality with speed, but provides enhanced retail sales opportunities for the benefit of both customer and business.

Clover 1 is just the first in a line of commercial level, single-cup coffee brewers planned by The Coffee Equipment Company. Headquartered in the hub of North American coffee culture, Seattle, the company is a research, design, and manufacturing company focused on creating the most innovative hardware solutions to the specialty coffee industry’s unique needs. The single group Clover is available now with a list price of $7995. Multi-group models will be available mid-2006.

Press Contact
David Latourell
Coffee Equipment Company
206.782.9472
david@coeqco.com