Hot beverages offer great profit margins for a pub. Ingredients cost a few pence and selling price can be well in excess of £1. Most out-of-home hot beverages bought are coffee-based, and there is a wide range of coffee making equipment a pub can choose from.
Which system to choose depends on the volume of sales, the customer base, what customers expect in coffee choice and also what they are prepared to spend for a cup of coffee. The systems of coffee delivery a pub can choose from.
Cafetieres: This is the most simple coffee making system, capable of delivering excellent freshly brewed coffee. Despite their low cost and simplicity, cafetieres are popular in food-led pubs or where there is not the volume of coffee sales to justify more elaborate equipment.
It is possible to get them in polycarbonate (a plastic), but heat-resistant glass is the more common construction material, with a brass or chromed cage. The size of a cafetiere is given in the number of cups it can deliver, usually from three to eight.
Because different quantities of coffee will be ordered according to the customers sat around the table, it is important to carry a wide range of cafetiere sizes. A three-cup size will normally be enough for one or two customers and likely to be the most popular order size, but should a party of four order coffee a six or eight-cup size will be needed.
Pour and serve: This is the familiar balloon-shaped glass jug unit seen back of bar. They are usually two jugs to a unit, one being filled underneath the unit by hot water run through coffee grounds held in a filter while the other glass jug is held warm on the top of the machine from a heat pad. This system is inexpensive and provides a good cup of coffee, providing the coffee is not allowed to stew on the heat-pad for too long. One hour is considered the maximum time to hold coffee in this manner. Pour and serve systems are ideal for pubs where demand is steady, but not huge.
Soluble machines: These work on freeze-dried ingredients, often a similar type to coffee granules seen on supermarket shelves. They are very convenient and smaller machines can meet the equipment budget for low-demand coffee needs in a pub. The bigger automatic soluble machines are very fast, delivering a cup of coffee from one-button touch, making them popular with busy food-led pubs.
Espresso machines: These are usually semi-automatic or fully automatic and can either work with pre-ground coffee or a bean to cup system where beans are freshly ground immediately before the coffee is brewed. The semi-automatic machines need dispense staff to be well-trained on machine operation to provide coffee with the best flavour and the trademark creamy topping on espresso, called the crema.
Manufacturers often offer training packages with the sale of a machine. Fully automatic machines require less operator skill, but staff still need proper training. The two main advantages of automatic espresso machines are that they deliver quality with consistency and speed.
Espresso machines usually have a heated milk frothing wand for producing milky coffees such as cappuccino. The cost of buying an espresso machine can be offset through a loan arrangement with a coffee ingredients supplier who would loan a machine in exchange for a coffee 'tie'.
CESA, the Equipment Suppliers Association, has buying and using information on every aspect of kitchen equipment. Learn more and find a supplier by visiting www.cesa.org.uk