If you’re a fan of reality TV, then you’ve definitely heard of “Undercover Boss.” If you haven’t, here’s the premise of the show. Bosses of some of the nation’s largest retail chains go undercover in their own stores in order to learn what life is really like on the ground floor. People have been fired on the show, major improvements and suggestions have been unearthed, and people’s lives have been changed for the better. From Hooters to Yankee Candle, there have been plenty of top-tier companies featured.

Recently, Dutch Bros. Coffee took center stage as part of the fifth season of “Undercover Boss.” It’s one of the smallest companies ever shown on the show, but Dutch Bros. still boasts 202 locations, annual revenues of over $100 million, and 2,000 employees. It’s billed as the largest privately held drive-through coffee chain in the United States. Think Checkers meets Starbucks. The brand exists in seven states and any franchisees must first work for the company.

Dutch Bros. largely features twin drive-through lanes and a very relaxed atmosphere, but the show began with a trip by the company’s Co-Founder and President Travis Boersma to El Salvador to see where beans are grown. Twenty-five percent of Dutch Bros.’ bean blend comes from the El Olivido plantation in El Salvador, where Boersma was instructed to pick only red beans and place them in a basket. He was then told to dig holes in an extreme test of manual labor.

Boersma told cameras, “These guys work hard… It’s more than one would ever imagine.” The group then spread the coffee beans out to dry in the sun in quite a hands-on process.

The boss’ second stop was at the roasting process at company headquarters in Grants Pass, Oregon, but a franchisee had to take Boersma’s place since the company’s President would be nearly instantly recognizable, even in a disguise, at headquarters. The company’s beans are roasted for 18 minutes, then cooled, and are at an optimal stage when a small crack shows up. Every batch is worth about $1,700, so roasters must exercise extreme caution so as to not burn up company profits.

His third stop took viewers to Gilbert, Arizona where Boersma worked alongside a manager at a store. Like we’ve seen Starbucks do, Dutch Bros. periodically sends runners to cars to take drink orders and speed up drive-through wait times. However, the employees shown with Boersma were not writing down drink orders and instead had to regurgitate them from memory, a process we would think is a bit complicated, especially given the unique nature of every single coffee order.

The final stop of Boersma’s undercover journey took him to Nampa, Idaho to a store generating a brisk $4,000 in revenue per day (nearly $1.5 million per year), which puts it among the chain’s top-performing locales. All this, by the way, in a town of just over 80,000 people. Boersma asserted, “The commitment to the customer experience here is through the roof.”

What were the results? The running system at the Gilbert store was implemented across other retail locations, one worker was given $50,000 to use toward her very own Dutch Bros. franchise, more leadership was instilled in the roasting division, and backup equipment was added to the roasting process. And, as always, plenty of life-changing money was given out to deserving workers and their families.

It was amazing to us to see the amount of hard work the bean harvesting process entails. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart. Also, we’re pretty sure our head would explode trying to remember coffee orders between each car and the cash register, a distance of probably 50 feet. Finally, if a camera crew ever comes to your workplace saying they’re filming for a reality show that’s not “Undercover Boss,” they’re probably lying.

There’s more good news for coffee on the health front this week, as an all new Japanese study has offered up the opinion that coffee can have health benefits for the human heart. Although many coffee drinkers have long defended the reputation of coffee and how it can help one achieve mental alertness, the new trend for the caffeinated beverage appears to be teetering on the side of medicine.

The Scientific Sessions meeting held by the American Heart Association (AHA) on Wednesday, November 20th, outlines how healthy individuals who drink coffee may experience benefits such as the opening of small blood vessels that allows more blood to reach the heart.

Japanese Study

The AHA discussion centered around a Japanese study in which 27 people between the ages of 20 and 29, who ironically were non coffee drinkers, were asked to drink two 5 ounce cups of coffee per day. Sometimes the coffee consumed was caffeinated and others times it wasn’t. Blood pressure and blood flow were monitored after the coffee had been consumed.

According to the research, blood flow in individuals who unknowingly consumed regular coffee rather than decaf increased a whopping 30 percent compared to those who were not receiving caffeine. This could help explain why many people claim to have quicker brain functions and overall coordination after drinking their favorite caffeinated beverage, and why it is easier for many to stay awake after a cup or two of coffee.

