Volume
How large is your business? How many people do you serve in one day, or hope to be serving this time next year?
Ultimately, this is one of the most important things when it comes to buying your new coffee machine. Will you have 100 customers in a day who will all want coffee? Do you also do takeout?
Or, are you a smaller shop where people won’t necessarily buy coffee, such as a cafe or bakery? A smaller machine would cost less both now and to run in the future.
You will need to think about not only how many you make during the day, but also how many at any one time and whether the machine will need to be relied on heavily in a short period, such as a morning rush hour or lunchtime.
Groupheads
The main difference between whether a machine is 1, 2 or 3 or 4 group is simply how many coffees it can make at once.
Most cafes or similar environments will require level 2. This way, if a couple of people come in at once, the coffees can be made at the same time. It usually isn’t any more work for you, either.
Three level machines are rarer but great for the likes of restaurants where several larger tables may need serving at the same time. One level machines are often better with allowing you a bit more of a hands-off approach.
Self Serving Machines
Have an environment where people will be able to serve themselves with hot drinks?
Self serving machines are available, for a commercial setting
The different groupheads are capable of producing two, four, six and eight drinks respectively. Machines with more groupheads allow more staff to use them at the same time too, which is great if you have a few people working at the same time.
Price
You can buy a small, single or double grouphead machine which could make enough coffees and hot drinks for your establishment for around £1000-£2000. But if you want more groups, a machine which makes a mighty fine espresso as a base for your barista skills, but something still easy to operate, expect to buy above this and even as much as £6000.