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Robotification comes to the bobo tea shop. Pictured here the Bobacino robot. Pix courtesy Bobacino.
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Bubble tea is the national drink of Taiwan, and popular across Asia (and the world). Source: Unsplash. Pix courtesy Bobacino.
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Automation is the latest trend in the café and tea industry. But stagnant wages in Taiwan may make widespread adoption of these technologies a challenge. Source: Unsplash
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Automation is the latest trend in the café and tea industry. But stagnant wages in Taiwan may make widespread adoption of these technologies a challenge. Source: Unsplash
Is robotification in store for other coffee and tea shops?
If you’ve ever been to Taiwan, then you know bubble tea or boba cha is ubiquitous. Some estimates say there are over 20,000 stores in Taiwan. So, saying the locals have a taste for boba might just be the understatement of the year.
Bubble tea sprung up in 1980s Taiwan. There are various myths about its exact origins, but they all agree on one thing: it usually consists of milk tea filled with tapioca pearls (traditionally made from cassava root). Although these days, you can find dozens of variations. Some companies have cheese foam toppings, others offer chunks of aloe or coconut instead of the more traditional tapioca pearls.
Bubble tea quickly caught on, spreading across Hong Kong, Japan, China, and the rest of the world. Nowadays it’s a $4 billion industry predicted to be worth US$8 billion by 2024.
And while the majority of boba cha aficionados get their tea the traditional way, a change is in the air. Usually, boba is made by brewing the tea, adding the desired level of sugar, pearls, and other toppings, sealing it and shaking it up by hand. But all of that might be about to change.
When customers enter CraneCha in downtown Taiwan, there won’t be many staff on hand to make their drinks. Everything from payment to processing is handled by the Bubble Tea Shaker Robot (BTSR for short), produced by the Taiwan Intelligent Robotics Company.
CraneCha customers choose their order at the touch screen kiosk. That handles payment too. Then the BTSR steps up to the plate -- the robot’s bionic arm fills the stainless-steel shaker with the perfect blend of ingredients, gives it a vigorous shake, and pours it into the cup. Finally, it seals it and passes it to the customer. The only CraneCha staff in sight are there for taking deliveries, maintaining the robot, and customer assistance.
The question remains: is the adoption of automatic kitchens and robotics in the bubble tea and more broadly, the café industry, a sign of things to come? Or is it all just a flash in the pan?
Robotic Kitchens and Labor Savings
CraneCha wasn’t the first café to adopt robotic technology and certainly won’t be the last. But the prospects for widespread adoption in this industry seem to be split along Western and East- ern lines. In the West, fueled by the coronavirus pandemic’s lingering labor shortage, many cafés and restaurants automated their kitchen to solve labor shortages.
But Taiwan isn’t under the same pressure as Western markets. The wages are lower in Taiwan, and they haven’t faced the same staffing problems. K.T. Huang, c.e.o. of Taiwan Intelligent Robots Company, told media that the biggest challenges to widespread
adoption of robotics in the café industry is training and price.
According to Huang, it takes about 1-3 months of training to prepare managers to work with the Bubble Tea robot. But the savings are significant: stores with BTSR require just 1 worker instead of the average 4-6. And he estimates stores that adopt the BTSR will break even in 2-3 years.
But until costs come down, or labor prices go up, the robotification of cafes in Taiwan will re- main a novelty and not the norm.
And it’s not just boba
The idea of a smart store isn’t new. Pioneers in the field are blending smart use of QR codes, phone applications, and of course, robotic kitchens, to create an entirely new experience for tech-savvy customers.
While CraneCha might be an anomaly for now, robotification is a reality in other parts of the world. And it’s not just in the bubble tea industry. Cafe X is a complete robotic coffee bar with locations in San Francisco and San José airports. Café X is completely unmanned with kiosk payment, a robot barista, and even a secure pickup locker to prevent anyone from swiping your espresso.
Another product that is having an impact comes from Bear Robots. They make automated serving robots that would fit in nicely with any coffee or tea shop. A lot of labor power is wasted by staff running back and forth between tables. With the Bear Robot, employees simply place the order on the surface, and the Robot rolls off to the table, delivers its payload, and heads back to the kitchen for the next order.
And while bubble tea robots might be capable of shaking 100 cups per hour and serving a perfect cup of boba at an average speed of 90 seconds, they can’t do it alone. Business owners will always
need staff to cook the tapioca pearls, source ingredients, and make sure that everything goes off without a hitch.
After all, robotification isn’t about completely replacing humans in coffee and tea shops. These industries will always need employees to oversee the BTSR and deal with any problems. And as Huang says, “service needs warmth”. But done well, robotification has the potential to be more than just a passing fad. When the price of the technology comes down, more of the 20,000 drink shops that dot Taiwan will be willing to try it.
And perhaps CraneCha won’t be the only robo-boba shack in town anymore.