According to an article published by the Los Angeles Times, those who conducted the research “placed a probe on the tip of each volunteer’s left index finger or thumb and used a technique called laser Doppler flowmetry to measure blood flow to the digit. It works by shining a laser beam through the blood and measuring how much it is scattered by the movement of red blood cells. For the study, the researchers interrupted blood flow to the hand for one minute, Dr. Masato Tsutsui, the cardiologist who led the study, said in an email to The Times. When the minute was up, they monitored how quickly the normal blood returned to the finger or thumb.”

Will Coffee Soon Be Regarded As Medicine?

There are still a lot of hoops for coffee to go through before it is formally considered as medicine or prescribed by medical doctors, yet there are a growing number of studies that show the benefits of caffeine on everything from one’s heart to a decreased risk of serious illness or stroke. Highly caffeinated beverages are highly touted in today’s global environment, yet coffee still holds a competitive edge in the health area when compared to energy drinks.

What’s more, coffee retailers throughout the world have found an entirely new mass market with both hot and cold beverages on tap for customers as often as 24 hours per day in some areas that have large retail chains such as Starbucks.

It may not be too long before more individuals who are experiencing drowsiness or an overall lack of motivation turn to coffee to prevent conditions such as depression and the inability to get off to a good start during the morning hours. It may also not be a stretch to think that some day in the future, coffee drinks may be part of a doctor’s prescription to patients who could benefit from the way caffeine reacts within the human body.

For now, we’ll continue to enjoy our favorite beverage and be thankful for the potential health benefits that go along with it. Caffeine has been an integral part of many of our lives, and we don’t see that trend coming to a halt anytime soon.

If you drink a cup of coffee in the afternoon, beware. Yes, I know your kid has driven you crazy all day or your boss has mandated that you turn in a big project by 5:00. We know the feeling, but according to a new study, your sleep at night could take a big hit.

The study in question was published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and, according to one of its researchers, “Drinking a big cup of coffee on the way home from work can lead to negative effects on sleep just as if someone were to consume caffeine closer to bedtime. People tend to be less likely to detect the disruptive effects of caffeine on sleep when taken in the afternoon.” That quote comes from the Huffington Post.

You wouldn’t consume an entire bowl of ice cream at 10:00 at night, so why would you drink an afternoon cup of coffee if it’s not really needed?

What time should you stop consuming coffee? 2:00pm? 6:00pm? 10:00pm? The same researcher was quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, “The present results suggest the common practice of afternoon consumption of caffeine should at a minimum be restricted to before 5:00pm, particularly with regard to the moderate to large doses of caffeine commonly found in increasingly popular premium coffees and energy drinks.” No coffee on the way home? Maybe our wallets will thank us.

Caffeine was not recommended any closer than six hours prior to your bedtime. Check out this rather shocking stat: the amount of sleep you can lose at night could apparently be more than an hour, which if you sleep for eight hours means you’d lose about 12% of your snooze time.

The study in question took place at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit. It served up 400mg of caffeine at zero, three, and six hours prior to bedtime to a group of 12 people. The Post explained, “The researchers found that when the caffeine pills were taken at all three intervals of time, sleep was impaired. For instance, even taking the caffeine pill six hours before sleep resulted in less sleep – by more than an hour – that night.” Again, the results appear to be rather profound.

As the study put it rather bluntly, “This degree of sleep loss, if experienced over multiple nights, may have detrimental effects on daytime function.” Detrimental effects!

For example, those administered the placebo (no caffeine) had a total sleep time of 7.82 hours on average. Those given caffeine at bedtime had 6.92 hours of sleep – nearly an hour less. Those given caffeine three hours before bedtime got 6.77 hours of sleep, which was actually less than those who took it right before bedtime. Those given caffeine six hours before sleep snoozed for 7.13 hours per night on average, still about three-quarters of an hour less than those consuming no caffeine.

We know there are a few major drawbacks to the study, so perhaps we should take it with a grain of salt. First, a dozen people is not a very large sample size. Plus, the survey was conducted over four days, so the time span involved was also rather truncated.

Also, speaking on the makeup of the participants in the study, its results say that it might not be applicable to all age groups and caffeine users: “The use of young to middle age participants with moderate habitual caffeine use limits the generalizability of the findings. Future studies are required to determine if the effects would be elevated in samples of older subjects where nocturnal sleep disruption is more common or in naïve caffeine users.”

We’ll let you be the judge. In the meantime, we’ll continue guzzling our afternoon frappe… maybe.

