Coffee trade shows often skimp on real news. New colors for well-known espresso machines are hyped as innovations, gentle revamps from established manufacturers are marketed as the latest trend. All the more delightful when genuine innovations hide between the stands that repeat themselves year after year at the World of Coffee — like Datum Coffee.
Datum Coffee is an Austrian espresso machine startup founded by two 28-year-old mechanical engineering and design students Christoph Konheisner and Nikolaus Potapow. What have they developed? Two prototypes of an espresso machine and grinder connected to each other and making espresso using the latest technology. The product isn't finished yet, but the concept is promising — and it's my personal trade show highlight at the World of Coffee in Brussels.
This article is based on a trade show encounter with a prototype at the World of Coffee 2025 in Brussels. It is explicitly not a comprehensive coffee maker test. All technical information comes from conversations with the founders and the Datum website. We can only assess what the machine achieves in everyday use once we hold a production machine in our hands and put it through our test protocol. We will do that as soon as it becomes available.
Who is behind Datum Coffee?
Chris and Nikolaus, mechanical engineering students from Lower Austria, based in Innsbruck. Over roughly two and a half years, they developed the two presented prototypes, a concept, and the accompanying software, presenting them at the trade show in preliminary 3D-printed housings.
The two founded the company essentially from their own resources, without external investors, with state funding backing them. What drove them was a question many beginners ask: Why do people have to throw away several espressos until the grind size is right? They developed datum.coffee as the answer.
The Concept: Machine, Grinder, and Platform as a System
Datum Coffee is not a single device but a duo of espresso machine and grinder that work together networked and are coordinated via a platform. This sounds like marketing, but technically it's actually the heart of the system: The two devices exchange data, adjust parameters to each other, and thus reduce the manual effort required for setup.
The idea behind it isn't new. We described the principle behind such networked systems in detail in the article "Grind-by-Sync: Grinder and Machine in Dialogue". What Datum Coffee does is a consistent further step in this direction — with the difference that the platform here is designed from the outset to be open to roasteries and eventually to other machine manufacturers as well.
What the Machine Announces
The "58 mm portafilter" initially seems surprising: it dispenses with the classic handle and instead consists of an oversized sieve insert.
Heating is provided by a thin-film heater. The heater heats up while the grinder grinds — according to the founders, this takes around 10 seconds. Whether and how a preheating of the portafilter is planned beforehand remains open. This is not an unknown technology: The Maro Model 1, one of the most technically advanced machines we've tested so far, also uses a thin-film heater (FTH) and achieves heating times of 4 minutes with it. The Roxy espresso machine, which also works with a thin-film heater, achieves similar speeds.
What Datum Coffee additionally brings: an automatic tamper, directly integrated into the brewing group. A hydraulically controlled piston moves down, tamps with adjustable pressure (the demo showed 20 kg), and then brews automatically. That means: insert portafilter, press start — the machine takes over the rest. This is reminiscent of what Sage solves on some devices with an integrated tamper, but with the difference that the tamper in Datum is not located in the grinder but in the brewing group. The portafilter can therefore be removed and the coffee grounds distributed manually before the machine takes over.
Flow sensor, pressure sensor, and temperature sensor are installed according to the Datum team. Flow and pressure profiling should be possible. Demos of a corresponding app or browser view show the programming of stages and exit conditions.
Two variants of the Datum espresso machine are planned: with and without a milk frother. According to the founders, the milk frother should also be smart, with a temperature sensor and automatic steam control. The water tank holds 0.8 liters and has an integrated water filter.
What the Grinder Brings
The grinder grinds with 64 mm flat burrs, a brushless motor with adjustable speed, and integrated scale. Grind-by-Weight unlocks many smart functions of such a setup. This is complemented by electronic grind adjustment in micrometer increments. An LED display on the grinder shows the most important information; more complex settings are made via app or browser.
The Grind-by-Sync principle is deeply integrated: If the machine notices during extraction that the flow is too fast or too slow, it sends a signal to the grinder, which adjusts the grind size for the next extraction. We know this principle from other systems — the Mahlkönig Xenia with the E64 WS pursues a similar approach, as does the startup nunc. with its smart espresso machine. What Datum Coffee promises is an open variant that from the start does not rely on proprietary beans and exclusive partner roasters.
The Platform: Recipes via App, Open to All
When someone buys a new coffee bean package, they photograph the label once with the app. The platform recognizes the product, if it has been registered, retrieves a recipe stored by the respective roastery, and sends grind size, extraction parameters, and drink type directly to grinder and machine. On the next extraction, the grinder sets itself. Those who want to can intervene manually — the Pro mode allows multi-stage brewing profiles with free control of temperature, flow, and pressure.
For roasteries, registration on the platform is planned to be free. In the long term, the platform is also supposed to be opened to other machine manufacturers. Datum envisions a kind of open operating system for networked espresso devices. This sounds ambitious — and it remains to be seen to what extent this can and will actually succeed. The value of a platform grows with the number of users, and an open platform has a better chance of remaining relevant than a closed ecosystem.
When Will the Machine Come?
Datum Coffee is planning a Kickstarter campaign for the end of 2026. Anyone who wants to pre-order can register now. Delivery is planned for the end of 2027. The founders freely told us at the trade show what the machine should cost: On the website, a price of 1,199 euros is visible for early birds, regularly 1,499 euros later — and that applies to machine and grinder together. By comparison: The Mahlkönig Xenia alone costs significantly more. Whether Datum Coffee will actually hold this price remains to be seen. As an announcement, it's remarkable.
Classification: What This Means
The direction Datum Coffee is thinking in is not singular. Networked systems of grinder and machine are becoming a real trend in the home segment. Mahlkönig shows with the Xenia and the E64 WS where established manufacturers want to go. nunc. has had a similar concept with NFC bean recognition for a long time, but is still rolling out production. Maro is building a learning platform around their machine with the Smart Profiler and the Maro Home extraction database.
What distinguishes Datum Coffee from these systems: the automatic tamper as part of the brewing group, the open platform idea, and the entry price that — if it comes as indicated — is significantly below what comparable systems cost.
Whether all of this will work in the production machine the way it was promised at the trade show remains to be seen. We will test that when the time comes. Until then: a promising startup, a well-thought-out concept — and two machine builders from Innsbruck who know what they want to do.
We've made a point of ordering a machine as soon as the Kickstarter launches.
Conclusion
Datum Coffee is not yet a finished product but a prototype with a clear concept. Espresso machine and grinder as a networked duo, automatic tamping in the brewing group, an open platform for roastery recipes. The direction is right, the team seems competent, the announced price would be a real standout if it comes through. What the machine actually delivers, we can only say after a complete test with our protocol. That follows as soon as a production machine is available. Until then, we'll keep an eye on Datum Coffee — and we're curious.
Kickstarter: planned end of 2026 · Delivery: planned end of 2027 · Price: 1,199 € (early bird) / 1,499 € regular — machine + grinder as a set · More: datum.coffee
