Datum's Founders Built an Espresso Machine That Tamps Itself: €1,199 for Machine and Grinder

Christoph Konheisner and Nikolaus Potapow — The two met at school, built an espresso machine as an engineering project, studied industrial design and smart embedded systems, then worked at established manufacturers and studios before reuniting in early 2024 to start Datum; the company is registered in Innsbruck as Datum Coffee OG (FN 652592w) (Form & Function, legal notice).

A question from friends — Friends kept asking which machine beat a superauto without the fuss of a portafilter, and the founders say the gap was knowledge rather than hardware: they interviewed home users, roasters, retailers and technicians, then designed a system that carries the recipe with the bag (Form & Function).

A basket with no handle — The portafilter is a thin, precision-machined stainless basket with an insulating grip that slides into the brew head and holds magnetically; it sits deeper than a standard basket, which keeps the dose from spilling, and heats in seconds rather than soaking up heat like cast metal (Form & Function, Kaffeemacher).

Tamping inside the brew group — A hydraulically driven piston in the brew head tamps at adjustable pressure — 20 kg in the demo Kaffeemacher filmed — then brews; on the way up the vacuum loosens the puck, so it knocks out cleanly and less water ends in the drip tray (Kaffeemacher).

64 mm flats on a scale — The grinder runs 64 mm flat burrs on a brushless motor with adjustable speed, weighs the dose, and shows the essentials on a dot-matrix display; the machine and grinder swap data so a shot that ran fast or slow moves the next grind (Datum, Kaffeemacher).

€3 holds a €1,199 bundle — The site sells a Speciality Pass for €3 (US$3.3) that reserves the €1,199 (US$1,336) launch price against a €1,499 (US$1,670) list; the terms describe the pass as access to campaign information and early notice, not a machine order, and it is non-refundable after the statutory withdrawal period (Datum, terms).

Kickstarter at the end of 2026 — The founders' timeline is a campaign in late 2026 and delivery at the end of 2027; the machines shown so far are prototypes with 3D-printed, painted housings, demonstrated at World of Coffee and at IFA Berlin in September (Kaffeemacher, Blazon).

Verdict · Trade press · Kaffeemacher — An absolute highlight — After filming a hands-on demo, Kaffeemacher called the machine a highlight of the show and said it would order one; it also noted that flow and pressure profiling were still promises, with a gear pump in the prototype (Kaffeemacher).

Objection · Reddit · r/espresso — Half superauto, half semi — The launch thread is small and split: one reply calls it neat but says a superauto would be the simpler buy, and another asks what it does that the Meraki or Oracle all-in-ones do not (r/espresso).