For the better part of this year, we’ve been relaying how drinking coffee can cut down one’s risk for everything from having a stroke to depression. In a recent article published by NPR.org, a new benefit to drinking coffee has been shown: the potential to reduce the risk of Diabetes. Not surprisingly, the latest article points out that the main reason why coffee may have received such bad publicity over the years is people’s tendency to also smoke cigarettes while consuming the hot drink. However, the new study, published by the U.S. National Institute of Medicine outlines how chlorogenic acid contained in coffee can help stimulate the transport of glucose in skeletal muscle; in turn reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.

It’s hard to argue just how much a couple of cups of coffee can help stimulate one’s mind or wake that person up during the early morning hours. However, the trend of studies that has come out in the last few years showing how coffee can be healthy for those who consume it is a somewhat new phenomenon. Long believed to be detrimental to one’s health, there are new studies being published that actually show that heavy coffee drinkers (those who consume four or more cups per day) could actually have a lower risk of serious conditions such as depression.

Study Abstract

The study’s official abstract stated, ” In db/db mice, a significant decrease in fasting blood sugar was observed 10 minutes after the intraperitoneal administration of 250 mg/kg CGA and the effect persisted for another 30 minutes after the glucose challenge. Besides, CGA stimulated and enhanced both basal and insulin-mediated 2DG transports in soleus muscle. In L6 myotubes, CGA caused a dose- and time-dependent increase in glucose transport. Compound c and AMPKα1/2 siRNA abrogated the CGA-stimulated glucose transport. Consistent with these results, CGA was found to phosphorylate AMPK and ACC, consistent with the result of increased AMPK activities. CGA did not appear to enhance association of IRS-1 with p85. However, we observed activation of Akt by CGA. These parallel activations in turn increased translocation of GLUT 4 to plasma membrane. At 2 mmol/l, CGA did not cause any significant changes in viability or proliferation of L6 myotubes. Our data demonstrated for the first time that CGA stimulates glucose transport in skeletal muscle via the activation of AMPK. It appears that CGA may contribute to the beneficial effects of coffee on Type 2 diabetes mellitus.”

Hot And Cold Coffee Drinks

Traditionally coffee was enjoyed as a piping hot beverage up to a decade ago. Nowadays, there are all sorts of hot and cold concoctions that have opened up the market for coffee in ways that many may not have foreseen back in the 70s and 80s. For one, those who have a sweet tooth can now go to their local Starbucks or other coffee retailer and order up iced beverages such as frappuccinos that can be topped off with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Coffee retailers are also adding liquor flavored additives such as Kahlua and Butterscotch to the pre-mixed cold coffee drinks in order to provide customers with even more variety and choice at the counter.

While some retailers still allow customers to request as much sugar as they like with their coffee, there has been pressure to reduce the amount of sugar packets to four by mandates in cities such as New York; where restaurants are scrambling to comply with some of the latest ordinances led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

It could be that some of the newer, fancier coffee drinks do not carry the potential health benefits that a plain cup of coffee does, yet it’s great to see how customers worldwide have taken to the art of drinking coffee.

When does coffee pack the biggest punch? Is it the minute your eyes open and you realize your baby is screaming in his room at the top of the stairs? Is it on your way to work when you realize your car is 30 miles to empty, but work is 35 miles away? Is it at lunch because you were too busy to buy coffee before Noon? According to a recent article that appeared in the UK’s Telegraph, 9:30am to 11:30am is the optimal time for a frothy brew.

You read that night. Coffee shouldn’t be the first item on the agenda for most people. In fact, the best time to drink it appears to be a few hours into the day. Here’s the scoop, according to those crazy Brits: “[The optimal time] is due to the way caffeine interacts with a key hormone – called cortisol – which helps to regulate the body’s own internal clock and promotes alertness. Cortisol levels are naturally high shortly after waking up and can remain high for up to an hour afterwards – with the average peak being between 8:00am and 9:00am.”

Once your cortisol levels fall, the time to drink coffee is right. The researcher who reported the findings, Steven Miller, explained in his blog, “One of the key principles of pharmacology is use a drug when it is needed. Otherwise, we can develop tolerance to a drug administered at the same dose. In other words, the same cup of morning coffee will become less effective, and this is probably why I need a shot of espresso in mine now.”

He added, “Although your cortisol levels peak between 8:00am and 9:00am, there are a few other times where blood levels peak again – between Noon to 1:00pm, and 5.30 to 6.30pm. In the morning then, your coffee will probably be the most effective if you enjoy it between 9.30am and 11.30am, when your cortisol levels are dropping before the next spike.”

