What Is The Best Coffee Machine For A Coffee Shop?
So you have a dream to open up a coffee shop, and if we’re being completely honest, anyone who’s had to endure a 09:00 – 17:00 in their life dreams of opening up a quaint little shop that provides us with the sweet nectar of life. It might be more a dream of escaping reality than opening your own shop, but really, what is coffee if it’s not a blissful escape from reality?
Now, the most important piece of equipment in any coffee shop (other than the Barista, but he / she is not equipment…) is always going to be the coffee machine.
Depending on the size and output of your shop, your needs could be completely different to the guy next door. We’ve broken down the considerations you should take to determine exactly which type of coffee machine you should try out, based on your needs for your specific coffee shop.
Restaurant Coffee Machines – Capacity and Output
This is probably the best place you could start off. It’s like choosing the right car- if you are a single person who drives to college and back – a smaller car will suit you better, and serve you better – than an SUV. Inversely proportional, if you have a big family – and safety and space are your main objectives – that little “zip around car” is just not going to cut it.
Look at this circumstance the same way; we’d all love to open up a coffee shop and start serving a thousand cups per day, but we have to start small. It’s far easier to move up from a smaller machine than it is to move down from a bigger machine.
Restaurant Coffee Machines – Coffee Machine Type
You’re opening up a coffee shop to serve great coffee – otherwise you could simply (and far more cheaply) serve some urn-fuelled Ricoffy. So, to ensure you have the best coffee at hand at all times, how about trying out a Bean to Cup coffee solution.
Instant and Bean vending are simply never going to provide you with premium quality coffee, and capsule coffee is going to cost you a fortune. Do I even need to add that nobody visits a coffee shop to be served capsule coffee?
The addition of a filter coffee machine is a good back-up to have, over and above your Bean to Cup coffee machine, for customers who are interested in bottomless coffee’s etc.
Refining this type of coffee machine further takes us to the Automatic (Espresso Machine) type or a Traditional Coffee Machine type.
The main difference between these two types of machines is the level of skill (and time) required to brew the perfect cup of coffee from them.
With traditional coffee machines, you need a certain level of understanding and skill to grind the beans to the right level, tamp the coffee grounds, extract the brew and add the milk component to your coffee drinks.
However, an automatic machine does all of that for you.
Some people feel that an automatic coffee machine takes away the personal touch a Barista behind the counter, manually brewing an amazing cuppa, could bring.
The choice is yours really, and if you know your way around a traditional coffee machine, we are in no way trying to discourage you.
Investing in an automatic coffee machine as a first-time coffee shop owner takes a lot of hassle off your hands. Who’s to say that a few months down the line you may have time to learn the intricacies of a traditional machine and add that to your expanding coffee shop? 🙂
Restaurant Coffee Machines – Try Before You Buy!
Although this might seem unrelated – this is a crucial part of finding your perfect coffee machine. Starting out, as you probably are, means cash flow may be slightly constricted. For this reason, as well as your own security, it’s perhaps a good idea to rent the coffee machine. That way, you’re not stuck with a coffee machine that no longer serves it’s purpose to the best of it’s ability, six months down the line when your coffee shop is flourishing.
Renting means you have the flexibility to upgrade, downgrade and change models (usually, but always read the fine print!)
But, what we suggest even higher than this, is to try the machine out. Some coffee machine rental companies allow you to try out the coffee machine of your choice for a specific period; this offers you a great chance to see how well the machine type and size works in your space.
Once you’ve gotten used to it, seen what often goes wrong, what functionality you have and how stable your business is, you can then go on to add another machine, return it, or opt for another type of coffee machine.
Trial and error is part of a business, and having a supplier that understands this makes the process that much easier.
Have you opened up your own coffee shop? How did you manage to find your best coffee machine choice?