The Spinn coffee maker may well be the future of coffee. In fact, even the catchphrase of Spinn coffee is ‘Awake the Future.’
This elegant-looking coffee maker is aimed to be your one-stop smart coffee maker. It will brew everything from a cortado to filter coffee to an affogato. And you don’t even need to leave your bed to use this coffee maker.
That’s right. It comes with a mobile app to either brew from bed or else tell Alexa, and your coffee will be waiting when you get up.
So Spinn certainly comes with a host of lofty claims. But does it live up to the promises?
Spinn Coffee Maker
The Spinn Coffee maker is coffee brewing brought into the 21st century. This smart coffee maker connects to your phone, scans your coffee beans for optimal extraction, and has an almost endless array of possible drinks it can brew. It can make delicious coffee so easily that it almost feels like cheating. However, as a caveat, I do still have some unanswered questions.
Spinn Coffee Maker Overview
Specifications
The Spinn coffee maker is the brainchild of San Francisco-based company Spinn. Spinn was founded in 2014 as a coffee subscription company that would collaborate with local coffee roasters (over 150!) to ship their coffees all over the States.
However, from this humble start, they took on a very ambitious project; to make a coffee maker to fit Spinn coffee.
The impetus for this project was to design a smart coffee maker that would maximize the potential of the Spinn coffee subscriptions. Having worked with coffee roasters extensively, they realized that no one knew coffee beans like the roasters.
The roasters were the only ones who really knew the potential within a coffee bean. And how to get that potential out. What water temperature, coffee to water ratio, brew time, and grind size would maximize the given coffee beans.
And so, the dream was born of a coffee machine that could recognize different coffee beans and change brewing parameters accordingly. The only comparable project, to my knowledge, is the Nespresso Vertuoline which scans different pods for optimal brewing.
The Spinn coffee maker has been a long and drawn-out process that has left many fans impatient along the way. But now it is orderable through their website and shipping worldwide.
The Spinn coffee machine uses an app to scan bags of coffee ordered from Spinn Coffee. When scanned, the app communicates to the machine the recommended brewing parameters for optimal extraction, aka delicious coffee. From there, you can choose your type of drink from an almost endless array of different options and either go with the preset brewing parameters or choose them manually.
Spinn comes with an inbuilt coffee grinder as well as an optional milk foamer if you plan on having milk-based drinks. It can do espresso and coffee and is a smart machine.
Spinn Coffee Maker Review
So we have now given the bird’s eye view, and it is time to get into the nuts and bolts of whether it actually delivers on its promises.
Centrifugal Technology
To understand the Spinn coffee machine, you need to get your head around their unique brewing method. As you may know, espresso coffee is usually brewed by pushing hot water through a coffee puck at high pressures (around 9 bars on average).
Spinn decided to shake things up and try something different. They invented their own patented centrifugal force spinner. Basically, that means that the machine spins the coffee grinds and filtered water at up to 6000RPM, which creates an enormous amount of pressure.
This makes for delicious espresso that is heavy in crema and well extracted.
The beans are stored in an airtight hopper at the top of the Spinn coffee machine and above the burr grinder.
By all measures, it does seem that this somewhat unique extraction system does work efficiently and effectively to produce more than enough pressure to brew delicious espresso.
Spinn Coffee App
Part of the drive behind Spinn was for a smart coffee maker. In the age of IoT, this is increasingly the way coffee makers are going and do add significantly to the convenience of using them.
However, while many coffee makers now incorporate apps and smart components, most of these are still fairly rudimentary. For example, many allow you to turn on the coffee machine or to set when the coffee machine starts to warm up.
The Spinn app, however, goes far beyond this. The Spinn app works with IOS and Android and basically allows you to completely control the machine digitally. It is also compatible with Alexa.
In short, you can do virtually every part of the brewing process from the app. You can turn on the machine, pick your preferred brew, set the brewing parameters, and then actually brew the coffee. Sadly the system is not yet sufficiently advanced to then bring the coffee to you.
In addition, the Spinn coffee maker will keep an eye on coffee bean levels, and when you are getting low alert you via the app so that you can order more. And it should come as no surprise that you can then order more coffee beans via the app.
So if a smart coffee machine alongside your smart TV and Smart fridge appeals to you, Spinn coffee is the one.
Coffee Roast Recognition
As noted above, a particularly striking feature of the Spinn coffee maker is the roast recognition. What this means is that if you order your coffee beans from Spinn Coffee, you can then scan the bag of coffee with your app, and it will automatically upload to your machine the ideal brew settings for that bean, dictated by the roasters themselves. It is worth noting that this feature only works if you buy from Spinn Coffee. It won’t work with coffee beans purchased from an independent coffee roaster.
This is certainly a unique feature and one that will appeal to many. You will see the appeal for anyone who has felt the frustration of never quite dialing in a certain coffee bean correctly. Now you get optimal extraction without wasting time and beans trying to dial in.
Of course, some enjoy this process. If that is you, then this feature will, of course, be somewhat wasted on you. However, you can still manually set the brew settings.
If you choose to use the Spinn coffee subscription, they have a wide variety. They now cover more than 450 different roasters and allow you to choose from over 500 different blends.
Aesthetics
For many coffee lovers, a simple reality is that looks do come into it. We want a coffee machine that we like, that fits with our decor, and that we will enjoy using.
And it is a matter of personal preference, however, I do believe that the Spinn ticks the box here. It is a beautiful coffee machine that looks elegant and sophisticated. It is characterized by gentle curves and its unique cylindrical shape.
Models
As part of this Spinn coffee maker review, it is worth adding that there are a couple of different models to choose from. To be honest, I think that they have complicated this far too much.
The three models available are the Original, the Original Plus, and the Original Bundle. What is confusing is that they are all actually the same machine but simply with different accessories.
The Original is just the Spinn coffee maker with no additional accessories. The Original Plus is the Spinn coffee machine plus the Spinn milk frother. The Original Bundle is the coffee maker, the milk frother, the Spinn carafe, and a travel mug.
So it really comes down to which types of drinks you will mainly be making and which accessories you will need.
Spinn Coffee Review – My Verdict
My overall verdict of the Spinn coffee maker is that it has great potential, but I don’t think they are there yet. While they claimed to have arrived, I am not yet convinced.
Here are some of my outstanding concerns and unanswered questions about the Spinn Coffee Maker
So while I think, in theory, this comes across as an excellent coffee maker. In reality, I fear there are still several kinks to be ironed out. In particular, the customer service that many customers have complained about gives me pause. I mean, there is even an independent Facebook group where a regular complaint is malfunctions and poor customer service.
Spinn Coffee Maker – Should you Get it?
So, in summary of this Spinn coffee review, I think the Spinn coffee maker looks superb on paper. It uses cutting-edge technology, is a genuinely smart coffee maker, and is very friendly to a wide range of skill levels.
However, I am still cautious due to the number of customer complaints. I don’t necessarily think that it would be a bad purchase. But I suspect that if you brought it, you would have to be willing to face the possibility of dealing with some of these issues, such as extensively long shipping times and possible malfunctions.
However, in saying that, some have ordered their Spinn coffee maker and had it arrive promptly and work superbly. So maybe it is the luck of the draw.
Certainly, if specialty coffee is your thing, then I would probably give the Spinn a miss.
However, if you love coffee, love smart gadgets, and are okay with a few possible hiccups, then maybe the Spinn coffee machine would work a treat for you. It is certainly unique, intriguing, and sophisticated. And by all reports, when functioning correctly can brew delicious coffee.
Pros:
Cons:
