Australia’s Caffe Assist Rolls Out the Legato Plus, Rinser and App

The Caffe Assist Legato Plus in white. All images courtesy of Caffe Assist.

Australian commercial equipment maker Caffe Assist recently unveiled the Legato Plus, an upgraded version of its patented automatic milk steaming system for cafes.

At the Fine Food Australia event earlier this month, the company also rolled out an integrated pitcher rinser component called Legato Rinse and a new companion app for Caffe Assist.

Having recently attained NSF and UL certification, Caffe Assist is also poised to expand into the North American market. While pricing on the Plus model has not yet been announced, the original Caffe Assist Legato model sells for AUD$11,950 (just over US$8,000 as of this writing).

Named for the Italian word meaning “tethered,” the Caffe Assist Legato receives its steam supply from an adjacent coffee machine and releases it through its own wand into a pitcher of milk.

The new Legato Plus adds programmable automated raising and lowering of steam pressure for different quantities of milk, and a new software interface that allows users to program froth profiles through an intuitive “drag and drop” method on the machine’s touchscreen.

“An operator can now select the amount of foam or stretch for any type of milk, nominate any desired temperature — even extra hot — by simply touching the operator screen and saving the settings,” Caffe Assist Founder and Inventor William Purton told Daily Coffee News. “Milk profiles can now be set in a matter of seconds rather than the former tedious process which could take up to minutes for a single profile.”

The optional Legato Rinse pitcher rinser can be installed on both the Legato Legato Plus.

The Caffe Assist companion app is designed for cafe owners and baristas to gain insights into their business by tracking usage of the steamer. The app also sends maintenance alerts and grants access to the settings for creating and adjusting froth profiles apart from the machine.

All Legatos are made with stainless steel structural parts and cases, as well as durable electronics and mechanical components. Caffe Assist offers a color-matching service for customized branding. 

Prior to Caffe Assist, in 1993 Purton founded the coffee roasting company Atomica Coffee with a roastery warehouse in the Fairfield suburb of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The company soon after moved its operations into the heart of the Brunswick Street Fitzroy neighborhood of Melbourne, where it also opened a cafe within its first year in business.

“The Atomica Café, as it was known, became an iconic place for the coffee-obsessed,” Purton said. “Caffe Assist was born out after witnessing the needs and demands of the Atomica Café in operation and is therefore a true piece of Australian innovation.”

The Caffe Assist machine and company debuted in 2019. Caffe Assist machines today are designed in Australia and manufactured under license in Northern Italy by CMA Italy.

Purton said that the company is exploring licensing its technology and IP to additional coffee machine manufacturers or coffee brands for further development and integration into other commercial product lines.

“Ultimately, Caffe Assist is a brand that quite comfortably sits and is complimentary within a portfolio of coffee equipment so would be interesting to have these discussions with any potential buyer,” said Purton. “Partnering with likeminded manufacturing organizations and potential partners, this would help us realize our own ‘Space X’ moment of the coffee industry.”

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