The most important piece of equipment you will buy – the coffee machine.
Choosing an espresso machine when starting up your coffee shop is no easy decision. There are hundreds of makes and models on the market, ranging in price from £1,200 to up to £10,000.
But how can you pick the one that’s right for you? Your machine must suit your environment, your workload and your staff, as well as being within your price bracket. If you are new to the industry it is likely that your knowledge of coffee machines will be reasonably basic, so it can help to get independent advice.
However, here are some guidelines to follow when choosing a machine:
Size matters
Traditional espresso machines come in sizes of one, two, three or four group heads. A one group head can make two coffees at a time, a four group head can make up to eight. Fit your machine to the size of your café. It is a waste of money (not to mention space) to buy a four group head machine, when a two group head will be half the cost and half the size.
Check your cups
Espresso machines generally have a recommended cup per day quantity. If your coffee shop is going to be fast turnover, high volume sales, don’t skimp on the machine – get a good, solid, machine capable of dealing with the highest number of cups per day.
Machines generally are classed as under 150 cups per day, 150-250 cups per day and over 250 cups per day. If your café has under 25 covers, as a general rule a two group head with a 150 cup a day advisory would suffice.
Build quality
You can buy espresso machines from anywhere now, from unbranded machines out of catering catalogues to traditional Italian built Sanremo machines. Build quality is hugely relevant when considering the life span of your machine; its like comparing a Kia to Rolls Royce and the price difference is there for a reason.
Cheaper machines will be less hardwearing, not as accurate and will not extract the best quality from the coffee. Spending more on a machine gets you a better build quality, better accuracy and more importantly, better reliability.
Your environment
Cheaper machines will be less hardwearing, not as accurate and will not extract the best quality from the coffee
It also helps to consider your own business when buying your machine. If your espresso based drinks are not the core of your business, for example, if you are a bar or restaurant, you may not require such a hardwearing machine.
Calculate roughly your estimated cups per day use, and as long as your machine fits this quota, it may be that a cheaper option will suffice.
It may even be the case that a bean to cup machine will suit your needs better than a traditional machine, especially is you envisage a high staff turnover and many inexperience staff operating the machine. The bean to cup gives a reliable result each time, and operates at the touch of a button.
However, in a coffee shop environment, think carefully before considering a bean to cup, as they lack the theatre, skill and overall unique result of a coffee made well on a traditional machine.
Most importantly, however, as I mentioned earlier, if you are a coffee shop, don’t be tempted to skimp – the espresso machine will be the backbone of your business, and you need reliability, speed and a capacity that suits you.
Following her blog series last year giving tips to start ups in the coffee industry, Sadie’s next series of blogs will consider how to choose equipment for your cafe, now you have picked premises and defined your market.
