Ground Control Cyclops

#1: Post by **Milligan** » July 9th, 2022, 10:46 am

I recently had a few different styles of coffee from this brewer and was curious to know if anyone here has seen these before. It is a batch brewer that can brew coffee in a few different ways. It is promoted as being able to make cold brew concentrate, espresso-style concentrate, and varying degrees of normal batch brew extractions. It was explained to me that it uses a combination of immersion and agitation to achieve high levels of extraction within 2/3s of espresso. Most of the literature is business focused and light on specific details.

I was able to sample a cold brew, iced latte, and regular coffee from the machine. All tasted quite nice and certainly cafe quality. I thought it was neat to see something a bit different than the regular Bunn/Curtis tower brewer.

#2: Post by **ira** » July 9th, 2022, 12:47 pm

It's been around for 5 or 6 years if I remember correctly, Seen it at all the SCAA shows in that time, but never in a shop.

#3: Post by **jbviau** » July 9th, 2022, 1:06 pm

According to this map, there are a few in shops several hours from me: https://www.groundcontrol.coffee/customers

IIRC, TomC is a big fan--look for his past threads here.

July 9th, 2022, 3:15 pm

ira wrote:It's been around for 5 or 6 years if I remember correctly, Seen it at all the SCAA shows in that time, but never in a shop.

I had heard about it but never got to see one up close and have drinks made from it. It was pretty impressive. The "espresso style concentrate" was particularly interesting. Tasting the iced latte, I doubt I would have been able to tell the GC latte apart from a typical nice cafe espresso latte. Of course, put enough milk in anything and it starts to all taste the same. The cold brew style from it tasted better than most I've had brewed the traditional way.

From what it seems, it is more of a west coast thing or cafes with a lot of throughput on iced lattes.

#5: Post by **yakster** » July 9th, 2022, 4:26 pm

Chromatic Coffee has one in Willow Glen, good coffee. This was from a few years ago, haven't been out for coffee in a while.

#6: Post by **TomC** » July 9th, 2022, 6:55 pm

jbviau wrote:According to this map, there are a few in shops several hours from me: https://www.groundcontrol.coffee/customers

IIRC, TomC is a big fan--look for his past threads here.

Yeah, my bias should be known up front, the founder/co-owner of Voga Coffee that invented Ground Control is now a good personal friend of mine. We argue over BBQ much more than coffee

His brewer is really interesting in what it can do. I don't think there's anything else in the market that you can compare it to. I'd highly recommend folks who haven't experienced coffee from it yet, give a dark roast a try. It's almost like sipping a warm, melting dessert. HighWire Coffee in the east bay does their batch brews on Ground Control, and it's just other-worldly how well they turn a dark roast into something spectacular.

#7: Post by **nameisjoey** » July 10th, 2022, 1:51 pm

I've had coffee from one of these at Vice & Virtue in Memphis. It was a couple years ago so memory is a bit foggy. They had an Aeropress "by the cup" on their menu and I tried to order that. The gal behind the register recommended I try the batch brew from the GC so I obliged. Was extremely pleased I listened to her, as the coffee was really really good. I remember being very impressed and thought it was better than any pour over I'd had previously.