“Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, the first often tasting like the second,” claimed the late, great American essayist Edward Abbey, who died in 1989, at a time when instant coffee still reigned supreme. Back then coffee was nothing like the complex brews we consume now, which no doubt explains why, in the UK, we have a thirst for it like never before – in the 10 years from 2008, our coffee consumption leapt by 25m cups a day to an estimated 95m. And has now hit 98m, according to the British Coffee Association.
The first coffee house recorded in London opened in 1652, and that marked the start of a love affair that has only increased in intensity in the centuries since. In the modern era, the popularity of coffee can be broken down into three waves. The first prioritised convenience above all: instant granules became a staple of every kitchen cupboard. The second saw the rise of modern, US-style coffee chains and cafe culture – as popularised by the TV show Friends. The third has taken things a step further, shifting the focus once again – this time to specialty coffee beans, baristas and the “art” of the drink.
Anyone born in the post-Starbucks era (after the second coffee revolution), may find it hard to imagine just how much our perceptions of what coffee is has changed in the last 30 years. According to Jonathan Morris, a professor of modern history at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Coffee: A Global History, it is hard to overstate the impact of the coffee chain boom in the 1990s on our craving for caffeine.
“As late as the 80s, cafes in Britain were old greasy spoons, Formica places where you’d get served instant coffee and wouldn’t be welcome to hang around once you’d drunk it,” he says. “In the 90s, the coffee chains were encouraging you to socialise around coffee and they priced the coffee up to match that. Yes, you could get a nice looking latte with lots of syrup in it – but really the extra charge was for the 20, 30 minutes you sat there with your friends having bought just the one coffee.”
Since then, cafes have continued to up their game – the aroma, the crema, the rich hit of flavour – leaving many coffee-lovers in a pretty predicament: we have high standards when it comes to how coffee should taste but perhaps not the tools or expertise to replicate this in our own homes. “Once you start making coffee at home, you realise the process is quite complicated,” says Morris. “So the problem is, how do you make it easier and accessible without losing out on the quality of the experience? Making coffee by yourself takes time and effort, and can go very wrong, particularly if you’re trying to do it with simple equipment.” Technology has now addressed that, he adds. “The change we’ve had recently is that we now have machinery that can enable you to produce a quality of coffee that is much higher … leading to a greater ability to deliver coffee in ways that are premium rather than just casual.”
See craft and technology come to life in Siemens’ London showroom
London’s Wigmore Street has come to be known as the capital’s “kitchen alley” because of the influx of high-end showrooms. But that moniker doesn’t begin to do justice to Siemens’ state-of-the-art kitchen showroom there.
The cutting-edge showroom boasts Siemens’ latest beautifully designed and intelligent kitchen appliances, including the exclusive studioLine range, and showcases the latest innovations such as Home Connect.
Siemens London also offers advice and services to assist consumers on their kitchen planning journey. To this end, Siemens has partnered with the design studio Kitchen Theory to provide Chef Experience sessions, which aim to inspire visitors to take their cooking to the next level using the latest kitchen technology. Kitchen Theory’s creative director, chef Jozef Youssef, has developed exciting sample menus that he demonstrates using Siemens’ studioLine appliances, opening up a world of possibilities for all aspiring home cooks.
People tend to think of a cup of coffee as a crafted, artisanal creation not one influenced by high-tech innovation – but look closely and it’s clear the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
So far, self-ordering facilities have been added to cafes to improve accuracy, while robot tamping-machines, automated milk steamers and grinders that measure the exact amount of coffee needed have all become integrated into the barista experience. This makes coffee more – not less – bespoke, intuitive and drinker-friendly, and what occurs first in the cafe, will soon become possible in the home.
Some predictions for how technology will disrupt the coffee industry sound less than inviting (see: robot baristas, latte delivered by drone, coffee dates in the metaverse), but few would argue that waking up to the aroma of freshly ground coffee and a barista-standard espresso prepared via an app on your phone would be anything but utopian – and, thrillingly, that reality is already here.
Home coffee machines such as the Siemens bean-to-cup EQ900 range – which at the touch of a button elegantly employs the latest technology to create the kinds of bespoke, artisanal coffee we’ve become accustomed to – are ushering in a new era for coffee connoisseurs. Key features of the machines include Home Connect, which allows you to operate the machine by voice command, or remotely via a smartphone or tablet so you can preheat your machine on your way home; baristaMode, for precise and fully customised adjustments, such as coffee strength, temperature and brewing speed; and the iAroma System, which combines ceramic grinder technology and optimal water pressure to achieve maximum aroma and flavour.
Like so many trends, our communal desire to up our at-home coffee game has been fuelled by the pandemic. “The emergence of hybrid work has sparked a growing desire among consumers to replicate the coffee barista experience in the comfort of their own homes,” says Matthew Berry, a beverages specialist at Euromonitor, a global market research and consumer insights company. Reflecting on the fact that sales of technologically advanced home coffee making equipment are buoyant, Berry concludes that we could be entering a new wave in coffee consumption. “Good coffee can now increasingly be consumed anywhere, so this could well prove to be the ‘fourth wave’ of coffee.”
The future of coffee is here. Enjoy exquisite coffee brewed to perfection at the touch of a button, in the comfort of your own home, with the Siemens EQ900 bean-to-cup coffee machine. Find out more
