Choose your next coffee machine

Choosing a coffee machine for a cafe or coffee bar
With such a wide range of different coffee machines to choose from, you could be confused as to which one you should choose for your next coffee outlet. At Pennne we supply a range of coffee machines from different manufacturers so you can choose the right machine for your situation. This guide should help you view the options and help you decide between the options to find the best machine for your needs.

Cafetiere coffee makers
The most basic way of serving fresh coffee, a cafetiere coffee maker or french press as they are otherwise known is a carafe with a plunger insert to filter out the ground coffee from the hot water. The premise is that you scoop ground coffee into your cafetiere, add water just off the boil, steep the grounds in the coffee for a few minutes (this allows the coffee taste to fully extract from the grounds into the water.) and then push the plunger down to filter out the grounds and serve, you can even let your customers plunge and pour themselves. Cafetiere coffee allows you to offer a range of different coffee origins, so your customers can choose between a Colombian estate coffee, Kenya or Costa Rican to name but a few. You can also offer fairtrade coffee as an option. Many coffee bars will have cafetiere coffee on their menu, but it is rarely the only coffee option. Most will offer cafetiere as an option against filter coffee or espresso coffee.

Filter coffee machines
The simplest form of coffee maker is a filter coffee machine, commonly known as a pour and serve machine or drip filter coffee brewer, these machines are available in a variety of formats. The most popular are the two jug two hotplate variety that you fill by hand and just require a plug socket. They normally brew three pints which is around 1.8 litres of fresh filter coffee. Fresh brewed filter offers a clean crisp taste and suits both single origin or blended coffee. To make the portioning easier most people purchase boxes of filter coffee sachets to use with this machine which include free filter papers. the normal weight of ground coffee used for a 1.8 litre brew is between 45 and 70g, while greater weight will increase taste and body in order to produce a less expensive offering you may find companies offering cases of filter coffee with sachet weights of below 40g. this reduces the coffee cost, so they can sell cheap and still make a profit, to ensure there is still taste to the coffee it is often over roasted causing a dark bitter brew. Pennine filter coffee is packed in 56g sachets, which we feel provides the optimum flavour to the coffee and allows us to use a lighter roast that brings out the subtle flavours of the blend. The limitation of the hot plate filter coffee machines is that if the coffee is left on the hot plate for a long time it will stew causing a harsh taste to develop. This can vary between blends but most will start to degrade after just one hour. For most cafes with sporadic demand this can mean they are serving coffee that is not at it's best unless they discard brewed coffee after an hour, this does however have cost implications. An alternative to this is to use an airpot filter coffee machine, which brews the coffee into an insulated flask that will keep coffee hot without burning it, loosing just a few degrees per hour. Pennine supply a range of flask machines and different airpot flasks, so you can either press and pour from the flask or pump the coffee from the airpot.

Bean to cup espresso machine
For producing espresso, cappuccino and latte drinks some outlets will choose a bean to cup espresso machine for their coffee needs. They deskill the coffee making process and will produce a consistant drink but choice is limited and the jump in price between low and high volume is large. For drink usage upto 150 cups per day Jura bean to cup machines are a stylish machine with one touch cappuccino or latte. You should expect to need to have the brew unit changed yearly if you are reaching the top use per day, and if you exceed the usage work will not be covered under Warranty. For greater capacity per day the Koro by Necta offers sixty cups per hour maximum and is supplied ready to run from a large on board water tank or to run from the mains water supply. The standard machine uses milk powder for cappuccino or latte drinks, but if you want a fresh milk drink you can purchase an optional milk frother unit to bolt on the side of the machine that steams and foams fresh milk. In this case the powder container inside the machine can be used for hot chocolate powder to mix with hot water adding hot chocolate to the machines drinks menu. For coffee shop style volume machines the size and cost of the machine increases dramatically as you lool at machines like the Tasman or Gemini.

Traditional espresso machine
Probably the most widely seen machine on the coffee shop circuit is the Traditional Italian espresso machine. With one to four coffee brewing handles, that are removed by the operator loaded with coffee from a seperate grinder and then locked back in the machine and the button pressed to provide the desired espresso shot. With the right training operators can make consistent quality drinks with these machines rapidly and they are very reliable. But if you skimp on training or have a high staff turnaround then the drinks produced can quickly go downhill. Look to invest in staff already experienced or budget training courses into your overall spend to get the best from your machine. If you want it to supply hot water for tea etc then a 2 group is the minimum requirement the small boiler in a 1 group can quickly loose temperature under demands for hot water, but a 2 group machine has a bigger boiler and is able to recover from the hot water tapped off much quicker.