The range of technology to aid speed and efficiency available in espresso equipment today is fairly astonishing. Using high spec equipment is something that a lot of baristas can be wary about and can often feel that automizing a lot of their roles on the bar is a bit insulting, but really it just gives them more time to concentrate on other important tasks, makes their jobs easier and allows for a much better overall customer service. Below are some of the equipment we recommend for speeding up your bar, while consistently improving overall quality of your drinks.
Gravimetric Espresso Machines - Removing as many of the unstable variables for producing espresso as possible on your coffee bar eliminates additional time used checking and recalibrating for your baristas. Gravimetric espresso machine’s use built in scales to measure and set predetermined weights in your coffee yield, meaning no setting up in the morning, less waste throughout the day and overall greater consistency and quality in your espresso. We use the Victoria Arduino Black Eagle in all of our coffee bars for this reason.
Consistent Grinders - Any barista will know that the quality of your espresso grinder will significantly influence not only the quality and standard of your espresso, but dramatically affect the speed in which you can put out coffee, and the consistency of dosing and temperature/grind control and how often you need to micro-adjust will have a big knock on effect on your overall workflow. We use the Mythos Two in both our Grand Canal Street and Sussex Terrace coffee bars. On demand grinding, with grinder cradles and hooks means less waiting around for your coffee to grind. As with the Mythos One, it uses clima-pro technology, which uses temperature control to keep the grind profile consistent. The newest development with the Mythos Two is gravimetric dosing, which removes one more variable to worry about programming and removes the need to weigh each shot.
Automatic Tamper - The Puqpress is an automatic coffee tamper which ensures constant pressure is used for every coffee you make. At 1.3 seconds per cycle, not only does it tamp faster than the average barista, it ensures complete consistency, improving quality and removing risk of channelling and uneven pucks. This means no more wasted shots, and cuts down time spent per shot.
Automatic Milk Steamer - The Ubermilk debuted in early 2019, and is the first automatic milk steamer to really make waves in the speciality industry. It can produce up to 250 drinks per hour and is extremely consistent in its milk texturing and temperature control. With volumetric based dosing, it dispenses the precise amount of pre-determined milk each time, which saves hugely on waste. We recently installed one in our Grand Canal Street cafe, and after a bit of getting used to system wise, we found it has improved the workflow and speed on bar greatly.
Pitcher rinsers - Pitcher rinsers are a relatively cheap addition to your bar, and run off the same water and waste as your espresso machine, but will save vital time on your coffee bar as baristas don’t have to keep traveling back and forth to sink to rinse their milk pitchers. It will also ensure milk pitchers are well rinsed and quickly cooled down, resulting in better hygiene practices for your bar. *
Batch Brewers - With filter coffee on the rise, brewing single serve hand poured coffee means one of your staff members is out of action for 3 - 5 minutes. Batch brewers allow you to brew large quantities of filter coffee and to serve filter coffee on demand to customers. Depending on your volumes, we recommend both the Marco Jet 6 (perfect for high volume cafes, with option for up to 6 litres brewing) or the Marco Bru f60 (brews up to 2 litres at a time). Once you’ve set your recipe and dialled in your coffee, your batch brew will be consistent brew after brew, and can also be used to speed up morning rushes etc if you can convince some of your americano customers to change over!
Volumetric Hot Water Boiler - Although most espresso machines come complete with a hot water tap, using this for every americano and hot will put huge stress on your machine by drawing large quantities of water throughout the day and essentially will cause your machine to run out of steam, making recovery time a lot slower. So, using a designated hot water boiler is a must, even for quieter cafes. We use the Marco Mix Undercounter Boiler and Font - Not only does having an undercounter boiler allow for much needed space on your bar, your font has three buttons capable of setting different temperatures and volumes, meaning you don’t have to hold and wait for each americano or teapot you’re filling, saving critical time on your bar .
If you are looking for speciality coffee and the best equipment available for your start up or existing business you can contact us directly to discuss the options available. Check out our 3fe Wholesale Page or message us at [email protected]