Taking in caffeine from beverages like coffee on a daily basis can damper cortisol’s effectiveness, according to the study in question: “Cortisol responses to caffeine are reduced, but not eliminated, in healthy young men and women who consume caffeine on a daily basis.”

Plenty of Americans could be making a crucial mistake when it comes to the optimal time to consume coffee. A USA Today article from earlier this year noted that 83% of US adults drink coffee, a jump of 6% from one year prior. The average person drinks about three cups of coffee a day. Thirteen percent of Americans use the single-serve K Cup-esque method, which represented over $11 billion in sales last year.

However, are all of those people not helping themselves physically? Are they just inhaling caffeine when they really don’t need it? Are we really just burning our hard-earned money? A StatisticBrain article from May of this year noted that 60% of those surveyed said they needed a cup of coffee to start their day. That’s more than half. Furthermore, 68% said they consumed a cup of coffee within the first hour of being awake – the same time that cortisol levels peak.

A total of $18 billion is spent on specialty coffee in the US annually, according to StatisticBrain.com, but maybe we’re all just wasting our time with en vogue coffee fads and chains with drive-thrus that snake a mile around the block.

By the way, if you’re looking for another optimal time to drink coffee besides mid-morning, try the afternoon, according to the Telegraph: “Scientists have found that drinking coffee in the afternoon can help to offset lapses in attention that occur after a large lunch.” So, rather than pound that coffee at 7:00am when you wake up, wait until after that half-pound burrito you had for lunch… or at least until 9:30am.

It’s coming! Soon, it might be a thing of the past to have to trek to McDonald’s to get your hands on a McCafe-branded cup of coffee. No more waiting in the drive-thru in the cold while your child furiously requests another round of “Wrecking Ball” from Miley Cyrus. According to a Reuters article, starting next year, you might be able to pick up McCafe at your local grocery store, depending on where you live.

Kraft Foods is handling its distribution, according to Reuters, which sourced Kraft CEO Tony Vernon as saying, “We want to work with McDonald’s to help consumers enjoy McCafe premium coffee in the comfort and convenience of their own homes.” Now we’re talking!

If you’re a fan of Kraft, by the way, then you’ll probably love the company’s fascination with coffee. As Reuters explained, “Kraft got back into the U.S. premium grocery coffee business in August 2011 with a deal to sell Gevalia coffee in supermarkets… Kraft had a contentious split with Starbucks in March 2011. Starbucks on Wednesday said it expected to resolve its dispute before the end of 2013.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailed what consumers can expect to see on grocery store shelves come next year in test markets: “The project will include packages of whole bean and ground coffee and single, or K-cup, servings.” The Associated Press added that in Canada, McDonald’s-branded coffee is already for sale and runs about $7 for 12 ounces. Whether a similar price will be used in the U.S. remains to be seen.

What are the largest coffee brands in the U.S.? And what are their market shares? You probably know the answer to the first question, but according to the Atlanta newspaper and Bloomberg, here are the relevant market shares, which were pretty interesting to see: “Folgers is still the leading coffee brand on store shelves with nearly 16% of the U.S. market, followed by Maxwell House (10%), Green Mountain (4.3%), and Starbucks (3.3%).”

The fact that the third largest coffee brand owns just 4.3% of the market in the United States could signal that there’s a large opening for a brand like McDonald’s, which has a considerable amount of name recognition, to swoop in and gain a strong foothold. Yes, the company will compete with the likes of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks in stores, but we’re talking about McDonald’s – it’s a delicacy in some countries!

How much competition could McDonald’s really overcome? As an example, in 2012, the Huffington Post taste-tested French roast coffee to determine a favorite. Ten brands – ten very well known brands – were sampled, including Folgers, Maxwell House, Starbucks, Allegro, and Trader Joe’s. Yes, McDonald’s will be going head-to-head with the likes of Trader Joe’s.

The markets involved in the upcoming test are unknown. The Huffington Post published a picture of McDonald’s coffee packaging, which consists of a brown bag with a white McCafe logo and text written in McDonald’s signature yellow color. Another package resembled a brown paper bag you’d use for your lunch with dark brown McCafe lettering. Whether these packages will be used in the United States for the upcoming testing is also not known.

