The Ripple Coffee Maker Review: Latte Art Station

Now and then the coffee world gets little pocket of purely inspired products coming into the market. We’ve seen this happen with the likes of Hot Shot coffee – an innovative fridge-style system used to heat canned coffee and keep it hot for days on end.

We now have the pleasure of witnessing one of the most pop-culture friendly coffee machine accessories yet. The innovators saw the need for easily accessible, customisable latte-art – and they took every chance they could get.

The Ripple Coffee Maker: What Exactly Is it?

My first thoughts were that this machine was a normal automatic coffee machine which created some latte art on top. Let me tell you right now – I was very far off the mark.

This machine relies on you making your milk-based coffee drink the way you normally do (and if we guessed correctly, you make your on an automatic bean to cup machine, right?).

The Ripple Maker is a genius way of making high-end, precision latte art on your prepared coffee.

It is a stand-alone machine which you buy once-off, and for which you pay a monthly subscription fee to have access to the Ripple Maker content Library – home to thousands of pre-programmed images you can have latte-art-ed onto your cappuccino.

How Exactly Does The Ripple Maker Work?

The technology used in the Ripple Maker is actually quite simple – which is likely what makes it so popular.

The Ripple Maker makes use of pre-cast coffee pods – which are available in three variations. The three variations are tailored to small usage clients (approximately 1000 art prints per pod); medium-usage clients (approximately 2000 art prints per pod) and of course – high-usage pods which are designed to handle up to 5000 art prints.

The machine itself has a sleek-design, and minimalistic layout.

You’ll have to place the pod inside and pre-select either a customised design, or select from the Ripple Maker content library. The machine is futuristic in the fact that it is always connected to WiFi and works solely off a mobile app.

By tapping the selected image on your smart phone, your linked Ripple Maker machine begins dispensing your desired image onto your cup of coffee.

Some may argue that the freshness of the pods is not as fresh as it would be when the beans are “freshly ground” – but if we look at this for what it is – a Latte art machine – the relevance becomes questionable.

Yes, the coffee that is used to make those beautiful designs and patterns may not be absolutely fresh, but the taste is so minimal (considering only a couple of grams of actual coffee product is used to make your desired pattern) – that the chances of it affecting the taste of your coffee are basically nullified.

Ripple Maker Sizing Specifications

Cool feature alert: The Ripple Maker automatically recognizes the surface area of your cup and dispenses accordingly and in-ratio. The only limit is that it only prints on surface areas of up to 110mm wide.

Width: 21 cm | Depth: 27 cm | Height: 49.5 cm | Weight: 16kg

The Ripple Maker: The Entire Process

Although it’s only available in Canada, the US and some parts of China at the moment – the ripple maker is making waves globally, so keep an eye out for when it lands in your neck of the woods.

That being said, the process is quite simple:

1) Select Your Plan:

Based only your monthly usage, select a monthly payment plan. You can choose from the below; prices obviously vary between different plans:

Classic

Perfect for tiny shops.

Make up to 1,000 Ripples.

Rich

For medium sized shops.

Make up to 2,000 Ripples

Premium

Designed for the busiest shops.

Make up to 5,000 Ripples.

2) Download The App

Get the Coffee Ripples app on your smart phone and connect it to your Ripple Maker machine. Once this is done, you can remotely program specific designs for your clients at the touch of a button!

3) Add Your Pods

This plug and play system means you hook your machine up to a power source and add your pod. Select your design from your mobile app, dispense and enjoy. Literally as simple as that.

4) Start Enjoying!

Playing around on a new system is the easiest and best way to learn how to use a new device. Just ensure you have placed a cup of coffee underneath the spout so you avoid unnecessary mess.

It’s also recommended that you use milk-topped drinks – for the sole reason that darker coffee latte-art as produced by the Ripple Maker may not show up too well against a dark coffee background.

Check out the Coffee Ripples website here – the home of the Ripple Maker!

Tap the app, sip and enjoy!
What do you think? Is this the future of latte art – or will a skilled Barista doing pour-over art always win? We love to hear from you!