Automatic Brewers And Coffee Devices, Inc.(ABCD)

When K. Cyrus Melikian was asked by his customer group back in the mid-1950's "when will you develop a system to brew Fresh Coffee Automatically?", Melikian's staff responded "when we fly to the moon?"

Well, in 1959 Melikian and his team created (right here in the United States of America) the first fresh brew system utilizing the POD. (NASA landed on the moon 10 years later!) They had to create a brewer from scratch to accept the coffee and more importantly, they had to invent a packaging technology and packaging machinery to actually pack coffee into PODS. Necessity forced them to develop a set of grind specs unique to this new method of brewing- standards that still exist today! Pod brewing and pod packaging requires both art and science along with a serious understanding of the chemistry of brewing coffee and espresso.

This new technology was quickly embraced by the industry – rendering obsolete many thousands of automatic coffee brewers that utilitized Kwik Kafe (liquid frozen coffee concentrate) a unique delivery system invented, created and commercialized earlier in the decade, by Melikian and his team. In fact, one of Melikian's licensees (Mocomat)in Europe was acquired by (what is now) Douwe Egberts (Sara Lee).

Melikian and his team in the mid 1960's also developed Pod technology to brew coffee 1 cup at a time in a table top single cup brewer. Machines were sold to franchised (OCS) operators around the US under the name Old Mill Coffee (which later was updated to Flavor-Maker). At about the same time, an Italian company took the license along with several pod packaging machines to try to commercialize coffee for the Italian office. In Italy, a staff person was responsible (full time job) to make coffee (espresso) for all the employees and guests. Why not use a machine to fresh brew espresso. And the rest is history- how IllyCaffe has successfully commercialized espresso pods first in Europe and eventually round the world.

ABCD also licensed a European company to produce pods and import (thousands and thousands) of these ABCD (made in the USA) table top fresh brew pod brewers for the OCS environment. The success enjoyed by this importer got the attention of Douwe Egberts in Holland who eventually developed the Senseo home pod brewer program with Phillips. This program was recently introduced in the US.

There are now a number of off-shore and domestic companies bringing brewers to the market. Some for home use and some for OCS and food service use. It seems that there does not yet seem to be a consistent standard yet for pod weight or diameter. Some equipment manufacturers are saying that their equipment will only work with their pods. Isn't that what Keurig, Flavia, N'espresso and Lavazza created and what OCS operators are trying to avoid? Pods and pod technology are in the public domain for everyone to use and commercialize. It does not make economic sense to support multiple formats (e.g., VHS vs. Beta).

Automatic Brewers and Coffee Devices, Inc. co-packs filter coffee pods, tea pods and of course espresso pods. They also build and sell their proprietary pod packaging machinery, in use around the world. ABCD does NOT roast coffee and does not compete with its customers. In fact, ABCD will not discuss its customers with anyone, adhering to a strict privacy policy. They do invite inquiries (and visitors) to their headquarters in Philadelphia.