Reaction to the news by readers of Yahoo were mixed. One person assessed, “It’s not something that I would go out of my way to purchase at $7.” Others wondered whether the on-the-go convenience of McDonald’s coffee would be lost once it entered a consumer’s pantry: “I don’t have a problem with McDonalds coffee if I’m out and grabbing something on the run, but it’s honestly sort of like the rest of their food… Are there really people who would go out of their way to get anything from McDonalds?”

We’ll have to wait and see.

A recent news article published by Bloomberg shows that coffee prices worldwide are steadily declining due to increased inventory; especially of specialty beans such as Arabica and others which have been sought out by coffee drinkers over the last few years. Ample supplies from both Colombia and Brazil are translating into lower costs for coffee retailers, although price drops are not anticipated in any major region of the country.

The popularity of coffee has soared in the United States and worldwide over the last decade, with more and more people finding their way into retail chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts to enjoy their favorite hot or iced coffee beverage. Consumers are becoming increasingly more educated on the quality of coffee beans as well as their overall taste and flavor profile, which means that more coffee varieties have come into the mainstream.

In a recent Bloomberg article, contributor Isis Almeida stated that “Brazil’s crop will be a record for a year in which trees enter the lower-yielding half of a two-year cycle, broker INTL FCStone Inc. (INTL) said in a report e-mailed yesterday. Conditions for the development of next year’s harvest appear to be ‘good,’ it said. Farmers in Colombia will reap 10.6 million to 10.8 million bags in 2013, exceeding a target of 10 million bags, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation said. Central America started harvesting last month. A bag weighs 132 pounds.”

Small Coffee Retailers

Due to the higher price that many Americans are willing to pay for a cup of their favorite coffee beverage, many see the lower coffee prices at the wholesale level as a sign that many coffee enthusiasts should set up shop. This could be especially true in areas where big chain retailers such as Starbucks have yet to enter. Cups of coffee that used to cost less than $1.00 US Dollar have skyrocketed to well over $2.00 in the past ten years, with some specialty drinks selling for as high as $6.00 even in non-urban regions.

The decision of whether to start a coffee business depends on many factors including equipment costs, lease terms and even employee overhead, yet the trend of Americans drinking coffee (and paying high prices for the privilege) doesn’t seem to be slowing. However, market saturation in some areas has led to many mom & pop establishments closing down or changing their product line in order to better suit the needs of customers. Some are unable to compete with the virtual lock that large retailers have on customers while others are able to appeal to more community-minded residents to support their local business endeavors.

Cocoa And Sugar Prices

The recent Bloomberg article also pointed out that cocoa and sugar yields have been on the rise as well. “Raw sugar for March delivery rose 0.4 percent to 18.39 cents a pound in New York. Refined, or white, sugar for delivery in March gained 0.3 percent to $487.90 a ton in London. Outflows from long sugar ETPs last week were $3.1 million, the highest since April, according to ETF Securities. Sugar prices dropped 5.8 percent this year and may decline even more with the Indian harvest starting with strong export orders,” the article stated.

Meanwhile, cocoa for delivery also increased 0.5 percent to $2,668 per ton. The small increase in bulk price could ultimately off-set the lower price of coffee at the wholesale level. However, there is still a significant profit margin to be gained by those who are able to take advantage of lower coffee prices and increased yields from Colombia and Brazil over the next few months due to the fact that retail prices seldom go down based on increased coffee bean yields in South America.

Here’s something we don’t hear about very often: the market for coffee beans. We’ve talked over and over about how immense the coffee industry is and how it has grown leaps and bounds recently. Millions of people all over the world are drinking coffee. You should remember that all of that coffee has to come from somewhere: beans. So, is the global coffee bean market about to burst? Is it time to start investing in the commodity?

A recent article that appeared in the International Business Times answered that very question. According to the report, “Prices have declined from recent highs of about $2 per pound and now trade in the range of $1.15 to $1.20 on the New York ICE Futures exchange.” Is it time to jump onboard the bean bandwagon? Should we move all of our spending from mochas at Starbucks to coffee beans in New York?

As we touched on in the opening paragraph, worldwide growth will fuel the need for coffee beans. There’s a Starbucks on every corner seemingly worldwide and, as the International Business Times explained, “With rising wealth and increased consumption of commodities in developing markets… companies like Starbucks and other providers of coffee are trying to increase their market share. That’s just going to continue until, perhaps, you see the situation here where almost every town, or every other town, has a Starbucks.”

