What’s the Clover Vertica Coffee Machine at Starbucks, and Why Does it Matter?

Starbucks clover drip coffee machines
Two of the original Clover coffee machines that are NOT the new Vertica machines.

by Lars H

Perhaps you remember from more than 10 years ago when Starbucks bought Clover, a high tech coffee machine company that could make individual cups of coffee with extremely precise water and temperatures. High end independent coffee shops had been buying the machines to make extremely good drip coffee until Starbucks bought the entire company, taking them off the market to anyone but Starbucks.

The original plan was to roll out these Clover machines at Starbucks locations around the US, and perhaps around the world.

There was one at my local Starbucks in Dallas, Texas. But it was one of only two or three in the entire state! And it turns out that Starbucks never really rolled them out nationwide like they had planned.

In fact, I recently drove over to my Starbucks to take a photo of the Clover there, and they have taken it out of the store. It’s no longer there. I had to drive to a different Starbucks Reserve store in Dallas to find one. I’ve heard there’s also one in a Starbucks in Dallas on Park Lane.

So I was surprised to see that Starbucks is talking about a new Clover machine called the Clover Vertica, with plans to roll it out to at least 50 percent of their stores during 2023. Would they really be able and willing to roll out the machines this time? And why, if they didn’t bother with the original Clover machine?

It turns out that the new Clover Vertica is a completely different use case than the original Clover that was designed strictly to make very high end individual drip coffees with special beans.

Arguably, the blockbuster is Starbucks’ Clover Vertica system, which can serve a cup of coffee on demand in less than 30 seconds. Each machine is topped by six hoppers and brewers don’t require paper filters.

Previously, every 30 minutes, employees would need to grind coffee beans, batch it in paper filters, and brew. They threw away anything unsold each half hour—a cycle of grind, batch, dump, do over.

Clover Vertica brewers began to roll out in Q2 and will be in nearly 50 percent of company-operated U.S. locations by the end of the fiscal calendar. 

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/beverage/starbucks-new-ceo-we-will-deliver-connection

What Starbucks hopes to accomplish with the Clover Vertica is to dramatically reduce waste and expenses with this machine. You’ve probably seen the big urns of coffee that Starbucks dispenses drip coffee from at your local store.

There are very strict rules at Starbucks how long you can keep the coffee in the urn before you throw it out and make new coffee. Coffee at Starbucks should always be hot and FRESH!

So in the afternoons, when customer traffic is lower, employees have to make the coffee over and over, and often end up just pouring it out later because not enough customers bought coffee, but they still need to make a fresh batch.

Here’s where the Clover Vertica is pretty genius. It has several different bean hoppers on top, where you can put in Blonde, Dark Roast, Pike and even Decaf. In the afternoon, if someone orders a drip coffee, an employee pushes the button and it dispenses a perfectly made single cup of coffee from the machine that is just the right temperature and so fresh that they just ground the beans in time to make it!

You will get a fresher and perfectly consistent cup of coffee, and Starbucks will only have to make exactly how much drip coffee as they are selling. No waste! No wasted employee effort to make a big batch of coffee only to pour a lot of it out later.

I spoke with a manager at the Starbucks Reserve store I recently visited, and she said that Starbucks has already started rolling out Clover Vertica machines in Minnesota.

I also checked out the transcript of the latest Starbucks quarterly investor conference call, and the CEO had some interesting quotes about the Clover Vertica.

“The rollout of our Clover Vertica brewer continues as planned, delivering a larger variety of high-quality hot coffee, including decaffeinated on demand.”

“The equipment innovations happening in Starbucks stores, including the Clover Vertica, support labor efficiencies and allow increased capacity during peak times.”

“It is part of Starbucks’ focus on elevating the premium coffee experience for customers in both cold and hot coffee.”

Laxman Narasimhan, CEO, from a 2023 investor conference call

I am looking forward to trying out a coffee from a Clover Vertica machine. Have you seen one of these machines anywhere yet or tasted a coffee from it? I’d love to hear from you.

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