Yesterday I went to an event at JP's Java, a celebration for the arrival of their new Clover coffee brewer. Anyone who has seen the "sewing machine" scene in Fiddler on the Roof will understand the level importance of this event.
The Clover is a super high-end coffee machine made in Washington (at least that's where the company's based). It is sort of a high tech french press/vacuum machine in which hot water and grounds are poured into a chamber on top of the machine, then a piston pushes upward at the programmed time, creating a vacuum and sucking the nectar through the filter, and piping the coffee, one cup at a time, into the waiting vessel. In theory, the high customability of the Clover allows roasters and baristas to tailor water/coffee ratio and time and temperature to create the perfect cup, specific to each bean's characteristics. The cafes that are using the Clover so far are for the most part using it to showcase their rarest beans, generally Cup of Excellence winners--highly valued coffees that one would not dump into a giant batch brewer.

The Clover at JP's is the only one in Texas, and there are only a hundred-something of them in the world.

The coffee is carefully measured by weight, ground to order on a sexy Mahlkonig grinder, and poured in the top of the machine

As the water pours into the chamber, the coffee is stirred with a wooden spoon

As the piston moves up the chamber, it extracts the liquid coffee while it pushes the "puck" to the top, where it is scraped away by the spatula to the right

Barista babe pouring samples of Clover-brewed coffee into cute collectible cups. When compared to the sexy Clover in the background, the burly urn brewer in the back right looks like a gnarly beast.

I suppose all of this begs the question: Is it worth it? The machine costs the coffee shop owner upwards of $11,000. (To put it in perspective, a righteous top quality espresso machine is several thousand dollars cheaper than that.) The cups of coffee brewed on the Clover cost $6-$9 each. Some places are charging up to $20 for a cup of clover coffee. I think the answer to "is it worth it?" is "Yes, within reason." The Clover is exciting because it is the first major innovation in coffee brewing in a long time. It is exciting because it gives schmucks like me an opportunity to taste some of the best coffees in the world, which we would never be able to afford to buy a pound of and brew at home, even if we could track them down. By the cup, even a $10 sample seems like a bargain for the rarity of the experience. I think the Clover will be a great and welcome addition to the very high-end coffee bar experience, but it will be a long time before they become commonplace, due to the high price tag.