Making 50 - 100 coffees during a busy shift will pretty much mean that is all you are doing during said shift. It probably takes at least 2 minutes to make a coffee if you are also steaming milk
sage coffee machine for start up coffee shop
IzzyAg if you want to help and not be a sensitive little donkey
👌🤌
I understand completely, but do you understand me? I said I am willing to invest time to make a good coffee. I don’t want to be the best either, but quality coffee. As you say yourself, you have five-star restaurant like Gordon Ramsay’s, but you also have a lot of star restaurants that offer good quality. You shouldn’t look at everything black and white, my friend. I just want to offer good quality coffee and spend moderate time on it. Can’t believe it’s such a difficult question.
Oh this feels very trolly
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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IzzyAg As I said earlier, I am willing to spend time learning how to use a machine with grinder. I just don’t want to make that my main focus. Only beginner skills, I don’t want to be a master at it. Please, if you want to help and not be a sensitive little donkey, first read my previous posts carefully, and you will find your answer there.
Good quality coffee for the customers is the focus. The experienced folks here have given you enough helpful information.
Perhaps, a used Mazzer Major with a new mazzer burrs will be helpful. As far as the machine, I am not sure you can get a used commercial machine for that price. You aim to make 50-100 coffees and busy shifts. I am afraid you are going to require a machine that can deliver that. Perhaps, a B2C as others have suggested. I am not sure about the longevity either.
You have choose what you think will suit your customers.
That said, beginner’s skill, good quality coffee and not willing to be commit the required time and resources to make the good coffee don’t go together! You might have to get a barista to get a good cup, otherwise!
I am afraid some one has not shown a little more sensitivity and appreciation here!
IzzyAg In that case good luck…….and for the record, I understand an awful lot more than you think
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Ok. If I were to be objective and go by the first post:
IzzyAg So far I like the sage line the best, but I am still hesitating on which model. Can someone help me with this please. I give you the following information:
my budget is around 1000
IzzyAg Could you suggest me some beginner coffee machines without a built-in grinder? I will take some time off to learn to do it the right way
For your budget of “1000” I’m assuming it’s GBP.
Let me ask you a question: which machines from Sage are you thinking of? On another post you say you don’t want a machine with a built-in grinder. Do you already have a grinder, is a grinder to be part of the budget of “1000” or are you thinking of using pre ground coffee? Or maybe pods?
IzzyAg
You can have a look at Bella Barista for example and see machines that cost £1000 and less, these work fine at home but they’re not built to do 50 - 100 shots a day. Your budget is quite low unfortunately and you’ll need a good grinder to get the most out of the coffee.
https://bellabarista.co.uk/collections/espresso-machines?sort_by=price-ascending
If you want to serve better coffee that’s served at a train station then you’ll need to go down the semi-automatic machine route. I’d suggest contacting a local roaster and asking if they can provide you with something suitable that you could pay for weekly or perhaps second hand. They can provide you with a reliable ‘house blend’ of coffee, training and machine support.
Appreciate your help. This was the answer I was looking for.
IzzyAg No problem and best of luck with it.
Making good coffee isn’t rocket science but it is a skill, if you receive good training they will teach you how to tweak the settings to get the most of your coffee.
Excuse me, I meant a machine with a built-in grinder. Sage Oracle Touch had been recommended in my case.
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Firstly, good luck with your business, it takes confidence to launch a business of any kind so congrats on that.
Sadly, whilst pretty bluntly delivered, the above comments are all valid, you’re not going to efficiently make ‘decent’ coffee quickly and repeatedly on a £1000 machine with a built in grinder. It’s hard enough to consistently make a good espresso on those at home.
And certainly not if you only have one member of staff.
Reliability is a huge factor and you might be making as many coffees in a day as a home user would in two months. There’s also things like temperature consistency and the ability to steam milk alongside pulling espresso.
There aren’t many machines approved for commercial and home use for less than £4K. That isn’t to say you can’t use a home one, it just means it’s not tested for that environment.
I have a machine that’s technically apporoved for commercial use and I’m still not sure I’d want to use it in a commercial setting. I’d want two groups (to make two coffees at once) at the very least. If someone comes up and orders three coffees, and you’ve got a single group home machine, their food is going to be cold by the time the coffees are ready.
My suggestion, for whatever it’s worth, would be to consider batch brewing filter coffee in a big commercial batch brewer and then serving from something like this.
It’s not going to be a cappuccino or or flat white but if the coffee isn’t the focus, it’s still a way of quickly dispensing decent enough coffee.
There used to be a coffee shop in East London which was a subsidiary of one of the best roasters in the UK (and NZ) called Ozone who would serve batch brew to commuters in the rush hour from similar canisters to the one above. It served the purpose and was still enjoyable.
Otherwise, making a decent espresso based drink commercially is an expensive and involved process that you can’t really skimp on.
Good luck with the business.
IzzyAg - ok, that makes sense now. Either that one or the Barista Express - in fact, there’s a sandwich shop near me who has one and it’s been there for a while. Saying that, I have no idea of usage as I never had a coffee from them. However, as stated before by someone else, those machines are designed to be used in a domestic environment (low usage, 3-6 cups a day) rather than your anticipated volume of 50-100 per day.
Given your budget, I don’t think the Oracle fits the bill? They sell around £1.4k new (or more) which is 40% over budget. The Barista Express retails around £400-500.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ve got anything else to add here. The “sensitive little donkey” wishes you good luck with your business venture. 😉
Picking from where Ernie1 had left, I have seen one of the roasters also happen to run a coffee shop in Finsbury Park, London having something like this on their counter.
They only brew light / medium on the brewer.
I have to caution that their mainstay is a commercial grade espresso machine; one of the mythos range is their grinder.
GL with your venture!
No problem, nevertheless thanks for your contribution and please excuse my unkind words.
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IzzyAg There is an absolute bargain Bianca for sale at the moment in the classifieds. Don’t worry about the paddle you can not use it at all for now and it should do the number and quality of drinks you want.
https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/1392-lelit-bianca-10-months-warranty-ps1300
If you are not in the UK? or not nearby, something like a Minima (Big performance) will make that many coffees per day….I know because I’ve used one for that
A sage type machine is not recommended for what you want, just not rufty tufty enough for the job.
P.S. With that many coffees a day, it’s important to use water that won’t scale.
I’d say your best bet is a commercial filter coffee machine and commercial packs of pre ground to go with it. There is a selection of tastes available and some would seem ok to typical espresso users if they drink coffee with milk.
There are 2 basic types. One has a hot platform to keep a flask of coffee hot. Probably not ideal as a fresh flask can’t be prepared without removing it. Another type is designed to work into pumped thermoflasks. Probably takes ~20min or so to fill one. This sort of thing
Packs of grinds are available to suite the size of machine, Suppliers of these packs probably also supply machines. Not suggesting the one in the link just what I think would suite you as the ability to use an espresso machine doesn’t come quickly and a commercial machine plus a suitable doserless grinder is outside your budget,