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A Robot Made Me a Toasty, Flaky, Life-Giving Tortilla at CES 2025 in Under a Minute

The Apecoo countertop tortilla and roti maker was churning out warm, delicious bread from raw ingredients every minute.

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Headshot of Jon Reed
Jon Reed Managing Editor
Jon covers artificial intelligence. He previously led CNET's home energy and utilities category, with a focus on energy-saving advice, thermostats, and heating and cooling. Jon has more than a decade of experience writing and reporting, including as a statehouse reporter in Columbus, Ohio, a crime reporter in Birmingham, Alabama, and as a mortgage and housing market editor for Time's former personal finance brand, NextAdvisor. When he's not asking people questions, he can usually be found half asleep trying to read a long history book while surrounded by multiple cats. You can reach him at joreed@cnet.com
Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology.
Jon Reed
2 min read
A brown tortilla slides out of a sliver machine onto a tray.

The Apecoo tortilla and roti maker churns out another warm, fresh tortilla at CES 2025.

 Jon Reed/CNET

After hours of perusing gadgets and gizmos at CES 2025, the one that stole my heart may have been the one that turned raw flour, oil and water into a beautifully warm, perfectly flaky tortilla that almost instantly seemed to bring my weary soul back to life.

Read More: 19 Must-See Products That Own Our Eyeballs at CES 2025

Apecoo had a handful of very specific kitchen gadgets -- an automatic waffle-making device, a product that can cook and mash potatoes, a machine that makes homemade coffee pods -- but the tortilla and roti maker was the one that was cooking. The smell of freshly made tortillas wafted through the other smart home tech on the floor, calling out to hungry convention-goers.

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The tortilla and roti maker is expected to hit the market in a couple of months for $899, so this is not for someone who only wants the occasional fresh bread. It can work with a variety of types of flour, although the water ratio may need to be adjusted to produce pliable dough with the right texture that can cook up fast. The demonstration used all-purpose flour, and what it produced was delicious.

The machine has basins for the flour, water and oil. The company's representatives added salt to the water in the appropriate tank. After that, the machine took over completely. First it mixed the ingredients into a dough, then formed it into a ball in a small see-through component. Finally, the ball of dough moved onto the press, where it was flattened and cooked. A conveyor brought the tortilla out to the front, gently placing it on the front of the device, ready to be eaten. The whole process takes about a minute.

A gray and black machine with a stack of tortillas on top of it sits on a table at a conference.

The Apecoo tortilla and roti maker can churn out a fresh tortilla in about a minute.

 Jon Reed/CNET

It did look as though the tortilla and roti maker might require some work to clean, with a lot of moving parts for dough and flour to stick to. Some components, like the receptacle for the flour, were easily switched out at the booth.

Apecoo's other machines weren't cooking, but the waffle maker is also capable of going from raw ingredients to a finished product without a human having to mix ingredients, monitor cooking or flip anything. It takes about five minutes to make one waffle. The mashed potato maker can do more than just cook and mash a potato -- it can do the same with other foods, such as yams, fufu or hummus.
Is this a machine that home cooks are going to run out and buy for $900? Probably not. But it's easy to see a cooking robot like this churning out fresh tortillas at a local pop-up or restaurant, especially to speed up the creation of mobile orders. With a mouthful of steaming-hot tortilla to bolster me as I explore the wonders of CES 2025, that could be a delicious way to make fresh tortillas more accessible to all.