Legend Espresso News

Number Three Twenty-Four

Alright, right off the bat – this newsletter’s gotten some serious momentum with dozens of new travelers joining us on this journey – amazing!

 

Big welcome to everyone new here, and honestly it’s super motivating to see not just the project but also the buzz around it keep growing! Before we dive into all the updates – we always love hearing what you think, so feel free to hit us with your feedback!

 

Now, here’s what’s new:

your.company festival

Every October, the FRANZ!werk in Tuebingen/Germany hosts the your.company Festival. For us and many other startups in the your.company network, it’s hands down one of the year’s biggest highlights. It’s the perfect chance to showcase our milestones to an exclusive audience.

 

This year, as promised, we brought top-notch espresso, cappuccino, and flat whites to the table with our Legend Espresso Bar, featuring the latest version of ‘Frankenstein Two’ in the spotlight! Not only did we serve incredible coffee in catering mode, but for the first time ever, we demonstrated how our machine communicates with its user – showing flow rate, brew temperature, and more.

 

It’s always mind-blowing to see the level of excitement an espresso machine can spark 😀

 

As you can see, we’ve officially swapped out the 3D-printed lever bases for hand-turned stainless steel ones #yeahdavid!  We’ll dive deeper into the technical details of the latest features later, but believe it or not, our espresso bar wasn’t the main headliner this time.

 

At this year’s festival, we gave an exclusive first glimpse of the foundational build of our next prototype – the very first Legend V.01! With Prototype III, we’re officially moving out of the ‘Frankenstein’ stage. This machine will be the first to truly bring our design vision to life, both inside and out.

If you squint at the blurry snapshot above, you might catch a sneak peek 😉 but more on that later…

 

It was an absolute blast, as always – so inspiring and motivating to stand in front of the machine, live & direct, with a real audience. Huge thanks to everyone who joined us! And here are a few standout shots from Eli:

Team-page

We’ve been at it for a while, but it’s finally done – our Team page on www.legend-espresso.com is live!

 

Now you can check out right there on our website who’s behind this whole thing. And since we’ve got such an awesome crew, we had to do something a little extra special with that page.

 

But hey, if you wanna know what exactly that is, you gotta go see for yourself – preferably on the desktop version. Just a heads-up, don’t go hovering over the team members with your mouse or tapping on anyone in the mobile version ;P

Wie bei allem was wir tun: Steckt viel Liebe drin – zieht euch die Seite rein und lasst uns gerne Feedback da – das ist immer gut für die Motivation! 😉 

Patent-funding

Another reason to celebrate: We’re officially moving forward with patenting our innovative brewhead design – and possibly one or two other technical developments. For a start-up like us, this is a massive effort, both in terms of resources and finances. That’s why we applied for WIPANO funding through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which covers half the costs for patent research, definition, and filing.

 

Last week, we got the grant approval – we’ll be supported with up to €16,000! Woohoo! 🎉

While the patent research is underway, we’re also in the process of registering our iconic Legend design. 

Speaking of design…

Legend V.01

As mentioned earlier, we revealed the design of the actual Legend V.01 for the first time at the your.company Festival.

For a long time, it wasn’t entirely clear how much we could share in this newsletter, but now that the registration process is almost complete, we can finally give you a sneak peek. What you’re seeing here is one possible variation of the Legend’s material composition.

Getting to see and touch this for the first time – to experience the form factor and texture of something that started as a pure vision – is an incredibly emotional moment for us. It’s on par with the day we first pulled espresso from our Frankenstein prototype. Wow! It’s finally starting to feel tangible, what we’ve been working towards all this time.

In the next Legend News, we’ll likely dive deeper into the V.01

and share more details, like the ceramic drain tray developed by the design team, 

the fresh water reservoir, and the overall structure of the machine. 

the perspective

 

As always at this point: Where we’re at, what’s next and the road ahead.

Let’s start with development & engineering: Eli S. has been working on integrating the drain and fresh water tray designs from Viktor and Martin into the structural framework of the machine. Meanwhile, David is still fully immersed in version 2 of thebrewhead. In fact, he and Eli are now working on two separate approaches, setting up parallel test rigs. With a second pump now available, these tests will be a top priority as we roll into the new year.

 

Reto, who’s leading the charge on our control software, has spent the past few months leveling up Frankenstein Two. We’ve now got our first display integrated, and it’s a game changer! The machine communicates directly with us – it tells us when it’s heating up, how much longer it’ll take, and when it’s ready to roll. During espresso shots, it tracks and shows pressure, flow rate (ml/s), and elapsed time. You can adjust both brew and tea water temperatures independently via two stainless-steel buttons, with the display keeping you in the loop. It also indicates whether the machine is in “Shot” mode (espresso and hot water only) or “Full” mode (with steam functionality engaged).

 

At the same time Reto has been hard at work on the latest iteration of the “Legend Companion” software. This tool lets us monitor and adjust all the machine’s parameters in real time. Later, it’ll be used in our workshop to test and calibrate machines before they’re shipped.
 

Thomas isn’t just one of our legendary Managing Directors – his main focus is leading the development of our iOS and Android app. Let’s be clear: the machine is designed to function perfectly without the app – no compromises there. The app is more of an added bonus, letting users display live pressure and temperature readings, save and retrieve brew profiles, and fine-tune settings to their liking.

Of course, everyone on the team already has the alpha version installed, and every new update feels like a little celebration. Safe to say, we’re beyond stoked to see it all coming together!

 

The product design team is currently focused on two main tasks: the registration and filing of the product design and the development of the drip tray design for the Legend.

For the design registration, various material combinations that might be relevant in the future were modeled in CAD, with different perspectives and form variations. These designs were then submitted to the EUIPO for protection.

As for the drip tray, we refer to it as the “stage” of the Legend because it’s where all the action happens. There are currently dozens of conceptual studies and designs, with two to three favorites emerging. These are now being further developed and turned into physical models using CNC technology.

 

As mentioned, the marketing team has been putting in a lot of work on the team page for a while now, and they’ve also launched our first international social media campaigns. The goal? To reach out to coffee enthusiasts, roasteries, cafés, and baristas in countries where our project is likely to resonate, and get in touch with them directly. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them 😉

 

Patents and patent research remain key topics for us, and thanks to our patent funding, we’re now able to move forward full speed ahead on this front. This means defining claims, commissioning state-of-the-art research, and more!

 

Our Instagram is slowly but surely inching towards its first 1,000 followers, and our newsletter has grown to almost 200 subscribers – pretty impressive for us! But we can always use more support. This project will only take off if more people know about us! So, in case you’re getting together with some espresso-loving friends or family over the holidays and running out of things to talk about…😜

 

As always – wrapping up this newsletter with a few more glimpses of what we’ve been up to – thanks for all your support, have a wonderful Christmas, and catch you in the next one!

 

Your Legend Espressionists