Coffee + Texting = TextPresso? Awesome Coffee Tech

File this one under "Holy cappuccino, Batman!" A company in Seattle has created an unmanned espresso machine that acccepts your coffee order via text and brews it up for you. Check out the report from Seattle's KOMO News:

The company, Zipwhip, is a Seattle-based start-up that does not specialize in making coffee or making coffee makers. They're actually in the business of cloud texting -- that is, they design software that allows you to retrieve your texts on devices other than your phone. In this case, apparently, the device that receives the text is a robotic barista that proceeds to make your coffee and have it ready for you to pick up when you get to the kitchen.

Seriously. You text your coffee order to the machine. It grabs a cup, grinds your beans, makes your espresso and serves up the cup on a robotic platform. And just in case a bunch of you text your coffee order to the machine at the same time, it uses edible ink to stencil your name on the crema so you know which one is yours. Do I have to hand in my coffee geek credentials if I tell you that I think this is the coolest feature of all?

Sadly, you're not going to be able to buy this baby because they're not planning to go into production on it. It's strictly for intraoffice use. They do plan, however, to put the plans online soon so you can build your own at home. Now, I'm so not handy at electrical things that I get my kids to change lightbulbs for me, but for this, I might even consider breaking out the soldering iron.

  Out of all the cool coffee machines I've seen lately, I think this is the one I'd most like to have, just for the novelty factor. Well, that and how cool it would be to text my coffee machine from my desk and then go get my coffee. It seems a whole lot easier than trying to get one of my boys to pretty pretty please just MAKE the coffee! Yes, convenience trumps water temperature and precise grind control in my book. What about you? If you could order up your own ideal coffee machine, what features would it have?