Food+Drink relocation Services
Coulée Coffee Company Brings Eco-Conscious Tech To Daily Brew In Eau Claire
Ted Ayliffe and team manufacture brewing technology in Banbury Place, will soon see its Swirl Brewing System in downtown Eau Claire hotels
Evelyn Nelson, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
It's a scenario many of us recognize: waking up in a hotel room only to settle for the convenience of a generic “pod” machine tucked away in a kitchenette. Ted Ayliffe, founding member and current CEO of Coulée Coffee Company, believes everyone deserves better single-serve cups of coffee – especially in these hospitality environments.
While on a trip in Boise, Mont. with his family, staying in a hotel, the inspiration for Coulée Coffee Company struck. There, he experienced the benefits of a morning coffee not prepared in a standardized “pod” machine, nor through traditional pour-over techniques.
It was alongside Greg Dittami and Mike McGinnis, co-founders of the brand, the company and its single-serve mechanized coffee machine – “The Swirl” – was brought to life.
“I was just sitting there drinking this coffee and I was like, ‘Why isn’t this automated?’ ” Ayliffe said. “You could make a little system where there’s a filter outside the system and you could mimic the pour over process and it’d be clean, no mold, easy to use, right?”
A majority of the core technical innovations crafted for the brand’s leading product – The Swirl Brewing System ($174.99) – stand alone in the coffee industry, Ayliffe noted.
The machine features a motorized arm which mimics a manual pour-over; it automatically agitates coffee grounds and – over four to five minutes – heats water to the ideal extraction temperature of 205 degrees Fahrenheit.
While comparable Keurig and Nespresso systems include plastic tubing on both the hot and cold side of their machinery, Coulée Coffee Company aims to challenge these sources of micro-plastics in common coffee-making use.
Coulée Coffee Company's Swirl Brewing System
"The Swirl™ is a compact, beautifully engineered system that brings true pour-over to your countertop — without pods, plastics, or compromise. An automated rotating arm replicates the precise movements of a barista, while the stainless-steel hot side heats water to the exact range where great coffee actually happens: 205 degrees Fahrenheit.
Paired with Coulée Coffee Company’s All Paper EcoPour™ filters, the Swirl delivers clean, bright, consistently balanced coffee — "pure flavor, no plastic exposure and no hidden brew-path residues."
The All Paper EcoPour offers yet another plastic-free solution for on-the-go pour-over coffee. "Whether you are using an electric kettle in a hotel room or a wood-fire stove while camping, you can easily brew a delicious, grit-free cup."
If 205 degrees Fahrenheit can’t be reached because of altitude, The Swirl is designed to deliver the hottest water possible for best coffee flavor extraction.
Ayliffe, with a PhD in bioengineering and background in research and development, brought some of these same skillsets to the execution of Coulée Coffee Company, he said.
The founding team leaned into their engineering roots and acquired a large-scale 3D printer to prototype the machine and specialized filters. This allowed them to rigorously test whether their design could consistently deliver a top-tier brew.
With entirely plastic-free water pathways and coffee filters; microprocessors to control brewing automation; fully custom boilers for water delivery; among other technology specs, major features developed for Coulée Coffee Company already have patents pending.
“We went at the Swirl development with the sole intent to build a machine that would make a single-serve pour-over as good, or better, than a human could,” Ayliffe said. “We dove in really hard on the tech.”
Over the past five-and-a-half years since that initial concept, the growing team at Coulée has achieved this and much more. Today, the company – which formerly called Sun Valley, Idaho home – has since relocated to the Chippewa Valley in Banbury Place (800 Wisconsin Street, Bldg 12, Suite 101, Eau Claire).
Ayliffe noted that in the new year, Coulée Coffee Company has experienced a stunning 30% growth month-over-month. While the brand moved around 20 Swirl units in December of last year, it has now consistently delivered nearly 1,000 machines to customers each month.
In addition to the The Swirl Brewing System, Coulée Coffee Company also retails its own pre-filled, All Paper EcoPour coffees: roast profiles range from light to dark, including “She-Devil Organic,” “O.G.” and “Doc’s Blend.”
Empty All Paper EcoPour packs (retailing at $19.99 per box of 50) have become yet another popular product, which consumers can fill with their own coffee at varied grind settings.
“When the roaster goes, everything smells like coffee,” Ayliffe said of the Banbury Place machinery and warehouse. “We roast once to twice a week and we make about 1,000 pounds a day – we’re getting up there.”
Coulée Coffee Company’s shift to the Chippewa Valley wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication of the roasting and manufacturing crew, whom Ayliffe credits for the brand’s local evolution.
This team, largely composed of area residents and close friends of Ted and his wife Marquita – who is also a core member of the staff – is on-site daily to manage the intricate logistics of their expansion.
“These guys are basically helping build the company,” Ayliffe said. “We all have lunch together every day, we just joke around – and people work hard. It's a lot of good.”
Because the core of Coulée Coffee Company products are catered toward hospitality and service industries, locals and tourists alike will begin to see The Swirl appear in downtown Eau Claire hotels such as The Lismore (333 Gibson St.) and The Oxbow Hotel (516 Galloway St.), Ayliffe shared.
Looking ahead, the Chippewa Valley crew aims to broaden their reach into consumer markets; they envision eco-friendly brewing solutions with a permanent place in kitchens across the country.
“Now that we are clearly going more into the consumer market, we really would like to start partnering with third-party roasters so that we can offer other people’s coffee,” Ayliffe said. “The growth is really exciting; seeing customer reviews is awesome.”
To learn more about Coulée Coffee Company and purchase coffee and equipment for your own The Swirl Brewing System at home, visit couleecoffee.com. Hospitality inquires for the company, can be made to support@couleecoffee.com.
