Robot makes coffee at new cafe in Japan's capital

Japan has a new cafe where customers can enjoy coffee brewed and served by a robot barista.

The robot named Sawyer debuted this week at Henna Cafe in Tokyo's downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. The shop's name in Japanese means "strange cafe."

Robot barista named "Sawyer" makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, meaning "Strange Cafe" in Japanese, in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The cafe's robot barista brews and serves coffee as the rapidly aging country seeks to adapt to shrinking workforce. The arm robot "Sawyer" debuted this week in Tokyo‘s downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

The single-armed robot scans a ticket purchased from a vending machine and greets the customer.

"Would you care for a delicious coffee?" the barista, with a screen showing a pair of cartoon eyes, asks in a flat tone. "I can make one better than human beings around here."

It grinds the coffee beans, fills a filter and pours hot water over a paper cup for up to five people at once. A cup of brewed coffee costs 320 yen ($3) and takes a few minutes.

Sawyer can also operate an automated machine for six other hot drinks including cappuccino, hot chocolate and green tea latte.

Customers, many of them young men, took photos with their smartphones while they waited in line.

The cafe operator, travel agency H.I.S. Co., says robots can increase productivity while also entertaining customers.

Robot barista named "Sawyer" makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, meaning "Strange Cafe" in Japanese, in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The cafe's robot barista brews and serves coffee as the rapidly aging country seeks to adapt to shrinking workforce. The arm robot "Sawyer" debuted this week in Tokyo‘s downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

"An essential point is to increase productivity," said Masataka Tamaki, general manager of corporate planning at H.I.S. He said only one person needs to oversee the robot cafe, compared to several people needed at a regular coffee shop, so it can serve better quality coffee at a reasonable price.

Tamaki says it's not just about efficiency. "We want the robot to entertain customers so it's not like buying coffee at a vending machine," he said.

Takeshi Yamamoto, a 68-year-old restaurant employee who works in the neighborhood, said his first experience with the robot cafe was very enjoyable, and his robot-made coffee was delicious.

"It's quite rich, and tastes very good," Yamamoto said, as he took a sip. "You can get machine-made coffee at convenience stores, too, and it's actually good. But here, I had great fun."

Robot barista named "Sawyer" makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, Japanese meaning "Strange Cafe"in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The cafe's robot barista brews and serves coffee as the rapidly aging country seeks to adapt to shrinking workforce. The arm robot "Sawyer" debuted this week in Tokyo‘s downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Robot barista named "Sawyer" makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, Japanese meaning "Strange Cafe"in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The cafe's robot barista brews and serves coffee as the rapidly aging country seeks to adapt to shrinking workforce. The arm robot "Sawyer" debuted this week in Tokyo‘s downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Robot barista named "Sawyer" makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, meaning "Strange Cafe" in Japanese, in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The cafe's robot barista brews and serves coffee as the rapidly aging country seeks to adapt to shrinking workforce. The arm robot "Sawyer" debuted this week in Tokyo‘s downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

That coffee you slurped this morning? It’s 600,000 years old.

Using genes from coffee plants around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world's most popular type of coffee, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee lovers simply as “arabica.”

The researchers, hoping to learn more about the plants to better protect them from pests and climate change, found that the species emerged around 600,000 years ago through natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species.

“In other words, prior to any intervention from man,” said Victor Albert, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who co-led the study.

These wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been first roasted and brewed primarily in Yemen starting in the 1400s. In the 1600s, Indian monk Baba Budan is fabled to have smuggled seven raw coffee beans back to his homeland from Yemen, laying the foundation for coffee’s global takeover.

Arabica coffee, prized for its smooth and relatively sweet flavor, now makes up 60% - 70% of the global coffee market and is brewed by brands such as Starbucks, Tim Horton's and Dunkin'. The rest is robusta, a stronger and more bitter coffee made from one of arabica's parents, Coffea canephora.

To piece together arabica coffee’s past, researchers studied genomes of C. canephora, another parent called Coffea eugenioides, and more than 30 different arabica plants, including a sample from the 1700s — courtesy of the Natural History Museum in London — that Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used to name the plant.

The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Researchers from Nestlé, which owns several coffee brands, contributed to the study.

The arabica plant’s population fluctuated over thousands of years before humans began cultivating it, flourishing during warm, wet periods and suffering through dry ones. These lean times created so-called population bottlenecks, when only a small number of genetically similar plants survived.

Today, that renders arabica coffee plants more vulnerable to diseases like coffee leaf rust, which cause billions of dollars in losses every year. The researchers explored the makeup of one arabica variety that is resistant to coffee leaf rust, highlighting sections of its genetic code that could help protect the plant.

The study clarifies how arabica came to be and spotlights clues that could help safeguard the crop, said Fabian Echeverria, an adviser for the Center for Coffee Research and Education at Texas A&M University who was not involved with the research.

Exploring arabica’s past and present could yield insight into keeping coffee plants healthy – and coffee cups full – for future early mornings.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - Mohammed Fita picks coffee beans on his farm Choche, near Jimma, 375 kilometers (234 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, Sept. 21 2002. Wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been primarily roasted and brewed in Yemen starting in the 1400s. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim, File)

FILE - Arabica coffee beans harvested the previous year are stored at a coffee plantation in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala, on May 22, 2014. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics on Monday, April 15, 2024, researchers estimate that Coffea arabica came to be from natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species over 600,000 years ago. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)