But wait, aren’t bean prices in a lull? If there were so much demand, why would prices be so low to start with? It likely isn’t because of a lack of people willing to fork over $5 for a cup of coffee with a shot of flavor. The same news outlet relayed, “Bumper harvests this year in Brazil, the world’s largest supplier of Arabica coffee beans, have helped prices plunge this year. Supply has outpaced demand in 2013, but it’s unclear how long that can last.”

Also potentially helping boost the price of beans are changing dynamics in supply. Think back to your Economics 101 days now (I know it brings back bad memories). The price of coffee beans is based on supply and demand. The higher the demand or the lower the supply, the higher the price of beans will be.

One analyst told the Times that several question marks about supply could push prices higher: “Demand is increasing globally for specialty coffee, but the economic factors of being a coffee farmer are lowering the supply. If we don’t get some kind of economic stability built into what a farmer can make to grow this highly laborious product…we’re going to see a continued drop in supply.” Would you want to bust your butt for a product you might not get paid enough for?

If the price of beans goes up, will the amount you pay at your local coffee shop go up? Will we be staring at $6 coffee instead of $5 coffee? What about $10 coffee? The International Business Times pointed out that consumers likely won’t be in for much of a shell shock: “Coffee commodity costs usually account for less than 10% of store expenses.”

How low could bean prices go before the bottom is officially hit? Will it be 30 cents? 60 cents? Five cents? According to the Times, the consensus appears to be about a dollar. Motley Fool added, “In July, Goldman Sachs cut its forecast for Arabica coffee futures from $1.45 per pound to $1.30 per pound for the next 12 months. If correct, this would not represent any further declines in the commodity, but would by no means represent any sort of significant rebound in prices.”

Overall, coffee futures have dropped 40% over the last year, according to Seeking Alpha. Maybe you should ask your local barista for a discount?

A recent series of articles published online by Popular Science magazine has made it clear that there is a growing market for coffee robots – machines that are capable of serving up precisely measured versions of everything from espressos to lattes. Although there appears to be no short-term ramifications for baristas who have made a living out of Americans’ newly-found love for consuming high end coffee at retail locations strewn throughout the country, there could be a significant medium and long term impact on the industry if the use of machines catches on.

The new idea of robot baristas is in full trial mode at the University of Texas, where the Coffee Haus kiosk owned by the company Briggo, is serving students in a barista-free environment. Briggo CEO Keven Nater was quoted in Popular Science magazine earlier this week as saying, “We have calibrated this machine to pull espresso shots to the same specification as an Illy or a Stumptown or an Intelligentsia. We’ve just done it without the human element. There’s no employee training required, and the machine can be exact about temperatures and water pressure and consistency in a way that a human cannot. We track every single shot of espresso. We know if it’s within our quality spec, and we fully control the whole supply chain. We can go well beyond what a high-attrition part-time employee can do.”

Rise Of The Coffee Bots?

This could mean bad news for baristas if coffee robot providers find their way into large retailer markets that have been dominated by human attendants for more than a decade. Imagine your favorite Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts store taking coffee orders automatically and then having a robot prepare your favorite hot or iced concoction while you patiently wait at the counter. Those of us who spend a considerable amount of time drinking our java at coffee shops are well aware that complicated drinks don’t always come out the same despite a human’s best intentions to be consistent with a product. Some cappuccinos will eventually differ in taste due to liquid temperature and other considerations such as how much cinnamon, whipped cream or other goodies are placed into the drink. The same can be said for just about any cup of coffee that is professionally prepared. By using machines to do the calculation work ahead of time, coffee products could be exactly the same each and every time a customer orders them.

So are baristas really in danger of becoming obsolete in five to ten years? It’s hard to imagine coffee bots taking over rapidly. This is due to the fact that larger retailers will not be able to go exclusively to robots immediately and must spend resources on training current employees on how to properly maintain and introduce the concept to customers. Even when that has been accomplished, small businesses may not be able to afford the hefty price tag that is likely to come with a coffee bot that is able to be self-sufficient and prepare coffee.

It is much more likely that the human element in being served coffee will continue to be prevalent at least for the next ten years as coffee bots are slowly rolled out and beta-tested in select locations. How customers react to their drinks being prepared exclusively by a machine will also factor into whether coffee drinkers who enjoy their favorite beverage at a retail location embrace coffee robots or reject them.

The impersonal relationship between a paying customer and a coffee robot could play itself out in a number of ways in other industries which may also begin relying more or bots in years to come.