Elemental engaged Tool to develop an in-store brewer that serves hot coffee and snap-chilled coffee from a single, familiar footprint. We began with Discovery: studying café workflows and counter constraints, interviewing baristas, and tearing down incumbent brewers from BUNN and Curtis. Those insights shaped early usability, keeping choices simple with clear Hot/Cold actions, and an industrial design that blends into a café environment while accommodating service access, cleaning, and ventilation.

Mechanically, we balanced target chill time and batch volume against condenser power and size, exploring coil geometries for surface area and cleanability and planning airflow for units sitting flush to a wall. We mapped every screen and state for a straightforward control experience, then built a Gen-0 prototype on a proven brewer platform with simple electronics to validate layout, thermal path, and overlapping brew-and-chill operation. This phase focused on function first, Arduino-style controls, pragmatic skins, and fast 3D-printed parts, so Elemental could test the core experience before committing to full GUI and production tooling.

The result is a production-minded concept that fits standard café counters, dispenses hot or snap-chilled coffee on demand, and reduces waste by eliminating long cold-brew lead times. With a clear plan for UL samples, structural packaging, and vendor handoff, the Hot-Cold Brewer positioned Elemental to deliver “hot or cold, same brew” at scale, which advances a category-defining vision while staying grounded in café realities.