More than coffee in your kopi-c kosong

The common terms we use for our daily cuppa - of coffee or tea - are markers of how trade binds us across time and continents

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Recent news about a Singapore start-up building robot baristas must have captured the imagination of coffee lovers here.

Certainly it points to a future with more widespread automation in the labour intensive food and beverage sector. This innovation could not be more timely, with the seemingly interminable pandemic and the grim advisories about how human interaction enables transmission.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 14, 2021, with the headline More than coffee in your kopi-c kosong. Subscribe