If you head into London, and find yourself by London Bridge, you’ll be near the inaugural UK opening of the Willy Wonka-esque coffee shop.  Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retail café operator in the world to roast coffee in every store using its proprietary Javabot™ technology.

Roasting Plant, the brainchild of Mike Caswell, was born out of a simple desire to serve the very freshest coffee, within 7 days before staling steals its flavour and aroma, and speed up the coffee making process – all the way from beginning to end, from source to cup. Mike’s pioneering technology, ‘Javabot’, is the result of experimentation with an old vacuum cleaner and a vat of coffee in a garage. However, like all great ideas, it has now come a long way; the cutting-edge innovative technology has made its way across two continents.

The biggest challenge faced by Roasting Plant was to find a coffee machine that could match its ambition, would deliver state-of-the-art technology. Functionalities like the API integration system, barista-quality milk texturing, the highest quality coffee output and a steam wand to ensure the barista could finish the drinks in the true Roasting Plant way. It knew it had a tall list to tick off – but luckily that’s when Eversys was recommended.

Kallie Kocourek from Roasting Plant explained their concerns: “We knew that we needed a super-automatic machine with a lot of functionality. But we were also very aware that we needed a partner who could also provide us with great service because there’s nothing worse than not being able to do the one thing we’re all here for – to serve great coffee! We’ve absolutely loved dealing with Eversys and Evertec, who look after our machines and service. Every time we have a question or query, we’re answered immediately, treated just like all the big players but also given such a unique and personal service.”

The power of API

The operation and theatre at Roasting Plant is quite a marvel to witness, and even though people may initially come for the delicious coffee, they often choose to stay for the entertainment as well. Customers at the London Bridge site are able to select their own beans from a list of freshly roasted single-origin varieties, or even design a bespoke blend of up to four different beans. The roasted beans are then shot up through patented tubes that adorn the walls and ceilings of the coffee shop and travel straight into an array of Eversys machines ready for brewing.

It may be that all the patented tubes whirring away across the site is what keeps customers in awe, but all of this ‘theatre’ only works if the very core of the system is accurate: the integrated Application Protocol Interface. “The API integration attached to the Eversys software was so simple to integrate into our Javabot interface for our head of IT. He is in regular contact with the Eversys team, who have helped him to implement a bespoke programme. He can even do it remotely which is amazing for us as he’s based in the USA. We can message him and tell him to make a change to a part of the machine and it changes automatically in real time. It’s key for us to be able to work not only closely with our coffee machine provider but with our very own head office too, so Eversys being so flexible and intuitive is just another plus for us.”

Customized milk texture

In addition to other technological requirements, they wanted to make sure that each coffee could be personalised whilst keeping the highest in-cup quality standards. This customisation includes the possibility to choose among new milk trends: “We have three different types of dairy alternatives here in the UK, and we needed the machine to steam them all correctly. We’ve worked with the Eversys team to pre-programme the milk texturization and exact temperature that the alternative milk will steam at, and it never goes higher outside of those parameters.”

Elevate the Barista’s role

The aim for Roasting Plant wasn’t to remove the barista, but rather to change their role and get rid of the margin for error.  “It’s allowed us to elevate the barista’s role. They’re able to finish off the drink with beautiful milk designs but also to have more time to engage with the customer which is imperative for us. Our Barista must be able to share their knowledge with our customers, engage in a meaningful conversation with them – with a traditional machine the barista is stuck doing all the manual jobs, so they don’t have time to talk. In a lot of coffee shops, you either have to compromise either quality of drink or customer interaction – but thanks to Eversys we get to have both.”

And the future for Roasting Plant? Well, it’s looking bright. Kallie explained, “We love the collaborative partnership we have with Eversys. We’ve actually got plans to open 20 shops over the next five years in London, and we want to do it with Eversys. They’ve already shown how robust the machines are, and we even got to visit the Cameo factory while we were in Switzerland. Here at Roasting Plant it’s obviously a lot about the technology, and Eversys really fits into that reality for us.”