Jarvis Robot Barista Serves Surprisingly Good Coffee

Allison Johnson visits Artly’s robot barista, “Jarvis,” in Seattle and finds the drinks unexpectedly good. Jarvis is a robotic arm positioned alongside a customized La Marzocco espresso machine; customers order on an iPad while the system speaks brief prompts and compliments. Artly designed the robot to reproduce human barista motions rather than just press buttons or act as a vending machine.

Artly says Jarvis was trained on the movements of a champion human barista, Joe Yang, and it uses AI to adjust on the fly — narrating status like “there are no grounds in the portafilter” when it encounters problems. The author samples a cappuccino, a rose-flavored latte, and a plain latte, calling them “good to very good,” and notes the robot’s milk-steaming and latte-art techniques mimic what trained humans do.

Each Artly location still has a human attendant: they refill milk, clean up spills, and supervise. Jarvis’s advantages are reliability and consistency (no breaks, lateness, or unionizing), which can make it economical in certain settings. But Johnson questions whether a robot can replace the human-centered community and small-talk aspects that often define a coffee shop.

Artly has deployed robots in places including Muji stores, Pier 39, and a Hill7 lobby in Seattle; results are mixed and some locations have closed. Johnson suggests robot baristas make sense for late-night, transit, or workplace perks, yet they don’t fully replicate the social function of a human-run café.

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