Best Smart Innovation – Small Domestic Appliances
Company: Aarke
Product Name: Aarke Coffee System
Entry Statement:
General Aarke Background:
In 2013, Stockholm-based industrial designers and friends Carl Ljungh and Jonas Groth, founded Aarke in a mission to redefine the home appliance industry, resulting in the launch of the Aarke Carbonator in 2016. Since the launch of their first product, the Aarke Carbonator, they have successfully overseen the company’s rapid expansion into more than 30 markets. By 2023, Aarke had sold over one million carbonators and other products worldwide and now continues to grow within several segments.
Motivation Aarke Coffee System:
● Product Background: The Aarke Coffee System™ was designed in Sweden by Aarke’s Design and Engineering Team with the goal of redefining the filter coffee experience. While espresso machines have seen continuous innovation, filter coffee makers have remained largely unchanged. The Aarke Coffee System elevates brewed coffee with the same level of precision and quality, integrating functionality, design, and premium materials.
Made from premium materials like stainless steel, glass, silicone, and BPA-free food-grade plastic, the Aarke Coffee System prioritizes durability and sustainability. Aarke’s commitment to metal construction enhances structural integrity and ensures long-lasting performance, unlike many coffee makers that rely heavily on plastic. The Thermal Jug, made from stainless steel, features double-wall construction with a vacuum barrier, keeping coffee warm for hours.
Designed for eco-conscious coffee enthusiasts, the Aarke Coffee System appeals to those who value aesthetics, intuitive functionality, and investment-worthy design. With its focus on high-quality materials and timeless design, this system offers a home brewing experience that combines elevated quality, simplicity, and performance for design-conscious users.
● Innovation: The Aarke Coffee System™ displays innovation by introducing a new level of intelligence to filter coffee brewing. Unlike traditional coffee makers, the Coffee Maker and Coffee Grinder communicate with each other. When the user fills the Coffee Maker’s water tank, the Grinder automatically detects the water level and grinds the exact amount of coffee needed for optimal extraction. This eliminates guesswork and ensures consistency with every brew.
Aarke has also solved a common flaw in standard brewers: inconsistent brewing for different batch sizes. A patented sensor in the water tank adapts the brewing cycle based on water volume, ensuring precision regardless of how much coffee is brewed. Additionally, the system’s heating plate intelligently adjusts its temperature or shuts off entirely when used with the Thermal Jug, preserving coffee quality and energy efficiency.
Aarke’s design philosophy emphasizes human-centered innovation, ensuring that each product in the system works together effortlessly while maintaining an aesthetic appeal. Another key innovation is the system’s seamless user experience. By prioritizing design simplicity, Aarke eliminated unnecessary controls—the Coffee Maker operates with a single button, while all smart features work automatically in the background.
● Environmental considerations: Aarke’s design philosophy revolves around sustainability, longevity, and intuitive usability. The Coffee System is built to last, with a foundation in high-quality stainless steel that reduces plastic use and ensures long-term durability. Unlike many competitors who use plastic-coated metal for aesthetics, Aarke prioritizes solid metal construction to achieve both performance and sustainability.
The choice of steel as the main material absolutely serves a purpose. For Aarke, stainless steel isn’t just a design choice; it’s integral to the structure and performance of the products. While many brands might cover plastic with stainless steel for aesthetics, we build from the ground up using steel. This allows us to minimize the use of plastic and create slimmer, more elegant designs. This is because metal has a better strength-to-weight ratio, meaning it can better withstand stress without breaking or deforming, while also being light and easy to handle.
To achieve the functionality, durability and elegant design we want, we use both deep-drawn stainless steel and cast metal for parts in both the Coffee Maker and the Coffee Grinder. The choice of material isn’t just about how it looks—it’s about how it feels in your hands and how it performs over time. When you interact with the product, you get a sense of its durability and quality. The weight, the texture—it all contributes to the experience and a long-lasting product.
Brief summary: Aarke believes the most essential everyday products in the home can also be design objects. Quality, design, and functionality are the guiding principles driving product development. The Aarke Coffee System presents three separate, innovative products that form an integrated coffee brewing system. The Aarke Coffee Grinder automatically calculates the amount of ground coffee needed based on the amount of water in the tank, and the Aarke Coffee Maker adjusts for a perfect brewing temperature—brewing directly into either the Aarke Glass Carafe or the Aarke Thermal Jug. While the system works seamlessly together, the products also function as standalone units.
Design supplier
Aarke in-house designteam led by Jonas Groth and Carl Ljungh as Co-Founders and Chief Product Design Officers (Stockholm, Sverige).
Entry ID: 12175
